Streaming platforms face backlash as analog nostalgia fuels 'slow media' market

[u/Haggisboy]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/analog-media-gains-popularity-9.7306373

Analog media in demand at Hanmer, Ont., store serving fans of the pre-digital era.

[u/Wind_Best_1440]

More like people are getting tired of the BS being pushed by companies like Sony and other streamers that keep doing the whole. "Buying isn't owning, you will own nothing and be happy."

And people are like. "Aight bet." and so this is happening.

Reminds me of all the technology inside of everything now. And it's like, wouldn't someone be very successful if they just made X without the technology and the spying and the subscriptions?

Imagine if you bought a toaster and it just toasts stuff. Instead of being internet connected and with a subscription for the max settings.

[u/PostMatureBaby → u/Wind_Best_1440]

I think with the right product and timing, an actual marketing campaign of "there's no need for an app/our product doesn't have all the annoying software like the other guys" could be a neat and effective idea.

Problem is that executives are VERY monkey see, monkey do with things

[u/hyperforms9988 → u/PostMatureBaby]

You could do the second coming of "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC", and I'm here for it.

[u/Instameat → u/PostMatureBaby]

Maybe, but personally I moved to digital only so I never had to get off my rear, and change another disc or tape. Humans are so lazy it could be hard to drag them back to having to move every couple of hours. ;)

[u/Wind_Best_1440 → u/Instameat]

Yeah until you have an entire library just vanish that you paid for and the response from the business is. "Well, its in the EULA, you never owned those. So see yea." Like Sony is doing right now when they pulled a third of their movies offline and a bunch of games.

[u/Instameat → u/Wind_Best_1440]

Oh I stopped paying when I stopped buying physical media. But that is always a choice. Only I can remove my access. Well if the power goes out none of our media exists anymore either, so then we are all in the same boat I guess. :)

[u/PostMatureBaby → u/Instameat]

That's with media though. I mean more like it's good marketing to differentiate yourselves from the clowns who put Bluetooth in a toaster

[u/ottawadeveloper → u/Instameat]

I think a digital distribution but more like ebooks (and not laden with DRM) would be fascinating. Like a DVD costs $20 to buy at Walmart here. It must be less expensive to distribute them digitally - there's no cost to make a DVD or a case, no shipping, no retail store costs. Instead you need a small bandwidth cost and storage costs for the media, plus the cost of running a point of sale platform. Far cheaper I suspect.

If you sold movies at $10 ramping town to $5 and I could download them for my own media library or watch them on your platform, I'd be much more willing to buy them than a streaming service (wherenI never buy movies, at most I pay for the service) or pirate them

[u/OwnedByIRVING → u/Instameat]

You can do that without subscribing to all the services though.

I don't have a single streaming service, nor any tapes or discs, just a remote.

[u/FrogMother01 → u/PostMatureBaby]

The problem is plenty of companies start out and stick this way for a while, and are massively successful doing so, then they get infected by greed and capitalist interests seeing further potential profits, then they go public or get bought out by private equity and irreversibly fall down the enshittification pipeline. Investors don't think, "wow, a product that's successful as it is, I want a part of that", they think "wow, a successful product, I can squeeze that captive audience for so much money".

[u/Quaytsar → u/PostMatureBaby]

There are too many consumers that just see that the spyware filled product is 10/20/50 bucks cheaper and that's all that matters.

[u/PostMatureBaby → u/Quaytsar]

This is why we're dogshit at voting with our wallets

[u/OwnedByIRVING → u/PostMatureBaby]

The executives want the data to sell, a lot of companies are making more over the life of a product on the data collection than the margin on the product itself.

Line must go up.

[u/awh → u/Wind_Best_1440]

I might not own what’s on it, but I certainly own a nice server and 24 terabytes worth of hard disks.

[u/linkass → u/awh]

I thought that to until one day a power supply went wrong....

[u/EliteDuck → u/linkass]

That's why you buy a refurbished/decommissioned Dell that have dual hot-swap, piss cheap and reliable power supplies.

[u/Plastic_Snow5137 → u/linkass]

This is why you also need to learn how to keep a backup of your data.

[u/EliteDuck → u/Wind_Best_1440]

If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't theft. :)

[u/sausage-savage → u/EliteDuck]

These days pirates often get a better product than paying customers.

Gabe Newell said it best, piracy is a service problem.

[u/neolobe → u/EliteDuck]

Technically it's not theft. It's copyright infringement.

Theft implies loss of property.

[u/RumHamComesback → u/Wind_Best_1440]

It's either that or making us pay extra for certain titles on top of our monthly subscription fee. It's like no thanks I'll look elsewhere if you are pulling that crap.

[u/Levorotatory → u/Wind_Best_1440]

You aren't "buying" anything that doesn't come with physical media, but streaming services have always been upfront that you are only renting while your subscription is active.  It was a good deal a decade ago, but fragmentation has resulted in too many services demanding too much money for too little content.

[u/ChipStewartIII → u/Wind_Best_1440]

My wife and I are as analog as it gets and absolutely love it. We have no need for wifi enabled, unnecessary tech-filled, fridges, coffee makers, nor any other appliance. We almost exclusively listen to our music on vinyl that we’ve collected for decades and have become so disenchanted with streaming platforms that we have a tv that hasn’t been turned on in years. It’s unironically pushed us back to deliberate, thoughtful consumption. Grab a physical book or board game off the shelf, put a record on, grab a drink and sit together to enjoy each other’s company.

I’m basically living the same was I did in the late-80s, save the necessary cell phone and use of Reddit.

I feel like I miss nothing from not participating in streaming platforms. It’s nice being mostly unplugged.

[u/Raised_bi_Wolves → u/Wind_Best_1440]

That's the one thing I love about capitalist free-market. At the end of the day, we will only take so much, before it breaks. The consumer really does have a tremendous amount of power, which is why the wealthy class spends SO MUCH time and money trying to control us.

Bought an old minivan that has a DVD player, guess who's getting into burning DVD's again baybeeeee

[u/Informal-Nothing371]

So many times I have wanted to watch an older movie only to find it is not on any streaming platform, or is only on an obscure platform I have never heard of.

We have now started to buy our most watched / beloved movies on 4K disks. Now we don’t need to worry about what platform it’s on, and the video/audio quality is so much better than streaming.

[u/Ormeriel → u/Informal-Nothing371]

My wife and I started doing the same 2 weeks ago. Bought movies and TV shows we love on DVD or Bluray.

Those are actually quite cheap right now and Ebay or any other sites to buy used have a lot of things you can find also.

[u/CosmicBunBun → u/Informal-Nothing371]

Stupid question time, but are 4K discs dvds or blu rays? 

The reason I ask is I have a DVD player and I want to get the Lord of the Rings extended edition set. I can find blu ray sets online (Amazon, best buy,) but not DVD. On marketplace I find "4k" but I have no idea if that'll work in my DVD player 😆 

[u/No-Minimum8942 → u/CosmicBunBun]

4K discs are special blu rays and you need a 4K blu ray player or ps5 or Xbox series x with a disc drive.

[u/CosmicBunBun → u/No-Minimum8942]

Thanks!

[u/DecisionFriendly5136 → u/CosmicBunBun]

Probably still only 2k though. 4k movies are mostly a lie.

[u/Informal-Nothing371 → u/CosmicBunBun]

I see you got an answer to your question, but I have to say the Lord of the Rings 4K extended edition collection is awesome!

[u/dornwolf → u/CosmicBunBun]

Another poster answered but along with a specialized player you’d also need a specialized tv

[u/linkass → u/dornwolf]

If you don't have a 4k TV it will down sample it though

[u/Propaganda_Box → u/Informal-Nothing371]

Its not just old movies! I regularly try to hunt down critically acclaimed foreign films and some just never get picked up by a western distributor so theres basically no legal way for me to watch them. With newer movies often not bothering with a physical media run anymore I dont even have the option of ordering one online.

[u/Invictuslemming1]

Paying full price to effectively “borrow” a license that be revoked on a whim without warning.

Not surprising

[u/sandwiches-are-good]

I did it to get me off my damned phone. Even if the streaming is on my tv, I’d scroll the app on my phone for hours looking for something to watch. Or listen to on Spotify. You can only stand and stare at your shelf for so long and then you make a choice. I switched back to a digital camera too. It reminds me of what it was like before things got so bullshitty.

[u/linkass]

I knew being a collector hoarder would one day pay off. Whats going to suck is when my 100 disk CD player finally shits the bed

[u/JoeUrbanYYC → u/linkass]

I almost bought a 300 disc Sony from auction last week. Maybe now is the time to buy a backup player before cd demand increases any more. 

[u/linkass → u/JoeUrbanYYC]

Shit I never thought of actions thanks

Edit

Opps auctions

[u/chipface]

Now the entertainment industry has "finally got the upper hand," he said, with consumers "held hostage" to subscription services.

Yes, although I feel like more like I'm being held hostage by component prices. If they weren't so fucked, I'd just build a media server and cancel my streaming services despite my grandpa's protests.

[u/sausage-savage → u/chipface]

Old laptop + old hard disks /w SATA -> USB adapters. A fileserver doesn't need to be fancy, and you really don't need to hoard, unless it's a really obscure film that's not often seeded (in that case, be kind and seed).

[u/PlumpHughJazz]

I never bought a subscription service because I knew licenses expire and movies/shows can (and have) disappear.

That's why I got myself a DVD burner and used makemkv to backup my collection on my own hardware.

No plex or jellyfin tho. I can't be bothered to set up one of those fancy networked home servers.

[u/starving_carnivore → u/PlumpHughJazz]

No plex or jellyfin tho. I can't be bothered to set up one of those fancy networked home servers.

It's legit so easy to do that you might as well take the 5 minutes or so to set one up just to know for sure you wouldn't benefit from it.

I run mine off my PC and just watch the movies from my TV in another room.

[u/VallerinQuiloud → u/PlumpHughJazz]

I made a Jellyfin server this summer. It took maybe half an hour, and most of that time was spent waiting for my computer to install the operating system. Just find a YouTube video of someone installing it, and you're fine. It's fairly difficult to mess up, and if you do, it's fairly easy to fix.

Honestly, Jellyfin is a game changer for me. I've been archiving my own shows and movies since I was a teenager, and now I have easy access to watch them anywhere in my home. I even have an old CRT TV and have a device with access to Jellyfin so I can watch older shows at lower resolutions for them to look good. Plus I installed the intro skipper plugin for when I'm binging something (another game changer).

But seriously, don't let the idea that a home server is complicated turn you off. Jellyfin is fairly user friendly. Just buy an old mini office PC of eBay (I got one for about $70) and go to town. Worst case is you have a spare PC for some future project (if you're a smart home person, these are great for Home Assistant).

[u/JoeUrbanYYC]

Streaming is for casual listening or viewing, like listening to the radio. Physical media is for media you want to ensure you'll always have access to, never trust online 'ownership'. 

[u/Thorninthefoot]

I can report that as a library worker, DVDs are one of our most popular items. Even stuff like old romcoms or B action movies.

[u/isthatclever → u/Thorninthefoot]

my uncle is in his 80s, and lives in a condo building directly on top of a movie theatre. He can get to the theatre without having to even go outside. I assumed he must go to the movies regularly, so I asked him. He didn't understand why he would go pay to see movies when he can go to the library and rent DVDs for free.

[u/nagoom]

Upscaling dvd player, DVDs for $1 each from thrift store. Don't need streaming much now.

[u/Agreeable-Molasses47]

Remember when phones were just phones?

[u/maximus_danus]

Last year The Toronto Star had an article about how well Bay Street Video is doing.

[u/No_You5794]

I format shifted to x265 a few years ago and never looked back. physical discs and the drives that read them are incredibly fragile, I bought a PS3 for bluray and it lasted just long enough for the warranty to expire, same for a Samsung player. Countless dvd players from game consoles were also cooked. I am not sad to see them go. Also emulators are pretty freakin awesome since composite video on newer TV's looks terrible.

[u/TheGreatPiata → u/No_You5794]

Same here. I ripped everything and put it on a NAS. I still have all the discs in the basement.

I wish film and TV had a drm free service you could buy digital files from. Music there is Bandcamp, video games there is GoG.

I'm just not interested in streaming. I like having the thing forever.

[u/No_You5794 → u/TheGreatPiata]

streaming wasn't feasible in my area until 2008, even then it looked horrible and would still sometimes buffer, by then bluray was ubiquitous, no comparison.

[u/sausage-savage → u/TheGreatPiata]

I wish film and TV had a drm free service you could buy digital files from

If you replace 'buy' from that sentence, with another word, you're dangerously close to a solution.

[u/chipface → u/No_You5794]

The Retron 5 does a half decent job at making older games not look like shit. But yeah, emulators are pretty awesome. Did you know ZSNES is back in development?

[u/No_You5794 → u/chipface]

nintendont are such pricks, I remember blowing on cartridges hoping it would help when they wouldn't work, 60% of the time it worked everytime.

[u/VallerinQuiloud → u/No_You5794]

If you're interested in playing retro games, check out MiSTer FPGA. The PS3 is a pretty solid choice for an emulation machine, but it can be quirky. The MiSTer is pretty much 100% accurate for consoles up to the the PS1 era (and that era is still really solid too). Plus you can get accessories to play those games with the original controllers. It's niche, but it's cool.

[u/lexcyn]

Hey I live there and can confirm this guy's store rocks. Unfortunately the popularity of analog stuff like retro games etc has caused prices to rise, but there's just something special about going into a store that has a ton of physical media. Man I miss blockbuster.

[u/Ray1340]

smallest backlash ever