Anyone on here buy or collect physical media?

[Sex Cannon Lupa]

Books should always be physical if possible, but I'm starting to understand why people prefer streaming for media. DVDs, Cds, etc. have never been cheaper and I've been picking up so many deals in the last year that I have piles of stuff all over the living room.

 

[RolandD-10]

DVD's and vinyl here. The HD quality of Blu-Ray and 4k doesn't really do enough for me to justify it. Also more convenient since my laptop has a DVD drive.
I typically listen to FLAC's downloaded to my computer and RockBox'd iPod, but vinyl is just so much fun. Nice big artwork, very hands-on operation.
Also Dreamcast titles because I'm afraid of busting the laser playing burned games.

 

[Vingle]

No, I prefer not having that as decor.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

When it comes to buying media, I pretty much only buy physical copies.

I don't like this "pay for DLC" or "pay for streaming" crap.

 

[White Devil]

I still have a decent sized VHS and DVD collection but my interest in expanding them have waned. Especially with the specific conditions VHS have to be stored in if you don't want them to degrade even faster.

Nowadays I just have a massive digital file reservoir for media that I back up every so often. I don't do streaming, all of that can be taken away or edited at will, we saw it just last year. This way I can still maintain a library that at least is still mine.

 

[seri0us]

Remember when everyone used to have giant folders on their computer full of MP3 files? Well, I guess some still do, but it's so convenient to just pull up the song you wanna listen to on YouTube so why bother. If YouTube ever disappears it's gonna suck.

I do this today, but a lot of it is flac.

 

[Harvey Danger]

I don't collect generally. But there's a handful of albums and movies I want to always have available, no hassle, because I revisit them every few years. Those get physical media purchases, currently CD or DVD because they last a long time and can easily be copied. The only hardware I need for safety is a single DVD-RW drive, which lets me copy them to different formats whenever necessary.

Every few computers or platforms I re-rip some into digital format, which is a lot more reliable than waiting for it to show up on Spotify or find another copy on YouTube after a copyright strike. Cloud stuff is more convenient, but it's unreliable and usually you pay as it scales up. Folders full of mp3s are always available in offline mode, and don't require a plugin to stop an ad from interrupting the music.

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

Used to collect CD's, when younger dolls and stuffed animals.

Now just books.

 

[purple mattress]

i tend to collect books for tabletop games or textbooks if its a subject i enjoy, i just don't like e-books that much. a few cd's here and there also.

 

[lemonsolebrother]

Sure do - books, vinyl and blu-ray

 

[BootlegPopeye]

I was going to create this thread months ago, but couldn't think of a good opener. The answer is yes. I prefer physical media over streaming services, which at one point caused me to sell all of my discs, because of the fracturing nature of the service (no longer 2-3, now you have every company with their own half assed 'service') I realize that to just have what I wanted, the best solution was just to have it on disc.

Yes, I know some people here will say JUST PIRATE IT! but if you have non-nerd tastes, it can sometimes be a real challenge to find what you want on torrent sites in decent quality. That, and I got tired of maintaining huge warez libraries that quadrupled the size of the hard drives I needed on my desktop.

It seems like our masters want to move us all over to no-ownership 'e-media' that they can censor/delete at will.

For books, I am much pickier about what I let in my library for spaces reasons. I've sold off/donated/given away quite a few, and I am about to get rid of more. At one point, my entire living room was filled with stacks of books that I had no space for.

 

[Stasi]

Pretty much just books now.

I had a decent collection of retro games but then I had to move house. Between the ass pain of moving/storage, realising I'm not playing them and that I can just emulate any time I want I got rid of them.

Other media I just torrent. I have a shit load of movies and shows on a small form factor pc and Jellyfin set up for personal streaming, it's pretty comfy. Oh I do have a bunch of CDs from when I used to buy music, mostly because no one wants to buy my 90s hip hop CDs and I don't want to just throw them out.

I have started keeping an eye out for DVD box sets because some shows and movies are either hard to find on torrent sites or no one is seeding because they are so niche.

 

[Drkinferno72]

Trying to start a collection of vinyls.

 

[AnimeGirlConnoisseur]

I have some physical books and manga. I just prefer reading that way. I have a console and I always get the physical releases for it when I can. It probably just for nostalgia reasons. For PC games, I just get everything off Steam. I torrent all of my anime, because fuck Funimation and Crunchy Roll.

Other media I just torrent. I have a shit load of movies and shows on a small form factor pc and Jellyfin set up for personal streaming, it's pretty comfy.

That sounds pretty cool. I should try that.

 

[Jump]

Yes. DVD's are basically free now at the local flea markets. Normally a dollar or 11 for 10bux. I collect books mostly service manuals and tech how-to stuff. Text books on different subjects I am interested in. They are cheap on Abebooks.

I also archive old technical web 1.0 sites and ftp servers and burn the files to mdisc, dvd or br.
I collect and restore certain types of old electronic and communication gear and information on this stuff is just vanishing from existence. So when I come across anything related I swoop it up even if I don't have a need for it today. With everything being sucked up by Big Tech globo homo platforms the old forgotten ftp.jsmith.someschool.edu type sites are vanishing.

 

[Slap47]

Books should always be physical if possible, but I'm starting to understand why people prefer streaming for media. DVDs, Cds, etc. have never been cheaper and I've been picking up so many deals in the last year that I have piles of stuff all over the living room.

I prefer books to be digital and only buy physical copies to if I want somebody else to read the book as well.

 

[Kornula]

I distrust digital media. For one thing, it can evaporate far too easily. Streaming services are inconsistent .. and/or you're at their mercy of what they want to show you. I have bookshelves of DVDs I have digitized ..but burned 90% of my music collection onto disks filled with MP3s.
I love the expediance and convience of having digital media at my fingertips...but they are not 100% reliable .

 

[Jump]

I have digitized ..but burned 90% of my music collection onto disks filled with MP3s.

That's another thing nice about CDroms. I just burn piles of music MP3s, pirated audio books, podcasts, what ever to cdom and put it in my cars CD player. My radios all play mp3 files so the stuff is just there ready to go as soon as you start the car. No fucking with bluetooth and shitty cell phone apps with restrictions and commercials. No cell service no problem.

 

[Overly Serious]

If like me you enjoy stuff more for what it is than for the online discussions around it (though they are fun, too), then you can get huge quantities of good books, movies and TV shows dirt cheap second hand. Shop around a bit on Amazon, ebay or local charity shops and markets and, for example, complete Sarah Connor Chronicles for £12. What is that? Around 21hrs of pretty good serial (bar the three dots subplot) for very little. If you enjoy reading, you can get an even better return on your investment. Substitute in whatever TV shows you personally like, principle still holds. If you're not wedded to seeing what's "new", there's some great stuff out there for very cheap. At least for now, the more they push rental models and not owning what you buy, the less and less there's going to be. So that's another good reason to buy physical media - it holds back the "Own Nothing and You Will Be Happy" WEF ideas.

 

[Derped223]

Yeah, own both Blue-ray's, dvd's, and a few vhs tapes. Alot of it consists of movies dad owned before passing, so I have a few hundred movies and TV shows. Can't really justify getting Netflix or many streaming services now.