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Less and less DVDs in shops
yoshmyster
Member Posts: 22,059 ✭✭✭✭
I was in Walmart and they moved or got rid of the "cheap bin" of DVDs. They also moved in crap into the DVD rack. I guess I better buy a spare blu ray player since the writing on the wall is "Streaming".
Comments
My old eyes can't tell the difference between a VHS, DVD, or a blue ray disc when watching anyway! I actually miss the VHS for several reasons. Mostly due to my stubborn ways about CHANGE in status quo. Just when I get used to something, along comes something and my old something becomes obsolete and unavailable!
Reality is only going to be found in museums,
signed in a serf-ing like manor
Another reason why I am hesitant to completely embrace the "Online only" is two-fold with effectively the same culprit. It used to be if you got Blu-Ray and some DVD's, you'd get Ultraviolet which basically was a downloadable version. You could also just buy it digitally and only on Ultraviolet. Well, that closed down some months back. Since I still have the DVD, no biggie. But, for those that don't, I am not sure if there was any recourse.
The other reason is I also play PC games. It used to be you bought the disk and could play indefinitely. Now, even single player games have to phone home to a server in order to play. That effectively time-gates something that I bought and paid for. Obviously, multiplayer games without a LAN-only option is a different animal entirely. Add this to the fact that games are getting bigger (take more bandwidth and data) and more expensive, and it is easy to see why one would like to have it on disc when possible so you can install it faster and play as long as you want. I have a couple of games that I bought during Windows 3.1 that I still play occasionally.
Naww, that couldn't be it, I have owned albums in 3 formats, but I am sure they didn't want to make more money, just for me to have the, ahem, best listening experience. I like CDs best. I just got a new digital player that I can plug into the stereo in the pick-up. Gonna put audio books in that sucker, drive to Tulsa for the show and never mess with the stereo once.
I had a Beta & still have VHS. I also have a Technicolor recorder. The drive bands turned to goo & there is no way to copy the tapes I have of my kids from over 30 years ago. It was a portable recorder you carried with a strap over your shoulder & a separate camera. The tapes look like cassette tapes.
I would bet that there is a specialty camera shop that could turn your tapes into disc form. We have one in my area that does a lot of old slides, VHS format, and even old photo's or negatives, all made into modern discs. They aren't cheap, but for priceless family memories it can be worth the cost.
wpageabc - "Thrift shops and library's :ugeek: sell them used for a dollar..." If you can find one you like and if it's not all jacked up. I should stop in to Good Will more often to look but it's a mess.
Brookwood - I don't understand "streaming". I think it's like renting but if you stop the service you just kind a have just memories? If I'm paying I want something in hand. Like some people want gold in hand.
Smitty500mag - "If my Beta ever wears out I'm gonna get me a VHS player." You are the Master Beta
I'll have to keep up and buy a "spare" Blu ray player when they disco them.
There is a small resale store in my little town that sells old VHS tapes 10 for a dollar! They seem to always have a pretty good supply of those things as well. I go there about once a month and it takes me a good 20 minutes to scour through all the new inventory that is brought in regularly. Have found quite a few very hard to find out of print (if that phrase makes sense) movies there.
Just a few months ago, I found the original movie " Seven Samurai" there!!
Well, things like Pay Per View are really "pay per viewing". But, if you use a streaming service, you can watch it repeatedly if you'd like. Some sites have a rotation, likely due to storage space, so a movie might not always be available, but generally come back around. That said, we have been Netflix member for ~12 years but didn't start streaming for a few years. They just never seem to put the best, big blockbuster movies on streaming. So, for those we got on the 2 disc DVD plan. I have been doing trials on other providers though. It seems every change they make is for the worse. The biggest is the trend to have even less and less "movie theater" movies and more of their on branded stuff. That makes sense financially, but not from the customer side. Combine that with less movies also being on there because they keep putting more and more TV shows on there. They have also changed the 1-5 star rating to a thumbs up or down and removed the written review section. It sure looks like they are guiding you to watch their featured films. Most things have a lot of gray area between yes and no (or thumbs up / down in this case). Lastly, they changed their streaming website substantially so it has gotten less and less reliable and easy to use (I am in I.T. / technology field so not a stranger to it). They have zero ways to submit comments about all this. Oddly, the DVD website side still retains the earlier more stable version. It doesn't auto-play previews, one can sort without it reloading the page every time, etc.
I am currently trialing Hulu but it appears to have a lot of TV shows and self-produced shows too. Since we already have Amazon Prime, I have been using their Prime Video. It is a little clunky, but it seems just as good as Netflix for selection, stability, etc.