I’m Tired of Pretending Physical Media Isn’t Still Better Than Streaming Digital

As cinemas face an uncertain future, and ticket prices continue to rise, home cinema and television are becoming the main options for family entertainment. But even the one who considers himself a cinephile-I watch movies for a living—I didn’t realize just how dire the situation was with home options… until I had a baby earlier this year, and I couldn’t go to the movie theater nearly as often.

And it’s all thanks to that little circle of buffering doom. Even Beyonce poked fun at it when she indirectly told Netflix they wouldn’t play her NFL Christmas halftime show. We stan our disco space western songwriter here, and agree: streaming’s biggest flaws are connection inconsistencies, and the very unnecessary moment that suspension of disbelief in storytelling can be marked by glitches on any platform.

At the beginning of the year, when I was in the early stages of my pregnancy, I was assigned to watch furious At LA’s glorious IMAX headquarters. To prepare, I thought I’d fire up the Max and look again Mad Max: Fury Road. And to my surprise and quick dismay, what I discovered within minutes of watching the film was that something was off with the score’s audio. My husband and I have long been movie theater audience appointments—we’ve been there for the first or second opening day showtimes—and we remember how Mad Max: Fury Road This was not to sound. Thinking there was something wrong with the streaming service compression of Max’s audio files, we switched to our digital copy. And it still doesn’t sound quite right. So we dug out our Blu-ray and popped it in, and there it was: the primal sound of Junkie XL’s warring drums and guitar from our soundbar.

I knew that as a parent, I would have to get used to more home entertainment than ever before. I’ll admit, I’d even love to see them again or see the classics for the first time on the big screen at a revival house like the New Beverly, American Cinematheque, or Video’s. If I loved it on the big screen, I’d go to the store or my favorite video store to add that title to my collection—only to watch it when the occasion called for it.

Now that a future cinephile has joined our family, my husband and I are excited to entertain them as long as we can. And that goes for TV shows too. We have one at home bluey Family before we even welcomed our little one; will not be Cocomelon, Peppa Pigor Minions If we can help. Childless millennials are going to be loved ones bluey It’s been a whole journey for new parents to make sure our kid can experience the show as it’s meant to be. It was surprising that when Disney acquired the Ludo Studios show, it banned some edits and episodes, though fortunately most of it has been returned.

Still, we went and tracked the first few seasons on DVD to avoid any unwanted sanitizing, and took the music from the show on vinyl. Really, why do we have to sit through all the international credits in silence before the next episode plays?

Being home postpartum during the holidays was a whole other learning curve; More often than not, this was the common buffering bottleneck on most streaming services. And sure, it could be my internet connection but if you have a good Blu-ray player and disc it’s not a problem.

You might be asking, if I’m so bored with movies from Max, Disney+, Netflix and the rest, why don’t I watch them from my film snob collection? Funny you should ask, because it’s not a funny story: I moved during the pandemic and someone theft Our physical media collection—save for a box of our absolute favorites. That’s right, someone somewhere in the valley acquired a film school’s best movie on Blu-ray and DVD next to a moving truck. Rude.

And how does this come close to my current predicament as a parent?

our Juvenile Mutant ninja turtles Collect pizza boxes? is gone How do we understand? Before watching Mutant Mayhem We looked through our boxes. It wasn’t there, so we went to see which platform had the original film. Paramount? Oh, we don’t subscribe! The same goes if you want to catch up Sonic Movie before watching Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Spending time at home with a baby trying to figure out what’s on a streaming service, pulling certain titles and trying to figure out if we still own what we want to watch can be completely confusing.

For example, we are still in peak festival film season; you want to see An American tail For Hanukkah, tough luck. Amblin animated movies are not available for what you are paying for. You can rent or buy Fievel’s Adventures on Prime Video, but if, like most families, you’re paying for multiple platforms that you can’t even share with loved ones, that’s just adding up to the cost. Even if you subscribe to Disney+ and want to watch frozenGood luck trying to get it flowing at the same time as millions of others are hanging out at home for the winter holidays Keep getting it frozen And I won’t let that go.

So if you don’t own them and expect your PS4 to still work, that’s a whole lot of trouble. A whole issue I’ll write about in a new column is the importance of physical media and how to watch it at home. Thankfully we got a PS5 for Christmas so the journey begins between now and then wicked Released on Blu-ray, we hope to get some answers.

Want more io9 news? See when the latest is expected Marvel, Star WarsAnd Star Trek What’s next for the release? The DC Universe in Film and TVAnd everything you need to know about its future Who is the doctor?.