Physical Media and Me, 2024 edition

June 25, 2024

Tags: dvds vhs physicalmedia

I read an interesting article today on indie wire about Joe Dante’s ‘Matinee’ and the role of the ‘movie within the movie’ that ‘Mant!’ played. It was an interview with Dante mostly talking about some extended footage of ‘Mant’ on the new ShoutFactory! Blu-Ray/UHD 4k release, but it made me start thinking about physical media in my life. There is so much uncertainty in 2024 with not just streaming rights but also the availability of physical media that it actually pushes me further from the idea of owning the media that I love. I already have a fairly hefty collection of video games that I consider selling every time I need to move them around or reorganize them so the idea of increasing that with movies and tv shows is overwhelming. I also feel like the access to these shows will be preserved through extraneous means such as internet film historians and pirate groups that it really will not matter if I go out and buy Furiosa on DVD. Barring a full fledged collapse of the internet as we know it, you’ll mostly have access to most shows and movies if you know where to look (if that collapse were to happen I’m sure that my ability to watch Season 1 & 2 of Friday Night Lights would be a low priority).

I’m not trying to poo-poo efforts of preservation, but I think that championing physical media as the end-all be-all of media longevity is a stop-gap solution. I think instead digital rights access needs to be lobbied for libraries, and libraries need to be ushered into the 21st century with expansion of digital collections. This is all fairly demoralizing because of rampant defunding of public servicing for things like police militarization. That line of thinking can quickly cause a person to fall into a debt spiral so lets try to stay positive.

I do think about trying to capture definitive versions of things I hold dear, honestly mostly tv shows.

• 30 Rock
• How I Met Your Mother
• Community
• The X-Files
• Stargate SG-1
• Fringe
• Twin Peaks + The Return

These are all shows that I find myself watching and rewatching so why wouldn’t I own them? Looking a few of these up and they are fairly expensive. One day I’ll fulfill my dream and get my own in-network tv channel up and running. Then I’ll have 24 hours of x-files, 90s cartoons and weird-al music videos running for whenever I want them.

God, running a pirate TV network would be so awesome. A man can dream, though… a man can dream.