Ok look, I was born in 1999. I clearly remember the transition from DVD to streaming services and I never really thought I had any particular attachment to the way we used to do things, but lemme tell you, just bought myself a DVD player and a few movies and it’s scratching an itch in my brain that I didn’t know I had
There’s just something very satisfying about knowing that I actually OWN these movies y’know? Like, I’ll still have them and would be able to watch them if my internet went out, or if I can’t afford to pay for whatever streaming service that month, or if the streaming service I’m using decides to take the movie I want to watch off their platform. There’s no chance of anyone just taking them away
I feel this so hard, and it really sucks as well because dealing with this a few years before, all that media was on highly sensitive magnetic tape. After watching a VHS a certain amount of time or just storing it for several years, it deteriorates and the already fuzzy and desaturated quality starts getting really shitty, especially compared with the super hd stuff we have now.
As a Card-Carrying 90s Kid, most of my tapes were Disney, and when DVDs came out my parents (and later just me) were adamant that we were not paying AGAIN to own the same movie AGAIN just because of this mythical “vault,” thank you very much, not thinking about this deterioration at the time. And of course now I just don’t want to give any more money to a corporate conglomerate. So while I technically still own these movies, I can’t watch them with any quality and they’re really not worth keeping.
I’ve been slowly accumulating DVDs of beloved old movies, new movies, and new series because damn if I’m paying for a steaming service dependant on a slow, spotty, xfinity internet connection.
I want to watch Willow? DVD. Krull? Howl’s Moving Castle? Knives Out? Lord of The Rings? DVDs, my dudes!
Solid hard copies I OWN, that no one can suddenly take back because the service went under, or a license ran out, or they decided to retire it for some reason.
And from the way the movie section of some stores is slowly expanding again, we’re hardly alone in this sentiment. About five or six years ago, you couldn’t find much more than a single row and a couple of bins of cheapo DVDs at walmart and the like, and it shrunk a little every year. Now, 2020 and 2021? There are three rows of DVDs and 2-3 bins of 5 and 4 dollar movies.
It looks like some streaming services are waking up and smelling the money too, because lots of shows from streaming services are appearing on DVD too.
(via propheticfire)
