general media Physical or Digital Media?

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,980]

Do you generally prefer physical or digital media? Does it depend on whether we speak of books, films, games or music? Are there particular physical or digital media formats that you like or find interesting? Why do you have your preferences?

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

Can we stop saying digital, when we mean non physical or streamed? Digital means discrete bits of information. The data on DVDs, hard drives, floppy disks, cartridges, and some tapes are digital. DVD means digital versatile disc.

That said, I almost exclusively buy physical media. I can flip through a book faster than a pdf. I also like knowing my content won't disappear some day due to changes in IP ownership, or changes in a company policy.

If I do have to buy something that is downloaded, then I save a copy. There is a musician who made his first album as mp3s. I liked it, so I bought them. He was successful enough to be able to release his music digitally on CD, so I bought it again so I could have a physical copy of the digital music.

[Misty Shadow 7,841]

Physical for everything except music. The reason being because I've never cared about owning records or CDs, I've always listened to my tunes on the computer. I also enjoy the convenience offered by digital media with gaming, getting to play anything on my Switch whenever I want, so long as it's downloaded, but I like to always have a physical copy of the games I really care about collecting. 

[Megas 27,563]

Most of these I go for digital save for video games which I try going physical. Unlike most of the others which are easier to track down cheap, it's still incredibly difficult to get a lot of games on modern consoles without paying for exorbitant prices, especially for consoles where a good majority of it's best games are still trapped on the console(Gamecube is the biggest offender)

[RainyDash 259]

Physical for most things, I like building a collection and i feel like i own something more if its a actual copy I can hold rather than a digital license or something.

[RDDash 19,163]

I don't know what physical media means anymore. It's like when you are using external hard drives its the best form of storage technology. You can keep your games, photos, music whatever you want. Never use online cloud storage it's a scam  Books is the only thing that I like in the printed on paper form, everything else can be digital.

Edited January 28, 2023 by RDDash

[They call me Loyalty 1,948]

Digital for the most part. I'm not very good at taking care of... things. So, platforms like steam or netflix are awesome in this case. Still, some of the merchandise and collector editions are pretty cool, otherwise. A physical reminder is something special, but it gives me anxiety. I don't know the reason, but seeing these things getting older is like a reminder of mortality. Like when I look at some of the stuff from my family. Old pictures, clothing, etc. These things are still here, but they are gone... and it makes no sense. I don't like that. So, I feel this urge to break them. So, they won't remind of it. I know it sounds insane.

[Steve Piranha 29,417]

Split: physical with books and games, and digital with movies and music; with a degree of indifference with movies

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,980]

10 hours ago, Brony Number 42 said:

Can we stop saying digital, when we mean non physical or streamed? Digital means discrete bits of information. The data on DVDs, hard drives, floppy disks, cartridges, and some tapes are digital. DVD means digital versatile disc.

8 hours ago, RDDash said:

I don't know what physical media means anymore. It's like when you are using external hard drives its the best form of storage technology. You can keep your games, photos, music whatever you want. Never use online cloud storage it's a scam  Books is the only thing that I like in the printed on paper form, everything else can be digital.

I suppose the factors I had in mind are the following:

1. Whether you access something by clicking on a file or a link to a file, or by other means.

2. The information (book, film, game or music) you are trying to access is not stored onto the device itself.

So media like floppy disks, CDs and DVDs would be categorized as "physical" despite being digital because they are intended to exist separately from their respective devices, and there is the consideration that the devices to which they connect are capable of accessing the data with minimal user input. So hard drives would be categorized as "digital" despite arguably being separate from a device for there is no "hard drive" player that is intended to seamlessly access the desired data; the accessing of data requires more user input (such as navigating through the file directory to access the desired data). Media players would be categorized as "digital" as the device is intended to both store and access the files internally. There may be a better way to convey this distinction, but that is roughly what I had in mind.

I would change "digital" to "non-physical" as suggested, but it is too late now without resetting the results of the poll (or at least I assume that is what happens).

 

[Splashee 28,563]

In the question of what is better: Owned vs non-owned (rented by streaming services and game companies), I would say I rather want to own something I buy than renting it for an unknown time.

There are games out there that totally are unplayable without community hacking, because digital stores shut down their network services, which are DRM related. That is one problem in itself, that we are just supposed to forget history when a company don't want to sell the games anymore.

[zerox 1,097]

With movies I would prefer digital but sadly in my country most movies that interest me aren't available for purchase. So I resort to buying DVDs and Blu-rays mostly via Amazon.

[Pentium100 2,120]

I would rather buy physical media instead of files. The two exceptions are books (a pdf is easier to read) and games (most of them need online activation anyway, so I might as well just use Steam).

When I buy music on a tape or CD, I get to keep it. On the other hand, someone may be paying for a streaming service for years and then an artist he likes gets removed from the service (because the artist said something stupid or some other reason).

[Fluttershutter 2,400]

Books physical. absolutely. no question.

Video I'm fine with digital but I like to have physical copies of things I love.

Music I'm fine with all digital but I miss Ipods where you could have your own library.

Video games I don't play, either way.

[Gale Wind 82]

I wish I could get everything physical but since digital takes up no space, I’ll settle for it. I have lots of physical games but many digital too.

[EpicEnergy 23,169]

Nowadays I prefer digital media, it's more convenient for me. Only thing that I don't prefer digital are books, I just find them easier to read when they are physical.

[Cash In 22,214]

I can go either way. Music, I prefer digital, but I prefer physical for books and film. Video games are a bit more complicated, in the sense that I like and find use in both.

[KirbyFluttershy 2,523]

For video games, in my current situation along with this pandemic, i have to buy my games in a digital copy. if switch and other systems, i get them from eshop.

[LassAmy 38]

I think it's so nice that we get to have both. Streaming is more convenient but having a collection of your favorite bands or movies is so satifying too.

[Crystal Prism 25]

So, my answers are a little complicated. 

I had an embolic stroke in 2020 due to Covid, and thus a lot of my preferences changed, along with a number of other things:

• I struggle to maintain my focus while reading physical books while .
• I began to prefer physical media to digital in almost every single way, when I used to be the opposite.

Due to these factors, I now:

• Prefer books digitally via Audible (Kindle only as a last resort, due to focusing issues)
• Prefer film physically via Blu-Ray (DVD if Blu-Ray is unavailable. I do use video streaming services, which is uncharacteristic for me. If something is unavailable physically, on a streaming service, or in an uncompressed format, well...I don't think I can say, but the method is the highest digital quality available.)
• Prefer games physically via their respective platforms (digital only when physical is unavailable)
• Prefer music physically via CD (CD-quality or higher is required for digital if CD is not available, so I use sites like Qobuz, Bandcamp, and OTOTOY. I only use iTunes as a last resort, as their lossy codec is the best out there)

If you couldn't tell, I'm a quality buff, and want the highest quality for everything that is possible. Thus, I never stream music; I don't use Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music at all. I do use video streaming services, which may seem uncharacteristic. However, I find the quality on those tends to be amazing, even if it is compressed (I don't know if it is or not). I still prefer CD and Blu-Ray for as much as possible, though.

However, we're not done. 

When it comes to film and music, I rip everything into my desktop computer uncompressed. For Blu-Rays and DVDs, I use MakeMKV, which creates an uncompressed MKV file out of the disc. For CDs, I use CloneCD to make a disc image, and iTunes to rip to WAV and ALAC. Thus, despite preferring physical for everything but books, I like to watch and listen to music and film digitally still, thus the ripping tools.

Obviously, with books, I'm stuck with Audible's quality, which isn't great, but it works.

For games, I think the bullet listing for it explained well enough on its own.

That's it. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Crystal Prism
Typo

[Dreambiscuit 9,577]

Books: As a rule I prefer physical books. I like the feel of them in my hands, especially the really old ones. But I do admit that I have my share of Kindle books as well, mostly because I can do another project while my Kindle reads the book out loud to me.

Film: I prefer dvds of my favorites, because I like the box art and enjoy clutching my faves in my sweaty little mitts. But I watch a lot on streaming because it’s convenient and I don’t have to hunt down a movie on dvd, order it and wait for it to arrive.

Games: Games suck and I don’t waste my time on them, in any format.

Music: I like to load songs into my playlists on my iPod and phone because it’s convenient. And sometimes I just want one song rather than a complete album loaded with filler. But, like with movies, I have my favorites on CD or vinyl.

[TheRockASaurus Rex 50,672]

Moments ago, Dreambiscuit said:

Books: As a rule I prefer physical books. I like the feel of them in my hands, especially the really old ones. But I do admit that I have my share of Kindle books as well, mostly because I can do another project while my Kindle reads the book out loud to me.

Film: I prefer dvds of my favorites, because I like the box art and enjoy clutching my faves in my sweaty little mitts. But I watch a lot on streaming because it’s convenient and I don’t have to hunt down a movie on dvd, order it and wait for it to arrive.

Games: Games suck and I don’t waste my time on them, in any format.

Music: I like to load songs into my playlists on my iPod and phone because it’s convenient. And sometimes I just want one song rather than a complete album loaded with filler. But, like with movies, I have my favorites on CD or vinyl.

Same here, Dreamy. 

[ZiggWheelsManning 9,902]

On 2/17/2023 at 4:24 AM, Dreambiscuit said:

Books: As a rule I prefer physical books. I like the feel of them in my hands, especially the really old ones. But I do admit that I have my share of Kindle books as well, mostly because I can do another project while my Kindle reads the book out loud to me.

Film: I prefer dvds of my favorites, because I like the box art and enjoy clutching my faves in my sweaty little mitts. But I watch a lot on streaming because it’s convenient and I don’t have to hunt down a movie on dvd, order it and wait for it to arrive.

Games: Games suck and I don’t waste my time on them, in any format.

Music: I like to load songs into my playlists on my iPod and phone because it’s convenient. And sometimes I just want one song rather than a complete album loaded with filler. But, like with movies, I have my favorites on CD or vinyl.

Sweet opinions Dreamy  

[Gone Airbourne 21,977]

I'm old school I love physical media... I still shop at record shops and own tons of CDs. I miss going to the Mall with friends after school having something to look forward to. I still plan on buying physical media dependant on what it is. For retro gaming I'm fine with digital roms and such. But I like my music and media in physical form.

[Samurai Equine 50,955]

Both.
Across the board in all ways, both. I voted indifferent, but really I meant BOTH.
Surprised piracy wasn't an option.

As much as some people might like to think that world is going all-digital, we are still living in a world where we need physical media from time to time. And I can prove it. 

Digital services like Netflix, Spotify, Steam, and so on don't actually let you own the media. You might be paying a price, but you are basically paying for the right to use their service and enjoy whatever they are offering. However, if the service decides to take down the media entirely, then you cannot return to it and enjoy it legally. At least not legally from them. You'd have to go somewhere else. Netflix can take down plenty of its streaming titles at any time; and they don't usually make physical releases of their originals. Games can be taken down from Steam if there is legal or other reasons. Spotify doesn't have every musician or band under the sun. Now I don't know about you, but when I pay for something or even a copy of something, I like the idea of being able to own it and enjoy it whenever I please, for as long as I please.

That doesn't mean I reject digital. YouTube alone has made it so much easier to legally listen to tons of music that I like. Sometimes I can find audio books there too. Occasionally, I can find some movies that are free with ads. When I'm busy and just want some music or a good story, but I don't have time to whip out the audio CDs or anything else, it's too easy to pull this stuff up on my phone. Digital services have not only made it easy to find games, but made it easy to play or install games. There is an upside to everything, but there's always something to consider.

Sometimes when media crosses over from one medium/format to another, things get lost. Scenes might get removed. Music might get removed. Some things might get caught up in so much litigation, you might never even see an actual release of it. Things like this can make you appreciate the releases or collections you have, especially if they are complete or perfect. Other things might cause you to search for alternatives. And yes, at times, it's either piracy or nothing at all. I don't want anyone to engage in piracy; it really is a last resort, but sometimes piracy is the only way to preserve lost media. I've also seen people say that physical media often gives you the absolute best quality for sound, video, and other technical things. And while I am mindful of quality (I'm more of a videophile than an audiophile), if a song, movie, or TV show is being officially posted by the studio that owns it, I tend to relax a little bit. They are the ones posting it, so it's in their best interest to post the best quality they can. And usually, they do! Still, with all these reasons in mind and way more, we can never go purely in one direction or the other.  For everything that isn't covered by physical release, there is digital, and vise versa. And when both fail, piracy may be your last hope, but it can sometimes fulfill a need no other service is providing.

On 2023-01-29 at 3:10 PM, Gale Wind said:

I wish I could get everything physical but since digital takes up no space, I’ll settle for it. I have lots of physical games but many digital too.

Correction, digital media DOES take space. If not yours, someone else's.
If it isn't taking space on your computer, flash drive, memory card, phone, or some other storage device; then it is taking space on someone else's server. You may be accessing the media through an online service, but that service is hosting the files and the media on their end. If the service or the uploader takes it down, you'll have to find it somewhere else. And if no one is hosting the media, you'll have to consider piracy (as in downloading a copy of it). Which is why a lot of people make their own back-up copies of stuff while they still can.

Not saying everyone should do that. It's a hobby that can take a lot of time and money. Only do it if you are really committed to doing so. But for the most part, you probably don't have to worry too much.

[Espy Vibe 4,250]

On 2023-04-25 at 4:41 AM, Samurai Equine said:

Both.
Across the board in all ways, both. I voted indifferent, but really I meant BOTH.

Same here, both are very important and useful to have! Having a digital copy is really convenient to have especially when I'm on the go with the various forms of entertainment media but physical is just like nothing else, maybe a bit of a novelty factor there. Admittedly, collecting junk can be a little addicting 

Steam for games is super useful, no wonder they're dominant as a video game storefront. Make it as painless as possible and people will be okay with it. But, the games I really love I own physical copies of mostly for the collection aspect of it. They went all-out with the designs back then, probably because when you're in the store the box of the game itself IS the marketing so they're selling the product to you right there. The only downside (mostly concerning PC, especially older titles) is you need the game disc to be constantly in or to install you need to keep putting those discs in and out over and over because of limited storage on those medias. At least when installing from "the cloud" you just pray that your internet doesn't cut out (or their servers go down). The "always online" aspect is a bit of a separate issue but that's also annoying to deal with (and seems to go for all software these days as their way of countering piracy, the old way was to have an offline license key which needed to be "understandable" for the installer or program... DRM in general is yuck, it makes people more willing to pirate).

With music, if I want to buy it I either have to go to Bandcamp or Amazon Music (or the official website of a record label or artist if they sell it there) or something like Beatport or junodownload. Otherwise, YouTube is my main platform of choice for streaming. Most of the music I listen to, someone has already digitized it from obscure vinyl which isn't available on services like Spotify. And, if I want the vinyl, I'm going to be paying about $100+ for a good condition copy sometimes and that's not including shipping. Yeah, no thanks. Unless I'm super desperate for it, I'll stream it on YouTube. Plus, I enjoy people chatting in the comments about the songs and their own experiences with it, it's super wholesome and something which other services lack.

With books, I think it carries over to general printed media as well right? Like magazines. I do prefer physical over digital for books. And for magazines, the ones I look at have some interesting tips and guides for certain things which are genuinely helpful and they're not too long so I don't mind it in a digital format.

With movies and TV shows, honestly I don't really watch much beyond random YouTube videos so streaming here for me is more useful. It's nice to have it physically though. Those fun little menus are definitely a thing of the past.

 

 

On 2023-04-25 at 4:41 AM, Samurai Equine said:

I've also seen people say that physical media often gives you the absolute best quality for sound, video, and other technical things. And while I am mindful of quality (I'm more of a videophile than an audiophile), if a song, movie, or TV show is being officially posted by the studio that owns it, I tend to relax a little bit. They are the ones posting it, so it's in their best interest to post the best quality they can. And usually, they do!

I want to build on this a little from an audio perspective. Yep, technically speaking it can be better but it does depend a bit which one we're talking about! But realistically, and most importantly, nobody will care as long as they can listen to their favorite music, they'll be fine. How many well-loved vinyl recordings uploaded by random people on YouTube can you find with millions of views? (by "Well-loved" i mean they've been played so much by their owner(s) that they've lost their "quality", like the vinyl noise but noisier. It's one of those things you know about when you hear it.)

And yep, these companies always put what's presentable out there in as many formats as they possibly can, especially these days!

Oops, mini rant incoming.... 

Audiophiles are really the worst about this, as some of their main arguments revolve around "I bought these $5000 pair of flat frequency response Hi-Fi speakers paired with my $2500 amplifier to listen to this album from the 1970s remastered on a CD released in the 2000s I got from my local thrift store for $2, just as the artists and audio engineers intended it."

Okay, how about this: they made the song so it can sound as good as it can on as many places as possible! They don't know if you're going to be listening to their work in the car, with a portable speaker, headphones, or in a cafe, or wherever else! That's why they need to use those fancy flat frequency response speakers and headphones so it works everywhere! And, especially on many songs from the 1970s - 2000s, the mentality was to use really bad speakers to make the songs sound good on them. If it sounds good through them then it will sound good everywhere else, and clearly it's been successful given that there are many classic hits from that time period which were made on really bad speakers... intentionally so! But of course, an audiophile would not listen to this information and tell people to buy the most expensive thing they can... such nonsense! I love the innerworkings of hardware too but it's not just about making things louder by spending more money, my friend. >.>

Oh, and many don't acoustically treat their listening rooms well, if at all. So lots of frequencies will clash and get lost or stay too long and they lose how dynamic the song actually is, therefore they don't listen to how the song was meant to be played. It's like taking a club or concert system and squeezing it into a small room. It will not be ideal nor is it the "intended" way that they want you to listen to it.

I have to give credit where credit's due, at least those who have their own movie theater setups actually treat their spaces decently well so the movies they watch sound (and look!) great! Audiophiles on the other hand don't know they're supposed to point the speakers towards their ears in their preferred listening position (since they want to listen to how things were "intended" so so so much, well there you go that's step one!)

And dont get me started on their weird reasons for "Vinyl vs. CD/DVD vs. Cassette vs. "Digital"/Streaming". Most of the time they give reasons that don't make sense at all! (like, "Vinyl is higher quality and doesn't give artifacts"... what? I love me a good vinyl, but they do degrade over time the more you play them and that's not even getting into the proper maintenance and care a record player needs. Vinyls degrade over time and are susceptible to warping and other side effects when they're played a lot (or improperly taken care of). Even your speakers matter but there are nice pairs of speakers available which don't cost an arm and a leg today. If they want no artifacts, they can rip the file from a CD/DVD and play them through their phone as that will literally be the highest quality a work will ever be publicly released as. And that's just the start to how many pros and cons I could get into (in-depth concerning audiophiles and their reasons, with the everyday person it's much more simple) but that would be too much to get into.

They really do take the fun out of listening to music. It's like they stopped enjoying their favorite songs! Oh well.

 

 

On 2023-04-25 at 4:41 AM, Samurai Equine said:

Not saying everyone should do that. It's a hobby that can take a lot of time and money. Only do it if you are really committed to doing so. But for the most part, you probably don't have to worry too much.

Agreed! 

Having these digitized copies is always useful but does take a bit of time and money. But it can also be fun! IMO The only perk to owning physical media is you get to own it forever (or as long as you live or before you give it away/sell it off or before it genuinely starts to actually degrade. Tapes, vinyls, and neglected books are the best examples I can think of for relatively rapidly degrading media). Additional perk I guess if you just like to collect things for the collecting aspect, I understand completely as it is fun to do that! No shame there.

(I'm sorry if I made anyone reading this feel like I was mocking you for owning physical media of things you like. That's perfectly fine to do so, I do it too and that's not what I get upset about! It's just there's jerks out there who I am sick of who give ridiculously silly reasons for it and I'm constantly told, very rudely, that I'm wrong. Just like what those aforementioned audiophiles do! Audiophiles genuinely speak nonsense!)