Well I finally have gotten around to migrating my flixter account, after doing the same for ultraviolet about a year ago and similar for Rakuten if I remember correctly. Seems like 3 of the films I OWN aren't available. I really don't like digital media, it seems like a great idea but as has just been proven has a massive flaw. It's all bluray and dvd from this point forward for me.
Even that's not guaranteed, sadly. When you shove a new Blu-ray in a player, it updates the player based on a key revocation list located on the disc itself. If your player's key is on the list, it's effectively bricked. Doesn't happen all that often to legitimate players, I don't think, but WinDVD 8 had the honour of being the first back in 2007 after its AACS key was leaked. Granted, that's taking away the player rather than taking away an individual film or three - but it's all part of the same messy problem: invasive DRM.
I'm a grumpy old sod, I understand the need for digital media (Carrying my music on a 256gb micro-sd is super cool), but buying or streaming digital media can knob right off. I buy CD's, DVD's, and Blu-Ray's because at least I stand a chance of watching/listening to the things regardless of what streaming service goes poof. I'd buy PC games that way, too, if the boxes weren't just Steam codes these days.
A stack of BDs + AnyDVD-HD = set for the forseeable. Given that pretty much every streaming/phone-home-DRM service - regardless of how big its operator is - goes belly up at some point (e.g. PlaysForShure), any digital media purchase is at best ephemeral.
I also buy all my music on CD, not just so I have permanent access but, also because streaming services are not always as good as the marketing would have you believe. I tried the free trial of Amazon Music HD, supposedly lossless CD quality (16bit 44.1KHz) or higher. Suffice to say that, listening through the new DAC/headphone amp and new headphones I bought a few months ago, poor quality source material has nowhere to hide and Amazon's idea of "lossless" is not the same as mine. CDs still rule!
I do too, but then rip it to MP3 and put the CD on a shelf never to be touched again. Hell, half the time Amazon rips it for me and I just download the MP3s before the CD even arrives - and, bizarrely, pay less than just buying the MP3s with no physical CD from the same Amazon page. Crazy.
I rip to FLAC lossless, indistinguishable from the original CD but, I have noticed the odd mp3 pricing policy as I also buy from Amazon.
I've stopped buying CDs or MP3s and instead get the sheet music and the instruments required to play it. That way I don't have any DRM, obsolescence, always have it at the highest quality. I don't need to worry about internet access or data charges either. No subscriptions or costs over time - sure a guitar is a few hundred, but then just think of the size of the catalogue you have access to. Similar with films. I read about the plot online and then use finger puppets to recreate them whenever I want. Stickin' it to the man.
Digital media has the convenience factor which is why it's so popular I think. Now watch/listen to almost everything streamed as means I can watch on multiple devices without worrying about it, used to rip things to a local server and then setup plex or something similar, but can't be bothered with the faff. And storage of a bunch of cds/dvds/brs etc is more faff, along with potentially needing multiple players if wanting to actually use the physical copies (which eventually break as a result, RIP my KOTOR 1 install disks )
I think the only service that I've been offered something in digital format (As well as physical) that has been close enough to what I normally use that I've not ripped it myself is Bandcamp and their FLAC offerings. I'm sure streaming services are fine for the most part, I know more than a few people who use them and have no complaints, I just like perhaps a little too much control over how I consume media. And don't trust the internet not to take a dump because it's a day ending in Y. Or G. Or H. And have a hard copy should anything happen to my rip. It also means I feel far less compelled to back my media up (Which saves on backup infrastructure costs), as worst case scenario I just have to pop the CD back in and off I trundle. But then, I also like to put a CD in a CD player, sit in a nice chair, and just listen to it. For me, music has become that thing I put on in the background, and I do enjoy when I get to just sit down and doing nothing but listening to an album. Maybe with a glass of scotch or two. Although I'm sure my girlfriend thinks I'm mad, relaxing to Marduk, but that's her problem.
Oh boy, I forgot about the quality. Streaming video is just universally garbage. The last time I saw a streaming service that even attempted to approach the ~50mbit/s you can get from a BD was the now defunct (a decade! Blimey!) Stage6.
I buy BluRays and rip them to my Drobo. I use MakeMKV for the rip and then handbrake for compression. In general, I can get a 40Gb rip down to ~8-20Gb for the final file with little to no quality loss. Streaming quality is mixed. Blocky dark areas is the worst problem and pretty annoying, but you can't own everything, so it's still nice to stream when I can. I recently migrated all of my flixter movies as well. It's pretty silly, though, because the only ones I have are the streaming digital versions of the BluRays I already ripped, but I guess it would be useful if I was traveling and for some reason didn't have anything else I'd rather be watching or doing . . .
Streaming is worth it for me for music. I find lots of new content. For movies and TV any more as content is pulled for new services. I will stick with Sonarr.
It has it's disadvantages (some are mentioned above), but I do think streaming is pretty awesome. I skipped buying digital content outright as files as it didn't make sense to me, but having pretty much all music available to me for approximately what buying one or two albums a month used to cost has totally changed the scope of my listening. The lack of true ownership is obviously the downside, but in practical terms I think that pales somewhat.
My missus bought me Knight and day quite a few years back and she accidentally bought it on bluray and I didn't have a player at the time, used the code so I could at least watch it on my pc. Long story short reinstalled windows and could never get my online copy back. Have a bluray player now anyway and the film is meh at best
3 of my movies weren't available either, Monuments Men, Grand Budapest Hotel and The Watch. Had a look on Google Play and they are available so I sent an email off to Flixster support (basically Warner Bros support) and they are currently investigating. Mind you I prefer physical media, still buy CD's, vinyl, DVD's and Blu-ray's. Only time I really use my digital media is when I download it to my phone for the flights going on holiday.
Yes, this. I do the same, but only for DVD's so far. (and no, I don't compress them, the files are ~5GB which is small enough these days) The files land on a NAS, and the kids can play them with KODI from before they could read (and they're not scratching my media) may I ask what drive do you use?
