A Practical Discussion Part I
This past Thanksgiving, I visited a local Best Buy store for their "Black Friday" midnight sale along with an acquaintance. My friend ended up buying a half dozen or so DVD movies, and it so happened that a few days later we ended up watching one of his purchases: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
As it turned out the movie was, shall we say, disappointing. Somewhat leaden dialog, a preposterous plot, and hammy acting by otherwise accomplished actors. The special-effects were good - but not good enough to overcome the sad reality that neither of us expect to ever watch it again.
As I looked around my friend's living room, with its array of bookshelves, media armoires and coffee tables laden with dust-covered DVD jewel cases, I pondered some on the question as to why we actually want to "own" a copy of a movie. And, if we decide that we do, then what is the best way to do so?
First, let me state my opinion that there are very few movies that are actually worth watching more than once or twice: Gone with the Wind. Godfather I & II. Animal House. The Wizard of Oz. Lawrence of Arabia. Doctor Zhivago. Star Wars Episodes I & II. Your list may differ - but I suspect very few people could legitimately name more than say a couple of dozen movies that really are worthy of watching more than once per decade.
We live in an age of great technological change. With my own eyes I have seen the progression from Super8 and 16mm reel projectors, through Betamaxes, VHS, LaserDisc, DVD and Blu-Ray, and now digital downloads from Apple, Amazon and Netflix. I could, had I wanted to, have purchased a copy of The Sting or Jaws on no less than seven different formats.
Think now of the logistical considerations of owning a movie in physical form. I've helped more than one friend move their movie collections through changes of address and through divorce. Each of which entailed dozens of cardboard boxes, and wrenching emotional decisions as to rights of ownership and primacy of custody. I know several people who have spent thousands of dollars buying shelving and drawer units simply to store their media collections.
And for what? I ask myself. Because a physical copy of a movie is a depreciating asset. A DVD copy of Fast Times at Richmont High is never going to be worth as much as the day it was bought. And its value rapidly approaches zero as soon as a High-Defintion version, with directors commentary, becomes available on Blu-Ray. Which is all but inevitably going to be supplanted by some as-yet un-named format. Bottom line: Owning Movies is a losing game.
Many of us in this forum spend untold hours, and considerable financial resources, ripping and encoding their DVD collections to store them on our home media server or NAS devices. A seemingly worthwhile goal.
But look closer at this task. While storing your movies on inexpensive hard drives at least temporarily removes the physical storage space issue (Or at least transfers the load from the living room to the attic or basement. How many of us actually dispose of the source DVD?) it certainly doesn't remove any of the other burdens of ownership. We still have to archive our collections, buying still more hard-drives and NAS to do so. And paying for the electricity to keep their discs spinning and their LEDs glowing.
Does it not seem, as we absorb and consider the full implications of iOS 5 and the advent of iCloud, that the days of owning a physical copy of a movie or TV are coming to an end? And that, even for those of us who buy only a digital download copy of a favorite movie or TV show, that its probably better to let it live only on the Cloud?
To be continued...
This past Thanksgiving, I visited a local Best Buy store for their "Black Friday" midnight sale along with an acquaintance. My friend ended up buying a half dozen or so DVD movies, and it so happened that a few days later we ended up watching one of his purchases: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
As it turned out the movie was, shall we say, disappointing. Somewhat leaden dialog, a preposterous plot, and hammy acting by otherwise accomplished actors. The special-effects were good - but not good enough to overcome the sad reality that neither of us expect to ever watch it again.
As I looked around my friend's living room, with its array of bookshelves, media armoires and coffee tables laden with dust-covered DVD jewel cases, I pondered some on the question as to why we actually want to "own" a copy of a movie. And, if we decide that we do, then what is the best way to do so?
First, let me state my opinion that there are very few movies that are actually worth watching more than once or twice: Gone with the Wind. Godfather I & II. Animal House. The Wizard of Oz. Lawrence of Arabia. Doctor Zhivago. Star Wars Episodes I & II. Your list may differ - but I suspect very few people could legitimately name more than say a couple of dozen movies that really are worthy of watching more than once per decade.
We live in an age of great technological change. With my own eyes I have seen the progression from Super8 and 16mm reel projectors, through Betamaxes, VHS, LaserDisc, DVD and Blu-Ray, and now digital downloads from Apple, Amazon and Netflix. I could, had I wanted to, have purchased a copy of The Sting or Jaws on no less than seven different formats.
Think now of the logistical considerations of owning a movie in physical form. I've helped more than one friend move their movie collections through changes of address and through divorce. Each of which entailed dozens of cardboard boxes, and wrenching emotional decisions as to rights of ownership and primacy of custody. I know several people who have spent thousands of dollars buying shelving and drawer units simply to store their media collections.
And for what? I ask myself. Because a physical copy of a movie is a depreciating asset. A DVD copy of Fast Times at Richmont High is never going to be worth as much as the day it was bought. And its value rapidly approaches zero as soon as a High-Defintion version, with directors commentary, becomes available on Blu-Ray. Which is all but inevitably going to be supplanted by some as-yet un-named format. Bottom line: Owning Movies is a losing game.
Many of us in this forum spend untold hours, and considerable financial resources, ripping and encoding their DVD collections to store them on our home media server or NAS devices. A seemingly worthwhile goal.
But look closer at this task. While storing your movies on inexpensive hard drives at least temporarily removes the physical storage space issue (Or at least transfers the load from the living room to the attic or basement. How many of us actually dispose of the source DVD?) it certainly doesn't remove any of the other burdens of ownership. We still have to archive our collections, buying still more hard-drives and NAS to do so. And paying for the electricity to keep their discs spinning and their LEDs glowing.
Does it not seem, as we absorb and consider the full implications of iOS 5 and the advent of iCloud, that the days of owning a physical copy of a movie or TV are coming to an end? And that, even for those of us who buy only a digital download copy of a favorite movie or TV show, that its probably better to let it live only on the Cloud?
To be continued...
