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[Unknown Soldier]

Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing

In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, "streaming anxiety" is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.

www.bbc.com

This article is concerned with movies and music, but with one company aggressively pushing a form of subscriptions and streaming for video games as well, it's something that will become increasingly relevant to gamers in the years ahead.

There is an interesting cultural phenomenon recently as it starts to dawn on people that the reality is you own nothing you cannot physically hold in your hand. As streaming services do regularly rotate content out of catalogs, sometimes never to return, people are coming to understand that ownership of property in the digital age is in fact not real. If you hold it, you own it. If you don't hold it, a confusing mass of licensing agreements between corporations owns it and you own nothing. Also, 4K UHD Blu-ray and regular Blu-ray are vastly superior in picture and sound quality to the streaming services, so I will naturally prefer physical media for those really big blockbuster movie experiences.

This applies to gaming too, and in a much greater significance, as almost all games older than a certain roughly defined era will not be found on any of the available subscription or streaming services. Most really old games must be found either by sailing the seven seas or trading on eBay for physical media in obsolete formats that modern computers cannot even read anymore. Preservation of old games is an ongoing issue, much more than with movies and music where the companies which own vast back catalogs have vested interests in preserving those catalogs. Many games were made by studios which no longer exist and published by publishers which no longer exist, making preservation difficult and of course with the rights to most of these old games very hard to determine much less obtain, they will never be made available on any form of gaming streaming or subscription service.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/11/17/christopher-nolan-oppenheimer-style-session/

With the popularity of streaming-only content, there has also been growing concern about what will happen to works that find themselves hauled off the only places they can be viewed.
“There is a danger, these days, that if things only exist in the streaming version they do get taken down, they come and go,” said Nolan, who made news earlier in the week for joking that he put such care into the physical release of “Oppenheimer” on Blu-ray to ensure that “no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.”

In his conversation with Yuan, he explained, “It was a joke when I said it. But nothing’s a joke when it’s transcribed onto the internet,” before diving into the importance of owning media to preserve art.

 

[rofif]

we saw it in the leak. Most sales of Sony titles are physical. 60-70% in fact.
Of course majority prefers to have their big games on shelf, cheaper, own them and some gadgets that usually come with it like a steelbook. And Sony leak proves my theory

 

[BennyBlanco]

Yeah it’s seen such a resurgence that Best Buy started removing all their blu rays and DVDs yesterday

Best Buy Will Soon Stop Selling Blu-rays And DVDs

It’s the end of an era as the retail chain begins removing physical media from stores across the country

kotaku.com

 

[Monkfish877]

Don't want an only digital future, don't trust any of these companies. Long live physical media.

 

[StereoVsn]

Personally the Movies and TV series I like and plan to rewatch I always get on physical, preferably 4K if possible. Quality is much better just like OP said, both for video and audio.

As to what BestBuy is doing, personally I think it’s a mistake. They at least should have had continued sales online and maybe kept small section for 4K releases in stores. I guess they have the data that shows the opposite, but I suspect that this is a shortsighted move.

People who collect physical media buy large expensive TVs, audio systems, and other equipment. You basically dump the enthusiasts with this move.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Didn't Walmart also say they were removing physical media across video/music/and gaming?
**Walmart did NOT remove video but are removing xbox gaming according to this:
**Some comicbook site**

Also Target got rid of their physical movies last year according to the same site

PC gaming has thrived (so much so it outperforms every platform except for mobile as of 2022) in a digital only environment. I think the publishers are seeing the $$$$ and the allure of locking folks in their digital grave...I mean digital walled gardens.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Personally the Movies and TV series I like and plan to rewatch I always get on physical, preferably 4K if possible. Quality is much better just like OP said, both for video and audio.

As to what BestBuy is doing, personally I think it’s a mistake. They at least should have had continued sales online and maybe kept small section for 4K releases in stores. I guess they have the data that shows the opposite, but I suspect that this is a shortsighted move.

People who collect physical media buy large expensive TVs, audio systems, and other equipment. You basically dump the enthusiasts with this move.

I don't think Best Buy has been for electronics enthusiasts for a long time now. They gave up on Magnolia, ceding all high end home theater to the Internet. Most of what Best Buy sells is barely better than Walmart tier these days. In terms of stocking a bunch of physical media on shelves, that's just not cost efficient and getting rid of it in stores was probably inevitable for Best Buy but not continuing to sell it online just means they have completely given up and let Amazon have that entire market. Good luck driving store traffic when all you sell is the same Apple products every other store sells, I guess.

 

[joeygreco1985]

The only BluRay disc I've bought in the past 10 years was the Mario Bros movie, and I didn't think it looked that much better than a 4k stream. Streaming is just too convenient.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Personally the Movies and TV series I like and plan to rewatch I always get on physical, preferably 4K if possible. Quality is much better just like OP said, both for video and audio.

As to what BestBuy is doing, personally I think it’s a mistake. They at least should have had continued sales online and maybe kept small section for 4K releases in stores. I guess they have the data that shows the opposite, but I suspect that this is a shortsighted move.

People who collect physical media buy large expensive TVs, audio systems, and other equipment. You basically dump the enthusiasts with this move.

It's because if you've ever been to a Best Buy, the movie racks are a complete waste of space. They have to display the cover so you have wide racks with very few movies, tucked behind all kinds of others. The organization is nonsensical - is it sorted alphabetically? Yes, but also new releases have their own section, different formats had their own sections.

Why would they dedicate so much space to a bunch of movies people will only bother watching on a streaming service? And the modern movie industry is basically trash, it's in a really bad place so I'm not at all surprised about the lack of interest/sales. I personally love physical media, but even I think Best Buy was being extremely wasteful with that section of the store.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Yeah it’s seen such a resurgence that Best Buy started removing all their blu rays and DVDs yesterday

Best Buy Will Soon Stop Selling Blu-rays And DVDs

It’s the end of an era as the retail chain begins removing physical media from stores across the country

kotaku.com

What a dumb ass snotty post.

Regardless Bestbuy is a joke.

 

[3liteDragon]

The thing with Oppenheimer is that it's an outlier, not part of a trend. The Oppie 4K copies went out of stock within days before being restocked.

 

[pqueue]

there is not going to be any hipster-buying-vinyl-because-it-"sounds better" effort to save blu ray/DVD

 

[pqueue]

What a dumb ass snotty post.

Regardless Bestbuy is a joke.

Best Buy has stopped.

Target is decreasing dedicated shelf space.

The UKs #1 or #2 retailer also has stopped selling physical media.

you can stomp your feet as much as you want, but it will not change the inevitability.

 

[Celcius]

Usually these days I just want to watch a newly released movie once and then I move on. Thus, I usually just pay to rent and stream it once and then I'm done.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Best Buy has stopped.

Target is decreasing dedicated shelf space.

The UKs #1 or #2 retailer also has stopped selling physical media.

you can stomp your feet as much as you want, but it will not change the inevitability.

UK market is anemic compared to NA.

Bestbuy can't afford to sell movies and target is almost just as bad.

 

[Doom85]

Also Target got rid of their physical movies last year according to the same site

Some Targets, the article specifies. All the local Targets near me are all still carrying movies and such.

 

[ZenTheShogun]

Physical media in gaming is a space-wasting relic IMO (please note that it is an OPINION - pitchforks down). Between 700+ Steam games, Game Pass, PS+ and things like Humble Bundle and Fanatical I would/could never store all of the games that I play (let's not even talk about shows and movies). As a PC gamer for 30 years and a console owner since NES, I've embraced digital. My shelves gather dust, as I barely have time for games, movies, books and shows I do play/read/watch. I've gone all-digital and see no reason to go back. Nostalgia aside, convenience trumps physical copies. Plus, if a game vanishes from digital platforms, so be it; my backlog is overwhelming as it is. In today's world, keeping my gaming accessible and clutter-free is just my personal preference.

 

[kruis]

It's a sad trend. The issue is not just ownership, it's also choice. People seem to think that streaming services have vast content libraries, so you'll be able to watch any movie you'd ever want to see, both the latest movies, vintage classic and obscurities. But when you look at Disney+ or HBO Max, you'll find that the selection is surprisingly limited. Recent movies are plentiful, but when you go back in time the pickings are becoming slimmer and slimmer. The bigger streaming services have even been removing less popular NEW content to cut costs, so the dream that you'd be able to watch everything Disney or Warner/HBO ever produced is dead.

At least now you can find a very good supply of older movies on DVD and Blu-Ray that are unavailable on streaming services , but with retail stores dropping their physical movies sections, those movies will be only available from online stores like Amazon. DVD/Blu-Ray sales will certainly drop and it will probably lead to a drop in the number of movies that will get physical releases in the future. Prices will go up too, since the production costs of a Blu-Ray remaster remain the same yet sales are down.

 

[Puscifer]

we saw it in the leak. Most sales of Sony titles are physical. 60-70% in fact.
Of course majority prefers to have their big games on shelf, cheaper, own them and some gadgets that usually come with it like a steelbook. And Sony leak proves my theory

That leak was CRAZY to show how small of a dent digital is in reality. Physical isn't dying, it's being eliminated by force.

 

[Sorcerer]

Didn't Walmart also say they were removing physical media across video/music/and gaming?
**Walmart did NOT remove video but are removing xbox gaming according to this:
**Some comicbook site**

Also Target got rid of their physical movies last year according to the same site

PC gaming has thrived (so much so it outperforms every platform except for mobile as of 2022) in a digital only environment. I think the publishers are seeing the $$$$ and the allure of locking folks in their digital grave...I mean digital walled gardens.

There were rumors that Walmart was buying all the distribution rights to all physical media (Blu-ray, dvds) except from Criterion and Arrow, effectively making them the only chain to sell physical media when everybody else is dumping it. Sounds like it could be a smart move on Walmart's part if it's true. They certainly will gain an audience if they are the only place to get physical media. The only question is it worth the movie studio's time to produce and distribute soley to one chain of stores?

Target has kept one endcap of only the newest releases from what I have seen.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I’m part of the problem. I buy my movies and tv all digitally. It’s pretty dumb, I know. But I only buy through iTunes and that’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Not sure if Apple has a history of locking people out of their purchases

 

[Sorcerer]

I’m part of the problem. I buy my movies and tv all digitally. It’s pretty dumb, I know. But I only buy through iTunes and that’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Not sure if Apple has a history of locking people out of their purchases

I haven't had a movie disappear on Itunes yet. I have been able to keep movies I bought that have been de-listed and no longer appear on the service.
However, they have taken songs away from me with ought notification.
Amazon took away a Rolling Stones song away from me recently. No notifcation.
Recently Light in the Attic (a music store that sells physical and digital) pulled a digital album from me with no notification.
If you have a large library, scan through it once in a while you might be suprised that something disappeared.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I haven't had a movie disappear on Itunes yet. I have been able to keep movies I bought that have been de-listed and no longer appear on the service.
However, they have taken songs away from me with ought notification.
Amazon took away a Rolling Stones song away from me recently.
Recently Light in the Attic (a music store that sells physical and digital) pulled a digital album from me with no notification.

Were you compensated? Honestly, I wouldn’t be too mad if they refunded purchases on stuff like this. It’s far from ideal of course, but an acceptable middle ground

 

[Sorcerer]

Were you compensated? Honestly, I wouldn’t be too mad if they refunded purchases on stuff like this. It’s far from ideal of course, but an acceptable middle ground

Apparently, when you agree to purchase you consent to the fact that you are only purchasing the right to listen or watch what you bought. No ownership is stated apparently.
What's more maddening is that you have no idea they even took purchase away, if you have a large library years can go by before you even realize it.
It's only been a few things here and there, and there might be licensing issues, but I fear they will start pulling purchases simply because they would love for you to buy again eventually. I hope they never put experation dates on these purchases but it feels like that's where we may be headed.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

That's why digital-only will not be the the future for a long time.

While I've been downloading games for years, I think it's a good thing.

 

[StereoVsn]

It's because if you've ever been to a Best Buy, the movie racks are a complete waste of space. They have to display the cover so you have wide racks with very few movies, tucked behind all kinds of others. The organization is nonsensical - is it sorted alphabetically? Yes, but also new releases have their own section, different formats had their own sections.

Why would they dedicate so much space to a bunch of movies people will only bother watching on a streaming service? And the modern movie industry is basically trash, it's in a really bad place so I'm not at all surprised about the lack of interest/sales. I personally love physical media, but even I think Best Buy was being extremely wasteful with that section of the store.

Yes, BestBuy purchasers suck. The way they waste space also sucks. They could at least consolidate to more popular 4K titles and carry others online.

Things like this drive enthusiasts who in turn purchase much more vs regular folks and also influence other customers.

I also find the whole upcoming death of physical media frustrating. I guess I will start sailing the high seas at some point sooner then later.

 

[rofif]

That leak was CRAZY to show how small of a dent digital is in reality. Physical isn't dying, it's being eliminated by force.

Yep. It’s all about revenues

 

[Mr Reasonable]

there is not going to be any hipster-buying-vinyl-because-it-"sounds better" effort to save blu ray/DVD

Yeah, bluray doesn't have a group of people saying "it sounds warmer" or whatever, and can't possibly expect the kind of people who like the physicality of records to feel the same way about bluray. Vinyl has more romance to it, and is made of materials that are more appealing than the plastic of digital media.

Movies on disc are for people who want things to look the best they can, as far as I can tell, avoiding streaming compression, etc. But, it's all digital, so as bandwidth increases and codecs get better, the gap will just keep getting smaller and smaller and for most people it's already insignificant, even more so when convenience is brought into the equation.

 

[Diddy X]

Let physical inevitably die already, nothing beats the convenience of streaming.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

That leak was CRAZY to show how small of a dent digital is in reality. Physical isn't dying, it's being eliminated by force.

It's the cut they take from their digital storefront, plus the savings they don't pass on to consumers for manufacturing and distribution costs, and the added benefit of avoiding the resale market. And then they can bring back physical at an upcharge. The control alone is a reason to head in this direction, just like how tech companies are addicted to subscriptions. They have pretty much every incentive to push digital, and that's bad for the consumer.

 

[SidViscous]

The LP record sales hit their highest since the 1960 in the UK last year. They need to capture that energy for Blu-ray somehow, nicer frameable artwork and physical extras or something.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Don't want an only digital future, don't trust any of these companies. Long live physical media.

Yes, for that time in 10 years when I want to re-watch that one movie out of 500 I bought. Peak hoarding + consumerism combo.

 

[AV]

there is not going to be any hipster-buying-vinyl-because-it-"sounds better" effort to save blu ray/DVD

Not for those, because it doesn't, but 4K UHD is already this and has been since they started doing them. Enthusiast level media that looks and sounds so much better than what Netflix and Apple are offering, but you pay out the arse for it, so it's not exactly popular.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I'm still pissed the new Disney Predator spinoff didn't get a physical release.

 

[The Pleasure]

Let physical inevitably die already, nothing beats the convenience of streaming.

Phil Streamer?

 

[Mattyp]

I mean for movies.. yo-ho yoho.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I'm still pissed the new Disney Predator spinoff didn't get a physical release.

You mean this one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prey-Steelbook-Blu-ray-Region-Free/dp/B0CHZ1L98H

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I never ditched blu-ray/4K blu-ray and I think that was the right call. There's something really nice about wanting to watch something, having it on my shelf, and just enjoying the thing in high quality, without any nonsense.

I do think that digital games are fine and are really the best thing you're going to get in the modern age, so long as the game doesn't need to phone home. If it does require phoning home (assuming it isn't a predominantly multiplayer game, obviously), it's an automatic no purchase for me.

Streaming is definitely the future, but I'm pushing back against a streaming-only future for as long as I can. For me, personally, it's a negative across the board.

 

[ShakenG]

We bought 6-7 4K movies over Christmas. Really hope they stick around. Seeing as we only have like 1 shop where we live that still sells a fairly large selection.. its not looking good.

Ready player one
The Patriot
Fury
Dune
Topgun 1,2
JohnWick4

For those curious.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

You mean this one?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prey-Steelbook-Blu-ray-Region-Free/dp/B0CHZ1L98H

Thanks! Finally

 

[Kerotan]

I've recently unsubbed from all streaming services and I've also recently bought the matrix trilogy on UHD and TLOTR Extended trilogy on UHD. CBA subbing to a service every time I want to watch these.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I buy 4k films....for the ones I really want. Love 4KUHD disks - Quality is next level.

 

[cireza]

Never bought or rented a movie digitally. All my movies are DVD or Blu-ray. And I am not planning on moving to digital any day soon, physical is much more convenient than streaming.

 

[Chastten]

Don't really have anything against streaming, but last year I started collecting anime again and I love looking at my little Blu-ray collection so far. Really hope physical will stay and I don't understand why anyone would want it gone.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

How do we maintain ownership over a myriad of patches and updates to games after developers and publishers disappear? Never uninstall games? No thanks.

Games today are ever evolving digital products. Discs are not. I have no interest in playing disc based ganes in a future where "ship it now, fix it later" business models are the norm. If my choices are play a game years from now without day 0 patches, or just not play it at all, I'd choose the latter.

 

[kyussman]

As an old fart,owning the media I like is a no brainer,it's what I've always done and will continue to do......since I've not been gaming for a while now I have been building up my movie collection.I have Netflix and Prime as they are useful ways of seeing films,but if I watch one I really like I will always pick up a physical copy if possible.Owning a copy of something is objectively better than relying on a third party to allow you access to it.....this is more complicated with console games.It's very much a generational thing though,my daughters own nothing media related,they are happy to stream everything,granted I am a bigger movie fan.
Editing of movies has also become a thing recently,Disney have been guilty of this a lot so owning a disc that can't be fucked around with is always useful.

 

[Quasicat]

The majority of the people who watch movies are casual and don’t care how it looks. I have several coworkers who have dropped physical media and exclusively stream for their entertainment and they don’t care about ownership. Especially when they can log in at work and show content from their computers, then go home and continue it on their TV. It’s all about convenience, which streaming offers.

 

[Salmon]

there is not going to be any hipster-buying-vinyl-because-it-"sounds better" effort to save blu ray/DVD

Well, why not? It's not about the physical disc, but instead they give us streaming with inferior quality! Where are the digital content where you could buy the BD-quality? Nowhere to be found. Streaming movies sucks!

 

[funking giblet]

I find this "Physical copy" supremacy thing laughable. Soon the disks will contain minimal content and require the rest to be downloaded anyway / require online.

 

[Filben]

There a certain films I KNOW I will watch again, maybe even several times. Those I'm going to buy physically so I don't have to keep track who has the license for showing on their subscription service. Latest example is Apocalypse Now. in my country, you can only watch it via Amazon Prime and the additional "art house" channel. With the Blu-ray, which cost me 8 bucks, I have the theatric, redux and final cut version.

We recently saw the potential issue OP's been raising attention for with delisted games in several store fronts, with cut content, e.g. most famously music tracks.

After the shit show of the GTA Definitive Edition you cannot longer buy the classic versions for modern consoles. The only way (and correct way, IMO) to play them is now on old hardware or PC. Grab the disc version (e.g. PS2) or a PC version back up and you will play them feature complete with all tracks for next two decades, no matter what kind of crack Rockstar is consuming and shit decisions they make.

I think a little concern isn't really absurd, given MS's push and what publishers would love to do and what they love beyond anything el$e.