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Do you still buy DVDs?

MacBH928

MacBH928

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 17, 2008
9,134
4,175
I am amazed DVDs are still getting new releases. Its 5 years short of beating the reign of 27 years of VHS.

Who is still buying DVDs in the age of streaming FullHD and 4K? They don't even make standard definition televisions any more for the past maybe 8 years. I really thought by now Bluray will completely replace DVDs.
 
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we moved 2years ago we tried to re cycle give away boxes of the stuff. no one wanted them back then
 
DVDs look fine up to about 30", and definitely look fine on laptops or the back seat screens for kids in minivans. They are also cheaper and far more compatible with players/laptops/computers/cars. Then there are people like my mom who think they look fine and the DVD player works, so why get a BD player?

I'm a home theater enthusiast, so DVDs definitely aren't for me. But I do understand that in a world of 7 billion people there's going to be some market for them.
 
I worked at a library and I was amazed at how popular DVDs still were. They had some of the highest circulation rates.

We're already talking about 8K but people are still buying 480p DVDs. :confused:

I will buy DVDs if that is all that exists of a certain movie or TV show I want to watch, but it is an absolute last resort.
 
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I'm pretty much exclusively Blu-ray (UHD when they're not prohibitively expensive). When projecting at 120" you want good quality :)
 
Yes, mostly BluRays, though. DVD releases are the norm for really old shows that wouldn't be suited for BluRay.
 
Zenithal said:
DVD releases are the norm for really old shows that wouldn't be suited for BluRay.
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The reason why American shows tended to rule in the past was that many shot film while other countries recorded video. Maybe they still have the negatives.
 
MacBH928 said:
I am amazed DVDs are still getting new releases. Its 5 years short of beating the reign of 27 years of VHS.

Who is still buying DVDs in the age of streaming FullHD and 4K? They don't even make standard definition televisions any more for the past maybe 8 years. I really thought by now Bluray will completely replace DVDs.
Click to expand...
I'm old school. I only buy physical media and never buy digital. I rip all of my media and serve it up on my plex server or transfer them to my portable devices. I shop for deals and spend less for the physical than what the digital versions sell for.
 
Haven't bought a DVD or Blu-Ray in years. 100% streaming.

And with gaming, this is the first generation where I went 100% digital. I've never bought a physical PS4 game.
 
ActionableMango said:
I'm curious what your decision between the two depends on.
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Price. Film I’m buying.
The difference between DVD and BR isn’t like when we switched from VHS to DVD. It’s better but not that much.
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ThisBougieLife said:
I worked at a library and I was amazed at how popular DVDs still were. They had some of the highest circulation rates.

We're already talking about 8K but people are still buying 480p DVDs. :confused:

I will buy DVDs if that is all that exists of a certain movie or TV show I want to watch, but it is an absolute last resort.
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What do people stream? Not generally 4K is it? 720/1080 at best most of the time.

As for were talking about 8k that’s just the TV manufacturers trying to convince you that your 4K TV is outdated. They hate people buying TV’s and keeping them for 5-10 years.
 
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4K streaming is possible, but the quality isn't that of a disc. It's still very good. And so it should be since a 4K stream film chomps through 10-30 GB of bandwidth. A direct disc rip is somewhere around 50-60 GB, and true uncompressed off the camera is several TB.
 
There will always be a market for discs. People who wants the best pq/audio for their viewing.
 
Nope... can't remember the last time i saw those plastic discs..

I have an external slim ASUS dive i use on my MBA if i need to rip my parents DVD's. but i don't buy any for myself..

It's all steaming !!...

Zenithal said:
4K streaming is possible, but the quality isn't that of a disc. It's still very good. And so it should be since a 4K stream film chomps through 10-30 GB of bandwidth. A direct disc rip is somewhere around 50-60 GB, and true uncompressed off the camera is several TB.
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I would say, it cannot be that of a disc and never will be.. because of bandwidth. Codec are getting better, but i fail to see the quality would ever match exactly
 
dazz87 said:
There will always be a market for discs. People who wants the best pq/audio for their viewing.
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Especially given there's large storage discs available abroad that you can't buy here. BDXL discs came out last year and they're cheap. Though ideally we'll regress back into downloads because while streaming is great, most ISPs aren't willing to commit the funds to bring up minimum speeds let alone relax bandwidth limits if they have any.

Which is great because mechanical drive prices keep falling over time and soon enough you'll be able to get 20 TB drives consumer side that use a new method of writing to avoid having excess platters which increase the risks of failure.
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cube said:
The reason why American shows tended to rule in the past was that many shot film while other countries recorded video. Maybe they still have the negatives.
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You're a ways off but you make a good point. The digital cameras that first made the scene by Sony and Arri came out almost 20 years ago but they weren't very good. Anyone using film now is doing it for something other than quality. Newer systems have incredible range that are capable of taking in scene composition that a film camera may not be as sensitive enough to pick up.

That said, I was referring to shows from the 70s and 80s. I'd love a 4K remastered video and audio of old sitcoms but the reality of that happening are slim as I don't think the masters were good to begin with. The majority of old shows I have on disc aren't American shows either.

The other reason I prefer physical media are because digital video can disappear at any time due to licensing. Can't take away my discs.
 
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Zenithal said:
Especially given there's large storage discs available abroad that you can't buy here. BDXL discs came out last year and they're cheap. Though ideally we'll regress back into downloads because while streaming is great, most ISPs aren't willing to commit the funds to bring up minimum speeds let alone relax bandwidth limits if they have any.

Which is great because mechanical drive prices keep falling over time and soon enough you'll be able to get 20 TB drives consumer side that use a new method of writing to avoid having excess platters which increase the risks of failure.
[doublepost=1558512814][/doublepost]
You're a ways off but you make a good point. The digital cameras that first made the scene by Sony and Arri came out almost 20 years ago but they weren't very good. Anyone using film now is doing it for something other than quality. Newer systems have incredible range that are capable of taking in scene composition that a film camera may not be as sensitive enough to pick up.

That said, I was referring to shows from the 70s and 80s. I'd love a 4K remastered video and audio of old sitcoms but the reality of that happening are slim as I don't think the masters were good to begin with. The majority of old shows I have on disc aren't American shows either.

The other reason I prefer physical media are because digital video can disappear at any time due to licensing. Can't take away my discs.
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I was talking about shows made before 24p video cameras.
 
sracer said:
I shop for deals and spend less for the physical than what the digital versions sell for.
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Do you shop online? I am looking for one stop stores, because I rather receive all orders in one package than have each one mailed separately. Amazon and Ebay usually ship from different sellers.


Zenithal said:
The other reason I prefer physical media are because digital video can disappear at any time due to licensing. Can't take away my discs.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but given that I saw what happened to cassette players, VCRs, and LaserDiscs...makes you wonder if DVD players will be there forever. Sony does not seem to be too enthusiastic about Blurays... I don't see many advancement in the players.
 
Blu-ray's... and almost exclusively second hand. Yard sales, ebay, home theater forums, or friends. But my habits of getting movies have slowed way down. Those that I do get, I rip them for my Plex server.
 
MacBH928 said:
I am amazed DVDs are still getting new releases. Its 5 years short of beating the reign of 27 years of VHS.

Who is still buying DVDs in the age of streaming FullHD and 4K? They don't even make standard definition televisions any more for the past maybe 8 years. I really thought by now Bluray will completely replace DVDs.
Click to expand...

I am, for one.
 
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MacBH928 said:
I am amazed DVDs are still getting new releases. Its 5 years short of beating the reign of 27 years of VHS.

Who is still buying DVDs in the age of streaming FullHD and 4K? They don't even make standard definition televisions any more for the past maybe 8 years. I really thought by now Bluray will completely replace DVDs.
Click to expand...

Frankly I don't see a point in regular Bluray anymore. 4K Bluray is out and that is the only format I'd consider buying. If I like a movie enough to own a copy. I'd only want it in the best format available.

That being said. I've mostly stopped buying movies. For $10 a month I get tons of new (or new to me) movies and TV shows in HD from Netflix. More than I can keep up with. It just makes no sense to me to spend $20 to $30 for a new release I'll only watch a couple times. Even $10 for a two or three Bluray pack of older movies is hard to justify.

Yes, there is the argument of owning physical media vs streaming. I already own on Bluray most of the movies I'll ever want to own (ripped onto Plex server). Perhaps if new movies were more memorable. I'd want to own a copy. Those are few and far between. Movies just don't have the writing they used to nor actors have the charisma. Not like the late 30's through the 70's.

Before streaming. Owning media had more value. I'd watch the same movie many times. Since it was either that or watch commercial laden TV. Now streaming offers a dearth of new to me content. Which receives a lot of turnover. Watching some old movie I've seen five to twenty times is far less palatable.

The final nail in the coffin was my VHS collection. I hadn't watched any of them in over ten years. Boxes upon boxes of movies. Nearly all of them so worthless. They weren't worth the cost of shipping. I just had to dump them at Goodwill. Thinking of all the money blown on them. Then most of them bought again on DVD. Then many bought another round on Bluray. 4K BR was just around the corner. I realized that it was absurd to keep wasting money this way. Netflix is good enough and saves a whole lot of money.
 
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MacBH928 said:
Do you shop online? I am looking for one stop stores, because I rather receive all orders in one package than have each one mailed separately. Amazon and Ebay usually ship from different sellers.




I agree with you, but given that I saw what happened to cassette players, VCRs, and LaserDiscs...makes you wonder if DVD players will be there forever. Sony does not seem to be too enthusiastic about Blurays... I don't see many advancement in the players.
Click to expand...


DVD has been around since the mid-late 1990s. Players, burners and media are still being manufactured. Sony introduced new BluRay media back in fall of 2018 called BDXL. Samsung stopped producing BluRay players this year. Sony still makes Walkmen in an age where the smart phone has become a Swiss Army knife.
 
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