Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

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kndy
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Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by kndy »

Curious. For many of you, have you chosen to drop physical media and focus on digital streaming to watch your anime? Or do you still purchase physical media such as DVD or Blu-ray?
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by greg »

I have to physically own the media for me to truly appreciate it. I can have a copied CD or DVD or whatever, but I don't appreciate it or even listen to/view it much unless I actually own it. I have an Xbox chock full of ROMs, but I still prefer to actually own the game. I just recently got the Totoro DVD for my daughter. We've had a copy our former brother-in-law gave us a few years ago, but I have always wanted to buy the actual store-bought thing.

And the theory that fansubs killed the North American anime industry just does not apply to me at all. I buy stuff because I have watched the fansubs. KOR, Patlabor, Captain Tylor, Dirty Pair, Lupin, Fate/Stay Night, Grenadier, Galaxy Angel... so many! Plus I will buy the upcoming Cobra and Captain Harlock TV series due to be released because I've enjoyed the fansubs.

I just wish everything from now on will be released in thin box sets.

I had a subscription to emusic.com back in the States, and I downloaded so many albums. The ones I liked best I would pay for all over again to buy the actual physical CD. There is such an aesthetic to the physical presentation of media with artwork, text, etc. that you just don't get with digital-only media.
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by SteveH »

Got to have physical media. That's all there is to it. I live in daily fear of something going wrong with my computer, or my connection.

My only exception, not including things friends do for me, my hypocrisy in full view, my shame, I'm downloading Yamato 2199 fansubs (which may not be fansubs as rips from the Japanese BD, I dunno). I just can't stand the whole screwed up mess that is/was Voyager Entertainment and knowing that even if this DOES get an American release, it will most likely be 'Japanese pricing model' BDs like Gundam Unicorn.

I'm not going to lie or try to justify. I shouldn't be downloading these things, but I am. If by some act of God there is an American release I'm buying that sumbitch.
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by _D_ »

Still ripping my bud's collection for him. I'll never watch them though, which makes me wonder why I'm doing this at all. I really don't care for most of the series but having 1500 discs worth is most tempting. Most of this will probably never be reissued as there was never that big a market for it anyways it seems. But hard drives are getting bigger and less costly. I also have the 1TB on Flickr but not likely to use it as I haven't the fast upload speeds required. Nice to have though.

As to other physical media, I'm tired of lugging around thousands of tapes that now have little value except for some people's projects or the thousands of discs in spools lying around here going back 20 years...home burned as well as bought stuff. I've used up 1200 sq. ft. of my new home just to try to store it all. Odds of me watching it again are for all practicality, zero! But I can't just let it go either. A bit of a dilemma, no?
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by Animusubi »

I sold and donated alot of my collection about 8 years ago. Especially my VHS, but at the time they were such a hassle to haul and move from place to place, and took up too much space. But then over time I just regretted it more and more, so I built back up my VHS collection at least. My DVDs are lacking, but it's mainly because everything I want in DVD format isn't as much a priority or they are HTF or too expensive. I'm a bargain hunter, so I keep an eye out for good prices.

I generally like physical media more because I like having shelves of goodies to look at. Especially for some of the really neat and colorful VHS, like Ranma 1/2. It looks better when it's in a collection like that.

I generally don't like digital because I like the smell of the DVD boxes, and the print outs and artbooks and all those goodies. And there's always a scare of losing the files. I don't trust them.
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by llj »

No. I subscribe to the notion that if I can't touch it, it doesn't exist. That's right, microscopic bacteria doesn't exist. :lol:

Honestly, though, I have in my spare time thought about what kind of emotional or neurological consequences a completely digital and online dependent world will do to us. We gradually spend more time communicating in front of a computer than face to face with people, we increasingly do everyday things like shopping and banking online...humans need to attribute tactile sensations with something they're interacting with on some level. When you traditionally go shopping, you walk through shelves and pick up stuff, you're engaging a variety of senses. When you traditionally socialize, you're looking at people's faces and exercise your ability to pick up visual cues and body language. I'm beginning to already see a lot of people losing that--they're completely oblivious to certain things that have traditionally been thought of as common. You're touching them on the arm, shoulder, hands, or somewhere else (at least somewhere that's not infringing on their comfort zone) when talking with people you know. If you're doing everything sitting down and through some sort of proxy, what are the long term effects of this kind of lifestyle? I guess this could be seen as an "kids these days" rant, but I don't know...

Ah well, I suppose this is going off topic and better suited for a sci-fi novel of some sort.
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by SteveH »

llj wrote:No. I subscribe to the notion that if I can't touch it, it doesn't exist. That's right, microscopic bacteria doesn't exist. :lol:

Honestly, though, I have in my spare time thought about what kind of emotional or neurological consequences a completely digital and online dependent world will do to us. We gradually spend more time communicating in front of a computer than face to face with people, we increasingly do everyday things like shopping and banking online...humans need to attribute tactile sensations with something they're interacting with on some level. When you traditionally go shopping, you walk through shelves and pick up stuff, you're engaging a variety of senses. When you traditionally socialize, you're looking at people's faces and exercise your ability to pick up visual cues and body language. I'm beginning to already see a lot of people losing that--they're completely oblivious to certain things that have traditionally been thought of as common. You're touching them on the arm, shoulder, hands, or somewhere else (at least somewhere that's not infringing on their comfort zone) when talking with people you know. If you're doing everything sitting down and through some sort of proxy, what are the long term effects of this kind of lifestyle? I guess this could be seen as an "kids these days" rant, but I don't know...

Ah well, I suppose this is going off topic and better suited for a sci-fi novel of some sort.
I dunno, it seems in keeping with the basic premise of the thread. WHY and What Happens Next is as valid as anything else.

I think we are already seeing it in society as a whole, and very much in what passes for anime fandom.

It seems to me that anime fandom isn't about the ANIME per se anymore, it's about memes and fetish. A show is fuel for cosplay. Merchandising creates fetish items such as spooge-surrogate covered PVC statues, washable bathroom posters and hug pillows. Let's go to the con and all dance the Haruhi dance in the hotel lobby!

But does anyone really talk about the SHOW anymore? Besides us old farts that is.

Does anyone CARE? There's no investment. It's just a thing to watch to be able to say "I watched it". The obsession is about surface, not content.

so, who knows about the future. It may well be that Yamato 2199 is the last shot of a dying breed.
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by davemerrill »

A pal of mine in Georgia, his dad worked at the plant where they made RCA Selectavision discs in the 70s and 80s. He noticed I had a player. Did I want some discs? Next thing I knew I had hundreds of the things. And that's kinda cool for about a weekend, you dig through them and watch some of them, and then you start tripping over them because there's way too many of them. Then you start taking them to garage sales and flea markets and you literally can't give them away. Then you move, and 90% of them wind up in the dumpster, because screw those things, they are there for my benefit, not the other way around, and once they become a liability, they're outta here.

In terms of watching anime, there's a lot of streaming out there and we can catch new episodes of FLOWERS OF EVIL or the Titan thing or Gargantia or whatever it's called, reasonably soon after Japanese broadcast and with English subtitles. I don't feel the need to own everything I watch. I'm happy to watch MAD MEN when it comes on (or when I download it, don't have AMC) and I don't keep 'em after we've watched them. If it goes away after a while and I can't stream it any more, well, that's a shame, but it's just a TV show.

I'm glad to see that when it comes to television series, we're getting back to an actual broadcast model, in that we can watch it in a ephemeral format that doesn't require us to shell out for a DVD box set and the shelves to keep it all on. That's not how we watch "Friends" or "Seinfeld" or "24" or "Law & Order", I don't see that "A Woman Named Fujiko Mine" should be any different.

For that matter I'm perfectly happy to shell out for streaming Netflix and be able to watch a movie without having to have it on my shelf. Now that Blockbuster is gone, it's tougher to rent movies, but we're lucky enough to live in a town that can support lots of independent video rental places, so if I want to watch "The Black Hole" or "Tampopo" or "Dawn Of The Dead" I can just rent it. I don't have to watch most movies over and over and over again and don't need 'em on my shelf.

The old-school anime fan mindset is that anime is this precious valuable asset that is difficult to get and that has some value as a trading commodity. I spent years swapping tapes, and you never knew when somebody who had something you wanted would want something that you didn't have. Best to get it all, just in case. And then suddenly there you are in 2002 with shelves full of 3rd generation VHS fansubs of titles that have already been released on VHS and on DVD here in North America - tapes that were at one time precious rare items, and now are only good for recyling.

I always resented having to treat stuff that was shown in theaters, released on home video, and broadcast on TV as some kind of obscure, rare, hard to find treasure. And now it isn't; we don't have to let this stuff rule our lives. We can take it or leave it, just like most people do with most TV and movies.
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by Path »

I'm a rarity amongst my friends in that I still buy a lot of physical media. Streaming is great, but once I finish the show I want it on my shelf. Must be the collector in me. You have no idea how many series I watched online (Baccano, Angel Beats, etc), purchased on Rightstuf, unwrapped (or not), and either shelved it or lent it out without even putting it in my DVD player.
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Re: Have you abandoned physical media to watch your anime?

Post by llj »

I don't really watch a lot of streaming because the quality of streams through my computer is several times lower than most people's, and the quality gets worse the more you enlarge the picture. I totally get the convenience of streams to watch stuff you wouldn't normally buy, but borrowing anime out of the local libraries for free (well not really, our taxes are actually paying for it, but might as well make use of it, right?) pretty much is how I watch anime I won't buy.
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