Really enjoying this series Aaron. I have been collecting for around 25 years. I have over the years upgraded the DVD's that I love to blu ray for 1080 and longevity. I have certain movies on DVD that I won't upgrade due to it being a movie that I enjoy but don't love or if I know the transfer is not worth it due to quality(T2). I also buy 4k but I have set a sweet spot price of $10 to $15 unless it is something I love like the Arrow Conan box set. I have built a ton of my collection second hand via thrift store, pawn shop, or internet second hand (Reddit). Film over format my friend and enjoy the holidays with your family.

(More on Blind Buys / discoveries) I think the real kind of answer you're looking for is = _Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Magic Flute,_ and _The Daytrippers._ I had never heard of any of these movies before randomly seeing Amazon or Blu-Ray daht comm pages for them. I just "got a feeling" about them and had to buy them. I've blind bought other Criterions but... these 3 should count because you said "Discovered." Because: I've watched those movies after buying them and I still need to actually *sit down and watch* _The Comfort of Strangers, To Sleep with Anger, Until the End of the World,_ and _Demon Pond._ Although, super proud of myself for this one = I've actually seen _Daisies_ before. Back when I had a free trial subscription to The Criterion Channel.

How blind do we have to be on Blind Buy?? My first Never Before Seen movie was _The Vanishing_ which might have also been my first Criterion DVD (Christmas, 2003) / I'm not sure. *But* I had already seen a commercial on Cinemax as a child on Cinemax, so, I remembered several images from the movie. (The rain on the windshield over the blond abductor's face, the tunnel during the couple's drive, Saskia with the white cloth face in the car, and the lighter being lit after the man woke up in the wooded box.)

3 movies I'm surprised came out on Criterion as in: They... don't deserve to be? I wouldn't have thought? I think _Smooth Talk_ fits their profile enough to say it was just a surprise to me. I just didn't see it coming. I'm shocked as hell at the Gregg Araki trilogy. You could still knock me over with a feather at that one. But... what absolutely does not deserve to be in Criterion? Even though it was like 20+ years ago = Michael Bay's _Armageddon_ and _The Rock._ Maybe one day I'll have a change of heart on the movie, but I also thought _The Phantom Carriage_ was condescending and narratively irritating. That's more than 3.

3 movies I wish... I've said it before and I will say it again = I *did* think _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_ was good. But, _Clueless_ is just plain where the magic happens. And knowing what movies Amy Heckerling made *after* _Ridgemont,_ I can say with full confidence that _Clueless_ feels like her definitive directorial statement. And this is from someone who can't stop watching _European Vacation_ like it's some sort of glory in the art of trainwrecking. _Ridgemont_ is better than Hughes' _The Breakfast Club_ but... still, I will spend the rest of my life if that's what it takes shilling for _Clueless_ For Criterion if shilling is how my efforts, intentions are read. I think the film deserves it. It's as magnetic as a Classic-era Hollywood Musical (though it has no "musical" sequences in it), it's one of the rare instances where I firmly believe fashion and trend-setting were Substance and took on a life of their own, and I absolutely believe in the film's story, characters, and the breadth of acting talent and *runaway* performances. It's magic but I think that magic was achieved through talent. I really do. Since Criterion have already dipped their toe into the **Gregg Araki** pool... I gotta say, I want: _The Living End_ and _Splendor_ to complete the would-be set of his 90's masterworks. Weirdly enough? They are also the only 2 Araki films I owned, on DVD, before picking up the Criterion Blu-Ray trilogy. (Wait... idiot me: I forgot I already owned _Totally F'd Up._ I just never got around to watching it.) Don't ask but... I know Shout!/Scream already did this but they kinda were not the right ones for the job: Neil Jordan's _The Company of Wolves._ Especially after I just watched _The Magic Flute_ and it's December and is it not the absolute perfect time or what? Oh yeah. And because there's just no way it'll ever happen: George A. Romero's _Dawn of the Dead._ Perhaps the prestige of the whole thing... ya know. Oh yeah. And... just: _Toy Story._ Just to put 1 more non-R rated film on the docket.

The Criterion I wanted the most during The Sale in the U.S. was probably _The Rose_ with Bette Midler and I got that. But I really wanted Mike Leigh's _Secrets & Lies_ and I wasn't able to get it. *But* I was able to snag (for less than $20 a piece): _Crash_ (Cronenberg, of course) _Demon Pond_ _All That Jazz_ _Daisies_ _Sisters_ _Punch-Drunk Love_ (that was over $30 before The Sale) _The Magic Flute_ (total blind buy, had never heard of it before and it was super fun) _The Lure_ _Blue Velvet_ _Dressed to Kill_ and... I ordered _Defending Your Life_ but they think that's not going to ship 'til nearly February or something. Look at me! 4 Foreign Language Films, showing off how cultured I am for being younger than Britney Spears!!

But, no: I absolutely just bought (the second I could afford them) the Complete Series boxsets of _Vicar of Dibley_ and _Keeping Up Appearances_ so... Yeah. DVD is super valuable. But. Knowing stuff like _Parks & Recreation, The Office, 30 Rock_ (etc) and a few classic series like _Dawson's Creek_ are fully out on BLU... (I say *TV* is the frontier upon which Blu-Ray is way behind DVD. Currently.) Well. Let's just hope "Recent Events" don't make it impossible for us in the You Ess (U.S.) to be able to afford physical media anymore pretty soon. (It's lookin' mighty bleak.)

Region 2 PAL DVD is too bizarrely, unnaturally fast. Heck: I watched _Nightmare on Elm Street 4_ the other day on Blu-Ray, knowing that I'm told it plays faster than Region 1 NTSC DVD and... the scene of Sheila turning into a "suck face"d corpse - the special effect goes by so fast, you don't get any time to marvel at how cool it looks. *_I frowned_* I'm hear to tell you. I frowned.

How can you say it isn't? When ever I put my Blu-Rays down on the table... they *_never_* get up again on their own accord. I rest my case.

I watched my Abyss 4k and it looked great to me. If anything is revisionist I'm not familiar enough to tell, this is my first time owning it and in the case of Abyss theres no blu ray to fall back to other than Spanish semi-bootlegs of questionable quality, hard to understand anyone so bothered by the 4k they revert all the way back to the DVD for such a visually striking film. Not sure if you referenced Terminator 4k or T2 4k along with it but the Terminator 4k has gotten generally positive reviews and is considered a good upgrade over the blu. For that one I'll hold onto my blu still as there are some changes and I'd like to own both versions.

I could not agree more. I'm really liking the the text/audio inserts your doing, along with your usual quick wit, and improv style, and accurate takes. Killer vid here. I just picked up "Looney Toons Collection" Vol. 1 to 4, an all in one package, recently put out by Warner Bros., for 35 bucks on Amazon. I mean, how can you go wrong. Physical media is thriving, now, mostly online, and, like never before.

Hi mister sloth

Lg was Low Grade budget player . They should stick to making washing machines . I always buy Sony, pioneer , Samsung or Panasonic. Magnestar are making high end players . Physical media is not dying .

Great upload , I’ve been collecting movies since vhs days. I quit streaming services after covid and dove back into collecting movies as sick of not owning and watch what I want when I want . I still buy blu ray if it’s way cheaper than 4k

Good video Aaron. I remember in 2008 when Blu Ray won the battle with HD DVD & even then people were saying physical media was dying. I own the Panasonic UB820 4k player. Happy festive season.

Physical Media will be with us for a very long time, I'm 100% sure of that because you can still watch DVDs and Blu-rays without any problems, so I can't understand all these videos on KZbin about physical media dying, except that you get more clicks for that 🤔 Yes it's true that the golden age of the physical media is long behind us is no more Mainstream because, firstly, the majority of people are no longer interested in it and, secondly, the huge selection of streaming services has made it more convenient not better but convenient. And you shouldn't not forget that the times and the value of the Movie have changed drastically over the years. Nowadays people watch the Movie and then it's no longer interesting. The medium has become a mass product that only serves consumption, like a visit to McDonalds 🍔🍟 30 or 40 years ago it was a very different time when there were still was video stores like "Blockbuster". You would rent a few Movies for the weekend and watch them with friends or family. You would watch the Movie more than just once. That's a big difference compared to today. And if we're being honest, LG's Bluray players weren't exactly the best - they were cheap compared to other manufacturers 🤷‍♂️ Movies on Physical Media4Life 💿📼🧡

John be CAMP Aing on lies 😂

Another thing to remember, and something I didn't know unless you hear it from people who collected in the old days, is, physical media used to be a lot more expensive than it is today.

Its materialism. Only 17% of people are self aware, as shown by three independent studies. If you aren't wondering if you are one of them, you probably arent.

Really cool pickups at the end !

It makes sense for physical media to be warehouse based. But for the love of thing holy someone from Amazon need to learn from Hamilton book on shipping. They always deliver my media in best condition

I have and lg player. They were going for 50-70 used on eBay. Not the best but they work. I was more focused on getting my budget 4k TVs 4k disc able.

Going to be honest, I am laughing at the people is saying social media is dead 😂 it’s going to be around just like you said a very long long time 🤟

I pre ordered two months ago from Amazon and it’s out of stock😢

I've been collecting for years and even got VHS tapes, then came DVDs and Blu-rays, but now I just don't want to update to a new format that I don't like at all, which is fine. For me, the Bluray is the perfect transition between Physical DVD and Bluray when it comes to your all-time favorite movies. Especially with older titles, it is often good enough without going overboard in terms of sharpness, which is unfortunately increasingly the case when it comes to 4K restoration. That's why I'm always surprised to hear that the Bluray is no longer any good because it's not on 4K. For example, I'm more than happy with the Bluray of "Big Trouble in Little China". The sound is good and so is the picture quality without seeming artificial in any way. However, I'm sure that many people would say that this Bluray is no longer up to date, whatever that means 🤷‍♂️ The Bluray is exactly where the DVD has long been because for the Hardcore Collector Community and Boutique Label Fans these two formats are no longer important, except when the Bluray is added as a bonus disc to the 4K. But for the average movie collector the Bluray is still worth the money 😘👌

I think all three will stick around because players can play all three

Aaron, your takes on collecting are unrivalled in being able to "look at the entire picture", so to speak. I, also, am not a format elitist. Listening to an album on a cassette tape will give you a completely different sensation, than on vinyl, or a remastered CD, or, download. Each format has it's upsides/downsides. Believe it, or, not cassettes can sound amazing as long as you have a good system to play them on - same for VHS, all other movie formats. Thanks for your insights; I'm getting a lot out of them.

Great video Aaron! I missed the dvd episode, but will watch it now! I agree with your comments on Bluray, Bluray is the happy medium between dvd and 4k quality, 4K is usually not my first choice, actually Bluray but for a special movie I will double dip or triple dip for that new copy. Great stuff man! Take care

I love bluray, however Ill get the DVD if the cost is too much. If the price is close, I choose the bluray. Ah yes, real estate. Shelf space is the bane of my collecting existence. I have that Alien box set as well, i love it. I used to have that big clunky DVD Alien boxset, but sold it when I got the bluray. Interesting video, sir. Keep up the good work.

Blu ray is bullet proof,the most robust of all 3 disc formats.

I'm mainly interested in the film, which is why the DVD is still relevant today. The Blu-ray is also fine, but I'm out of the 4K UHD format. It just doesn't appeal to me for a number of reasons.

Awesome arrows DVDs

I collect DVDs only if the Blu-ray is ridiculous money and that particular title happens to be out of print in that format then I will vigorously try to track down standard DVD it is better to have something than nothing in my opinion which is why I don't look down upon the bootleggers industry because there are so many titles that just aren't available any other way without paying ridiculous scalper prices

I don't have commercial or cable television and haven't watched it for over 20 years. Don't miss it. I enjoy my research, seeking out exactly what l want to watch, and finding the best blu ray packaged deals l can. I really enjoy the extra features. The last time l went to a movie it was a matine, l had a small drink and popcorn and it cost me $26. And l didn't particularly enjoy the movie. I almost always enjoy the discs l purchase, and l don't give much credence to people who say it's a dead or pointless format.

I never cared about upgrading to blu ray or 4K, DVDs look great as long as I can see the movie on DVD that’s all that counts.

I still buy the occasional DVD mainly from Value Village (a.k.a. Savers) thrift stores. It's usually content that was meant to be seen on 4:3 standard definition televisions, especially Simpsons and South Park boxsets, also Christmas specials and even music video collections. I usually watch optical media disks on a laptop or computer monitor these days (I have an external Blu-Ray drive but I also still have computers with internal DVD drives) where the screens are small enough that DVDs really still look pretty good, not that I have a big screen TV anyway.

I loved you in Jaws and Stakeout 👍

Great video, Aaron.

Speaking of TV shows I would like to see the use of the Size advantage of blu ray or 4k that otherwise wouldn't take "advantage of the Format" many of these tv series of yesteryear due to being filming on Video Tape can't look to much better than DVD but we could get lot more of the seasons on Blu Ray. Night Court 1984 is 3disc 24 episode DVDs, 1 blu ray could hold the entire season at the DVD "visual quality" that not going to get much better.

You'll be lucky to collect anything soon. LG are also stopping making players. Sony and Panasonic will be next 😲

Loads of people are still buying them, as Ebay prices show that

Personally, I find it very strange when collectors on this platform are so vehemently against DVDs. There are an infinite amount of great titles they are just neglecting that are only on that format. I also think so many people fail to realize how great DVDs can look. A well mastered dvd would fool many people I believe. One of the great scores my buddy and I got about two years ago was during Severin’s DVD clearance sale. Those DVD’s are mastered so well and we paid like $4 or less a title. Also something I often do these days is buy DVD’s to obtain supplemental features that are absent from the newer 4k collections. Example Spider-Man 4k trilogy, Harry Potter collection, Lord of The Rings 4k collection, etc etc. All of those sets do not have any features what so ever. Thanks to goodwill and thrift stores, I can now enjoy the many many hours of feature produced for those films from their initial dvd releases.

Greetings from great Britain. I really enjoyed your speech....ive only just started to buy blu-ray...I own most of my films on DVD..im 58 .ive always collected on and off ...but in the last 5 years I've hoovered up DVDs ( and CDS) as people wholesale ditched their collections off at the charity shops in favour of the renting their music and films from Spotify and Netflix....as much as I enjoy a " boutique " Arrow boxset they expensive and don't turn up in charity shops..so I rarely buy them unless it's on offer...to me DVDs are perfectly acceptable...ive only on the odd occasion replaced a DVD with Blu-ray if ive got a basic copy of a favourite film and the blu-ray extras make it worth the expense....ive generally tried to buy the DVDS that are double discs and have extras....im glad I built up my sizable ( to me anyways I know some guys have 1000s ) as the prices even for dvds have shot up as buyin̈g dvds has become a "thing" and named "physical media " lol...bit like vintage guitars were at one time just 2nd hand guitars lol...I still buy them but the bargains are getting scarce the days of the complete dirty Harry boxset of all the films complete with case candy like a faux warrentcard and police badge for £3.50 off Ebay are gone...fortunately where I live in the UK ( barnsley is Britains version of the deep south lol) the charity shops haven't caught on as the cool vinyl collecting type hipsters live in city's NOT small ex mining towns ...so I continue to still pick up the odd gem...

You can not everything on Blu Ray. And another thing. Thunderbirds on dvd is in the proper aspect ratio. The Blu Ray is in the wrong ratio. Thunderbirds was not made for widescreen tv. A lot of British TV shows are only available on dvd. No Blu Ray. So I still buy a lot of dvds.

And let's not forget that many blu rays go out-of-print really fast and sell for high prices while dvd's remain affordable on the used market.

I still collect DVD's. Owning the movie is the most important thing to me. Whether or not I want to shell out more money for a bluray or 4k, depends on how much I like the movie and what the special features are.

It's still the most popular format though I only buy old releases. Best value media right now by far. In europe the difference in price is significant. Second hand blu-rays are around 8-10(!) eur but you can find used dvd's for around 1-2 eur easily. The most rewarding is finding movies that were never released on blu-ray and there are many in emerging cinema markets (Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, India, etc). VHS are more expensive in many places since it's becoming collectible.

Good video Aaron. I mainly buy 4ks & blu rays as i like the best quality. However i will gladly settle for DVD if no alternitave is available.

You don't have Savage Streets on blu?? There hasn't been a 4k yet. Some DVDs especially the non wide-screen ones do look terrible on modern TVs. But I watched Paulie on a 40 inch 1080p and it almost looked like a blu. A lot of it is title dependent. I only own DVDa for which there is no better option. Less than 200 currently.

We’re not too good for DVD’s. Whatever gets you the content you desire at a price that you consider fair value is what’s important. I don’t understand why people think DVD quality is unacceptable. I mean we older folks used to be happy with the reception we got with an antennae. We’re a bit spoiled by choice nowadays.