Why buy second hand DVDs to clutter your house when piracy exists? Either way the rights holders earn no money.
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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The only reason I can think of is for the bonus content. When you pirate, you generally just get the movie/show and nothing else. No behind the scenes extras, no deleted scenes, no director's commentary, etc. Even Blu Ray discs are often lacking in this category. DVDs were peak for special features.
I sorted out my DVD's Kept the collectors stuff, moved the cheaper but beloved stuff to binders and threw away the chaff i bought for a dollar a disk when blockbuster went under.
I can keep my entire original collection easily on 2 hard drives these days
Cus I like em
Most DVDs produced will be rotted out within 20/30 years at most, only option is ripping what you can and migrate the collection to a new drive every decade, just make sure it's a secondary drive and is of archival quality.
Burned disks, you'll probably lose some over 30 years, i've lost a few in 20 years, most are still readable.
Poorly pressed disks, you might lose one here or there. I had a two where the aluminum was poorly sealed and flaked off the label side.
I have hundreds of DVD's in the 20-30 year range and have never had a problem reading any of them that weren't scratched save the couple that were lacking in top lacquer.
Rotted within 20/30 years? Honest question where did you get that ? I have 40 yo cds that are in pristine condition why would dvds be different?
The density of DVDs makes them less resilient than CDs, but CDs will also suffer the same fate. It's going to be a very serious conservation problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
Exactly, and I imagine blurays and DL dvds will suffer even quicker. However the quality of the plastic is also important, we started cheaping out and it's noticable, look at VHS or Tapes as we moved forward the quality of them dropped.
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No, they’re not.
The reason vinyl is vinyl is because the format requires very careful mastering of the source audio. The medium is physically sensitive to dynamic range, frequency response, and groove spacing. That is why people argue that vinyl can sound better than a compressed digital file like an MP3 or a mass-produced CD.
Nothing about a DVD inherently requires special mastering of the video. If anything, DVDs are simply inexpensive to buy on the secondhand market, whether from local sellers or platforms like eBay.
Given the current state of digital licensing and streaming volatility, I understand why people want physical media like discs in order to truly own their movies. That could explain a modest resurgence in DVD sales. But DVDs are not the next vinyl. Vinyl never went away; it remained in production.
And no one is putting HD video on DVD discs.
No, vinyl is still the new vinyl. Tons and tons of new vinyl on Bandcamp. And tapes!
Yes but vinyl’s resurgence is like a decade old now. People were actively abandoning DVD while stocking up on vinyl.
Its Blu-ray not DVD right? DVD was an impossibly low resolution, that really isn't fun to watch today.
Blu ray works perfectly on today's hardware
DVD is perfectly fine resolution, not everyone even has a 4K screen or TV. Most people still have 720x1080 or 1080x1920p screens or TVs. Our tv personally is 720x1080 and it looks just fine.
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It's a bit trickier last time I did it to be confident I can rip a Blu-Ray.
I actually don't want to juggle discs to watch stuff, I like the general concept of streaming, but I don't like paying eternally for it, for shows to jump between providers and for my access to cut out part way through and/or even if I have the new service, my progress being forgotten so I have to try to look for where I left off.
So I want to rip content. DVDs are always dead simple. As I rip blu-rays, MakeMKV is kind of a hassle, it wants to expire itself all the time, and like right this second the place to update from seems down. Maybe someone will comment with some easy way to rip blu ray that internet search doesn't make obvious.
If folks sway me, might go buy a 4k friendly Blu Ray drive and hop to it.
MakeMKV is the easiest way. The license key is always in the forum.
I thought a BD duplicator. Multiple drives, just put the professional disc in the top and a blank in one or more of the others. Obviously blanks are less resilient than pressed discs but it’s a backup and I didn’t need to have specialized skills to do it.
Eh, I'm not really interested in disc based copies, really the disc is there for ripping and then stored, jellyfin to stream it to watch as I please. Once ripped then I can handle the resultant file nice and easy.
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My libraries still lend out a lot of DVDs. I ended up getting Fallout S1 in that format, and while it was a resolution drop, it was perfectly bearable.
I can guess for the audience using discs, a lot still have archaic hardware to play them on.
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The future is self-hosted digital media. I've got no qualms with pirating media. But I am an advocate for buying digital media from artists directly.
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We started buying BR and CDs for our daughter because we found the physical selection more rewarding to her and interactive. With the exception of the PBS app, no way that could all be a collection.
i also very rarely still see Video Games being sold in CD/DVDS.
thats only one franchise i know of though.
but imagine it was more common for video games too.
a few years ago I ripped all my cds/dvds to mp3/mp4 for easier uses. google music used to let you download everything as mp3. apple never did. for a while just uploading one song could get you the whole album. loaded on thumbdrives and distributed as gifts,, backups for legal purposes.
The sneakernet and hard drives are the future. We never needed the Internet to share.
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When I bought my dream machine it was the first one without an optical drive... and then I bought an external blu-ray player/DVD burner.
I miss walking the aisles and running across some film I haven’t seen or haven’t seen in ages. Having heavily curated list of films recommended for me makes me uninterested in even looking. Of course I’d enjoy this film, I’ve watched 6 times over the last 10 years, thank you algorithm.
Blu-rays are great, DVDs not so much unless it's an old title that was never released in 1080p
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Not to ruin people getting off of streaming, but the biggest bang for buck in storage will be regular old hard drives unless you need to backup like >500Tb of storage (then tape drives).
DVDs are cool but they only have a 4/8Gb capacity.
BluRay pushes it to 70/100/120gb which is great for one 4K movie lol.
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If you don't hold it, you don't own it. Unless you take the DVD from them, you can't remove their access to the movie stored on that disc.
DVD and especially blue ray still have DRM and license terms, which . means you still don't own it. Only way to own media is to pirate it
license terms
In most places ownership laws make those licences unenforceable - not in the legal sense, but practically - hard to lock you out of a DVD.
Great option for those still politically opposed to pirating stuff.
Yeah, that's a fair point.
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