If you don't care for smart TVs, iTunes, YouTube or digital downloads...and you still have an extensive collection of actual DVDs or CD discs (or records even) and still use them on regular basis...then bless your heart.
Here, let's talk about discs. (Or records if you want) I know I'm not the only person out there who has an extensive CD collection and still uses DVDs and their players.

Still listen to cd's every day in my car. Have plenty of dvd's while not often still watch them. Should listen to albums more as the sound is just better.

Love old records and have a few but don't get to listen to them often. My favorite is worn out so hard to listen to and hard to find a replacement. Blue Steel soundtrack.

Records are kinda hard to care for aren't they? And you're right, they're hard to replace because they're hard to find or they're expensive. Discs are easy to care for, just bathe them if they get dirty with fingerprints or dust over time.

Bob, that's great you get to enjoy your albums daily. I wish I had that pleasure; I can listen to mine only at night when I have the most privacy. Do you enjoy albums with sung lyrics or just instrumentals?

Personally I still prefer physical media over digital downloads – mainly because CDs are uncompressed when compared with digital formats and up until recently, DVDs and Blurays still had the advantage in terms of picture quality over streaming video (streaming has caught up, but it still depends on you having a fast Internet connection). Even then, I would prefer to have a physical copy since then I'm not at the mercy of streaming services changing their catalogue or losing the rights to a movie or TV series I like!

As for care of CDs, DVDs and Blurays, as long as you look after them they should last decades to a century (depending on the manufacturing quality). Never wipe them in a circular motion, but use a damp lint-free cloth to gently wipe radially (out from the centre) in order to remove dust. If you can avoid getting fingerprints on them, that's even better, since the oils on skin can slowly etch the surface of the disc over time.

Australis said:
As for care of CDs, DVDs and Blurays, as long as you look after them they should last decades to a century (depending on the manufacturing quality). Never wipe them in a circular motion, but use a damp lint-free cloth to gently wipe radially (out from the centre) in order to remove dust. If you can avoid getting fingerprints on them, that's even better, since the oils on skin can slowly etch the surface of the disc over time.

I cleaned discs the circular way for a long time before finding out I did it wrong. I stopped doing that way and when I bathe discs I use a cloth meant to clean glasses with to wipe dry the correct way. Never use a paper towel because it leaves fuzz and they're abrasive to discs. Be careful what water and soap you use to bathe a disc as well. Scented soap with harsh chemicals as well as some faucet water can be harmful. I use a Dawn unscented/natural soap and lukewarm filtered water.

Unfortunately a lot of DVD discs (depending on the company they came from and their quality) don't last forever. Over a period of time like even ten years or more, a lot of discs 'cloud'. That is a condition caused by outgassing in-between the composed layers of the disc. It basically means the disc is dying and there is no cure for the 'disease'. Your disc will have to be replaced once the condition gets so bad the player cannot read through it. Discs from Shout Factory and Paramount tend to have that cloudy defect show up. But it's still random: I have the complete series to a 70's show and the 4th season is clouding, whereas the other 3 look fine. I have all three original Star Trek seasons and the 1rst season already is doing so as well.
Another way to store DVDs and CDs properly in their cases is not to lay them down, but store them upright like you would books.
Any CDs I get that come in cheap cardboard sleeve-like cases I put the disc in a plastic one with a middle. Pulling discs out of abrasive cases rather than snapping them out can cause scrapes over time.
I also do not leave my discs in their players. I remove the CD I listened to the previous night the next morning and return it to its respective case.

Yes, the cloth meant for glasses is a good choice! That's a soft lint-free one and if I have to clean discs, that's my go-to as well. You are right about detergents and I very rarely use them if I can avoid it.

I had heard about the clouding problem. Fortunately I haven't seen it with any of the discs I've bought over the years (usually the CDs and DVDs that have been faulty have been faulty almost straight away) and I think Blurays are less susceptible to it than DVDs.

DVDs and Blurays are easy to keep upright, given their case design. CDs are a little harder, but what I do is have a draw for them, which means that the jewel cases can stand on edge and I can put them away to keep the dust from getting to them.

Ditto on any cheap paper or cardboard sleeves! Apart from the risk of abrasion, they're often hard to get out without forcing you to touch the underside of the disc, which I try to avoid as much as possible.

I don't like Blu-Rays because you have to play them on that specific player. I had a Blu-Ray player for years, however, and used it mostly on plain DVDs for years until it wore out. Now all I use are cheap Wal-Mart ONN brand players.

You mentioned faulty CDs...faulty as in how? I've never had a cloudy or rotted CD and some of my albums are 15+ years old.

Because regular CD players are hard to find (due to them either being expensive or very poor quality), I used a portable one for years. My last one is an ONN brand and I learned it was picky. I listened to a new album on it and partway through the tracklist it started messing up and I thought the cd was faulty. I sent for a replacement cd and my player did the same thing. My recorded CDs also don't play good on the portable. I finally got a plug-in Singing Woods player and so far it's been behaving beautifully. I've been known to wear out many a player over the years.

I grew up when the cassette age was slowly changing over to CDs. As a child I had numerous kiddie tapes I listened to over and over and over and over. The older I got I switched to CDs because they didn't tear up and get caught up in the little knobs. Sticking a pencil in a cassette and turning it until the strip was straightened out wasn't fun!!

Btw thanks for the acorns!

I have almost all reg. DVD's but prefer the Blue-ray player. On the flat screen 1080p tv the disk look bad with a reg player but the Blue-Ray player up scales them so they look almost as good as a Blue-Ray disc.

TomatoNut95 said: Records are kinda hard to care for aren't they? And you're right, they're hard to replace because they're hard to find or they're expensive.

Only if you're looking for something specific. If you're happy to browse and take pot luck, go to the thrift store. $ each, last I looked, as are VCR's.
Unfortunately, two of the VCR's I got were damaged. We've had to throw away some of our older ones, as well. That also happens to DVD's, only faster. After three or four viewings, they start to get flaky. I have always been careful not to touch the surface and kept them in their case, etc. Never has that problem with CD's.

TomatoNut95 said: I don't like Blu-Rays because you have to play them on that specific player.

I'm afraid this doesn't make any sense to me - the same applies for DVDs, you need a DVD player to play them... In fact, DVDs were even worse in terms of compatibility early on - 8 different regions, both + and - recordable disc types (as well as their rewritable counterparts) not to mention DVD-RAM. It took years before DVD players that could play everything were commonly available and many players today are still region-locked. Many early CD players couldn't handle the -R or -RW discs, either.

Bluray is much simpler: just regions A, B and C! With DVD, I can't play UK discs unless they're dual-coded for both Regions 2 and 4 (and forget about US discs, they're Region 1 and NTSC). But for Bluray, the UK and Australia are the same region: Region B. Plus video formats were standardised for Bluray, so it doesn't matter which country they were produced in - all players and TVs can support them as long as the player and disc region matches, or the player is not region-locked.

Bluray players also play CDs, DVDs and Blurays, so you don't need multiple players either (only problem is if you're using them for CD playback, you need a separate audio system to the TV if you don't want the screen on all the time).

I am not certain what the issue was with the couple of faulty CDs I have obtained over the years. They looked fine, but when I have tried to play them (or back them up using my PC), they have encountered read issues part-way through the disc. Best guess is some kind of manufacturing defect.

Can't say I've ever worn out a CD, DVD or Bluray player! That's quite the feat.

Usually when those sorts of devices die for me, it's not the optical system but something else (like capacitors in the power supply or the chipset in DVD/BD players). I have had the laser in one of my PC optical drives fail, but usually playback issues (especially with CDs) come down to dust accumulating on the lens. Depending on the design of your player, you usually need a lens-cleaning disc to resolve this issue.

Blu-Ray discs won't play in my PC, nor will they play in my portable DVD player which is why I don't care for those. Not to mention Blu-Rays are expensive, even if they are better quality. However if put together in a combo with a regular DVD it's a bargain sometimes.
The reason I wear out CD players is because I have an obsession with music.
About VHS tapes, I sure don't miss those things!!