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Being dethroned by a modern day "Elvis" ? I don't know if something like an "Elvis" can happen nowadays, with the media landscape flooded with tons of music than ever.

(Going back further in time). Did this also hurt the laserdisc market? IIRC for some titles back in the early-mid 1990s, there were multiple different laserdisc versions such as Terminator 2 (ie. 4:3 fullscreen, 16:9 widescreen, etc ....).

A broken record or "groundhog day" being played repeatedly ! :drum:

(Going offtopic). My "good old days" never actually happened, when it came to cds, vhs, laserdisc, etc .... I grew up with a family that was moving constantly. So I ended up learning to not have much of anything, so that we didn't have to haul around tons of stuff cross country or over...

In the case of modern video games, some aspects have turned for the worst. Since everybody knows there can be huge patches which are applied automatically by modern "always online" consoles (or manually on the pc), nowadays game companies can get away with selling full price msrp preorders...

(On a huge tangent). There is only one case where discs are completely useless to me nowadays: video games. Back in the day, pc video games on cdrom or dvdrom discs were made such that the entire game was on the disc in a (almost) complete form. In those days, it was easy to find "no cd"...

In practice, I've found that the only times I actually cared legitimately about the picture/sound quality, were primarily scifi movies which I end up watching more than a dozen times. Mostly stuff like Star Wars, Blade Runner, etc ... For just about anything else, I've found that I don't...

I don't even bother with arrays of data drives anymore. Previously I have talked about my quasi-hometheater computer setup on other various threads on this message board. I mostly use my external hard drives as short or medium term storage (ie. less than 2 years or so), for rips of dvd disc...

My biggest beef is the storage issue. I never entirely trusted data storage which I don't have physical access to. Even with immediate physical access to data storage devices, in practice I've found that hard drives can die abruptly with no advanced notice. This is why I do multiple backups...

I'm guessing dvd and possibly generic 2K bluray released by third party companies (such Criterion, Kino, Mill Creek, etc ...), will end up becoming the "long tail" catering to the diminishing hardcore crowd. Less certain about 4Kbluray, other than for stuff like Marvel, Star Wars, etc ...

For content which resembles a "disposable commodity", it is stuff which I only watch once or twice and has no rewatch value for me afterward. I'm fine with paying a monthly subscriber fee for watch such "disposable" stuff. Though what is a "disposable commodity" varies from person to person...

I'm thinking the same. In the absence of ownership whether figuratively or literally, tv shows and movies will be "disposable commodities: to me.

A few nearby wallyworld locations are like this too, though primarily action and horror movies that nobody has heard of. (Not so much westerns). This is all year round. A lot of these "direct to video" releases look like they're handled by movie companies like Lionsgate, Cinedigm, WellGo, etc...

Drink beer. :)

For the most part. Unfortunate things have come this way, but not surprising. I first saw this widely when it came to computer software, and how the hardcore folks would just "collect" pilfered software for the sake of collecting it. Also for bragging rights amongst other hardcore software...

I actually pointed this out to him, thinking that I had a moral high ground (ie. buying actual dvds). He admitted outright it was pure piracy plain and simple. But he still didn't care, and just shrugged it off. :emoji_skull_crossbones:

Many years ago I came across somebody like this in my local social circles. Though not in the way you may think. This person was one of those guys who would cycle through dvd disc subscription services very quickly, frequently using two Netflix accounts (ie. another account under his wife's...

They don't make them like tanks anymore. Even in the case of bluray, it seems like the only "tanks" made were from Oppo. Otherwise everybody else seems to just sell junk that malfunctions a few years later, typically shortly after the warranty expires. ;) I wouldn't be surprised with soo...

When I was young, I do remember formats like 8-track, CED, beta, etc ..... which came and went. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc When I first heard about audio cds, I remember seeing some older relatives buying their music collections again. They even gave me some of...

Are you old enough to have seen the transition from 78rpm discs to vinyl records first hand ? :)

I recently made a preorder for a new title published by one of the above mentioned lousy academic publishers. That book finally arrived in the mail today. If I didn't know any better, it looks like the pages were printed up by a laserprinter and bound up into a hardback cover. Looks kinda...

Another thing I've noticed is that many of these large publishing conglomerates have been gradually shedding/downsizing their academic publishing, such as undergraduate/graduate level textbooks + monographs. For example, behemoths like Wiley, Pearson, etc ... only seem to still be interested...

I've noticed the best reprints which were obviously from scans, were titles reprinted by Cambridge University Press. The worse reprints done from obvious scans, were from lousy publishers like Elsevier, Springer Verlag, etc ... If I'm interested in new titles being published by any of these...

Even worse are the digital ebooks of older technical books (ie. before 2010), where all they did was just lousy scans. Really annoying stuff like plus signs "+" which were not scanned properly and end up looking like minus signs "-" etc ...

When it comes to highly technical type books with a lot of math equations, I still insist on buying the paper versions. For crappy mass market titles which I only end up reading once, I'm fine with reading the digital ebook versions. For example stuff like: Star Wars novels, rockstar...

I actually have to take off my glasses whenever I read a paper book, newspaper, etc ...

An artifact piece by today's standards? :) If one is musician, a grand piano would be still be usable with no electricity.

Paper also has a secondary (or tertiary) purpose of providing heating without excessively poisonous fumes. :) I would be somewhat reluctant to use cds, dvds, or blurays as tinder or "firewood". If one has ever tried burning plastic, you'll know all about the noxious fumes. ;)

The physical cd/dvd/bluray copy on the shelf eventually becomes useless too if electricity isn't available for a prolonged period of time. That battery can only last so long, unless one also has a gasoline power generator. Though when that gasoline finally runs out ..... :) In such a...

Most of the dvd-video patents have already expired, or will be soon. (Most of the remaining patents are related to burned dvd r/rw type discs + playback). So over the next several years, in principle anybody can manufacture a dvd player/drive without having to pay any dvd specific royalties...