This Christmas, Give the Gift of Physical Media

Ho-ho-hold on before you put those digital media vouchers into the Christmas stockings this year. No one likes an empty sock over the fireplace, so why not put something a little more tangible into St. Nick’s boot lining?

You Can’t Stuff a Stocking With Digital Vouchers

Stocking stuffers are meant to give the recipient small pleasures. Little things that cost maybe ten to twenty bucks, but that delight and bring a spark of joy. Maybe finding an Apple App store or Google Play voucher will do that for some people, but it’s barely a step above putting cash in that stocking.

Now, a nice DVD box set or Blu-ray movie is so much better in my opinion, and it also shows some thoughtfulness as you’ll have to know something about the recipient to pick the right title.

There’s a Fire Sale on Discs

There’s never been a better time to buy physical media. With disc player production winding down, and large stockpiles of DVDs and Blu-rays on shelves and in warehouses, the pressure is on to sell it all. The alternative is dumping them in a landfill, and surely you don’t want that to happen?

Your changes have been saved

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Complete Series Blu Ray

One of the few Star Trek TV series to get a painstaking HD remaster using the original camera film negatives. To date, this is the most ‘HD’ that classic TV Star Trek gets!

Usually, I wouldn’t recommend getting someone a used item for Christmas, but for some rare out of print discs, there’s nothing wrong with getting a good condition copy from eBay or other similar sites.

DVD and BD Players Make Excellent Gifts Too

But, what if the recipient doesn’t have a disc player? Firstly, if they have a current or last-generation gaming console with a disc drive, they already have a player even if they don’t use it for that purpose.

However, even if they don’t, that’s a great reason to buy a player as a gift! You can buy a standard non-4K Blu-ray player for well under $100, and with the way things are going with digital media preservation, you might be giving a gift that becomes more valuable as time goes by.

CDs and Vinyls Are Still a Great Present

It’s not just video material that makes a great gift. Books are never unwelcome, especially books that have illustrations that just don’t look as good on a tablet or ereader screen.

CDs are still a big part of the music industry, and major artists these days do a lot to make a CD much more than just a disc with music on it. They turn them into little experiences. Don’t forget, there’s plenty of music that didn’t make it onto a streaming service, so a CD with music from someone’s favorite artist that didn’t get uploaded to the internet could be a brilliant and thoughtful choice.

Then there’s the modern resurgence of vinyl. Now, I know you’ll have a heck of a time fitting a vinyl album in a stocking, but apart from that, you might be thinking that a turntable is even less likely than a Blu-ray player as a prerequisite.

Except here’s the thing—a lot of people buying vinyls don’t even have record players. The vinyl album is just a beautiful object, usually with big popping artwork, and it probably includes a digital music voucher. Oh, how the turntables.

As much as I try to do my part in slowing the process down, I guess the day will come when physical media really is gone, but in the spirit of the season, maybe for just one more year we can keep the hope alive.