Physical Media Never Died: A Brief History of Boutique Labels

[@marcberm]

I've ripped all of my physical media and now host it on a Plex server, but it remains boxed-up and stored away. I wouldn't DREAM of purging the physical copies. Ever.

[@Mr.Goodkat]

How private is that? cause I'd like to do the same but don't want anyone else to be able to access it.

[@marcberm]

@@Mr.Goodkat It's as private as you want it to be. The media lives on your server or computer at home, though account login/user authentication requires internet as it's handled by Plex's servers/cloud. You can share your individual libraries of music, video, etc with others who have a Plex account, but you don't have to. Unless you share it, it's only available on your local network, and even then only to you or other registered users in the house to whom you've given access. One thing to keep in mind is that any time your media is being consumed by you or anyone you share it with outside the home, it's being streamed from your machine out over the Internet, so home Internet bandwidth matters, as does total usage if your ISP imposes download/upload caps and throttling.

[@Mr.Goodkat]

@@marcberm I have looked into Plex and Jellyfin among others before but it can sometimes get confusing for me, I find it hard to believe it's legal for a user to share his media with others who didn't pay for it, it's like having your own netflix people can just watch for free, seems like trouble.

[@RandallStevenson]

I've done the same with Jellyfin, it's very close to Plex, but it's free and open source.

[@watchforever1724]

I see

[@watchforever1724]

In my opinion physical media will never die just being niche I see an interest in it

[@kevinmyles6369]

Physical came and went and came back! Never found physical was/is dead, it just was pushed to the background a lil while.. vinyl went almost fully away yet came back in sucha fashion to a certain degree. Great interesting video! Cheers

[@RandallStevenson]

Of the people young enough to not have experienced physical media as a normal way of life, I can understand their devotion to the whims of studios and corporations determining what they consume and when. Those old enough to know better, I may never understand them purging their libraries and going all in on streaming.

[@TheHipisterDeer]

I would argue that boutique labels are the only ones trying to keep it alive to begin with, like how vinyl is still around. Anyone that preserves the history of media always has great respect for me.

[@ColtraneTaylor]

14:55 The cassette ad is magnifique.

[@skeller61]

Good recap of the history of video, thanks for the memories. One note regarding anime, don’t forget Speed Racer, which aired in the 1960s in the US.

[@geraldmartin7703]

Before Beta/VHS hifi stereo was created by adding a second tinny track at the edge of the tape, which was prone to curling and damage, resulting in dim sound with drop outs galore. I remember watching the Star Wars video at a department store, where the sound kept dropping out. Hi-Fi embedded sound within the video image, which was a spectacular improvement.

[@NecropsY1]

the people saying physical media is dead is just marketing for all the streaming platforms, real facts are DVDs are still made today , blue rays outsell most theater sales and older movies are hotter now then they have ever been , all streaming platforms outside of netflix are failing and have lost money and never turned a profit there all in the negative - streaming has failed physical media is due for a major come back just like vynal

[@watchforever1724]

Good

[@ramdom_assortment]

Also the patent for Bluray expires next year, so Blurays should get cheaper.

[@Makoto03]

Great video on the history of different models for video distribution. I remember the VHS era as a kid and while i did like physical media, i also like streaming movies/shows.

[@Schwift3D]

Honestly one of the best resources for physical media are thrift stores. All the classic dvds get cycled through there regularly and there's usually a good amount of blurays as well. Only painful part is finding the perfect movie only to discover it's been scratched to oblivion 😂😭

[@casualcadaver]

Thats why I stick with Blue-rays. Iv never seen a noticeable scratch on one.

[@Papa2sGhost]

Great and very important video!!! Hope you do more like this.

[@daelen.cclark]

Even if it’s never died, definitely diminished. I feel encouraged to pick up a couple dozen DVD’s for archival reasons.

[@Dexter649]

10:56-10:58 One of my favorite movies!

[@ChrisCooling]

By the way...George Atkinson was already up and running with a film and video rental business before Magnetic Video's 50 titles. Yes, there was Cartrivision and 16mm films, but there was a huge amount of pirated and adult titles; both of which were part and parcel to the home video business in these very early days.

[@TheShadowseesyou]

My fav back in the day was a UK company Hong Kong Legends who did a lot of the classic kung fu movies

[@Sixma-ej5vp]

Great video! Very well done! Hope you make more videos like these.

[@popretro1]

Nice piece! Enjoyed the broad overview & great use/editing of clips. Subbed.

[@TheGuyInTheCheapSeats]

Where's Anchor Bay? You missed the big one of boutique labels.

[@Mr.Goodkat]

Does anyone else have this problem of not being able to buy countless movies/shows because of cropping/the aspect ratio being wrong? if so how do you guys deal with it?

[@FredJensen4745]

I don’t. I have more things to worry about than the shape of the picture.

[@nebuloushammer8773]

I actually prefer IMAX movies to be cropped to 1.78 for the TV, because I'm never going to get a projector. Cropping 1.43 to 1.85 for home release is a little annoying, but I have a lot more things to worry about.

[@Knightmessenger]

I avoid those releases.

[@kennethmatthew9638]

I buy blu ray and DVD because I own it and it won't be taken down

[@usagismuffins]

i believe physical media is dying. but with everyone talking about it, more and more people are opening their eyes and seeing there's more than just streaming. i hope to see more in the near future, like how vinyl had a resurgence. it's very important that we keep it alive, and support these labels. eventually, more and more people will come around.

[@brandonpage7087]

Yes, it's of the utmost importance that we keep it around & support the boutique labels!!!

[@pjd4268]

They can take my physical media when they pry it from my cold dead fingers..

[@ColtraneTaylor]

Especially your copies of Ben-Hur and Soylent Green or that which is people!

[@SirBlackReeds]

I'm surprised Troma never came up.

[@PNPVideocast]

Their films were distributed by Vestron if I’m not mistaken.

[@darknesdkzr000]

Oooooooh! Physical media!

[@timchromecast]

If they only would add a maximum of foreign subtitles to those discs...

[@Fighterz-z1k]

It never stops funny how some clowns said that the homemade format was going to die now things have changed hehehehe 😂

[@mitchellalexander9162]

Everyone found out about the downsides of You will own nothing and you will be happy and they jumped off that train.

[@BrokenTreeProd]

we need to really stop using the term "content" when referring to any kind of media like film, tv, music, etc. It diminishes the work that was put into making it

[@kubrickenigma7977]

It's so general, vague and ugly a term that it comes across as Communist influence.

[@smokesignals22]

Any chance of some tall xl t shirt options in your merch store? Great video as well thanks 👍🏻

[@PNPVideocast]

I am exploring some other options than Teepublic for the next design so hopefully we will have something but late summer!

[@smokesignals22]

​@PNPVideocast That's marvellous news! Thanks again.

[@drfsupercenter]

DVD did not come out in 1995 - it was certainly being worked on then, but the specs weren't finalized until late 1996, with the first movies available to buy coming out in 1997. I was a bit annoyed that you ignored laserdisc, though you did kinda backpedal to it. Laserdisc came out right after VHS did (late 1978) under the name DiscoVision - but the reason it was only embraced by cinephiles is because it was a read-only format. Same reason VHS won over Betamax (it wasn't because of porn, that's a myth) - the recording time. Criterion may have been the first boutique label during the laserdisc period, but almost every major movie studio released their films on the format too, with most not stopping until sometime in the 90s. Disney continued to make laserdiscs right up until the new millennium, too - with the last US release in 1999. Also, you can absolutely recreate the analog tape effects digitally. Adobe Audition has a filter that makes your recording sound like a cassette player with dying batteries, for example, and you can easily make video look like garbage too, loads of KZbinrs do it. I honestly don't understand the resurgence of low quality formats - vinyl never really went away, but cassette tapes and VHS died, we should let them stay dead.

[@brandonpage7087]

Physical media lives on & will never die!!! While, I'm not really a streamer, it has the right to exist, but definitely should not be the only option. Hell, I'd argue that physical media has the edge over streaming, as those who choose to only stream are denied the option to view certain films & tv series, due to rights issues & other issues. Whereas, many of those same films & series, that were released on some physical format, can usually be found somewhere online.

[@Dexter649]

Im from 2003 and I love LaserDisc Betamax love 8 Track tapes and Reel to Reel tapes. I also love collecting Vinyl, DVDs CDs and Blu Rays as well. STREAMING IS NOT AS GOOD AS PHYSICAL!

[@DWNicolo]

When the pornography industry embraced VHS, it was the death kneel of Beta.

[@user-cs4fg1rm5k]

Briefly touched, but I think pornography had a lot to do with some of these video formats existing. Another niche genre.

[@bobcobb3654]

Congratulations on hearing a scene in Tropic Thunder, but no. Beta was doomed almost from the start. Even before home video rentals, VHS tapes being able to record twice as much programming per tape made it much more popular. Being able to tape an entire movie or ballgame while you were out was the key factor making VHS preferable.

[@JoeLouis-hc7mm]

I wont support netflix, amazon etc. I like the hard copies . If they stop making disks then guess ill just rewatch what i have in stock lol.

[@mrjamesmay3548]

It never died but it’s a shell of its former self! It’s non existent to the general population. That said I think it will just stay as a niche

[@adultmoshifan87]

Since the Climate Crisis is getting worse, I think there should be a new, plastic free physical video format! Since vinyl record-based video formats have been attempted before and there have before been records made of materials other than vinyl, why not an 8K Video Record made of bamboo? Probably not the most practical solution, so I'd love to hear from you if you have an idea for a new plastic-free physical video format!

[@nebuloushammer8773]

Plastic is separate from the climate crisis although pollution is also terrible. The most important part of the disc is the reflective layer made of metal and not plastic. I don't see any obvious reason why the clear layers on a disc couldn't be replaced with glass. The master discs themselves are already made of glass.

[@lutello3012]

I don't think we need 8K for non 360° content but I would love a lossless 4K HDR glass 12" Laserdisc format.

[@TheLastWordWithBob]

Internet needs to be regulated to government usage only. Make the rest of the world live without the internet, watch jobs come back and physical media be king again.

[@geraldmartin7703]

The Department of Defense developed the Internet, which was used by universities for sharing research when a teaching fellow showed t to me in 1970. I wasn't impressed, thought it was a dead end and forgot about it.

[@EntertainmentKorner]

Fuck that. You want the people to lose access to all the information in the world? Yeah you sure don't care about freedom.

[@DavidMander-rs4uk]

Analogue media sucks!! 🗑️👎

[@u.n.i.p.o.d]

Great video! But it does sadly remind me of how many times I've purchase titles over the many ever changing formats. 📼📀💽💿💻🎭