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’m a member of a forum that’s dedicated to discussing a particular film, and people post about “new things I noticed on rewatch” all the time. I think with a really well-made movie, you can’t possibly appreciate every part of it the first time around - you were watching Actor 1 and missed the look on Actor 2’s face, or what-have-you.

My late grandmother re-read Jane Eyre every year for decades.

We stayed in a very rural cottage last year with no WiFi. I booked it intentionally to get everyone off their devices. We took a bunch of our old dvds with us and the dcs loved them.
It was a good break.

I keep DVDs of my favourite films, as you can use them whenever, and they have tons of extra content. I love behind the scenes stuff.
Streaming is great, but only as long as you are paying for it.

This is a bug bear of mine! Paying for streaming service only to find adverts interrupting the viewing.

Definitely agree with others that some films you just can't find on streaming services, or have to pay for. Or they are only free a limited time.

I have all my Audrey Hepburn films on DVD, not getting rid of those!

Games consoles like PS4 are useful for watching DVDs on, you don't need to buy a specific DVD player.

Some fiction books yes and lots of my non-fiction, but not TV. I have one film, which I own on DVD, that I watch over again, but it's seasonal so I wouldn't be watching it in July.

DVD players are much, much cheaper than games consoles!

Fair point, we already have them at home. That's actually what I meant for others who have gamers in the home.

And when that goes down? And if it's something you want to keep it needs to be the physical object i.e. a book or a CD or a DVD.

Sorry to be a pain, but 'fiction books'? D'you mean novels, novellas and short stories? Poetry - I rather think that comes under 'non-fiction' for some arcane reason along with myths and legends. Not being objectionable but language suffers from the loss of words.
I have a library - 2k books I would think - I only get rid of technical stuff that is out of date, otherwise they stay on the shelves (unless I am reading them).

I've kept my CDs and still have a car CD player though I rarely use it. Also have kept quite a few DVDs and we do have a DVD player but mostly watch streaming channels - given the wide choice, watching most of the DVDs (most of which are available on online services we subscribe to) doesn't often arise.

But happy to keep them as I have a cupboard they easily fit into. Otherwise I probably wouldn't.

Still got video recorder.

If you get rid of it, you can't watch memories from. Years ago, family parties, wedding, Birthdays etc.

Yes but you get the ability play CDs and DVDs for free in with the console if you are buying it for gaming anyway.

Plus the modern ones will play 4K and blu ray as well. A stand alone 4K player is actually quite expensive.

I’m glad you posted this OP
I’ve lugged my 80’s DVD collection and uk player half way across the world in storage boxes and contemplating getting rid of it from invisible modern peer pressure that exists only in my head (I still reminisce over some of my 70’s childhood) to fully join the 21st century which I now hear I’m a few years late for.

Thanks to your advice/post I will embrace this sentimental quirky box of history and my reasoning.

Streaming doesn’t last, what they make available can and does disappear, pay plans change or are suddenly created for previous free services, and internets goes down, as OP and Others have pointed out.

Contemporarily it was/is easy to feel like I’m dragging one foot in the past by not leaping to embrace this Brave New World while unintentionally hiding my DVD collection in a storage box for “That Time” the sky falls down, but this Chickenliken is now bustling up her feathers and not fearing other’s eyebrow raises, as she readies herself for a DVD reawakening!

I will no longer make excuses like “I’ve kept my CD’s but I don’t have an underground bunker honest!”
I will proudly, boldly go where my world feels old, quaint, and safe more importantly!
cheers OP

I'm not a hoarder honest..
..but have kept my favourite Vinyl, tapes, CDs, Videos and DVDs..
Bloody hilarious considering ive nothing to play them on!
DS1 has already raided the vinyl (bar a 12" i wouldnt let him have) and tapes, and you never know one day he might want to raid the rest..
Meanwhile i just like knowing i still have them.

Some of it I suppose is probably considered modern literature? Maybe not. But I will reread all my H G Wells, LOTR, some Agatha Christie ...

I spend way more hours at work/commuting than anything else, then add in exercise, cooking, eating and household chores - I don't have hours and hours to fill! Maybe an hour a day 🤔

I had all mine transferred from video.

I don’t really have time. Full time job, 3 kids (one disabled and requiring a lot of extra care), housework, studying, exercise… there isn’t really any time left to watch TV. I don’t have time to watch new things, let alone rewatch old stuff. Having said that, I’ve read Little Women about 15 times in the past 25 years!

I don't tend to rewatch many things, except a few favorites and Christmas movies. But the ones I do like to rewatch, I have the DVD's backed up on an external hard drive (also copied to cloud storage).

I’m not going to have a load of dvds/cds, ‘just in case’. If we all did that with everything, we’d all end up with a house full of stuff that is hardly used. We don’t even have anything to play them on anyway and don’t know anyone who does.

We’ve very rarely had an issue with our internet going down. When it has, we just do something else.

The cloud is not a back-up and cannot be used as such. If you want something to be real it needs three places: a hard-drive, an external hard-drive, a usb, also a hard copy i.e. a CD or DVD is safest.

They are on an external hard drive and then copied to a flash drive to watch on tv. I keep a copy of the ISO on the cloud too just because. I also have them converted to MP4 and can stream from google drive to infuse player to watch on the iPad without taking up space on the iPad (obviously this only works online). It works for me!

Well that was a non-problem!
We watched Our Flag Means Death via the computer instead of the DVD player a few months ago and somebody put the audio jack back in the wrong socket.
So now we have 2 functioning DVD players. I found another one languishing in DD’s bedroom that connects by SCART (ancient device not many people know about🤣). Ready for a summer holiday video fest.

I know the feeling, but I now have empty time to fill, which needs filling. I like A. Christie and re-read them. LOTR not so much these days. Detective novels. G Heyer (DD also a fan and late DH). I keep these - and a lot of Sci-Fi.

Well, yes. But you do not 'have' all those things and an outage or a decision to delete material could remove them.