Fewer and fewer movies and TV series are being released in physical format, but streaming platforms do not provide enough for some film buffs, who miss the extras they offered
I do miss the "making of" features that showed behind the scenes but as computers got better and movie execs got cheaper it wasn't that interesting to just be like "well we did it with a green screen and then in post." for fucking EVERYTHING...
It was much more fun watching pure artists at their craft making models and explosions and trick camera work for practical effects.
My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.
I always loved the behind the scenes for Eternal Sunshine. Kate was so excited about the production, she'd be like "I had to crawl through this hole into a different set and do a quick costume change so we could do it all in one take."
The making of Fury Road is quite fascinating, the bulk of the vehicles and stunts are real. A lot of the Fast and the Furious stunts and vehicles are real as well.
I am disappointed it feels like physical media is slowly going away though. It's not only nice to have a physical collection in my opinion, but it directly supports the stuff you like, and you don't have to deal with the bs that comes with digital "ownership" or the ever changing mess that are streaming services.
Check out bandcamp. It's for music, but you can stream tracks to give them a listen, and then buying them nets you a straight up file download in an audio format of your choice.
A world where you can both support the creator online, and receive something you get to keep in return, is possible.
i feel like my 24TB of movies and tv is a physical copy. i can watch over 2500 movies or 30,000 episodes perfectly curated with extras, commercial free and can hand a copy to my kids on a single drive.
Haha! Physical media has been "slowly going away" since before UHD existed as a format. Just keep buying whatever format you like and distributors will keep it going. Look at all the catalog titles and niche (often limited special run) titles still being added to UHD.
Discs mean too much hassle. I'd have to rip them all prior to storing the movies on my harddrives. Streaming subscriptions are convenient, but too limited and they don't offer the best quality. IMHO, a download option is the best of both worlds.
You're a drip. I buy DVDs used from pawn shops and garage sales. I'm leaving a mouse-sized carbon footprint; there's no "toxic trash" that didn't already exist.
walking in to the smell of fresh popcorn, getting an enormous bag of it for like 99 cents, walking up and down the aisles browsing the latest releases for something that non-algorythmically catches your eye to watch over the weekend.
Maybe even swinging through the game aisle to pick up the new game that just came out.
It was an experience that is lost and will never be replicated by streaming/rental boxes/etc/etc.
Worse, the loss of physical ownership. You do not own anything you buy on a streaming service. Sony as proven that on more than one occasion. You are also stuck to the whims of your internet connection.
But physical media? You can play that anywhere, any when, any how. WIth no worry for stable internet connections and other bullshit.
Physical media isn't dead, you can still buy DVD/Bluray disks for popular content, unless it's a platform exclusive.
So if you really value physical media, buy it and refuse to use streaming services. I rip mine to Jellyfin so I get the same streaming platform experience, while owning physical media. If my kids want to watch something, I order it and rip it. If my internet connection dies, I still have access to it because it's on my local network. If someone wants to borrow it, I just give them a copy (or I can point them to my Jellyfin service, which is also available outside my house).
my local video store had the perfect setup. they were next to a pizza place and actually installed a window connected to it so you can order a pizza and look for a movie to watch while waiting for it to be ready. it was perfect. now its a stupid ass dollar store
It seems like the extras were for a specific limited demographic. When the costs of producing the extra content, and sales of the physical media are taken into account.... I would guess that when a no-extras vs extras version of the same movie was available, the one that was cheaper with less content sold more.
I enjoyed the extra features on a handful of shows, but I think this is a smaller sales-base than the author realizes.
Yeah, I honestly don't care about those extra features. What I do care about is being able to have perpetual, legal access to content. I can't get that w/ streaming services, so my only other option is to buy physical media.
Sometimes there are genuine jewels in there. Talledaga Nights directors commentary is absolute gold. Might be as funny as the movie itself. Adds a layer of lore you didn't know you needed.
I feel the same way. I like the streaming/VCR experience of hitting play and seeing the media. Those old DVD menus that wanted me to mess with extras sucked.
The 480p streams on Youtube are significantly worse than 480i/p video on Laserdisc or DVD, that's not a fair comparison. Youtube's compression algorithm is utter shit for picture quality.
Back when the remake of Battlestar Galactica was on the air the showrunner Ronald D. Moore had a podcast where he'd sip some scotch and smoke a couple cigarettes and provide commentary for the episode. It worked really well, and got me to watch the show twice because I wanted to follow along. Eventually they made it onto the DVD/Bluray releases as commentary audio tracks.
With the growth of podcasting I'm amazed other shows haven't done something similar.