There will never be another physical media format, so I'm buying what I can while it's still cheap

Published Oct 19, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT Andrew Heinzman is a seasoned tech writer with over half a decade of experience. He specializes in delivering insightful tech news and detailed product reviews, particularly focusing on audio and video technology, as well as computers and smartphones. His journey in tech writing includes a two-year stint as the News Editor at Review Geek, the former sister site of How-To Geek. Throughout his career, Andrew has consistently provided readers with valuable insights and up-to-date information on the latest developments in the tech world, earning recognition for his clarity, depth, and relevance. In his free time, Andrew likes to explore music and read books, just as he did when earning his bachelor's degree in English literature. I've been collecting DVDs, Blu-rays, VHS tapes, cassettes, and vinyl records for about 15 years. In spite of the renewed interest in physical media that we've seen in 2026, I'm almost certain that it's just a trend, and my expectations for the future are more or less pessimistic. I don't believe that there will be a successor to Blu-ray, and I expect to see a lot of media enthusiasts offloading their collections in the next decade. To be clear, I'm not saying that we've hit any sort of technological ceiling with physical media. There are several ways that we could improve upon Blu-ray, for example. The problem is that there aren't any companies clamoring to build a next-gen physical media format. And why would they, when none of the major tech trends of the decade require a disk or a cartridge? Only time will tell, but I'm willing to take a guess I mentioned that I don't have a lot of confidence in today's physical media trend. My prediction is pretty simple: video streaming will eventually improve to the point that discs are no longer the king of quality, and studios will stop printing physical releases of movies. The remaining DVDs and Blu-rays will become a media time capsule that people treat as a collectible rather than a practical object, similar to VHS. This, combined with external forces (like the declining size of new homes in the U.S.) will discourage people from participating in what could be described as an indulgent and impractical hobby. Hangers-on who aren't fully committed will offload or throw away what they own, while obsessive collectors will double down, scooping up the unwanted refuse and turning select DVD or Blu-ray releases into impossibly expensive collectible items that never get used. We can argue all day about the importance of ownership, but the world has already shown us that convenience is a bigger priority to the average person. DVDs and Blu-rays may have a long afterlife as collectibles, but if I have to guess, nostalgia will be a much bigger motivator than ownership, and I'm not afraid to admit that nostalgia is already the main thing that drives me to buy physical media. Bargain hunting I can't afford to buy new DVD, Blu-ray, or vinyl releases very often. When I do, it's usually something that happens to be at a deep discount. The occasional vinyl sale on Amazon, annual Criterion deals, and so on. About 95% of my movie and music collection comes secondhand from thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales (plus Discogs for some hard-to-find music releases). Antique shops, too, although antique dealers tend to be pretty heavy-handed with the pricing on albums and movies, so I rarely even bother to look at what they're selling. Facebook Marketplace is the one area that I need to start taking more seriously, especially in the coming years. People who are buying into physical media today will try to get rid of their collections tomorrow, and because these things are a pain to sell piecemeal, it should be easy to find bundled deals at a low price. Something similar happened with video games after COVID, presumably because people had less time to play the games they bought a few years earlier. Discs are a double-edged sword This collection takes up a lot of space. Do I even use it? My physical media collection is large enough that I'll probably have to prune it the next time I move. It's generally difficult to look through, too, because there's just too much stuff spread across different rooms of the house. Alphabetizing doesn't solve the problem of "which room is that DVD in?" Because of this organized chaos, I'm just not motivated to play my DVDs or Blu-rays as often as I should. My Plex server certainly doesn't help the situation. The things that I'm most likely to repeatedly play on DVD or Blu-ray are concert videos, but because I play them so often, I eventually just ripped them all and tossed them in my Plex library. But I enjoy having this stuff around, and I do feel that there's some value in ownership, even if it's not the biggest priority for others. Plus, there are rare occasions when I break out a DVD or Blu-ray because I want to watch something that I can't find anywhere else. I've focused on buying obscure stuff in recent years, like weird little documentaries, foreign animation compilations, and the aforementioned concert films, so there's always something rare and unique waiting on my shelf. If you enjoy it, collect it A lot of people are getting into physical media right now because of streaming service pricing, Sony's decision to go all-digital on the PlayStation 6, and various other factors. Some of those people will form a lifelong habit, while others will simply move on to other obsessions or collections. And that's fine. If you're just getting into physical media, my advice is to look for things that streaming services have failed to give you. That may mean buying your favorite movies because you want to hear the director's commentary, picking up higher-quality versions of very old movies or TV shows (digital compression hates film grain, which is why some old media looks terrible on streaming services), or gathering obscure media that hasn't found its way to the internet at large. Honing in on a specific interest, rather than buying movies willy-nilly, is the best way to turn collecting into a hobby that serves some practical purpose. Do I always listen to my own advice? No, of course not, that's why I own three copies of The Nutty Professor.