Biggest Physical Media Fears in 2023 

My biggest fear is censorship. I have a buddy who just bought the 30 Rock box set and it has a bunch of censored episodes. Great topic that more creators should cover.

The Twilight Zone episode in question is called _Time Enough At Last_ and starred Burgess Meredith (who appeared in four episodes). He plays bookworm but married to a nagging wide who hates books and reading, and who frequently taunts and bullies him including ripping up books in front of him. He works in a bank, and is in the vault during a nuclear attack. He emerges to find the city (and presumly, the rest of the world) destoryed. There are however a lifetime's suppyl of food in the various wrecked stores; at first he is dismayed by the prospect of living alone, but then realises the city library has also survived and contains all the books he could ever read. He joyfully assembles piles of the books he will spend his remain years reading, only for the thick glasses, without which he is virtually blind, to fall off and smash. It ends with his crying in despair, surrounded by the books he will now never be able to read.

My fear is the lack of access to older titles being released on physical media at all. That has a knock-on effect to film culture being maintained and certain titles being remembered, remastered and being part of the discussion.

My biggest fears are lack of future players and parts repair. Also I was into Laservision and had an issue with laser disc rot. I think the studios would prefer that we don't own these copies and then they can regain control. Being 67 I don't have a lot of time left. I hope I have another 20 years and can enjoy all my movies. I collect 16mm as well and have seven brand new projectors for film. The last models made by Bell & Howell in Chicago. Thanks!!!!!

Excellent video thank you Dave and your fears certainly resonate with me. My main concern is Blu ray players becoming obsolete. So much so that I have bought a spare one still in its box. But my fear that Blu ray players will no longer be manufactured is assuaged by the fact that physical media is still very big business in countries such as Germany and Japan. The only thing collectors such ourselves can do is keep buying discs to ensure that there is still a demand for new Blu ray players to be manufactured.

Very solid and important topic. My fear is disc corrosion. I've had a few discs destroyed and had to re buy them. Also player availability is a concern. I'm finding it harder to buy reasonably priced players now as it's become a niche hobby and they don't stock many brands now. We're becoming just like the vinyl community. Love your channel.

I had disc rot about 4 or 5 times. It was always DVD and it was always visible (the playing surface looked all spotty). It’s been years now. I do fear movies becoming too rare to be affordable, but honestly if I had to stop today, I have enough movies to be able to play two every night and not have to repeat a movie for a few years. I can’t complain about that. The rare times we have a blackout, I just read more (even by candle light).

It's interesting you picked The Lady Vanishes as your example of disc corrosion. Before I graduated to blu-ray, I bought The Lady Vanishes on DVD and it stopped playing. Turned out it had a weird manufacturing defect and Criterion replaced the disc but made me send it to them before they'd exchange it. A couple weeks later, I got the replacement disc but it made me wonder what would happen for labels that aren't so supportive of their products.

Great topic Dave! I think physical media is pretty secure in some sense. A company like Sony makes TV's, the players and puts out the discs. I don't think they would give that up. Plus look at return of records and record players. I think there will always be a company to put out the players. As far as electricity, if we're having major power problems then we have more to worry about than watching movies. On the movie pick up side, I just picked up "Wife Versus Secretary" from the Warner Archive Collection. Thanks Dave!

I’ve already picked up a couple Blu-ray players for backup at the goodwill and I’m now looking for a good vhs player. That fear has been on my mind for sure! I’ve also been trying to watch all of my used movies to make sure they play all the way thru in case I need to find a better copy.

I’m new to your channel, but wow I love that intro! Peaceful ambiance, amazing!

I really like your channel, been watching a couple of your vids and I feel like the best option if you're able to always to personally transfer some of your films digitally and save them to a large hard drive. That's the only way to preserve them, Avoid paying a service and corrosion from disk. But that requires technical know how and the right equipment. Streaming services are not very convenient when it comes to holder films. That are less known. Unfortunately, there are just some fields and shows. Future generations will never know because they're just too many coming out every year

I just bought a laserdisc player today. I'm excited to start collecting.

Thank you for this media storage unit solution. On your recommendation I’ve just ordered one in black. If it’s rubbish it’s all down to you! Cheers 😊

I bought Dora and The Lost City of Gold on bluray, but felt silly afterwards because its available on Paramount+ which i have. Lo and behold when i wanted to watch it the other day, it was gone. SO glad i bought that physical disc now.

My biggest fear is producers editing “objectionable” scenes in movies. Look what they are doing to the French Connection.

Dave, my family and I had the same concerns. I have ripped my entire collection plus those of my brothers to a server. Data storage is costly, but the upside is that I am now in control of my movies and tv shows. I, as well as my family, can view the media from our TV's, phones, tablets, or computers without worrying about disc players. Additionally for storage, I have both raid online as well as mirrored offline backups for protection. You should be aware, in ripping in some of those discs, particularly Warner titles, they would have disc rot, and you often do not see anything wrong with the disc. I recommend all physical media fans do this. If you perform exact rips (backups) of your physical media, you retain the same video and sound as is stored on the disc. So, what you end up with is the best of all possible worlds, the quality of physical media, the resilience of backed up computer data, and the convenience of streaming.

It’s now happening with books. Roald Dahl, R.L Stine, Ian Fleming, etc., have books scanned, and having “problematic” words, or content, altered. The question is this: “problematic” by *who’s* standards? Disney has already made small changes to films, but look for blatant censorship in films, to increase exponentially in the near future.

In the last 2-3 years I have run into multiple problems with Disney, Warner Bros and Universal DVDs that looked fine (some new) but locked up part way through. I'm also seeing issues with these new cheaper cases. The plastic inside the case is getting hazy and weird, sometimes that off gassing causes haze on the disc itself. Regarding players, I was surprised by the lack of options when I bought my all region player last year or so. Over the last 10 years I've only come across two Laserdisc players at thrift stores and only one of them worked.

I ran into this problem years ago with streaming services which is still the reason why I support physical media today

I thought about the availability of equipment also in order to watch physical media. Although my blu ray player is only 3 years old I bought another one of the same during this past black friday sale. Also got a good deal on a second tv. Thinking about getting a 3rd blu ray for additional back up. I bought 1 medium and 2 smaller units of the Bluetti power stations and a solar panel for each. I may get a few more units when on sale again. I like the smaller to mid size to place around house when the power goes out. Of course the size depends on the amount of power an individual uses.

I also worry about this, but I have noticed that a LOT of new titles are showing up on blu-ray and a lot of work is going into them. They're a lot more expensive than they used to be, but they're still being made a lot, so the business appears to still be thriving.

I have 100% thought about getting a generator so I could watch a movie during the apocalypse.

Yeah I was considering going mostly digital, but after the HBO max situation it put me right off. Amazing what a change in ownership or CEO can do in so little time, with years and energy to build. Physical is a pain but personal digital storage will improve with space, as SSD technology is getting much cheaper and more storage space

I see your points, but I can't live in fear about this stuff, it would drive me insane. But I do purchase 2 region-free blu-ray players so I don't have to be without when one goes down. I have a huge CD collection going back almost 40 yrs and I very rarely find the bronzing (corrosion?) that plagues some older discs. I've decided that if something becomes impossible to find it won't be the end of the world

Dave, I know you keep a lot of your Criterions still sealed until you want to check out the supplements. I thought about doing the same until last 50% off haul I bought a Criterion from B&N and it came cracked so I had to return it. Didn’t think that would ever happen but it did. Just something to think about, great vid.

Valid concerns, which is why I only buy cheap second hand media. There aren't many Blu-Ray or 4K players to choose from in the market today, and I fear it will not be getting better with all the studios seemingly focusing on streaming.

My biggest fear is some titles having a full HD version and available in streaming, but the movie company refuses to release it on blu-ray or 4k blu-ray. I don't care much for streaming. I want to own a copy and have it in my hands. I don't care much for DVD either. It's blu-ray, 4k bu-ray, or nothing for me. Plus, the movie has to be full HD or higher quality for me to really enjoy it. And a movie isn't truly free if it is interrupted by commercials. Being interrupted ruins the experience. I like to see the movie the same as I did in theaters. No interruptions. By the way, I Love your channel. Long live physical media!

You’ve mentioned a lot of my fears on this video. As of today 2/22/23 there are laserdisc players available on eBay if that helps. For me, I’ve been picking up titles I haven’t had on 4K or Steelbook.

I think finding a player will be the main problem in the future. Disks can be readable for decades but players wont always be manufactured.

I've unearthed a load of old VHS tapes that I taped football (soccer) games off the TV in the 80's and 90's.... some have got mouldy so have had hours of "fun" cleaning them. (have 1 player for playing and another for cleaning) Still play fine. As for disk rot, I've only had 1 that's gone funny ("Never Say Never Again" on WHV DVD). My dad worked at a CD factory at the height of the disk rot problems and they were made in about 1992. Like you I no longer have a Laserdisc player having a modest collection. I've seen a few on Facebook market and Ebay, but they are all ironically NTSC and my disks are PAL being in the UK.

This was enjoyable. I've thought about getting a new player because my current one is very old. I'll probably get two when I finally do. I agree that they probably won't make them forever, but I think it'll be a very long time. I worked at Best Buy a few years ago (about 2016) and even then, we were still selling VCR's. Even as the bigger companies lean away from physical releases, the Imprints, Criterion Collections, Kino Lorbers, and Arrow Videos of the world will keep enough physical media moving to give Sony a reason to keep at least some players out in circulation. As far as disc rot, I've owned about 1200 dvds and almost as many blu rays in my life and have never found disc rot on a single one. It's always a little bit in the back of my mind, but if it hasn't happened yet (my first DVD ever was Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox, if that gives any context) I don't think it'll come up as an issue. I think my movies will outlive me and become someone else's problem.

I found several blurays in my collection that stop playing in the middle of the film. checked with several players. nothing to see on the discs.

You can use a computer program like DVD Cloner to perfectly copy your movies to an external hard drive. Then you have a hard drive copy plus the original disc. The hard drive copy will stay fresh. The disc will deteriorate at some point, but you can burn a new blank disc from the hard drive to replace it. You play the hard drive copies on your TV with the media player USB port. Most all DVD/Blu-ray players sold now have this feature. All of my collection is saved this way. Good Luck!!!

my biggest fear is my disk going bad. so far haven't noticed anything on the actual data part of the disk only inner circle which looks like a cosmetic thing due to it being made poorly. havent noticed anything on my arrow video disk only on the mass produced disk.

Don't we all have a fear. I mean totally. I have always have so many thoughts if that could happen. Even though I am never a fan of digital streaming, but I do have a Movies Anywhere account where I buy physical media and put the digital code in there in my digital library but the thing is I have account just for my brothers. I shared the password with them and they can watch movies on there, anytime they want. and letting them know, "bought the the film and now is on the movies anywhere". I only do it for my brothers. I use occasionally when i'm in a vacation. so yeah.

As the Canadian band Skinny Puppy once stated, any censorship is dogshit

If there's a time in my life where working players are becoming hard to find, that's when I'll start putting my physical media onto USB sticks so I can watch them that way when it becomes very difficult to watch them on a player.

Love my region free player. It helps save money on certain movies only released in other countries plus there a unrated cuts not available in region 1 for example Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D unrated cut. I have a small fear but it's mostly apocalypse type stuff where all electrical power is gone kinda thing

My biggest fear is a disc not working. I recently bought second copies of a few dozen movies as backups just in case.

The biggest problem with collecting is the lack of space lack of space is a killer for us collectors. And when you've got Sky and Netflix and physical Media just too much to watch. I've got over 400 physical Media that I've not even seen yet still sealed 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦‍♂️

What causes disc rot, anyone know?

Do you have fears which stem to such a collection in the first place? whenever i’ve hoarded stuff in the past it not only comes from an intense desire to preserve, but also a fear i may forget/lose them to the wind as it were. Nonetheless what an absolutely amazing collection you have my friend

Have you had a dvd that had corrosion or wouldn't play?

Nice video. As a collector of multiple formats, my experience has been that physical media is very, very stable if stored properly. More stable than streaming which can be subject to both censorship and changing rights ownership. Yes optical discs can corrode as anything physical can - but so far I’ve not had it happen. My gut feeling is that optical discs are more stable than film stock or cassette tapes. I have a large 16mm film collection (some prints many decades old) and a large audio cassette collection (some cassettes around 40 years old). While a small number of those presumably more fragile physical media titles have succumb to age, they are the exception. The vast, vast majority of my ancient 16mm films and audio cassette tapes play just fine in the new millennia. So I have to think optical discs will likely last my entire lifetime. I hope so.

I just read today that Westworld, Band Of Brothers, The Pacific and other HBO shows are going to Netflix. Interesting development in the streaming arena.

too much fear - chili man - back up your discs - enjoy life :)

I have never cared about a region free player because I just put it in my PANASONIC UB820K and keep hitting the top menu button and it goes straight to the menu and I just press the play button. Been doing this over a quarter of a century and it has never failed to play. As for my biggest fear is that my collection either gets caught in a fire or if someone breaks in and steals them. I know they cannot steal everything unless we are gone for a weekend and there is more than 3 thieves and would need to take at least around 30 trips to unload them elsewhere and comeback.

I still have VHS and a Back up but i'm thinking of getting rid of all VHS and some DVD 1 more thing full TV shows on DVD are much cheaper then they use to be.

My biggest concern is availability and quality of players. Fewer manufacturers are making players and many of the higher end models are no longer available. I have been purchasing older well made blu ray players as backups. I also have many laserdiscs and somewhat regret selling my LD player in 2015.

From what I've been hearing the streaming industry is headed towards crisis - it may be on the verge of collapse.

Electronics repair channels like 12voltvids lead the way for vcr, dvd, laserdisc and any other media player repair. A lot of it is capacitors that need to be replaced because the electrolytic material dries up. But most modern stuff is all (microscopic) surface mount components and infinite number of ICs, and when those fail, they're hardly worth repairing. Consumer home electronics were never designed for easy repair service. Last year I picked up 3 extra blu-ray players at yard sales, just to have around as back-ups. I think laser discs are known to be susceptible to inherent disc deterioration.

Currently the new xbox, playstation 3,4, and 5 all play dvd and blu ray discs( ps5 might be able to play 4k). I've never owned a legitimate blu ray player.

I collect physical movies and video games. Recently with video games the main shops where e can buy games like target and Walmart are stopping stocking the video games and movies to. But I as for the devices to play my media on I do think worrying about players for my media. I am not to worried since most of my consoles can play dvds and blue rays and there is a local game shop in San Jose that is runny enthusiasts of video games and I think they do consoles repairs or if not I can buy another console since they are cheap. But the idea of a all digital future is something I won’t go into I might just quit the newer games and movies since when I was a kid in the late 2000s and early 2010s I loved so many movies and video games. But recently there hasn’t been anything catching my interest and I think that could be a good thing. We are going to sadly loose physical media (new releases I am talking like Disney in Australia) and if there is nothing we want to watch it might be easier for us in the future going man I wish that was on blue ray. Oh well hopefully things do get better eventually.

I read in WSJ that a lot of people are buying digital movies and storing them in the cloud. Digital movies are cheaper ($5 to $8 for a digital copy vs. $15 to $20 for a blu-ray). The digital movies don’t require physical storage and can be retrieved off the cloud at any time

I’ve never had a problem with corrosion- as long as you store them out of sunlight and handle them carefully they will last a lifetime.

Criterion issued a list of discs that became defective. They also provide information on how to get them replaced.

I specifically rip all my movies and shows in case of disc rot.

I own and buy secondhand B&O gear. They are like vintage Ferrari's in that parts are available but are very specialised and expensive. But, they are available. I have been told that there are more and more small boutique companies popping up making spare parts for B&O. I cannot speak for other brands. So as it stands right now, no, I a not worried about my gear to play physical media.

Just get Boot legs Dave that's what I do seriously it's out there somewhere I get a lot of streaming shows on physical media where I live it helps when you live in another country

I have four Players plus one PS5 and one Xbox SX at home to play my movie's. I am planning to buy an 4K Bluray player just to be on the safe side for the next 10-15 year's.

This is a complicated issue. A lot of great releases keep coming on the market. But film studios may decide to limit the amount of titles that are licensed because streaming a limited amount of titles is easier and cheaper. You want to see a particular movie? Too bad, pick what we offer. Disc rot is a serious problem for which i see no easy solution except replacing the faulty disc and hope for the best. Nothing lasts forever in the digital world. And don,t get me started on movie restauration....🙄

Di'ney's lost me now that they've stopped releasing hard copies. And I was hoping to add Deadpool 3 to my collection.🤬

Modern Blu Ray pressed (not recorded), should last for a very long time. Note there were some oxidation issues with DVDs, Blu Rays on a tiny portion of discs manufactured during early->mid 2000s due to a defective resin used on the disc's second layer (including some early Criterion discs); but I am treating these as exceptions/manufacturing issue. Few threats: (1) Glossy cardboard sleeves (digipacks included?) have chemicals which can fuse with the chemicals on the surface of the disc, it could be cost prohibitive to have "acid free" carboard sleeves, (2) Accessibility of readers in working condition/parts for the readers. Say 50-70 years from now, some of these readers should still be available (for use in museums/archival/restoration purposes) but not sure how accessible they will be to common man, (3) Dooms day scenario : Strong magnetic fields (from a nuclear event or change in earth's polarity) would destroy the data (1s and 0s) stored in blu ray discs and other forms of HDDs (but at that stage we would have bigger things to worry about). BTW. thanks for the video. Great topic.

If people knew what I know they would grab everything and anything physical media trust me when I say collect everything especially music 🎶 because half of that is already GONE!!! It’s no joke movies will be next so happy collecting and never ever stop 🛑

Curious what state you're in? It feels like the sticks

@2:54 Yes he brakes his glasses is that same guy that was Rocky's coach? stupid streaming has devalued phyiscal media!

My biggest fear is that with the mass arrival of 4K titles that we’ve often bought several times already, there will cease to be releases of older films, even on dvd, never mind blu ray. There are so many really good films that have never had a release, or maybe not in my region. Not every film will be available at the same time, I know, but if The Godfather gets it’s umpteenth release, then there will be some Eastern European films, or 1930s classics that won’t. New films always get releases, however awful they are, certainly on blu and 4K, probably dvd as well. I’m a big fan of World Cinema, where it’s even harder to get a good release. Streaming is usually a waste of time. Netflix and Prime show few older or foreign films to watch. I wouldn’t buy a film to stream, as they’re at the whim of their parent company as to how long you can access them.

are we being forced into streaming?? i hope not.

LaserDisc never had a mass market. DVD and bluray do, the sheer size of the legacy of discs owned means it will always be profitable for someone to produce DVD/BD players. They aren't expensive or complex to make and th eoptical components are the same as used in computer and game console drives .

I recommend on Blu ray Tin Star and The Last of Us tv series

For me, it's players and manufacturing. There aren't a lot of players out there (4K at least) and there haven't been new models in years. Thankfully Xbox and PS5 play 4K but they could always lock it out one day. Secondly, I think there is only one disc pressing plant left in America and one in Mexico. If they close, it's over. I just hope there is enough of us out there to support the boutique labels to keep things going.

Get a backup for your sony player dont replace it. Use it until it dies.

Streaming services aren’t doing great either and having more problems every year. And there are many videos on here extolling physical media…

We need solar panels, generators, and other sources of independent power, yes. Water, too. As to physical media, I can't think of a way to preserve them, nor to extend the lives of their players. This is a serious issue, and your discussion is pertinent. CDs replaced vinyl until vinyl came surging back, but neither of those platforms are supported much any longer. And yes, the players one needs are diminishing, dwindling, vanishing. Try watching a Beta tape or even a VHS these days. CD-ROM players are still available but not in the variety they once were. Basically, all physical media evaporates and culture is tentative. Look at the Ancient Greek & Roman writings, preserved only because a few Irish monks couldn't bring themselves to obey the Pope and destroy everything but the Bible. A narrow bottleneck, and a huge amount has been lost. Seems cyclical.

I think as every year passes, physical media is becoming less significant to the general population, who are the main drivers for the streaming market. More and more people seem to be ditching Blu-ray players and heading over to the much easier and accessible way of watching films and TV. We're viewed more and more as a minority as film and TV collectors, whilst the large pool of the population adapts to the collective experience of streaming. I have some friends who have recently got rid of their players and now just watch films and TV through streaming services. To them, it's easy, simple, and they just store the material without a care in the world. They view me as a dinosaur who collects something viewed as yesteryear. This year will be the media corps revaluating their positions on the streaming business. What has worked, and what hasn't. It's clear to me that streaming is going to be the future. Obviously, this is early days for this technology, but moves are afoot to push physical media into the corners of the room. In the UK, there's not much left in terms of shops where physical media is sold. HMV is pushing physical media into a much smaller position, and it seems selling clothes, books, and other merchandise is more important, but that's not to say that other HMV stores around the country haven't diminished fully physical. But it is shrinking gradually, that's certain. You could say it's by stealth. I think the corporations are making it harder to license material, like Disney, who have an extensive back cat, but now prefer to hold on to the back catalouge for future streaming purposes. You may see this happen more so, as time carries on. It's inevitable that as time goes on and the clock ticks away, physical media's life span is diminishing. Ultra 4K is an expensive market and isn't cheap to collect. Studios will probably withdraw support to boutique labels, and that could happen in the next couple of years. I don't think the corps will permit this process forever.... Streaming was brought in when COVID hit, and was the perfect time to beta test this process on the general public around the world.

Don’t forget about censorship. Movies will be edited to fit a woke narrative.

This community is just so wrapped up in fear. Blah, blah, blah. There’s more important things going on.

No disc rot. Still own Laser disk player (it works) and Laser Disks, DVDs, Blu-Rays and 4K's. 4K players play DVDs and upgrade Blu-rays, so we're not worried about player accessibility. When one player plays everything, but Laser Disks, we couldn't be happier. We only stream occasionally, as so many series are overrated, over written, too long, and far too cynical the creator's worldview. We are in and out of most movies in two hours, with an occasional epic going 3-4 hours, but considerably shorter than a streamed series. There are more titles coming out on Blu-Ray and 4K every week, so we're not worried about physical media. Physical media worries seem to come and go as the streaming-tide rises and falls. But with our film collection t our fingertips, we can pick and choose at our leisure, without worrying about any one film being pulled by a streaming service. Generally, we don't worry, having enjoyed our collection and its upgrades for over a quarter century. Our collection covers all genres foreign and domestic, which we gladly share with family and friends ... in our Cinema Room, once our son's bedroom, and outside, during the summer on our three year-old outdoor projection system, which still works fine, especially for our double-feature neighborhood family night. We spend more time sharing our collection than worrying about it becoming obsolete. Enjoyed your video.