Did people really watch movies/shows on DVDs that forced them to watch ads before even starting? Like you go to the store and pay for a movie disc and when you go home you have to sit through like 10 minutes of ads. Did people really have to watch ads before they could even watch the movie they paid for a copy of?!
๐๐๐๐จ ๐ฟ๐๐จ๐ฃ๐๐ฎ ๐ฟ๐๐ฟ ๐๐จ ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐จ๐ฃ๐๐ฎโ๐จ ๐๐๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ก๐๐ฎ. ๐๐ค๐ช๐ง ๐ข๐ค๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ ๐จ๐๐ก๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ ๐ค๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ช๐จ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐ฉ๐ค๐ข๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก๐ก๐ฎ. ๐๐ค ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐๐จ๐จ ๐๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ก๐๐ฎ, ๐จ๐๐ก๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ช ๐๐ช๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ค๐ฃ ๐๐ฉ ๐๐ฃ๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐๐ข๐. ๐๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ก๐๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฃ ๐ ๐ข๐ค๐ข๐๐ฃ๐ฉโฆ
Even on VHS there were ads (you could fast-forward through them though), and Blu-Ray also has ads despite being a "more modern" standard (it's not it's just HD-DVD with a different branding). Also you can't even use the disc without paying for a special disc reader that reads that shit for you (tbf a lot of devices came with a disc reader, but it still persisted despite the fact that USB storage was far cheaper and more efficient). You'd also have to navigate the terribly slow menus just to get to the part you were at.
Also if you buy a DVD/Blu-Ray whatever the fuck they call it nowadays in one part of the world and you travel to another, say you have family that lives in one country and you live in another, you can't play that disc because it's "region-locked."
Ok maybe it's region locked because different countries probably use different displays/standards or whatnot. NO! It's region locked for NO MATERIAL REASON besides "ensuring copyright distribution of the holder". This is even more mind-boggling for "blu-ray" the supposedly new format.
Also most Blu-Rays don't even come with all the goodies that normal DVDs had like behind the scenes/deleted scenes etc, so it's not like Blu-Rays have any other advantage besides being incompatible with your dvd player. "Just buy a PS3" yes I will buy the SONY product to play movies on a disc also created by SONY.
How is it considered physical media when the devices to play it are not being sold anymore? I'm sure there are a lot of Sony walkmans being sold nowadays. I can totally pick up a VHS player right now at the store and enjoy my treasure trove of vhs tapes that haven't already withered to dust.
People older than me (I was born after Al Gore lost the election) are having nostalgia for the "age of physical media" when really it was an age of physical bullshit compared to streaming bullshit. It's always capitalism, capitalism will burn down all art if it means that someone didn't get to skip paying for it. Here's what I say, just pay a couple a dollars a month for a VPN with port-forwarding and just torrent all your media. Your torrented file has done more for media preservation and archival then any DVD bullshit ever did. The only use for physical media is to digitize it and share it.
The bootlegged Cinderella movie sold in the Global South has done more for media preservation than Disney ever has. A seedbox in Russia is more of a art library compared to any video store.
Don't get me started on video games. Where every generation of devices there's a new standard and new way to do things. Nothing says media preservation like buying a disc from a store and then waiting an hour for your device to download updates online.
You just made me imagine a world where you buy a blu-ray and it downloads an update to the movie, changing the ending. A vile thought.
I think the real challenge of media preservation is the fact that every high-capacity storage medium decays far too quickly. Indeed even if capitalism didn't require the nonsense like region blocking, there would still be no incentive to not only keep the same formats, but also continually make perfect copies of original masters. To that end it becomes the peoples' duty to get the highest quality available and use technology like torrenting to constantly keep a version in circulation.
But even then, it's quite likely that the media will be lost to time eventually. Unless we start drilling the compressed binary into stone.
I'm sure they're already doing this live on streamed media, but with how much they love engineering malware they could probably do this as well.
Shadow libraries are the only way that capitalist hegemony over human creation is thwarted. More people should be aware of P2P and less on being a Good(TM) person.
If selling discs weren't profitable then they still wouldn't do it in 2024 for new movies, there are enough people earnestly buying them and the myth of preservability.