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DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

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Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#41

Post by ls612 »

account42 wrote: post #26
sanitycheck wrote: post #22

I always found the DVD experience to be pretty horrible, with all the region-locking, menu garbage and unskippable nonsense. I never felt like a DVD was something I completely owned. At least I could (thanks to DeCSS etc) rip the content off and write it to a blank disc to improve the experience... There are probably ways to do the same with Netflix content these days though, I guess.

> There are probably ways to do the same with Netflix content these days There are but it's not something most end user will be able to do - because the DRM is something that can be realtively easily updated pirates tend to keep their hacks private. Ripping Blu-Rays on the other hand is quite available to anyone interested and gives you better quality than overcompressed streaming sites - but of course the discs are…

I thought the main way of doing it today was exploiting the terrible HDCP spec to downgrade it to 1.4 which is irrecoverably broken, then rip it from that.

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#42

Post by anononaut »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #34
lifestyleguru wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going back to DVD because of unskippable fear inducing anti-piracy and "FBI" warnings. Every time you launch a movie they violate your brain with this nonsense. If I have to rip and tweak the DVD, it's easier to torrent it.

You can't just look away from your TV for 5-10 seconds?

Do you use an ad blocker?

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#43

Post by tj-teej »

anononaut wrote: post #42
add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just look away from your TV for 5-10 seconds?

Do you use an ad blocker?

You wouldn't block an ambulance from getting to a hospital. You wouldn't block a mother from hugging her child. Why would you block an ad??

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#44

Post by goatlover »

rchaud wrote: post #40
fnordpiglet wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this gripe throughout but the streaming subscription service is more like HBO in the old cable days. They had a licensed set of content that rotates every month. You don’t get to own any of it because their whole illusion of catalog depth is based on the rotation semantic. This is less about streaming and more about royalties and licensing. Although still imperfect as an ownership mechanism the analogy to DVDs…

Didn't most people subscribe to HBO for its original series? In the 2000s they had Entourage, Sopranos and Six Feet Under and probably many more I can't remember.

Game of Thrones being the really big one.

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#45

Post by asdff »

sanitycheck wrote: post #23
asdff wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the end of the day its the pirates who are maintaining the library of Alexandria of our times. The pirates we insist on vilifying and speaking little of in technical forums even. What does that make those people who stand against those who seek to spread information? No different than the book burners, in my eyes. A shame so many engineers spend their precious time and efforts fighting on what future generations w…

Alternatively, it's just entertainment and movie DRM is at worst annoying and counterproductive. In X years time when humanity is struggling to rebuild civilisation in a radioactive wasteland I don't think the main problem will be the inability to find a copy of "Dumb And Dumber To". The real heroes will turn out to have been the contributors to Open Source and Open Access projects - Linux, Wikipedia, etc. There are…

There is quite a spectrum between Dumb and Dumber and the great works of art of our time. What runs in common is that both cases are often withheld from the public due to copyright.

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#46

Post by mrguyorama »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #29
stevekemp wrote: post #4

Over the past few months I've actually gone back to buying DVDs. Sure their quality isn't amazing, but they're so practical and dependable. The local charity shops sell movies for €1 each, and boxed-sets of TV-series are typically no more than €5 each. I even managed to pick up a decent DVD player to sit under my TV for €25, used. Before this I used to stream to a chromecast, with VLC, but it was always a bit of a pa…

I'm not going back to DVD because of unskippable fear inducing anti-piracy and "FBI" warnings. Every time you launch a movie they violate your brain with this nonsense. If I have to rip and tweak the DVD, it's easier to torrent it.

You should be ripping the DVD anyway, so that you have easier access to it. My collection of movie files have no FBI warnings. The point of the physical DVD is the legal rights it grants me, like being able to rip it, or sell it, or loan it out.

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#48

Post by mock-possum »

DVDs have never been appealing to me - having to manage a physical collection of fragile storage media, each of which comes with a bunch of unwanted fluff in one form or another - I never understood the appeal of that kind of thing, when you could just have a nice neat directory full of video files on your hard drive (and, of course, a backup.)

No need to fiddle with buying additional devices to hook up to your tv - anything with an hdmi cable will play an mp4 directly on your display of choice. You already have a desktop, or a laptop, or a tablet, or something. No worrying about scratched discs. No worrying about regions or whatever.

DVDs were a stopgap and they deserve to die, in my book. “DVDs vs streaming” is a false dichotomy when “local file playback versus streaming” already exists.

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#49

Post by jacobgorm »

stevekemp wrote: post #4

Over the past few months I've actually gone back to buying DVDs. Sure their quality isn't amazing, but they're so practical and dependable. The local charity shops sell movies for €1 each, and boxed-sets of TV-series are typically no more than €5 each. I even managed to pick up a decent DVD player to sit under my TV for €25, used. Before this I used to stream to a chromecast, with VLC, but it was always a bit of a pa…

My kid is doing the same thing, usually is able to get a handful of used DVDs for 1-2 EUR. He rips them and throws away the covers to save space.

Re: DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again

#50

Post by 7jjjjjjj »

thinkingemote wrote: post #9
stevekemp wrote: post #4

Over the past few months I've actually gone back to buying DVDs. Sure their quality isn't amazing, but they're so practical and dependable. The local charity shops sell movies for €1 each, and boxed-sets of TV-series are typically no more than €5 each. I even managed to pick up a decent DVD player to sit under my TV for €25, used. Before this I used to stream to a chromecast, with VLC, but it was always a bit of a pa…

The other benefits of DVD are the extra features and directors commentary. I'm not sure I've ever seen these on streaming services or torrents. They extend the use of a movie to many hours. I'm still working through the extended versions of Lotr and I've just become aware that the commentary on the normal versions were different!

I run into torrents with the featurettes & commentary included fairly often.
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