My kids would like DVDs of some of their favourite films. We usually stream films these days, but these ones aren't available on our subscriptions.
Am I going to regret buying DVDs when we're used to HD streaming? Should I be looking to move to Blu Ray?
Your kids will quickly. discover they are unable to play any physical media
very very few laptops have any form of optical drive
no tablets do.
and yet an xbox etc will still play dvd's
as long as you have a means of playing a dvd then continue to buy them, why not?
> and yet an xbox etc will still play dvd's
My dvd player still plays them and will hopefully continue to do so as long as I live.
my old. dv player went when the new tv. did not have a scart socket!
times change.
For me, the key thing to remember is the DVDs are standard definition, i.e. not "HD" (remember when that came in?) and certainly not 4K.
We don't have a 4K TV, and everything we watch is through a fire stick (iPlayer, Netflix, Prime, Disney etc.), but all of this is now HD (as in 1080 resolution). I don't know the last time I watched a standard definition bit of media, other than when netflix is buffering or when I've watched an old show from decades ago.
I couldn't say for sure but there is a chance you'd put a DVD on and the decrease in resolution would be quite noticeable from (now) ordinary HD content. In that context, I would never purchase a DVD again no matter what, I'd always get at least a BluRay which is HD (I think the 4K ones are even more expensive).
> my old. dv player went when the new tv. did not have a scart socket!
> times change.
Oh well, I might just have to hope my TV outlives me then!
My DVD collection now spans 3 bookshelves and shows no signs of getting any smaller - quite the opposite in fact. Mind you we live in a very poor wifi area so streaming wouldn't really be a good option for us anyway
My DVD collection now spans 2 massive boxes and I can't remember the last time I watched any of them
The obsession with wireless connectivity will be the final nail in the coffin, they'll start making TVs without any form of input output connector.
DVDs will die when HDMI becomes obsolete, Blu-ray will share the same fate.
My VHS collection became unplayable when they stopped making TVs with a SCART socket, try finding a VHS player with an HDMI out.
That is true to an extent, but I can happily watch standard DVDs on a 32-inch 4K monitor - the resolution obviously isn't great but it's not unwatchable. It would definitely be more of an issue on a massive TV. I haven't bought a DVD for years, but I do regularly borrow them from a library.
You can get external CD/DVD drive that run off a USB port from £15.00.
> My DVD collection now spans 2 massive boxes and I can't remember the last time I watched any of them
Mine spans one large wheely bin
> The obsession with wireless connectivity will be the final nail in the coffin, they'll start making TVs without any form of input output connector.
Good.
> DVDs will die when HDMI becomes obsolete, Blu-ray will share the same fate.
> My VHS collection became unplayable when they stopped making TVs with a SCART socket, try finding a VHS player with an HDMI out.
You can buy a digitiser then you no longer need wires
DVDs - yes. Bluray - probably.
I buy any films I can't stream from Google Play or Amazon (or rent from these if unlikely to watch again). I can watch the film anywhere (tablet while flying, visiting family or friends).
I do continue to buy audio CDs over Audible for the kids bedtime listening, not sure why as they scratch them so often.
I'm pretty sure most VCRs will have those 3 component cable outputs with the yellow video and red white sound cables, our LG HD tv has those inputs as well. It even has an old aerial socket so I put my old Nintendo 64 on it the other day.
> Am I going to regret buying DVDs when we're used to HD streaming? Should I be looking to move to Blu Ray?
If streaming is going to kill off physical disks, it seems to me the last thing you want to be doing is buying more expensive disks than you currently do and a new machine to play them on.
I would move to Blu Ray if you can - the quality improvement is really noticeable if you have a largish TV. Only buy DVDs if Blurays aren't available.
I do stream pretty much everything these days, but for some things which I always want to have available, or are on streaming sites I don't want to sign up to I'll buy Blu rays if they're reasonably priced.
Would not want to be building an extensive collection today though - only worth getting things you know you'll want to watch repeatedly which are a pain to stream (not on the service you use, only temporarily available, etc). Otherwise you'll end up spending a lot of money.
DVDs are super cheap in charity shops now. I sometimes pick them up to get me through long nights in the van.
> For me, the key thing to remember is the DVDs are standard definition, i.e. not "HD" (remember when that came in?) and certainly not 4K.
I did not realise that, thanks.
Personally, I have not watched a DVD for at least 20 years. And I stopped using CD/DVD drive for my games when I built my last computer at least two years ago. Initially I got all nervous not buying a DVD drive but then rationalised my decision with if I need one then I will get one. As of yet I have never needed to use a DVD to install any software or games.
In fact I gave about at least 60 DVD games to my local charity shop.
I blame Apple for killing DVD drives and the 3.5mm jack for my headphones.
I've heard of some people using a VPN service and then going hunting for what they want to watch and downloading the films or TV shows. I personally would not recommend that.
TVs will have aerial sockets until they turn off Freeview, I suppose I could connect my VHS player to my TV through that but suspect the TV doesn't contain an analogue TV tuner.
My new Samsung TV (2021 model) did not have a RCA phone video input.
Not dead in our house. I still prefer to watch films on DVD as it is very convienant for us
I used to work in a huge distribution centre, our main contract was 20th century Fox, our company manufactured the DVDs and we distributed them. I was made redundant in 2015 after it was decided it was no longer viable. In the 10 years I worked for that company, VHS finished and we scrapped thousands, then DVD took over, then Blu Ray appeared which never really took of. Sales halved, then nearly halved again in about 3 years so I'm surprised anything is still going to DVD, must be barely any profit in it now
Streaming all the way.
I've just paid £30 for a film library with 28k films I can watch on any device that has an internet connection.
> Streaming all the way.
> I've just paid £30 for a film library with 28k films I can watch on any device that has an internet connection.
What is it?
> Not dead in our house. I still prefer to watch films on DVD as it is very convienant for us
I guess each to their own but I'm another one of those who owns hundreds of CDs and DVDs and they've all been boxed in storage for the last ten years.
The inconveniences of DVDs over streaming for me are:
> An IPTV service.
Yes, thanks - but I was specifically wondering which one.
Is £30 a one-off, or a recurring payment?
My Breaking Bad DVD set is definitely not dead. Its got loads of extra scenes, outtakes, director's discussion with the actors pieces.....etc. Very nerdy I know but extremely enjoyable.
And I just bought my son a very cheap DVD set of The Thick of It for Christmas as he didn't want to pay to stream it!
I don't think you'll regret it.
> Yes, thanks - but I was specifically wondering which one.
> Is £30 a one-off, or a recurring payment?
Every year, but just for the VOD service
The TV is a separate service, but does include the VOD I believe. £65 per year.
Thanks. What's the name of the service?
Looks thoroughly legit.
I hope you have good protection on your credit card...
Thanks for your concern.
> DVDs are super cheap in charity shops now. I sometimes pick them up to get me through long nights in the van.
Absolutely, 50p each or three for £1 in the last place I went.
I really like having DVDs and CDs, what are we all going to do if the internet fails?
And does anyone think about the environmental impact of streaming media? especially streaming in HD.
do you sell tellies in John Lewis ?
I watch all my stuff in 8k. 4K is so passé
You'd be lucky. I gave up on optical drives and players after the n-th time I had one die on me...
> And does anyone think about the environmental impact of streaming media? especially streaming in HD.
Is it worse than the environmental impact of the production of the dvd, the plastic used, shipping, warehousing and shop space taken up by them?
For me the issues I've had with streaming are:
1. buffering - We had a streaming service a couple of years back and the films were unwatchable.
2. films disappearing from our lists for no apparent reason
3. Not being able to find the films we wanted to watch because the service didn't list them
4. the continued cost of subscribing to the service.
All appreciate all the points you mention but don't find them a hardship. There are some films I watch regularly and others I watch some years later.
Its all horses for courses.
Unless you have a massive tv, standard definition DVD will be fine. If you’ve already got a dvd p,Ayer then stick with it.
> Is it worse than the environmental impact of the production of the dvd, the plastic used, shipping, warehousing and shop space taken up by them?
I was thinking the same - don't see how it possibly can be.
Though it's undoubtedly worse than buying a second-hand dvd from a charity shop and watching that. Or re-watching an old one. (I wonder how many times you would have to re-watch a dvd for its overall carbon footprint to match streaming the film each time?)
> All appreciate all the points you mention but don't find them a hardship.
Most of the points raised by yorkshireman to do with the physical handling of the DVD and the presentation of the content on DVD are easily overcome by ripping DVDs to a streaming server in your home, either homebrewed or a proprietary NAS (we have a Synology NAS anyway, which for video content we access via the Roku media client). Provided you retain ownership of the physical DVD which grants the licence to the content, rather than selling it on, it's fair game. Even if we only expect to watch the DVD once before selling it on/donating it to charity, I'll often still rip it because it is undeniably more convenient than handing the physical media. But if a DVD permanently leaves our possession, the rip is deleted.
Like you, we find the ongoing costs of the streaming services an issue.
(We do with the same with CDs: they're all ripped to the NAS for streaming, but the physical media are kept in storage.)
I think it depends a lot on how one views films.
I like to watch films on the big screen when I can and mostly watch films recorded off TV these days.
Those I buy on DVD are the ones I think I would watch again. I would say I buy may be three films a year.
I used to watch films on Virgin but at peak times they might stop half way through with a "Service temporarily unavailible notice."
> You'd be lucky. I gave up on optical drives and players after the n-th time I had one die on me...
I think you've been unlucky. I've had two DVD players in my AV setup. One bought sometime in the 1990s. That one was replaced in 2010 with a BluRay player which is still going strong. I've had two external DVD drives (write as well as read) for my computer: one did only last 2 years, but its replacement is still fine after seven years. Both cost under £20.
Just remembered, I still have a Panasonic DVD/VHS machine on which both drives still work. I bought it used off eBay and I use it occasionally for transcribing old VHS tapes on to DVD, which I can then rip to the NAS.
It's true that optical drives are going to be fundamentally less reliable mechanically than HDD or SSD (and I had one of those die on me this time last year - the system disc in my main computer, no less - thank heavens for a good backup regime) but I think it's a stretching the truth to characterise them as being unusably so.
> My VHS collection became unplayable when they stopped making TVs with a SCART socket,
You can get cables which incorporate a switch thingy so that you can still connect your VHS/DVD player to a modern TV. (Yes, I still use DVDs & dare I say it, the occasional VHS tape)
> Most of the points raised by yorkshireman to do with the physical handling of the DVD and the presentation of the content on DVD are easily overcome by ripping DVDs to a streaming server in your home
I'm sorry but in my opinion that's even more of a faff for most people. I used to do that, before streaming services were mature and plentiful. I even built my own home media server complete with my entire MP3 library and started to add films back in the mid to late noughties. I guess at the time I was more of a geek, probably had more spare time and less money (and of course no real alternative).
When Spotify came along, that was the death of CDs for me. I'm happy to risk the occasional song might not be on there for the convenience of being able to listen to pretty much anything any time in multiple locations.
Same with films - annoying that I'm currently subscribed simultaneously Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, OCS (a French streaming service pretty similar to HBO in terms of content) but I'm essentially paying for the convenience.
Yes if the internet goes down I'm screwed, but a) I can probably find something else to do for the short period there might be an outage and b) if its such a long outage to be a problem, we've probably got bigger things to worry about. If there's a zombie apocalypse I don't think the first thing we'll all be doing is sitting down and bingeing Breaking Bad.
i think i am unusual in the fact that i cant recall watching any movie more than once, (unless by accident, or it just happens to be something the missus is watching)
thus a collection of things i have watched , but will never look at again seems wasted on me.
i am the same with books, read them, pass them on.
Perhaps. Between myself and my sister's machines over the years we have never had any optical drives that did /not/ die, and that includes really pricy Plextors etc.
It depends on the quality and length of the download.
In reality, very few people are buying new DVDs and players. I'm not even sure you can buy good quality new dvd players and you can find dozens of them used for sale for very little. So production and transport etc is only a factor in a very small number of cases.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by quality. A quick google search brings up plenty with an excellent rating. Mostly Panasonic and Sony from places like Argos & Amazon
We still live in Floppy land (5 1/4, none of your nasty plastic types)
> my old. dv player went when the new tv. did not have a scart socket!
> times change.
My blu ray player has an HDMI output and will play any DVD.
> For me, the key thing to remember is the DVDs are standard definition, i.e. not "HD" (remember when that came in?) and certainly not 4K.
> We don't have a 4K TV, and everything we watch is through a fire stick (iPlayer, Netflix, Prime, Disney etc.), but all of this is now HD (as in 1080 resolution). I don't know the last time I watched a standard definition bit of media, other than when netflix is buffering or when I've watched an old show from decades ago.
> I couldn't say for sure but there is a chance you'd put a DVD on and the decrease in resolution would be quite noticeable from (now) ordinary HD content. In that context, I would never purchase a DVD again no matter what, I'd always get at least a BluRay which is HD (I think the 4K ones are even more expensive).
My bluray player 'upscales' DVD and I can't actually tell the difference between a Blu ray and a DVD (I don't have a huge TV) I gather you'd start to notice at 55" level
> The obsession with wireless connectivity will be the final nail in the coffin, they'll start making TVs without any form of input output connector.
> DVDs will die when HDMI becomes obsolete, Blu-ray will share the same fate.
> My VHS collection became unplayable when they stopped making TVs with a SCART socket, try finding a VHS player with an HDMI out.
That makes no sense. Since it is simply a matter of data transfer, regardless of source, the connectivity used is a different issue.
> Am I going to regret buying DVDs when we're used to HD streaming? Should I be looking to move to Blu Ray?
I think buying any films is a waste of money now.
When I was a kid you would have your collection and that was it so you'd watch stuff over and over (plus loans form mates).
But now, with such a large collection on hand via whatever services you have, are you really going to watch the same film over and over? If not, why buy it?
My other hesitation, whatever format you buy it in, it will be obsolete soon. Even if you buy let's say on Amazon to stream. Who's to say you will want to be giving your money to Amazon in 10 years time. What if they don't exist in 10 years time. What happens to your collection then?
Take a look at DVD sales:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk.com-vbulletin/700x500/dvd_sales_us_110...
Doesn't look like you've got long before they just stop making them.
Bit more like left in Blu-ray based on the numbers:
https://www.digital-scrapbooking-storage.com/images/DVD_versus_bluray_reven...
> My bluray player 'upscales' DVD and I can't actually tell the difference between a Blu ray and a DVD
I recently picked up a secondhand Sony bdp for £25*. Blu-rays look a lot better than DVDs, even on my 40" FHD tv.
* mostly because it's a model that supports ripping SACDs. I don't own any SACDs. Go figure...
> > My bluray player 'upscales' DVD and I can't actually tell the difference between a Blu ray and a DVD
> I recently picked up a secondhand Sony bdp for £25*. Blu-rays look a lot better than DVDs, even on my 40" FHD tv.
> * mostly because it's a model that supports ripping SACDs. I don't own any SACDs. Go figure...
I do own some SACDS. Which model is that?
BDP-S5100
There are a few models, including Sony & Pioneer models. It's not a trivial process. Google sacd-extract. Here's a useful discussion;
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/sony-blu-ray-players-used-f...
It's also good for playing downloaded iPlayer videos from my NAS, although the selection UI is rather tedious. Acts as a DLNA renderer, too.
I ripped all of my old DVD's and CD's and bunged them all on a Synnlogy NAS that was capable of running a Plex server, Plex then looks after all the clients that need to watch anything.
Sold all the old DVD's and CD's to Music Magpie for a pittance but it cleared a hell of a lot of space and clutter
We recently started patching up our spinning-disk collection, actually. Mostly, blu-ray, which I can crack on my PC if I need to – I have the skills and the hardware to do so.
But we don't bother. We've reverted to spinning-disks because there's no Internet connectivity to our disk-spinning box and that means NO UPDATES, NO ADVERTISEMENTS and NO NEW FEATURES.
Nothing – absolutely nothing – spoils an evening of passive, mindless entertainment than dealing with updates, advertisements and hunt-the-button-that-was-always-just-fine-where-it-used-to-be.
I'm a software architect and have been "online" since the 90-s; I'm no luddite. I've just grown tired of faffing with stuff that should have been solved and set in concrete ... well... pro'ly back in the 90-s already.
Scissors perhaps? ✂️
> even on my 40" FHD tv
> A proper "living in the future" moment for me
I had a 14" Sony TV when I moved into this house 20 years ago. Ten years ago, I bought a 23" digital TV for £140. Three years later, a 40" TV for £180. Flat screen LCD TVs are cheap (especially the own-brand Celcus TVs made by Vestel).
My computer monitor is a 24" Celcus TV/DVD that I found at the side of the road, and repaired.
All you need for the Platinum Star for reuse/repurposing is a UPS made from discarded vape cells
There are articles online comparing vinyl to streaming etc. Probably approximately the same.
There is a threshold over which the physical medium is less damaging than the digital version.
Vinyl is thr only physical media I still collect and buy but very selectively. Still holding onto about 20-30 dvds of some niche manga and martial arts movies stuff....Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx etc.
Handbrake
> We still live in Floppy land (5 1/4, none of your nasty plastic types)
Wow not even the floppy size (3.5 “) that used to be standard in PCs. What do you have, a mini server given that size of floppy drive?
> Wow not even the floppy size (3.5 “) that used to be standard in PCs.
5.25" floppies preceded 3.5" floppies. And before that, 8" floppies.
> 5.25" floppies preceded 3.5" floppies.
They were also the last floppies that were actually floppy. (The whole thing, anyway.)
> They were also the last floppies that were actually floppy.
Indeed. I remember the software engineers developing 6805 code for the 1990 series counter-timers using a Motorola dev system that had twin 8" drives, and them clattering back and forth as they were used for virtual memory whilst running compilations...
A cheap drive off amazon sorts that for less than £20.
The first machine I programmed (Ino one spoke of coding then ugh!)"in anger" was an ancient Wang 2200T with twin floppy drives and a fetching green screen. It was already old in 1983 - that particular machine features in the documentary about the building of the Ninian Central at Kishorn in the 70s. I think the total storage including both drives was about 150k!
Remarkable machine - the "microprocessor" I believe was from discrete logic and the basic was rather like Microsoft but had huge extensions for maths like array/matrix operations built in. The matrix operations extended to string arrays too
Next door there were two Artemis 5000 installations for data processing and CP analysis/project planning - Oh the nostalgia!
Somewhere I have a box of 5 1/2 inch floppy discs with all the data for my PhD, plus the text (written on a BBC Micro). What's the chances of the files still being readable some 35 years later ? (assumming I could find software which can open the BBC text, SPSS files & whatever Fortran package I used for the graphs)
> 5.25" floppies preceded 3.5" floppies. And before that, 8" floppies.
But not since the 1980s and Wercat said they still used theirs, so intrigued what they are still using.
> DVDs are super cheap in charity shops now. I sometimes pick them up to get me through long nights in the van.
This is what we do, from £1 each to 10 for a £1, but I suspect even charity shops will stop selling them over the coming year or three.
We have access to Netflix, via some shared subscription via my son, but TBH I can rarely find anything to watch.
Also with streaming, the first boring bit, and I am surfing off to something else, whereas, with a DVD, I settle down and watch it. It is a bit more of an occasion.
I would assume I could transfer the DVD to a memory stick or SD card, so I could watch on other devices if I wished?
VLC does it too
Our broadband is out for a few days (legacy of an attempt to upgrade to fibre). In this house, DVDs have had a resurgence.
Until Sunday, when it went to market, I had a working Apple II. We still have some BBC Micros - I use one occasionally for EPROM programming.
I wonder if Owlart is the person to ask?
> Until Sunday, when it went to market, I had a working Apple II. We still have some BBC Micros - I use one occasionally for EPROM programming.
Ah BBC micro, I had one of those when they came out, but only the model A, so cassette loading of programs and games .
Ha, I was just about to reply!
If the 5.25" discs have been stored well then there's a good chance of them being readable. I work with these things most days!
If the OP can remember what software he used to do the text bit I can probably read that for him! I could certainly transfer all the data to more modern media, assuming the discs are ok. Drop me a note if that's something you're interested in doing.
Even the Model B was cassette only unless you fitted the disc interface. Only later versions of the B came with DFS fitted as standard.
I'd have to find them first, I can't remember throwing them out but have moved several times over the years & don't know where they are. Slighter newer data sets & text are on 3 1/2 inch floppies for which I can still open with an external disc drive & most of the files are either Word or Excel from the early 1990s - I assume current versions of Word can open files created with Word for Windows 1 & whatever the Mac equivalent was .