Streaming and Physical Media

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I came across this article on the advantages of physical media vs. streaming (https://movieweb.com/is-home-media-dead-in-the-age-of-streaming/), and one of them apparently is that "Chasing down a movie through several streaming sites can be a costly pain, as titles shift from service to service due to copyright. However, just buying the movie outright on DVD or Blu-ray for one price seems like a much easier idea." Isn't it also a pain, though, chase down a physical copy of a movie, especially if it's out of print? What if the one price is $100?

I've been trying to find a Blu-Ray copy of the complete "Pee-wee's Playhouse", but it runs about $100 or so on eBay. So how is that cheap?

I came across this article on the advantages of physical media vs. streaming (https://movieweb.com/is-home-media-dead-in-the-age-of-streaming/), and one of them apparently is that "Chasing down a movie through several streaming sites can be a costly pain, as titles shift from service to service due to copyright. However, just buying the movie outright on DVD or Blu-ray for one price seems like a much easier idea." Isn't it also a pain, though, chase down a physical copy of a movie, especially if it's out of print? What if the one price is $100?

I've been trying to find a Blu-Ray copy of the complete "Pee-wee's Playhouse", but it runs about $100 or so on eBay. So how is that cheap?

We have all the Disney black diamond edition VHS and DVD.
I keep reading the VHS are worth a lot but I find them in the op shop.
They're really cheap on Marketplace too.

I'm looking for a DVD of Winnie the Pooh Seasons of Giving.

You pay that once, and honestly, if you're comparing against streaming, you should be comparing against DVDs as they're a closer match to what you're actually getting when you stream.

There are going to be exceptions like that, but there's a bunch of stuff that isn't being streamed on any service, and a bunch of stuff where you've got so many used copies out there that you can get several for the price of a month of streaming.

That one is rather expensive, but I was able to get 100 hours worth of TV shows for less than half that from Target recently. The cheap stuff kind of balances out the expensive and before too long you've got so much content that having to save up for more isn't an issue as you're not even through the stuff that you've got.

One of the issues with VHS is that it's even less durable than vinyl. They're prone to being eaten by the machines, or damaged by the speakers if they were stored too close to the TV. And the video quality is OK, but if you have dirty heads, that can also degrade the tapes.

I suspect that it probably has a lot to do with where you're located and why you're interested in them. A charity shop near a rich neighborhood often times has some ridiculously good stuff for sale.

Yeah all the stuff about the old Disney Black Diamond VHS releases being valuable is complete nonsense. Pretty sure it started out with some blogs or clickbait websites writing articles claiming these releases were rare and worth a lot of money some years ago and it's just spread around the internet and people who don't know any better will try and sell their old videotapes online for like $5000 because 'Well the internet said they're rare and valuable '

It's honestly hilarious seeing people seriously asking $175,000 for Beauty and the Beast when other people are asking for like $8 (including shipping) for the same exact release.

Or you could pay like $30 for this lot of 14 Black Diamond videos.

So yeah that whole thing about the Black Diamond VHS releases being worth money is total bunk.

How is DVD quality different than Blu-Ray quality? I was under the impression that since they transitioned, they released the DVD and Blu-Ray side-by-side and thus both would have the same quality.



But $100-$200 is quite a lot for just one Blu-Ray, don't you think? I can't afford that. I don't know how anyone can. Also, it's not at Target anymore. It's not anywhere anymore. The article I mentioned explains that it's easy just to buy the movie (or TV show) outright on DVD or Blu-ray as opposed to chasing it down on streaming. Granted. But it's just as much of a pain to chase it down in a brick-and-mortar store, especially if it's out of print. Believe me, I know from experience.

But $30 is still a lot of money.

No?

DVDs are standard definition, you're not getting higher than 480p with them

BDs are an HD capable format, they top out at 1080p. And UHD BDs are 4K

Absolutely massive quality difference.

If you're in a position where $30 is a lot of money, I don't know what to tell you.

I was under the impression they were the same quality since they used to be released at the same time. What's more, if they are different in quality, how is it that DVDs can play on Blu-Ray players?

Also, you didn't answer my question about chasing physical media vs. chasing things on streaming. The article I mentioned explains that it's easy just to buy the movie (or TV show) outright on DVD or Blu-ray as opposed to chasing it down on streaming. Granted. But it's just as much of a pain to chase it down in a brick-and-mortar store, especially if it's out of print, which means it's not found at Target or anywhere else at all (except maybe a used media store). Believe me, I know from experience.

I also would like to direct your attention to this video, which states that you don't actually own any movies, even those on physical media:

Because BD players are backwards compatible with DVDs.

Then what's with the comparisons between Blu-Rays and DVDs?

Also, the article I mentioned explains that it's easy just to buy the movie (or TV show) outright on DVD or Blu-Ray as opposed to chasing it down on streaming. Granted. But it's just as much of a pain to chase it down in a brick-and-mortar store, especially if it's out of print, which means it's not found at Target or anywhere else at all (except maybe a used media store, and even then, there's absolutely no guarantee). Believe me, I know from experience.

Just as a reminder, here's the article in question: https://movieweb.com/is-home-media-dead-in-the-age-of-streaming/.

How is that physical media bitrate is so superior to streaming? Physical media can only hold so much space, can't they?

You also never answered my question about how having to pay $100-$200 for out-of-print physical media is somehow "cheaper" than streaming.

The amount of space available on a DVD, BD, or UHD BD has literally nothing to do with bitrate.

Physical media has a superior bitrate to streaming services because physical media doesn't have to account for things like bandwidth, people's internet connections, data caps (if you live in a country like the US that still has data caps), etc. because it's just playing off a disc.

Streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, etc. would rather compress the video quality for their streams in order to allow for as many people as possible to watch something in 4K (even if the bitrate of their 4K stream is worse than the bitrate of a 1080p BD) VS spending more much money to provide 4K streams at the same bitrate as a 4K BD (which would also be a dumb idea because a 4K BD plays at a maximum bitrate of 128 Mbps, of course that doesn't mean that every 4K BD plays at that maximum bitrate all the time, but that would likely lead to more buffering for users, especially those with slower internet speeds).