Don’t get rid of DVDs and CDs

[notedbiscuits]

I have heard of people getting rid of physical media (DVDs, CDs etc) as they stream everything.

Well my broadband went down yesterday afternoon and it came back on but on a very slow speed. Not fast enough for supporting streaming. The problem is with the exchange and could be down as late as Monday. Since then the internet has gone down again.

Well it’s a good job I have loads of DVDs and CDs.

Then with some streaming services they can remove films and tv series with no or little warning.

Im using my mobile internet to compose the message.

I still have some old videos, and drive a car that has a tape deck, so I'm glad I have my tapes from over 30 years ago.

I even still have a VHS player, actually 2 I think!.

I think once I've already watched something, I wouldn't want to watch it again. Maybe a second time for a absolute fave but no more than that. So for that reason I've never kept dvds. If my home broadband was down, I'd use my phone internet, buying an extra data pack if necessary.

I have loads of books. And jigsaws. I'd be fine. I don't really rewatch films, so although I have a DVD player I'd not want to watch something I'd already watched.

Hmm, tempted to agree

Rented an air BnB which had no WiFi. It rained all week. Dvds saved the holiday

I appreciate that if you're someone who likes to watch television quite a bit, then having a stash of DVDs is handy for a time when your internet's down for a few days, but if I had nothing to watch for a while, I wouldn't mind at all.

I'd just pop the radio on or listen to the tons of music and podcasts I've already got downloaded on my phone and don't need wifi for. I do watch TV but not really that much.

Obviously there are other pitfalls with streaming, like films or albums being withdrawn suddenly. But I don't have the storage space for hundreds of CDs and DVDs so I'm happy to risk it.

‘You will own nothing, and you will be happy’. Or maybe not…..

I love a proper CD/DVD collection. I like browsing through what I've got and chosing, the whole experience of putting on a CD/record is better than streaming it. Plus I can never find my favourite films online.

Can't most games consoles play DVDs? We watch DVDs on the XBOX

We have a CD player in the garage as the wifi doesn't work in there and DH uses it and I still have one in the car. Many series are not on streaming so I hang on to my DVDs, we have 2 dvd players

I haven’t had any devices for years that could even play a dvd or cd.

Both dh and I have MacBooks, they haven’t had cd slot for years.

Car doesn’t either.

Dh plays games via pc, so
no Xbox controller. He just downloads games and they are stored on mac mini.

We just download stuff from Netflix, Amazon etc before we travel or if storm due if not sure of WiFi accessibility. So there’s always something basic for Ds on iPad if needed.

Dh and I barely even watch films or tv. I use my kindle ( has loads of books pre downloaded so I could go months without WiFi), and dh does same with audio books.

We didn’t even own a tv for about 5 years due to very rarely watching. So I would be perfectly happy for months if streaming no longer existed tomorrow and I had nothing to watch , wouldn’t bother me.

I don't have anything to play them on these days.

Laptop doesn't have a player.

I divorced and ExH kept all the legacy electronics.

I also have a plug in dvd/cd drive for my iMac, I think DH may have one for his laptop

You can buy USB DVD/CD players to plug into your laptop, for not a huge amount of money............. My laptop doesn't have an inbuilt CD slot either, but I bought a USB portable one

I purposefully bought a DVD player just as we went into lockdown as assumed that with everyone at home, there might be some streaming problems. It cost about £30 quid and has come in very useful at times, especially when moving house and having to wait for the WiFi to be connected.
Charity shop DVDs are about 50p each, too!

If you need space and have storage somewhere in a far corner of your place for the CDs/DVDs to keep, another alternative is to make your own files of your own music and films.

There are music programs from which you can make mp3s, and recording programs (or anything that can record your screen).

This is legal as you have already paid for the items and as long as you don't distribute it outside of your household. The oldschool example would be making mixtapes from the radio, which were legal as long as they were for personal and non-commercial use.

For example with Audacity you can make mp3s. They are yours and without any copyright block compared to streamed or downloaded files. Store them with backup, and they are always handy and mobile. There are many programs that are free as long as you only want the basic version.

They then can be played with a lot of players, like VLC player (both mp3s and mp4s, for example), which is free at least in the basic version, too.

Most of the things I like are old stuff which has never been on streaming or limited period.

Surely if, for whatever reason, you weren't able to watch TV for a while, you'd just do something else instead? Talk, read, go out, exercise, paint, play piano, do craft, play with the dog, do some gardening, play a board game etc. In our house we go weeks, if not months without watching any TV. It really wouldn't be a big deal for us, and I certainly don't want to clutter the house up with loads of DVDs we'd never watch!

There's plenty of stuff that's still not available to stream or download (or even pirate). I did a degree a couple of years ago, and took an external Blu-ray/DVD/CD drive with me because my laptop has no optical drive. I lent that thing out to so many people who realised (last minute, with a looming essay deadline) that they needed to watch something from the library that was on physical disc and not available on any of the university's online services, but didn't have any way to play it.

Streaming is perfect consumerism. You’re paying for something you never own.

also - you can’t always get the same version of a song on these services, the one you had on your favourite CD.

We are all being played …

One of our cars has a CD player so that's a good reason to keep CDs. We have tapes too but I don't think we've got anything to play them on anymore. I did have an old Walkman kicking around somewhere but think it broke.

It's actually way better for the environment to watch the DVDs/listen to a CD than stream from a streaming site! I definitely wish I'd kept hold of some of mine.

Yes, we've used charity shops like an old school video shop - buy a couple of DVDs. watch them and then donate them back! They cost £1 each where we are, so still not very much.

A lot of the films and TV shows we like aren't reliably available on any streaming platforms so we have kept loads of DVDs. Also with a lot of BFI type films it's worth getting the Blu-Ray. If you remove the plastic box and just keep them in a wallet it takes up way less space.

I haven’t got rid of any of mine. I’ve still got a CD and DVD player.🙂

We still have VHS tapes and DVDs (and CDs) the only issue is some of them are becoming degraded. They don't last forever.