Physical media and the rise of digital distribution.

[Harrison]

I know this is a retro forum, so this might sound a daft question, but on their main computers does anyone here still use blank CDs, DVDs and even BD-Rs? Or even install anything using physical media? Do you even still have any physical drives?

I'm guessing maybe Steve does.

I was sorting through and clearing out a load of stuff and came across some spindles of blank CDs and DVDs. This got me considering when the last time was I burnt a disc. Or even installed a game from disc.

The ERA claim 89.5% of all video game sales are now digital downloads.

I've not bought or installed a game from physical media in many years. Last physical game I bought were the start of the PS4 era. And other then buying newer Star Wars films on BD I've not bought a film on disc in a very long time. Same with CDs. Listening almost exclusively via Spotify for a long time.

Laptops got rid of physical drives a while ago. Both our current laptops have no drives at all. So just USB or wifi to install anything from. And games consoles are heading that way. Both the Xbox S and cheaper PS5 have no drives. The games industry likes that as it stops the secondhand game market so they now get money for all sales. But that in turn could be bad for games collectors moving forward. And really bad for retro gaming in the future.

My main PC has no physics drives. But my second PC which was my old main PC does. That has a BD writer and even a floppy disk drive. And they are exclusely for retro use to burn games for older consoles or create or read floppy disks for older systems. There might come a point soon though where no current hardware supports installing such devices. And then support for them in software will disappear.

I don't even have any DVD/BD players in my house any more, unless you include my PS5. For which I've never actually used the drive. Just bought that version in case I might ever need to.

[Kin Hell]

Not a daft question at all Harrison....

I have a Pioneer BD-RW 209M in my main Rig. Bought it second hand & have never used it.

No spinning hard drives in my main rig either.
2 x 1TB WD Black nVME 4.0
2 x 2TB WD Black nVME 4.0
2 x 1TB 870 EVO's on SATA 6 headers
2 x 500GB 850 EVO's in RAID 0 SATA 6 headers
9TB in total

Around the home:

2 x 3TB WD Red NAS Drives in Qnap TS412 NAS Box
2 x 4TB Seagate Iron Wolf Drives in Qnap TS412 NAS Box

1 x 6TB WD Red NAS Drive in Hot Swap Dune HD Max Vision 4K
1 x 4TB WD Red NAS Drive in internal Dune HD Max Vision 4K

Old now but still a Network Storage Box....
1 x 3TB WD Red in Hot Swap Dune HD Max
BluRay Drive only plays DVD's now.....

All installs are usually Digital Downloads for me.

[J T]

I collected a bunch of blank CDRs and DVDRs from work - they were being given away. I then realised I had no need for them either and was just obtaining them for the sake of it.

I remember when I got my first CD player, and when I installed one in my car.... wow.... yet nowadays Lady Ts car (2021) doesn't even have a CD player as standard.

We still have our DVD collections too but, honestly, they hardly ever get looked at. The PS4 or the Xbox 360 could both play them, if required, but it's easy just to stream through the amazon firestick (which we have multiples of, one for each tv)

[Harrison]

With music the main streaming services such as Spotify have a really extensive library, making it easy to ditch physical copies for the majority of music.

But for video it's still a bit of a mess. Imagine if we have to subscibe to a music streaming service for each record label? No one would bother, but that's exactly what e currently have to do for streaming film and tv series. Its too fragmented, and hasn't made things easier compared to the old days. In fact I'm often discovering films I want to watch don't seem to be on any streaming service I have and need to be purchased individually. I hope this fad of every srudio jumping on the bandwagon is short lived and they start to merge. I can't see how assume like Lionsgate+ are sustainable longterm.