739

It's sensible for businesses to shift from physical media sales. Per CNBC's calculations, DVD sales fell over 86 percent between 2008 and 2019. Research from the Motion Picture Association in 2021 found that physical media represented 8 percent of the home/mobile entertainment market in the US, falling behind digital (80 percent) and theatrical (12 percent).

But as physical media gets less lucrative and the shuttering of businesses makes optical discs harder to find, the streaming services that largely replaced them are getting aggravating and unreliable. And with the streaming industry becoming more competitive and profit-hungry than ever, you never know if the movie/show that most attracted you to a streaming service will still be available when you finally get a chance to sit down and watch. Even paid-for online libraries that were marketed as available "forever" have been ripped away from customers.

When someone buys or rents a DVD, they know exactly what content they're paying for and for how long they'll have it (assuming they take care of the physical media). They can also watch the content if the Internet goes out and be certain that they're getting uncompressed 4K resolution. DVD viewers are also less likely to be bombarded with ads whenever they pause and can get around an ad-riddled smart TV home screen (nothing's perfect; some DVDs have unskippable commercials).

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] spyd3r@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 months ago

DVD is for casuals, Laserdisc is where it's at.

load more comments (13 replies)
[-] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago

Per CNBC’s calculations…

🙋🏽‍♂️I found the problem!!!

[-] sgibson5150@slrpnk.net 8 points 4 months ago
[-] androogee@midwest.social 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

When corpos close the door, I pirate a window

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Toes@ani.social 6 points 4 months ago

I have a 4k BluRay player I picked up for cheap. But I only have like 2 movies for it.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The enshittification of streaming is enshittifitentional.

Major B&M retailers of physical media are either dead, dieing, or have phased out physical media.

What a perfect time to issue a deathknell to the whole concept physical ownership.

Streaming originals that disappear will come back in limited release. It'll basically be the Disney Vault of streaming. A company like Netflix would subtly drop references and nods to "removed" popular shows in their new shows to make you nostalgic for the old show. Then bring it back for a couple months.

You'll especially see them all fighting for the best Christmas specials, but they'll pull this shit with Stranger Things by the end of the decade. They expect people to plan-hop and will use limited releases and seasonal specials as their carrot.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

There's still the public library.

For now.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
739 points (97.7% liked)

Technology

59436 readers
1159 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS