Physical Media Collecting

[☉Kud]

I have a Marantz tape deck as part of my hi-fi. I got it brand new in 2018. It's one of the newer models and build quality isn't that great. Compared to the 90s cassette decks It's meh. The keys don't feel that solid. The doors are wobbly too. The white print on the keys is just awful.

For a device at this price I would expect more. I can only really recommend it to a person who's looking for a brand new tape deck.

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I heard that brand was good, but I didn't know their newer models would be this bad.

If anyone else has some recommendations on good budget tape decks, let me know!

 

[Wandrer]

I have a pretty big media collection. It includes books, CDs, records, VHS tapes, LaserDiscs, cassettes, magazines, and whatever else is interesting. Here's a preview:

LaserDisc
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Nobody I've known has grown up with a LaserDisc player, but I have always been fascinated by them. I got a working player a few years ago and have acquired a small collection of interesting titles

My David Lynch LaserDisc collection
David Lynch is one of my favorite directors. He's also highly influential in Japan where LaserDiscs were the most popular, so it's only natural that I'd amass a collection of mostly-Japanese releases of his films
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This picture includes:

• Industrial Symphony No. 1
• The Elephant Man
• Eraserhead
• On The Air
• Blue Velvet
• Twin Peaks

The Flying Luna Clipper
Why does this film exist? It's basically a collaboration between Sony and MSX Magazine that was animated almost entirely with 8-bit computers, and it was produced as a physical release. What an experiment. You can almost see the animators pushing pixels on their workstations while watching it. It feels like taking a vacation to a surrealist computer world alongside characters including anthropomorphic produce, a talking snowman, a cool duck, and others. I really wish we had more films like this, but at the same time, its uniqueness is a special quality

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Records
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This is the biggest of my record shelves

Aphex Twin's drukqs
Aphex Twin's most important album, and I have it
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Windows96 - Enchanted Instrumentals and Whispers
One of my favorite floating-through-outer-space soundtracks. Also feels obligatory to post this here
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VHS Tapes
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This picture includes:

• Bullet Ballet promotional VHS, including interviews with cast members
• American Werewolves (Crucial Blast release, limited edition of 150)
• Serial Experiments: Lain bootleg (it really is the whole series on a single tape. The last episode inexplicably switches from Japanese to English, though it's probably because the bootlegger doesn't know how to find good rips)
• Angel's Egg bootleg

DVDs
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This subset is mostly focused on music or band-related releases. It includes:

• 8-8-88 Church of Satan Mansonite Rally featuring Boyd Rice / NON (this is the first thing I ever bought on eBay)
• Pi
• The Legendary Pink Dots - Paris In The Fall
• Kill Your Idols documentary about the no wave and modern alt music scenes in New York
• Sympathy for the Devil documentary about The Process Church (more watered-down than I was hoping since it glossed over the cult's abuse, but still an interesting watch)
• Psychic TV's First Transmission
• Nine Inch Nails - Broken tape rip
• Skinny Puppy - Violent Shadows (includes live backing footage, music videos, and interviews)
• Zoetrope (indie sci-fi film scored by Lustmord. The score is about twice as long as the film itself and about a thousand times better than the film which is sadly very lame)
• David Lynch's Dumbland
• The Legendary Pink Dots - 9 Lives to Wonder
• Vampire Hunter D
• Sixteen Days in China: A Documentary by Martin Atkins (a movie about the owner of Invisible Records trying to sign Chinese musicians to his label while acting like he's uncovering an alien planet of Eastern musicians. Not a terribly compelling watch, but here it is)
• KMFDM (better than the best and stronger than the rest!)
  • Strum und Drang Tour 2002
  • 20th Anniversary World Tour 2004
  • Beat by Beat by Beat
• Skinny Puppy
  • Video Collection
  • The Greater Wrong of the Right Live
• KMFDM - WWIII Tour 2003
• Foetus - ¡MALE! Live DVD

Books
This does not include my large collection of banned or controversial texts, among others. The books are disheveled a bit because I recently sold some off
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"The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed" by Racter
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This is the first book that was written by a computer. The book itself is filled with cool collages that respond to the weird poems and prose inside of the book

Tapes
Mostly industrial and noise, but there are a couple of vaporwave ones in there
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CDs
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That's massive collection! One of the biggest I've seen. It's really cool you have LaserDisk. I haven't even seen those IRL, players or disks. They were not very common when I was growing up during the 90s. I would love to see what the player looks like for them.

Are laser disks hard to come by now? Where do you buy them?

I have T2 as well, but on DVD. And an Indiana Jones Box sex from 2004, before they made the 2 new films.

You are lucky to have so much storage space for your collection, I am more limited in terms of space.

Really cool collection overall!

 

[MySpace Tom]

I have a Marantz tape deck as part of my hi-fi. I got it brand new in 2018. It's one of the newer models and build quality isn't that great. Compared to the 90s cassette decks It's meh. The keys don't feel that solid. The doors are wobbly too. The white print on the keys is just awful.

For a device at this price I would expect more. I can only really recommend it to a person who's looking for a brand new tape deck.

That's unfortunate. The unit overall looks good

Do they still even make laserdisc players?
What about VHS?

Unfortunately not, or at least not for average consumers. I think LaserDisc players stopped being made in the early 2000s. Apparently VHS players stopped being made around 2016 or so, like what Wandrer mentioned. That said, you can still find working units without too much trouble. They pop up on places like eBay regularly, or can be found in thrift/antique stores. I got my LaserDisc player from eBay. My VHS player I got from Craigslist for like $15 which was a steal

Wow huge collection! I noticed you mentioned Industrial music. Do you like the subgenres like Harsh EBM?

I have listened to a decent amount of aggrotech, hard electro, and similar, though they're not really my go-to. Those bands used to be all over MySpace though. I have been much bigger into first-gen industrial and industrial rock. But I won't turn down any recommendations

That's massive collection! One of the biggest I've seen. It's really cool you have LaserDisk. I haven't even seen those IRL, players or disks. They were not very common when I was growing up during the 90s. I would love to see what the player looks like for them.

Are laser disks hard to come by now? Where do you buy them?

I have T2 as well, but on DVD. And an Indiana Jones Box sex from 2004, before they made the 2 new films.

You are lucky to have so much storage space for your collection, I am more limited in terms of space.

Really cool collection overall!

Most LaserDisc players look like a VHS player, but with a hilariously-oversized CD-ROM tray instead of a tape slot

Also this is the controller. It's huge and weighs next to nothing. The huge circle at the bottom is actually a disc that rotates about 40 degrees in either direction which is used for reversing and fast forwarding. It's also spring-loaded so it snaps back into place as soon as you let go of it

Discs are surprisingly not hard to come by. I find most of mine at used bookstores which are usually like $6 a pop. However, they do try to price gouge titles sometimes ($50 for a copy of Christine on LaserDisc? Lmao, get fucking real, Half Price Books. NOBODY is going to pay that much, and nobody should). Your local record store might have a section for them too. You can also find a lot of cheap ones on eBay that are in good condition, or people who sell them in packs (just look for "laserdisc lot" and you'll find a ton)

That said, since they were the most popular in Japan, you can find titles on places like Buyee for anime or other kinds of film, though you'll want to double check to see if a given title is either dubbed or hard-subbed before you pick one up. Japanese LaserDiscs are also usually much pricier, going for between $20-$50 a pop and beyond, pre-shipping, depending on what it is (though there are some cheap ones too, so don't get discouraged)

 

[Aevisia]

These days I collect books. I use my e-reader to read most books, and my favorites I will buy so I can have a physical hardback copy for my personal library - preferably special editions. Also, super psyched - after about a year of being on a waitlist I finally got a subscription for the Fairyloot monthly book box *happy dance*. :D Their special edition books are stunning and I think usually come autographed by the authors. ♥

I also really like having physical copies of games when possible over digital copies on my Nintendo consoles. PC I don't really care so much, but for Nintendo I want physical copies. I don't do much DVD collecting but will buy and keep physical copies of my comfort shows. Hubby and I currently have the box sets for Gilmore Girls, The Office, That 70's Show, How I Met Your Mother, and Heartland.

Having physical copies of things I think are great. Personally, I never liked the idea of everything going digital. God forbid anything ever happened to the power grid, you'd lose so much. Lol maybe I'm just paranoid but nothing trumps having a physical copy of the things you love.

Similar threads about collecting
For games collecting
For books and bookshelves
For music

This said, one thing not mentioned much there and of general interest to me, is if there's any good software for cataloguing in an item-agnostic way collections? For books there's librarything

Adding to this, there's also OpenReads for android! Really convenient. I use it to keep track of the books I own so I don't buy the same one twice lol. You scan the bar code and it uploads the pic and info. You can log your reading activity on it as well and organize by tags. Really useful and it's open source as well.

 

[Wandrer]

That's unfortunate. The unit overall looks good


Unfortunately not, or at least not for average consumers. I think LaserDisc players stopped being made in the early 2000s. Apparently VHS players stopped being made around 2016 or so, like what Wandrer mentioned. That said, you can still find working units without too much trouble. They pop up on places like eBay regularly, or can be found in thrift/antique stores. I got my LaserDisc player from eBay. My VHS player I got from Craigslist for like $15 which was a steal


I have listened to a decent amount of aggrotech, hard electro, and similar, though they're not really my go-to. Those bands used to be all over MySpace though. I have been much bigger into first-gen industrial and industrial rock. But I won't turn down any recommendations


Most LaserDisc players look like a VHS player, but with a hilariously-oversized CD-ROM tray instead of a tape slot

Also this is the controller. It's huge and weighs next to nothing. The huge circle at the bottom is actually a disc that rotates about 40 degrees in either direction which is used for reversing and fast forwarding. It's also spring-loaded so it snaps back into place as soon as you let go of it
View attachment 115005

Discs are surprisingly not hard to come by. I find most of mine at used bookstores which are usually like $6 a pop. However, they do try to price gouge titles sometimes ($50 for a copy of Christine on LaserDisc? Lmao, get fucking real, Half Price Books. NOBODY is going to pay that much, and nobody should). Your local record store might have a section for them too. You can also find a lot of cheap ones on eBay that are in good condition, or people who sell them in packs (just look for "laserdisc lot" and you'll find a ton)

That said, since they were the most popular in Japan, you can find titles on places like Buyee for anime or other kinds of film, though you'll want to double check to see if a given title is either dubbed or hard-subbed before you pick one up. Japanese LaserDiscs are also usually much pricier, going for between $20-$50 a pop and beyond, pre-shipping, depending on what it is (though there are some cheap ones too, so don't get discouraged)

Omg thats the coolest remote. The spring loaded wheel kinda reminds of rc cars. Old tech often had creative controls and interesting solutions. Now its just a basic remote for all things.

Japanese releases always tend to be more expensive. CDs as well. It be 2 times more expensive than a North American release. Often times I don't get why. I don't really hear a difference between a regular CD and blu spec one.

 

[MySpace Tom]

Japanese releases always tend to be more expensive. CDs as well. It be 2 times more expensive than a North American release. Often times I don't get why. I don't really hear a difference between a regular CD and blu spec one.

I don't know about the audio quality differences, but usually the benefit of getting Japanese CDs is that they have bonus tracks that aren't available on the same releases from other countries

 

[Bad Vibes Forever]

Having physical copies of things I think are great. Personally, I never liked the idea of everything going digital. God forbid anything ever happened to the power grid, you'd lose so much. Lol maybe I'm just paranoid but nothing trumps having a physical copy of the things you love.

One of the main reasons I started collecting is because of issues with streaming services removing and even censoring some content. For example, they censored and omitted a few scenes from some Simpsons episodes. Another example is something that happend with this anime platform called Funimation. Customers could buy and stream anime and have a digital library on the site. They could also buy a physical copy that came with a digital code. One day Funimation decided to move to or merge with Crunchyroll and made an announcement saying that customers would be unable to transfer their digital libraries over to the new platform. So anyone who didn't also have physical copies lost everything they bought.

From what I understand, when you "buy" digital downloads for a tv series or movie from like Amazon Prime for example, you're pretty much renting the ability to watch the content on that particular platform. If one day they lose the rights to the content and it gets acquired by another company, it's not yours anymore! So, for anyone who wants to truly own the content they buy, physical copies are definitely important.

 

[Wandrer]

One of the main reasons I started collecting is because of issues with streaming services removing and even censoring some content. For example, they censored and omitted a few scenes from some Simpsons episodes. Another example is something that happend with this anime platform called Funimation. Customers could buy and stream anime and have a digital library on the site. They could also buy a physical copy that came with a digital code. One day Funimation decided to move to or merge with Crunchyroll and made an announcement saying that customers would be unable to transfer their digital libraries over to the new platform. So anyone who didn't also have physical copies lost everything they bought.

From what I understand, when you "buy" digital downloads for a tv series or movie from like Amazon Prime for example, you're pretty much renting the ability to watch the content on that particular platform. If one day they lose the rights to the content and it gets acquired by another company, it's not yours anymore! So, for anyone who wants to truly own the content they buy, physical copies are definitely important.

Or a least a DRM free file you can download and burn to a cd or whatever, or keep locally on your machine. I 100% wouldn't buy stuff like rights to watch something on a specific platform. Too risky. Same as apps, I don't buy any apps or games. Developers fail to maintain them and then you can't install it. Or they just remove it from the AppStore. It's a waste. And this is not necessarily small time developers, even Nintendo announced they dropping online support on Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. Some people were invested into this game with real money!

 

[MySpace Tom]

From what I understand, when you "buy" digital downloads for a tv series or movie from like Amazon Prime for example, you're pretty much renting the ability to watch the content on that particular platform. If one day they lose the rights to the content and it gets acquired by another company, it's not yours anymore! So, for anyone who wants to truly own the content they buy, physical copies are definitely important.

The only difference is that with renting, people are at least told the duration of the rental. "Buying" from streaming services is a scam