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Blu-rays have become the cheapest way to watch movies

Nomad Over Normal

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Blu-ray won the format war........ then ended up in the bargain bin. So what happened?

I trace Blu-ray’s rise, the PlayStation 3’s role in defeating HD DVD, and why streaming and 4K left it caught in the middle. Plus, what’s hiding on those Game of Thrones discs—and why cheap used Blu-rays have become my favorite way to collect movies.

Are you buying Blu-rays, upgrading to 4K, or sticking with DVDs? Let me know in the comments.

0:00 The format that won—and ended up cheap
0:49 How Blu-ray began
1:36 HD DVD takes the early lead
2:23 The PlayStation 3 changes everything
3:20 How the format war ended
4:14 Why Blu-ray never replaced DVD
5:21 Streaming enters the picture
6:04 The picture-quality upgrade people missed
6:57 Why Game of Thrones needs so many discs
8:18 Blu-ray’s peak and the rise of 4K
9:19 The industry starts moving on
10:26 Why Blu-ray became my favorite format
10:58 Finding movies for less than a dollar
11:53 Affordable players and getting started
12:20 Why regular Blu-ray still makes sense

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Hi I'm Chris & my page is called Nomad Over Normal because you’re here to find alternatives to what is conventionally seen as a “normal” life. This makes us nomads, and we’re forming a community here together.

My background is in documentary filmmaking, as a commercial cinematographer and as a lighting technician on some of your favorite TV shows.

Location: New Jersey, United States

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20 Comments

@NomadOverNormal Creator 5 days ago Pinned

Thanks for getting me to 20K!! a little channel update for y’all:

For the immediate future, my plan is to upload two times per week. my Saturday around noon cadence will stay and then I’ll be uploading a second video on Wednesdays.

The Scripts I’m working on right now and in the editing phase of are about the library, VHS, laser disk, divx, and some really cool film history topics that I haven’t figured out if you guys would care about until a ton of recent comments really appreciated me going into the history of these things.

Ironically, there’s a lot of notes I have from Film school that I might dive back into because I think they’ll make for fascinating videos.

My final paper in Film school was about a topic in Italian horror of the 1970s and 80s and I think I’m going to turn my research paper into a video in time for Halloween. It’s so in depth nothing like it exists. I put my whole heart into it and I’m gonna resurrect it just in time for the holiday.

A lot of exciting stuff if you’re not subscribed, please subscribe. Just so you can stay up-to-date. I also enabled channel memberships. We all hate subscriptions here, but I figured that enabling an option just to have creator support as an option was something worth giving a shot for those of you who like that sort of thing.

I think what I’ll evolve that into is a movie of the month club, with specific videos on individual films, their history, as well as my opinions and review. But that’s a lot to commit to right now and a pipe dream, going to work on developing the best content I can. - Chris

@mcc8088 5 days ago

The blu rays accompanying the 4K discs are good value. What it allows studios to do is maximize space usage of the 4K disc by only putting the movie track on it, and relegating all special feature videos to the blu ray discs

@JamesTaylor-je6es 5 days ago

Blu-ray is the perfect balance between quality and value for me.

@dazjackson1972 5 days ago (edited)

It's crazy how inexpensive Blu-ray has become.
I picked up LOST - Complete Collection (36 Discs) for £5 (about $7 USD) recently.
If you're willing to wait for good deals, you can build a nice collection without breaking the bank.

@emmasappho9006 5 days ago

I haven’t gotten around to upgrading my set up to 4k so I’m still watching blu rays for the most part

@jspectre7975 5 days ago

Anytime I'm at Half Price Books and browsing clearance I first look for blurays then go to the tv dvd sets then browse the rest and see what amazing things I can find.

@IttCrowd-j3o 5 days ago

It's kind of wild to consider that Blu Ray movies were introduced in June 2006, and the last VHS movie was March 2006. The commercial life of VHS tapes is only separated from Blu Ray by three months. It wouldn't be inconceivable for you to walk into a retail store in 2006 and find the same new release movie available on VHS, DVD and Blu Ray on the same shelf at the same time.

@MostlyMMA 3 days ago

Family always act like I’m hard to buy Christmas presents for, which is complete bs, a cheap blu ray I can add to my collection makes me very happy. It’s the little things in life !

@R3yedit 5 days ago

Even though I do not own a 4K Blu-ray player, I bought the 4k Blu-ray of Kingdom of Heaven because I knew that the box included a 1080p disc with the new restoration. 🙏🏼.

@vincebrascia 5 days ago

Blu-ray is easily my favorite format. I’ve amassed quite the collection from used media stores, thrift stores, and garage sales. The quality is better than streaming in 4k (especially when considering audio) so often times I opt for my blu ray copy even if something is available to stream.

@purplefreak3 5 days ago

Besides my PS5 I got my two 4k players for $100 each when LG exited the market and their players went on clearance.

@Geneparmesan 5 days ago

This is my favorite channel, I learn so much and it really inspires me to

@GwG-aka-TheGoatee 3 days ago

well, I've just bought the last Mission Impossible movie on just BluRay, so I think they are still in fashion in some way.

@JonahWhiddon 5 days ago

You’re absolutely right. For a few years now Blu-ray has been so cheap on the second hand market. Head into a thrift store and you can find them for usually $2-3 each. I love Blu-ray, and while I do buy 4K, I find that almost every movie is perfectly fine on Blu-ray.

@eoghainokeeffe3274 2 days ago (edited)

Blurays are fantastic by any standard and when you factor in the price of most blurays, it really is the best deal in movies. I always get a film on 4K if it has IMAX footage, as that really is most effective on 4K. For films that don't use IMAX, and if they have a lot of CGI effects, I will usually get the bluray instead. I spent a lot of money on my home cinema system (4K projector, 7.1 sound, big screen, etc) and then I started heavily stocking up on blurays and 4Ks. When I average out the price I spend on films between the blurays and the 4Ks, it works out as an absolute bargain because the blurays are so cheap (and they look and sound incredible on my home system). That's a big thumbs up for blurays from me!

@cade_olson 1 day ago

Im surprised you didnt mention the enormous market share playstation has with the ps4 and how many people automatically have bluray players as a result. As a lifelong playstation user, ive never thought about buying a standalone bluray player.

@natedrake2187 4 days ago

I do have a growing 4K collection but most of my physical collection is regular Blu-Rays. Even just standard Blu-Rays are so much better than 4K streaming.

Have to say I'm really loving your channel by the way, looking forward to more videos

@Arto-f3x 5 days ago

What a great video of the discs history, thanks!

@sir-toby-belch 2 days ago

Very interesting! Blu Ray has been my go-to pretty much since it came out. I bought my Samsung Blu Ray player about 10 years ago for $60 and buy discs from my local used media stores or check them out from the library! I have been toying with the idea of starting a 4K collection, but can't justify the price of the player just yet. Great video!

@Thr3-Words 3 days ago

I was initially very disappointed to discover that if the normal blue-ray has the downsampled version of the 4k movie, there is practically no visual difference between the two versions. Apart from needlessly buying a 4k player, that has turned out to be a blessing!