Home Video (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, 4k)

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On Reddit we have r/dvdcollection, r/boutiquebluray, r/4kbluray, r/steelbook, r/vhs, etc but let's start simply with a community to cover all the forms of home video collecting.

So, do you feel nostalgic for a format? Are you looking forward to a release? Heard any exciting news? Want to show us your shelves? Then post away.

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Guillermo del Toro's response to the comment about evil streaming companies. (feddit.uk)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Physical media isn't the ultimate format people like to make it out to be. I don't think there's anything wrong with digital media as long as it's files on a hard drive. Honestly, it's probably a better format for preservation than a disc that's locked into whatever video format it was published in. In 1000 years, it's pretty unlikely anyone will be able to read files from a DVD or Blu-Ray. But a file that's been reformatted to keep up with modern technology? That'll be useful.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Whenever I hear people talk about physical media as being "forever" I'm reminded of the episode of Cowboy Bebop where they have to steal a VHS player.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)

CDs themselves only last 100 years at most. Hard drives also fail. There really isn’t a great solution for something permanent unless you are changing its form/format every so often

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Hard drives fail more often than another computer component, at least the old-timey spinning hard drives. SSDs are better by far but I wouldn't trust important files to any single hard drive for long term storage.

Optical discs don't have that problem at all. They will be good as long as you keep them in a non-hot place out of bright lights. Heat and UV light and scratching are the enemies of optical discs, but they can all be avoided for as long as you care to keep them safe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

CDs don't last that long. I had a buddy that worked for a radio program tell me that the tapes lasted a lot longer. This was mid 2000s and he was already seeing failures. I think they were fairly early adopters, but still it couldn't have been that long.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There really isn’t a great solution for something permanent unless you are changing its form/format every so often

Right, that is what I meant by "reformatted to keep up with technology", including copying it to new hardware that's less likely to fail.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

Tape has been around for 80 years now and doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Copying to a fresh tape once a decade should keep your data safe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I think DRM free digital media is viable as well. A hard drive doesn't have the lifespan of a blu-ray, but modern drives are good about warning of catastrophic failure, and I suspect most people that have digital media libraries migrate them to new storage as wanted/needed.

There's something satisfying about physical media that digital lacks. I get that appeal. But I don't think it's superior for media preservation.