Disney has announced it will stop releasing DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Australia.

https://lemmy.world/post/2401968

Disney has announced it will stop releasing DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Australia. - Lemmy.world

Disney has announced it will stop releasing DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Australia.::undefined

This is problematic. Australia and New Zealand are in Region 4, I suspect this is killing all of region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean). This means they cannot watch at the highest quality, none of the streaming services are as good as a local blu-ray or local Plex/Jellyfin/Emby. Also problematic for preservation, especially given services removing content so it is no longer available at all.

If I could buy unencumbered digital files for my local server, I wouldn’t have that much problem with discontinuing physical releases. Instead best case I can get it a digital “copy” that is tied to a specific service (movies anywhere, google play, apple, etc.). Which content has also been removed from, even though you bought it. I’ve been buying DRM free music for around a decade and things have been fine. I would have to think really hard of the last time I bought a CD, as I’ve been buying flac encoded audio exclusively for a few years now (bandcamp.com, us.7digital.com, prostudiomasters.com, hdtracks.com). I’d really like to do the same for movies and series, including extras.

I’m reminded of Hollywood studios that destroyed films to make room for new ones in the first half of the previous century. Nothing could be less-forward-looking.
Or just not being careful with storage. Like I don’t know, keeping only one copy in one location with early films were made highly flammable materials.