My Views on Streaming/DVDs

So, last week, Tom left a comment talking about my only watching DVDs and not using streaming. As noted in my reply, I have actually had a streaming service in the past (Shomi) and actually have one running right (Crave). But primarily for movies and TV shows it’s still DVDs. Let me talk a bit about my oddities that make that be the case.

One main issue for me that would not be one for most other people is that I have little to no desire for the normal mobility options that streaming services provide. The ideal set-up for me to watch things is in my living room. My cable hookup works beautifully there, hidden in my corner behind my TV stand. Getting the Internet there would be trickier, and the ideal place for my Internet is in the bedroom that I use as an office. So what I have is my main TV in the living room with my cable box and my DVD players, and my computers in the office. So for me to watch over the Internet would require me to either run an Ethernet cable into the living room or watch them in the office. Either are do-able, but are generally more trouble than they are worth. And I don’t really have any interest in watching those shows when I’m away from home. So I have no real interest in streaming as something that I can do anywhere. I only want to do it in one place.

(Note that my gaming consoles are in the living room, but they’re on a TV stand hooked up to a second TV so that I can play them while watching TV).

Thus, the big advantage that Shomi had was that it would fit nicely into how I already watched TV. When that one died and Crave came to cable, it also fit in there, but it has an advantage that you get the on-demand part but it also runs something like seven channels that run their shows or movies at various times during the day, which means that not only can I watch it on-demand as I like but also if I’m just looking for something to have on for noise or for something mildly interesting when I have nothing to do I might be able to find something interesting there, making it about as useful as every other channel I have on my cable subscription. That’s how I came across “Arizona”.

The other reason why I still maintain DVDs is one that I think most people will at least somewhat relate to: I have no interest in maintaining multiple streaming services. If I wanted “Star Trek”, I’d need Crave. If I wanted the Disney ones, then I’d also have to take Disney+. And since they don’t have every show that is available, I might need the other ones as well. And might still be missing some shows that I could get on DVD (for example, which streaming service has “Sledgehammer!”?). So I’d need three or more streaming services and then still need DVDs to cover off some shows that I’d like and want to watch. That’s a bit more complicated than I’m willing to get into.

DVDs also have additional benefits. You always have them once you buy them — unless they get scratched or wear out — so you don’t have to fear that the service that has them will cut them off for various reasons in the future. The more you watch them, the more cost-effective they are, while the cost of a streaming service only goes up over time. And if I want to consider what I might want to watch, I don’t have to browse through a menu, but instead can look at my physical boxes and see what’s there, and even can create stacks as a list of things to work through.

For me, the streaming service I have with the channels and the things that I want to watch on them makes it worth subscribing to, but the downsides are just enough that DVDs are still my primary way to watch older TV shows (newer ones are obviously better on streaming since, well, they’re there [grin]). I don’t see that changing for the foreseeable future.