A bone to pick with certain sites

[DiffydaDude]

So this came to my attention just now, I was watching a video about the HD-VMD compared to the Blu-ray, and that made me wonder how the formats of Blu-ray and DVD were doing right now, so I looked it up, and the results i got were not that great, and thats for one reason: its not from people who have experience with this stuff, or posts about whats happening with the format now, instead, its a lot of these cheap blog or news posts from these same sites over and over again, like Business Insider, Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo Finance, Guardian, and a load of other sites like these, and they all say totally different things about the format. This is like, a huge problem I have with searching online, and how 99% of results will often come from sites like these who, presumably, seem to spam these articles to get SEO hits, and honestly, what they say doesnt exactly line up with what I've seen happening generally. So I want to know, is there some kind of site where you can look stuff up without getting spam? Have you seen this happen to you while searching something? And what exactly is happening with DVDs and Bluray?

[bees]

What are you trying to look up, exactly? Side-by-side comparisons? Sales figures? It would probably help us search!

[DiffydaDude]

What are you trying to look up, exactly? Side-by-side comparisons? Sales figures? It would probably help us search!

I just looked up the questions "are dvds dying" and "are dvds and bluray dying". That might be a reason why, but i still wish there were more reliable sites to get info from

[bees]

I tried "dvd decline" and found a bunch of things from (reputable) magazines, trade publications, etc.!

Here's a recent Variety article about various aspects of the DVD industry: https://variety.com/vip/dvd-biz-has-circled-the-drain-for-years-2024-takes-it-down-the-tubes-1235912373/

BBC article about a possible resurgence of Blu-Ray/DVD: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240102-oppenheimer-and-the-resurgence-of-blu-ray-and-dvds-were-now-in-the-age-of-streaming-anxiety

Wired article from 2021, about why DVDs still exist: https://www.wired.com/story/why-do-dvds-exist/

I hope this helps! I'm guessing there isn't a single consensus. It sounds like DVD sales have dropped but that there's some pockets where they're experiencing a resurgence as people grow disenchanted with streaming services.

Just some general Google tips. I find it easier to NOT write out questions and instead try to condense things in fewer keywords. Searching for whole questions often leads to results that ask something similar, like clickbaits sites or (more helpfully) forums and the like. It also helps to narrow things down if possible. For example, if you were looking for some kind of trade publication article about DVD sales, you could try adding keywords like "DVD sales" or the year.

Finally, I don't know if it's just me but I get better search results if I'm logged out and browsing on a private window... I get fewer things based on my data that way, it seems to me, though I could be wrong!

[DiffydaDude]

I tried "dvd decline" and found a bunch of things from (reputable) magazines, trade publications, etc.!

Here's a recent Variety article about various aspects of the DVD industry: https://variety.com/vip/dvd-biz-has-circled-the-drain-for-years-2024-takes-it-down-the-tubes-1235912373/

BBC article about a possible resurgence of Blu-Ray/DVD: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240102-oppenheimer-and-the-resurgence-of-blu-ray-and-dvds-were-now-in-the-age-of-streaming-anxiety

Wired article from 2021, about why DVDs still exist: https://www.wired.com/story/why-do-dvds-exist/

I hope this helps! I'm guessing there isn't a single consensus. It sounds like DVD sales have dropped but that there's some pockets where they're experiencing a resurgence as people grow disenchanted with streaming services.

Just some general Google tips. I find it easier to NOT write out questions and instead try to condense things in fewer keywords. Searching for whole questions often leads to results that ask something similar, like clickbaits sites or (more helpfully) forums and the like. It also helps to narrow things down if possible. For example, if you were looking for some kind of trade publication article about DVD sales, you could try adding keywords like "DVD sales" or the year.

Finally, I don't know if it's just me but I get better search results if I'm logged out and browsing on a private window... I get fewer things based on my data that way, it seems to me, though I could be wrong!

Thank you for the awesome links, but I'm not using Google, I'm using SearXNG, which is better for searching IMO than Google. I do know how to format keywords in cewrtain ways to find certain things, but sometimes, when i wanna look a certain subject up, it can be hard to actually describe it!

[jackdunn]

When it comes to stats - such as sales stats, which I think could be a good indicator of DVD's popularity - I turn to Statista. But some stats are locked away from public view and are expensive if you aren't an organisation - fortunately, I currently have access to them. I can summarise a few stats - I'll take a US focus since those are most readily available:

In the US, DVD player sales fell every year 2014-2019, from 7.57 million in 2014 to an estimated 2.9 million in 2019 [src Consumer Technology Association] (of course, this could be because DVD players are becoming more and more integrated into other devices). Disc sales revenue in the first quarter of the year also fell every year 2014-2022, with $1.82bn in 2014 to $0.39bn in 2022 - by contrast, electronic sales show a general trend of rising [src Digital Entertainment Group]. And all this is in spite of spending on home entertainment rising every year 2015-2022, to over $30bn.

Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVOD) revenue worldwide has risen 2016-2018, 2020, and 2022, from $17.22bn to $99bn [src Digital TV Research]. It's risen every year 2011-2023 in the US, too [src Digital Entertainment Group]. In 2023, 83% of the US now have an SVOD service, up from 52% in 2015 [src Leichtman Research Group] - but looking at the chart, it seems to me it's plateaued - it was 83% in 2022 as well - perhaps the market is saturated now?

I hope some of this is interesting or useful!

[fancypengy]

I agree w/ the above commenter that coming up with a more specific query will probably help you find more specific information (obviously, but I totally understand that it used to be easier to just look up something vague and the search engine, e.g. Google, would be more efficient at finding good quality information, but unfortunately that's just not the case anymore.) If it's a scientific or at least academic question, looking up peer reviewed papers on the subject instead of just media reporting on those results generally sees better/more accurate results. Otherwise, you're essentially looking for an opinion piece, in which case you can find lots of people's opinions on forums and sites like Reddit!

Regarding your particular example question, I feel like it's safe to say physical media is "dying"- have you heard about Best Buy's decision to stop selling physical DVDs and Blu-rays? Sad times. I would be curious about actual numbers, surveys or anything on the topic but I've been watching a lot of video essays and reading blog posts about it, and I haven't seen any specific studies cited unfortunately. It seems that most people don't care (people who aren't collectors or anything), so no one is really making that big of a stink about it. I'd think most people on this forum would agree with me that that's going to change in the upcoming decade or so.

p.s. after reading the comments that were added while I was typing, it looks like they were able to find some more specific entries but I think what I've said is still relevant and, I hope, helpful !! :P