Do you still purchase physical media?


Physical media   

116 members have voted

  1. 1. Which best describes your purchasing of physical media?

    • I buy physical media often. I like to physically own and control my content (ripping, converting, transferring etc.)
      27
    • Some physical media I purchase, some I stream or enjoy on a subscriber based model (spotify, netflix)
      44
    • I've gone totally "non-physical". I use streaming or on demand content. I see no reason to purchase physical media.
      38
    • Other. Specify.
      7


Recommended Posts

I have been 100% physical media free since about 2005, about 2 years after Steam came out, and I also started with the first Cloud Storage services, I think dropbox was 2007. Music used to be always illegally bought, so never had discs for it, now I use Rdio or Google Drive. The only thing I needed to keep for awhile was discs for Windows, but that quickly went away when I figured out how to use USB drives.

I haven't purchased a physical DVD since my last tour in Afghanistan in 2012. I hope the reasoning for that is obvious. I've never purchased a Bluray movie ever. The only physical media I buy would be Xbox games, but you didn't have a Video Games only category in the poll, and since even that is very rare I went ahead and marked the I have gone completely non-physical.

I don't have any optical drives anymore. I used to have a Blu-ray drive for my computer but found I didn't use it and replaced it with a HDD. For TV I use a streaming box networked to my computer. Physical media is simply impractical.

for my very important files such as photographs, i like to have multiple sourced back ups.

I have them on local drive, external drive, a copy up in the cloud, and a static copy on disc.

i'll probably get rid of the external drive copy since its not really needed since i recently subscribed to online back up.

however i don't have to buy discs that often anymore. i got a spundle of 50 dvd+r DL which seem to be lasting a very long time.

I never use discs for media, music, or anything like that. just static backup.

I understand the question, but really, it ends up on physical media, only the customer pays for it. Whether it's an HD platter or burned to DVD or BluRay. A digital download ends up on physical media.

 

Having said that, I guess Adobe CS5 would be the last time. Though I bought physical media to store all my ISOs on ...

I bought Hesitation Marks (Nine inch Nails) got the Deluxe Edition of the Album, The Next physical edition of something i will be getting is the Destiny Limited Edition.

It depends on the platform for me. If I'm getting a game for my 3DS it's only digital. Simply because I don't want to carry around cartridges with it. 

 

If it's on a home console I go 50/50 with it, and then if it's movies I like to have the physical copy. 

I buy films and shows that I love in Blu ray. Music I buy in physical form if I'm buying for someone else, otherwise I just do it digital these days. Finally, games I buy digital on the computer, for the PS I normally buy physical media.

Music - 'rent' from Xbox Music or buy in MP3/m4a, not drm'd so yes its quicker and easier rather than buying a cd.

Movies - I generally rent from Xbox video or Netflix/Amazon however, this is yet to be drm free when you buy them. I could build up a video library of things I've bought but then not be able to access it later - yes maybe in 5 years but what about in 10 years? So I still only buy movies in physical format.

Games - I buy digitally on Xbox one. I think it's much easier than having to deal with media. Don't have the same nostalgic feelings with these that I do with movies or music, so I am aware that maybe in 10 years I wont be able to play these games, but it doesn't really bother me. I may listen to old music and watch old movies, but I don't really play old games.

 

DRM opens the rental and streaming market for video and music, so I think its great for allowing that to happen, but I have no interest in buying something digitally for what is generally a higher price than physical media and not having the same rights for it, and even potentially losing access should any one of the companies involved stop trading or decide it was no longer commercially viable to provide it.

 

The derestriction in the music market seemed to be the point at which music downloads really went mainstream, and I don't feel the video market will take off until the same happens with that. I can see it potentially has a bigger problem in that a new movie will cost much more than a new music track, and therefore is much more desirable to acquire for free, but I don't see any way around it. Blu-ray discs might as well be DRM free as most are copyable as soon as you've bought them. Perhaps if when you purchased a movie, they made a contractual obligation to you to provide you with a DRM free download after say, 6 months of purchase, that would help.

I buy blank discs (DVDs, CDs, Blu-rays) and purchase movies and games on physical media too.  I've purchased a few games from GOG recently so I do buy digital downloads but they don't constitute the bulk of my library and I make sure, if I like the game, that I have a physical copy as well.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Bluesky COO warns social media regulations could destroy competition from small startups by Paul Hill Fears that increasing government control of social media risks regulatory capture by the biggest social media firms were raised again recently. Bluesky’s chief operating officer said in an interview that social media bans for children and tighter regulations for social media firms risk creating a world where there are only a few social media platforms run by companies with the deepest pockets. Regulations on social media firms have been very lax since they appeared for mainstream users in the 2000’s. This gave Meta, Snapchat, and Google time to build up their user bases and get entrenched, with Meta being the most successful. Now that Meta has succeeded, it has been attempting regulatory capture. By pushing for more regulations of social media, Meta hopes to make it more difficult for rivals to challenge it. For its part, it doesn’t need to worry about the cost of regulation because it has a lot of money to spend, whereas startups do not. Speaking to CNBC, Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, said: “I support the protection and the safety of youth, the question that we have then is at what cost, because essentially what I’m scared of is in the long term, we’re headed to a world where there’s about three to five platforms, and extreme heavy regulation of those platforms, and basically the whole compliance teams of these platforms are 10 times the size of our entire team. So, basically, we’re living in a world where it’s almost impossible for smaller entrants to come in and build healthier spaces. These platforms have led to a place where the bottom line is the thing that drives what they do... so I understand why governments have to step in and regulate, because the platforms have done nothing right.” She said that while she is not against regulation, there needs to be more channels between the small to mid-sized players and regulators to help protect them. She says that big tech players, on the other hand, “who we know are circumventing regulation,” need to be regulated. Essentially, the Bluesky position is one of nuance, rather than absolutes. While Bluesky’s proposal may preserve competition in the social media space, it still doesn’t address the massive privacy implications these age verification measures introduce, such as handing over sensitive identity documents to access age-gated content. Source: CNBC
    • it dosnt support onprem exchange. it dosnt support mapi-calls. the views are all worse/limited. its slower. it cant see public folder calendars. we already have webmail. the list of other missing features is pretty huge but i only see it when customers call to say their email isnt working, and 9/10 times its cause they accidentality changed to outlooknew(new). Hold the line everyone!
    • yeah, this looks beautiful. Damn this winter's going to be great.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
    • Dedicated
      Conjor earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      493
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      249
    3. 3
      Steven P.
      71
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      70
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      69
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!