Do you still buy/collect DVDs or BluRays?

[motoboy]

As of last week, my wife and I have acquired every MST3K DVD that has ever been released except Volume 10.1, but we have 2 copies of Volume 10 ($$$), so all we're missing is "The Giant Gila Monster." Feh, it's a Joel anyway. We also have most of the Rifftrax DVDs and all the Cinematic Titanics and Film Crews.

[Biffo]

When you subscribe to Netflix (or whatever) you are paying for the service - you are not buying the movies. You can watch as many or as few as you want. For me, as I said above, the problem is that most of the content is garbage.  After only a couple of weeks membership (via Amazon Prime, courtesy of my partner) there has been very little worth watching.

I can partially sympathize with the doubters as a fairly large part of my DVD movie collection is of monochrome classics that don't seem to figure in Netflix world. On the other hand, a week ago I took two carrier bags full of DVDs to the local charity shop, most of them watched only once - ideal material for streaming. Subscribing to a streaming doesn't mean you are banned from buying DVDs - buy what you think will be of long term value.

[vandermolen]

You are not alone in your sophisticated tastes - I watched Dunkirk about a month ago and Paddington 2 last night, both on DVD.

Pleased to hear it!

[Biffo]

Correction to reply #21 and apologies all round. Netflix is more complicated than I thought, as I found out to my embarrassment a few after making the post. In addition to a substantial amount of free material (most of it not to my taste) there is also stuff to buy to download and also stuff to pay to watch once. I have only had access to it for a couple of weeks and clearly haven't been paying attention.

Even so, I still believe in flexibility and though I will continue to buy DVDs I don't rule out paying to watch something once (or only having it available for a limited period).

[Baron Scarpia]

Purchasing is down, but not zero. I have Netflix because their basic plan is cheep and because there are a few things that we watch regularly and there are some comedy specials that I find worth watching. But as a general resource they are dismal. Availability of 'classic' films is basically zilch, and most things I decide I want to watch are not there, evidently they rely on their recommendation engine to find you something that you are willing to watch.

Amazon prime video is much better. (We have prime mostly for the shipping, but this is an added benefit.) A much better selection than Netflix.

And even with non-streamable things I have tended to drift towards purchasing downloads (either iTunes or Amazon instant video) because I just don't have the room for the discs anymore. Much easier to stream than to search for some disc that has been squirreled away because there is no room on the shelves.

[Karl Henning]

[...] Netflix is more complicated than I thought, as I found out to my embarrassment a few after making the post. In addition to a substantial amount of free material (most of it not to my taste) [....]

I have not paid close attention to Netflix in quite a while.  Two of my brothers subscribe, and my impression is, that I should spend some time hunting for anything which strongly interests me.  And, yah, I should probably spend less time, and to better effect, searching my squirrelings-away 

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

After posting this, I remembered that Amazon sells the access to the Tony Bourdain shows for $3 a show or $14 for the season. Not too bad actually--if one can trust them not to yank it away from you (peon)--1984 style--whenever they jolly well feel like it! AND if you're ok with ceding yet another shred of your privacy (although it would not surprise me to find that Windows makes a log of everything you view on your desktop or laptop DVD player)

[drogulus]

     I do everything. I'm doing 4K now but only have a single disc to test my Oppo, the rest are DLs and I have done a bit of 4K streaming on NF and AMZN. There's a strategy to keep iTunes rentals in 720p. NF and AMZN in 4K requires special equipment which I don't have.

[drogulus]

     I find Amazon UK to be a good source for Blu Rays that are hard to find in the U.S. In some cases you can get them on Amazon U.S. where you'll see a warning that they won't play. Just rip them and play the file or burn the file on a disk and the problem is solved.

     Storage space is cheap for a movie collection. Seagate has portable drives with 5TB. I have 2 plus a 4TB that are connected to the Oppo, and an 8TB external for desktop storage/backup. I need big drives because I don't shrink disks. My files are identical to the disks they came from, minus the nasty "you can't play it in your country" stuff.