Digital bits of nothingness...

[kbehm29]

How can you "collect" digital bits of nothingness? Well, I get how you can collect them, but where is the fun in it?

I read an article on thedigitalbits from last Friday about how the movie industry knows that physical discs are on their way out and downloading/streaming movies is the way of the future. As Disney DVDs/Blu-Rays are the only thing in my life that I collect, I am kind of really disturbed by this. I like the physical feeling of holding and keeping good care of your collection. Downloading movies, even if I was sure of the clarity being blu-ray worthy and even knew how to get that movie onto all of the TV's in my house (kids bedrooms come to mind), just takes the fun out of it for me.

I'm sorry if there has been a thread on this before, but I'm not looking forward to the future.

I took a survey last week from Disney about how they are trying to personalize the whole downloading experience and might even let you get movies you already own on dvd/blu-ray for $1.99 - $3.99. You can customize your home page, etc......but I still am sort of overwhelmed and disappointed by not having a physical collection waiting for me in my future.

[Elladorine]

Even photos don't feel "real" to me unless I make it a point to print them out so I can hold them in my hands, so yeah, I like having a physical collection myself. I like having the cases and the discs and seeing them sitting over on my shelf. The whole virtual collection thing feels a little weird to me.

[Scarred4life]

I can get on board with online music, but not movies. No way would I ever buy an online movie, ever.

[milojthatch]

Let's see, I've gone from collecting VHS to replacing all of those collections with DVD. Then, despite concerns about Blu-ray, I finally did start to collect Bly-ray discs, but unlike VHS to DVD, do not plain on replacing my previous collection.

I think my thoughts on it has evolved to see Blu-ray and DVD being able to sit side-by-side one another. So I'll buy new movies in either format, depending on my mood (case in point: I recently picked "Thor" up on Blu-ray, but the new "X-Men" on DVD), and will buy Blu-rays for a select few titles I already have on DVD (really just Dsiney films), but not as replacements so much as additions to what is already there.

But, I will never, NEVER spend money on a digital movie. I'm not against things like NetFlix, and even have an account (for now) with them, but I really use it to help decide if I like a movie enough to then turn around and buy it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Look, I'm a big fan of enviornmental thinking, I really am, but this digital thing? Not for me. I would always just see it as "renting" and I don't want to do that.

I guess for really casual movie fans, it works. But as for me, the day that is the only option is the day I stop buying new titles. So one good thing about the future is I may be saving a lot of money!

[ajmrowland]

i only ever download rentals, trailers and tv shows i dont wanna own the whole series for

[milojthatch]

i only ever download rentals, trailers and tv shows i dont wanna own the whole series for

For the shows you don't care about as much that you download, do you feel that you "own" them? That does seem to be the big question here.