this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing::In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, "streaming anxiety" is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.

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[–] oDDmON@lemmy.world 129 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Buy the box set, rip it to .mkv, drop in Plex, rinse and repeat.

Oh, wait, this isn’t c/piracy?

[–] ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 55 points 10 months ago (6 children)

This is not only a good way to handle media, it's one of the best.

It blows my goddamn mind that TV manufacturers didn't develop a streaming portal "endpoint" player and band together to require content from Netflix/Hulu/etc meet that standard for delivery. It's made TVs just app boxes.

Can you just imagine being able to see what is available on all services from one interface, all at once, and then start a stream of it seamlessly from whichever you movie profile page you have access to?

Instead we have half-assed lookup apps in some TVs that even when they find it a film then just launch a separate app.

Build a good Plex library and never look back. Buy Blurays and DVDs and lookup how to automate good handbrake encoding. Once you know how, you can honest to god automate most of it, and in my case, I have it auto-launch and rip any disc if it detects a Blu-ray film or DVD film and drop the resulting file in my NAS storage to be sorted. Blurays drives are cheap too now, so you can buy 2-3 and dump a whole library in just a few days.

[–] EmergMemeHologram@startrek.website 29 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Apple TV has that single place, but Netflix doesn’t want to use it and now Amazon and a bunch of other streaming services sell “channels” which they pollute the results with content you can’t watch despite paying for the service.

[–] Uglyhead@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Apple TV has that single place, but Netflix doesn’t want to use it

Also, Netflix has the worst UI/UX on AppleTV boxes. The experience is vastly different and better on a Sony or Microsoft device in the Netflix software. It’s pretty odd imho.

[–] dtrain@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What , specifically, do you find irksome on the Netflix ATV interface?

Only thing I dislike is the snippet/trailer autoplay. Everything else, works well for me.

[–] Uglyhead@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

First off, and mainly UX based, different feature sets. For example the way Netflix feeds ‘New and Upcoming’ items, notifications for those items, etc.

I do understand that AppleTV has just recently really solidified their decisions on how they want their controller/remote to work so that may be a factor in designing the software for the navigation across all legacy AppleTV devices. The control schemes on consoles and other media boxes have been a constant for years and years now which probably benefited the look and feel of the flavor of the app on ATV.

This same issue generally happens across other media streaming services. For instance, the Disney app; even slight FFWD is abominable. It’s just pickiness, however I’ll still switch over to the Roku or a console to watch anything on Disney+.

/tome

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

Can you just imagine being able to see what is available on all services from one interface, all at once, and then start a stream of it seamlessly from whichever you movie profile page you have access to?

You see the utopian version of this with UI navigation perfection. I see what would likely have come of out such a collaboration being a screen 75% full of ads with user telemetry vacuumed up by hundreds of companies I can't opt-out of that would have access to all my viewing data because they're part of the collaboration.

[–] AscendantSquid@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

Can you just imagine being able to see what is available on all services from one interface, all at once, and then start a stream of it seamlessly from whichever you movie profile page you have access to?

When I was little, we used to have a box plugged into the CRT TVs of the time that, when connected to a network, would allow you access to something similar to what you're saying. Typically, you'd be able to open an electronic program guide to see a menu that displayed all the different services that you're subscribed to and be able to switch between streams seamlessly. Granted, the biggest difference is that the individual service providers had a set schedule as to what was streaming at the time, so if you missed content scheduled at a certain time, you'd hope they'd rebroadcast it at some point.

Maybe we could have something similar, but with the ability to pick anything from each individual service providers' library on demand?

Although there was a problem with this system, but I don't really remember what it was. The service providers banded together and started raising prices, I think? But, then again, aren't they doing something similar now?

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
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[–] Humanius@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

It's odd to me that there are places that would consider that piracy

In my country (the Netherlands), to my knowledge, you have the right to do whatever you like with your copy of a movie as long as you don't distribute it.
That includes ripping it, and putting the mkv on your personal server. That is precisely what the home-copy tax is for afterall..

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[–] trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Yes to all of that, except for Plex. Use Jellyfin. It's open source, and most importantly, doesn't force authentication from proprietary servers that you can't control. When those auth servers go down, as they've been known to do, you can't stream your media from your own server (unless you want to disable auth, which is a joke).

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago

Always think it'w funny how lemmy users tear you a new hole for mentioning proprietary software instead of (F)OSS but will usually happily recommend Plex in any case (and Arch).

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[–] LWD@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)
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[–] Aurix@lemmy.world 63 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Bullshit. Piracy is the only thing preserving it. Why? Because as a PC user 4k HDR Blu-Rays are forbidden for me anyways to play legally despite owning them.

[–] doubletwist@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)

What are you on about? In the US at least, there's no legal restriction on you playing 4K Blu-Ray movies on a PC.

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The drive is not the issue.

Most Blu-Ray disks have DRM encryption. There simply doesn't seem to be a (legal) decryption mechanism on PC, probably to avoid people ripping the movies.

[–] doubletwist@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I was under the impression that software like PowerDVD could play 4K HDR media if you're using Windows.

And at the end of the day, it is also (generally accepted as 'probably') legal to decrypt the media using whatever other methods available as long as you are only doing so to back up or enable viewing for yourself.

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[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious as well. I googled to make sure there was a PC Blu-ray drive, and there is.

[–] Aurix@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have a Blu-Ray drive myself, which can read 4K discs format wise. But the DRM industry forbids me from playback. There is no software playing it back in 4K HDR format, unless I crack the disc.

[–] psud@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

In my country (Australia) you're allowed to break the DRM for interoperability purposes. We could legally use deCSS, back when DVDs were state of the art, if we wanted to play them on our Linux computers

~~I don't think blue ray is nearly as easy to break~~ I just double checked. Not quite "super easy, barely an inconvenience" but quite do-able

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 58 points 10 months ago (15 children)

Anyone who thinks physical media on disc is a good way to preserve a work in perpetuity has never heard of disc rot.

Rip it, store it digitally, make periodic backups. Or obtain the IMAX film reel and keep it hermetically sealed for decades.

[–] the16bitgamer@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

But don't you know. They put a do not copy sticker on the disc. That means that you super Dooper can't copy this disc or you'll be in trouble.

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[–] AbsurdityAccelerator@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have considered buying or building a second NAS and putting it in my parents house for offsite backup.

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[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Or just get an M-disc burner and burn discs that'll last a good hundred years.

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[–] notannpc@lemmy.world 45 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Well, they can’t make your content disappear if you download copies of it to your own computer or server.

[–] MaxVoltage@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

My father who used to be able to pirate entire music libraries has been reduced to an apple subscriber its crazy

[–] Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 10 months ago

Mental decline is heartbreaking to watch

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[–] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 43 points 10 months ago (4 children)

!!WARNING!!

There is still DRM on DVDs and Blu-rays. Don't think everything is perfect because you have the physical media. You still only have a license to play it.

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (5 children)

My mkv software says otherwise.

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[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

It's way easier to break. And even ignoring that, for these technologies at least, as long as you keep/find a working player, it's fine-ish. You can still do backup/duplicate too. As far as conservation is concerned, physical media gives these options.

[–] FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

Yes; but DRM can be cracked, and it rarely makes DVDs and Blu-Rays unusable.

[–] wagoner@infosec.pub 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Do Blu rays require to phone home periodically to validate drm over the Internet? Genuine question., as I have read here that right to play them can be revoked.

[–] sushibowl@feddit.nl 15 points 10 months ago

They do not require any online connection. AACS has some ability to revoke media player keys, but it does so by encrypting future releases in such a way that the revoked player can not decrypt them (how this works technically is a bit complicated).

So if they decide to revoke your player, it can still play every Blu-ray disc manufactured before the revokation went into effect.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 40 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Since Oppenheimer was such a success, can we please get a high-budget Feynman film already? The guy was far more interesting and cooler and just generally more of a badass than Oppenheimer. And he fucked a lot more than Oppenheimer.

All we've gotten is Infinity which... it was okay, but come on. The guy got bored at Los Alamos and decided to learn how to safecrack. In the middle of the Manhattan Project. Because he was fucking bored.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 35 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If streaming anxiety is making you buy more cassette tapes instead of pirating I'd like to have a word with you.

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

I buy lots of cassette tapes on bandcamp (thousands by now) and also download lossless digital for the archive. Streaming sucks and I like to support artists, so piracy is out (for music only, I’m not buying video content).

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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Torrent them onto your own storage and make backups .

[–] KredeSeraf@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (17 children)

I have a 12tb external HDD for now, set it up with an Emby server so I can access it anywhere. Total cost was around $200. Gonna replace it with a NAS with like 80TB so I can keep it safe forever. This is the way.

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[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No one in their right mind that knows better has ever stored anything they truly cared to keep in the cloud only. Cloud storage like Google Drive or via streaming services where you can "buy" licenses. Maybe this will be a sign that the average person is catching on to the grift.

[–] Rehwyn@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yup. "Buying" a movie online is a grift, since all you're actually doing is buying a license to stream as long as they decide they want to host it. Companies can, and have, removed movies people have bought because of things like studio distribution agreements expiring.

My dream would be for UHD Blu-ray quality (or better) DRM-free digital movie purchases, much like you already can with high res music. But until that becomes a thing, I'll be buying a physical copy of any movies or shows that I want to own (rather than rent).

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[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 13 points 10 months ago

I love DVD extras like 'The Making Of...' documentaries and creator interviews/commentaries.

There's a special edition of 'Buckaroo Banzai' with an on screen commentary that's fantastic. I found out that the briefcase Buckaroo carries with him into Dimension 8 had a tuna fish salad sandwich and Eintein's brain.

[–] TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

In any reasonable society we would have actual ownership rights over the digital media that we buy and we wouldn't be beholden to fickle services or the inevitable decay of matter.

DRM-free copies, when properly backed up, are more secure than physical media. I have ripped MP3s from music CDs that already stopped working.

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