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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

This bullshit was already debunked by me thousand times in the physical games thread.

When will you digital only fanboys stop spreading this bullshit??





On PS5 70% of the games are complete fine and on Switch 80%+.

Yeah, there's so many L takes on the current state of physical media in gaming and I'm not necessarily talking about GAF here — you find them on all platforms & forums. I kinda cringe a lot at the uninformed hot takes and move along since it's kinda exhausting to get into arguments around this topic as most people nowadays just don't want to accept that they were wrong even when confronted with straight up facts.

 

[MiguelItUp]

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

To be fair, I don't think many people go to Best Buys with the intention of buying movies, they probably haven't for years. I wouldn't be surprised if more people buy movies at Targets and Walmarts. Be it due to locations, amount of stores, pricing, inventory, etc. But let's be real, the majority probably order them from Amazon. Because in a world where a great deal of people own Amazon Prime, and physical media is just as cheap, if not cheaper, AND has free shipping. Why wouldn't they just buy it online?

I think it's important to own physical, and I just got a reminder recently. I was rewatching the LOTR Extended Editions, and when I was intending to watch Return of the King, it was just completely removed from Max when it had been there for a long while. So, I grabbed my physical disc to watch it. Shortly after, I decided to move onto The Hobbit, and the same thing happened with An Unexpected Journey's Extended Edition. It was there for awhile, and just randomly gone, so I grabbed the disc.

A minor instance sure, but still a situation where I wanted to enjoy a film via digital/streaming but it was randomly removed. However, a physical disc won't just miraculously disappear.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Yeah, I was talking about new releases in my original post, I wasn't thinking about older things because I assumed that buying a Bluray of a delisted show is likely as impossible as it is to find something on a streaming service, likely owing to the same licensing/content problems. Essentially, the answer to not being able to find something on a streaming service is probably go back in time and buy the disc when it was available or wait for one to come up on ebay. I still think that everything else I said is completely valid. I think it's extremely unlikely that Blurays will ever have a resurgence of a similar scale that Vinyl has seen in recent years, and Blurays are still presented as a way to achieve the best picture quality whenever I've seen them discussed.

I wasn't looking to score points, but you can have them if you like? Well done!

I wasn't saying you was, sorry if it came across as that was what I meant

About your point on there not being a resurgence of Blu Ray sales, I do feel it'll be the opposite. The more these company's don't print discs, sales drop off and the more these company's chop, change, don't stream in time then these old discs will become sought after. Anything that's every been made, in time, becomes a rarity in some way or another.

Take Suikoden 1 and 2. I sold them way back when for £10 each. I saw Suikoden 2 in the window of CEX yesterday for £190.

What's it going to be when you can't get certain films anymore and no one streams them?

You never know. They might not be inline with whatever current day politics are that that time.

If I were you i'd go into any second hand shop and buy your favourite stuff for cheap. Who knows, you might be sitting on several Suikoden 2's

If not, you've just bought loads of shitty films or games

But still!

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

My digital films and shows will never disappear. If they leave my library, you'd better believe I'll torrent them right back in.

 

[CGNoire]

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.

This.

 

[CGNoire]

Really hope physical will stay and I don't understand why anyone would want it gone.

"Fuck You, Got Mine" is why.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

When your internet is down what you gonna do ?

Touch grass and have some sex?

It happens allll the time. Off the top of my head, I can think of 10 movies/ TV shows that literally disappeared off streaming *anywhere* and were long out of print in physical form.

Eventually some of them come back on a different service but the issue is you could go 1-2 years with zero options other than piracy. And that is just unacceptable.

Why is that unacceptable?
Media has been going out of print since libraries were invented. The amount we lost is much greater than what we have.
Reprints were always at the mercy of publishers. There was never a time when everything was available everywhere, all the time, to everyone who wanted it.

Even in the VHS era, renting was the norm for most people. My family watched a lot of tapes, yet we owned so few. In my 20s and early 30s I bought more DVDs and BRs than possibly all the VHS we had seen and owned until then. And it’s still a very small collection. A single subscription service hosts hundreds more videos than I watched in all my life, exactly like the rental shops of the 80s and 90s.

I’m not saying preservation isn’t something to strive for, and the current fragmentation of the offer into so many subscription services is depressing. I’m just saying, it ’s not realistic to expect to have every piece of media available at your request all the time.

 

[Evil Calvin]

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.

Money will just go to Amazon I guess. Best Buy has a LOT of empty and wasted space. There is no reason to not have a big section of movies.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Touch grass and have some sex?




Why is that unacceptable?
Media has been going out of print since libraries were invented. The amount we lost is much greater than what we have.
Reprints were always at the mercy of publishers. There was never a time when everything was available everywhere, all the time, to everyone who wanted it.

Even in the VHS era, renting was the norm for most people. My family watched a lot of tapes, yet we owned so few. In my 20s and early 30s I bought more DVDs and BRs than possibly all the VHS we had seen and owned until then. And it’s still a very small collection. A single subscription service hosts hundreds more videos than I watched in all my life, exactly like the rental shops of the 80s and 90s.

I’m not saying preservation isn’t something to strive for, and the current fragmentation of the offer into so many subscription services is depressing. I’m just saying, it ’s not realistic to expect to have every piece of media available at your request all the time.

The issue is that print copies, even if they haven’t been printed in 20 years, exist and could be found on a reseller marketplace if you were determined to find it. Digital-only, if it’s simply removed from the only service it was available on, and isn’t put on another service, vanishes from existence.

 

[BlackTron]

My digital films and shows will never disappear. If they leave my library, you'd better believe I'll torrent them right back in.

I don't take for granted that it will be so easy to torrent everything for forever.

There may come a time you think back on the glory days.

 

[Guerilla Munch]

omigod i can't believe nobody wants to buy $35 blurays anymore

i have a binder of hundreds of dvds and blurays from when blockbuster sold used ones 4 for $20. i haven't touched them in over a decade but they'll come in handy when everything collapses

 

[Soodanim]

This thread has a lot of black or white stances, and I don't get why so many people miss the grey areas. The anti-physical crowd is flat out dismissing benefits of physical in broad strokes with the reasoning that because it doesn't currently matter to them that it objectively doesn't or shouldn't matter to anyone. I'm surprised by the level of nonsense and antagonism ITT.

I have Netflix for streaming things that I either don't have on disc or probably wouldn't watch otherwise. It is as it was originally intended to be - the rental service of the modern age for low value content. But then there are films I want to own, so I also have physical media. Not a large collection, but it's there.

Believe it or not, that's allowed. You are allowed to have a streaming subscription service, but digital licenses, and own physical media at the same time. No one has forced people to pick a side in this terrible and brutal war just yet.

That said. I will choose to take one hard stance: fuck digital licenses. Don't charge me ownership prices for glorified rentals.

One thing discs undeniably fall short on is the amount of forced warnings/splash/other screens and trailers that are unskippable. One day I may set up a home server with digital transfers of my physical media to cut down on that and also give myself the convenience factor.

 

[darrylgorn]

SSD hard drive backup everything.

Install SVP4 and you can run all of your media at 60fps as well.

 

[sachos]

we saw it in the leak. Most sales of Sony titles are physical. 60-70% in fact.

Im sorry im late to the party, what Leak, the Insomniac one? I always knew from those fiscal reports that physical sales are around 30% but that report gets skewed by every game sold that does not even have a physical copy available.

 

[rofif]

Im sorry im late to the party, what Leak, the Insomniac one? I always knew from those fiscal reports that physical sales are around 30% but that report gets skewed by every game sold that does not even have a physical copy available.

yes. This one. 2nd column supposedly shows how much of the sales is digital.

You are exactly right. every report is skewed because they compare uneven markets and draw non relative conclusions.

 

[Tams]

Between 700+ Steam games, Game Pass, PS+

You own nothing.

 

[ZenTheShogun]

You own nothing.

Fair enough but I don't really care is what I'm saying. I love this hobby and I will continue to partake as long as it is around but if you pull my most played game tomorrow I'd be annoyed but quickly move on. I have a whole life beyond this and I'll adapt. It's certainly not something that I care about enough to have tons of shelves filled with disks. As stated in my OG post - this is all IMO. I respect people who care enough to fight for our digital rights - full stop.

As an aside, the upkeep of most older titles is mainly digital (ROMs) - just saying. If everyone wanted to play JSRF right now well good luck getting a copy but I know a few sites...

 

[Jesb]

For me the pro’s outweigh the cons heavily in favour of digital. I have no intention of going back to physical games.

 

[sachos]

yes. This one. 2nd column supposedly shows how much of the sales is digital.

You are exactly right. every report is skewed because they compare uneven markets and draw non relative conclusions.

Holy shit, if accurate that is way better than i expected. PS fans always struck me as way more "classic" oriented gamers, favoring physical/game collections.

 

[Kabelly]

funny enough I bought Oppenheimer while I was in walmart cuz I was like cool it's out now! It's the only blu ray i've bought in so long for a movie I haven't seen yet. I'm buying more physicals lately. I also have found other preservation sites for things I can't be bother to buy physically. I find when you cancel these streaming services they'll offer you free trials a lot. I'm on my like third prime offer and this time it was for 6 months.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Holy shit, if accurate that is way better than i expected. PS fans always struck me as way more "classic" oriented gamers, favoring physical/game collections.

It's also because PS (and Switch) actually exist as platforms people play on outside the US where Internet infrastructure is widely different in quality and speed

Worldwide platforms are mostly physical and will stay that way indefinitely

 

[Unknown?]

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.

Bet you think interpolation looks as good as 120hz!

 

[Putonahappyface]

Physical is not the solution because shit goes out of print all the time.

That's never stopped me. I just buy the film privately for probably twice the price.

 

[Putonahappyface]

Sorry, but convenience trumps all for the majority of us.

The current - and probably irreversible, save for a complete collapse of our society and infrastructures - situation with physical media is a consequence of many factors.
The ephemeralness of audio and (especially) video media that existed until the VHS era brought people to desire they could rewatch the stuff they wanted, when they wanted. Before home video, if you’d missed something, it was gone.
Then home video hit and it was a success, but it came in an age of restless technological development. Format wars ensued. Physical media evolved. We had VHS, then we had to rebuy the same stuff on DVD, then Blu-Ray, then 4K Blu-Ray. Physical media revealed itself to be not so durable after all, needing to be improved and rebought periodically.

Meanwhile, media production didn’t just boom in the last three decades - it positively exploded. Globalization meant that movie and music industries that were very much their own regional thing, suddenly got attention from the west. More stuff gets produced every year. Now imagine wanting to keep your favorite media collection up to date with the latest video tech, while tons of new interesting stuff are getting released daily. More and more physical stuff, while housing gets more expensive. Also, there’s so many things to consume, and so little time. The physical stuff people thought they’d rewatch endlessly a couple decades ago, started piling up dust on shelves, then getting boxed up and stored away in basements and storage houses, never to get used again.

For gaming it’s the same, except games are even more ephemeral. More people are willing to rewatch an old movie than replay an old game.

Last, physical media has a high cost. A single 4K BR movie costs as much as 2 or 3 months of any subscription service. How many people will tell you it’s worth it?

Too much stuff getting produced + finite storage space + so much to consume + so little time + shorter fads and shortening attention spans + high cost of physical media = can you really blame people for caving in to the convenience of not owning media?

 

[EverydayBeast]

Physical games don’t always go as planned, you get discs that don’t read, meaning they have scratches, bad disc lasers etc. now Best Buy is making changes regarding physical games.

 

[mckmas8808]

Physical games don’t always go as planned, you get discs that don’t read, meaning they have scratches, bad disc lasers etc. now Best Buy is making changes regarding physical games.

This happens once in every 100,000 games sells man. It's super rare.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I need to watch less porn. BBC just doesn’t mean what it used to, in my head.

 

[Demigod Mac]

This thread has a lot of black or white stances, and I don't get why so many people miss the grey areas. The anti-physical crowd is flat out dismissing benefits of physical in broad strokes with the reasoning that because it doesn't currently matter to them that it objectively doesn't or shouldn't matter to anyone. I'm surprised by the level of nonsense and antagonism ITT.

I have Netflix for streaming things that I either don't have on disc or probably wouldn't watch otherwise. It is as it was originally intended to be - the rental service of the modern age for low value content. But then there are films I want to own, so I also have physical media. Not a large collection, but it's there.

Believe it or not, that's allowed. You are allowed to have a streaming subscription service, but digital licenses, and own physical media at the same time. No one has forced people to pick a side in this terrible and brutal war just yet.

That said. I will choose to take one hard stance: fuck digital licenses. Don't charge me ownership prices for glorified rentals.

One thing discs undeniably fall short on is the amount of forced warnings/splash/other screens and trailers that are unskippable. One day I may set up a home server with digital transfers of my physical media to cut down on that and also give myself the convenience factor.

Streaming is great for risk-free discovery purposes but if I like a title enough, I want a permanent copy on my shelf that can't be arbitrarily removed or altered due to legal disputes, contract expirations, corporate tax saving schemes, too many people being offended by the content, censorship edits, etc.

 

[StereoVsn]

I buy UHD disks for movies I like, usually on sale and they normally come with a digital version. If I can’t register the version with Apple I will often rebuy movies there on the cheap during their sales.

For TV series I don’t have a lot, have a few that I simply adore and rewatch. Stuff like Firefly, Seinfeld, and some others.

 

[Demigod Mac]

I buy UHD disks for movies I like, usually on sale and they normally come with a digital version. If I can’t register the version with Apple I will often rebuy movies there on the cheap during their sales.

For TV series I don’t have a lot, have a few that I simply adore and rewatch. Stuff like Firefly, Seinfeld, and some others.

Yeah, that's the strategy a lot of physical media collectors recommend to save money.
Don't rush out and buy every title unless it's a must-have for you. Add titles you [eventually] want to your shopping list and wait for special deals to drop, then pounce.

 

[joeygreco1985]

Bet you think interpolation looks as good as 120hz!

No it does not

 

[Mozza]

The quality argument is real but it can be harder to distinguish. And for smaller 4K sets depending how far away you’re sitting, your eyes might not even notice the difference.

The stronger case for preserving physical media is the eventual loss of content that can’t be found anywhere once it is taken down. That is unacceptable. And it already happens alllll the time.

I have a pretty decent set up and buy movies on Blu-ray and 4K. I also download some of the larger 4K torrents with Dolby Atmos tracks etc, the difference is not noticable picture wise, and even though the Atmos tracks use the more lossy Dolby Digital Plus format, rather than the Dolbu Tru HD format found on the 4K discs, it's still a very close call, even on decent equipment.

jonmoz's Home Theater Gallery - My Home Cinema (34 photos)

www.blu-ray.com