I guess I’m in the minority as I was kind of glad to get rid of the CDs which I wasn’t listening to anymore.
I rarely watch the same thing over again. I find there’s some much stuff to watch these days, I couldn’t possibly watch it all.
I did digitize my CDs before giving them away which was hard to go as not many wanted them. This was just after Google Music took over Songza. I uploaded all my rips to GM then it was changed into YouTube Music and I’m not even sure how to access any of it now.
So I can see a world where the physical is important. Perhaps in the after times when things are being rebuilt again.
Physical is important now. A lot of the movies I watch just are not available on streaming services. You don’t notice they aren’t there because you don’t see them.
I know you see this as a “I like what I currently see, so it doesn’t matter” kind of equation, but it’s a real problem today.
It doesn’t help that the video quality of streaming is just not as good, too, so physical is preferable even in situations where things are available.
I don’t think I’m likely to ever go back to physical media, but I do maintain a collection of my own stuff on hard drives which is not something I can say for music any more. Fuck that reminds me, I probably need to dig out my dogma dvd and digitize that if it hasn’t already melted in my garage.
Maybe it’s a journey, I went away from physical media. Got mad, came running back. I’m tired of the streamers and their bullshit. Life is easier when you can buy something and you have it.
Great points. There are series I can’t stream that I’ve had to use alternative methods to view. Mr Belvedere and Parker Lewis isn’t on any streaming services. I’ve watched some pretty poor quality releases of them as a result and it’s tough to find the physical copies for these alone. I can’t imagine the rest that aren’t available. The worst is when digital copies purchased are not available due to changes in vendor rights in certain counties.
So I can see a world where the physical is important. Perhaps in the after times when things are being rebuilt again.
Physical media isn’t the ultimate format people like to make it out to be. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with digital media as long as it’s files on a hard drive. Honestly, it’s probably a better format for preservation than a disc that’s locked into whatever video format it was published in. In 1000 years, it’s pretty unlikely anyone will be able to read files from a DVD or Blu-Ray. But a file that’s been reformatted to keep up with modern technology? That’ll be useful.
CDs themselves only last 100 years at most. Hard drives also fail. There really isn’t a great solution for something permanent unless you are changing its form/format every so often
Hard drives fail more often than another computer component, at least the old-timey spinning hard drives. SSDs are better by far but I wouldn’t trust important files to any single hard drive for long term storage.
Optical discs don’t have that problem at all. They will be good as long as you keep them in a non-hot place out of bright lights. Heat and UV light and scratching are the enemies of optical discs, but they can all be avoided for as long as you care to keep them safe.
I think DRM free digital media is viable as well. A hard drive doesn’t have the lifespan of a blu-ray, but modern drives are good about warning of catastrophic failure, and I suspect most people that have digital media libraries migrate them to new storage as wanted/needed.
There’s something satisfying about physical media that digital lacks. I get that appeal. But I don’t think it’s superior for media preservation.
It’s depressing knowing you own a license to access the digital file you purchased but that contract can be withdrawn at any time.
Besides you cannot replicate the same authenticity by showing your film library to friends and family when you sit down and scroll through your digital purchases.
No one ever exclaims “by the power of greyskull!” when I show them my plex library. So sad.
In a post apocalyptic hellscape, my most valuable asset will be able to recite a famous film perfectly with voices and everything.
Won’t say which one. Let’s just say that
SOME-BODY ONCE TOLD ME …
In a Fahrenheit 451 sense, Holy Grail might be the most well preserved film for the future generations, given the level of storage redundancy.