Blu-Ray vs Streaming
Blu-Ray vs Streaming
Long ago, physical media was the method to watch some of your favorite films. From VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray, physical media was the method to watch lots of films. However, in modern times, streaming took over. Ever since Netflix started to offer on demand streaming, physical media became more obsolete on the consumer’s eyes. However, physical media is worth buying today because of better picture quality, the existence of bonus features, no internet requirement, and overall great packaging. Blu-Rays have better picture quality than streaming because of file size. When using a streaming service like Netflix, you need 512 MB to 1 GB of memory while Blu-Ray disc has 25–50 GB of memory. This means that the larger the memory that medium has the better the picture quality that medium has. For example, when DVD came out in 1998, it held up to 4.7 GB, while VHS was an analog format which is why DVDs had the better picture quality than VHS. Also, Blu-Rays had bonus features, while streaming does not. Bonus features were extra content on an optical disc that showed documentaries behind the making of a movie or audio commentaries, which include those who made the film, about the movies themselves. Blu-Rays had bonus features because of more storage space, while streaming does not because of less storage space. The same applied to DVDs and VHS because DVD was a digital format while VHS was an analog format. Also, streaming requires an internet connection because it’s a service, while physical media doesn’t which is a plus because with physical media one would have access to it while streaming needs a requirement to make it work. Also, physical media is cheap. When I go to Amazon, DVDS and Blu-Rays go from 3 dollars to 15 dollars over there. For example, when I bought the Rocky films, they costed about 48 dollars which is cheap. With physical media, you would feel like you owned the film, whereas with streaming, you have access to it, but you don’t own it because it is a rental or subscription service which also makes physical media better. The packaging was upgraded a whole lot because of boxsets, slipcovers, and steel books. Boxsets are great because of their bewildering packing and an awe-inspiring set of bonus features. Sometimes, the studio includes some neat items to go along with a boxset such as an art book, soundtrack, or an action figure. Slipcovers make a DVD look nice and glossy for collectors. I remembered that a lot of the Disney DVDs had a very nice slipcover that goes onto the DVDs. It made it look nice. Also, may Blu-Ray films come in steel books which looked cool. They were Blu-Rays made from steel, and they looked really cool on one’s shelf. They also feel durable. Also, some film studios put in some effort to make the disc artwork look nice, while other film studios make the disc art look generic. Also, there was a DVD and Blu-Ray guide in most DVDs and Blu-Rays that had the scene selection where you could go to the menu and use it to see which scenes you want to go to. Also, the DVD guide may show what kind of bonus features the DVD or Blu-Ray may have. The guide also explains more about the bonus features inside the disc. Also, if you are watching a foreign film, in physical media, you could mess around with the dubbing or subtitles to give you the dubbing or subtitles that you prefer. However, in streaming, the film, T.V show, or anime forces you to watch whatever you’re watching on a certain dub which sucks. In Blu-Rays, the menu is more interactive, which means that one could do more with a Blu-Ray menu than streaming, because in streaming, there is no interactive menu because of its small file size. Also, streaming services need to pay the film studios to give the service the ability to show a film or T.V show. If they do not have the license to do so, then they cannot show that film because of copyright, or else they will be sued by the film studio for copyright infringement, whereas with physical media, there is no license, because it is just a physical copy of a film: there is no service going on. Internet is not perfect because it has flaws. Sometimes, it goes down. For example, if you are watching Godzilla vs King Kong on Netflix and the internet goes down, then you cannot watch the movie because Netflix is a streaming service and streaming services require an internet connection. However, if you have a physical copy of Godzilla vs King Kong on Blu-Ray, DVD, or VHS, you can watch the movie anytime and anywhere without an internet connection. Overall, physical media is here to stay.
