QOTW: Do you still buy physical media?

[ik9000]

Yes. Wherever possible

[zephyrv]

Books yes, vinyls and CDs occasionally. Movies and software very very rarely (unless you count the cinema). Most music though honestly I stream and books are a mix of audiobooks and ebooks as well as the physical ones I collect

[Unique]

i've been buying physical media since the record and tape days and still have stuff i bought in my teens and still buy new and second hand stuff today, so have vinly, tapes, cd, dvd, hddvd, laserdisc, bluray, UHD bluray, vhs, betamax, minidisc, ps1, xbox, 360, xbone, ps2, ps3, ps4, wii, dreamcast, you name it. but i usually rip stuff to HDD and play via nvidea sheild or firestick or winamp or whatever from pc to amp

whilst i have a few turntables, including relatively new dj decks to replace my older ones, i only normally play vinyl that's already been opened/played unless i need to rip the track. usually i find someone else has done it if it's something not officially on digitil. i keep my new vinyl sealed, including £200+ boxsets. some stuff like RSD releases and rare limited stuff i buy 2 or 3 copies on the basis i may open one to play or look at but will still have the mint sealed one. got a few tapes like that too, multiple sealed copies. i've got that much stuff to play and watch and busy so never been bored or lacked something to do enough to open the sealed stuff. got piles of new clothes and trainers still boxed/bagged and unword too

it's like a crazy hoarder alternative, but instead of keeping old crap i've got piles of minty box fresh new stuff

i use streaming service too, i'm not too fussed about keeping most tv shows. movies i like i can have umpteen copies on different formats, the first release, the special edition, deluxe, super deluxe, etc etc, and a new version comes out before i even watch the extras so never bother with them mostly now

[lumireleon]

iMATION DVDs ............I have to make important life story backups (pictures & documents) for JUST-IN-CASE. Solarstorms that create EMP can wipe out flash memory. Check the DW Documentary bellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8C20q-eDm8

[dannyboy75]

I mostly stream/download now, but certain things I like to buy on 4K Blu-Ray, especially David Attenborough's stuff (Blue Planet II, Planet Earth II, etc). When I watch those I want to know that I'm getting the absolute best picture quality I can with as little compression as possible.

[JerryTheC]

I still buy some films on blu ray, and the occasional CD. For fiction books, I've moved mostly to ebooks,
since (a) They're cheaper, and (b) I don't have space for that many paperbacks. But although ereaders are fine for fiction, a lot of non-fiction books just work a lot better in print - easier to flip through, and a lot better for diagrams or maps.

[big_hairy_rob]

yes, for music, yes for films, yes for backup; but none of them as much as usual. Perfectly happy to wait for them to come onto streaming services. I don't pay for a specific music streaming service as it's included (in part) with another and that works for me. So I get most of my films & music for less than the price of a tv licence...

[xxdeanoxx]

I don't buy physical media unless it is considerably cheaper. The ease of just getting a code for games or just streaming a movie is just easier + It does not take up physical space.

[raygdunn]

All digital.
Games mostly via. Steam.
No DVD drive slot in my new PC case. Which caught me out when an old Epson A3 printer required the driver CD! This seems to be a rarely under Windows 10, which in itself is a great advance.

[Wozza63]

I still buy physical games for my Xbox One (and some old 360 games). The prices for digital copies are massively inflated compared to a used physical copy. Paid £10 for GTA5 the other day, it's £25 for a digital copy.

Don't buy any physical PC games though (no DVD drive) and don't buy physical movies/tv/music either, the value and flexibility of streaming is miles ahead of physical in that industry.

[nar53]

I buy the odd CD but prefer to buy Flac from Bandcamp or elsewhere, That's about it for me.

[Terbinator]

CP2077 was the first boxed game I'd bought in circa 5 years, and even that was because I thought it might get delivered early.

4K Blu-Rays I am tempted to get involved in if the price is right, although I did recently buy Tenet UHD at full-price. Not purchased anything music related in *years* (thanks SPotify, Soundcloud and Mixcloud) - which even then was probably the limited R U mine? 7" LP.

Ultimately there isn't a huge amount in it for me as far as costs are concerned and I'd rather than not have media taking up space. It used to be boxed games were significantly cheaper, but even that isn't the case now, and there are weekly sales on all the major platforms teeing up games for silly prices.

From a quality perspective, music is a bit stagnant and video is in a weird spot where you may get the Dolby Vision of a UHD film on digital but be 'stuck' with the HDR10 version if you buy on disc (whilst not being victim to possible sways in bandwidth impacting IQ). It's be great to have a LoveFilm service still kicking around for UHD.

[fend_oblivion]

I've switched to buying physical copies. With all this stuff being digital, it's hard to tell what I own when developers can one day decide to cancel my license.

[davesom555]

Physical on console... Cheaper and you can resell them!

[pumpkin]

Games, for my PC, are all bought via Steam now, been doing that for nearly ten years now.
Music I still buy on CD and then rip for playing while working, or on a USB stick in the car.
Films are a mix, been using blu-ray for years, and still do 90%+, but have recently bought a few via Prime/Netflix. I can see myself switching for these all to digital altogether.

[Ferral]

Yeah I still buy CD's, DVD's, Blurays & Vinyl

Just last week I pre ordered the new Adrian Smith CD which comes out in March and recently had pre ordered AC/DC, Corey Taylor & Bruce Springsteens new albums on CD and they have all been listened to a fair bit in my CD player which is hooked up to an old school 90's Phillips Stereo system. I may ditch that in the next year or two though and just go with my Majority Digital Radio / CD Player and a separate record player both running into an amp and a set of decent speakers

I buy most of the new C64 Psytronic releases on cassette which includes digital copies which I use on The C64 which is hooked up to my PC screen and sits on my PC desk.

Granted with the CD's I rip them to my PC and listen that way or streaming them to my TV using PLEX usually as we haven't quite got round to wireless speakers yet. However if I am in the loft with all my retro gear I listen to my physical CD's often as well as using the tapes on my 8 Bits etc

Past few days I have been recording some C64 Mix Tapes for a friend so still keeping Maxell in business buying tapes from our local Wilko or Amazon.

There's just something therapeutic and tactile about using physical media even though we do use streaming services often (Netflix, Amazon and so on)