BYODVD

My DVD collection was random and important. ‘Flubber’, ‘Barbershop’, ‘Getting Even with Dad’, ‘Madea’s Class Reunion’, ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ boxset,‘Norbit’, and most iconically, ‘Baby’s Day Out’. I have watched these movies over and over again, they are tried and tested, even if they may not be that great. But with each movie came a choice to buy that particular one, and as a result, the DVD gained personal value. The movie investment meant that it was more appreciated, and the film was mine – it was a tangible collected asset that I bought into. Unfortunately, I think we have almost said goodbye to DVDs altogether and with it, the true appreciation of having media that is actually ours.

Strangely, even though movies “live forever” on the internet, they feel more disposable and easily forgotten as we await the next release. The availability has stifled our personal stake in the medium, whereas in the 1960s/70s, a VHS tape was sacred, to record things on TV, play films or keep your own home videos on it. The tape would degrade over time, but the DVD was created in 1995 and was built to last. Before the DVD though, many tried to compete against VHS tapes with LaserDiscs and Betamax in the late 1900s, but DVDs came and ended the format war, with tech companies agreeing that this was the new norm. Digital Versatile Discs hit the market in the 1990s with better storage, audio and visual. With evolving technology and wanting to improve, DVDs grew into HD DVDs and blu-ray, which allowed 5x more data than a DVD. 

How Can You Hate From Outside the Club?

Blu-rays were even going to be the next big thing, but streaming services came and pulled the carpet from under them. And blu-rays really seemed promising, with movie bigwigs taking advantage of the vast storage space, creating games, giving the audience behind-the-scenes access and even creating innovative search menus. For the ‘Superbad’ blu-ray, they had menu space for 1 hour, and usually that time would be looped after a few minutes, but Michael Cera, who plays Evan in the film, actually danced for one whole hour for the DVD menu page. Necessary? Not really, but a FANTASTIC use of free will and a great way to illustrate the freedom that DVDs give. Even the power of having a collectible item that you can call your own is slowly becoming a lost art. We went from going to Blockbuster or HMV to rent films or exchange DVDs to not really having anything. When you cancel your streaming service subscription, you lose that content. When the dreaded “Leaving Soon” appears on your favourite title, you are at the mercy of Ted Sarandos, his merry men and growing paywalls (I love Netflix btw please and thanks), and this is shocking considering that Netflix started out as a DVD rental service to now hogging all content and disposing of it at will. With Netflix cancelling all of their DVD renting in 2023, it seems that they have closed the door on the relevance of the discs, allowing them to monopolise on streaming and a large part of our movie/series consumption. This constant culling of TV shows and films on streaming services strips us of content, but honestly, it was never truly ours to begin with, and that’s a harsh reality.

“Google Maps: Blockbuster Near Me”

I tried to keep autonomy on my content as much as possible as DVDs started to take a backseat.

Gollum describes the ring as “my precious”, which signifies the intense hold the ring has over its possessor. In the same vein, my Skybox was kept in top shape. Anything that needed to be kept, deleted and recorded was divided as such. My Skybox catalogue was extensive and was a culmination of years of watching. We had a Sky upgrade and they gave us a new box, and the Sky man told me that my recordings over the last decade would not transfer to the new system. When he told me, I cried obviously. My precious was lost. We can put people on the moon but we can’t get my favourite films from one box to the other? oH oKaY. I lamented losing one of my favourite documentaries (about the history of movies, surprise surprise) and I let everyone know about it, only for my friend to get me the DVD boxset of the documentary for my birthday. I fell to the floor in euphoria. This meant that it was mine and couldn’t be deleted from a platform or discontinued with the upgrade – it is well and truly mine. 

Now I need to find out where my old DVD player is.

And this is another problem. As people push to own tangible content again, there has been a renaissance in collectibles, but the powers that be aren’t making it easy. TVs no longer come with built-in DVD players, separate players are slowly being ousted from homes, and streaming services arrive neatly packaged with Smart TVs. We are being forced to comply with the new era of film. It takes effort to scour through DVDs to find a good one, or actually leave my house to choose something, but effort creates value, right? So we need to choose our hard. The slog of rebuilding physical media vs the streaming anxiety of digital impermanence. Maybe there’s a middle ground, somewhere. I’m still trying to find it.