2mo ago

Physical Media Forever

@admiralwonderboat@mastodon.social among other places

Alt text ::: spoiler Spoiler

Jen is loading DVD's into a donation box. Admiral: Stop!! You can't get rid of our DVD's! What if the streaming sites go down?! Admiral: What'll we watch if there's an apocalypse? The NEWS?! Jen: You're right! DVD's are essential for survival! Admiral: We still have a DVD player, right? Jen: I mean... probably

:::

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USB DVD readers are still available if you look
- And they're basically free. I think I paid $20 for my last one, new.
- I have two 5 1/4" drives in a PC, one doing Bluray XL and the other Bluray and HD-DVD (altough I couldn't test that feature because nothing supports them anymore and a lot of HD-DVDs are dead from disc rot)

Convert DVDs into files on NAS with backups.
- or just download better quality files for your NAS
  
  Not in my language and streams are compressed dead.

Rip your DVDs.
You can even just straight rip them to .iso and enjoy full quality with menus and all. I think Jellyfin supports that at least.
- Useful website: https://b3n.org/automatic-ripping-machine/
  For other usefull resources check your public library. Lots of overlap between Librarians and archivists.
  
  Libraries are awesome. Also, I think a lot of people don't realize that DVDs are pretty good quality. They're used to YouTube 480p, with the bitrate of a slug and heavy artifacts that have been converted 20 times to different formats. Actual 480p ripped directly from a DVD is pretty damn good.
  The ripping of your personal DVDs and libraries also having DVDs is just a coincidence, of course.
- and feel free to share the rarer ones with the torrent community

Yeah, DVD players and Blu-ray players are going the way of the VHS player. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find one that isn't super locked down by some form of DRM and just works.
And if you're trying to find one for computers, forget about it. You spend an arm and a leg trying to find anything that isn't just your typical DVD only, no Blu-ray or 4K. Blu-ray is a little more pricey, but any type of actual 4K player for computers, you're spending $$$ unless you're willing to try to patch it with a custom firmware.
- The software that can legally play a UHD bluray doesn't even work with modern CPUs since it requires the SGX instructions. You have to get a specific drive that's not made anymore, flash it with custom firmware and rip the movie with MakeMKV.
- $80 for Verbatim Slimline Blu-ray half a year ago, now $95 and the internal player changed, not LibreDrive ootb anymore, but still flashable.

MakeMKV ftw

dvd disks degrading
- I picked up a season 1 Metalocalypse from a thrift shop and it was dead. It’s such a gamble. Goodwill is getting really precious on their DVDs too - only really good deals if you find a season/box set that they haven’t broken up.
  VHS seems more dependable, and VHS is dirt cheap. I got a pre-special edition Star Wars box set for $5, I got a season of MASH and Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy for $1 each. Lots of my local shops have $0.49 VHS bins.
  Finding a VHS player can be a challenge. DVD players are super available, but I spent a month or so hunting for my current player. (The rewinders though - everywhere.)
  Vinyl can also be found for pennies, but most of the good stuff is picked up quickly. If you are okay with mid jazz, classical music, and “greatest hits” compilations, the vinyl stacks are good to poke through.
  I do like that all of my analog media is mine. No worries about it being pulled from streaming or altered or copyright weirdness - I can go back to 1998 and watch my Star Wars.
  
  VHS, like video casettes? You might have forgotten about ghosting due to overwriting from adjacent layers.
- Warner bros has entered the chat

If only physical digital media would actually last "forever" ... I think magnetic harddrives that aren't in constant use actually have the most longevity of common digital mediums.
- Tapes beat spinning disks.
  Here is a source I didn't read: https://www.howtogeek.com/858426/whats-the-best-way-to-store-data-for-decades-or-centuries/
  My actual source is "used to professional care about longevity".
  
  Let's do a laser-engraving into glass. Would be hard to beat that.
  
  I did specify common medium. How many people have a tape drive at home? And IMO that article is missing information about how long those magnetic spinning disks last if you keep them powered off most of the time, like tapes.

Back them up in your computer, way safer.

Something that people are missing with the whole physical media situation is that it being physical does not preclude it from internet connected DRM, server requirements, etc. It just so happens that around the turn of this century DVDs came along and lacked sophisticated/connected DRM implementations, but it is not inherent to their physical nature. Physical media also decays. DVDs generally have around 20-25 years before bitrot starts to set in. I love the concept, but you're better served by a hard drive than a DVD.
- Dont hard drives only keep data for 5-10 years (when not in use)?
  
  It depends on the drive and the type of drive, but generally they actually start to suffer bit rot after 6-12 months if they're left without power at all. DVDs also suffer from bit-rot on short time scales, especially if stored improperly. Also migrating data or having a copy of it on a hard drive is easy, copying DVDs is legally gray, difficult, and they really only make sense as a delivery vehicle for the file to a drive or tape (if you prefer something genuinely long-term storage ready).

Bruh shut with the DVD player. Literally anything can play a dvd; pc, laptop, Xbox, PlayStation..
- Assuming it has an optical drive
- Those don't come with disc drives anymore unless you're willing to pay extra.
  
  Bro.
  Not everyone has ps5/xbox series x, the discless version .
  Plenty of people have ps4/xbox series x (disc version), xbox one, Xbox 360/ps3 in the attic somewhere, an old laptop/desktop…need I go on?

That’s why a PS5 (or another console) is very useful. Sometimes a movie is not available on any streaming, so I get it it cheaply on blu ray or dvd to watch it. We don’t have any other disc player in the house, despite having a few laptops.
- except dogma, that one is actually super expensive on dvd

I still have my ps3 mainly for this reason

When I was a kid I suddenly became aware that I had too many DVD players in my room. At one time I had 4: a DVD TV, PS2, laptop and Xbox 360.

Well, a good hoarder/prepper always keep a nice stack of DVD players and VCRs in their underground bunker. 🙃

If there’s an apocalypse you can try eating the CDs. Being able to use them will likely never be on the radar.

In the future when we can become cyborgs, Imma get lasers in my eyes so I can just watch DVDs by looking at the bottom of the disc. 😤

Everyone arguing over DVD players or ripping discs and I'm like "Ooooo! M.A.S.H. collection!"

Can't play that on a FOSS OS without circumventing some shitty DRM mechanisms. Better get that DVD on a disk subito. Even worse on bluray.

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