Wishing CBS Would Start A CBS Archive MOD (1 Viewer)

[derosa]

What collector wants downloads? All that is is renting. People are so stupid they would take convenience over ownership.

Forget that nonsense. That's why I detest eBooks. You don't own anything.

I'll take downloads, and I can assure you I am very much a completist collector.
It makes zero difference to me if the show is a digital file on my hard drive or on a disc.
(actually, these days i've been watching shows on my iPad, shared from my laptop,
and prefer this to being restricted to the DVD player.)

Downloads aren't renting any more than a dvd is renting. Maybe you're confused with streaming,
or technologically inexperienced, but I can burn a download file to a disc any time I want.

 

[derosa]

The Love Boat had all season remastered, but yet only two season released, I think they learned from this not to remaster until you know what your return is going to be. Since then it appears they remaster one season at a time, release the season, and re-evaluate for the next year so that they can try and maximize what comes in.

Only the first 7 seasons have been remastered. To your earlier point, the reason CBS
has invested in them is to syndicate the shows for TV, in this case mainly in Europe,
where has several countries have recently aired the first 7 seasons, but not 8 or 9.

 

[Ron1973]

Best post I've seen in a long time. Problem is, there is no such thing as collectors any more amongst young people. All they care about is watching or listening to something and they couldn't care less about owning it. They'd rather hear a poorer quality MP3 than buy a CD or LP. And don't get me started on people watching things on their 2 inch screen on their phones.

Neil, my friend, come off the high horse! At 40 I probably no longer fit into the definition of "young people" but I would like to point out a few things.

Not all mp3's are "poorer quality." Even at that, why would I buy a whole CD if there's only one song I want from it? I often buy LP's and 8-tracks at the flea market and if I discover I like the whole thing, I'll try to find it on CD. I'm really, REALLY wanting the Bear Family sets on Dean Martin covering the Reprise years; sadly, all I can afford right now are my flea market finds.

You also took those who stream to task. I pay $10/mth for Netflix and have the ability to watch a huge variety of shows. Generally when I'm through with a series I don't revisit it unless it's something I love (The Beverly Hillbillies is a prime example). Unless I can find a huge bargain on something, I would rather stream it. The picture quality of Netflix outdoes anything my DVD player can offer.

 

[LeoA]

He's right, most people place convenience above everything else and it's only increasing as time goes by. Media is certainly not immune. To most people under the age of 30, it seems like actually having a physical item with their video, music, or game on it is a detriment rather than a benefit since they don't value the physical item and the control that goes with it.

Digital has its place even for the collector though. It's a supplement that is better than nothing (Such as because of financial constraints) and sometimes it's the best we have. Quite a few nice videogames over the better part of the past decade have only been digitally distributed, there are shows like the later remastered seasons of The Love Boat that haven't seen official DVD release, etc.

But for a sadly large proportion of society, they're perfectly happy not owning it and leaving everything up to the whims of the constantly changing corporate world.

 

[revgen]

I don't mind streaming services like Netflix or Warner Instant, since they're basically like TV channels, except you actually control which programs you want to watch.

If Wal-Mart/Vudu actually could allow me to burn one of their step-below-blu-ray ultraviolet movies to an inferior BD-R disc, then I'd seriously consider it as an option even despite the inferior quality of the product. Physical ownership is that important to me. If I can own the physical disc, then I can sell it or trade it if I want to. If gives me financial flexibility. It may not be convenient as far having to put the disc into the player, but at least I know it's my disc. That peace of mind is worth a minor inconvenience.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

To most people under the age of 30, it seems like actually having a physical item with their video, music, or game on it is a detriment rather than a benefit since they don't value the physical item and the control that goes with it.

I think some of that may come from different backgrounds - when I was a kid, my viewing choices were limited to a) what my rabbit ears could pull in (my parents didn't have cable, and we barely got broadcast), b) what was playing at the movie theater (still a limited option because getting rides to the theater wasn't usually practical), and c) what the local video store had. I was into ownership from an early age with movie collecting because, if I didn't physically own a tape of it, there was a good chance I might not be able to see it... for days, weeks, years, maybe ever. I had a passion for movies, time to watch movies, but not a lot of opportunity to actually get my hands on movies. It was even more extreme for television shows - if I missed it, that was pretty much it. Maybe a broadcast network would rerun the episode I missed over the summer, and if a show was a huge hit, maybe the episodes would go into syndication a few years later... but if I just forgot to set the VCR the night before? That was that.

For younger people growing up today, there's simply a different reality out there. DVD has been around for over a decade. DVD changed the viewing universe in so many ways. Cable television is much more widespread, and both the sheer amount of channels and the ease of DVR viewing, not to mention the various legal webservices, means that an episode of a TV show is almost never truly "gone" in a way it seemed to be twenty years ago.

I agree that the younger generation doesn't seem as into physical media collections (be it books, music, movies, tv shows) as older ones do, and I think at least part of that is because they don't see ownership the same way we do. As I mentioned above, I grew up in that background of, "If this is something I enjoy and I want to see it again, it's on me to do something about that now to make sure I can continue to have access to it." People today grow up in the context of "Anything I want, I can have it at the touch of a button" - I mean, it's like Star Trek kind of futuristic. The concept of ownership has changed, and I'm not even sure that some younger people even understand completely that there's no inherent "right" that we've been given to have a certain title at a certain time. When I speak to my younger brother's group of friends, or younger colleages at work, the attitude is that they'll check Netflix streaming or OnDemand on their cable box, and if the movie they want to see there, they'll watch it, and if it's not, they'll just find some website to download it from, and it doesn't register to them as "piracy" or "stealing". Some of these people don't understand why I collect these space-filling things when I could have it at the touch of a button. They've never had to live in the old-fashioned analog world. They never had to rely on what was on their shelf at home because there was nothing coming in on the TV antenna. Same way they never got sold out of a show at the movies and had to wait until the next weekend to get in; they've never lived in a world where there weren't 20 different screens at each theater with showtimes starting every half hour.

I'm in love with physical media, but even with those strong feelings, I've come to embrace all of the different options available today. (When we live in a time where most movie theaters are showing stuff off of hard drives and not film prints, it's hard for me to not be open to a similar concept at home.) I've noticed that I almost never rent or borrow physical discs from stores or friends anymore - if I'm interested in seeing something but not blind-buy interested, I'm much more likely to stream a movie than go out to rent a disc. And as much as I like reading books on actual paper, I've discovered it's nice to pack for a vacation or even the daily commute to work, and have a small Kindle that can hold lots of books and fit in my jacket pocket, rather than carrying a backpack with six different books. So I think there's a place for all of this, and I'd like to think there's a future where my bookshelf and Blu-ray collection can peacefully co-exist with my Kindle and Roku. I like best of all when I can buy a disc, and get digital copies included as a way of complimenting that purchase.

When we talk about ownership of physical media, the thing that sometimes is left from the discussion is that your ownership applies only to that one particular copy of the item. I agree that digital "ownership" does leave something to be desired in confusing terms of service and questions on how long access is guaranteed. However, that said, if I lose a disc, if I loan something out and it doesn't get returned, if the disc goes bad or is damaged, that's the end of my ownership. You can't call Warner or Paramount or anyone else and say "Hey, so I used to own this movie, and I can't seem to find it, but I swear I paid $20 for it -- just send me another one, will you?" (Fortunately I don't lose or break a lot of stuff, so it's not a frequent issue, but the potential is always there.) If you own a Blu-ray and want to watch it with a friend, but you left it back at your house, you can't walk into the local store and say "Hey, I already paid for this, so I'm gonna just grab an extra off the shelf and take it, thanks!" One of the nice perks of digital "ownership" is that my ownership isn't of one specific copy of one specific feature, it's of a license to view that film - so if my digital file gets corrupted, if I'm at a friend's house and I decide I want to see a movie I don't have with me, I've still got access to the movie. Is that worth as much as a physical copy? Should it be? I'm not sure. But it's hard to deny that there isn't some form of value there.

I still get excited opening the shrinkwrap on a new disc, or buying a ticket to a screening of a 35mm print of a classic film. On the other hand, there's something really cool about being home alone late night or on the weekend, feeling like watching something, and knowing that even though the local movie theater and big box stores are closed for the night, even though the video store went out of business a year ago, that I can still watch a movie that I don't own and don't have a physical copy of, all on a whim.

(Sorry, this got a little more long-winded than I intended!)

 

[Frank Soyke]

Neil, my friend, come off the high horse! At 40 I probably no longer fit into the definition of "young people" but I would like to point out a few things.

Not all mp3's are "poorer quality." Even at that, why would I buy a whole CD if there's only one song I want from it? I often buy LP's and 8-tracks at the flea market and if I discover I like the whole thing, I'll try to find it on CD. I'm really, REALLY wanting the Bear Family sets on Dean Martin covering the Reprise years; sadly, all I can afford right now are my flea market finds.

You also took those who stream to task. I pay $10/mth for Netflix and have the ability to watch a huge variety of shows. Generally when I'm through with a series I don't revisit it unless it's something I love (The Beverly Hillbillies is a prime example). Unless I can find a huge bargain on something, I would rather stream it. The picture quality of Netflix outdoes anything my DVD player can offer.

I agree with Neil on this one. As an example (and I know I'm dating myself here), I wasn't so thrilled as everybody else was when CD's made vinyl obsolete in the late 80's. Sure the music sounded great, but there was nothing like the smell of a new record, the liner notes, the artwork. It was all part of the entire listening experience for me, and CD's made that obsolete. It's the same for me with streaming. Sure, it's convenient, but I personally would rather pull my copy of Mannix Season 7 off the shelf and enjoy the artwork and the series descriptions, etc. Maybe, I'm just a function of another generation.

 

[JMFabianoRPL]

Because Paramount doesn't control any of it's old TV properties anymore - when Paramount/CBS split, CBS got ALL the TV properties - CBS,Viacom,Paramount and Spelling.

Unfortunately...

 

[cwilli]

I think some of that may come from different backgrounds - when I was a kid, my viewing choices were limited to a) what my rabbit ears could pull in (my parents didn't have cable, and we barely got broadcast), b) what was playing at the movie theater (still a limited option because getting rides to the theater wasn't usually practical), and c) what the local video store had. I was into ownership from an early age with movie collecting because, if I didn't physically own a tape of it, there was a good chance I might not be able to see it... for days, weeks, years, maybe ever. I had a passion for movies, time to watch movies, but not a lot of opportunity to actually get my hands on movies. It was even more extreme for television shows - if I missed it, that was pretty much it. Maybe a broadcast network would rerun the episode I missed over the summer, and if a show was a huge hit, maybe the episodes would go into syndication a few years later... but if I just forgot to set the VCR the night before? That was that.

For younger people growing up today, there's simply a different reality out there. DVD has been around for over a decade. DVD changed the viewing universe in so many ways. Cable television is much more widespread, and both the sheer amount of channels and the ease of DVR viewing, not to mention the various legal webservices, means that an episode of a TV show is almost never truly "gone" in a way it seemed to be twenty years ago.

I agree that the younger generation doesn't seem as into physical media collections (be it books, music, movies, tv shows) as older ones do, and I think at least part of that is because they don't see ownership the same way we do. As I mentioned above, I grew up in that background of, "If this is something I enjoy and I want to see it again, it's on me to do something about that now to make sure I can continue to have access to it." People today grow up in the context of "Anything I want, I can have it at the touch of a button" - I mean, it's like Star Trek kind of futuristic. The concept of ownership has changed, and I'm not even sure that some younger people even understand completely that there's no inherent "right" that we've been given to have a certain title at a certain time. When I speak to my younger brother's group of friends, or younger colleages at work, the attitude is that they'll check Netflix streaming or OnDemand on their cable box, and if the movie they want to see there, they'll watch it, and if it's not, they'll just find some website to download it from, and it doesn't register to them as "piracy" or "stealing". Some of these people don't understand why I collect these space-filling things when I could have it at the touch of a button. They've never had to live in the old-fashioned analog world. They never had to rely on what was on their shelf at home because there was nothing coming in on the TV antenna. Same way they never got sold out of a show at the movies and had to wait until the next weekend to get in; they've never lived in a world where there weren't 20 different screens at each theater with showtimes starting every half hour.

I'm in love with physical media, but even with those strong feelings, I've come to embrace all of the different options available today. (When we live in a time where most movie theaters are showing stuff off of hard drives and not film prints, it's hard for me to not be open to a similar concept at home.) I've noticed that I almost never rent or borrow physical discs from stores or friends anymore - if I'm interested in seeing something but not blind-buy interested, I'm much more likely to stream a movie than go out to rent a disc. And as much as I like reading books on actual paper, I've discovered it's nice to pack for a vacation or even the daily commute to work, and have a small Kindle that can hold lots of books and fit in my jacket pocket, rather than carrying a backpack with six different books. So I think there's a place for all of this, and I'd like to think there's a future where my bookshelf and Blu-ray collection can peacefully co-exist with my Kindle and Roku. I like best of all when I can buy a disc, and get digital copies included as a way of complimenting that purchase.

When we talk about ownership of physical media, the thing that sometimes is left from the discussion is that your ownership applies only to that one particular copy of the item. I agree that digital "ownership" does leave something to be desired in confusing terms of service and questions on how long access is guaranteed. However, that said, if I lose a disc, if I loan something out and it doesn't get returned, if the disc goes bad or is damaged, that's the end of my ownership. You can't call Warner or Paramount or anyone else and say "Hey, so I used to own this movie, and I can't seem to find it, but I swear I paid $20 for it -- just send me another one, will you?" (Fortunately I don't lose or break a lot of stuff, so it's not a frequent issue, but the potential is always there.) If you own a Blu-ray and want to watch it with a friend, but you left it back at your house, you can't walk into the local store and say "Hey, I already paid for this, so I'm gonna just grab an extra off the shelf and take it, thanks!" One of the nice perks of digital "ownership" is that my ownership isn't of one specific copy of one specific feature, it's of a license to view that film - so if my digital file gets corrupted, if I'm at a friend's house and I decide I want to see a movie I don't have with me, I've still got access to the movie. Is that worth as much as a physical copy? Should it be? I'm not sure. But it's hard to deny that there isn't some form of value there.

I still get excited opening the shrinkwrap on a new disc, or buying a ticket to a screening of a 35mm print of a classic film. On the other hand, there's something really cool about being home alone late night or on the weekend, feeling like watching something, and knowing that even though the local movie theater and big box stores are closed for the night, even though the video store went out of business a year ago, that I can still watch a movie that I don't own and don't have a physical copy of, all on a whim.

(Sorry, this got a little more long-winded than I intended!)

Thanks for the great post. It coincides with my feelings of owning physical media for my personal satisfaction or the convenience of streaming or downloading. It's nice to have so many options.