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Post by yanceycravat on Oct 14, 2023 4:32:37 GMT
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Post by topbilled on Oct 14, 2023 6:08:47 GMT
I still occasionally buy DVDs. Sometimes internet service will go out for ten or fifteen minutes while I am streaming something on my TV...and during that time, I may just pop a DVD in for something to watch. Also, not every classic movie or TV series is available for streaming online.
But yes, I can see where DVDs may no longer be manufactured in 5 to 10 years.
As for Best Buy, I never found their prices to be as competitive as the prices on Amazon.
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Post by marysara1 on Oct 14, 2023 9:40:31 GMT
Strange Netflix wants to open physical stores some with theaters read they were selling sleeping bags that look like the Netflix envelopes. Things may change.Amazon wants to show commercials and who wants to belong to so many different streaming services.
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Post by intrepid37 on Oct 14, 2023 12:00:03 GMT
I will buy a movie when it just isn't available from TCM or the public library and I really desire it to be in my DVDR collection.
(I record absolutely every movie I care for, or is of a rare status, to my DVDR library.)
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Post by I Love Melvin on Oct 14, 2023 12:46:26 GMT
Going back fifteen or twenty years I used to buy any new release I wanted from Best Buy because they'd always have a heavily discounted price for the first week or so. Plus my "local" (40+ miles away) Best Buy had a good bargain section with stuff like cheap Hopalong Cassidy collections, etc and they had rows and rows of films by genre. As the years went by the rows shrank and their stock was mostly contemporary stuff with only a few of the classics, many of which I already owned or had recorded. So I haven't set foot in a Best Buy in years, though I'm going to need a new TV soon and will probably go there first. I'm asking Santa for a DVD for Christmas (Deep in my Heart (1954), Stanley Donen's musical biography of Sigmund Romberg with some great numbers, including Gene Kelly dancing with his brother Fred). Mostly now I buy used DVD's from thrift stores and have gotten many of the classics which were too pricey to begin with but I find them now for a buck or fifty cents. One thing I've noticed is that more and more VHS is taking over the shelf space and is apparently a very popular format again, whereas at one point you couldn't even give them away. On the old TCM site there was a guy who used to post about his latest VHS acquisitions and the lengths he had to go to (and the steep price he had to pay) to get them. I said goodbye to VHS happily once DVD came on the scene so I don't get it. There were usually drop-outs after time had passed, the images weren't as sharp and they were almost always butchered pan-and-scan prints. (Though I wish now I'd saved my first three Star Wars VHS's from before Lucas withdrew the original release version from circulation.) I can only chalk it up to nostalgia for people who grew up in the 80's and 90's because as far as I can see there's not much else to recommend VHS.
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Post by Fading Fast on Oct 14, 2023 13:01:27 GMT
Going back fifteen or twenty years I used to buy any new release I wanted from Best Buy because they'd always have a heavily discounted price for the first week or so. Plus my "local" (40+ miles away) Best Buy had a good bargain section with stuff like cheap Hopalong Cassidy collections, etc and they had rows and rows of films by genre. As the years went by the rows shrank and their stock was mostly contemporary stuff with only a few of the classics, many of which I already owned or had recorded. So I haven't set foot in a Best Buy in years, though I'm going to need a new TV soon and will probably go there first. I'm asking Santa for a DVD for Christmas ( Deep in my Heart (1954), Stanley Donen's musical biography of Sigmund Romberg with some great numbers, including Gene Kelly dancing with his brother Fred). Mostly now I buy used DVD's from thrift stores and have gotten many of the classics which were too pricey to begin with but I find them now for a buck or fifty cents. One thing I've noticed is that more and more VHS is taking over the shelf space and is apparently a very popular format again, whereas at one point you couldn't even give them away. On the old TCM site there was a guy who used to post about his latest VHS acquisitions and the lengths he had to go to (and the steep price he had to pay) to get them. I said goodbye to VHS happily once DVD came on the scene so I don't get it. There were usually drop-outs after time had passed, the images weren't as sharp and they were almost always butchered pan-and-scan prints. (Though I wish now I'd saved my first three Star Wars VHS's from before Lucas withdrew the original release from circulation.) I can only chalk it up to nostalgia for people who grew up in the 80's and 90's because as far as I can see there's not much else to recommend VHS.
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Post by sagebrush on Oct 14, 2023 13:35:10 GMT
If you have a used record/CD/DVD retailer anywhere in the vicinity of where you live, they have a plethora of DVDs to choose from. Chances are, you can find a good choice there, or from used retailers online. They generally clean them up pretty well.
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Post by BingFan on Oct 15, 2023 16:18:11 GMT
I’m sorry to hear that Best Buy is discontinuing DVD sales. When Costco did the same a few years ago, our visits to the store dropped from a few times a month to maybe once every other month. My wife and I had definitely been going to Costco just to see if they had any interesting DVDs or blu Rays that we might want to buy, and we’d usually purchase other items at the same time.
Over the years, we found quite a few movies and TV shows on disc that we might not otherwise have purchased, because Costco had very good prices. Costco seemed to offer newly released discs as soon as they came out, everything from classics (we got most of our WB sets there, e.g., the Bogart sets) to newer movies that looked interesting (e.g., THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL) to Criterion Collection discs (which Costco offered at half price for a while — we really expanded our Criterion library from Costco, as well as from the semi-annual Barnes & Noble sales) to British TV shows that we’d never heard of but ended up loving (e.g., KINGDOM with Stephen Fry).
But Costco lost us as steady customers once they discontinued DVD sales.
Of course, I realize that our household is probably unusual in continuing to rely entirely on discs and DirecTV. We can’t effectively stream because our satellite internet service, which is all that’s available in our semi-rural area, can’t handle streaming, unless you want to watch five minutes of buffering for every two minutes of programming.
But even if we could stream, we’d probably still prefer discs. Richard Brody, a New Yorker film critic, recently published an excellent essay on why you should hang on to your discs, rather than being at the mercy of streaming services deciding what you can watch. I agree — I want to watch what I want, when I want. Having our movie and TV collection on disc allows just that. (We also have many dozen DVD-R discs that we recorded primarily from TCM.)
Here’ Brody’s essay:
Richard Brody, What We Lose When Streaming Companies Choose What We Watch, The New Yorker: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/what-we-lose-when-streaming-companies-choose-what-we-watch
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Post by topbilled on Oct 15, 2023 16:50:56 GMT
I am all for embracing new technologies. But at the same time I am not in favor of just getting rid of older technologies, because they aren't in style anymore.
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Post by BingFan on Oct 15, 2023 16:59:26 GMT
I am all for embracing new technologies. But at the same time I am not in favor of just getting rid of older technologies, because they aren't in style anymore.
I should have noted in my message above that Richard Brody doesn’t oppose streaming altogether; in fact, he regularly writes columns about interesting movies available on streaming services. |
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Post by topbilled on Oct 15, 2023 17:19:35 GMT
I don't think these companies have real strategies in place. It's greed that motivates them. DVDs aren't the hot commodity they once were, because all products peak with the public...They want to chase bigger profits by selling other media.
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Post by intrepid37 on Oct 15, 2023 18:33:40 GMT
As a collector, physical media is essential to me. Thus I have little use for streaming. I'll watch some of it, of course, but as it becomes the only option I am displeased about it.
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Post by kims on Oct 15, 2023 22:18:39 GMT
How peculiar. When I have searched for DVD's online at Best Buy, there was always a message that they don't have DVDs.
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Post by cineclassics on Oct 23, 2023 16:00:00 GMT
I don't believe (and I certainly don't wish it to be true) that Best Buy's announcement means the near death of physical media. Over the last 5-10 years, during the streaming era, more niche/smaller labels have formed and are very popular. I think that these labels, along with the behemoth, Amazon, means that physical media will be with us for a long time. However, I do think we could be entering territory where the supply is considerably smaller for various films, and that means either an increase in price or you'll have to hope it's on a streaming platform somewhere.
Also, if and when physical media does cease to exist, do we think that film studios will then release most, if not all of their back catologues of films on their own streaming services? Imagine having all of WB/MGM classic films available under one streaming platform.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 23, 2023 16:10:55 GMT
I don't believe (and I certainly don't wish it to be true) that Best Buy's announcement means the near death of physical media. Over the last 5-10 years, during the streaming era, more niche/smaller labels have formed and are very popular. I think that these labels, along with the behemoth, Amazon, means that physical media will be with us for a long time. However, I do think we could be entering territory where the supply is considerably smaller for various films, and that means either an increase in price or you'll have to hope it's on a streaming platform somewhere. Also, if and when physical media does cease to exist, do we think that film studios will then release most, if not all of their back catologues of films on their own streaming services? Imagine having all of WB/MGM classic films available under one streaming platform. |
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