Podcast HTF Podcast Episode 3: Home Video - Buy, Rent or Stream? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Yes. I don’t want my dad’s random library of books he’s bought and read over the years. I might want one or two books that hold some particular nostalgia or remind me of him. And I don’t want it as a “book” to read, but a keepsake. Otherwise, most of what he owns, when the time comes, is destined for a dumpster, most likely.

A friend is about to sell the Atari 2600 collection that his kids grew up. They’re not clamoring for him to hang onto their digital media inheritance.

Thinking our movies matter to other people is like my mom believing her kids want her collection of wicker baskets. No. Nobody wants your wicker basket movie collection except for other wicker basket movie collectors. And they’ve already bought theirs because they’re also crazy people.

The real problem with the digital collections is they’re non-fungible. What your heirs really want is money. Discs can be sold; those five thousand discs will buy your descendants a pizza dinner after a long and tiring day of the estate sale. But the digital movie collection will be worthless.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

I'm in a very similar boat as you, Dave, and I'm in the midst of spring cleaning to try to bring the size of my collection down.

I had drifted from my mission. I wanted to collect movies that I enjoyed so that they would be available to me at my convenience. At times, I have purchased movies I haven't already seen, either because it was cheaper/easier to purchase it than to try to rent it, or because I was convinced that I was going to love it anyway. A lot of times, it did work out that it was a movie that I liked and would want to see again. But there were also plenty that I didn't enjoy, or that I was glad to have seen but wasn't sure that I'd watch again.

My current purge is mainly focused on DVDs that I purchased between 2004-2005 when I was working at Blockbuster and able to buy previously viewed discs dirt cheap. Many of these I haven't watched since that time period, and I've already moved so many times between now and then, carting those discs around that I frankly had no desire to watch again. I was feeling weirdly obligated to hold on to them, but the truth is, no one's going to come over to my place, look at my shelf, and give me brownie points for having such a complete collection.

I've also found myself getting trapped by what I jokingly called "the tyranny of box sets" the other day. You probably know the deal: there's one or two movies that you really want, and the cost of buying those two titles individually is equal to or greater than what it would cost to buy a box set that included those movies. I watched and enjoyed the movies I wanted out of the set, and then finally got around to the ones I didn't care about, and didn't care for them. Happened a lot in the DVD era. Then I'd start upgrading the movies I actually liked out of the set to Blu-ray, but then I'd feel that I couldn't get rid of the set unless I had upgraded everything from it - I didn't want to lose a title. So now I've got Blu-ray copies of movies I didn't even want, just because I felt weird about giving up the DVD without having something to replace them. That's insanity.

It's been a relief purging some of those items from my shelf.

I'm no less interested in collecting my favorite movies. But I am happy to refocus and to cut some of the dead weight. If I didn't like the movie, what point am I proving by keeping it? If I only have a crappy DVD copy of something that I know I won't ever watch on DVD again (but am waiting for a good price on a Blu-ray upgrade), why not get rid of the DVD now if I know for a fact it'll never be put into my player again? I'm getting rid of some brand new stuff too, some sealed Twilight Time discs that I bought because it was almost like a box set - the thing I wanted was $30 on its own, or $10 if I bought it with a few other titles. For those titles I didn't really want in the first place, they served their purpose, they got me the discount - why keep them? I started collecting 3D discs because I love the 3D format, even though a bad movie is still a bad movie even in 3D. I'm not impressing anyone by holding on to 3D discs of movies I didn't enjoy that I do not want to watch again, ever. Guinness will not present me with an award for collecting the largest set of 3D discs. So goodbye to the ones I'm never gonna watch again.

I'm trying to resist the urge to carry this behavior over to the digital world - I don't want to get into the habit of buying a movie on iTunes just because it's cheap. I only want to buy a movie on iTunes if I actually am planning to watch it on iTunes. There have been a whole bunch of really great bargains lately, a lot of great $4.99 sales, but I'm trying not to bite. If it was that cheap once, it'll be that cheap again. And even if it's not, isn't it better to just spend $20 on the thing you want when you want it, instead of spending $100 in advance hoping that it'll pay off later?

Balance is key.

It's been nice looking at my shelves lately and seeing a more focused look, with a much higher percentage of the things on that shelf being things that I actually want to watch again.

There are many hard truths in your comments! So painful to acknowledge, but you're totally right.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

No one wants your stupid discs.

LOL

 

[DaveF]

A secondary topic in the “buy” discussion you didn't get to: Do you buy 4K if you’re only HD with a view to the future?

 

[Brian Dobbs]

A secondary topic in the “buy” discussion you didn't get to: Do you buy 4K if you’re only HD with a view to the future?

Planning this for a future show.

 

[DaveF]

Good. Maybe also talk about the backwards side, which you touched on: how much do you hang on to old media? Do you still VHS? What about the LaserDisc nutballs?

 

[Todd Erwin]

Just finished listening, and a very nice discussion. I actually lost 3-4 movies when CinemaNow shuttered without notice a few years ago, mostly because they were not UV and the service shut down without an exit strategy. At least when Target Ticket shut down, they had an exit strategy by assuring customers ahead of time that any movies that were UV would get transferred to other UV retailers and anything not UV (ie Disney) a credit would be issued, albeit to CinemaNow.

 

[Todd Erwin]

A secondary topic in the “buy” discussion you didn't get to: Do you buy 4K if you’re only HD with a view to the future?

I'd say that if they are the same price, then purchase the 4K. Most services will automatically stream the highest quality version your device and internet connection are capable of.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’d probably be inclined to purchase a 4K disc version even though I’m still regular HD, if buying that 4K version didn’t cause me to lose out on something I’d otherwise be able to enjoy right now.

Example 1: I bought the 50th anniversary edition of “2001: A Space Odyssey” on UHD; it includes a BD version with the same new transfer. Since I know this is a movie that would have been an automatic purchase when I upgraded to UHD, buying that version now got me what I needed for today and future-proofed me.

Example #2: I just bought the most recent “Fantastic Beasts” movie on Blu-ray 3D, since I’d prefer to watch this movie in 3D over any 2D format. If the UHD edition had included the 3D disc, I would have gotten that, but it didn’t. Buying UHD for that title now would have prevented me from watching the version I wanted to watch today, only for the sake of a higher quality 2D version that I might not be able to watch for years and aren’t that interest in to begin with.

I think, going forward, new releases will be purchased on UHD, so long as all of the content is backwards compatible to regular HD. But if there’s something that’s HD-only and not UHD, but it’s something I want to watch now, I won’t hesitate to get it. (Which is how I am now with DVD - if that’s the only way to see something I want to see, I’ll get it.)

 

[DaveF]

I bought Spider-verse this evening (impulse buy...). I bought the 4K because it’s got the Atmos and it was only $5 more than HD. And I had BB GC. So, ok.

I’m cutting back on buying, so when it do buy now, I’m prone to buy 4K, but it’s not a given seeing how cheap catalog blu-ray is.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m importing the 3D Spidey but I wanted a digital copy too. A fellow member helped me with a 4K code but I would have been in the market for a 4K digital version (vs HD) regardless. I think that’s what I’ll do going forward when I’m picking up codes for imports that don’t include one.

 

[DaveF]

If 3D were an easy option with a 4K Atmos bundle, I'd consider paying another couple dollars for that. But 3D as it's sold retail (or not sold as is often the case) is a real bother. And the separation of 3D from Atmos is just a tragedy. I've decided to forgo 3D as a rule for cheaper regular blu or 4K Atmos future-proofing.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Dave, I was thinking more about what you were saying before about our descendants most likely not being interested in inheriting this stuff and that’s been in my mind as I’ve been thinking about downsizing some of the bloat in my collection. That got me thinking of the litmus test I might want to apply going forward: Is this something I want enough that I wouldn’t mind packing it into a box, moving it, and then unpacking again? As an apartment renter, I know I’m not going to be here forever, and that my next place isn’t likely to be my final destination either.

It’s this weird dichotomy where there are some things I absolutely want to future proof and keep with me forever (Star Trek, to name one example) and some things I just want to enjoy in the moment and don’t need to worry about having for the future — but I can’t always tell which is which until it’s too late!

And I agree about 3D: I love it and it is a priority for me, but it’s making everything else a hassle. It’s almost like when you keep around an old computer or hold off on upgrading your OS because of that one piece of software that you use but that won’t run on anything else.

 

[DaveF]

It seems the shift to online media libraries is especially good for people like you, with small urban apartments and also who move frequently. 3D, notwithstanding.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It very well may be.

At the very least, I like that the availability of online media means I’m no longer obligated to hold on to a physical copy of a marginal title out of fear of losing access to it in the unlikely event I want to see it again.

It’s never been easier to find a movie to watch at home and however all of this goes in the end, that still has to be a net positive, right?

 

[DaveF]

The key is: redeem all your codes.

I realized belatedly, like in 2017, I should be redeeming these codes. If I don’t use them, I’ve lost mere minutes. But if I shift from discs to cloud, I’m preparing for it even as I buy discs.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

While I am not constrained to an apartment with limited storage like Josh, I still live within some self-imposed storage limits for my collection. So, I will purge some discs in my collection every so often if they have not been watched in a very long time, and I always get rid of old titles if I upgrade to a newer format or transfer -- I do not keep multiple versions of a film. The advent of digital copies has allowed me another way of reducing my library's footprint, as I have upgraded some DVDs to HD streams and have purchased some new releases as 4K digital instead of buying the more expensive UHD discs.

While I am mostly selecting the 4K option for disc purchases when available, I did recently opt for the BD version of Westworld: Season 2 instead of the UHD/4K disc. The BD was only $15 while the UHD version was $25, and the digital copy included was only an HD version for both packages. I figured I would only watch the discs once and then sell them, keeping the digital copy. Therefore, it made more sense to save $10 up front. If the digital copy included with the UHD discs had been 4K, too, then I may have opted for the more expensive UHD package.

Another benefit of having an ever-growing digital library for me is having access to titles away from home. My wife and I travel a lot since retirement, and it's a lot more convenient to have access to streaming versions of a lot of content while away than trying to decide which few discs to pack and needing to bring along a portable BD player.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

The podcast discussed briefly the issue of not being able to bequeath digital media to your heirs. Philosophically, i've long agreed this is a real problem that is yet to be sorted.

But practically, I think it's an egocentric red herring.

No one wants your stupid discs.

Consider: how much would you want to inherit a thousand VHS tapes in a decade? The future is streaming. The 30+ year history is streaming via virtual reality. How will your young kids or nieces/nephews kids care about your DVDs in 2050? How much will they care about your 4k digital codes when they're paying $10/mo for streaming access to every film they care about that they virtually watch with all their friends in the OASIS?

None. They care none about getting your space-wasting discs and outdated movie codes.

Thoughts?

I completely agree.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

We moved a few years ago we didn't have the space for movies we used to. I had to remove a huge number of titles and did disc to digital with as many as I could. I would guess that half of the titles I purchase now are digital (TV is exclusively digital), and a large portion of the discs are 4k/UHD.

 

[Sam Posten]

More ammunition for those worried about digital content going away:

https://boingboing.net/2019/04/02/burning-libraries.html

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-removes-the-books-category-from-the-microsoft-store/

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4497396