Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing::In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, “streaming anxiety” is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.
Bullshit. Piracy is the only thing preserving it. Why? Because as a PC user 4k HDR Blu-Rays are forbidden for me anyways to play legally despite owning them.
What are you on about? In the US at least, there’s no legal restriction on you playing 4K Blu-Ray movies on a PC.
The drive is not the issue.
Most Blu-Ray disks have DRM encryption. There simply doesn’t seem to be a (legal) decryption mechanism on PC, probably to avoid people ripping the movies.
I was under the impression that software like PowerDVD could play 4K HDR media if you’re using Windows.
And at the end of the day, it is also (generally accepted as ‘probably’) legal to decrypt the media using whatever other methods available as long as you are only doing so to back up or enable viewing for yourself.
I’m curious as well. I googled to make sure there was a PC Blu-ray drive, and there is.
I have a Blu-Ray drive myself, which can read 4K discs format wise. But the DRM industry forbids me from playback. There is no software playing it back in 4K HDR format, unless I crack the disc.
In my country (Australia) you’re allowed to break the DRM for interoperability purposes. We could legally use deCSS, back when DVDs were state of the art, if we wanted to play them on our Linux computers
I don’t think blue ray is nearly as easy to breakI just double checked. Not quite “super easy, barely an inconvenience” but quite do-ableThis doesn’t apply to every country and some of the laws have to be stretched. I interpret this industry boycott of an entire platform as an abandonware situation. You don’t give me the opportunity to make a deal in the first place.
Yeah it sucks if your government just rolled over when asked for strictest copyright.
I’m pretty sure VCRs and tape backup got it legal in the US to move media you have right to watch between media
Australia got its law on circumvention through American diplomatic pressure, we refused leaving out the interoperability clause. Others under the same pressure didn’t push back
Nah. I’m sure there are multiple factors, as mentioned in the article, but another big thing preserving physical media is home theater enthusiasts. With a good system, the higher bitrate video and lossless audio on a UHD Blu-ray is noticable compared to most streamed content.
Plus things like director’s commentary and things. I really do want those.
Buy an Xbox One Series X, or PS5. Heck, there are even stand alone 4K players.
I was looking at PS5, it doesn’t support HDR for blurays
It does do HDR, it just doesn’t do DolbyVision HDR. So, depending on your television, HDR10 works fine.
Stand-alone players with DolbyVision are about the same price as a game console:
Anyone who thinks physical media on disc is a good way to preserve a work in perpetuity has never heard of disc rot.
Rip it, store it digitally, make periodic backups. Or obtain the IMAX film reel and keep it hermetically sealed for decades.
I have considered buying or building a second NAS and putting it in my parents house for offsite backup.
But don’t you know. They put a do not copy sticker on the disc. That means that you super Dooper can’t copy this disc or you’ll be in trouble.
Or just get an M-disc burner and burn discs that’ll last a good hundred years.
To build on this: DO NOT USE AN SSD to store your data long-term! Solid-state storage has a very short, finite life-span. What you want to do is buy an even number of hard drives, plug them in long enough to copy your data to, and then unplug them and store them in a climate-controlled area. bout once a year, copy the data to a different hard drive, rinse, and repeat. Left untouched long enough, a hard drive will experience data rot. Used constantly, a hard drive will wear out. Used very sporadically, you preserve the data and the mechanical parts of the hard drive.
This is a pretty big overstatement.
DO NOT USE AN SSD to store your data long-term! Solid-state storage has a very short, finite life-span.
This has not been true for years. SSDs are generally more reliable than HDDs except in write-intensive applications (and even then… It really depends on what exact models you are comparing). SSDs have a life-span mostly talked about in terms of TBW (terabytes written) rather than years for a reason, if they’re powered on and not written too they’ll last as long as or longer than a hard drive. (Note: Powered on regularly, SSDs can lose data if stored unpowered for a long time (months)). If you just have an archival drive you’re not constantly erasing and rewriting data to, an SSD is a great choice. Reads also barely affect the lifespan of at all, so you can still access the data you want to protect (hell, write-lock the drive even and it’ll last decades if powered on).
What you want to do is buy an even number of hard drives, plug them in long enough to copy your data to, and then unplug them and store them in a climate-controlled area. bout once a year, copy the data to a different hard drive
This is just plain silly. Yes, the mechanical wear of the drives spinning up and down means they’ll die faster. But we’re still talking MTBF measured in years. And replacing a hard drive that’s barely used every single year? That’s not just bad advice it’s creating e-waste for no reason. Also note drives fail on a bathtub curve… If you have two good drives that lasted a year, you are increasing your chances of a failure by swapping them for two brand new drives… The best thing you can do for your hard drives is to not power cycle them constantly, any typical usage is fine. Also mechanical parts can actually wear out from disuse as well. Even archival services don’t go to these extremes you’re recommending.
If you really care about saving your data follow 3-2-1. 3 copies of your data (live, archival (external HDD or similar), off-site), two-different forms of media (HDD, SSD, cloud (yes cloud is an HDD or SSD but they have their own redundancy)), one off-site (in the event of a fire etc.)
Honestly 99.9% of consumers would be fine with a 2-2-1 scheme, 2 copies (live and off-site/cloud), 2 forms of media, 1 off-site. If you don’t trust Google or don’t want to pay for cloud storage, set up a server with redundant disks at a friend’s house. Just keeping a second copy on a server with redundancy is plenty of fail over for most use cases. 3-2-1 is for data centers and businesses (and any cloud service you rent from will follow 3-2-1…) Let’s not overcomplicate how difficult it is to keep data intact, if I tell someone to buy a new 12tb HDD each year they’re just gonna give up on keeping it safe.
No, I’m not saying replace the drive annually. That would, indeed, be dumb. I’m saying copy the data back and forth between hard drives that are kept offline.
Honestly I’d rather just not watch Oppenheimer.
Even better, have a NAS with a raid array and data scrubbing for your primary storage, and periodically make backups to off-site storage (an off-site NAS or external hard drive are good options that don’t rely on commercial cloud services).
How about SD cards?
SD cards are far worse than hard drives or SSDs for long term storage. They are useful for temporary mobile data storage and transit, but anything you want to keep long term should be transferred off relatively quickly.
Don’t listen to what he said… But SD cards are generally not very reliable. They might be fine they might die on you silently after a week.
Higher quality ones are better of course, but the quality of flash in SD cards varies wildly. I wouldn’t store anything on an SD card that I don’t already have a second copy of somewhere. (If I want to preserve it and it would cause problems for me to lose it)
If streaming anxiety is making you buy more cassette tapes instead of pirating I’d like to have a word with you.
I buy lots of cassette tapes on bandcamp (thousands by now) and also download lossless digital for the archive. Streaming sucks and I like to support artists, so piracy is out (for music only, I’m not buying video content).
Not everyone can pirate.
!!WARNING!!
There is still DRM on DVDs and Blu-rays. Don’t think everything is perfect because you have the physical media. You still only have a license to play it.
It’s way easier to break. And even ignoring that, for these technologies at least, as long as you keep/find a working player, it’s fine-ish. You can still do backup/duplicate too. As far as conservation is concerned, physical media gives these options.
My mkv software says otherwise.
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Torrent them onto your own storage and make backups .
I have a 12tb external HDD for now, set it up with an Emby server so I can access it anywhere. Total cost was around $200. Gonna replace it with a NAS with like 80TB so I can keep it safe forever. This is the way.
Woo Emby
Thanks i didnt know about it!
I love DVD extras like ‘The Making Of…’ documentaries and creator interviews/commentaries.
There’s a special edition of ‘Buckaroo Banzai’ with an on screen commentary that’s fantastic. I found out that the briefcase Buckaroo carries with him into Dimension 8 had a tuna fish salad sandwich and Eintein’s brain.
The commentary was in character too!
This is the way.
I check the list of new physical releases regularly. I’d rather drop $30 on a disc than blow $50 in a theater and walk out with nothing.
I spend $20/month to see as many movies as I want at the theater. Last month I saw 6 movies, 9 in November, and expecting 6 this month.
The theater isn’t a bad deal with these unlimited subscriptions. In fact it’s the most bang for my buck entertainment option I have these days.
No one in their right mind that knows better has ever stored anything they truly cared to keep in the cloud only. Cloud storage like Google Drive or via streaming services where you can “buy” licenses. Maybe this will be a sign that the average person is catching on to the grift.
Yup. “Buying” a movie online is a grift, since all you’re actually doing is buying a license to stream as long as they decide they want to host it. Companies can, and have, removed movies people have bought because of things like studio distribution agreements expiring.
My dream would be for UHD Blu-ray quality (or better) DRM-free digital movie purchases, much like you already can with high res music. But until that becomes a thing, I’ll be buying a physical copy of any movies or shows that I want to own (rather than rent).
Companies can, and have, removed movies
Talking about a recent example by Sony?
I know it’s not the point of the article but I need to express my annoyance at the fact that Christopher Nolan is encouraging dvd/bluray purchase so much. He explicitly designs shitty sound in his films supposedly to make them sound better for the theater (i question his success in that effort) and then doesn’t adjust it for the bluray. So even then at home you have to adjust the sound up and down to hear the dialogue while not getting your eardrums blasted out by the action sequences.
Ok rant over. Otherwise I agree wholeheartedly, don’t trust streaming services to keep your movies for you. Bluray is the way.
Wish he would just provide different mixes on the disk. You know, one mix for normal people, and one mix for Nolan’s personal theater where he can benefit from a theater mix on a blu-ray.
I’m convinced that it’s not actually any better in theaters, we’re just a lot more willing to bear painfully loud audio in a setting where it’s considered normal. There’s an argument to be made that it’s similar to concerts, but for my money I’d like to not have to wear ear protection in a theater just because some director figured minor hearing hearing damage is worth an especially “epic” crescendo.
Tell me again how you watch your VHS tapes
Since Oppenheimer was such a success, can we please get a high-budget Feynman film already? The guy was far more interesting and cooler and just generally more of a badass than Oppenheimer. And he fucked a lot more than Oppenheimer.
All we’ve gotten is Infinity which… it was okay, but come on. The guy got bored at Los Alamos and decided to learn how to safecrack. In the middle of the Manhattan Project. Because he was fucking bored.
In any reasonable society we would have actual ownership rights over the digital media that we buy and we wouldn’t be beholden to fickle services or the inevitable decay of matter.
DRM-free copies, when properly backed up, are more secure than physical media. I have ripped MP3s from music CDs that already stopped working.
🏴☠️
