Don't chuck your old DVDs and Blurays! They'll save the day...
I've heard countless times of people getting rid of their old DVDs and even Bluray optical discs - you can verify this by popping into a charity shop and seeing them at "2 for £1" or similar. The argument is that you don't need physical (optical) media anymore since Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and countless other digital streaming services exist.
And to some extent this is right - it's usually far more convenient to dial up a movie you want to watch on a streaming service rather than find the old DVD in the loft. OK, so you're paying multiple £10 a month (or so), but then you're also not buying physical discs for newer films, so surely it all comes out about the same in the end?
True, but there's a huge loophole that few people realise. Each streaming service has to license each title (whether TV or movie) from the appropriate studio and these licenses come to an end. I've lost count of the number of times that I've searched for a TV show or film that I KNOW was on Netflix or Prime Video, only to see it now listed as premium (in Amazon's case) or sometimes not found at all (Netflix). What's happened is that the license has run out.
Which is where DVD comes in. I have a new strategy and have been following it over the last two years. I browse charity shops and clearance bins when I'm in town anyway and have a quick scan for classics, films and shows I either already love or wish I'd seen, and then I buy the DVD.
It's physical media, which means it can't 'expire' - it's playable for as long as players exist (and they're still being made in 2019), so decades to come, hopefully. Plus there's the added advantage that when the Internet goes down or is very slow one evening, rather than having a frustrating time with nothing to watch or experiencing buffering, one can just watch a DVD/Bluray and have pretty great quality (certainly in terms of audio) with no reliance on anything other than electricity.
I realise that I may seem like a dinosaur to millennials and afterwards. But when Friends expires on Netflix after Christmas 2019, they'll all be round at my house watching my Friends DVD box set, you just know it....!
Comments welcome. Just me?
And to some extent this is right - it's usually far more convenient to dial up a movie you want to watch on a streaming service rather than find the old DVD in the loft. OK, so you're paying multiple £10 a month (or so), but then you're also not buying physical discs for newer films, so surely it all comes out about the same in the end?
True, but there's a huge loophole that few people realise. Each streaming service has to license each title (whether TV or movie) from the appropriate studio and these licenses come to an end. I've lost count of the number of times that I've searched for a TV show or film that I KNOW was on Netflix or Prime Video, only to see it now listed as premium (in Amazon's case) or sometimes not found at all (Netflix). What's happened is that the license has run out.
Which is where DVD comes in. I have a new strategy and have been following it over the last two years. I browse charity shops and clearance bins when I'm in town anyway and have a quick scan for classics, films and shows I either already love or wish I'd seen, and then I buy the DVD.
It's physical media, which means it can't 'expire' - it's playable for as long as players exist (and they're still being made in 2019), so decades to come, hopefully. Plus there's the added advantage that when the Internet goes down or is very slow one evening, rather than having a frustrating time with nothing to watch or experiencing buffering, one can just watch a DVD/Bluray and have pretty great quality (certainly in terms of audio) with no reliance on anything other than electricity.
I realise that I may seem like a dinosaur to millennials and afterwards. But when Friends expires on Netflix after Christmas 2019, they'll all be round at my house watching my Friends DVD box set, you just know it....!
Comments welcome. Just me?
Comments
Best of both