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Disclaimer: I am totally joking about piracy. Never would I ever. We do NOT promote that here.
For years I convinced myself that physical media was dead, that shelves stacked with DVDs were nothing more than a relic of the early 2000s, and that streaming would carry us into a brighter, more convenient future. I told myself I didn’t need discs anymore. Everything I wanted would always be a few clicks away, right? Wrong. Streaming has not only failed to deliver on its promise of endless, convenient entertainment, it has also managed to become one of the most frustrating, predatory, and overpriced systems ever forced on consumers. That is why DVDs, the very format I once left for dead, have stormed back into my life.
And I am not talking about a nostalgic weekend fling. I mean a full blown, unapologetic embrace of stacks of discs, dusty shelves, and bargain bin treasure hunts. Why? Because unlike streaming, DVDs are getting cheaper, they do not lock me into arbitrary terms of service, they do not jack up their prices every three months, and they do not demand that I sit through thirty minutes of ads for the privilege of watching a movie I already paid for.
Streaming Fatigue Is Real
Let’s be brutally honest. Streaming used to feel like a miracle. For the cost of a pizza, you could have access to a universe of shows, films, and documentaries. The cord cutting revolution promised freedom from overpriced cable packages, on demand access, and the end of late fees at the video store. Fast forward to today and we are staring down the barrel of subscription fatigue.
Netflix? Price hike. Disney Plus? Price hike. Paramount Plus, Hulu, Peacock, every one of them is raising prices while cutting content. That is the other slap in the face: even when you pay, content disappears. Whole shows and movies vanish overnight without warning, either because licensing deals expired or because some executive decided it was cheaper to wipe entire catalogs off the map. Remember when streaming meant owning access to a library? Now it feels more like renting a parking spot in a lot that is constantly being repainted and resized.
And let’s not forget the password sharing crackdown. Once upon a time, you could ease the burden by letting family leech off your account, and nobody really cared. Now companies treat you like a criminal for letting your brother watch a movie in another ZIP code. The generosity that once made streaming tolerable is being hunted down and exterminated in the name of quarterly profits.
Ads Are the Ultimate Insult
Even if you swallow the price hikes and the endless account restrictions, you are still not free. Why? Ads. The new trend is to dangle a slightly cheaper ad supported plan in front of consumers, as if we are supposed to be grateful for the privilege of being bombarded with commercials like it is 1998. Let’s call this what it is: a scam. You are paying for a subscription which should mean ad free, yet they have found a way to charge you and feed you the same garbage you thought you escaped when you cut the cord.
This is where DVDs obliterate streaming. A DVD does not interrupt me with fifteen ads for cars I will never buy or politicians I will never vote for. Instead, I can sit back and laugh at the previews from 2007 about upcoming blockbusters that have long since disappeared into obscurity. That is nostalgia I will gladly take over the modern insult of being force fed Pepsi commercials while trying to watch a film.
The Beauty of Physical Media
There is a simple, almost primal satisfaction in holding something you own. Sifting through a pile of DVDs is chaos, yes, but it is the kind of chaos that feels human. You can touch it. You can see the cover art, read the synopsis, and appreciate the design. It does not evaporate when some faceless corporation pulls the plug. It does not require an internet connection. It does not care if your Wi Fi goes out or if your account gets hacked. It just works.
Even better, DVDs are dirt cheap now. Thrift stores, garage sales, and clearance bins are overflowing with discs for a dollar or less. Try getting a single month of Netflix for that price. For what I would spend on a few months of streaming, I can build a personal library that nobody can revoke or censor. And while physical media is not flawless, discs scratch and cases crack, at least the ownership is real. Nobody can reach into my living room and delete my copy of The Matrix.
The Future: Piracy or Bust
Here is where I get unapologetically blunt. If this trend continues, piracy will surge again and it should. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying I want piracy to become the norm, but let’s not kid ourselves. If corporations insist on making entertainment both unaffordable and unreliable, people will take matters into their own hands. They already are.
Look at history. Napster did not explode because people loved breaking the law. It exploded because the music industry got greedy, overcharged, and refused to evolve. Piracy was a consumer revolt, plain and simple. The exact same thing is brewing now in film and television. If you strip away choice, inflate costs, punish generosity, and flood people with ads, do not be surprised when they start downloading what they cannot afford or access.
And frankly, I do not blame them. Why should any family fork over hundreds of dollars a year for fragmented catalogs spread across half a dozen platforms, all while being treated like suspects instead of customers? Piracy may not be legal, but morally it is getting harder to argue against when corporations themselves are the ones betraying their customers at every turn.
My DVD Renaissance
So yes, DVDs are back in my life, and not just as a quirky retro hobby. They are a practical rebellion against a broken system. Every time I stack a new disc on the shelf, I am investing in permanence, in ownership, in sanity. I am choosing not to play the game of endless subscriptions and arbitrary restrictions.
Maybe this sounds extreme to some, but I would argue it is common sense. We are watching the streaming dream collapse under its own weight, crushed by greed and mismanagement. Physical media is the lifeboat. Piracy is the inevitable storm cloud on the horizon if things do not change.
At the end of the day, all I want is to watch movies without being nickel and dimed, surveilled, or interrupted every five minutes. That is not too much to ask. Until the industry wakes up, I will keep scouring thrift bins for DVDs, building a library I control. And if it comes down to it, I will not shed a tear if piracy surges back into the mainstream. Because at least then, the power will swing back to where it belongs, in the hands of the people.
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