Buy Music or Movies?

Big_Hitter said:
Originally Posted by FUEGO View Post
The experience was kind of cool, but kind of not. DW asked why it was scratchy (I'm guessing dust on the record and/or needle). I grew frustrated flipping through the hundreds of albums in the collection and finding not a single Johnny Cash album (it takes about 6.5 seconds to listen to this via Youtube).
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sounds like you need to update your turntable and amplifier - when is the last time you changed the cartridge? I have a ton of cash vinyl. ...
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It could be the vinyl itself is scratched/dirty/worn. A lot of people did not treat their vinyl carefully, I doubt that an updated turntable and/or amplifier would overcome that. I've seen some ugly, ugly vinyl, worn and scratched way past any cleaning efforts.

... even on a crappy (70s) high school system vinyl sounds 10x better than mp3/stream
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I avoid lossy compression like mp3, but I think you are underestimating how bad a 70's turntable, old, improperly set up cartridge, and dirty worn records can sound!

I'm sure that your pristine vinyl, on a decent 70's turntable, with a decent, clean and properly set up cartridge can sound better to you and many others (it is subjective - they each have their pros/cons) than an mp3, but the reality is that not everyone has a decent setup that has been maintained.

BTW, my turntable is a lower-middle-of-the road 70's unit, with a Shure V15 cartridge. My records have only been played a few times, and I treat them well. They sound very good, and I mainly use the turntable to digitize those old LPs, then I listen to the lossless FLAC recordings I make (after carefully cleaning up some pops/clicks that bother me). I don't use the automatic software - that always seems to muck up the sound, IME.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
It could be the vinyl itself is scratched/dirty/worn. A lot of people did not treat their vinyl carefully, I doubt that an updated turntable and/or amplifier would overcome that. I've seen some ugly, ugly vinyl, worn and scratched way past any cleaning efforts.



I avoid lossy compression like mp3, but I think you are underestimating how bad a 70's turntable, old, improperly set up cartridge, and dirty worn records can sound!

I'm sure that your pristine vinyl, on a decent 70's turntable, with a decent, clean and properly set up cartridge can sound better to you and many others (it is subjective - they each have their pros/cons) than an mp3, but the reality is that not everyone has a decent setup that has been maintained.

BTW, my turntable is a lower-middle-of-the road 70's unit, with a Shure V15 cartridge. My records have only been played a few times, and I treat them well. They sound very good, and I mainly use the turntable to digitize those old LPs, then I listen to the lossless FLAC recordings I make (after carefully cleaning up some pops/clicks that bother me). I don't use the automatic software - that always seems to muck up the sound, IME.

-ERD50
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I have a technics sl-d2 I bought in 1978ish. Sucker was $100 back then, that was some serious scratch! yes I take really good care of my vinyl, but I always took that stack of vinyl records with me (Todd Snider) so some are worn quite a bit
 
These days I download music for free from the library using Freegal. For movies we use Netflix and Prime. I also buy some movies on DVD for $1 at the library used book sales and keep them for times we can't find anything good to stream, then donate them back after we've watched them.

I stopped renting DVDs from the library because I was getting too many late fines. Our local library has a short loan period for DVDs compared to books. It costs me less in fines and gas to just buy the movies at the used library sales for $1.
 
went downstairs to get a CD this morning and how on earth do I NOT have ZZ Top's First Album on cd?
 
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Still buying music on CD and movies on bluray.
 
Big_Hitter said:
went downstairs to get a CD this morning and how on earth do I NOT have ZZ Top's First Album on cd?
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I inherited some music from a buddy, including Rio Grande Mud and Tres Hombres. Apparently some "producer" has remixed those, much to the detriment of the music. Drums sound canned, and some godawful reverb/delay added....
 
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We have a collection of vinyl albums, 45s, cassettes, 8 tracks (yes), CD's, Edison cylinders, mini discs, you name it. I listen to music nearly every day.

Haven't "purchased" any in years. There is a used book/media store in town that we trade our used magazines and books for store credit. I "buy" CDs, etc using that credit, so no money is involved. I've also used Freegal for downloads bit the selection is rather limited.

As far as movies are concerned, we either watch them on Prime or thru the Roku, although I really can't sit still for an hour and a half any more. If we find a DVD we like at the library, I'll handbrake it to iTunes and we'll have it later to watch on the ipad or TV.

I do have a collection of laser discs but my player died long ago. :(

_B
 
DW is out right now looking for ZZ Top's first album on vinyl lol
 
As I've posted previously, I've decided to never pay what I refer to as "push" media again. Push media to me is anything OTA, including radio, television, news, or movies, which is "pushed" at the public. These have all become non-rival and therefore essentially free (I have no time or desire to watch the show of the day). This is one of the reasons my entertainment budget has fallen pretty drastically since retirement.

I've recently discovered more excellent music than I can listen to on a number of sites, including music from singers/groups I paid for back in the day, but songs of theirs I never heard (because push media filters out a lot of entertainment by design, i.e., playlists, formats, charts, ratings, etc.). Although I have a relic television, DVD player, stereo and 300 CDs sitting in the corner, I never use them anymore, and they'll be left behind when I move.

I'm not sure if it's a result of getting older, but more and more I seem to be moving towards simplicity in all things and achieving greater satisfaction as a result.
 
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I am sure there's no one answer these days, and there wasn't in the analog days.

I used to buy albums often and listen to music daily. I sold all my LP's long ago. I still have about 250 CD's (all in a box in a closet), but I've only bought a couple (physical CD's) in the last ten years. If I want a new 'album' these days I just download it from iTunes. We have 2500+ songs, about 80% legally ripped from our CD's and the rest purchased digital. We've never stolen music, Napster, etc. But we don't need to revisit that debate.

We probably have 20 DVD/BluRay movies, only because DW wants to own some, even though we very rarely watch them. These days we rent from Redbox or iTunes some, but mostly we wait for them to come up on TV, record them on our DVR, and keep them for a while. When we erase them, we know they will come up again soon enough.

Same with books, where I used to love buying books - now I check them out from the library (physical or ebook) or download from Kindle or iBooks. I may never buy another hard copy book.

We are not subscription people, but maybe someday...
 
I still buy songs from ITunes, but have bought less now that I have Amazon Prime. Haven't bought a movie in a long-time, but we do have some favorites from the past that we go back and watch. Do a fair amount of Red Box, Netflix, and On-Demand for current movies.

cd :O)
 
Plex

Would like to discuss the subject of PLEX, and wondering if anyone here is using it. (part of the cable cutting project)

Anyone?
 
We own loads of old LPs, CDs, and DVDs. But they're all stored away in boxes. Long ago, I transferred them to digital files. They now reside on a couple of external HDDs. Same drives contain about 50 hours of home video of the kids and our entire collection of digital photos. Access is easy via an old laptop running Kodi connected to the main TV and surround sound system.

Haven't purchased music or movies in over 10 years. We still access the old stuff quite a bit. But for new music (or new to us), we mainly use Pandora (free version) and YouTube. YouTube is good for quick access to something specific you want to hear. Pandora is great for discovering new music. I spent a lot of time configuring 7 very specific stations with artists and genres that I like. I also make an effort to provide feedback as much as possible so Pandora knows what I like. So much great music out there that I never would have found without Pandora.

For movies, we've started going to the theater a bit more since retiring, which IMO is still the best way to experience a movie. We go on weekday afternoons when we basically have the theater to ourselves. Otherwise we use Netflix, Amazon Prime, or sometimes record OTA using Kodi.
 
Big_Hitter said:
sounds like you need to update your turntable and amplifier - when is the last time you changed the cartridge? I have a ton of cash vinyl.


even on a crappy (70s) high school system vinyl sounds 10x better than mp3/stream
Click to expand...

It's a rental airbnb we are at with all the vinyl. The record player looks newish, and needle looks good. The records were a little dusty but looked in good condition other than being warped possibly due to heat (we're in Kentucky and it's hot).

Not sure what the amplifier would have to do with the scratchiness? I assume it's a record-needle thing.

Some records sound clear and others are scratchy, so I assume it must be dirty or scratched vinyl that's the culprit. Though none sound as good as digital audio from mp3s, and I have the entire internet of music available to me (instead of only a few hundred records).
 
I have over 300 CDs and around 100 DVDs, including box sets for a few TV shows that I enjoy. I am still buying, but at a very slow rate, and its usually from a pawn ship, eBay, or on Black Friday (Thursday?) I use the box sets of comedies while I'm working out.

My weekend hobby is mixing live sound so I need to play break music in places where there is no connectivity from time to time. For that reason, and out of habit, I maintain a music library in iTunes of songs that I've ripped from my CD collection and from CDs checked out from the library. My library is ripped at 222Kbps, a rate I chose back when storage space on portable media was a concern. One of my retirement projects might be to redo my music library at 360 VBR; a rate that my ears are not be able to distinguish from 16 bit or lossless.

I don't use YouTube nearly enough. In fact, I was kind of surprised to learn that it's a great source for music and not just videos. While I still have a good stereo at home, I rarely sit down in the center sweet spot and listen to a CD all the way through anymore. In reality, my CD and LP collection has always been mainly a source to make portable mix tapes from, so the advent of high capacity lossy portable music players has worked out great for me. I sold my turntable and LPs years ago and if I can figure out a good backup method, then once I redo my music library, I could sell off my CD collection too.
 
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