Best Buy will no longer carry physical movies in 2024

[Chaplin]

All joking aside, throwing on an old punk vinyl and hearing the cracking to the raw sound still gives me chills!

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There you go.

 

[puckhead]

All good points.



I work in the classical music world, so I hadn't thought of the distinction between "older" and newer popular music. But there's definitely something to that. A half century ago, when there was a greater expectation that someone would sit down and really listen to an album, it made more sense to try to get the sound quality as good as possible. Something released now is going to be heard through a streaming service 99% of the time, so it's more about getting something deliverable out quickly. If you stick with stuff that's legitimately from the vinyl era, there's a good chance it's going to be better sounding.

However ... there's no advantage to a Rolling Stones vinyl over the same album on CD. For marketing reasons, they might end up getting mastered slightly differently, and a listener could prefer the sound of one over the other. But the same master on CD will sound as good or better than on vinyl, plus will be more durable, in most cases.

One other thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post was a theory about the younger generations getting into vinyl.

The youths buying records now have likely grown up with some combo of downloads/streams listening in some version of earbud headphones and/or in their cars. Sitting down and listening to a 2-channel playback of something in quality speakers or headphones is an entirely different experience than hearing the top 10 streams through bluetooth earbuds on the treadmill. An extended moment of "me" time without all the normal distractions might hold some appeal to those who rarely experience it in their daily lives. Add a couple friends into the mix and they might just have their first communal event on their own terms. Just a thought.

 

[puckhead]

There you g :click: There you g :click: There you g :click: There you g...

FTFY

 

[Devilmaycare]

One other thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post was a theory about the younger generations getting into vinyl.

The youths buying records now have likely grown up with some combo of downloads/streams listening in some version of earbud headphones and/or in their cars. Sitting down and listening to a 2-channel playback of something in quality speakers or headphones is an entirely different experience than hearing the top 10 streams through bluetooth earbuds on the treadmill. An extended moment of "me" time without all the normal distractions might hold some appeal to those who rarely experience it in their daily lives. Add a couple friends into the mix and they might just have their first communal event on their own terms. Just a thought.

This is it to an extent. It's a listening experience and not just passively hearing music like when you're in your car. You have the ritual of it.

And for sound quality, that depends. If it's a AAA title then vinyl is going to sound better. If there's a D in any of those 3 letters then you've lost the vinyl advantage. Bands like My Bloody Valentine get a tip of the cap for always doing AAA releases.

 

[elindholm]

The youths buying records now have likely grown up with some combo of downloads/streams listening in some version of earbud headphones and/or in their cars. Sitting down and listening to a 2-channel playback of something in quality speakers or headphones is an entirely different experience than hearing the top 10 streams through bluetooth earbuds on the treadmill. An extended moment of "me" time without all the normal distractions might hold some appeal to those who rarely experience it in their daily lives. Add a couple friends into the mix and they might just have their first communal event on their own terms. Just a thought.

Right, but these same youths could get the same experience with CDs. They just choose not to.

 

[elindholm]

And for sound quality, that depends. If it's a AAA title then vinyl is going to sound better. If there's a D in any of those 3 letters then you've lost the vinyl advantage. Bands like My Bloody Valentine get a tip of the cap for always doing AAA releases.

The "losses" when converting analog to digital at 44.1 kHz (never mind 48 kHz) aren't detectable by the human ear. If we're talking vinyl versus MP3 or some other compressed format, then sure, vinyl should be better.

 

[Devilmaycare]

Right, but these same youths could get the same experience with CDs. They just choose not to.

There's still a tactile difference with having to move the arm, flip the record, and junk over a CD. It's like a physical book vs kindle. I like having the tactile feel.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

I think everyone has touched in it a bit.

My daughter got a record player for her 13th birthday. A lot of her friends have them.

There is a vintage cool to it.

There is also the element about how they have never consumed music before. These kids really don't know cassettes or CDs. Everything is streaming to some degree. Playlist driven interaction with music.

To have something in large format, have the ritual of getting it set to play, seeing the artwork and liner notes and then listening to an album all the way through is a new experience.

My daughter still is most likely to have an ear bud in while traveling around, have a smart speaker going while getting around the house, but will definitely settle into a record with some frequency.

We'll bring the player down for game night, etc.

I've also gotten into it a little bit. There are some neat special releases or vinyl only mix packages.

A lot of smaller artists can better control their distribution and I feel better buying the physical media from them than just digital streams

I was pretty young when I got my player growing up - think it was my 8th birthday. Had a record player on top with a CD player and cassette player - as well as AM/FM radio.

I used it through college and it moved with my to my first place after college.

Towards the end of college I did add in a 100 CD changer.

Thing was a beast.

I would play my parents records on it growing up.

There was a record player at my grandmother's house as well. I remember as a kid putting on the headphones and working through older music, storytelling records, etc.

I think her getting into it has also reattached me to that part of my childhood

 

[MigratingOsprey]

Back to movie disks, I'm curious where this is heading.

I used to rent a lot of movies. Even not too long ago would take advantage of the great deals to buy them out of Redbox.

I'm not sure I've done any of that in over 2 years though. Maybe more.

Haven't even really played anytime from my collection in a long time.

Just so much available with streaming.

Going up to the Flagstaff area last week, it really dawned on me that our kids really don't even use the movie player in the car much anymore

Last year for Thanksgiving they did a little in the way to Albuquerque, but not the way back.

They are more likely to download a series and as couple movies options to their phones and just watch that.

Will be interesting to see how things continue to develop

 

[Dan H]

One other thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post was a theory about the younger generations getting into vinyl.

The youths buying records now have likely grown up with some combo of downloads/streams listening in some version of earbud headphones and/or in their cars. Sitting down and listening to a 2-channel playback of something in quality speakers or headphones is an entirely different experience than hearing the top 10 streams through bluetooth earbuds on the treadmill. An extended moment of "me" time without all the normal distractions might hold some appeal to those who rarely experience it in their daily lives. Add a couple friends into the mix and they might just have their first communal event on their own terms. Just a thought.

Bluetooth sucks. I have most of my albums encoded to FLAC on my phone, and the quality is noticeably better with CarPlay (WiFi based) versus vanilla BlueTooth. I absolutely believe this is a factor for vinyl.

 

[Dan H]

YES.

Christopher Nolan Says Buy ‘Oppenheimer’ on Blu-ray ‘So No Evil Streaming Service Can Come Steal It From You’: ‘We Put a Lot of Care’ Into Home Release

Christopher Nolan has put a lot of care into the "Oppenheimer" Blu-ray release.

variety.com