Commentary, behind-the-scenes features, bloopers: What did we lose when we said goodbye to DVDs?

I do miss the "making of" features that showed behind the scenes but as computers got better and movie execs got cheaper it wasn't that interesting to just be like "well we did it with a green screen and then in post." for fucking EVERYTHING...

It was much more fun watching pure artists at their craft making models and explosions and trick camera work for practical effects.

My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.

My theory is that practical effects takes a monumental amount of knowledge and skill and as those people got more and more expensive it was cheaper for the vultures to just hire college grad artists and grind them into the ground than pay the union salaries.
I think it takes the same amount of knowledge to do well.
But cheap CGI looks better than cheap practical effects. Or it can be made cheaper. Maybe both.
Anyway, even Empire Strikes Back involved using computers for some work. Yep, late 70s' computers.
It's not one or another with these.
I think the reason for the drop in quality is moviemaking becoming corporate. Not "owned by corporations" kind of corporate (obviously that too), but "no way to get in without acquaintances or patrons inside" corporate, nepotism.
- CGI gives the producers the ability to re-do complex shots over and over again. With practical effects you don't get to say "That fireball isn't red enough, make it redder" without a ton of extra work.
I always loved the behind the scenes for Eternal Sunshine. Kate was so excited about the production, she'd be like "I had to crawl through this hole into a different set and do a quick costume change so we could do it all in one take."
The making of Fury Road is quite fascinating, the bulk of the vehicles and stunts are real. A lot of the Fast and the Furious stunts and vehicles are real as well.
One thing I always appreciated about the Fast and Furious movies were their lean to practical effects, at least the earlier ones.
- I want to live in the world where the F&F franchise never stopped doing practical effects, and actually launched a car into space.
The first 3 pirates movies DVDs had amazing making of docs

I did say goodbye to almost all DVDs, but I haven’t said goodbye to 4K Blu Ray discs, nor will I.

I am disappointed it feels like physical media is slowly going away though. It's not only nice to have a physical collection in my opinion, but it directly supports the stuff you like, and you don't have to deal with the bs that comes with digital "ownership" or the ever changing mess that are streaming services.
- Check out bandcamp. It's for music, but you can stream tracks to give them a listen, and then buying them nets you a straight up file download in an audio format of your choice.
  A world where you can both support the creator online, and receive something you get to keep in return, is possible.
- i feel like my 24TB of movies and tv is a physical copy. i can watch over 2500 movies or 30,000 episodes perfectly curated with extras, commercial free and can hand a copy to my kids on a single drive.
- Haha! Physical media has been "slowly going away" since before UHD existed as a format. Just keep buying whatever format you like and distributors will keep it going. Look at all the catalog titles and niche (often limited special run) titles still being added to UHD.
- You don't have to deal with digital ownership bullshit with existing physical media because some people broke the DRM.
  The worst development for end users would be a normalization of physical media and new or ("updated") physical formats and players.
  With brand new DRM and more tightly controlled playback devices.
Discs mean too much hassle. I'd have to rip them all prior to storing the movies on my harddrives. Streaming subscriptions are convenient, but too limited and they don't offer the best quality. IMHO, a download option is the best of both worlds.
- Bandcamp but for movies and TV would be amazing.
- With the role physical storage plays today, maybe consumer tape drives are a niche to be filled. Hard drives and optical discs die.

I haven't given up on DVDs. Don't assume we've all abandoned the disc format, because I'm certain many of us still use them.

There's literally dozens of us
Making toxic trash and wasting resources just to be a hipster, we're all proud of you
- ….he smugly typed on his slave labor made iPhone.
- You're a drip. I buy DVDs used from pawn shops and garage sales. I'm leaving a mouse-sized carbon footprint; there's no "toxic trash" that didn't already exist.

I really miss video rental stores.

walking in to the smell of fresh popcorn, getting an enormous bag of it for like 99 cents, walking up and down the aisles browsing the latest releases for something that non-algorythmically catches your eye to watch over the weekend.

Maybe even swinging through the game aisle to pick up the new game that just came out.

It was an experience that is lost and will never be replicated by streaming/rental boxes/etc/etc.

Worse, the loss of physical ownership. You do not own anything you buy on a streaming service. Sony as proven that on more than one occasion. You are also stuck to the whims of your internet connection.

But physical media? You can play that anywhere, any when, any how. WIth no worry for stable internet connections and other bullshit.

my local video store had the perfect setup. they were next to a pizza place and actually installed a window connected to it so you can order a pizza and look for a movie to watch while waiting for it to be ready. it was perfect. now its a stupid ass dollar store
- Do you live where I live? Exact same scenario, including the fate of the building.
Physical media isn't dead, you can still buy DVD/Bluray disks for popular content, unless it's a platform exclusive.
So if you really value physical media, buy it and refuse to use streaming services. I rip mine to Jellyfin so I get the same streaming platform experience, while owning physical media. If my kids want to watch something, I order it and rip it. If my internet connection dies, I still have access to it because it's on my local network. If someone wants to borrow it, I just give them a copy (or I can point them to my Jellyfin service, which is also available outside my house).
Yeah, it's definitely a vibe. I took a wormhole (time travel) to 1991, walked into a blockbuster and keeled over from nostalgia.
Nostalgia is such a complex/convoluted feeling -- you can't have it if you didn't have a past to draw the experience from, but when you do have it, it's almost like a religious or philosophical experience both acknowledging and becrying (or grieving) the passage of time.
Unfortunately, even with a "time machine", we the people who walk through the portals are ever changed. We won't ever live in the past again. We can see those places and experience them in our present states, but...
Just like a glass shattering on the ground and the pieces scattering: Entropy cannot be undone.

It seems like the extras were for a specific limited demographic. When the costs of producing the extra content, and sales of the physical media are taken into account.... I would guess that when a no-extras vs extras version of the same movie was available, the one that was cheaper with less content sold more.

I enjoyed the extra features on a handful of shows, but I think this is a smaller sales-base than the author realizes.

Yeah, I honestly don't care about those extra features. What I do care about is being able to have perpetual, legal access to content. I can't get that w/ streaming services, so my only other option is to buy physical media.

Back when the remake of Battlestar Galactica was on the air the showrunner Ronald D. Moore had a podcast where he'd sip some scotch and smoke a couple cigarettes and provide commentary for the episode. It worked really well, and got me to watch the show twice because I wanted to follow along. Eventually they made it onto the DVD/Bluray releases as commentary audio tracks.

With the growth of podcasting I'm amazed other shows haven't done something similar.

Now it’s possible to browse hundreds of movies you don’t watch to watch from the comfort of your sofa.

I mean those things can exist outside of DVD

Who's said bye to DVDs?

My wife and I just streamed a movie a few days ago. It had a ton of bloopers intermixed with the end credits.

the simpsons dvd and the commentaries on them were amazing.

I do not miss 480p. Just go on YouTube and watch a video on the lowest resolution if you miss the experience lol

The 480p streams on Youtube are significantly worse than 480i/p video on Laserdisc or DVD, that's not a fair comparison. Youtube's compression algorithm is utter shit for picture quality.
480i blown up on a 4k 50 inch display is going to look terrible compared to native 4k content, but on a 30 inch CRT it looked just fine

ownership

You missed some crappy menu at the beginning that possibly spoiled the movie.

I love watching movies without knowing nothing about it. Like the menu, I simply saw the coverart.

Also why I don't go cinema anymore. They often spoil a lot in ads

Some streamers do. We play the behind the scenes of The Hunger Games for our dogs when we plan on going out for a while.

Bunch of stuff I don’t care about and can get on the internet if they care enough to make it.

I never cared for "extras" anyway.

Just let me enjoy the film.

Sometimes there are genuine jewels in there. Talledaga Nights directors commentary is absolute gold. Might be as funny as the movie itself. Adds a layer of lore you didn't know you needed.
- and how much could it possible freakin cost?? a single audio track with a buncha guys sitting around speaking unscripted?
- Fair, I'm not convinced I do need that layer.
  I guess if people are into films as a topic, or even a specific film, then that'd be interesting.
  Not for me.
I feel the same way. I like the streaming/VCR experience of hitting play and seeing the media. Those old DVD menus that wanted me to mess with extras sucked.
- 99% of DVD menus would have the "Play movie" pre-selected, letting you activate it with a single press of the Play or Select button.