Dont Throw Those DVDs Away So Fast

 

Last week Netflix announced a price hike in the continuing world of subscription based services hiking prices. News of the hike came after announcing a significant increase in subscribers. Likely thanks broadcasting boxing events, NFL games, and now carrying WWE's flagship program Monday night Raw. More importantly their crackdown on password sharing likely played a bigger role.

At this point though it seems like there are price hikes every couple weeks from some streaming service. And honestly for most services, what they are offering is starting not to match the price tag. Ya know the same trouble cable TV has ran into. There's only so many price hikes one can tolerate, especially spread across a handful of services who all carry the same programs minus a few brand exclusives.

With the high cost of living felt everywhere the tide is starting to turn a bit.

While it will take some time, the tide will eventually turn back towards physical media. Yes physical media does take up space, but when you're in a mood to watch a particular film you can grab it out the collection. If your collection is big enough you may have enough content to skip streaming services completely. Especially if you don't watch much TV and mainly use it as background noise.

Or maybe you have just enough to supplement a streaming service or two. Besides streaming fatigue, another factor that will revitalize physical media are the younger members of Generation Z. Who either never experienced using a DVD/Blu ray or were too young to remember. As they come of age a new interest in the "relic" will develop.

So you may get some money for your collection in the future. No matter how you slice it, I for one am still team physical media (I still own several VHS tapes and a dvd/vcr combo player). The medium will gain new life through various factors so hold on to what you can.

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8 Things That Cultivated My Love For Films

 

I've hit 200 blogs written here on A Blog By B, Thank you!!! to everyone who has ever read a blog of mine. I'm sure if you've read enough articles you know I love my movies, and I am a very nostalgic person. Since this is my 200th blog, I decided to write a more personal blog and discuss a few things that have made me the movie buff, nostalgic individual I am today. I didn't get this way overnight, so with that here are 7 things in my life that have cultivated my love for film.

HBO First Look

I have always, always been fascinated by filmmaking and the entire process of it. HBO use to produce a half hour series, First Look which looking back was more promotion of a film than a true peek behind the scenes. What they did share in episodes always intrigued me and made me appreciate at a young age the magic of moviemaking and all the work that goes into big productions.

Regular Cable TV

Through good old cable TV and shows like Dinner And A Movie, I was introduced to films like The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, and Day's Of Thunder. One of my stop and watch it movies Gleaming The Cube I first saw on the USA network and they would repeatedly play it in the summer.

Columbia Video

I was somewhere between 6 or 7 when my grandmother joined Columbia House and ordered several VHS tapes, a decent amount for me. Just like that I saw movies like Stand By Me for the first time, had copies of childhood favorites like Problem Child 1 and 2 and Don't Tell Mom The Babysitters Dead. New releases at the time Stay Tuned I wore those tapes out. I think my grandmother had that membership for a good 5 years, and I added a lot of films to the library during that time. In fact I'm one of the few people on this planet who still have a VCR and I've held on to many of those VHS tapes to this day.

Encore

Back in the 90's Encore was an upstart cable channel, and it kind of catered to the movie buff in all of us. I know it did for me for sure. Encore is where I first saw films like Fast Forward. D.A.R.Y.L. Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, Just One Of The Guys, Short Circuit. Something I shouldn't have been watching in Stripes, Cherry 2000, the first Vacation film.

Along with those films, Encore also is where I first saw the original Karate Kid, one of my personal favorites Last Dragon, and Ghostbusters. All of these were heavy hitter films that to this day have a impact on my life and my personality. 

What I really enjoyed about Encore and this was before the internet was that it was very informational. Encore would have short breaks where a host would provide behind the scenes information on the next movie about to play. From how the character of Sho'nuff came to be in The Last Dragon. Who wrote the script for Karate Kid, Eddie Murphy turning down the role of Winston in Ghostbusters. The station was just a treasure trove of movie knowledge that I ate up to add to my repository of useless facts.

VCR

When I was about 7, it was either my uncle or a older cousin showed me how to use a VCR, and the concept of blank tapes and recording. From there I was off to the races, recording sitcoms, cartoons, movies, wrestling events, even music videos. I got the timing down to when to hit record to a science, and thought a set of blank tapes were a gold mine. Like I mentioned previously I still have a VCR and just like the movies I obtained, my blank tapes full of random things I've recorded are still safe in my vault.

DVD's

Man when DVD's and DVD players became more affordable and started to take over from VHS I was in awe. Besides the clarity of movies the special features often drew me in. I use to really enjoy watching deleted scenes and offering my own opinions on why it should have been in the movie or I could see why it was cut. Next to the deleted scenes my favorite special feature was the commentary. While it could be distracting hearing filmmakers discuss the thought process behind how the movie got greenlight, made, challenges etc. I was a sponge for.

Movie Theaters

It's an expensive hobby (but honestly what hobbies aren't these days?), but going to the movies is something I have loved since I was a kid and still love today. The 1989 Batman film is the first movie I vividly remember seeing in theaters, with Karate Kid III and Ghostbusters II  being the first movies I remember seeing at a Drive-In a few weeks later, I was only 3 years old at the time by the way. I just love getting my popcorn and sitting in a theater getting immersed into the world and the characters. It's even better when it's a movie that was made specifically for the movie theater experience.

The first movie I saw coming out the pandemic was Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, just sitting in the leather chairs and eating my very buttery popcorn. I just felt home and thought to myself, man I really missed this. I still get annoyed if I'm running behind and miss a trailer even though I can clearly catch it online. The movie theater experience is a huge contributor to me being a movie buff.

 

Relatives

I grew up like a lot of people my age spending a lot of time at grandma's house. I had older cousins who were between 5-8 years older than me that were also always at grandma house. As they got older and aged out of certain toys or films, they would leave them behind. I would find them and take them in like a lost pet. So old VHS tapes my cousins left behind were my introductions to shows like Captain Power: Soldiers Of The Future and Masters Of The Universe. They also would let me watch movies with them I was a tad too young for, but they were coming of age and understood the films. So movies like Juice, or the Child's Play films I watched with my older cousins.

 We use to stay up late and watch music videos replay on The Box (if you know you know), watch Nick At Nite or get snacks from the store and have "parties" watching TV. Looking back this is the biggest influence on my love of certain properties and why I'm so nostalgic towards the 90's. It always reminds of the good times I just wanted to hang with my older cousins. 

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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. 

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