On 30 Nov 2023 at 09:41p, Utopian Galt pondered and said...

it seems physical media is becoming harder to attain.
stuff is becoming more expensive. :(

Here in New Zealand, Vinyl is still going strong and you can still buy copies of movies on DVD etc... but agree the range is not as strong as once was... but it's still an option here

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BY: Nightfox (21:1/137)

|11N|09> |10For blu-rays and audio CDs, I often buy from Amazon, and it's still|07
|11N|09> |10fairly easy to find stuff there. You can still also find used copies|07
|11N|09> |10cheaper than new ones.|07
There is an art film called Maurice, and I wanted to buy the blu ray, but its out of print. The copyright owner just wants to rely on digital royalties now.


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Re: physical media
By: Utopian Galt to All on Thu Nov 30 2023 09:41 pm

it seems physical media is becoming harder to attain. stuff is becoming more expensive. :(

It's odd, because often, if something doesn't have much demand, usually it's cheap. And many times, indeed I've been able to buy used CDs, DVDs, blu-rays etc. fairly inexpensively - most often from Amazon these days, but lately I've tried to look for some used blu-rays, to find that they aren't much cheaper than new copies. I have a feeling demand for them may have done down so much that there just aren't many people selling used ones anymore. Sometimes you can find deals at thrift stores though - I think people may be finding it easier to just donate them rather than sell them these days (due to lack of buyers).

I've also heard of people just throwing their collection in the garbage. :(

stuff is more out of print now.

That's an issue too. Over the years, there have been a couple movies I've wanted to buy that end up being fairly expensive because they're out of print.

Nightfox
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It's odd, because often, if something doesn't have much demand,
usually it's cheap.

Except when supply is even lower than demand, there's not much demand for
Amiga 1000 computers, but they still sell on ebay for crazy amounts.

Seems to go - popular - normal price, unpopular -cheap then collectible - expensive :)

Andrew


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Re: physical media
By: apam to Nightfox on Sun Dec 10 2023 06:16 pm

It's odd, because often, if something doesn't have much demand, usually
it's cheap.

Except when supply is even lower than demand, there's not much demand for Amiga 1000 computers, but they still sell on ebay for crazy amounts.

Seems to go - popular - normal price, unpopular -cheap then collectible - expensive :)

Yep, that's true. :)

Nightfox
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In the UK I would say there's still quite a bit of access to physical media...so long as what you're looking for has a fairly recent release day or is in the top 100 (for music) maybe just top 50 for Film and TV. These can be picked up at must bigger supermarkets or some high street stores (although these are becoming few and far between), but once you take Online shopping out of the equation if the thing you're looking for doesn't meet the above criteria you can still probably find it but you're limited to just a few brick and mortar stores (HMV, WH Smith and Independents). I think like most places with the exception of Vinyl here the market is shrinking.

Echoing other comments RE: Charity Shops there are plenty DVDs, CDs, Vinyls and to a certain extent Cassettes and VHS to be found there. Speaking from personal experience I never upgraded past DVD...but have been toying with the 4K options but never seem to have taken the plunge, maybe one day!

*Apologies if this message appears twice, I originally sent it via Black Fla on the 12th, but it seems to have not made it out*

Take care,
Vela025

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Re: Re: physical media
By: Vela025 to Utopian Galt on Thu Dec 21 2023 12:45 am

In the UK I would say there's still quite a bit of access to physical media...so long as what you're looking for has a fairly recent release day

There have been a few blu-ray releases (particularly 4K blu-ray) that have had UK releases but no US releases.. I've ordered a couple from Amazon UK.

Speaking from personal experience I never upgraded past DVD...but have been toying with the 4K options but never seem to have taken the plunge, maybe one day!

Blu-ray (especially 4K) is much better than DVD in terms of video image quality. Since I started buying blu-ray (2010), I've basically stopped buying DVDs unless a title is only released on DVD - though these days, there are things that are (oddly) only available on DVD and I've refused to buy them because I know they could release them on blu-ray and would prefer blu-ray, for the video quality. The Orville is one such TV show that is available on DVD but not blu-ray.

Nightfox
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On Wed Dec 20 00:00:00 2023, VELA025 (21:2/150) wrote to Utopian Galt <=-

Echoing other comments RE: Charity Shops there are plenty DVDs, CDs, Vinyls and to a certain extent Cassettes and VHS to be found there. Speaking from personal experience I never upgraded past DVD...but have been toying with the 4K options but never seem to have taken the plunge, maybe one day!

Ive been gradually buying movies my father has on VHS on Blu Ray over time. Most of them can be found, but some are sadly out of print.

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Re: Re: physical media
By: Utopian Galt to Vela025 on Sat Dec 23 2023 11:08 am

On Wed Dec 20 00:00:00 2023, VELA025 (21:2/150) wrote to Utopian Galt <=

Echoing other comments RE: Charity Shops there are plenty DVDs, CDs, Viny

em to have taken the plunge, maybe one day!
Ive been gradually buying movies my father has on VHS on Blu Ray over time.

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I bought a 10 or 20 bucks video adapter and digitized every VHS which was worth saving. I would probably buy the DVD version of some of them if I ran into them somewhere, but I am not going to move out of my way to get them now I have my homemade copies.

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it seems physical media is becoming harder to attain.
stuff is becoming more expensive. :(
stuff is more out of print now.

There's a number of reasons why this is happening, I think:

- People are starting to prefer to consume the stuff digitally, takes less space and is easier to access;
- People are becoming more mobile, so that means that they tend to do more home transfers than the past, so when it happens they load less stuff;
- For these 2 reasons there's less demand for physical stuff and therefore more limited runs (which costs more considering the increase of all the prime materials)

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On 04 Feb 2024, SoDa7 said the following...

it seems physical media is becoming harder to attain.
stuff is becoming more expensive. :(
stuff is more out of print now.

There's a number of reasons why this is happening, I think:

- People are starting to prefer to consume the stuff digitally, takes
- People are becoming more mobile, so that means that they tend to do
more home transfers than the past, so when it happens they load less stuff; - For these 2 reasons there's less demand for physical stuff and therefore more limited runs (which costs more considering the increase

Some additional thoughts:

Physical media playback equipment is less cost effective and difficult to service if that is ever needed

Youngest people have less experience with the full sensory aspects of physical media

Many people do not have much experience with extended connectivity or even digital access losses

People have become more accepting of management of their digital media by external sources

Few imagine themselves deliberately walking away from the digital media world

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*** Quoting Soda7 to Utopian Galt dated 02-04-24 ***

There's a number of reasons why this is happening, I think:
- People are starting to prefer to consume the stuff digitally, takes
less space and is easier to access;

That's definitely true for me, at least when it comes to *video*. For audio, I still buy CDs and prefer to have them out where I can see them. (No binders here.) Part of the 'listening' experience for me is staring at a wall of discs and deciding what I want to listen to. I like it better than a search prompt that can bring up any song ever recorded. Less decision fatigue.

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I'm actually having this conversation over on 20forbeers too.

iTunes has actually taken from me media when I updated hardware and logged into their system again. I'm quite fed up with the entire affair and looking at trying to extract my music library from the iDevices and just keep my own Mp3 library.
It's the same with the drafting software I'm using. AutoDesk started invalidating standalone copies of their CAD software and demanding users instead use cloud based systems and buy into new software keys. It's extortion, and as I saw headlining a Medium story. If Buying isn't Owning, Piracy isn't Stealing. I think creators need to get paid for certain. I'm not allowed the streaming option when I'm in my office for music, and I can't trust the iStore any-longer. It leaves us in a pickle.

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Re: Re: physical media
By: SoDa7 to Utopian Galt on Sun Feb 04 2024 10:33 pm

it seems physical media is becoming harder to attain.
stuff is becoming more expensive. :(
stuff is more out of print now.

There's a number of reasons why this is happening, I think:

- People are starting to prefer to consume the stuff digitally, takes less space and is easier to access; - People
are becoming more mobile, so that means that they tend to do more home transfers than the past, so when it happens
they load less stuff;
- For these 2 reasons there's less demand for physical stuff and therefore more limited runs (which costs more
considering the increase of all the prime materials)

I still feel like "digitally" is an odd term for streaming. Media such as DVD and blu-ray are digital mediums (as opposed to analog).. The first time I saw a DVD package that said "Digital copy included", I thought, of course it is, it's a DVD..

I don't really like the idea of fully relying on streaming services though. They often remove content, and I've even heard of cases where someone bought a movie on a streaming service, and the movie was removed later. Also, sometimes there are connectivity issues with the service, buffering issues, etc..

From what I've been seeing online, it seems people in general are getting tired of streaming services doing that stuff, and it looks like more people are starting to buy physical media again.

I do still buy what I want on physical media. And I've opted to run my own media server at home, using Plex Media Server, and I'll rip my media and put it on my Plex server so that I can easily stream it at any time. I feel like I have the best of both worlds that way. I own it, and nobody is going to deny me access to it (barring good network service). I can even stream my stuff outside my home if I want to. A while ago, my wife and I went to the coast and stayed in a hotel, and I took one of our Roku streaming devices with us. I plugged it into the hotel TV, and it was able to get onto the hotel wifi, and we were able to stream stuff from my Plex server without any problems. I also have a TV tuner connected to my Plex server, so we were able to watch our local broadcast TV channels through Plex while there.

Nightfox
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k9zw wrote to SoDa7 <=-

Youngest people have less experience with the full sensory aspects of physical media

My son is 20, and he inherited an old car from his grandmother. Old,
being 2008. Pre bluetooth, pre USB MP3 playback.

I bought him an upgrade for Christmas, and found an old single-DIN
stereo. It's got bluetooth handsfree and audio, MP3 playback, and a CD
player (which are getting hard to find nowadays)

He only has a CD player in his car now, and he likes being able to
listen to one artist and not be tempted to switch around. Good for him,
I've told him about growing up with LPs and listening to both sides in
one sitting. Big old Koss can headphones. Darkened room.

(The best way to listen to Rush's "Moving Pictures", BTW)


... Listen in total darkness, very quietly
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Nightfox wrote to SoDa7 <=-

From what I've been seeing online, it seems people in general are
getting tired of streaming services doing that stuff, and it looks like more people are starting to buy physical media again.

I think it's all about how you use it. I don't rely on Spotify or
Pandora for my music collection, that's a combination of DRM-free MP3
purchased as a digital download or ripped from CD.

The streaming services are great for creating playlists for gatherings
and discovering new music, and I have a Pandora subscription to get rid
of the ads - because nothing says "I'm a Playa" more than ad-supported streaming media at your party.




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Physical media playback equipment is less cost effective and difficult to service if that is ever needed

Youngest people have less experience with the full sensory aspects of physical media

All good as long as there is a way to obtain and own a digital copy... not only to access streaming in more like a rental model.

I personally switch off from streaming as much as I can. I still have Netflix but I digitalized all my DVDs and BRs to Plex/Elby .. if there is no way to buy physical media the only way to own digital copy is actually to rip it illegally from streaming service or download already done job.

Games, Books, Music have option to buy to own my digital copy. I haven't spotted that for movies though ;/

-h1

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It's the same with the drafting software I'm using. AutoDesk started invalidating standalone copies of their CAD software and demanding users instead use cloud based systems and buy into new software keys. It's extortion, and as I saw headlining a Medium story. If Buying isn't
Owning, Piracy isn't Stealing. I think creators need to get paid for certain. I'm not allowed the streaming option when I'm in my office for music, and I can't trust the iStore any-longer. It leaves us in a
pickle.

Primary reason why I stopped buying multimedia if I can't be sure that I own my copy perpetually! I also lost my iTunes library once. Now it's Vinyl or MP3 or middle finger.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

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I bought him an upgrade for Christmas, and found an old single-DIN
stereo. It's got bluetooth handsfree and audio, MP3 playback, and a CD
player (which are getting hard to find nowadays)

He only has a CD player in his car now, and he likes being able to
listen to one artist and not be tempted to switch around. Good for him,
I've told him about growing up with LPs and listening to both sides in
one sitting. Big old Koss can headphones. Darkened room.

(The best way to listen to Rush's "Moving Pictures", BTW)

All this is how my whole household listens to music these days. The only "streaming" we add in is FM radio!

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

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one sitting. Big old Koss can headphones. Darkened room.

(The best way to listen to Rush's "Moving Pictures", BTW)

I received a set of headphones with an FM radio built in for Christmas
one year. It was when Rush's "Signals" had not been out too long. The
local rock station played "Subdivisions" and "The Analog Kid" a lot. I
can confirm that listening to Rush on headphones as a ~12 year old kid
was pretty impressive. ;)



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Re: Re: physical media
By: hollowone to k9zw on Thu Mar 14 2024 12:07 pm

I personally switch off from streaming as much as I can. I still have Netflix but I digitalized all my DVDs and BRs to Plex/Elby .. if there is

"Digitalized"? DVDs are already a digital format.. I think you mean ripped?

Nightfox
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"Digitalized"? DVDs are already a digital format.. I think you mean ripped?

Yeah.. I mean they are proper MKV files with subtitles, all ripped from my legitimate DVDs where I could.. then NAS and Plex as my streaming service.

physical media then is kept in the locker... just in case.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

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