Anyone else returning to Physical Media

[kiranmk2]

Return? I never left. Any moment I am able to get media physically, I will take it be it Blu-ray, game, and in some cases CDs. You own it, can sell it, can trade with someone, lend it out, etc. In a world of "you will own nothing and be happy" I guess I'm just miserable because I own quite a bit of physical media.

This was what kept me on physical for quite a while. Then I realised that I hadn't lent out a disc since the 2000s and sadly realised that the vast majority of my films could be bought second hand for £2-3 per title on Blu-Ray (which is why most of them went to charity rather than trying to sell them when I moved to digital purchases).

I accept that it's not foolproof, but I'm happy with the compromise and I've never been that interested in limited edition/steelbooks etc which do retain their value (if anything, they annoy me because they looked different to the rest of my collection!)

There are some odd availability issues though - some of my wife's favourite films, including the original That Darn Cat, The Kids Are Alright and One Fine Day don't seem to be available on (what was) the iTunes store so the DVDs of these still adorn our shelves.

 

[LionTeeth]

I just heard that Disney let go their entire physical media division in the recent layoffs.

I just read up on it. How on earth does Disney need to restructure. Insane.

Disney+ is nowhere near good enough to replace discs. Maybe the new stuff can come close but older movies don't even hold a hair to a bluray of it.

I've been watching the Imagineer story there and they need another CEO like Michael Eisner. This is a ship that rights itself given the right leadership.

 

[aespana]

I'm still thinking about it.

I want to buy the external drive disk to my PS5 Slim and start to buy physical discs and also start with a little collection of movies and CDs but man, the friction to begin is gigantic.

 

[phrehdd]

I have both discs (also *archived* to drive) and streaming title purchases. I am in the midsts now of taking my DVD collection and looking for blu-ray upgrades and preferably at a decent price when available. I still own my Oppo 103 blu-ray player which is great for these discs and file playback. For UHD, I play the archive copy via Nvidia Shield TV streamer box. I like having my discs and doubt I will stop any time soon.

 

[MacMorrison]

Get those disc drives and discs while you can. Some of them are selling out now.

 

[JamesMay82]

I just read up on it. How on earth does Disney need to restructure. Insane.

Disney+ is nowhere near good enough to replace discs. Maybe the new stuff can come close but older movies don't even hold a hair to a bluray of it.

I've been watching the Imagineer story there and they need another CEO like Michael Eisner. This is a ship that rights itself given the right leadership.

This is awful! will just make other studios consider it as well.

I was on holiday and went into a record shop and I was amazed how stunning all the records looked with their artwork! it really made me want to buy them! I'm going to look into it at some point I think.

 

[LionTeeth]

This is awful! will just make other studios consider it as well.

I was on holiday and went into a record shop and I was amazed how stunning all the records looked with their artwork! it really made me want to buy them! I'm going to look into it at some point I think.

Oh that's a deep rabbit hole I refuse to get into lol CD and lossless streams are where I stop with music. The last thing I need is another media hobby lol

 

[XboxEvolved]

This was what kept me on physical for quite a while. Then I realised that I hadn't lent out a disc since the 2000s and sadly realised that the vast majority of my films could be bought second hand for £2-3 per title on Blu-Ray (which is why most of them went to charity rather than trying to sell them when I moved to digital purchases).

I accept that it's not foolproof, but I'm happy with the compromise and I've never been that interested in limited edition/steelbooks etc which do retain their value (if anything, they annoy me because they looked different to the rest of my collection!)

There are some odd availability issues though - some of my wife's favourite films, including the original That Darn Cat, The Kids Are Alright and One Fine Day don't seem to be available on (what was) the iTunes store so the DVDs of these still adorn our shelves.

I am glad you are happy you paid for media that you don't actually own. Unrelated, there is this movie called "Kung Fu Enter the Fist" a funny martial arts movie where a character called Wimp Lo gets hit several times in a fight and says, "I'm bleeding making me the victor." That's basically how I see people that are proponents of not owning their media.

 

[mk313]

I am glad you are happy you paid for media that you don't actually own. Unrelated, there is this movie called "Kung Fu Enter the Fist" a funny martial arts movie where a character called Wimp Lo gets hit several times in a fight and says, "I'm bleeding making me the victor." That's basically how I see people that are proponents of not owning their media.

I honestly don't get the subtle digs/condescension that always seem to come out in these threads from those that prefer to buy physical media towards those that prefer to buy digital media.

It's not like the people on the other side are saying you're wrong for buying physical media. And it's not like it's a black & white trade off. Am I just buying a license to watch things that I don't actually own? Yes. Have I ever, in the entire time that I have done this, ever lost access to any of my purchases? No. It's a hypothetical risk, but so far at least, it's only hypothetical. And the companies that own the licenses have a pretty strong incentive to not restrict access, or else people would stop buying digital media.

There are always stories that come up here about movies that have been pulled, and it's possible that it's happened somewhere/sometime, but literally every single movie that I've seen someone say has been pulled from someone's library, when I look at the iTunes Store, it's still available there. Not saying it didn't happen, but whatever issue came up, it's either not in the US, or the issue was resolved since then. And some of the claims of lost access are just people misremembering. There was one person on here who 'bought' a copy of some movie that turns out to never have been sold for purchase, but was only available on Apple TV.

In exchange for this hypothetical risk, I mitigate my risk of any of my media getting physically damaged. I'm also able to access it from almost anywhere in the world, and I don't have to use up space in my house storing things that I later have to dig through to find what I want to watch. All in all, it's a deal I'm more than willing to make.

I'm glad that the studios still offer physical media so you can buy what you want, and I don't feel the need to make condescending comments towards you for your choices. But I'm glad they offer streaming licenses so that I can buy what I want.

 

[sparksd]

I honestly don't get the subtle digs/condescension that always seem to come out in these threads from those that prefer to buy physical media towards those that prefer to buy digital media.

It's not like the people on the other side are saying you're wrong for buying physical media. And it's not like it's a black & white trade off. Am I just buying a license to watch things that I don't actually own? Yes. Have I ever, in the entire time that I have done this, ever lost access to any of my purchases? No. It's a hypothetical risk, but so far at least, it's only hypothetical. And the companies that own the licenses have a pretty strong incentive to not restrict access, or else people would stop buying digital media.

There are always stories that come up here about movies that have been pulled, and it's possible that it's happened somewhere/sometime, but literally every single movie that I've seen someone say has been pulled from someone's library, when I look at the iTunes Store, it's still available there. Not saying it didn't happen, but whatever issue came up, it's either not in the US, or the issue was resolved since then. And some of the claims of lost access are just people misremembering. There was one person on here who 'bought' a copy of some movie that turns out to never have been sold for purchase, but was only available on Apple TV.

In exchange for this hypothetical risk, I mitigate my risk of any of my media getting physically damaged. I'm also able to access it from almost anywhere in the world, and I don't have to use up space in my house storing things that I later have to dig through to find what I want to watch. All in all, it's a deal I'm more than willing to make.

I'm glad that the studios still offer physical media so you can buy what you want, and I don't feel the need to make condescending comments towards you for your choices. But I'm glad they offer streaming licenses so that I can buy what I want.

Agree - to each his own. I have around 2K discs and 4K releases really stand out on my video & audio setup. But I also switched to ebooks when physical book storage got tight and have around 1000 of them. Use what works for you.

 

[XboxEvolved]

I honestly don't get the subtle digs/condescension that always seem to come out in these threads from those that prefer to buy physical media towards those that prefer to buy digital media.

It's not like the people on the other side are saying you're wrong for buying physical media. And it's not like it's a black & white trade off. Am I just buying a license to watch things that I don't actually own? Yes. Have I ever, in the entire time that I have done this, ever lost access to any of my purchases? No. It's a hypothetical risk, but so far at least, it's only hypothetical. And the companies that own the licenses have a pretty strong incentive to not restrict access, or else people would stop buying digital media.

There are always stories that come up here about movies that have been pulled, and it's possible that it's happened somewhere/sometime, but literally every single movie that I've seen someone say has been pulled from someone's library, when I look at the iTunes Store, it's still available there. Not saying it didn't happen, but whatever issue came up, it's either not in the US, or the issue was resolved since then. And some of the claims of lost access are just people misremembering. There was one person on here who 'bought' a copy of some movie that turns out to never have been sold for purchase, but was only available on Apple TV.

In exchange for this hypothetical risk, I mitigate my risk of any of my media getting physically damaged. I'm also able to access it from almost anywhere in the world, and I don't have to use up space in my house storing things that I later have to dig through to find what I want to watch. All in all, it's a deal I'm more than willing to make.

I'm glad that the studios still offer physical media so you can buy what you want, and I don't feel the need to make condescending comments towards you for your choices. But I'm glad they offer streaming licenses so that I can buy what I want.

Not a dig, generally people that are fully digital tend to think it's funny and something only older people do. They try to gaslight themselves into thinking it's better and more convenient because of the digital thing, but that goes out the window when generally most physical media comes with some sort of digital component included. Also to me it's genuinely a matter of common sense. It's hard for me to understand why people would want to limit themselves in nearly every way on purpose.

I will say I am glad that the trend of physical media having a resurgence pleases me.

 

[mk313]

Not a dig, generally people that are fully digital tend to think it's funny and something only older people do. They try to gaslight themselves into thinking it's better and more convenient because of the digital thing, but that goes out the window when generally most physical media comes with some sort of digital component included. Also to me it's genuinely a matter of common sense. It's hard for me to understand why people would want to limit themselves in nearly every way on purpose.

I will say I am glad that the trend of physical media having a resurgence pleases me.

So when you say that people are gaslighting themselves when they think differently than you, that's not a subtle dig? What is it? It's certainly not a fact, it's just your opinion spouted as 'the indisputable truth'.

When you say things like "people are gaslighting themselves into thinking it's better and more convenient' That's you assuming that they are too stupid to understand the 'truth'. There are lots of reasons to choose digital over physical copies. The environment is one. Sure you MAY get a digital copy along with your physical copy, but there is still an environmental cost to creating/ shipping that thing. There is also the problem of having to store something you bought, when you only want the digital copy. And oftentimes the physical copy costs more. There are lots of logical reasons to buy digital. Your premise isn't even true. It might be for movies & videos, I don't know, I haven't bought any of those in forever. But it's certainly not true for physical copies of books, records or CD's.

It's great that you are able to buy things in the format you want. Just because others choose a different method doesn't mean they are wrong, or ignorant, or 'gaslighting' themselves. it means they made a different choice, and that's totally fine.

 

[Ethosik]

This is awful! will just make other studios consider it as well.

I was on holiday and went into a record shop and I was amazed how stunning all the records looked with their artwork! it really made me want to buy them! I'm going to look into it at some point I think.

We are getting pushed to the "You will own nothing and be happy" timeline. Even consoles/PCs are following the trend.

Public companies are the worst, late-stage capitalism is the worst. The graph must ALWAYS....ALWAYS go up and up. How do they do that? By having us pay monthly. Then next year, they increase the subscription cost.

I can see in the next 5 year we will NOT be able to own any physical product ever again.

 

[Ethosik]

Not a dig, generally people that are fully digital tend to think it's funny and something only older people do. They try to gaslight themselves into thinking it's better and more convenient because of the digital thing, but that goes out the window when generally most physical media comes with some sort of digital component included. Also to me it's genuinely a matter of common sense. It's hard for me to understand why people would want to limit themselves in nearly every way on purpose.

I will say I am glad that the trend of physical media having a resurgence pleases me.

I jumped on the convenience of digital back in what 2006? When did iTunes start offering Movies/TV? That is when I started doing that. I even purchased digital movies/TV shows on my PS3.

However, recently I got a 1080p Blu Ray and was SHOCKED that it looks and sounds even better than 4k streaming. Even with my Gigabit internet service.

I still get some things digital. If I like the product enough, I will even get it both digitally and physically.

 

[Ethosik]

Yes. Have I ever, in the entire time that I have done this, ever lost access to any of my purchases?

I have some content I have purchased on iTunes that you literally cannot buy from anywhere now. I am surprised I still have access.

 

[XboxEvolved]

So when you say that people are gaslighting themselves when they think differently than you, that's not a subtle dig? What is it? It's certainly not a fact, it's just your opinion spouted as 'the indisputable truth'.

When you say things like "people are gaslighting themselves into thinking it's better and more convenient' That's you assuming that they are too stupid to understand the 'truth'. There are lots of reasons to choose digital over physical copies. The environment is one. Sure you MAY get a digital copy along with your physical copy, but there is still an environmental cost to creating/ shipping that thing. There is also the problem of having to store something you bought, when you only want the digital copy. And oftentimes the physical copy costs more. There are lots of logical reasons to buy digital. Your premise isn't even true. It might be for movies & videos, I don't know, I haven't bought any of those in forever. But it's certainly not true for physical copies of books, records or CD's.

It's great that you are able to buy things in the format you want. Just because others choose a different method doesn't mean they are wrong, or ignorant, or 'gaslighting' themselves. it means they made a different choice, and that's totally fine.

I said I'm glad they can do what they want I'm not stopping them. I'm simply giving you my reasons why I wouldn't do it.

 

[XboxEvolved]

I jumped on the convenience of digital back in what 2006? When did iTunes start offering Movies/TV? That is when I started doing that. I even purchased digital movies/TV shows on my PS3.

However, recently I got a 1080p Blu Ray and was SHOCKED that it looks and sounds even better than 4k streaming. Even with my Gigabit internet service.

I still get some things digital. If I like the product enough, I will even get it both digitally and physically.

4KUltra are pretty good also, generally all of them come with a digital code that will work with several apps at the same time for example. Most of my movies 4k or not, I can have through iTunes/Apple TV, Movies Anywhere, Amazon Video, etc all at the same time so you shouldn't have to buy it twice. Some movies you can only buy physically as they do not exist on any streaming platforms or can be bought digitally anywhere. That's another key component of physical media and keeping record.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I've never lost access to my streaming library either (most being iTunes purchases--iTunes ain't at thing and the iOS TV app just points me to Paramount+, Disney+, Hulu, etc without offering me a 'buy button' so I guess I can't make new purchases now?)

But what happens when my Apple TV is no longer supported? Granted Apple products have basically lasted forever (typing this on a 2009 MBP running 10.6 and I got a working Apple TV 3rd Gen (not 4K)) but when you rely entirely on streaming, you are also relying on a never-ending upgrade of hardware cycle. Otherwise your device might get so old to have lost access. I don't like buying stuff more than once. I'm a buy it for life guy now. I also think it's not environmentally sound to toss old stuff and constantly buy new stuff, to say nothing of third world exploitation to mine resources. All of my purchases within the last two years have been secondhand and will remain that way. We have enough stuff leftover from the 1950s-onward to last three or four more generations if we take care of it. This is why I feel people need to teach kids repair and respect of old things and appreciate it. Reduce is the first of the three Rs, and Reuse the second. One could argue those are far more important than 'Recycle'.

Also, what if whatever 'cloud' service your purchases are on now goes belly up in the future? Will Amazon Prime still exist in 2077? Will your iTunes library exist after 2045? My VHS and DVD collection will still be here, and I know how to repair VCRs.

 

[mk313]

I've never lost access to my streaming library either (most being iTunes purchases--iTunes ain't at thing and the iOS TV app just points me to Paramount+, Disney+, Hulu, etc without offering me a 'buy button' so I guess I can't make new purchases now?)

But what happens when my Apple TV is no longer supported? Granted Apple products have basically lasted forever (typing this on a 2009 MBP running 10.6 and I got a working Apple TV 3rd Gen (not 4K)) but when you rely entirely on streaming, you are also relying on a never-ending upgrade of hardware cycle. Otherwise your device might get so old to have lost access. I don't like buying stuff more than once. I'm a buy it for life guy now. I also think it's not environmentally sound to toss old stuff and constantly buy new stuff, to say nothing of third world exploitation to mine resources. All of my purchases within the last two years have been secondhand and will remain that way. We have enough stuff leftover from the 1950s-onward to last three or four more generations if we take care of it. This is why I feel people need to teach kids repair and respect of old things and appreciate it. Reduce is the first of the three Rs, and Reuse the second. One could argue those are far more important than 'Recycle'.

Also, what if whatever 'cloud' service your purchases are on now goes belly up in the future? Will Amazon Prime still exist in 2077? Will your iTunes library exist after 2045? My VHS and DVD collection will still be here, and I know how to repair VCRs.

You can still buy stuff from Apple, but I think they do it through the TV & music apps.

To answer the other question, about what happens in the future. At least as far as movies go, you should be fine. All of the major sites and most of the movie studios agreed to work together on movies anywhere.com so you can authorize all of your services to work with all of the movies you've purchased from any of the sources. It seems unlikely that all of the services (especially the ones run by Apple & Google) will all go away during my lifetime. We did already have some of the services go down. Vudu bought Fandango's movie purchase site (I think) And took the Fandango name. And Microsoft stopped selling movies, but if you linked your Microsoft account to Movies anywhere, you can keep watching them on other platforms. And movies anywhere has brought on new partners over time (Verizon & DirectTV).

Not sure what would happen to TV shows, etc that you bought, but at least for movies, they should be good well past out lifetimes.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I know they do it through the TV apps, but there is never a 'buy' option. Case in point:

Task: Wanted to purchase a season of the TV series, Cheers

1. Open iTunes. Oops, that's moved, this app is just a useless icon now. Shame
2. Open TV. Search for Cheers. Find the season I want. Try to click. No buy button obvious. Says it's on Paramount+ and Hulu. I got those subscriptions. But I want to purchase it. No sign anywhere in sight to click simply 'buy season'. Either the UI sucks or I'm gettin' too old for this stuff...

3. Relent and watch it via my Hulu.

This is happening more recently too. Even Amazon is not allowing me to purchase songs as MP3 albums (greyed out, unavailable) and movies/TV shows are harder to find purchasable. Kindle books are easy at least.

Music wants to sell me Apple Music subsription. Can't find buy button either. The "You'll Own Nothing and Be Happy" model is in full-force it seems. Thankfully secondhand DVD shops such as MegaReplay and Second and Charles exist to fill my needs. Maybe one of them has Cheers in offline form. Cassettes and CDs are common in places such as Goodwill, vendor malls (of which we have two), thrift stores. VHS tapes are even more common, 50 cents each. Not sure why there are rumors of so-called 'black diamond' Disney movies going for exhorbiant prices, since around here those are going for only a dollar each--got my childhood VHS Disney collection (including some Don Bluth favorites) back easy.

 

[mk313]

I know they do it through the TV apps, but there is never a 'buy' option. Case in point:

Task: Wanted to purchase a season of the TV series, Cheers

1. Open iTunes. Oops, that's moved, this app is just a useless icon now. Shame
2. Open TV. Search for Cheers. Find the season I want. Try to click. No buy button obvious. Says it's on Paramount+ and Hulu. I got those subscriptions. But I want to purchase it. No sign anywhere in sight to click simply 'buy season'. Either the UI sucks or I'm gettin' too old for this stuff...

3. Relent and watch it via my Hulu.

This is happening more recently too. Even Amazon is not allowing me to purchase songs as MP3 albums (greyed out, unavailable) and movies/TV shows are harder to find purchasable. Kindle books are easy at least.

Music wants to sell me Apple Music subsription. Can't find buy button either. The "You'll Own Nothing and Be Happy" model is in full-force it seems. Thankfully secondhand DVD shops such as MegaReplay and Second and Charles exist to fill my needs. Maybe one of them has Cheers in offline form. Cassettes and CDs are common in places such as Goodwill, vendor malls (of which we have two), thrift stores. VHS tapes are even more common, 50 cents each. Not sure why there are rumors of so-called 'black diamond' Disney movies going for exhorbiant prices, since around here those are going for only a dollar each--got my childhood VHS Disney collection (including some Don Bluth favorites) back easy.

Interesting. I haven't bought any TV shows in a long while, but it does look like the only way to 'get' Cheers' is through one of the streaming apps. It does look like some TV shows are still for sale, but you're right, looks like TV show downloads are somewhat going away.

I just checked a couple of random albums on amazon & I could still see mp3 downloads as an option (not greyed out) but I did have to go past the mandatory 'Why not just sign up for Amazon Music' page. I wonder if these TV shows & movies are studio specific things, where some of them are pulling back from selling anything. Would suck if true, but it sure looks like i't starting to go that way.

 

[nickdalzell1]

With Amazon the artist I wanted to purchase MP3s from is "DJ Lava" (produces a lot of beautiful instrumental songs that are perfect for my hikes) since I discovered them on YouTube Music a year ago, but when I search that artist, every album is 'MP3 Album Unavailable'.

Purchases I have made on iTunes in the past that show up in my 'up next' or 'library' section of the Apple TV app itself do allow me to purchase later seasons if I wait for the episodes I own to run out. Such as Alice (a 1970s sitcom starring Linda Lavin, Polly Holliday and Vic Tayback), I have only the first season. If I watch it til the last episode of season 1, it will cue up the next season as a purchaseable item.

 

[sparksd]

With Amazon the artist I wanted to purchase MP3s from is "DJ Lava" (produces a lot of beautiful instrumental songs that are perfect for my hikes) since I discovered them on YouTube Music a year ago, but when I search that artist, every album is 'MP3 Album Unavailable'.

Purchases I have made on iTunes in the past that show up in my 'up next' or 'library' section of the Apple TV app itself do allow me to purchase later seasons if I wait for the episodes I own to run out. Such as Alice (a 1970s sitcom starring Linda Lavin, Polly Holliday and Vic Tayback), I have only the first season. If I watch it til the last episode of season 1, it will cue up the next season as a purchaseable item.

DJ Lava sells downloads through Beatport.

 

[kiranmk2]

I am glad you are happy you paid for media that you don't actually own. Unrelated, there is this movie called "Kung Fu Enter the Fist" a funny martial arts movie where a character called Wimp Lo gets hit several times in a fight and says, "I'm bleeding making me the victor." That's basically how I see people that are proponents of not owning their media.

Not a dig, generally people that are fully digital tend to think it's funny and something only older people do. They try to gaslight themselves into thinking it's better and more convenient because of the digital thing, but that goes out the window when generally most physical media comes with some sort of digital component included. Also to me it's genuinely a matter of common sense. It's hard for me to understand why people would want to limit themselves in nearly every way on purpose.

I will say I am glad that the trend of physical media having a resurgence pleases me.

Definitely a dig - you are acting like those of use that have moved to digital purchases are ignorant or stupid becuse we could lose access to our films at any point. Physical and digital both have their pros and cons. At some point the pros of digital outwighed the cons and outweighed the benefits of physical for me.

• I now no longer have to find the physical space to store 250+ discs
• I don't have to sit through minutes and minutes of unskippable crap at the start of discs
• I don't have to worry about scratches or disc rot.
• I can now carry my whole digital collection around with me and access it via any connected TV, streaming box or even via AirPlay

The things that pushed me over the hurdle were the free HD to 4K upgrades from Apple, addition of "iTunes extras" to a lot of films to match my DVDs and the fact that probably over two thirds of my collection were DVDs and by biding my time waiting for sales or people selling codes, I got HD or 4K versions of pretty much all of these for $5 or less - upgrading the physical discs would have cost me a load more.

I am largely underwhelmed by the difference between digital and disk 4K. To me, if you are routinely noticing the difference in picture quality then your are not fully immersed in the film and you may as well not be watching it. I'm long past the days of pixel peeping at 200% zoom in images on static images to compare.

I sort of get why physical media fans are a bit defensive about those that prefer digital: for every person that switches to digital, it's one less person buying discs and increasing the risk that studios will cut back on catalogue 4K releases or even abandon physical releases altogether.

We are getting pushed to the "You will own nothing and be happy" timeline. Even consoles/PCs are following the trend.

Public companies are the worst, late-stage capitalism is the worst. The graph must ALWAYS....ALWAYS go up and up. How do they do that? By having us pay monthly. Then next year, they increase the subscription cost.

I can see in the next 5 year we will NOT be able to own any physical product ever again.

I think the whole "you could lose access to your films" argument is valid, but nothing I've seen makes me think this will happen. I've got plenty of digital films where the version I own, or even the film itself is no longer available to buy and I can still access it with no issues. I imagine the PR disaster if the studios ever rescinded access to purchased digital films would be so massive that it would hit them right in the stock price.
Streaming is definitely a con though, especially as the subscriptions are starting to ramp up more rapidly as the studios start to need more cash. Yes, you get a load of content, but you lose it all if you stop paying.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Just an FYI: the point about unskippable content at the start of discs (I'm assuming DVD here)

There's this little-known trick I found through a YouTuber doing DVD player repairs:

When you insert the disc and it gets past the initial logo (whether it be Paramount, Mill Creek, etc) hit STOP STOP then PLAY in rapid succession. Then it not only skips previews, but also the main menu and goes straight to the movie. On some Funai-sourced players (sadly often going by once-great and reputable brand names such as Magnavox, Sylvania and Sanyo) the method is STOP STOP STOP then PLAY.

One of my concerns and perhaps the largest one is the reliance on streaming means reliance on software updates and continual device hardware upgrades ultimately once software ultimately stops getting supported on legacy devices. The idea of having to buy a new smart TV (or other such device) over and over is not only environmentally unsustainable but it's like you're renting something most used to purchase once in their lifetimes--a television set. I do not like the idea of having to buy a new system once the old one gets unsupported. I also do not like having to re-learn an interface when an update resdesigns it. I'm sick to death enough of flat UI design because it causes horrible memories of something I hoped to have forgotten long ago--Tandy DeskMate, Windows 1.0 and MS-DOS. I would rather leave those horror shows in the past where they belong. They cause me actual pain to look at and flat interfaces trigger bad headaches. It's one reason I went back to physical and vintage/legacy hardware. Typing this on a 2009 MacBook Pro on Snow Leopard.