Physical Media

[bellito]

hey gang! i wanted to know what your favorite forms of physical music media are and why!

i'll start: i prefer CDs - while they arent as portable as cassettes , they also arent big like vinyl. i like flipping through the booklets so as someone who doesnt have a lot of physical space to spare, i feel like CDs are a good middle ground :D

edit: I just realized I posted this in the wrong topic 🤦 its okay, I'll apply the question to movies/tv shows. DVDs or VHS or any other formats? what do you like and why?

[pingaspostal]

DVDs absolutely, mostly because i can play them on my computer and they're nice and compact. blu-rays would be better in theory, but an optical drive that reads blu-rays is obviously more expensive and i'm a cheapskate

the nostalgic part of me would say VHS, but all the practicality of that format has been erased from this earth

[MikeGs]

I'd say DVDs and 1080p Blu-Rays. I've already setup my old PS3 to be my preferred way to consume physical movies. As far as I know, the upscaler on the PS3 is pretty good and can make DVD's look quite good (considering how cheap they are).

I've tried to give CD's a try, but after owning a modded iPod and a dock, there's nothing that comes close to it in terms of practicality.

[Kolev]

Vinyl and DVDs. I like the huge artwork of vinyl, and the experience of spinning a record. DVDs are easy to play and provide enough quality for me.

That said, I actually don't own much physical media, except for religious texts that cannot practically be used in electronic form.

[JorjeeZeAlien]

I love DVDs. Whenever I go grocery shopping, I stop by the $5 movie bins at Walmart and dig for movies. You can find some real gold in there, old and new. It's a shame really, I feel like I bought a lot of movies from there that have no right to be only $5, like recent movies and collectors editions/bundles. But I guess no one really buys them anymore so they gotta be cheap. Good for me at least! But also: books

[Mæstro]

In my earliest childhood, my nursery kept an array of educational VHS tapes. I never listened to music much as a child unless on the air, so I always associated CD with computer games. After seeing a USB drive capable of running several portable applications in late 2007 or early 2008, I believed that USB drives would someday replace CD for distributing games, rather like cartridges compatible with desktops. I was bitterly disappointed when Civ V released a few years later with a dummy disc biddng the user install Steam.

The user above me named books, and these are what I have always preferred the most from my infancy until now. My earliest memories are of when I was aged three: at this time, I was dumb, but literate. I regard the written word as more natural for me than the spoken. My personal library comprises hundreds of books, mostly non-fiction, acquired over the years from universities and libraries clearing their inventories and leaving literal boxloads of old books free for the taking, ‘book cells’ (common in Germany), antiquarians and second-hand shops, with a few new purchases here and there.

[thursdayrain]

my earliest childhood memories are of me raiding my parents DVD collection n spending hours at a time watching the same movies over n over (garfield 2 was a particular fave of mine). i volunteered at a charity shop a few years ago n fell into DVD collecting, i would come home with up to 10 DVDs at time, only ever costing me around £5. ive got a pretty substantial collection now, so i try to be more intentional with which DVDs i buy, and from where - HMV and CeX are super reliable, but charity shops are much cheaper n have the included bonus of, yknow, giving money to charity.

im also a big fan of CDs, despite my collection being a lot smaller - similar story to DVDs, except the ones i find in charity shops only have a 10% chance of being something id actually listen to haha

as other users mentioned: books!! i love books sm n will never understand the appeal of an ereader. i sadly had to clear out a lot of books recently, my bedroom is a converted loft n the weight from all my books was causing cracks to appear in the ceiling below me i think overall books are my favourite form of physical media

[Crazyroostereye]

VHS tapes have unique place in my heart. While I firmly grew up in the DVD and Blu-ray era of Media, I lived in rural Germany. So tech took its time to catch up at times. So I lived in the weird amalgamation of having all my media in every form. Cassets to CDs to mp3s and VHS to Blu-rays. But watching a VHS tape usually was my favourite. The Physicality but also my Favourite Movies were only on VHS (not because there wasn't a DVD release, just we had the VHS).

Tho I do nowadays dislike Physical Media. Primarily because of its ephemeral being, All Physical Media Degrades. We see it with older Blu-rays and DVD breaking atm. VHS fading, and CDs getting spotty. I wish to have a Digital way of storing, but retaining the Physical Interactions to play it.

[TeaInTheMorning]

I am a SUCKER for physical media, as it is far and away my favorite way to engage with almost every medium.

I guess it breeds a sort of intentionality? Because you have to make a very conscious decision you are going to interact with your collected arts

As for what i do with physical media:
I watch movies on DVD these days, and don't buy digital games anymore.

I'm considering a CD player! As i feel that's a good compromise of convenience

I love physical media, embrace inconvenience! <3

[MikeGs]

I am a SUCKER for physical media, as it is far and away my favorite way to engage with almost every medium.

I guess it breeds a sort of intentionality? Because you have to make a very conscious decision you are going to interact with your collected arts

As for what i do with physical media:
I watch movies on DVD these days, and don't buy digital games anymore.

I'm considering a CD player! As i feel that's a good compromise of convenience

I love physical media, embrace inconvenience! <3

I'm planning on doing the same with my movies! I've bought all of my console games in physical format since the PS2 days and it's sad to see how the format is getting less and less attention as time goes on. There's this store chain called Game (pretty much GameStop) in my country and the trend is obvious at this point.

My nearest Game is half funko pops, plushies, peripherals and collectables. Not even 10 years ago, all of it was first and second hand games. Some people say that it's not going to take long until they go into bankruptcy and close all of their stores. When that day comes, I'll stop collecting games.

What are some of your favorite games that you have in your physical collection?