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Physical Media might not be dead, but Physical Media in Retail Stores are accelerating the death (1 Viewer)

JQuintana

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Why is it a "problem" though? It's the way the world is headed. It's just natural evolution of things. VHS..laserdiscs..DVD..Blu...4K...now streaming has started to pull ahead.
 

JQuintana

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Did you read the title of this thread???

Physical Media might not be dead, but Physical Media in Retail Stores are accelerating the death
 

Paintbeanie

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Did you read the title of this thread???

Physical Media might not be dead, but Physical Media in Retail Stores are accelerating the death
Yes, but it is not a pissing contest about whether streaming or DVDs, or cds or anything else is better. When this thread started I found it interesting to see the discussion on what the stores are doing and how that affects physical media. While I may not like it, it still started as a good discussion. Now there are many sidetracks that have nothing to do with that topic including some of your own posts. My favorite was the one comparing the amount spent on physical media by collectors amounting to kids college tuition. How does that relate to your topic? Why do you have to try to make people feel small and judge them for spending money on something they enjoy. I have been collecting for years, have no kids, and I have had the money to build my collection over the years which I have no regrets over. I am also one of those “under 40” people you brought up and know plenty in my age group who do prefer physical media. We even still have our rental chain family video which is still fairly big in our area and still in business so apparently there are people who (gasp) don’t share your views and don’t fit your preconceived notions and stereotypes. Additionally the libraries in our areas have a lot of activity with people checking out physical media and it is very popular.
So to sum up this longish post, if you are emphasizing the topic my suggestion should be to follow it without judging others. David Norman wrote a good post with some good points. Instead of your brief inadequate response, I suggest you actually read it and personally think about it.
 
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Robert Crawford

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Did you read the title of this thread???

Physical Media might not be dead, but Physical Media in Retail Stores are accelerating the death
Your opinion regarding streaming versus physical media is well known to the membership. We get it! However, we don't need to read that same opinion so often and, in so many different threads. People are becoming annoyed which isn't a good thing.
 
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John*Wells

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15 Years ago I would go to Best buy on a weekly basis. They had a lot of DVD titles to choose from at least a whole shelf full of new releases and about 6 shelves of titles. Now its more like half that ..They do offer online though and they seem to push that
 

bmasters9

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15 Years ago I would go to Best buy on a weekly basis. They had a lot of DVD titles to choose from at least a whole shelf full of new releases and about 6 shelves of titles. Now its more like half that ..They do offer online though and they seem to push that

The last time I went (last Sunday with my nephew Montana), they seemed to offer a few more classic titles, mostly from Mill Creek.

But even if they were mostly from Mill Creek, Best Buy seemed to have considered how I felt about them and their lack of classics, and so if I get a gift card to that place next Christmas, I may consider going there!
 

Jesse Skeen

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More than once I’ve gotten a $5 Best Buy “reward certificate” yet found nothing in the stores to spend it on. Resorted to getting some batteries and empty sleeves for my blank discs once.
 

Paintbeanie

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Best Buy used to be a place I would go anytime I was near one (unfortunately I did not live near one very often). I loved looking through their DVDs and even shopped enough to get the reward certificates. I ran into the same trouble you had with reward certificates about 3 years ago and even though I do visit towns with Best Buy in it regularly I still have only been to the store 2-3 times in the last few years. It just doesn’t have anything for me. Unfortunately the other stores I rely on for DVDs: Target, Wal Mart, and Barnes and Noble have all significantly cut back on their DVDs within the last couple of months. It’s very sad. At Wal Mart what makes it weirder (for me) is that they seem to be expanding the cards they sell for digital movies. I get why they sell the cards but I also find the irony of getting rid of physical DVDs by having people buy physical cards to get their movies online.
 

Angelo Colombus

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Have had $15 in rewards certificate for the past 2 months but nothing I want to get. Finally have my account balance I owe Best Buy to zero and like to keep it that way for awhile.
 

John*Wells

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Best Buy used to be a place I would go anytime I was near one (unfortunately I did not live near one very often). I loved looking through their DVDs and even shopped enough to get the reward certificates. I ran into the same trouble you had with reward certificates about 3 years ago and even though I do visit towns with Best Buy in it regularly I still have only been to the store 2-3 times in the last few years. It just doesn’t have anything for me. Unfortunately the other stores I rely on for DVDs: Target, Wal Mart, and Barnes and Noble have all significantly cut back on their DVDs within the last couple of months. It’s very sad. At Wal Mart what makes it weirder (for me) is that they seem to be expanding the cards they sell for digital movies. I get why they sell the cards but I also find the irony of getting rid of physical DVDs by having people buy physical cards to get their movies online.


I got a lucky break last week in wal mart and found season 1 of Star Trek Discovery. At Christmas, I was fortunate to find The Polar express at Best Buy in my town. I was able to order online and pick up in Store
 

John*Wells

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On the subject of Media, I recently found the Sound Tracks for Star Trek 2, 4,5, and 6 On I tunes, I bought them and burned CDs of each. but The Search for Spock and The Motion Picture do not appear to be licensed to I tunes .. I see that all Soundtracks for the TNG Films and the Kelvin timeline films are on I tunes also .. I know this isn't a movie topic Necessarily but I guess to get TSFS and TMP I might gave to Pay a Pretty Penny
 

Ron1973

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What are you talking about?

You do realize that with Pandora, Spotify, Google Play, and all the other streaming services you can play any album you want in full. These services aren't just jukeboxes playing random songs. I have a ton of albums in my "favorites" that I can play at any time, 100% like a CD. I think you're idea of what streaming music is all about is outdated.
Where exactly do you get that idea? I'm sitting here with stuff of Hank Williams, Sr. that's never been officially released, but thanks to other collector friends I have on CD. Try finding the complete works of Johnny Horton or Jim Reeves on a streaming service. You won't! The same with Hank Snow. You have to buy CD's from Bear Family in Germany in order to get those. Try finding the stereo overdubs of Hank Williams' stuff on streaming. You won't. You have to have physical media in the form of an LP or 8-track to achieve that. I have also purchased digital copies of songs only to have them not be compatible with any current media players. No, I'll stick with having a physical copy whether it be a LP, CD, 8-track, 45, cassette, 78, or even a digital copy backed up to a secondary hard drive; streaming is not dependable.
 

Ron1973

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I have purchased, via gift certificate, a few shows on Vudu. Heck, it is convenient. They even offer HD versions of some shows not out on blu. What happens if I lose access to my account somehow? What if Vudu decided to pull a Photobucket and start charging out the rear for their services, say a monthly fee instead of it being a free service with the option to buy things not free streaming? I would be really hacked off if I paid $29.99 for a season of HD of Gilligan's Island on Vudu only to find out I could no longer access it!
 

John*Wells

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I would be really hacked off if I paid $29.99 for a season of HD of Gilligan's Island on Vudu only to find out I could no longer access it!

I agree entirely. I have actually purchased shows on Streaming and I have not lost one yet but I am mindful that the Scenario could present itself. Netflix and Hulu are good examples as well. Once the digital rights agreement is up, Away it goes
 

BobO'Link

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Currently Amazon and Warner are in dispute. Because of this all Warner titles are unavailable on Amazon Prime. Here's the issue.

If you purchased a "Season Pass" to any WB TV series you'll not see any episodes added since the dispute began in mid December. I "purchased" S4 of Supergirl and S7 of Arrow back in October for ~$3 each. That was a *purchase* and *NOT* a "season pass." The last episodes available in my queue are from December 9/10. Now... they were very cheap and I used "Slow shipping digital credits" for the purchase so I'm not out of "real" money. That's not the point - the point is I *paid* for a full season of each and am supposed to have episodes added as they air and are made available digitally. This "dispute" is causing that purchase to not be fulfilled.

I *do* have all of the Warner Archive movies still in my account so those, at least for now, haven't been affected. But those TV seasons have been affected and were purchased in good faith that the entire season would be delivered as they aired. Because of an apparent distribution dispute customers are left holding the digital bag.

This is the kind of stuff that makes me gun-shy when it comes to digital and no amount of physical product reduction in stores can change that.
 
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David Norman

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I agree entirely. I have actually purchased shows on Streaming and I have not lost one yet but I am mindful that the Scenario could present itself. Netflix and Hulu are good examples as well. Once the digital rights agreement is up, Away it goes

Not lost exactly, but items have been changed -- extras that were there aren't there, versions of the moves have been 'updated' to a different version, cover art/thumbnails have been changed.

There are regularly glitches where an HDX or UHD it downgraded to Sd or HDX titles though these have been reversible to date. Fairly routinely people have to call VUDU to find out why a movie that was there is no longer there -- again so far this has always either automatically been fixed or CSR have pushed the fix.

I'm not suggesting it's any more common than discs glitches, but it does seem to require frequent maintenance to make sure your carrots are still planted
 

Robert Crawford

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Currently Amazon and Warner are in dispute. Because of this all Warner titles are unavailable on Amazon Prime. Here's the issue.

If you purchased a "Season Pass" to any WB TV series you'll not see any episodes added since the dispute began in mid December. I "purchased" S4 of Supergirl and S7 of Arrow back in October for ~$3 each. That was a *purchase* and *NOT* a "season pass." The last episodes available in my queue are from December 9/10. Now... they were very cheap and I used "Slow shipping digital credits" for the purchase so I'm not out of "real" money. That's not the point - the point is I *paid* for a full season of each and am supposed to have episodes added as they air and are made available digitally. This "dispute" is causing that purchase to not be fulfilled.

I *do* have all of the Warner Archive movies still in my account so those, at least for now, haven't been affected. But those TV seasons have been affected and were purchased in good faith that the entire season would be delivered as they aired. Because of an apparent distribution dispute customers are left holding the digital bag.

This is the kind of stuff that makes me gun-shy when it comes to digital and no amount of physical product reduction in stores can change that.
TBH, Amazon has been in dispute with just about everybody over the last couple of years.
 

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