Why I Still Buy DVDs and Blu-rays

As I read a feature over at The Dissolve about making Blu-rays relevant again, I realize that I am not the type of film-viewer that would ever, willingly, make them irrelevant to begin with.

From my early years in the late 80s and early 90s, I loved the act of collecting films on physical media, whether it be a less-than-perfect dub from a video store rental, a recording from HBO, or a hard-to-find 'SP' version of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3.

Eventually, these VHS tapes gave way to laserdiscs (which were prohibitively expensive mostly), DVDs, and then now Blu-rays. The actual rationale (if there is one) behind my desire to own physical media has not diminished, even if the majority of the world disagrees.

Blu-rays and DVDs represent something tangible to me. If you were to look at my collection, you might be impressed at the variety of titles or abhorred at the titles themselves. I mean, who really buys Maniac Cop 2 on Blu-ray? But at the very least, these discs represent my cinematic taste, good or bad. Browsing a computer folder of downloaded versions isn't near as impressive nor as effective.

Some years back when my collection was running rampant, I briefly boxed up the movie cases and simply kept the discs in those 500-disc CD folders that we all had in high school. I abandoned this in short order simply because that was not representative of the relative importance I placed on them among the fact that it was a pain to flip through binders to decide what I wanted to watch.

Digital downloads are clearly the way of the future for casual movie watchers but I can't seem to get on board. What happens when you have no internet connection? What about all the special features or alternate cuts that would otherwise come with deluxe box sets like the Alien Anthology or The Dark Knight Rises Collection? Granted, most folks do not care about this like this but some do.

Without the excellent work of companies like Shout! Factory (and their Scream Factory subsidiary), we might never have had a commercial release of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers in commercial release ever. That may or may not be as compelling an argument to you but to hardcore Halloween fans, Scream Factory's Halloween boxset last year was a godsend not only for the alternate cuts but for all the other specially produced material just for it.

Another major issue with digital downloads is of accessibility. Amazon Instant Video has a treasure trove of movies and TV shows you can download but as of this week, you can no longer download those legally purchased media to store it on an external hard drive or do whatever else you want with it. I doubt it would ever happen, but if Amazon ever got out of the digital download business, where would those files go? In all likelihood, lost to the oblivion.

At the very least, with a DVD or Blu-ray, I own it forever and ever until I either get strapped for cash or, more likely, one of my kids destroy it. I don't have the same confidence with digital.