Comment on DVDs are the new vinyl records: Why Gen Z is embracing physical media
FireWire400@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I wonder why specifically DVDs… It’s not like with audio formats where the experience is almost as or even more important than the quality; Blu-Ray delivers far better quality with the same expeerience.
They£re not even that much more expensive.
Personally I never upgraded from DVD to Bluray because of the costs and DRM. And while I waited for those to be solved streaming got good enough.
Perhaps these kids’ parents are the same, so they just use what they have.
Or the article’s author just calls every video disc a DVD.
But both formats have DRM and sometimes the Blu-ray is basically the same price or even cheaper. Sure DVD was easier to crack but that’s not an issue these days.
There’s a reason it’s called Blu-Ray DVD
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
I haven’t read the article yet, so apologies if this is addressed.
Bluray has always been a niche product in many/most parts of the world, DVD is ubiquitous.
It pains me to say this, but people generally just do not care about the difference in picture quality between the two formats. At least not enough to pay the Bluray premium.
The equipment itself is more expensive, as are the discs. Your subjective “not even much more expensive” is very dismissive of the economic situation for huge numbers of people around the world. It’s often $3 - $4 more per disc in a retail setting, sometimes higher. And DVDs go on deep discount far more often in my experience, furthering the cost divide. And the bluray players aren’t just more expensive, they’re way more troublesome, slower, clunkier, and many/most/all require a stable internet connection (at least periodically) or you’ll be locked out of watching your discs.
The money aspect isn’t a concern for wealthier households. But, wealthier households tend to have higher adoption rates for stable, reliable, unlimited, high speed internet. They’ve largely switched to streaming only, and have little to no need for discs and players. They’ve also got many other entertainment options. They went from DVD to streaming, skipped Bluray.
Poorer households are far more likely to have no/less reliable internet, let alone unlimited data. If you don’t have internet, you will be locked out of watching at least some of your blurays. You certainly won’t be streaming, at least not regularly and reliably. That $3 - $4 difference in the price of each disc is money for gas or a loaf of bread. The $50 difference in the player is potentially a big financial blow. If you want to watch something cheap, you can find a huge selection of DVDs at the thrift store or even rent for free from the library, or you can pay a little more for the one bluray they have for sale (it’s an Adam Sandler comedy from 20 years ago where he dresses up as a woman) and does funny voices.
FireWire400@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Many places over here have stopped to carry DVDs and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure all the major studios have stopped selling them; my comment is entirely referring to the used market where Blu-Ray can be $3-$4 more expensive but it doesn’t have to be if you look around. I’ve bought many films on BD for $2 or less on eBay.
Plus, I assume the article is largely taking about the western market (most likely the US in particular) where the situation is similar. Blu-Ray players are much more expensive, so the cost of entry is higher. I’ve never heard of them requiring an internet connection to work, though, that’s certainly a point against them. I only ever used the various game consoles with BD drives to watch BD discs and have never encountered such limitation.