Physical Media VS Digital

[SoulBlazerFan]

I've always been a big believer in physical Media over digital personally. I own about 1k DVDs and about 300 blu rays. Most in storage ATM.
My question is this: what are your thoughts as of now with dwindling support for physical releases?

I was a big enjoyer of special features, which rarely exist now due to digital releases. In fact, some private labels don't even have the budget to spend on new bonus materials, even something as simple as recording audio commentaries because the money just isnt there.

I also believe there is the lost art of DVD menus. I remember animated menus like my first blu ray, Ghostbusters. There was also Easter eggs and hidden stuff. I remember for the first release of a Nightmare on Elm Street there was a bonus disc that was an actual maze game, where you unlocked the ability to view alternate endings to the first movie.

What say you, do you find the ease of streaking or renting or purchasing digital easier, or do you prefer having something tangible in hand?

[psychokind]

I can understand where you're coming from since I sometimes (as you might know from my posts) buy physical stuff for Terranigma and I like to have some things as decoration in my room.

that being said, I grew up being a hardcore napster and file sharing fan and I don't like to pay for anything that is functionally digital like games, music and movies/TV series.

I download my mp3s from youtube, use adfree youtube pirate apps, watch series from filehosting sites and buy keys from key resellers or pirate games. I am also a huge emulation fan and have all existing games from older consoles readily available on my retroarch setup. I never paid for windows or other microsoft products and I haven't seen ads anywhere in decades.

so for me personally, I love the move to digital releases since it saved me thousands of euros over the years. sometimes I buy movies out of convenience because my wife and kids can't pirate everything like I do. I don't like the recent developements in the streaming world however where you can't buy movies or series and keep them forever. that should be illegal.
in the end - I prefer pirating everything!

[Miss Prime Blue]

I'm someone who's always been into physical over digital - I just like owning my games and media.

However, unfortunately disk rot is a thing, so to protect most of my games I had to transfer mostly all of my older gaming collection to digital (I have a modded wii U for legacy games), except for the newer switch games, most of my gaming collection is digital.

But, physical games are better imo and I like displaying everything on my shelf.

[eFlare]

Physical for sure, it's nice to be able to look at things and to hold them sometimes!

Disk rot is a very real fear, I try to keep digital copies of things I can with backup strategy 3-2-1. Not always feasible but I do what I can.

For games I want to test the waters with, I'll likely buy a digital version first and if I really like it I'll also get a physical one. For indies that put their heart and soul into a physical release, I'll always get the physical one right away!


I'm remembering an interesting conversation I had with a former colleague when Spotify was just becoming an thing on how he though it was stupid that I still bought CDs... I didn't feel stupid at the time and now I think I can laugh all the way to my backup bank

[inferiare]

Unless something is specifically digital only (and some games have been released in the US as digital only, whereas places like the EU get a physical release too), I prefer to have a copy of it in my hands. I like physical soundtracks if I can buy them. Sure, I downloaded music and I stream music and Netflix and all that, but if I get the chance to buy the media I want? I will. For some of my games though, I have 100% made isos of them. I own the game, so the emulation is above board and all, but it means if something happens to the discs over time, I can still play them.