Anyone else returning to Physical Media

[nickdalzell1]

DJ Lava sells downloads through Beatport.

Are those MP3 format (that can play on basically anything) and are they DRM-free (not relying on a propietary app or presence of internet connectivity) because those are two advantages with Amazon's old MP3 purchases. I have been through the horror show known as Microsoft Plays4Sure and don't want to go back there.

 

[Edd70]

I pretty much buy zero media, physical or digital, with the exception of the Mad Men series on digital. It's our favorite and was unavailable for a long time on services I use.

With this conversation I always go back to my high school days (graduated in 1988) and think of how I bought back then. A cassette tape was somewhere between $10-20, and I bought at least one a month. I worked at McDonald's making $2.65/hr or something. You could bulk up your music collection with Columbia House by mail 🙂 but that 10-12 cassette shot you got had a limited selection. And I was often buying a whole album for 1 or 2 songs. How friggin nuts is that cost equation? And don't get me going on buying movies on VHS, that was absolutely for rich people.

Everyone knows how much music streaming costs now. If you listen to a lot of different types of music it isn't cost or space effective to buy all that. In my case it'd be ludicrous. If you're one of those dudes stuck on classic rock for all eternity well you just go crazy with the physical media my friend. I have the same issue with TV/films. I consume too much to buy all of the stuff I like.

 

[sparksd]

Are those MP3 format (that can play on basically anything) and are they DRM-free (not relying on a propietary app or presence of internet connectivity) because those are two advantages with Amazon's old MP3 purchases. I have been through the horror show known as Microsoft Plays4Sure and don't want to go back there.

They offer MP3 as well as lossless formats and they are DRM-free.

 

[MacBH928]

I never left 😉 View attachment 2622874View attachment 2622873View attachment 2622875

why some movies boxes like carlitos way and saving private ryan so think in 4k ultra hd?

Today's programmers are like, how could I possibly support an OS that's 4 years old? What you want to run my e-mail program on your computer with only 8GB of RAM and 200GFlops of CPU power? Then Apple doesn't even want to support their UI/UX at only 1080p.

they don't even program any more, they just "vibe code" it via chatgpt through a single prompt

 

[MacBH928]

I played one of my laserdiscs not so long ago, first time in about 10-15 years…. 😛
Much like my HD-DVD player, Laserdiscs can be played from anywhere in the world, none of this region rubbish you get on DVD and BR.

say, you didn't use your laserdisc player in 10 years and it operated just fine? i always wonder how those spinning discs and wheels in vhs and disc players last so long without need to change any oils or lubricants.

I believe some LD players will play only PAL or NTSC, so techincally they are not playable around the world. Some of them can play both. I recall seeing VHS players with PAL or SECAM on them, but you put in any VHS and it will play just fine.

Another thing I'll add about my Atari. I don't have to worry about updates, patches that take GiB of data to download before I can play the game, I don't have to pay for DLC, there are no bugs, and no account needed. Sure, they're bone simple but they forced you to use something that's being bred out of the youngest of us: an imagination.

Task: Play a newly purchased video game

Atari Video Computer System:

1. Turn TV on
2. Put game cartridge in game console
3. Turn game console on
4. enjoy!

PlayStation 5/Xbox One S, X/Steam PC:

1. Turn system on, wait a minute to boot up
2. Login to your account
3. Put disc in
4. WAIT 30 minutes to an hour plus to play because it "requires" a pre-game download of data for an asinine reason (What good is a dual-layer DVD even for if it's just there to activate the thing?!)

5. Launch game
6. WAIT (might take time to load in, log into the account on console, sync up data) 5 minutes?
7. Hope the heck it doesn't either crash to desktop or have some game breaking bug
8. Oops, this feature requires DLC. Need to spend more $$$ on a game you already own, to download the rest of it!
9. Wait again.
10. Maybe enjoy the game!

Maybe it's just me, but I see no improvement over the Atari. (Or original PlayStation, Nintendo NES/SuperNES/64/GameCube, Sega Genesis)

for me the real killer is 2fa

 

[MarkC426]

say, you didn't use your laserdisc player in 10 years and it operated just fine? i always wonder how those spinning discs and wheels in vhs and disc players last so long without need to change any oils or lubricants.

I believe some LD players will play only PAL or NTSC

When it was first switched on, the disk tray wouldn’t open properly, so gave it a bit of a tug, then open and close a few times, and it worked normally, seemed just a bit stuck after non-use.…. 😁
My Sony machine does both PAL and NTSC and it’s printed on the front also.

 

[nickdalzell1]

say, you didn't use your laserdisc player in 10 years and it operated just fine? i always wonder how those spinning discs and wheels in vhs and disc players last so long without need to change any oils or lubricants.

There is only one spinning wheel in a disc player be it LaserDisc or DVD or CD. The laser seems to last forever given it's not a cut rate (read: Funai) brand. I've scavenged tons of DVD players from the late 1990s that 'just work' fine.

VHS you got more to worry about with belts, although the older units (late 1970s-early 80s) tend to have idler 'tyres' that dry up, develop divots, or crack/fall to pieces. Older units are far more prone to electrical faults (capacitor plague, broken/rotted solder traces/joints, etc).

At least two VCRs I've sourced from eBay (mid-80s, Panasonic derivatives, one going by Realistic, another going by Magnavox) 'just worked' without even taking them apart or replacing components.

I will say though, that if you really do have interest in this hobby, you do need to learn electronics repair. How to solder, how to use a multimeter, safety, etc. Most of the time when you get something old enough it's probably gonna need repair. At least one TV and three of my VCRs (and a Kenwood CD changer) needed initial repair. It also comes in handy when something inevitably fails. The stuff in my home is mostly 1970s-early 80s (DVD late 1990s) and while it's aesthetically pleasing to me, I expect to need to repair some of it at some point. I plan on keeping it all until I'm long gone so I don't subscribe to the 'toss it and get another' mindset, so this necessitates repair skills.

 

[Marty80]

why some movies boxes like carlitos way and saving private ryan so think in 4k ultra hd?

i am sorry i am not following you, what do you mean?

 

[MacBH928]

Panasonic PV-1200

woah dude, thats seriously old it looks like it came from a different lifetime (and indeed it was).

sounds like you would love to own a cartivision !

There is only one spinning wheel in a disc player be it LaserDisc or DVD or CD. The laser seems to last forever given it's not a cut rate (read: Funai) brand. I've scavenged tons of DVD players from the late 1990s that 'just work' fine.
I plan on keeping it all until I'm long gone so I don't subscribe to the 'toss it and get another' mindset, so this necessitates repair skills.

say, i always wondered can any electronic be fixed with repair as the component can be found in after market off-the-shelf components or do they need specific manufactured parts that can only be found by another "donor" device?

it always bothered me that electronics randomly die but if you open it everything looks the same. I know some fuse blew or something but unlike mechanical things, you cant see what went wrong.

 

[MacBH928]

i am sorry i am not following you, what do you mean?

look at the width of The Prestige box and Sicario. the 4K is so much wider than regular dvd/bluray case. That thickness usually comes with TV shows with multiple seasons.

btw, what is the movie between Vertigo and Total Recall. i gave up trying to guess it.

 

[sparksd]

look at the width of The Prestige box and Sicario. the 4K is so much wider than regular dvd/bluray case. That thickness usually comes with TV shows with multiple seasons.

View attachment 2624085

btw, what is the movie between Vertigo and Total Recall. i gave up trying to guess it.

A lot of special editions of movies come with extra material like booklets.

 

[Marty80]

look at the width of The Prestige box and Sicario. the 4K is so much wider than regular dvd/bluray case. That thickness usually comes with TV shows with multiple seasons.

View attachment 2624085

btw, what is the movie between Vertigo and Total Recall. i gave up trying to guess it.

Ah thats a good question, its my favourite b type movie called turbo kid, it has total recall’s michael ironside as the villain no surprise 😁.

A lot of special editions of movies come with extra material like booklets.

sparksd is spot on about the thickness, many pricey boutique blu rays come with extra useless material like booklets, postcards, posters etc adds to the boxes width & depth.

Its a weakness of mine as i like how they display. There is one thing i forgot to mention in my post, there is no steelbooks in my collection, i loathe them.

 

[sparksd]

Ah thats a good question, its my favourite b type movie called turbo kid, it has total recall’s michael ironside as the villain no surprise 😁.

View attachment 2624214


sparksd is spot on about the thickness, many pricey boutique blu rays come with extra useless material like booklets, postcards, posters etc adds to the boxes width & depth.

Its a weakness of mine as i like how they display. There is one thing i forgot to mention in my post, there is no steelbooks in my collection, i loathe them.

I have a couple of steelbooks, but do anything possible to avoid them.

 

[MacBH928]

Ah thats a good question, its my favourite b type movie called turbo kid, it has total recall’s michael ironside as the villain no surprise 😁.

View attachment 2624214

thats must be why no AI could figure the name on the box. I guessed it would be a shout factory release but apparently its not.

A lot of special editions of movies come with extra material like booklets.

sparksd is spot on about the thickness, many pricey boutique blu rays come with extra useless material like booklets, postcards, posters etc adds to the boxes width & depth.

Its a weakness of mine as i like how they display. There is one thing i forgot to mention in my post, there is no steelbooks in my collection, i loathe them.

yeah I am aware of those but by the end of life of DVDs you only got flimsy plastic cover and a bland disc with no extra features. So I guessed they gave up long time on adding bonus material into movies. I know they still make them for trilogies and fan favorite tv shows boxsets, but not for single releases like The Prestiege and Saving Private Rayan.

heck, the extra material is usually video material like interviews and extended cuts but stuff like posters, booklets, albums. Its been a long time since I heard they bundled these with physical media.

 

[sparksd]

thats must be why no AI could figure the name on the box. I guessed it would be a shout factory release but apparently its not.




yeah I am aware of those but by the end of life of DVDs you only got flimsy plastic cover and a bland disc with no extra features. So I guessed they gave up long time on adding bonus material into movies. I know they still make them for trilogies and fan favorite tv shows boxsets, but not for single releases like The Prestiege and Saving Private Rayan.

heck, the extra material is usually video material like interviews and extended cuts but stuff like posters, booklets, albums. Its been a long time since I heard they bundled these with physical media.

Extra physical material tends to show up more with special edition releases, which are not uncommon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dvd+spec...8&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-expert-pd-ops-ranker_1_12

 

[MarkC426]

Extra physical material tends to show up more with special edition releases

This is what got me into Laserdisc’s….
VHS releases just had the film, LD has extras/audio commentaries etc.

 

[MacBH928]

This is what got me into Laserdisc’s….
VHS releases just had the film, LD has extras/audio commentaries etc.

I was going to say that "yeah but you would have to be a semi-millionaire to afford that" but checking online prices of the time seems like both vhs and ld players could have been purchased for around $500 and movie prices were similar. Now this got me thinking why didn't LD pick up much more if it was similarly priced but much better quality.

either i suffer Alzheimer or something is wrong, because in my memory LDs were for the rich.

 

[MarkC426]

I was going to say that "yeah but you would have to be a semi-millionaire to afford that" but checking online prices of the time seems like both vhs and ld players could have been purchased for around $500 and movie prices were similar. Now this got me thinking why didn't LD pick up much more if it was similarly priced but much better quality.

either i suffer Alzheimer or something is wrong, because in my memory LDs were for the rich.

Yeah, most disks cost me circa £40-50 each (standard disks) but these where mostly US imports, but then typically StarWars Trilogy box set THX (UK version) was about £100 (maybe a bit more…. 🤔)

This is back in the days when movies released in the US where not shown in cinemas in the UK for up to 6 months.
In many instances I could get the US Laserdisc before the UK cinema release (hence the price).