HTF Members' opinions needed for an upcoming magazine article (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Hey Everyone!

A major industry magazine is looking for consumer quotes for their top retailers feature, which covers physical disc and transactional digital (rental or EST purchase).

I suggested that perhaps our members could help since all of you have been at the forefront of disc and digital purchasing.

If you would like to be part of this article, with a possible quote inclusion, please answer the questions below. Please avoid discussing the answers of others. I am trying to make it as easy as possible for all the answers in this thread to be compiled.


Here are the questions:

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?

AND/OR

How often do you purchase/rent titles (not watch them on streaming services) and why? Why do you like digital ownership?

 

[Johnny Angell]

I purchase physical discs far less often than I used to. I doubt that I will buy 10 titles this year. What I do like about physical discs is the availability of extras, those things like commentaries or making of docs.

I’m just beginning to get into digital ownership. Typically, when I spend money above my subscriptions, I want to own the title. This may be the first year that I buy for digital than physical.

Inflation has hit hard and we’ve really had to cut back of the luxuries of life.

 

[Sam Posten]

I remain an “and” not an “or”. For action films I generally demand highest quality 4K UHD physical media with True HD based Dolby Atmos and the director approved highest bit depth HDR based pixels. I supplement that with a lot of digital streams from Netflix, HBO, and Disney+, plus 4kHDR digital purchases from iTunes and Vudu.

Sticking to one over the other seems a recipe for pain and disappointment

 

[Kent K H]

I still buy quite a few discs, though my purchasing has gone down in recent months, not from a lack of desire, but for personal reasons and practical reasons that followed.

That said, I love having a library. I love having films, books and music all at my fingertips. Do I like the portability of digital files? Well, sure. That's why I love getting MP3s with records. But having my disc and having a Plex server is the best of both worlds, allowing me the feeling of ownership I love coupled with the flexibility of having my collection wherever and whenever I wish (and without the worry of having them snapped away by litigious copyright disputes, reactions to changing cultural tastes or other technical problems that will cause you to quickly realize how little you "own" something.)

 

[Thomas T]

1. I purchase physical discs on a regular basis. Being more in love with cinema than the technology, I still purchase DVDs when a blu ray option is not available and have no problem with that. Not all films need to be 4K presentations. I'm just as happy watching a B&W movie in mono sound with a few blemishes and scratches as watching a pristine mastered in 4K film with 7.1 sound. My tastes veer toward what is referred to as "classic" and foreign movies rather than DC, Marvel or Top Gun type films. I have a region free player which allows me access to hundreds more titles than I would have otherwise. I like having a physical film library ready at my fingertips. If I can't hold it in my hand, I don't own it.

2. I don't "purchase" titles on digital platforms ... ever. As I said, if I can't hold it in my hand, it's not mine.

 

[Capt D McMars]

1. I am continually on the search for movies, in a continual upgrading effort to aquire the best condtion copy of the films that I love. Concidering this all started with vhs, finding and searching is a persistent behavior, kind of like shark...if I'm not moving forward I die, LOL!! I love the ablitiy to access any of my titles directly without fear of digitally saved copies being lost in my computer. The Tactileness of a DVD or BD or 4K packaging aids in the pleasure of the experience, for me.
2. I may buy a rental to see a film if it's not available by aulternate means, if I'm not familuer with a movie but has reviewed qualifing reviews. In order to qualify it for future purchase. For the most part digital files off disc are like NFTs to me!!

 

[Alan Tully]

1/ It's still a novelty to me that I can actually own a film, have a shelf-full of movies & not just books about movies, quite magical really. I buy a lot less discs that I used to, I'm not interested in that many new films, & it can be a couple of months between purchases of older catalogue titles if I don't fancy what's released.

 

[titch]

1) I purchase about 15 blu-ray and 4K UHD discs a month. Quite a few of the purchases are titles with upgraded transfers from previous releases. i have been collecting movies since the mid 1980's. I have always wanted to have a cinema experience at home, with the widest possible choice of movies. There has generally been a greater selection of movies I want on physical media, compared to rental. The quality of purchased physical media is usually superior to rental - either picture, sound or supplemental material. Since the introduction of 4K UHD and 4K projection, the experience of watching a film at home on large screen, is often equal to, or superior than the experience of seeing a film in a cinema.

2) I very rarely purchase digital titles. I only do that, if the title is not available on a physical disc and I want to watch it, without waiting for a physical media release. I have probably purchased less than ten digital titles.

 

[John Dirk]

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?
I purchase an average of 10 discs per year. I prefer physical media because I believe it effectively removes considerations of Internet bandwidth and streaming limitations or restrictions from the equation, thus delivering the best possible reproduction of the original material to the consumer. Additionally, once you own a physical copy, it cannot be altered for various reasons as we have seen on some occasions with streaming platforms.

How often do you purchase/rent titles (not watch them on streaming services) and why? Why do you like digital ownership?
I have never intentionally purchased a digital copy or rented a title. When they are inadvertently included with disc purchases I do not bother redeeming them. I am not a fan of digital ownership.

 

[YANG]

I remain an “and” not an “or”. For action films I generally demand highest quality 4K UHD physical media with True HD based Dolby Atmos and the director approved highest bit depth HDR based pixels. I supplement that with a lot of digital streams from Netflix, HBO, and Disney+, plus 4kHDR digital purchases from iTunes and Vudu.

Sticking to one over the other seems a recipe for pain and disappointment

yes... military theme, action adventure theme on 4K UHD for me as well! however, on getting close as WS2.35~wider picture height detail qualities, WS1.77~shorter height movies, limited @ 2.0, 2K FHD discs is sufficient for my eyes. as these will be played either with window frame on my large screen TV, 4K wider screen pics gets edge to edge spread across the screen.

 

[Kyle_D]

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?

I purchase about 50-60 discs a year. I have several main reasons for preferring discs to digital:

• The AV quality on discs is still generally superior to streaming presentations. The quality of streaming has increased significantly in recent years, but streaming video is still more compressed than disc-delivered video, and the compression algorithms still have a difficult time accurately rendering grain on older titles. I tend to watch a lot of older, grainer titles that benefit from less compression. Also, disc-based audio is generally losslessly compressed, whereas streaming audio uses lossy compression. When played on a large, calibrated video display with a proper surround sound audio system, the differences are still noticeable, albeit subtle.
• With discs, playback isn't susceptible to bandwidth limitations of my internet connection or the streaming provider. Even though I pay for a gigabit internet connection--which is plenty for streaming--I occasionally still encounter issues where my stream becomes pixelated or drops entirely due to bandwidth congestion. This isn't an issue with discs.
• With discs, I buy peace of mind that my purchase will be accessible to me forever, in the AV presentation that I purchased. If I buy a title from a streaming provider, I worry that the streaming provider will go out of business, that the studio will pull my purchase from circulation, or that the studio replace the version I purchased with an inferior version. Case in point: the 2007 restoration of the Godfather--which was approved by the cinematographer--is far superior to the recent 2022 "restoration," which is "pretty" but significantly deviates from the well-documented intended visual design of the film and, in my opinion, neuters the famously distinctive look of the film. Unfortunately, the 2022 version is the only version currently available on streaming. If I had bought the Godfather on streaming, the wonderful 2007 restoration would no longer be available to me. I own the discs, however, so the 2007 restoration will be available to me forever.
• With a little elbow grease and tech-know-how, discs are just as flexible as streaming and allow me to indulge my inner tech nerd. I currently back-up all of my discs to a home server, and I can access all of my titles on the server from anywhere in the world using Plex and/or a VPN. (Sidenote: the back-up process is actually easier and takes less time at the keyboard than redeeming those digital copy codes included with discs.) I actually don't even have a disc-player connected to my main AV system because I can watch everything off the server through my AppleTV. So, when I want to watch I movie, I don't need to get off the couch, search for the disc, and pop it in the drive. I can just scroll to the movie on my AppleTV and start playback of the movie instantly, without any of the traditional disc annoyances like FBI warnings, forced trailers, overlong menu animations, etc. I get all the convenience of streaming with none of the downsides.
• I just like owning a physical collection.

 

[DaveF]

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?

I buy maybe ten discs a year.

Older movies, “classics” from my youth, and non-franchise / non-blockbusters aren’t readily available on streaming services, so I buy those to enjoy again or anew.

Streaming services don’t understand special features, so I buy movies on discs to get great special features, particularly commentaries.

Some streaming services charge extra for 4K or require me to have specific hardware to get the Atmos soundtrack. I buy discs to ensure I’m getting the full experience when a streaming service would otherwise prevent me from enjoying it.

How often do you purchase/rent titles (not watch them on streaming services) and why? Why do you like digital ownership?
I rarely do digital rentals or buy purely digital purchases. So much stuff is on streaming subscriptions, and I subscribe to most of the services, so renting rarely makes sense. I just wait a couple weeks and the movie will be part of what I’m already paying for.

When I buy physical discs, getting a package that comes with a digital code is important. I want my physical purchases to carry into the streaming future.

Streaming is so much easier than physical discs and disc players. Sit back, review the entire library of options from the leather recliner, and pick what to watch. Maybe binge half a season. No getting up. No sideways, crook-neck reviewing of disc spines, no changing discs in the player. No forced ads or being scolded by FBI warnings for having bought the disc. Just sit back and enjoy.

 

[JohnRice]

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?

These days I typically buy about 20-30 movies per year on disc, which is down significantly from the past. It's mostly reserved for my favorite movies that have had a significant restoration or movies where I want the best possible audio/video reproduction. I've never been very interested in extras, so that just doesn't factor into it for me.


How often do you purchase/rent titles (not watch them on streaming services) and why? Why do you like digital ownership?

I've gotten to the point where I buy a lot more streaming versions of movies. Probably about 50 per year. Partly because I've sort of hit the saturation point of discs I need to make room for, but mostly because there are a lot of excellent movies that had only been released on DVD and are unlikely to ever have an HD version available on a physical format. I recently looked through the 300+ titles I own streaming versions of and estimated that 100 of them would never be available in high definition on disc, but are in streaming versions. That includes a lot of all-time favorites that have small commercial appeal, so buying streaming versions is likely the only way to have something superior to an old DVD release. Most of the rest I was able to buy on sale for a low price that was worth it even if I only watch them once. And they don't take up any space.

 

[Bob Graham]

I buy discs weekly. Part of it is liking the idea of owning a movie, of curating a collection. I've always loved those scenes in movies where a person walks into a room that is a personal library, stacked from floor to ceiling with so many books that you need a rolling ladder to access them. That's what I'd like to do with my collection, but space doesn't permit. Some of the things I like about physical media are things that are not available on streaming; particularly special features and 3D presentations.

I grew up loving movies, and I remember a time when actually owning a physical copy of a film was unheard of. When I was a kid in the 50s, a movie came to town, and you had a week-sometimes less- to catch it. If you missed it, maybe it would come to TV in 2 or 3 years. The closest you could get to owning a movie was the 8mm Castle film condensations. Owning a movie was as far-fetched as talking and viewing someone in real time on the phone.

Most of the digital copies I have, came with the physical copies I bought. Nevertheless, I do purchase digital copies on occasion. Typically, this will be a situation where I can buy a copy of a favorite movie for $5 or less. Sometimes, I will buy a digital copy of a movie when I have the DVD, but it is not available on Blu-Ray. The streaming copy becomes the only way to watch in higher definition. For instance, I'm thinking about Will Penny with Charlton Heston. Right now, it's only available on DVD, but I think Vudu has an HDX version. If that's the case, then I'll probably buy the HDX version. If I buy the HDX streaming version, I probably won't upgrade to Blu-Ray if it is eventually issued on that format.

Otherwise, I use streaming to audition films for purchase. Especially in the case of Criterion releases which tend to be more expensive.

 

[jcroy]

1 - As to why I still buy cd/dvd/bluray discs, it is purely inertia on my part and related to OCD (obsessive compulsive) + hoarding type reasons. As an secondary byproduct of this (unrelated to watching actual movies/shows), I found I really like ripping discs to the computer and deciphering the technical details of cd/dvd/bluray discs.

2 - No downloads. I rather just subscribe to a monthly flat rate vod streaming service. I do not want to be wasting time + cash on external computer hard drives, and dealing with all the vagarities of long term magnetomechanical data storage issues.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Here are the questions:

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?

How often?

I usually purchase discs once or twice a month, sometimes more, and often in orders of multiple discs at a time.

Why do I like them?

I like physical media for the high quality of picture/sound and, for some of the bonus features often included, such as audio commentary tracks, trailers, interviews, etc. I like the ability to buy and own discs from other parts of the world, when they offer programming not available in the U.S. because of licensing issues and/or lack of interest.

Most importantly of all, I like discs for the ability to control what I watch and how I watch it, for years into the future, without the intrusion of a streaming service determining what I have access to and when, all the while with a subscription's meter running.

When I buy a disc, there are no further charges after point of sale; the programming won't be dropped because a licensing contract expired, or the film/show isn't getting enough views, or that it has somehow sparked controversy on social media and then in the news cycle, and is thus made unavailable. I can buy physical media discounted during sales and buy used discs on eBay, yard sales, etc, if they are otherwise out-of-print.

Unlike a streaming service, I'm not paying a constant fee, whether I watch something within a certain time-frame or not, and there's no push to suddenly binge-watch something that is announced to be dropped within a week or a month, at most. Discs don't try to micro-manage my viewing experience, by trying to rush me to immediately start watching the next thing, when the end credits start to roll, or limit/control the way I order my viewing queue.

Beyond popular favorites, I own many films and TV series that are no longer offered on the major streaming services, or never were in the first place, and likely will never be available there. My collection is tailored to my specific and very eclectic tastes, so is better than any streaming service could realistically ever be, for me. Even the junky stuff I own is interesting junk that I enjoy, rather than the endless filler I have to wade through when browsing Netflix or Amazon Prime.

 

[Douglas R]

1
I buy about 100 Blu-ray discs a year. I like having the physical product because I enjoy the pride in ownership of a large film collection; many being acknowledged classics; the vast majority being from pre 1970 with numerous extras to aid appreciation of the film and available to me to watch whenever I want. A personal film history collection.

2
I have no interest in digital services.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?

I now purchase maybe 10 discs a year, all 4k/UHD. I like additional features: documentaries, commentaries, extended versions, etc. I used to purchase 60-75 a year but found that I was running out of storage space and when I had time to watch a movie it was usually on the go where I didn't have access to an optical disc player. We subscribe to multiple streaming services so I can now access films on-demand as part of those subscriptions.

How often do you purchase/rent titles (not watch them on streaming services) and why? Why do you like digital ownership?

While I recognize the audio/video quality on streamed titles is not as good as Blu-ray or HUD, I purchase digital titles several times a month, both new releases and catalog titles, movies and TV shows. I have been actively replacing some discs (both movies and TV shows with digital copies to free up shelf space. I have wish lists with Vudu and Apple and when catalog titles I want go on sale for less than $5 I will purchase them. I like digital ownership as you usually get the movie earlier, they now come with a lot of the same special features the discs do, and I can watch them anytime/anywhere. I have even started lending them via Movies Anywhere Screen Pass.

 

[Ernest]

I purchase movies and series on Blu-ray/DVD because I like to binge watch along with the freedom owning provides. As an example recently watched all 5 seasons of The Last Kingdom and will do the same next week when season 5 of Gomorrah is released. Before Covid I would buy 5 - 10 movies/series a month. Now with the slowdown in movies being released I buy half of what I was previously buying. The only streaming I watch is You Tube. Couples building their off grid dream homes, plumbers, mechanics, electricians performing all types of repair work. I have no interest in watching movies/series on streaming and with all the titles I own never will.

 

[YANG]

i’ve been a member to this forum for numbers of years sometime close to end 90s. close to 25yrs of home video buying and collection, as well as developing on other love on other hobbyist items, I've had build up a rough 200+ DVD titles and recently just began to step on blurays either on FHD or UHD releases.
so, being a non streaming media subscriber and not considering to be one, i guess i am limited answer just one of the question here...

How often do you purchase physical discs and why do you like them?
due to shrinkage of disposable income and commitment to other interests, my physical media discs purchase had been in average of 3 discs on new movies in the last 6~7yrs in DVD format. stepping into blurays starts from the beginning of this year mostly on titles i had on DVD as a replacement to those that had damaged due to disc rot, with new titles on bluray at the rate of 5 titles per month... which may consider as gradually slow, but i foresee that will continue to grow by 3X when my new apartment is complete.