I’m tired of paying these streaming companies for the ability to rent movies from them. The cost of my subscription to your service should include the movies, not the ability to give them more money to watch the movies they stream (I’m looking at you, Amazon…)
I have thus decided that I am going to go back to physical media.
I have wound up on the phycial media side of TikTok which resparked my interest in collecting DVDs and Blu Rays. Coupled with my desire to get a turntable setup to listed to the many classic rock albums I already have, I am reverting back to the 80s, 90s and early 00s before Netflix changed the home media consumption game.
This post will specifically talk about movies in differing formats.
I already had a fairly reasonable collection of DVDs and Blu Rays from the before-times but hadn’t had a player for quite some time. I asked for one for my birthday and my parents obliged with an inexpensive Amazon purchase that fit the bill perfectly.
Now, I am not a cinephile, and don’t haughtily demand only the best resolution and pitchest of blacks when watching a movie, though I can appreciate a good high definition picture.
That said, the TV I am currently using for my physical media consumption maxes out at 720p. Throwing a bunch of money at a 4K player would be stupid.
And, since most DVD players by nature upscale DVD resolution, I figured it was a good place to start.
I recently unpacked the media I already had and immediately filled the media shelf I’d picked up off of Marketplace. I mean, it’s OVER full.
Then, I went and started buying more media.
On our recent trip to Colorado, we went to several thrift stores. At each one, I browsed the DVD and Blu Ray shelves trying to find some movies to bring home.
And boy, did I find some.
Some of these scratch that horror itch, some were nostalgia pick-ups, and others were goofy comedies that will be perfect on nights I take a gummy and get stoned.
Most of them I’d seen before. Some I haven’t but bought either due to their reputation (Hollow Man) or because they are included in multi-film packages (Expendable sequels and Planet of the Apes sequels.)
I have seen the TikTokkers talking about thrifting movies, and particularly perk up when I hear Mercari. I checked that out for the first time the other day and discovered that some people will buy a Blu-Ray/digital combo, open the package for the code for the digital copy, and sell the disc and case.
Fine by me, I’m trying to get away from the cloud-based versions.
I think I will wind up spending way too much on Mercari.
Anyway, this was a follow-up from our trip to Colorado, I don’t know if I will continue to post about my physical media acquisitions or not, but… this is a start!
-Phil