If I died today...what would my family and friends think/do with my physical media collection?
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Everybody dies -its sadly a fact of life. Having hundreds or thousands of movies and tv shows standing on media shelves in various formats and resolutions or some movies having 2-3 copies of the exact same movie - 4k standard case, 4k Steelbook, 4k collector’s edition - the list goes on. “Double Dipping” we collectors would call that.
Thinking about how many discs I own - only makes me think in death — what would my family think of/do with all of those discs. Would they understand what Vinegar Syndrome is or would they think its medical condition in a case? LOL!
I had to laugh thinking about all of the different editions/copies over the years I have of different movies and tv shows. From early formats VHS, Laser Disc to DVD, BD and 4k BD - heck even 3D-BDs!
Not sure that they would know what to do with all of them. They might look at a Steelbook and go “oh, that’s shiny!”
We as collectors know what’s what, but they probably do not.
We should put in our will - what our physical media is and where it deserves to live on. Because physical media is forever.
**Unless you had one of those early 2000s Warner discs which suffered brain rot haha** RIP ): I hear replacement copies are on the way for those ones though :)
But still when you think about it, physical media lives on forever and requires no code, no key. Just a disc and case and its yours forever to own :)
I lost a dear friend of mine Bill who was the GM at movie theater I worked at when I had just turned an adult and worked there for a little while - he and I became good friends and stayed in touch over the years. They used to pay me to record showtimes over the phone - back in the day when you’d call the theater to hear the showtimes for the day. Great Voiceover gig!
He was a big physical media collector himself and had actually left me a group of his favorite movies from ET to Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - both still sealed copies.
Though Bill passed away, his physical media lived on and was given to me.
Some may think of them as junk to get rid of, they’re not. They’re memories and discs that have been played hundreds of thousands of times - through the good and the bad times. The happy and the sad times.
Physical Media is always there for us even when the world feels like its not.
Something to think about when looking at life and the movies and tv shows that surround you on disc - don’t let your family just give them to goodwill. Put it in your will - where you would like them to go because those movies - those discs they’re memories and they will live on to infinity and beyond