Physical Media?

[TheSurgeon]

We're in an age where if you want to watch a TV show or movie, you just fire up Netflix, Amazon Prime or any other streaming service of your choice.

For music, you put on Spotify or Deezer. Lot's of new cars these days don't even have a CD player.

Who here still regularly buys DVD's, Blu Rays and CD's to build a collection. Do you go around charity shops or CEX to find a hidden gem?

For the retro collectors, have you kept hold of all your old vinyls, cassettes and VHS?

Do you have a room in your place where it's all displayed? Let's see them.

Edited June 22, 2022 by TheSurgeon

[DavidB6937]

I had about 2500 DVDs at the height of my collection. Had to get rid of most of them when I moved and had kids etc.

I still collect some steelbooks and I've been buying some of my favourite movies on 4K. But yeah sadly I've had to scale back as I love having shelves full of them!

Always had a massive VHS collection. Have fond memories of those, especially the wrestling ones.

If I won the lottery I'd definitely have a dedicated room to physical media and games etc. And another to books.. they're another thing I love but just take up so much space.

Definitely miss the buzz of finding out what was being released on DVD etc. Not quite the same on streaming!

[WyattSheepMask]

2 minutes ago, TheSurgeon said:

We're in an age where if you want to watch a TV show or movie, you just fire up Netflix, Amazon Prime or any other streaming service of your choice.

For music, you put on Spotify or Deezer. Lot's of new cars these days don't even have a CD player.

Who here still regularly buys DVD's, Blu Rays and CD's to build a collection. Do you go around charity shops or CEX to find a hidden gem?

For the retro collectors, have you kept hold of all your old vinyls, cassettes and VHS?

Do you have a room in your place where it's all displayed? Let's see them.

I used to buy CD’s all the time but Spotify changed everything when I got that. I’ll still buy physical releases of my absolute favourite acts, but there’s probably only about 5 or 6 on that list.

Similar with BluRay, I’ll only buy something if I absolutely love it, and in the case of 4K I’ll only buy it on that if the film benefits from it, Blade Runner 2049 being a prime example of that.
Special Features also play a big part in whether I’ll buy it or not. The last few years discs have become super stingy on bonus content, a couple of deleted scenes here and there, an Outakes reel…who gives a shit. Give me a decent commentary and a proper Making of doc any day. Saying that, I bought The Batman on release day and was super pissed to find that the Commentary by Matt Reeves was an iTunes exclusive. If I want to hear that anytime I’m going to have to fork out another 14 quid, which is bullshit.

 

[gmoney]

I still buy Blu Rays of films I love like Robocop and, um The Wiz. Haven't bought a CD or record in at least 10 years I don't think. 

[SuperBacon]

Books. Lots and lots of books. About 200ish.

I do have a Kindle, but I barely use it to be honest. I find I don't retain the information like I do with a book.

 

[Merzbow]

Cassettes are my fetish, I like to have something physical and they're cheaper than anything else while often have cooler cases than CD's these days with some really fancy extras. The cassettes themselves are mostly coloured with one recent one from Kuunatic being gold and glitter filled plastic.

I get the odd CD and record still if that's the only way to get something I really want.

New cassettes also come with download codes so I've still got the FLAC files for full quality.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Merzbow

[HarmonicGenerator]

Still all about books. There are certain things I’ll get on Kindle but if I want it on the bookshelf it’s got to be the physical copy.

DVDs / Blu Ray I’ll still get sometimes, usually if I really loved it or it’s part of a set (I started collecting the MCU films on DVD in about 2012 and can’t stop now).

CDs is very rare but that’s because I’m so out of the loop on music. I still use iTunes though so I’m out of date in a whole other way there.

[DavidB6937]

4 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

(I started collecting the MCU films on DVD in about 2012 and can’t stop now).

MCU steelbooks for me. If only I'd known there would be so many..?

[Egg Shen]

I still pick up the odd cd, mainly because i still have cd player in my car and i find i'll always put more effort into listening if it's something i've bought. I had a pretty big DVD/Blu-ray collection that i've moved almost entirely to wallets and slung the cases, mainly due to storage space. I would have sold them on, but they are worth so little I decided to hang on to them.

I'll never start buying vinyl, even though I really want too. It's just a rabbit hole I can't go down.

Recently though I made a trip to a local tip and whilst I was there an old man was throwing away a collection that he must have paid thousands for. He had packed them tightly in black bags, each pack contained around 50-70 Blu-ray movies and 4k movies and he had around 12 of these packages to drop off. The tip bloke asked if i wanted to have a look through them and take some, I got cheeky and said i'd take as many as I could. I took 5 packs (would have taken more but didn't want to take the piss), and ended up with about 250 movies, mostly collectors editions and in mint condition. It was a great day.

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

I still buy CD's have around 1500 now in my collection. I also have a vinyl collection which is growing at a rapid rate. I don't have Spotify.

I do buy the occasional movie on 4k disc but only if it is one of my favourite films or I have most of the other films in the franchise.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz

[TildeGuy~!]

I was at a stage last year where I bought around roughly 50 or so Korean/Japanese Movies on DVD and Blu Ray, now I have no where to put them.

In regards to CDs I’ve always wanted to buy the Final Fantasy soundtracks but Square Enix are now selling something called a Revival soundtrack for each game which is basically a blu ray disc that shows footage of the game whilst all the tracks play.

Edited June 22, 2022 by TildeGuy~!

[wordsfromlee]

I'm a vinyl collector but not one of those ones that has to have first pressings/limited colours/etc. As long as it has the tracks on it and is a decent pressing, I'll have it. I don't have many - about 400 or so plus a load more that are for sampling purposes which I don't count on my Discogs.

Speaking of Discogs, while it's fun cataloging your collection, seeing the average total it's worth can bring a tear to your eye.

[Lorne Malvo]

I used to be mad on physical media up until around 2 years back. My DVD collection was ridiculous. The ease and convenience of streaming services just killed my interest, to be honest. I don't remember the last DVD or CD I bought. 

With games I'm probably about 50% digital and 50% physical now, and I only really buy physical for games I'm not sure about so I can get a few quid back if I want to trade in. 

I've gone the opposite way with reading though. I was an early adopter of the Kindle but the last few years I've jacked that in and started buying actual books again. There's just something about holding a book that brings me joy that doesn't happen with a Kindle. Plus I like to see how many pages I am from the end instead of just being told 'you're 73% through this novel'.

[Cannibal Man]

often bankrupt myself on films on Blu Ray from Arrow, 88, Eureka and Vinegar Syndrome. Only really gone into overdrive since more of the UK companies started releasing kung fu films in HD. I can go into HMV soon if I want and buy a nice 4K scan of Seventh Curse full of extras and every imaginable language and subtitle option rather than having to send a cheque to an American with a five week turnaround for a DVD-R so it's been an expensive but good couple of years.

[The Gaffer]

51 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

I'm a vinyl collector but not one of those ones that has to have first pressings/limited colours/etc. As long as it has the tracks on it and is a decent pressing, I'll have it. I don't have many - about 400 or so plus a load more that are for sampling purposes which I don't count on my Discogs.

Speaking of Discogs, while it's fun cataloging your collection, seeing the average total it's worth can bring a tear to your eye.

Discogs also gets intense when you accidentally add the wrong variant out of a possible seventy of an album to your collection, and log back in to find five months worth of messages from someone in Wroclaw begging you to part with your studio demo pressing of Rotting Christ. 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Gay as FOOK