Physical media collection, mostly 4k

[keyser van someone]

I thought I'd start my 4K bluray collection off for films I enjoy rewatching in maximum quality (in Plex), supporting the format. It seems the standard price for a lot of 4K bluray films is £20 and a handful over that. There are some boxsets that are great value like 8 Nolan films. Other must have's like LOTR isn't too bad considering what you get.

Finding what I could on Amazon I was up to £1000, then moved everything £20 and over to 'save for later' and it went down to £544.

Shopping for 4K bluray films on Amazon seems to be more difficult than it needs to be. Can anyone recommend places other than Amazon to purchase 4K bluray films please? Anyone else got their physical disk collection?

HMV still exist, nice (I think I last shopped there 20 years ago), and a much better 4K bluray shopping experience with clear categories. I guess it comes down to shop around and wait for the deals. Have some 4K blurays come and gone for some films? (engage fomo)

There are some films that aren't yet on 4K bluray, for whatever reason, like There Will Be Blood, I would jump on that if it's out one day. (just found it's apparently coming soon woop). Film grain, in 4K, yes please. And equally there are some 4K fails like Terminator 2 and Aliens, better off getting the untouched 1080p version (James Cameron used filters to remove film grain and AI upscaling to increase details, but technically that's what the director wanted sooo I know better than James Cameron, I guess it's personal preference).

The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming: ‘One day you’ll barter bread for our DVDs’

As more movies vanish from streaming services, cinephiles are rallying to physical media. Can they save a seemingly dying format?

www.theguardian.com

x.com

twitter.com

I'm not actually too bothered about expensive collectors editions, I just want the 4K bluray as cheap as possible.

 

[ivrytwr3]

That article is a bit ********, just because streaming services go down, you don't just suddenly lose access to Movies and TV. If they have power to watch TV and physical media via DVD/Bluray players then i could watch hundreds/thousands of media via my HDDs - and a lot less space taken up than movies cases.

However, places to buy physical, i used to swear by play.com back in the day!

HMV
EBay
CEX
Car boot sales
Flea markets
Amazon
Zavvi
Magpie
Hit.co.uk - used to be Base

 

[keyser van someone]

Yeah the Guardian article was interesting but I was already set on starting a 4K bluray collection.

Thanks I'll take a look. HMV have a 2 for £30 sale thing as well.

I used to have a flac collection of all my albums until it was too much hassle to manage, now I use Tidal and that works of me for music, can download stuff and play without data while in the car which is also great.

 

[Werewolf]

Zavvi often do 2 for 30 or 3 for 40 type sales, and watch their steelbook offers as sometimes they'll do the 4k steelbook for cheaper than the standard blu-ray (their "red carpet" membership can save you some money in terms of shipping and 10% off most instock discs).

If you start buying a number of physical releases keep a note of what you've bought on your phone (and computer) so when you're out if you are uncertain you can check and avoid double dipping. It's not a big problem until your collection gets reasonably large or if you're buying films with similar names.
Something like excel or google sheets is the cheapest/easiest way to do it as it lets you sort by title (and you can track price/where you bought from if you want).

 

[ianh]

That article is a bit ********, just because streaming services go down, you don't just suddenly lose access to Movies and TV. If they have power to watch TV and physical media via DVD/Bluray players then i could watch hundreds/thousands of media via my HDDs - and a lot less space taken up than movies cases.

I would suggest that a HDD would also be classed as "Physical Media" in this context, vs the "you need the internet for this" streaming option.

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I do both things with my collection - Physical and Streaming - So I still buy DVD/Blu-ray of films/TV-Shows I want to keep at the highest fidelity (biggest reason) or that can't be found online, or are just old legacy discs I've had for 25+ years. Then I also keep compressed digital copies (mp4/mkv etc) of those discs on a few HDDs as back-ups and I still use Netflix etc via a family group package (same as Spotify). At last count I've got just under 700 various DVD/Blu-ray discs held in a couple of those big 400 CD Wallet Folders which cuts down on space and about 1000 digital back-ups of what I own or of things you can't buy any more (Star Wars OT no-CGI from VHS etc), and I've unintentionally got my collection split across a two locations with a lot of my older discs in storage at the moment, although I really could do with a better storage system as Alphabetically & Wallets don't mix when you add new discs.

The vast majority of my discs tend to be 1080p, I only have a literal handful of newer 4k discs and I only tend to buy 4k discs of things which I feel, visually, require 4k. So for example I wouldn't normally buy a comedy/drama/love film etc in 4k (Titanic etc) but I would buy it cheaper in 1080p, where as something like Dune was an instant 4k film choice for me almost irrespective of price. I tend to use Amazon and at Christmas I set an average of £5 per disc limit, then buy up say 20-40 discs in the sales and only exceed that price for something "special".

 

[ivrytwr3]

I would suggest that a HDD would also be classed as "Physical Media" in this context, vs the "you need the internet for this" streaming option.

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I was referring to the article:

But Christina did have a vast collection of movies on DVD and Blu-ray, and a portable player that could be charged from an emergency generator.

Word got around. The family’s library of physical films and books became a kind of currency. Neighbors offered bottled water or jars of peanut butter for access.

They are saying they passed around DVDs/Bluray. I'm saying this isn't really a justification that they are the be end all and all if t'internet goes down. I appreciate the media can't say this, but passing around HDD's on dets is the law

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

I'm half-and half. Being a Disney fan, and DISNEY only, I kept all of my Disney blu-rays, then sacked off Disney+ as all they're interested in these days are Star Wars and Marvel which doesn't interest me. Then everything else is streaming on my 4K TV.

 

[keyser van someone]

And then there is playback options. I was looking at getting an Xbox Series X (or PS5) but they both lack dolby vision.

The world of 4k bluray players seems to be either get a £350 or £900 player (no), and they make some noise (argh). I remember a little noise from previous 1080 bluray player.

Probably better to stick to copy/Plex and upgrade HDD space as and when needed (old drives then used as backup, or maybe I already have that with the physical disks!). I already got the 4k bluray optical PC drive ages ago thinking I would need it and then never used it, so that's already sorted.

 

[ianh]

They are saying they passed around DVDs/Bluray. I'm saying this isn't really a justification that they are the be end all and all if t'internet goes down. I appreciate the media can't say this, but passing around HDD's on dets is the law

Yeap, agree with you there.

I appreciate the media can't say this, but passing around HDD's on dets is the law

Hell Yeah!

 

[Grimley]

However, places to buy physical, i used to swear by play.com back in the day!

HMV
EBay
CEX
Car boot sales
Flea markets
Amazon
Zavvi
Magpie
Hit.co.uk - used to be Base

This. I can't be arsed to move to 4k. I've owned a surround sound system since 1987. I've gone from VHS/DVD/blu-ray/Streaming in that time. I buy the odd DVD/Blu-ray these days, I'm a bit picky regarding what to watch too. My disc collection stands at about 120. My finances have changed and my interest in Home Cinema has diminished of late. It doesn't help that I work odd hours, I'm tired when I come home from work & if I want to watch a film I'm reluctant to turn on everything & hope that it will work. The AV Receiver instructions read like the book for recently Deceased I'm more likely to watch a Film on my phone that I've 'acquired'

 

[ianh]

As a small aside on hifi/AV Amps etc - I've got an old unused (by me) Sony DH820 7.2 AV amp which is currently being loaned to my local film club (for military dependents etc) after theirs blew-up a few of the amp channels. When bought new in 2011 it's was £230 from Richer Sounds, yet the film club, who are spec'ing a replacement Amp, can't find another new (warranted) 7.2 Amp for under £450 now, that's silly money for "entry level" !!!