OLD AND BUSTED: Hipsters eschew CDs for vinyl to relieve the good old days.

The New Hotness? I started buying DVDs and CDs again in 2025 and it changed my mind about streaming.

You probably know the feeling — you’re in the mood to watch a movie, so you open up Netflix. The next thing you know, two hours have passed, and you still haven’t decided what to watch. Even when I go on a streaming platform, knowing what I’m looking for, it’s easy to get distracted by a homepage flooded with endless recommendations. Eventually, it starts to feel overwhelming and all that content just blurs together into one giant, forgettable backlog.

That’s why I’ve started buying CDs and DVDs again. I recently revived some old PC setups, so I thought it was time to try taking a similar trip back in time with my music and movies. What started as a passing interest in physical media ended up highlighting everything I’m missing out on with streaming.

I don’t have any great desire to buy DVDs, unless absolutely necessary, but 4k Blu-rays are about as close as possible to a film-like experience in the home.