DVD Sales Keep Increasing Despite Blu-ray and Other Higher-Quality Alternatives

I still have one on my PC, as well, and is the reason I'm still rocking a full size chassis because smaller ones don't come with external 5.25" drive bays anymore.
I've got bd writer in a case for an old rig but my laptop has one as well. I recently broke down and got paid versions of anydvd and dvd audio extractor for backing up or converting various things with it. That, combined with Foobar 2000, and my needs are mostly covered for ripping things. It's a shame that 4k PC players are such a pain to deal with because I'd like to do the same but at least with the codes I can get the same end result as long as I have internet connectivity.
 
I'm going to guess DVD is still popular because of the elderly, children, and families with lower income. DVD is the defacto common standard playback device and I think every household has some type of tech that will play one. The elderly peeps that I know cannot see the difference between SD or HD, or not enough to care anyway. H*ll, my mother would still own a VCR and be buying tapes at flea markets if she had her way. And for kids... parents will pick the lowest price option for kids shows/cartoons. Have you been into a discount store like Big Lots or Dollar General? They have huge selections of bargain movies and they are all DVDs.

edit : I forgot another target audience... people who live in areas where you can't get decent bandwidth to stream, or it costs too much money. My bro-in-law has a place in the mountains and his internet is 1mb DSL, and most phone service doesn't work there. He has a pretty decent physical disc selection to keep the wife and kids entertained. Some are DVD's, kids don't really care just as long as they can get their cartoon fix.

Well you can get software for free that plays DVD's on a pc, for the life of me I can't get anything free that plays blu rays.

VLC can play blurays that do not include crazy levels of javascript menus and such. Also MakeMKV can rip your BR down to an MKV that will play on just about anything. If you feel like spending money, Anydvd and others like that.
 
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I still have the old Netflix DVD mail service - used to be the only way to get Blu-ray quality since my ISP sucked.

Now that I have starlink I’m considering canceling.

The last DVD player I bought was ... ‘03? Since the PS3 I’ve just used consoles on the rare occasion I still play one.

NAS + Plex for nearly everything though. I can’t do 4K BR though, and not going to invest in the equip to do it either.

Same here Brian... I am still subscribed to the netflix disc service to get new releases or backfill older movies not on streaming. It does seem like I only get 1 or 2 a month now though... I should probably cancel it. In the pre-covid times when people left their homes on a regular basis, I used to hit a 7-11 by the house frequently to get gas and would rent a movie or game from Redbox... but when covid came around, those things were picked clean of even the junk movies, people were so desperate for entertainment.

I actually won my first DVD player as a company xmas holiday door prize in 1999, back when they cost a lot. I was a big Laserdisc fan back then and wasn't going to re-buy all my movies (I told myself, it happened later anyway LOL). 1st gen Panasonic something... it wouldn't play anything that was burned and I gave it away a few years later.

Currently I have 2 standalone BR players (one not even plugged in, in the bedroom) and PS4. I don't play discs a whole lot any more, I have converted my huge physical library to PLEX a couple years ago. But I still have most of the discs and 90% of my audio CDs.
 
I'm going to guess DVD is still popular because of the elderly, children, and families with lower income. DVD is the defacto common standard playback device and I think every household has some type of tech that will play one. The elderly peeps that I know cannot see the difference between SD or HD, or not enough to care anyway. H*ll, my mother would still own a VCR and be buying tapes at flea markets if she had her way. And for kids... parents will pick the lowest price option for kids shows/cartoons. Have you been into a discount store like Big Lots or Dollar General? They have huge selections of bargain movies and they are all DVDs.

edit : I forgot another target audience... people who live in areas where you can't get decent bandwidth to stream, or it costs too much money. My bro-in-law has a place in the mountains and his internet is 1mb DSL, and most phone service doesn't work there. He has a pretty decent physical disc selection to keep the wife and kids entertained. Some are DVD's, kids don't really care just as long as they can get their cartoon fix.



VLC can play blurays that do not include crazy levels of javascript menus and such. Also MakeMKV can rip your BR down to an MKV that will play on just about anything. If you feel like spending money, Anydvd and others like that.
I've had a good experience with WinDVD Pro for standard BR. Not going to jump through all the BS to try and play UHD on my PC when I have 3 consoles now that can do so natively.
 
Not going to jump through all the BS to try and play UHD on my PC when I have 3 consoles now that can do so natively.

Ditto. 99% of my movie watching is in the living room where many devices live. I rarely watch movies on my PC (I mean like one I have to bust out a disc for)
 
VLC can play blurays that do not include crazy levels of javascript menus and such. Also MakeMKV can rip your BR down to an MKV that will play on just about anything. If you feel like spending money, Anydvd and others like that.

VLC and Blu ray never worked for me, I use some 20 year old cyberlink software I once got gor free once with a DVD drive or something

Audio CD's I rip with creative centrale which I got with a MP3 player over a decade ago, but it's a bit dodgy on win10 and seems to be abandoned.
 
Audio CD's I rip with creative centrale which I got with a MP3 player over a decade ago, but it's a bit dodgy on win10 and seems to be abandoned.

There are many ways to do this, but I have used DBpoweramp forever. It still exists but it's not free any more, but it does have a trial period. I liked that it has real multicore support so it can rip through cd's really fast. EAC (exact audio copy) and FLAC are also popular.

If you need to rip movies, MakeMKV and Handbrake are free.
 
I'd be interested in backing up my collection to my NAS depending on the hoops involved...
 
I'd be interested in backing up my collection to my NAS depending on the hoops involved...
Not really any hoops, just time intensive depending on speed of your rig and quality settings you chose.

MakeMkV and Handbrake - it’s down to basically three mouse clicks and swapping discs. If it’s DVD and not blu ray, Handbrake can do that without MakeMKV if you download the DLL
 
I guess I should shut up and try the suggestions :D

Got both of those downloaded and installed, we'll see what's what!
 
I don't remember ever owning a DVD player. Only DVD drives in my PC. Heck, I've never owned a bluray player either. Only a bluray drive.

I still have a dusty old box of DVD's somewhere in the basement, none of which have been played in the last 15-20 years, and some of which have never been played. I wouldn't even bother watching any 480p content these days. If something isn't available in 1080p or higher I probably just wouldn't watch it.

It just goes to show that there are many people for whom quality does not matter. I find watching low resolution content outright painful, but they just don't care at all.

As for my movie library, it is made up mostly of bluray rips. I buy blurays on sale and sometimes even used, rip them to the NAS, and then put the blurays in a big box I never touch again. I may even throw it out. Not sure. It's starting to take up space. I prefer this over any kind of streaming due to the higher bitrates, and the dependability of locally stored content.

And I ahve better **** to do than worry about whether or not I am watching the very latest content. I can wait until I can find something on blu-ray for cheap, and rip it. I'm not bothered by FOMO. Everyone else can be watching something, but it does not bother me. I still have yet to watch any of the Hunger Game of Thrones, and I am cool with that. I haven't been to a movie theater in over a decade, and I don't plan on going any time soon.
 
Well you can get software for free that plays DVD's on a pc, for the life of me I can't get anything free that plays blu rays.

I'd just use MakeMKV to rip the content you want to watch, and then play back the MKV. No need to play anything directly from a disc.

This is a little more difficult for 4k discs than for regular blurays, but I haven't migrated to 4k for media yet.
 
This is a little more difficult for 4k discs than for regular blurays, but I haven't migrated to 4k for media yet.
Requires a specific drive with compatible firmware, but other than that, it's the same MakeMKV / same process.
 
Requires a specific drive with compatible firmware, but other than that, it's the same MakeMKV / same process.

I thought you also had to hunt the internet for a decryption key for the specific disk you were trying to rip. Is that no longer the case?
 
I thought you also had to hunt the internet for a decryption key for the specific disk you were trying to rip. Is that no longer the case?
I haven't tried, I don't have a compatible drive, so honestly I couldn't say. I thought the encryption was cracked though, or rather, the firmware would just go right around the encryption (LibreDrive). LibreDrive has only been in MakeMKV for a little while though (2019 maybe)?
 
Requires a specific drive with compatible firmware, but other than that, it's the same MakeMKV / same process.

I did a lot of research on 4k ripping and said screw it. I have ripped my movies since it was technically possible to do so.... 1080p BR is good enough or else I will try a 4K stream. I am not going through all that again, but not like you can rent 4K UHD anywhere anyway.
 
I did a lot of research on 4k ripping and said screw it. I have ripped my movies since it was technically possible to do so.... 1080p BR is good enough or else I will try a 4K stream. I am not going through all that again, but not like you can rent 4K UHD anywhere anyway.
Same reason I never went and invested in a drive that was compatible.
 
The proliferation and quality available with streaming is pretty surprising to be honest.

We did the whole Star Wars + Rogue One sequence and it had to be the best quality I'd viewed yet.

Still, I'd like to be able to back up what I have...
 
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