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Comment by rthomas6 | Hacker News Reader

Just dropping in to plug physical media. 4k Blu-Ray is always higher quality than streaming, and Blu-Ray almost always is. I'm talking noticeably, obviously better in terms of both picture and sound quality. Also, nobody can take it away from me and I own it outright with no subscriptions or services. I don't even need internet. For anything I want to watch more than once, it's a no-brainer.

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Many new shows these day never see a release on physical media. Disney is notorious for this with popular series like Star vs the Forces of Evil (2015!), Amphibia, and The Owl House all unavailable for purchase.

I agree that physical media is ideal, but that only works when companies are willing to take our money. There are a growing number of shows you can't see anymore at all, can't see without a streaming service, or can't see uncensored unless you're willing to pirate them.

There was a work around until very recently for that, the Netflix DVD service was still available and working. Giant library and barely any blackouts for shows.

I signed on with netflix at their start and kept the DVD plan right up until the end. Somewhat ironically the first thing I'd do after getting a DVD was create a digital copy, but I agree selection back that couldn't be beat by any streaming service since (with the possible exception of Amazon, if you're willing to pay for the rental of individual shows on top of what you're already paying them monthly for prime)

If the trend of never releasing shows on physical media continues, we'll never get the chance to see something like netflix's DVD service again. Even public library systems will only be able to provide what was previously released on disk. Considering how public libraries are already pushing people to third party e-book services I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually stopped offering physical media to card holders too.

I agree. I don’t have the physical space to keep the content I’d like to keep, however, so I don’t buy physical media. What I do have is a lot of pirated BluRay et. al. rips in cloud storage hooked up to Infuse for viewing. Works well. So long as I manage the storage properly and don’t go to platforms that scan for this stuff I shouldn’t lose it.

Timely as Best Buy has begun phasing physical media out as of today.

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