"normal" oh, uh, excuse me....please define normal!

Ah, there I have to confess you've got me, I have absolutely no idea, I have been stark raving bonkers for years   

We're very much in favour of having the physical discs, whether it's Blu-Ray or DVD, as it's sometimes impossible to 'stream' content.  

We like to have holidays on the canal system of England, and frequently there is no signal whatsoever, and as we use Pay as you go mobile data it would be used up at a horrendous rate.!  

Also with the provider 'owning' the content they can remove it at any time and you lose out on having it.

Totally agree here, it’s the same with Xbox, if you download a game off the Xbox store, it can sometimes take 2 days to download, and then their usually full of bugs and crashes!, buy the same game on a PHYSICAL disc and it’s flawless!

Totally agree here, it’s the same with Xbox, if you download a game off the Xbox store, it can sometimes take 2 days to download, and then their usually full of bugs and crashes!, buy the same game on a PHYSICAL disc and it’s flawless!

Why that a game on a disc would be flawless and a downloaded game not?

Totally agree here, it’s the same with Xbox, if you download a game off the Xbox store, it can sometimes take 2 days to download, and then their usually full of bugs and crashes!, buy the same game on a PHYSICAL disc and it’s flawless!

Many Xbox games that are on disc actually aren't on the disc!
We have the latest Xbox One at home, a few titles just direct the Xbox to download 20+gB over the internet.
Some games are all on disc, but many of the newer ones won't run at all without a massive download occurring. If you buy one of those discs, and don't have internet to your Xbox, no game for you! And I'm not talking about the games that require online servers to run multiplayer, in the last few years there have been a few games that are mostly downloaded even with a disc. Once you download them, then you can play them offline in single player.

The game on the disc is burned on direct from the publisher’s disc burning computer, the downloading game gets to your Xbox as a data stream, and like Sammi says, if there’s a glitch in the network signal as it’s streaming, or your own signal isn’t very good, the data of your downloaded game could have irregularities in it, especially if it takes a couple of days to load and your console will switch itself off in that time.

My Xbox One borked the internal HDD when it was about 1 year old. It seems to occur during some system "updates". Just like what happens to PCs sometimes.
Fortunately I was able to find a local repair shop to replace the HDD with a 2TB unit for a reasonable fee.
I would have done it myself, but I didn't want to deal with downloading the correct image to the HDD.

Publishers dont want to give hard copy of anythiong (CD etc) since they won't have control over how it is used

As in, they sold it (program, data, etc) to you, but they want to keep control over it after the sale like place limits on for how long you can use it, etc and even retroactively delete it if they change their mind

Try to imagine some physical product (lamp, etc) instead of the "data product" being sold under the same terms that you can use it for some specific purpose and the distributor is entitled to come to your home to take it away

Sure the distributor (or for "data" - the publisher) aren't legally entitled to such terms, but you entitle them yourself by agreeing to the license that comes with the stuff

So the sales of an "phisical hard copy" nowadays is useless. Its just a subscription ticket to the online service, which could be as minimal as a code sent by email... The box and CD are just for the "feeling you bought something"



You can get away from this with most everyday software needs. But for games it comes down to either go out for a cosplay instead of playing on the computer, play whts provided with the understanding itis not under your control, or dont play at all

Publishers dont want to give hard copy of anythiong (CD etc) since they won't have control over how it is used

As in, they sold it (program, data, etc) to you, but they want to keep control over it after the sale like place limits on for how long you can use it, etc and even retroactively delete it if they change their mind

Try to imagine some physical product (lamp, etc) instead of the "data product" being sold under the same terms that you can use it for some specific purpose and the distributor is entitled to come to your home to take it away

Sure the distributor (or for "data" - the publisher) aren't legally entitled to such terms, but you entitle them yourself by agreeing to the license that comes with the stuff

So the sales of an "phisical hard copy" nowadays is useless. Its just a subscription ticket to the online service, which could be as minimal as a code sent by email... The box and CD are just for the "feeling you bought something"

You can get away from this with most everyday software needs. But for games it comes down to either go out for a cosplay instead of playing on the computer, play whts provided with the understanding itis not under your control, or dont play at all

I don't play computer games, so that doesn't affect me. For computers, most of my work is done under Linux, which is free and (mostly) doesn't require physical discs.

But for TV shows, films etc. the move to things like Netflix is worrying. I like a disc that I can play wherever I like whenever I like, without having to have an internet connection and without the worry the content will be taken off me at someone's whim.

I don't play computer games, so that doesn't affect me. For computers, most of my work is done under Linux, which is free and (mostly) doesn't require physical discs.

But for TV shows, films etc. the move to things like Netflix is worrying. I like a disc that I can play wherever I like whenever I like, without having to have an internet connection and without the worry the content will be taken off me at someone's whim.

What should really worry you, us...when the physical media players cease to be produced.
We'll be scouring eBay and the like trying to find working players for our "outdated" tech.

What should really worry you, us...when the physical media players cease to be produced.
We'll be scouring eBay and the like trying to find working players for our "outdated" tech.

Bit like now with HID and incandescent lamps  

Although we still have a working VHS machine and an audio cassette deck. What I'm really looking for, but can't find one except for silly money, is a decent quality reel to reel tape machine. I still have some tapes I recorded when I volunteered for a hospital radio station some years back and I'd love to see if they still play.

My dream machine (we had three at the station) is a Revox B77:

Bit like now with HID and incandescent lamps  

Although we still have a working VHS machine and an audio cassette deck. What I'm really looking for, but can't find one except for silly money, is a decent quality reel to reel tape machine. I still have some tapes I recorded when I volunteered for a hospital radio station some years back and I'd love to see if they still play.

My dream machine (we had three at the station) is a Revox B77:

That's a right skookum piece of kit!

The VHS situation is tenuous these days. Many VHS machines out there have rotting belts and drying grease. I have a NOS Toshiba VHS deck I acquired a few years back.
It's always fun to watch certain movies to see how things have changed.

It's sad to say, but gone are the days when you could take your telly or other bits of AV kit to a bloke in a little shop to be fixed. 

Now it's part of the throw away culture to consign whatever it is to landfill and buy a replacement. 

I think it is a separate theme not directly related

For the matter of ownership of a local hard copy, i think it does not matter if you have it on removable media or on a hard drive as a file. It makes sense that with drive sizes going up and prices going down, it becomes more straightforward to keep it on the drive than on CDs..

The real question is whether you get the chance to keep it on the drive under your control - Which means :

Without any mechanism that can prevent you from using it on a whim (DRM implemented by a secret or encrypted file format + only "authorized" software that can open it or that relies on "authorized" hardware features)

Without any mechanism that can remotely delete the content on a whim (Windows 10, possibly all closed source OSes...)

Basically it means stick to free software and free file formats (or proprietary formats, but ones that have reliable implementation in free software and can't lock away from it) for your computing needs. And yep let the cloud serve rain and lightning, not store your data

I think it is a separate theme not directly related

For the matter of ownership of a local hard copy, i think it does not matter if you have it on removable media or on a hard drive as a file. It makes sense that with drive sizes going up and prices going down, it becomes more straightforward to keep it on the drive than on CDs..

The real question is whether you get the chance to keep it on the drive under your control - Which means :

Without any mechanism that can prevent you from using it on a whim (DRM implemented by a secret or encrypted file format + only "authorized" software that can open it or that relies on "authorized" hardware features)

Without any mechanism that can remotely delete the content on a whim (Windows 10, possibly all closed source OSes...)

Basically it means stick to free software and free file formats (or proprietary formats, but ones that have reliable implementation in free software and can't lock away from it) for your computing needs. And yep let the cloud serve rain and lightning, not store your data

It is very difficult (and most likely also illegal in most jurisdictions) to copy commercially purchased DVD's or BluRay discs. I'm not so bothered about computer software, as you know we mainly use Linux here, but I am very concerned that discs of films or TV shows may not be available any more, everything seems to be moving towards "streaming" - which is all very well until (a) you find yourself with no broadband (on a boat  on most of the UK's canal network, for example) or (b) the content provider decides you can't have it any more 

Making a copy for yourself of something you already legally have, is allowed under copyright law. (So you can make copies of the DVD for personal use while keeping the original safe from wear, damage or loss)

There are laws like the DMCA that ban you from circumventing copy protection. So if you have to circumvent some copy protection first to copy the DVDs, then you break the DMCA or similar law if such exists in your country. However you don't break the copyright law

About the latter i can only say, that its no one's business what you do with your DVDs within your private territory (i mean, without putting out copies that are illegal under the copyright law). For anyone to find out that you broke the DMCA, you have to either use software that betrays you - which you don't, or it means that somebody physically intruded into your territory or broke into your computer to check on you, which is entirely different level of crime than copying a DVD