In Defense of Physical Media: Why You Should Keep Buying Blu-rays and DVDs
BY MATT GOLDBERG
FEBRUARY 1, 2018

I started collecting DVDs in my senior year of high school, and continued to collect them throughout college, which, in retrospect, was not the smartest idea since at the end of every school year I would have to pack up boxes and boxes of DVDs to either send home or store with family who lived near campus. And yet I don’t regret collecting these DVDs because it gave me a valuable resource and a way to dive into movies. The age of DVDs was a bit of a renaissance for film fans since A) we finally got our movies in the correct aspect ratio as opposed to the days of pan-and-scan on VHS; B) there could be a wealth of special features that sometimes functioned like film school in a box; and C) there was an easy way to share movies I loved with friends.

But the days of the DVD/Blu-ray collection have come to a close. The big player these days is streaming, and in theory, it’s a good one. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, and others offer a plethora of choices. No longer do you have to pay $15-20 for a movie on a disc and then find a place for that disc in your home. You pay around $12/month and get a bunch of movies or you can just rent the one you want from iTunes or Vudu for $3-7 depending on how new it is. If push comes to shove, you can find your way to a Redbox and rent a new release for a night. On the surface, one viewing medium has been replaced with another.

air-force-one-blu-ray-box-cover-artHowever, look closer and the imperfections of the streaming landscape start to become clear. To illustrate this, let me tell you a story about wanting to watch Air Force One on July 4th last year. I own Air Force One on Blu-ray, but the Blu-ray didn’t come with a digital copy, so the disc was the only way to watch it. Unfortunately, the majority of my discs (Air Force One included) were in storage since I had recently moved out of my apartment and was living with my mom while I waited for my fiancée’s lease to end so we could move into a new apartment together.

But surely, Air Force One, the fifth-highest grossing film of 1997, would be available on a streaming service. Netflix? Nope. Amazon Prime? No dice. Hulu? Sorry, not here. Okay, well maybe we can rent it on Vudu? Not listed. Not even iTunes? Sorry, bub. Air Force One, which is by no means an obscure movie, was not streaming. Period. There was no point going to Redbox because it wasn’t a new movie, and we conveniently killed Blockbuster Video thinking we would never need it again. Even the option of going to a Best Buy or Barnes & Noble was out because, again, if it’s not a new title, they probably don’t carry it.

“This is just one title!” you exclaim. Most of the time, you can find what you need. Perhaps, but I would counter that in this scenario, your viewing desires are at the mercy of the streaming services, not at what you’ve chosen to buy or not buy. That’s not to say that streaming services or online rentals don’t offer plenty of movies. They do! Nor is that to say that DVD and Blu-ray offer every single movie ever. They don’t! (I had to order a region-free DVD of 1972’s Sleuth) My larger point is a matter of who controls the movies you watch, and a group of consumers that’s not being served.

Yesterday, Indiewire’s David Ehrlich tweeted that Amazon’s Wonderstruck won’t be receiving a physical release of any kind. Flavorwire editor Jason Bailey did get a response that a physical release would be on the way at some point, but for the foreseeable future, the only way to watch Todd Haynes’ film will be online (and hey, wouldn’t you know it, Amazon has a streaming service). That means if you wanted to buy it and watch it (without being at the mercy of an internet connection), you’re out of luck. Want to loan it to a friend? Give them your Amazon password, I suppose. No, Wonderstruck didn’t blow up at the box office, but its chances of being seen are now further diminished because it has fewer avenues available. If it does land on physical media, that would be great, but all you have to do is glance over to Netflix to note that their movies like Okja, Death Note, and War Machine have no physical releases planned. That’s great for Netflix if you want to get a subscription to watch those movies, but not so great if you wanted special features or the ability to watch these movies on your TV without an Internet connection.

lady-macbeth-dvd-cover-artLeaving physical media behind is not a new trend. William Oldroyd’s gorgeous film Lady Macbeth was distributed by Roadside Attractions in the U.S., but only received a DVD release domestically (other regions can find it on Blu-ray). Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden was released first on DVD in January 2017 and on Blu-ray in March 2017, which is an oddly staggered release when you consider that the people most likely to buy The Handmaiden are cinephiles who want to see the movie in the highest definition available. Unsurprisingly, Lady Macbeth contains almost no special features and The Handmaiden Blu-ray has no special features. If you’re dubious about releasing a movie onto physical media, you’re certainly not going to spend the money to provide extras.

Studios are also encouraging consumers to go digital first with their releases. Pretty much every major release these days is available for purchase first on a digital platform and then a few weeks later you can buy a physical version. So, for example, if you wanted to see IT on Christmas, you could get the digital download, but if you wanted it on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD, you had to wait until January 9th. I’m sure there’s a reason studios prefer this rollout strategy, and perhaps they actively want consumers to go towards digital, which has less overhead and doesn’t require the production and shipping of discs.

But in this new digital world, film fans are getting the short end of the stick. For one, while plenty of movies are available on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc., they tend to be presented in the wrong aspect ratio. While this may not seem like a big deal to the casual viewer, if you’re a true fan of movies and respect the decisions of directors to shoot their movies in a certain aspect ratio, then you want it screened correctly. Netflix claims it doesn’t crop movies, but past investigations show that sometimes it does.

daredevil-season-1-blu-raySecondly, we’ve lost a lot of the bonuses that made viewers better informed. Yes, there are things like iTunes Extras, but Netflix has no interest in going behind the scenes of its shows and letting viewers learn from the filmmakers. Even when Netflix shows come to DVD, you get a barebones release as was the case with House of Cards, Daredevil, etc. Again, this is all fine for people who just want the show itself, but for fans who want to know more about how the shows and movies they love are made, they’re out of luck. Netflix did have some online David Fincher commentaries for the first couple episodes of House of Cards, but it seems to be an idea they’ve abandoned or approaches in a different way like the Stranger Things after-show rather than straightforward commentaries.

Third, to go back to my story from last summer, you’re at the mercy of what’s available. Additionally, because movies and television are spread out over different services, it may all come down to what you subscribe to. I’ve currently got subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and FilmStruck, but let’s say you’ve only got a Netflix subscription and you want to watch A League of Their Own. That’s tough luck. It’s only available to stream on Hulu. You could rent it from Amazon or iTunes for $4, or even pay $12.99 to own it on iTunes (most movies on iTunes sit in the $10-20 range even though it’s just a digital copy; for example, you could get Spy on iTunes for $14.99 or buy the Blu-ray for $7.40, which comes with a free digital copy). Or you could just pay $10, get the Blu-ray, and never have to worry about it again (unless all your stuff goes into storage).

I’m not against digital media, and I think it’s certainly a fine way to have access to your films without taking them with you (being able to download the digital copy of The Force Awakens onto my iPad from Vudu is a neat thing). But when you become solely reliant on digital sources, you have fewer options than you think, and you’re certainly not getting the best version of the movie available. All of this is troubling because streaming is dominating the landscape, and while studios are giving some support to 4K, I believe that direction is where we were in the early 90s with LaserDisc—a format for cinephiles, but not worth it to everyone else.

But if you’re reading this website, I assume you love movies, and so I encourage you not to give up on your collections. If you want to have control of the movies you love and have them available whenever you want, 4K, Blu-ray, and DVDs are still the way to go. Even if studios are giving up on physical media, that doesn’t mean you have to as well. I know I’m not.

I do find that buying a stream of a movie does not cut it when it comes to a home theater. Give me the Blu-ray. Not only is the picture top notch but the sound is the thing. Watching movies on a hand held device is ridiculous unless your traveling and just wasting time.

i 1000% agree with you john,

why in the fuck would you want to watch a movie on a 2 inch screen?

it just doesn't make any sense at all.

I expect I'll always be a physical media guy. As bad as it is to deal with hardware obsolescence and format turn over issues, my distrust of the publishing industry runs deep enough to think at some point, there will be a reverse compatability issue with digital media, and at that point, all the digital only libraries people have are gone.

that, and using streaming services adds to the internet bill every month. Sure, people pay for unlimited, but I've been able to avoid that so far, and couldn't if I was streaming regularly.

I also do think there's a quality gap issue with streaming that still exists over physical media.

Agreed 100% re: small screen. I am starting to watch more & more streaming files on my big screen 1080p tv.

I can store movies in less than 10% of the space a br or dvd takes, & a quality 780 or 1080 rip always looks better than dvd, & with my eye sight I can't allways tell the difference between a quality lossy rip & a blu ray (& I know all DVD video is lossy anyway; not sure re: br's).

Well I'm sold.

I've never even considered not buying the CD or DVD of anything I really want. If I'm spending the money, I want an actual object I can hold in my hands, and that's that.

I agree completely with keeping physical media..

Whether LPs. CDs, cassettes or DVD/Blu-Rays.

Two issues for me - first it's getting more difficult to find affordable audiophile CD players with a digital out.
I particularly liked the Pioneer stable platter drives....that drive was popped into many high end players sold at
a much higher price point.. Now you almost have to go DVD/CD combination players now and I really like my stand-alone DACs..
At some point our hardware will die w/o the ability to replace it and we'll be left with corporate-defined streaming choices.

The other issue is when the thought police finally take over, the day will come when the politically
unpopular artistic art, whether musical or visual, will be able to be censored by pressure on the big corporate
interests in order to stay in business.

Farenheit 451 anyone?

Well I'm sold.