This may have been announced already, but I just read that places like Target and Best Buy are ending sales of DVDs and Blu-Ray. I imagine once it starts at the big retailers the production of new DVDs and Blu-Rays will peter out. Streaming has killed physical media because the choice will be taken away, same as all those old formats. Only now there won't be a new format, just a link.

I think this is so bad, not because we are forced to move on again, but because streaming is not an equivalent replacement for something that you owned. If you want to watch a favorite film you had it on VHS, then DVD, then maybe Blu-Ray. To stream it, you have to have a subscription for whichever service is carrying it at any given time. If it's not on a free platform, you have to pay for that connection or as many connections as you need and can afford.

Even if you have it on your subscription, you are at the mercy of the service. The program can be pulled off the service whenever they decide to rotate it out or someone else pays more to pick it up. Can someone burn it on a DVD? Maybe now, but not when they stop making DVDS and DVD players.

In the future it's going to be really hard to be a collector because no one wants you to own anything. They want you to rent it from them and pay what they want as many times as they want and accept all their rules, or you can't get it or keep it.

Some people have always had a need for physical media, that's why we kept going along with upgrading the formats and buying the same movies and TV shows 3 times over. I guess the joke was on us because even that won't be good enough in the near future. Rant done.

I was just checking here when your post appeared. Last year, I had heard that Target or Best Buy was going to get out of DVD by the end of the year. I was in a Target about a month ago and did notice that some DVDs were still for sale in the video/books area but none were around the checkstands like before.

I think we talked about this before - DVDs going away without a new format to replace them so that companies could charge per showing. I think the advice was, if you like a movie even a little bit, buy it on DVD now and maybe buy two. There will still be people selling them cheap at garage sales and flea markets. In my area, there used to be two guys with tables full every month but they stopped coming at some point years ago.

In my part of the UK, high street availability of Blu-Ray, CD and DVD formats has been severely missing however in recent years at least two "Vinyl" stores have opened and are still surviving. I don't know if they have other formats other than vinyl as I have not been in them. Since the loss of high street shops my cd/dvd/blu-Ray buying has been online for physical products and still is. I have only ever once downloaded music and that was purely to see how it worked. I acquired a Smart TV last summer so I have experienced a form of streaming when I have used a catch-up service. I don't have a phone but I do have a tablet which I acquired for looking at emails when I'm out and about in the wider world.
In the last year HMV which went to online sales only other than Birmingham recently opened a store in Oxford Street, London, I don't know if that has been successful.

regards

John

As somewhat of a audio/videophile, the loss of physical media would be devastating. 4K Bluray's take of 25-35GB of data on the disc. That is too much data to stream uncompressed. So both sound and video are compressed, then decompressed when received at your device. There is loss of both video and audio quality when you play the movies. Most notably, the black shadows you see in darker parts of a movie. You don't get that with physical media.

Why today's consumer generation is OK with the poorer quality digital streaming baffles me. I have amassed several hundred Bluray/4K movies and will continue buying physical media wherever I can. I own zero digital copies of any movie. Even the digital copy that comes with the Bluray, I let expire. I also don't understand watching an entire movie on a phone either.

My guess is in 10-15 years, just like vinyl, there will be a resurgence. Once folks realize how inferior digital streaming is, there will be a change. The only thing that will completely destroy physical media would be the ability to stream uncompressed video/audio and the ability to take your digital copies and transfer them between the devices you own. The later I see not happening. I doubt studio's would be OK if I own a Sony storage device, then 5 years later, buy a new device and want to transfer all of my digital media to the new device. That part has to be overcome as well as the inferior streaming.

I know I-tunes, when you buy a movie, you don't get to download it, rather you get a license to watch it from the store. What happenes when I-tunes loses the license to the movie? This is an example, but does happen. Disney took all of their movies from Netflix, so Netflix can no longer stream Disney movies. If I had bought my Star Wars movies from Netflix, I would no longer have the ability to watch Star Wars on Netflix. I would have to buy them again from Disney. While it doesn't happen all the time, it does happen. So buying digital movies comes with a risk.

Time will tell, but for now, 100% physical media for me.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chilly55,

Some of our big stores in Australia have already ceased stocking DVD'S. In the mall I work there's a small selection in the supermarket and that is it. The department store turned their whole space into displaying more video games. I expect that they too will disappear in years to come when they will also only be available to buy digitally.

I can't say I have bought a DVD in years, however I still have all the ones I purchased prior to streaming.

There are several shows that I want to own on dvd, but the streamers won't release them.

From another perspective as one who went through VHS to Blu-ray collections over the years.

Between Netflix, Prime and two add on subscriptions I am still spending less per month than I was back in my rental/purchase days. Instead of only having a handful of titles to show for it I now have hundreds to choose from. I caught myself on a brat pack 80's kick this weekend and ended up watching 4 movies on a lazy Saturday. Nothing to put into a player, nothing to put away and nothing to return.

I don't have to store, catalog or upgrade a collection. Not to mention having to maintain or stock pile systems that still play various formats. Even pirate bay types are having to redownload things because the last copy that looked great on a 25in TV looks like crap on a 70.

Personally I am for the way things are now but I do understand certain concerns.

- Content control and integrity, editing films because they no longer conform to agendas and current culture.
- Purchasing just means long term rental and they can steal it back if the fine print requires so.
- Audio/Videophiles are often stuck with the version/specs provided.
- Once no other options are available will your streaming dollars begin to provide lesser services?

Obviously not having what I want when I want it is an inconvenience but I am often surprised how many of those titles eventually come around. Just gotta find something else to watch in the mean time. It is not cost effective for services to lock in content forever if no one is watching it on their service any more.

I volunteer in a charity shop / thrift store here in the uk and our sales of physical media are nice and healthy. We still have buyers every day for dvd,s...blu rays...cd;s...vinyl so anybody who is thinking that everybody has gone over to streaming is sadly mistaken.

Since this is Card Talk, everyone reading this forum is to some extent a card collector or involved with card collectors. As has been said by many here already, collecting is a shared mentality. Most of us have several collections going at the same time or have dropped some interest, only to substitute another. It is in some respect a compulsion that hopefully is a lot more harmless than some you could follow.

Part of buying physical media, whether its VHS, Discs, DVD, Blu-Ray, or even Cassettes, CDs and Vinyl is just owning the item. I have many DVDs and CDs that I never even bothered to take the shrink wrap off. I never rewatched or in some cases even watched/played them once. They are in mint, untouched condition. Other items I have worn out from repeated use. Either way it appeals to my collector mentality, which gets no satisfaction from all those many benefits that come from simply streaming media.

Foolish though it may be, I know I'm not the only collector who feels the same way.

Raven, you are not wrong I am a lifetime collector, borderline hoarder of numerous collectable items. This includes trading cards, TV and film memorabilia and DVDs, blu-rays and VHS tapes. I can still view all of them as I have a working S-VHS video deck. However, most of them have just been collecting dust for years.

Then again, I tend to look at my card collection on my PC rather than flicking through the actual cards in their folders. Looking at the scans on my PC screen is easier and gives me larger images to look at.

But I definitely like having the actual items to hand as well