Comment by boredtofears
1 year ago
We went back to DVDs for my kid, actually. My wife and I really like the idea of a hard start and end to a video (with no chance for algorithmic tendrils to reach you) and we like the idea of having to put in some amount of effort to start the video. It's on demand, but not as on demand as scrolling through a streaming service is.
I can't quite articulate why this feels like an improvement to me. Maybe it's because I have experienced decision paralysis on streaming services so many times.
Tons of DVD collections being given away for almost nothing on FB marketplace right now, too.
We often decide on things by process of elimination: it's easier for us to identify what we don't want than what we do.
If there are 5 choices available, the effort to decide on one is low as the contrast between choices is high … and holding all options in memory is easy.
If there are 1,000 choices, the effort is high and the contrast is low … and you can't hold them all in memory, so there's always _something_ right around the bend that _might_ be the perfect thing.
I ripped a lot of my kids' DVDs because far too many of them had unskippable ads before the title screen. They wouldn't even let you fast forward!
> I can't quite articulate why this feels like an improvement to me. Maybe it's because I have experienced decision paralysis on streaming services so many times.
Amazon recently changed their Android TV app such that it auto-plays previews if you leave a title selected for more than a few seconds. I hate this feature and it gives me both decision paralysis and anxiety over finding something interesting to watch before the preview starts. I'd sooner turn the TV off than deal with that. If the setting for this can be changed, it is not available in the app itself.