Best Buy to reportedly discontinue all physical media in 2024 both in stores & online
 

This report is a huge blow to physical media fans like myself, but Best Buy will no longer be selling any kind of physical media in 2024 both in stores and online. :cry: It could even happen during the 1st quarter of that year. This not only includes 4K Ultra HD, Blu-rays, and DVDs, but video games as well. I'm going to miss physical media when it goes away forever.

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/m...ts/101223-1100

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/be...hysical-media/

They might as well just shut down, then.

used to use them but their prices are 2-4 dollars more than Amazon so I will use Amazon

I barely buy any physical media since I watch everything for free on the illegal streaming websites. I did buy the TMNT 2k3 DVD boxset though, but only due to my undying love for Turtles.

Physical media will be on its way out probably by 2030 at the latest. It's already showing signs of it now.

Its unfortunate, Because Best Buy is where I ordered those Steelbook versions of movies on Blu-ray.

The last movie I got from Best Buy online was the Super Mario Bros Movie, But not the Steelbook.

you mention this in EVERY movie thread we get it your too cheap to pay for anything keep it to yourself :roll:

I guess they want to make more room to sell washers, dryers, and electric scooters.

Arr, matey!

I'll be fine as long as I can get releases anywhere, such as Amazon. Unfortunately, there could come a time where all vendors quit physical media altogether. I'll try not to dwell on it since anticipation of the end is worse than the end itself.

I don't know what to snicker and shake my head at more - Best Buy and their slow decline in general, or that sort of archetypical "large and in charge tough guy" Best Buy employee that seems to have permeated that company for decades.

I have literally decades of "small moments" stories about shopping at Best Buy - stone serious. You can imagine that, given the way that I observe people and their personality-tells, that going into Best Buy is like an exercise in extreme patience - made even worse because I'm the customer.

Your average Best Buy employee is a $#!(bag who would approach an unsuspecting old couple who came in for a single Sonos speaker, and then try to convert them indiscriminately into an Whole Home Controller just so that they could get their 20 dollar spiff at their 30k a year $#!(show retail job.

And I can honestly say that there is a positive linear correlation between Best Buy's ongoing reduction of physical media and my increasing absence from their stores.

The Best Buy DVD section used to be a regular stop for me for many years. Now, I can't remember the last time I set foot in a Best Buy store. The decline of physical media compared to those times is apparent, but I'm surprised they'd eliminate it completely at such an early date. Sales must be very dismal. The report does say "take this with a grain of salt", so maybe it won't be that soon.

So if America were to have a massive internet blackout, the ones who don’t have DVD’s to keep themselves entertained would definitely be in trouble

They said theyre still gonna sell video games.

Well, books still exist.

For most Zoomers (and probably a lot of older Internet degenerates as well) that's not an option.

Physical media is definitely going to be largely phased out by 2030, and even that is probably being generous. Movies/TV and videogames are all dying in the physical space, and only special prestige stuff will get released.

Eventually they may stop making blu-ray players and disc drivers altogether, so I wouldn't be surprised. I think we have maybe 7 or less years left of most stuff still being released physical.

They have just confirmed that. Yes.

https://variety.com/2023/digital/new...es-1235754919/

Does anyone remember the social event of just going to a place like Tower Records, hanging out looking at everything, chatting with the varied customer base there and leaving with a CD? Or a midnight release event?

An entire engagement of sub-culture that just doesn't exist anymore. I have so many stories from small concerts and midnight releases at places like Tower Records back in the day.

We didn't have midnight releases but I fondly remember me and my best friend going to our local CD store almost every Wednesday afternoon when we were teens, browsing the shelves, listening to CDs and often buying stuff.

The push to digital has really been aggressive. I used to see rows and rows of DVDs of movies and TV shows in the early 2000's, now it seems like nobody cares. I'm sure places like amazon will still sell discs for as long as they make them, but I think Target and Wal-mart may follow suit too, and at that point they'll be pretty much done outside of online retailers.

It's really not much different than how VHS tapes were gradually phased out in the early 2000's, but you could still buy VHS as late as 2005-2007 if I remember right before they disappeared entirely.

Whether it was VHS tapes in video stores in the mall or DVDs later on, there was a certain feeling to perusing them in aisles upon aisles. I'd discover all kinds of movies. All the book stores that used to be in malls, as well. There's obviously still a Barnes & Noble here and there outside of malls, clinging on, but it's not the same anymore.

And I'm sure there's still similar sorts of experiences in record stores nowadays, only now it's just hipsters and it's only vinyl -- again.

"You will own nothing and be happy!"

This is basically the modern version of the way people used to browse movies/tv shows in store aisles:

https://i0.wp.com/moviesgamesandtech...72&ssl=1&w=640

Remember all the kids who grew up in the 2000's are now 20 year olds and they're used to just scrolling through a digital storefront page and selecting what they want to watch. They don't care about going to stores to pick something out because you can just do it from the comfort of your own home. Hell most people watch stuff on their cell phones and don't even watch on TV anymore.

One pro: remember the feeling of going to the video store to rent a specific movie, like maybe a new release, and ending up on the wrong end of the very real chance it could be completely rented out, and then going home without it? And thinking to yourself in defeat, "maybe we can try again tomorrow?" That's not a thing anymore.

Well that's lame.

Not that I've bought from them in forever, and not been to a store since they stupidly closed the one near me, conveniently on a local highway, after opening another one by the mall, which now requires fighting mall and interstate traffic, so I rarely visit that area anymore.

Really never cared for the shift to digital only media, because it just removed the cost burden of producing, shipping, storing, and stocking a physical product, but they sure as hell didn't pass on much, if any, savings to the customer. :roll: And on the consumer end, if you lose access to stuff you paid money for (like a normal person)... oh well, I guess, it's gone.

Pepridge Farms remembers lol

I for one still love to buy me some physical media. That’s not to say that digital isn’t alright as well, but I want the choice, these butthole company’s who think they can make the choice for us can go EF themselves hard far as I’m concerned

That could be seen as a con as well, since everything is available all the time, you just take everything for granted. And the "Let's try again tomorrow!"-feeling was also exciting in a way, wasn't it?

I'm going "Grumpy grandpa"-mode with all kinds of stuff. I listen to CDs every day, started buying DVDs again, don't have a Netflix or whatever subscription, never stopped buying books, hell, I even started buying an actual newspaper again. We can't get rid of the digital age but I'll try my best to take part in it as little as possible.

Definitely. Leafing through all your favorite genres searching for those one or two albums you need to complete that one band's discography. I think the first album I ever bought with my own money was White Zombie's Astro Creep 2000. I've only been to one midnight release and it was for Halo 3 with Storm Wolf. She had to stand amid a huge crowd while mall security made me sit it out nearby since I wasn't buying anything. I wasn't part of the rabble so I couldn't enjoy the nice mix of B.O. and cigarettes. She hated it. We agreed never to do that again.

Totally agree for sure

I remembered that I got my first DVD player from Best Buy back in 2002, as well as my first DVD. I even bought two VCRs of the same model later that year. I plan on getting the 4K Blu-ray of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem from them when it comes out in December, and it's probably the last home video release I ever buy from them.

Not in and of itself, but I'm sure it increased the excitement level when you finally did get to rent and watch the movie.

CDs still make sense. They're playing completely uncompressed .WAV files, whereas with .MP3s you're getting that MP3 compression. DVDs, though? I can't fathom watching movies in 480p again unless that was literally the only format it was available on.

I'm halfway considering getting like a couple of 20 terabyte drives and ripping UHD movies to it, cataloguing them for quick viewing.

So I have an interesting story about how I got my first DVD player. I'm pretty sure it was the Winter of 1998 because I had just turned 21. We went to this nightclub/dance club that was in town and there was a Chicago radio station promotion there giving stuff away. I wound up making conversation with the girl running the "raffle" and lo and behold I wound up winning - it was absolutely rigged. I won an RCA TV - not a very big one, but more like your typical bedroom sized T.V. for that time.

So a week later we got in my buddies truck and we drove to (what used to be called) The Sears Tower because they were housed there and that's where I picked up what I won. This was the era of "box T.V.'s", not flatscreens obviously, and it was basically identical to the T.V. I had at home already.

And so, there was a shipping label on the T.V. box, I think it was from North Carolina. So we took it to Best Buy (whom I already hated passionately by this point) and found that they carried the same T.V. I wove this story that my aunt from North Carolina bought this thing from Best Buy and sent it to me as a birthday present but I already had one and couldn't bring myself to ask her for the receipt for it. The store manager took the "return" but gave me store credit for it.

I used the store credit to buy my first DVD Player and, IIRC three DVDs - The Crow, Dark City and the awful Godzilla movie. Best Buy wasn't harmed by this at all - the store manager didn't care about no receipt because he carried the T.V. model in the store so he just put it on the shelf. It was sealed, new and unused. I think when all was said and done I came out of pocket for the player and the discs for like 10 bucks maybe.

I was a senior in high school when DVDs started out. So I wouldn't have been one of the earliest adopters. I don't think I even knew about DVDs back then, but I noticed them becoming more mainstream in 2000 or so. It wasn't until 2001 that I decided I wanted a DVD player, but I had finished college and didn't have a job even though I tried to get one. I didn't start working until March 2002, and I bought a DVD player and my first DVD with my first paycheck there. It's one of those double feature DVDs with a movie on either side of the disc, and I still have it despite having Blu-ray copies of both those movies. Sentimental value and all that.

DVDs were a total game changer for me. I used to tape shows in their entirety on VHS, but I now own season sets of most of the shows. They take up less space, and I was able to dispose of a large chunk of VHS tapes that are likely to wear out quicker.

Oh yeah - lol the double sided disc with a movie on each side, or sometimes it was letterboxed versus pan 'n scan.

Or how about the "Different camera angles feature" that everyone thought was going to make rewatching a movie a totally different experience with different angles - and it never got used. It's like 1:500 DVD's actually had branching on them, and most of the time when they did all they were doing was intercutting behind the scenes footage into a moment of a movie. :roll:

Star Trek TOS did it well though - you can go between the original effects and the HD CGi.

The second DVD I bought was double-sided with the pan & scan version on one side and the widescreen version on the other. I no longer have it, but I still have one DVD like that. I also have its movie on Blu-ray which of course presents in widescreen, but I keep the DVD around since it's a Target exclusive that has an extra disc of special features.

The angle thing sounds familiar. I believe I remember the DVD player I had having that feature, but I'm not sure any of my DVDs made use of it.

It was a cool idea, but I can imagine more than a few directors -- particularly DPs -- wouldn't like that. They shot it and edited it a certain way, how dare you see angles that aren't supposed to be in the shot, etc..

Awesome post - I remember doing exactly what you said there for Alice In Chains once I discovered the Jar of Flies album. Going to bins and digging for the rest of the catalog immediately. And I did this routinely for STP - I bought all of their albums from Purple forward on release day, but after that I was always digging for CD single releases that might have live tracks on them.

The Astro Creep album has a unique memory for me - it was a birthday present from my "high school sweetheart". It was great because it was one of the first times I got an "insightful present" from someone who wasn't my parents as opposed to... you know.... something nice but "obligatory". :lol:

I don't think I ever went to a video game early release - I had enough of that culture working at a FuncoLand when I was younger. But the Tower Records midnight album releases were usually a lot of fun. The release parties for STP's Tiny Music and later for Eve6's "Horrorscope" were particularly unique and fun. Tiny Music was promoted heavily by Atlantic so there was all sorts of stuff there at the store for it, and the Horrorscope album had Eve6 playing in the parking lot which was neat.

Although I remember getting eaten alive socially at Tower when I picked up Kid Rock's "The History of Rock Album". :lol: I bought it only for the Metallica-sampled "American Badass" track which I thought was decent, but that release coincided with Rob Halford's (Judas Priest) solo release and OMG when those guys saw me with a Kid Rock CD.... hahahah oh geeze the commentary was on. :lol:

I did something similar with the 5th Element. I love Luc Besson movies, and the 5th Element is endlessly watchable. But it's received a variety of releases over the years. I've bought several of them and sort of compiled the discs with the unique features on them and they are all now housed in my 4k Steelbook as an "ultimate edition". I bought these sticky CD mounts for the inside of the case.

This was a unique decision too because I don't like breaking up sets from the way they are factory packed, but I just had to do it for that one.

The art kills the tech. :lol:

physical media enthusiasts have been coping with this for over a decade in denial that there market segment didn't keep shrinking despite statistics proving otherwise.

I mean if Walmart or Target follow Best Buys example and drop DVDs/blu-rays, then I really will believe discs are on their way out. I'm sure they'll still be made in limited quanities online and amazon will probably still sell them for a good while, but movie companies like Disney, WB, etc. are not going to bother printing discs if stores are not going to carry them anymore.

As far as I'm concerned, DVDs should have been discontinued a loooong time ago. Blu-ray has been out for almost 20 years -- if you haven't made the switch yet, that's on you. At this point I believe DVDs have even been "out" longer than the entire run of VHS, and by a good margin.

Walmart is reportedly gonna discontinue physical games in 2024.
https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/wa...dia-xbox-2024/

Might have to do with theft more than anything else.