Streaming vs. physical media

[mharrington]

I've heard many things about the virtues of physical media (such as DVDs or Blu-Rays) vs. streaming. For example, I know that content on streaming will often be pulled, usually because of licensing issues. But don't they also pull physical media from the store shelves, too, after a certain amount of time? And isn't it possible that after you buy and thereby own the physical media, that can be taken away from your collection as well?

One reason I ask is because I remember one time years ago (long before streaming was even a thing and we were still using VHS tapes), we went out for a while, and when we came back, our house was broken into, and many things were taken away! Among the items taken was my Super Nintendo (which actually didn't belong to me, but to my grandmother who was letting me borrow it for a while) and all the games that came with it! Those were all physical copies, but they still got pulled!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I've started buying digital copies for this reason. I play PC games and primarily buy from Steam. I buy movies through various providers and then connect them through Movies Anywhere so if one provider loses access, I still have it from three others. Even if I buy a physical copy, I make sure it includes a digital copy, though lately I'm too lazy to actually go put the physical copy into the player and would rather just push play from my device and cast to the TV.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I'm confused. You're trying to compare you being robbed with a company physically coming into your house and taking your physical media?

Once you have a physical media you own it and it will not be "pulled". Its possible that if you wear it out you may not find another physical copy years later because no not all movies are in constant circulation but its much more likely that you could find a second hand physical copy (ex: I have a super nintendo and tons of games but I'm not selling it to you). I'd argue its much more difficult to obtain a copy of a pulled streaming media unless someone downloaded and saved a copy of it.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I never looked into this, but like we historically did for music, I would love to have all my physical media (music. movies, games) and then rip that media on to a server and be able to access any of that that on demand.

I assume this solution already exists somewhere?

 

[trr1]

I use VUDU

Spoiler

Vudu is an American digital video store and streaming service owned by Fandango Media, a joint-venture between NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. The company offers transactional video on demand rentals and digital purchases of films, as well as integration with digital locker services for streaming digital copies of films purchased as home video at retail.

to purchase movie that I want to own
Vudu requires users to register, but there is no charge for membership. They offer only streaming, but users are required to either rent or buy videos. For rentals, movies run from 99 cents to $5.99. Movies for purchase are from $4.99 to $24.99. they also have movies and tv shows you can watch for free

 

[mharrington]

I'm confused. You're trying to compare you being robbed with a company physically coming into your house and taking your physical media?

Both involve taking something away from you, usually without notice.

 

[mharrington]

There was also the issue of when they announce that they're going to pull their physical media, as Disney in particular has been wont to do, and kind of shaming people for not buying when they had the chance. Disney did this all the time, as this video shows:


People have argued that it's cheaper to buy physical media than to use streaming. But when something goes out of print, it becomes a lot more expensive, say, $50-$100 to buy it. So how can physical media be cheaper if it's so expensive?

Also, when they announce that they're going to pull the media after a certain day, don't they pull the stuff that doesn't sell off the shelves and throw them away? I was under the impression that they did.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

People have argued that it's cheaper to buy physical media than to use streaming. But when something goes out of print, it becomes a lot more expensive, say, $50-$100 to buy it. So how can physical media be cheaper if it's so expensive?

Realistically how many movies are you interested in that are only available in expensive OOP editions? Most mainstream movies are guaranteed to always be in print, in some form, because of their popularity and be relatively inexpensive.

 

[mharrington]

Realistically how many movies are you interested in that are only available in expensive OOP editions? Most mainstream movies are guaranteed to always be in print, in some form, because of their popularity and be relatively inexpensive.

I'll give you two examples, both of which are long out of print. First, I'm hunting for a VERY out-of-print and often VERY pricey DVD called "Mickey Mouse In Living Color":


On eBay, it can run as low as $20, if I'm lucky, or as much $60-$100. And forget about Amazon, as it is $103 there. How is that less expensive than streaming?

The second example is a Blu-Ray release of "Pee-wee's Playhouse":


It's not just out of print, but on eBay, it can run upwards of a whopping $100 at absolute minimum! More often, it's more than $200!

The ads make it seem as though once the out-of-print date shows up, they will literally pull all remaining copies from the store shelves. So yeah, they will be out of print, at least until they decide to re-release it again years later. In the meantime, the prices will go up. This sample ad's wording indicates as such:


Here's another example of an ad whose words appear to indicate that they all taking away any copies that don't sell after, in this case, January 31, 2007:


The ads seem to indicate that once they're gone, they're gone, at least until they decide to reissue them again. And in the meantime, they go out of print and become hard to find anywhere except online, where they are more expensive.