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My husband was right about DVDs

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351–360 of 428 posts

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#351
post #19

>I still don’t actually use our DVDs and Blu-rays all that often. But every time I see them lining the shelves, I feel a bit of comfort. Because when I do need them, they’ll be there. The importance of that type of redundancy depends on the viewing habits of a particular person. In the case of my friend, the "don’t actually use our DVDs all that often" really was "never re-watched the DVDs she owned" . She had a DVD…

I'd be curious in a few years. I don't watch old things anymore and keep consuming youtube stuff, but honestly I don't like it anymore. It's not the same somehow. ps: I just bought a dvd from CL

Like others, I don't rely on the streamed content being available in the future, so I hoard content.

I wrote a Python app that runs on a Raspberry Pi that continually plays the content that I have accrued. Some of the content I schedule, other content is random.

It just runs on a downstairs TV. I enjoy accidentally catching some old film, or a musical or something I pulled down from YouTube of a guy making furniture....

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#352
post #84
post #19

>I still don’t actually use our DVDs and Blu-rays all that often. But every time I see them lining the shelves, I feel a bit of comfort. Because when I do need them, they’ll be there. The importance of that type of redundancy depends on the viewing habits of a particular person. In the case of my friend, the "don’t actually use our DVDs all that often" really was "never re-watched the DVDs she owned" . She had a DVD…

And there's even a third option: Rip the DVDs, keep the digital copies somewhere safe, and discard the physical discs. If you want to ensure that this remains safe, you'll need to both back up and periodically transfer the digital copies to new physical storage devices (in my case, I just upgraded from the ~4-yr-old 4TB HDD that was holding all my media to a new 16TB HDD). This is, however, kind of a necessity in any…

Yep, prefer rips to my actual DVDs. If for no other reason the film starts right away. :-)

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#353
post #9

If only there were some way to download anything you wanted even if it was never released on DVD or Blu-ray and isn't on streaming anymore....

If you're alluding to torrents, it's common that obscure stuff is not being seeded.

I think you need to go pretty niche before it's not available on even public torrents. Everything mentioned in this article is.

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#354

I wish this article had mentioned the greatest thing about DVDs: You can lend them. Have a friend over and find out they have never seen before?! No need to quick search and figure out if it's on a streaming service they have, just walk over and snatch it off your shelf and hand it to them. In the 00s the trade in media lending was so brisk my friends and I would keep spreadsheets and little databases of who-borrowed…

I lent almost none of my DVDs and VHS tapes(!) back in the day because the fact of the matter is /people never gave them back/. Not even good friends. It's one of those lessons I learned early in life. If you're going to lend something to someone, do so with the expectation you're never getting it back.

As the saying goes (more or less)... "One who lends a book is a fool, but one who gives it back is a greater fool"

So maybe we can also apply it to movies and other works

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if it was never released on DVD or Blu-ray, then where did the source for the torrents come from? If I saw a file with the name of something I knew wasn't available on a shiny round disc, I would be very skeptical and hesitant to download it from fear of it not being what it said it was. I damn sure don't want to go to the hassle of downloading a VHS transfer

If a VHS transfer is the only way to re-experience something that blew me away as kid, you bet I'll be happier with a VHS transfer than with nothing at all. Not everything needs to be pixel-perfect.

On YouTube, been watching Siskel and Ebert reviews that are clearly VHS transfers. It works. I'm just watching to enjoy their banter and queue up some films I missed from the 80's and 90's.

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#356

I'm a very happy Apple Music subscriber, but I'm also 52 and so own thousands of CDs and hundreds of LPs. I subscribed to AM for a possibly non-intuitive reason: for me, the "all you can eat" aspect is secondary. The driver was "stop syncing my phone." My library is too large to carry on my main computer, so the "music computer" had to be the one running iTunes and whatnot. Getting something new on there was a hassle…

YouTube Music also has this adding your own files feature.

I miss Google Play Music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play_Music

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#357
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We need the same, but for movies and tv shows. And audiobooks! Audible is stupid.

How is it stupid? I haven't paid attention, but I thought audiobooks were now on a Spotify-like system?

If only! Audible is like Amazon Prime Videos - selection of free access books and then, depending on how much you pay per month, one or two "premium" books. Of course most of the books you really want to listen to are "premium." So essentially, you get to rent one book for ~$15/month or two for ~$23/month.

IOW - stupid.

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pirate bay is that backup option, at least for me. To use your example of the X-Files, you can currently download a 75 GB torrent with every season + extras and it will only take a few hours. I think people continue seeding torrents for longer than DVDs reliably last.

I've never understood the appeal of downloading pirate movies. Feels dodgy, always a hassle trying to fight your way through all the scams and malware and porn and when you get the movie it's of questionable quality. If I buy a DVD then I get perfect quality in a nice case in a day or two without having to visit the seedy red light district of the Internet only to get dud contraband.

I'm not sure of what are you exactly picturing in your mind about how the experience is of downloading a pirated movie. But opening up the qBittorrent application in your PC or Mac, clicking on the "search" tab, and writing "Pirates of the Caribbean", doesn't feel at all as interesting and creepy as walking at night through the red lights district of amsterdam. That'd be awesome!

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#359
post #263
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point was this. Maybe they have that carte blanche power. Isn't a good public library system (where the work is also accessible) a good enough counterweight to that power?

An original streaming-only movie or tv show will never be on a DVD at a library. I would say it is almost an -service- to society to continue to torrent content that has been edited or purged by major platforms.

This is something that could and should be fixed with legislation

Re: My husband was right about DVDs

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube Music also has this adding your own files feature.

I miss Google Play Music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play_Music

Looks similar to YouTube Music, from what I can see on the screenshots. What is there that you miss about it?
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