Why We Just Bought a DVD Player

While older technology occasionally makes a comeback (hello record players), it's not often I find myself looking back and thinking, "I really need to get me one of those."

With one exception... circa 99' when CD players were all the rage I discovered that my local thrift store had a glut of cassette tapes all available for the bargain of a quarter a piece. Being a broke kid on the cusp of graduation I did the math and realized that I was saving myself about an 8,000% markup on the latest technology (cd's) and stocked my dashboard for about $5. 

Fast forward to last week, and on a trip to our local library, my three-year-old stopped under a sign reading "family movie night" and squealed, "Mom! Look! It's Moana." Sure enough alongside every Disney classic, and standbys like Goonies and the Sandlot were all of the current greatest hits. I did a quick check online and all were free to check out on the same terms as everything else (bring it back in a few weeks or renew). Even better you could reserve new releases online, and they would let you know when you could pick up a copy at your local branch. The only catch? They're all on DVD. I haven't owned a player in the better part of a decade thanks to a combo of streaming services and purging for a couple of cross country moves. 

 Since we've started a weekly family movie night, I've realized a couple of things, the first being that many movies are not available to rent, Disney classics like The Little Mermaid are often available for purchase only coming in around $15, the same with new releases. While streaming services have plenty of free content, the offerings change up frequently so while you may have been able to stream "Cars" last week, this week the only option is "Cars 3" which my preschooler will tell you, is NOT an acceptable substitute. Even the content that is available to rent, a movie like the aforementioned original Cars will set you back around $3, and once you start watching a film, the clock is ticking on finishing it. I can't tell you how many movies I never saw the last thirty minutes of since becoming a parent because one of us needed to crash out and it was expired before we got back to it. 

So to the internet, I went to find a DVD player, and for around $30 it was on my doorstep within two days. It's sleeker than I remember and super simple with just a couple of included cables and a slot for the disc. 

 If you're looking for an "immersive cinematic experience" this might not be the ticket (I think that was Blu-ray?), but I'm pretty happy not to be shelling out every week on my kid's movies, and the player will have paid itself off in two "for purchase only" flicks. The very best part I think though is getting to relive the experience of browsing a shelf of movies with my kid and picking out a title together instead of endlessly scrolling and flipping between apps before settling on rewatching Frozen, because we "own" it, for the umpteenth time. It reminds me of the slightly simpler, low tech childhood I had, and that's something worth sharing.

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