Since the pandemic I’ve been collecting DVDs and Blu-rays, because I started getting into filmmaking and valued the importance of physical media. One of my reasons was the horror stories I’ve read about licenses on DRM-protected purchases being revoked.

After we moved to a much smaller house, my Billy bookshelf containing around 200+ titles has been taking a huge amount of space. And the cases just sit there looking pretty. We never use the discs. There’s no Blu-ray player in our house. We all watch digital content on portable devices. I’ve filled up several hard drives with so many obscure, international films that will never get distribution here. And so, I’ve stopped buying discs. It’s also much more convenient to be able to play MKVs on every device in my house.

I was one of those people who constantly purchased discs to remux and encode them myself for use on a future server, but that’s a waste of time, energy and money as there are dozens of release groups who’ve done the work already for me.

It doesn’t make sense to keep all the clutter around. I also have 500+ DVDs in a binder with the cover art stored in folders, but it seems like a gigantic waste of money to buy a storage system for outdated standard definition media, when most studios have remastered editions readily available.

I’m thinking of selling the Blu-rays that aren’t rare to buy a cheapo Optiplex. The discs are already pretty worthless. I’m just scared that I might regret this decision.

  • grislyfind@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I purged hundreds of DVDs when I moved, movies and series I was confident I’d never rewatch, or that would be easy to find on Blu-Ray.

    I still occasionally buy used DVDs, mainly foreign films and series, and mountain bike or fmx videos.

    I need to do the same with my CDs. And make backups of the rare ones in case of disc rot. Vinyl likewise; but those won’t be given away.

  • Mountainking7@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I’m in the process of throwing everything away. I have got a digital copy(s) of all my content and even remasters of DVD media. I don’t even have a DVD player.

    I tried selling it on market place and it’s not getting any offers. Time for the bin.

  • bobj33@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I kept all my CD’s from the 90’s that have sentimental value because those are my high school and college years. I used to look at the band photos and lyrics in the liner notes all the time

    Since 2000 I’ve been ripping CDs the moment I buy them and look the liner notes once and then it goes in the closet. I sold or donated almost all of those unless it was from a band I liked from the 90’s or some kind of collector’s edition

    Same for DVDs. I ripped them all and kept about 10%

    Same for my National Geographic magazines. I kept about 10 and I have the entire collection on my computer back to 1888

  • SchmeepyDooDoo@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I got rid of all my books. Never really had dvd/bluray.

    Unlikely to get rid of photos as Id have to digitize all the old stuff and physical copies are a pretty good backup…

  • TastySpare@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I live in a small apartment (40 m², about 430 sqft), and I still like to buy physical media (although that doesn’t mean everything I own has to be on physical media).

    For me it’s mostly music (~700 CDs, ~500 LPs), and a handful of DVDs/BluRays. I guess I just like to have that stuff around me. If Amazon/Netflix/Spotify/Deezer/whatever other streaming services there are all shut down tomorrow I don’t even care…

  • michrech@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I didn’t ‘throw out’ my DVD collection, but I did get rid of over 90% of it. Back when Hastings was still in business, I took all of it to them for a ‘buy back’ (knowing I’d only get pennies on my dollar). I only kept the physical media of things I re-watch often (and have re-watched since I got rid of the rest of the titles).

    I went from two cheap multi-shelf Walmart DVD shelves down to a single shelf. Everything else is stored on my Plex server (which is also my NAS), which itself is just a PC with a built in 8-bay 3.5" hotswap cage. :)

  • fediverser@alien.top
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    10 months ago

    This post is an automated archive from a submission made on /r/DataHoarder, powered by Fediverser software running on alien.top. Responses to this submission will not be seen by the original author until they claim ownership of their alien.top account. Please consider reaching out to them let them know about this post and help them migrate to Lemmy.

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  • ACrossingTroll@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Yeah if you are not a collector who wants to display their collection it makes no sense to hold on to the physical media. As long as you have digital backups (3-2-1).

  • SpinAWebofSound@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I backed all mine up and sold it. I can’t justify dedicating a whole room in my house to media when I can fit it all on a few hard drives.

  • Sopel97@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I assume hard drives are not considered “physical” for some reason?

  • armacitis@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I never got much to begin with so it isn’t really a problem to hold on to most of it.

  • lkeels@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Yep, tossed hundreds of discs. Most of them were “backups” of Netflix discs, but they are long gone.

  • Tha_Watcher@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I don’t throw out anything. I keep physical and digital media. Of course, I have a lot of rooms to store it.

  • stowgood@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    I never really like rewatching stuff so I never really had a collection, sold all my cds for pennies a decade ago.

  • TheStreetForce@alien.topB
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    10 months ago

    Implying there was physical media to begin with. yarrrr lol but for real im debating it. I have 4 boxes of dvd’s in the closet I havent touched since 2 house moves ago and I dont even have an optical drive in house at the moment (this moment has been since 2020 when I pulled a bluray drive out of my tower to make room for a 8x 2.5 drive dock for another raid)