What is the alternative to subscribing to streaming services? Can you purchase your movies online and be guaranteed to have access to the movies in the future?

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swingboy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Piracy is one.

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whstl 2 hours ago | parent [-]

If you want guaranteed future access, then this is probably the only online option that actually fulfills this guarantee... other than that, physical media.

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0xEF 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I regularly snag DVDs for $1 USD or less at garage/yard/boot sales. I see tons of cheap used physical media in record shops when I travel, too. eBay and Facebook Marketplace are also great sources for used DVD.

I promote this because not only does it restore some mastery* over your media, it keeps these discs out of landfills and oceans, where they will linger in a shredded state.

*we are, of course, still subject to any anti-piracy measures and non-removeable advertisements on the disc, which admittedly seems quaint by today's DRM standards, but I ccannot rightly say "complete" mastery over your media, here.

	▲	iso1631 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I watch films on streaming rather than old dvds with unskippable nonsense like "don't pirate this dvd" (well obviously I didn't, that's why I have the dvd), or the pain of the menu systems to just press play.

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immibis2 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Physical media isn't guaranteed to retain future access. There are protocols for players to update various bits of data from the newest disk you have ever inserted into them. The Nintendo Wii certainly does this, I'm not sure if BluRay does but I don't see why they wouldn't.

	▲	whstl 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That's a great point. Something I forgot: I brought a couple DVDs when moving between countries and had a player block a couple of them... :/

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anonym29 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Often the same people behind both!

Fun fact: pirates are more likely than the average person to purchase media.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170916165525/https://www.ofcom...

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110727/16233815292/anoth...

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Amorymeltzer 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Libraries! They often have digital access to various services—e.g. Kanopy—but also often have lots of physical media sources! It involves a little more planning and a little less algorithm, and there are shows and movies that won't ever be available—e.g. things from Netflix, Apple—but there's enough out there already.

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thfuran 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You can still buy physical media online, though an increasing portion of movies and shows are produced by the streaming companies, and you don’t really have an alternative there.

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wccrawford 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No. Sony has recently removed 551 movies that people "bought". Sony's distribution license ran out with a studio and they didn't renew it.

They seem to have gotten away with it so far, so there's no legal protection for "buying" digital at the moment.

	▲	f6v 10 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		With that attitude from the corporations, why wouldn't anyone pirate?

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mystifyingpoi an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Subscribe, screengrab what you like, unsubscribe. Repeat. Really easy to do in a virtual machine, so it doesn't conflict with anything else happening on the computer.

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itake 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

1/ watch in theatres

2/ consume free streaming (tt, ig, YouTube, etc)

Just don’t watch movies at home.

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bossyTeacher 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No. The whole issue is that the seller needs to maintain an online service to allow you access to the movies. This online service costs money so over time is likely not worth the cost. This plus the online service provider undergoing changes (bankruptcy, acquisition, mergers, etc) or they themselves losing rights to the movies. Seems to me that rental or purchases are still unbeatable. The alternative is streaming but the downside is higher costs over time and worse quality movies.