I’m tired of pretending that physical media isn’t always better than digital streaming

As cinemas face a tumultuous future, and ticket prices continue to rise, movies and television at home become the main option for family entertainment. But even as someone who considers himself a cinephile –I watch movies for a living– I didn’t realize how dire the situation was with the options at home… until I had my baby earlier this year, and I couldn’t get to a movie theater nearly as often as I used to.

And it’s all thanks to that little buffering circle of doom. Even Beyonce had fun when she indirectly told Netflix that it better not play with its NFL Christmas Halftime Show. We have stayed our disco western songstress space here, and agree: the biggest flaw with streaming is the inconsistency of connection, and the very inopportune moments that the suspension of disbelief in the narration can be marked by glitches in each platform

At the beginning of the year, when it was before my pregnancy, I was assigned to look after it Furious at LA’s glorious IMAX headquarters. To prepare, I thought I would just turn on Max and watch Mad Max: Road of Fury. And to my surprise and quick consternation, what was discovered within a few minutes of watching the film was that something was off with the audio of the score. My husband and I are longtime moviegoers – we’re there for the first or second hour of the show on opening day – and remember how Mad Max: Fury Road he rang This was not. Figuring that something must have gone wrong with Max’s streaming service’s compression of the audio files, we switched to our digital copy. And it still didn’t sound right. So we dug out our Blu-ray and popped it in, and there it was: the pristine sounds of Junkie XL’s warring drums and guitars pouring out of our soundbar.

I know that as a parent, I would have to get used to more entertainment at home than before. I admit that, even for re-watches or viewings for the first time of the classics, I would prefer experiences on the big screen in revival houses like New Beverly, American Cinemathque, or Vidiots. If I love it on the big screen, I will go to the store or my favorite used video shop to add that title to my collection – just to watch it if the occasion calls for it.

Now that a future cinephile has joined our family, my husband and I are excited to take care of his entertainment as much as we can. And this goes for TV shows too. Our house has been a Bluey family even before we welcomed our little one; there won’t be Cocomelon, Peppa Pigo Minions if we can help. Going from childless millennials who loved Bluey to the new parents it was a total journey to ensure that our child will experience the show as it is meant to be. It was not surprising that when Disney acquired the show from Ludo Studio, it did some editing and episode banning, although it is fortunate that it returned for the most part.

Still, we’re going to track down the first seasons on DVD to bypass any unwanted sanitization, and grab the music from the show on vinyl. Like, really, why do we have to sit through all the international credits in silence before the next episode plays?

Being home postpartum during the holidays was another learning curve; more often than not, it was typical buffering interruptions while in most streaming services. And sure, it could just be my internet connection, but that’s not a problem when you have a good Blu-ray player and disc.

You might ask, if I’m so upset watching movies on Max, Disney +, Netflix, and the rest, why don’t I just watch them from my snob movie collection? Funny you should ask, because it’s a not so funny story: I moved during the pandemic and someone stolen our physical media collection – save for a box set of our absolute favourites. That’s right, somewhere in the Valley, someone bought a film school’s worth of the greatest movies on Blu-ray and DVD right off the curb next to a moving truck. Rude.

And how does it approach my current situation as a parent?

Ours Teenage Mutants Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pizza box collection? Work out. How do we understand? Just before you see it Mutant Mayhem we looked through our box. It wasn’t there, so we went looking to see which platform had the original movies. Paramount? Oh, we haven’t subscribed! The same goes for if you want to get back on the Sonic movies before you see them Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Spending time with a child at home has been a total mess of trying to figure out which streaming service has what, seeing certain titles pulled, and trying to find out if they even have what we want to watch.

For example, we are still in the peak season of festive films; if you want to watch it An American tail for Hanukkah, hard luck. Amblin animated movies are not available on what you pay. You can rent or buy Fievel’s adventures on Prime Video, but if, like most families, you pay for multiple platforms that you can no longer share with your loved ones, it’s just adding to the cost. And even if you subscribe to Disney+ and want to watch Frozengood luck trying to broadcast at the same time as millions of others who are holed up at home during winter break. He kept getting it frozen and I will not leave.

So unless you own them and hope your PS4 still works, it’s a total problem. A whole problem that I will write in a new column about the importance of physical media and how best to watch at home. Thankfully we got a PS5 for Christmas so the journey starts now and on time Bad is released on Blu-ray, hopefully we’ll get some answers.

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