I spent $20 on an old Blu-ray player and rediscovered the joy of physical media

Published Sep 23, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Based in rural Minnesota, Brian Burgess worked in IT for 10 years before finding his passion for writing about consumer technology. Brian earned his degree in computer and network technology in 2000. He held various IT positions, including help desk support, router installations for IBM, database administration, and other associate network administration roles. He's been a personal technology journalist for 18 years and has written thousands of articles about Microsoft products and services, Android, iOS, streaming, and more. He has written for notable tech sites including XDA, InformationWeek, How-To Geek, Byte, groovyPost, and others. When he is away from the keyboard, you will hear him playing guitar, working outdoors, and watching Star Trek. I recently bought an older Blu-ray player for my spare guest room for around $20, and I realized how much fun physical media can be. I started remembering the days when streaming media was a thing and all we had was physical media, including carefully wiping smudges off dirty discs with a microfiber cloth and waiting in anticipation for the menu to appear so I could watch a movie or show. I also remember roommates who, like with CDs, put the wrong disc in the wrong case, and getting irked when someone scratched up a favorite title. I liked checking out the cool artwork, and I built my library on a series of case holders and bookshelves instead of a server. More Special Features Additional special features digital streaming versions don't have When I started collecting Blu-rays back in the day, I always looked forward to the extra special features. Interviews with the actors, scenes that didn't make the cut or alternate endings, how special effects were done, and more. Those were all reasons to buy Blu-ray over DVD — not just the picture quality, but the extra features you could get. Since Blu-ray holds more data, you could access more features. Even today, some old-school 1080p Blu-rays include special features that digital purchases don't. Plus, with streaming and digital media, the extra features vary by the store you buy the digital version from. I have a digital copy of a movie I bought from Apple, which has exciting extras other versions don't. A virtual locker could vanish I've always been happy to know I can turn to my physical Blu-ray when a movie vanishes from streaming. The same goes for buying digital copies of movies, organizing them in your digital locker, and then having them suddenly disappear. I do find it convenient that when I buy a Blu-ray, I get a code for the digital version via Movies Anywhere. But what if it were the other way around? Instead of getting something tangible I can hold in my hands when I buy a digital movie, I'm essentially renting the right to view it. I like having media I can hold in my hands and know that I truly own. I can back them up to a NAS or server and stream them under my control. I don't have to worry about some company's servers or connections going down. I have to worry about my own server, but even if my drives fail, I still own the original Blu-ray of my movies or shows. Picture quality wins Even on 1080p Blu-ray discs My old Blu-ray player doesn't have the laser or hardware to play UHD 4K discs, but that's fine because it can upscale to 4K. I still notice a difference between the 1080p resolution coming from the old player and a 1080p compressed stream. Like UHD 4K discs, a 1080p Blu-ray disc has more bandwidth for video (up to 40Mbps). A 1080p stream is typically compressed to around 10Mbps. Also, a player with 4K upscaling means that while it doesn't add 4K detail, the player takes the 1920x1080 disc image and scales it to 3840x2160, which is great if you are like me and connect it to an older 4K display TV. More data per pixel preserves scene textures, shadows, motion, and bright colors better on the screen. Also, the player is backward compatible, so I can watch my old movies and shows from my old DVD collection. Streaming is great once you get past the ads to watch something One of the cool things about streaming services is I can always find something to watch — once I get past the rows of ads. With my Blu-ray player, I still have plenty to watch and don't have to sift through endless ad banners and animated ads on typical streaming sticks. I pop the disc in and go straight to the menu screen, except for a select few rental copies that wandered into my collection and have trailers for upcoming Blu-ray releases. My Blu-ray collection isn't as expansive as a streaming library, but it's what I like and want to watch. Opening the shiny black box to reveal the disc tray feels nostalgic and gives a stay-home, watch-a-movie feel, rather than sitting at home and binging Netflix. I haven't timed it, but I would guess the time it takes to insert a disc and watch a movie is similar to searching for something to watch on a clunky streaming service. A $20 Blu-ray player rekindles fondness for physical discs I've gotten a lot from my $20 investment, and rediscovered my love of owning physical copies of my favorite movies and shows. I found my $20 player at a pawn shop and talked it down from $50. It also has YouTube and Netflix apps built in, which can turn a dumb TV into a smart TV. But you can find them at garage sales (where I bought a cheap AV receiver to replace a soundbar), thrift stores, library sales, or online markets like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. If you're lucky, you'll find a UHD 4K player for somewhere near $20.