The streaming age has marginalized physical media. I have no regrets for ridding myself of my analog music recordings and almost all of my compact discs back in 2010. However, I was less dismissive of my pre-recorded videos, and I still have all of my various DVDs and Blu-rays. The only digital video format I completely abandoned was HD-DVD back in 2008.

Nevertheless, for over a decade Wendy and I have mostly rented streaming movies from Amazon or Apple. Physical media has become a tiny niche market for enthusiasts. I have several DVDs (1997-), Blu-rays (2006-), and 4K UHD Blu-rays (2016-) awaiting my attention post-retirement, but for me they have been a dubious investment.

Video streaming has been eating away at the sales of physical media since 2010, and by the third quarter of 2025, physical media accounted for only 1.4% of consumer spending on home video entertainment in the USA.

Samsung stopped making Blu-ray players in 2019 and LG stopped in 2024. That same year, Best Buy stopped selling physical media, and Target phased out DVDs and Blu-rays except for a very limited rotating selection. Sony, which invented the Blu-ray format, stopped producing recordable Blu-ray discs in February 2025, although as of early 2026 it still produces read-only discs and players. The only other remaining major producer of players is Panasonic.

There are still some valid reasons for buying Blu-rays: quality, features, and guaranteed availability. Streaming video runs at 15 to 25 megabits per second, while UHD Blu-ray typically runs at 90 to 144 megabits per second, providing less compression, richer colors, and superior detail in dark and fast-moving scenes. However, I’m not all that discerning, having rented many a movie on VHS back in the day. Most streaming looks fine to me.

More persuasive for me are features such as making-of or historical documentaries and audio commentaries that come with many discs. The Extended Editions of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies are exemplars of the added value that discs can provide. You can find some commentaries online, but their functionality pales in comparison to the ease of using a commentary audio track on a pre-recorded movie on optical disc.

The most ardent collectors are driven by fear that licensing changes could remove a movie from any streaming service, even if you supposedly “buy” it, since all you are buying is unlimited rentals while they have rights to stream it. If I were worried about that, I could purchase movies from Apple and download and store them on a solid state drive at home, but I don’t rewatch movies enough to worry about that.

Spinning vs. Streaming Treks

A review of my disc purchases over the past 15 years reveals that few of them were worthwhile to me. As a devoted old-school Trekkie, I enjoyed watching the high-definition broadcasts of the remastered original series of Star Trek from 2006-2009 using Meador Manor’s over-the-air reception antenna, and later I bought those remastered episodes on disc. However, I’ve watched very few of those discs.

The Next Generation series was remastered from 2012 to 2014, and I went ahead and bought the discs of those episodes in high-definition, but I’ve not bothered to watch them, despite my strong interest in and paid support for the reaction videos by Josh and Alex on the Target Audience YouTube channel, where they are watching all of the classic Trek series in broadcast order. As an avid Trekkie from 1972 to 2005, I was so familiar with the first three series (Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation) that I could just watch the Target Audience reaction excerpts, feeling no need to revisit the episodes themselves.

However, once Target Audience reached Deep Space Nine, I had a decision to make. I hadn’t seen those episodes since their original broadcasts from 1993 to 1999, so I did want to rewatch each one before watching the corresponding Target Audience reaction highlights and discussion. However, I was not at all tempted to purchase that series on disc to watch on the big television. Both it and the later Voyager series are currently only available in standard definition, with remastering not proving economically viable as of yet. So I was perfectly content to just purchase unlimited streaming rights to the 176 episodes of Deep Space Nine from Apple TV for $80 and rewatch them on my iPad.

Now, with Target Audience about to start Voyager, I have purchased unlimited streaming of its 172 episodes on Apple TV for another $80. Should Apple eventually lose its license to those shows, I won’t be shattered since I paid less than 50 cents per episode.

And no, I don’t plan to watch the post-Berman Star Trek series, for reasons thoroughly explained by Darrel William Moore. I did endure the first nine of ten episodes of the first season of Picard, and I suppose that I might eventually finish that series, since I hear its third season is redemptive, but I’m satisfied that my trek concluded over twenty years ago.

Other Series on Disc

I have a few other television series on disc. Like the two Trek series I own, those have sat unwatched for many years. My other favorite science fiction TV show was the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, which was on cable TV from 2003-2009, and I bought it on Blu-ray when it concluded, but I’ve never rewatched the entire thing.

In 2010, I bought a box set of DVDs of The Six Million Dollar Man. That is the only series on disc I’ve systematically watched, but even after sixteen years, I’ve only finished two of the five seasons. However, I expect to eventually finish it, 50+ years after my childhood viewings. Currently, the only way to stream that old show would be to subscribe to Roku. I already pay for Amazon Prime, Apple One, and sponsor seven video creators on Patreon, so I have no interest in paying for more subscription services. I’m quite happy to have it on disc, especially given my fickle interest.

A misfire was my purchase in 2015, before it was readily available on streaming, of the box set of the 1960s Batman television show on Blu-ray for $100. I have fond memories of enjoying reruns of it in the 1970s, but it has been over a decade since I bought those discs, and I’ve only watched the premiere episode. Nowadays you can get unlimited rentals of its three seasons on Apple TV for $70. I might watch some of the discs on some cold winter days after I retire…or I might not.

It should be no surprise, given my track record, that I haven’t bought any more television shows on disc in the past decade.

Spinning Up Some Movies

Over the past eight years, ten movies on disc have managed to build up at home, awaiting my retirement, including four old Miss Marple movies with Margaret Rutherford which I asked for Christmas one year.

After I retire, in addition to catching up on my discs, I also expect to finally watch some major films that came out over the past few decades. However, I’d rather stream those, and search out commentaries and documentaries online, than acquire more discs for our living room shelves. We’ll see if the entertainment industry will oblige.