this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
513 points (98.5% liked)

Technology

58303 readers
8 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing::In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, "streaming anxiety" is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 139 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Buy the box set, rip it to .mkv, drop in Plex, rinse and repeat.

Oh, wait, this isn’t c/piracy?

[–] [email protected] 61 points 10 months ago (6 children)

This is not only a good way to handle media, it's one of the best.

It blows my goddamn mind that TV manufacturers didn't develop a streaming portal "endpoint" player and band together to require content from Netflix/Hulu/etc meet that standard for delivery. It's made TVs just app boxes.

Can you just imagine being able to see what is available on all services from one interface, all at once, and then start a stream of it seamlessly from whichever you movie profile page you have access to?

Instead we have half-assed lookup apps in some TVs that even when they find it a film then just launch a separate app.

Build a good Plex library and never look back. Buy Blurays and DVDs and lookup how to automate good handbrake encoding. Once you know how, you can honest to god automate most of it, and in my case, I have it auto-launch and rip any disc if it detects a Blu-ray film or DVD film and drop the resulting file in my NAS storage to be sorted. Blurays drives are cheap too now, so you can buy 2-3 and dump a whole library in just a few days.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Apple TV has that single place, but Netflix doesn’t want to use it and now Amazon and a bunch of other streaming services sell “channels” which they pollute the results with content you can’t watch despite paying for the service.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Apple TV has that single place, but Netflix doesn’t want to use it

Also, Netflix has the worst UI/UX on AppleTV boxes. The experience is vastly different and better on a Sony or Microsoft device in the Netflix software. It’s pretty odd imho.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

Can you just imagine being able to see what is available on all services from one interface, all at once, and then start a stream of it seamlessly from whichever you movie profile page you have access to?

You see the utopian version of this with UI navigation perfection. I see what would likely have come of out such a collaboration being a screen 75% full of ads with user telemetry vacuumed up by hundreds of companies I can't opt-out of that would have access to all my viewing data because they're part of the collaboration.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Can you just imagine being able to see what is available on all services from one interface, all at once, and then start a stream of it seamlessly from whichever you movie profile page you have access to?

When I was little, we used to have a box plugged into the CRT TVs of the time that, when connected to a network, would allow you access to something similar to what you're saying. Typically, you'd be able to open an electronic program guide to see a menu that displayed all the different services that you're subscribed to and be able to switch between streams seamlessly. Granted, the biggest difference is that the individual service providers had a set schedule as to what was streaming at the time, so if you missed content scheduled at a certain time, you'd hope they'd rebroadcast it at some point.

Maybe we could have something similar, but with the ability to pick anything from each individual service providers' library on demand?

Although there was a problem with this system, but I don't really remember what it was. The service providers banded together and started raising prices, I think? But, then again, aren't they doing something similar now?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

It's odd to me that there are places that would consider that piracy

In my country (the Netherlands), to my knowledge, you have the right to do whatever you like with your copy of a movie as long as you don't distribute it.
That includes ripping it, and putting the mkv on your personal server. That is precisely what the home-copy tax is for afterall..

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Yes to all of that, except for Plex. Use Jellyfin. It's open source, and most importantly, doesn't force authentication from proprietary servers that you can't control. When those auth servers go down, as they've been known to do, you can't stream your media from your own server (unless you want to disable auth, which is a joke).

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 64 points 10 months ago (15 children)

Anyone who thinks physical media on disc is a good way to preserve a work in perpetuity has never heard of disc rot.

Rip it, store it digitally, make periodic backups. Or obtain the IMAX film reel and keep it hermetically sealed for decades.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But don't you know. They put a do not copy sticker on the disc. That means that you super Dooper can't copy this disc or you'll be in trouble.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have considered buying or building a second NAS and putting it in my parents house for offsite backup.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (13 replies)
[–] [email protected] 63 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Bullshit. Piracy is the only thing preserving it. Why? Because as a PC user 4k HDR Blu-Rays are forbidden for me anyways to play legally despite owning them.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (7 children)

What are you on about? In the US at least, there's no legal restriction on you playing 4K Blu-Ray movies on a PC.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The drive is not the issue.

Most Blu-Ray disks have DRM encryption. There simply doesn't seem to be a (legal) decryption mechanism on PC, probably to avoid people ripping the movies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I was under the impression that software like PowerDVD could play 4K HDR media if you're using Windows.

And at the end of the day, it is also (generally accepted as 'probably') legal to decrypt the media using whatever other methods available as long as you are only doing so to back up or enable viewing for yourself.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago (5 children)

!!WARNING!!

There is still DRM on DVDs and Blu-rays. Don't think everything is perfect because you have the physical media. You still only have a license to play it.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (5 children)

My mkv software says otherwise.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

It's way easier to break. And even ignoring that, for these technologies at least, as long as you keep/find a working player, it's fine-ish. You can still do backup/duplicate too. As far as conservation is concerned, physical media gives these options.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Yes; but DRM can be cracked, and it rarely makes DVDs and Blu-Rays unusable.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Do Blu rays require to phone home periodically to validate drm over the Internet? Genuine question., as I have read here that right to play them can be revoked.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They do not require any online connection. AACS has some ability to revoke media player keys, but it does so by encrypting future releases in such a way that the revoked player can not decrypt them (how this works technically is a bit complicated).

So if they decide to revoke your player, it can still play every Blu-ray disc manufactured before the revokation went into effect.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 47 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Well, they can’t make your content disappear if you download copies of it to your own computer or server.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

My father who used to be able to pirate entire music libraries has been reduced to an apple subscriber its crazy

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Mental decline is heartbreaking to watch

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Since Oppenheimer was such a success, can we please get a high-budget Feynman film already? The guy was far more interesting and cooler and just generally more of a badass than Oppenheimer. And he fucked a lot more than Oppenheimer.

All we've gotten is Infinity which... it was okay, but come on. The guy got bored at Los Alamos and decided to learn how to safecrack. In the middle of the Manhattan Project. Because he was fucking bored.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If streaming anxiety is making you buy more cassette tapes instead of pirating I'd like to have a word with you.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I buy lots of cassette tapes on bandcamp (thousands by now) and also download lossless digital for the archive. Streaming sucks and I like to support artists, so piracy is out (for music only, I’m not buying video content).

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I know it's not the point of the article but I need to express my annoyance at the fact that Christopher Nolan is encouraging dvd/bluray purchase so much. He explicitly designs shitty sound in his films supposedly to make them sound better for the theater (i question his success in that effort) and then doesn't adjust it for the bluray. So even then at home you have to adjust the sound up and down to hear the dialogue while not getting your eardrums blasted out by the action sequences.

Ok rant over. Otherwise I agree wholeheartedly, don't trust streaming services to keep your movies for you. Bluray is the way.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’m convinced that it’s not actually any better in theaters, we’re just a lot more willing to bear painfully loud audio in a setting where it’s considered normal. There’s an argument to be made that it’s similar to concerts, but for my money I’d like to not have to wear ear protection in a theater just because some director figured minor hearing hearing damage is worth an especially “epic” crescendo.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I legitimately bring hearing protection to any Nolan films and any "Dolby cinema" branded theaters, as that's code for "we just turn the volume up until every word is painful for anyone under 65"

Even with in-ear stuff meant for the range, I can hear the films clearly because they are so loud, lol.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

That's probably a good idea for others to start following, as this is becoming an issue in general.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/05/26/movie-theater-hearing-damage/

https://www.alpinehearingprotection.com/blogs/party-music/why-are-cinema-films-so-extremely-loud

https://www.earpros.com/blog/movie-theater-decibels

tl;dr Movie theaters have gotten louder, and some movies(particularly action movies) can cause permanent hearing loss. It might not be a huge leap so that it's completely noticeable, but it's gonna chip away at people's ability to hear things.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

They don't even design their sound to be good in all theaters, just ones with "top of the line" audio systems, which means the audio is likely to suck if you go to your local AMC or other chain.

He's also said before that they just don't care if some dialogue is inaudible, apparently shitty sound is just part of the experience, intentionally. Maybe we should stop buying tickets and Blu-Ray's of his movies until they start making good movies.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Wish he would just provide different mixes on the disk. You know, one mix for normal people, and one mix for Nolan's personal theater where he can benefit from a theater mix on a blu-ray.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Torrent them onto your own storage and make backups .

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (16 children)

I have a 12tb external HDD for now, set it up with an Emby server so I can access it anywhere. Total cost was around $200. Gonna replace it with a NAS with like 80TB so I can keep it safe forever. This is the way.

load more comments (16 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

This is the way.

I check the list of new physical releases regularly. I'd rather drop $30 on a disc than blow $50 in a theater and walk out with nothing.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/releasedates.php

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (4 children)

$50 bucks for the movies? What are you sitting on Steven Spielberg's lap?

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No one in their right mind that knows better has ever stored anything they truly cared to keep in the cloud only. Cloud storage like Google Drive or via streaming services where you can "buy" licenses. Maybe this will be a sign that the average person is catching on to the grift.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yup. "Buying" a movie online is a grift, since all you're actually doing is buying a license to stream as long as they decide they want to host it. Companies can, and have, removed movies people have bought because of things like studio distribution agreements expiring.

My dream would be for UHD Blu-ray quality (or better) DRM-free digital movie purchases, much like you already can with high res music. But until that becomes a thing, I'll be buying a physical copy of any movies or shows that I want to own (rather than rent).

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I love DVD extras like 'The Making Of...' documentaries and creator interviews/commentaries.

There's a special edition of 'Buckaroo Banzai' with an on screen commentary that's fantastic. I found out that the briefcase Buckaroo carries with him into Dimension 8 had a tuna fish salad sandwich and Eintein's brain.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›