When did DVD's become worthless?

There's an awful lot of stuff that can never be in HD because its native form is SD. So DVD is the last hold out for those shows/films I suppose.

 

So many people over the years have said they are safe because they have their collection backed up to the cloud. But how much will it cost you to back up 500 DVDs for example to the cloud?

 

I absolutely do not understand those who say "Why have the physical media? Everything's available on streaming!"

Where?

I have NetFlix and Amazon, and every single time "I think I'd like to watch..." I check and neither has it! There is a great tool called canistream.it and you can enter a particular title, and I'd dead serious - I have never successfully searched for a movie title and found it available for streaming. Oh, they have it on some criminally over-priced "digital rental" that is half the cost of a month of NetFlix, but I will never use that nonsense.

Nope, I'll stick with my library of DVDs and BluRays.

 

And that would be a false sense of security. Storing things in the 'cloud' simply means storing information on someone's else computer. No way would I do that. If you really want to be safe, back things up onto your personal, removable hard drive(s) and make sure you have two copies of every file.

 

Blame the movie studios for that, they are the ones holding back the majority of their popular titles for the delusion that people will be willing to purchase them digitally (often at higher prices that physical copies). Netflix and Amazon Prime would put up everything the studios threw at them, but for the time being they'll just throw them a few table scraps at a time.

They are doing their best to imitate the music industry in the 00's as they stumbled along cluelessly, pretending the internet didn't exist.

I find a lot of stuff to watch, I love independent films and you can find a good selection across these services. But I will say that I probably watch more TV shows on these services than movies.

I saw a figure recently where 60% of the content viewed on Netflix are TV shows.

 

I guess I have been unlucky with my DVD purchases. Everything has been between $15-25. New from Amazon, by the way.

Well, everything except a Seinfeld DVD-set for 9 bucks.

By the way, DVDs look beautiful on my plasma TV (a 720p one).

Streaming is fine but a little glitchy down here. And I like the bonus features from the discs a lot And the front covers for displaying, the inserts, etc.

I think it's unfair the used media stores offer so little for your used DVDs.

 

If they were willing to rent them for a reasonable price - $1 or less - I would rent them.

The thing that galls is that Mom & Pop's Video Shop somehow managed to buy multiple copies of a tape or disc, maintain a physical storefront, pay employees and utilities - and rent a movie to me for $1.

Where the movie studios just upload a single file to a server and provide the same amount of bandwidth that NetFlix and Amazon do, and try claim that they deserve to get 4 or 6 times as much as Mom & Pop did!

To hell with them.

 

Rented streamed movies could seriously be the future. Only if they were reasonably priced. £1 a pop for lesser titles and say £2 for newer releases and I think I’d pretty much give up on physical media unless I adored a movie. At that price I would think ‘what the hell, why not rent it?’ It would lead me to rent a LOT of movies. It would be a goldmine for the studios.

My boring story:

I rented a digital movie for the first time. I’ve been in a Whit Stillman phase and had to see Barcelona which I’ve never seen before. I couldn’t rent a physical copy and Netflix don’t have it (in the UK they have Damsels In Distress which I highly recommend to everyone). An out of print DVD was going for like £30 or something. Amazon had it for digital rental.

By buying a DVD from Amazon I got a £1 digital coupon as part of a promotion. So I rented Barcelona for 24 hours to watch via a games console.

I loved the service. At £1.50 it was just about acceptable. Anything more is too much.

The prices before the coupon were £2.50 for SD and £3.50 for HD. I don’t care much about picture quality and I’m not paying £1 extra for an increase in quality I can barely (if at all) perceive for a one time only viewing.

If this service had a decent price I would be using it all the time.

 

It pissed me off a bit, but more-so it worries me. Granted, I've only seen this a couple times (w/ CB and then w/ something I had just ordered (???)- when I went to check out "The Corner" miniseries reviews, it had changed to Prime only), but that's how things start. I just fear that now that Amazon is so powerful (and has killed off a lot of the competition), they will start introducing more of these restrictive, manipulative type measures.

I wouldn't call the fee for Prime exorbitant, given that you get free 2 day shipping w/ no minimum order, a video streaming service, a music streaming service and many free or very cheap books available on kindle, all for a price slightly below Netflix's price (though you have to pay yearly as opposed to monthly). I've been toying w/ getting it and almost pulled the trigger so I could get CB, but I dislike feeling manipulated. I really enjoyed the video service when I got a free trial not long ago- pretty good content, though not on a par w/ netflix. They had most all of HBO's content available. Though it pissed me off that often you could get an entire series free until the last season; that wasn't available for Prime members and you had to pay to see the last episodes (they get you hooked, then you have to pay $1.99 each to see the final episodes).

I've also noticed that when I get free shipping they take longer to arrive than previously- there used seem to be little difference between 2 day shipping and what you got w/ free shipping from minimum $25 order- after they raised to $35, it started to get slower and now takes a week or more. The trend definitely seems to be getting more restrictive. One of the things I always liked about amazon was their cust serv; I worry that will become less friendly over time- esp. after reading of members who get banned for life! for too many returns w/ no advance warning! They also have gone up in many of their prices and are often no longer the cheapest alternative. The trends are rather discouraging.

 

Great for acquiring, but depressing to think of the huge depreciation for my sizable collection.

 

I still buy DVDs, more than Blu-ray at present.

 

Don't let market price collapse bar you from collecting; should be viewed as the opportunity it is.

 

I could care less what is supposed to be in/out, obsolete or whatever.
For example, I'm perfectly happy with the Criterion and Masters Of Cinema DVDs I have, to the point where I don't feel the need to re-buy their Blu-ray editions even though, sure, there most likely is an increase in picture quality. I'm happy with the DVDs.

 

In the last 2 years, I have purchased so many certified classic movies on DVD for $3.00 each from Big Lots' bargain bin that it is both wonderful and a bit sad.
But I will keep on buying them as I see them...

 

Same as with CDs.

 

Exactly - Don't let the market dictate what you like and want.

 

Here's what I eventually see happening. Each major studio will have their own streaming website where, for a monthly or yearly fee, you'll have access to that studio's library of films and/or TV series; either to rent or buy...kind of like what Criterion has going with Hulu. But my feeling is that that they will no longer need to remaster older films, offer supplements, commentaries, etc. A sort of one size fits all. Some content may be available for a while, then removed to offer other material. I just remember watching on Netflix or Amazon Prime "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" in HD for no extra rental fee. When I went back months later to finish watching it, one had to rent it or buy it. Purchasing the blu ray was cheaper than buying the film online. People will be at the mercy of the studios for content. Now, I just pop a disc in my player & I'm done. One time purchase fee; a lifetime of pleasure.

 

I see this happeneing as well. So in addition to our monthy cable & satelite bills we will have monthly bills for all of the studios that we want to watch films from.

I see the future of entertainment is going to be very expensive for the consumer when all we have is streaming.

 

I've never checked to see what the difference in asking price for used CD vs used DVDs is. But I suspect that the mark-up is higher for DVDs.

 

I don't know why people think our pending streaming/cloud world will be anything but an endless, confusing corporate toll booth that ends up costing more than our old cable/internet/satellite bill, while delivering all kinds of technological snafus in the form of constant firmware and software updates, exclusives/exclusions and and unavoidable tracking and advertising.

Just to watch :15 highlights of a baseball game I listened to last night, I'd have to sit through an unskippable commercial, for each and every highlight.

 

I'm going back and filling holes in my collection by buying used CD's that I missed new because I bought the version on iTunes. I've found that if it was released prior to around 2010, they are dirt cheap. Once you get to more recent titles the prices increase - I assume because there are fewer copies out there.

I think you could expect the same for DVDs and Blu-rays. Get 'em while you can.

 

What are you seeing that indicates these are available to Prime members only? I can't see anything obvious, but I'm a Prime member so I wouldn't expect any such restrictions to be visible while I'm logged into Amazon's site.

 

I get deals sent to my e mail that are prime members only all the time.Cheeses me off too.

 

Their brains are cloudy, they can't think clearly.

 

not for me...actually I did not buy my DVDs to make a profit...or care if they are worthless in trade or sale...I just love having movies to watch at my beck and call.