Don't Sleep on Physical Home Media Discs

When Covid-19 hit earlier this year it turned the world upside down. Due to various lockdown measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus, more people are at home watching TV. Since many films and television shows had to halt filming during the height of the pandemic, viewers have either binged watch shows that have been on their "to watch" list for quite some time or revisit old programs. And their are several options out there to watch programs on cable,  Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Prime Video, and CBS All Access. There are specialty streaming services such as BET plus, ESPN plus, WWE network, UFC fight pass and a host of more. In the middle of the pandemic two conglemerates have released their streaming services WarnerMedia with HBO Max and NBCUniversal with Peacock.

Even with all these programming options, and vast libraries of films and programs to choose from. I've found myself resorting to my good ol collection of movies I've gathered over the years to watch. Many times when looking for something to watch, I either get tired of watching the same old stuff, get tired of searching for something to watch, or what I want to watch either isn't available or you have to pay for and the movie is 10 years or older. And, I've reached my streaming service max and refuse to get any additional ones.

I said the hell with all of that and  I'll just dust off the collection. I've recently watched movies like Strictly Business, Little Big League, Hangin' With the Homeboys, Camp Nowhere, Above The Rim and Street Kings among a few others. For some reason  they all popped in my head randomly and I said I want to watch them. all hard to come by on streaming services or Cable plays them edited or wants you to rent or buy. Thank god I have all of them on DVD.

 As technology and cloud services have advanced, downloading and streaming movies have quickly outpaced physical media. It's understandable as digital copies reduce clutter in the home, but for me there is something about getting up and inserting a blu ray or DVD into the player. I just love the idea of grabbing a movie I haven't seen in a long time, popping it in and watching it. Some may say you get the same feeling with streaming, I'm willing to fall on the sword that it's not.

Ever since I was a kid if I had extra money I would go buy a VHS, what I want for christmas? a few movies of my favorites or a movie I've never seen before but likely will enjoy. To this day if I stumble across relics like Suncoast or FYE I'm likely to be in there a while. I've built a nice collection of films, and never intend to let them go. I even held onto a few VHS for nostalgia purposes.

Streaming maybe the present and the future, but home media definitely has a place in the ecosystem of entertainment. If you have a few physical discs or actually like building a collection, hold on to them you never know when having those movies will come in handy.