Topic: Going digital/decluttering

[Shadow Of A Doubt]

I'm not ready to give up paper books. There's something about being able to flick through a book that isn't replicated by a screen - I feel somewhat lost when reading large PDF files. I wish there was some way you could buy a real book and get a code to download the e-book equivalent - best of both worlds!

I need better backup capabilities before I will fully move over from CD and DVD, I don't yet trust myself not to lose everything I have in  digital format. So when I buy music and video (admittedly not very often - I'm a perpetually broke student ) I still buy physical as a backup. However I will move over completely at some point in the future.

[stretcher]

I started down this path this year. I gave away my DVD collection, about 100 movies, to the library. Many of my books went to places like the children's hospital and battered woman's shelter. Now I strive to keep everything digital, only getting physical copies for things I really like or aren't offered digitally.

For movies I'm really impressed with Vudu. The films are expensive to own, so I choose carefully, but they stream 1080p instantly and I think the PS3 app is slick. Books are my weakness though. I love buying new ones, old ones, annotated versions of classics, leather-bound editions, etc. Switching over to eBooks has been a rocky road.

[khendar]

For movies I'm really impressed with Vudu. The films are expensive to own, so I choose carefully, but they stream 1080p instantly and I think the PS3 app is slick.

Sounds good, but not available outside of the US

[Zytheran]

Everyone needs to remember this:

Raw data -> formatted data -> hardware to store data -> software to read -> OS to run software -> Hardware to run OS.

When you choose the 'formatted data' path (i.e. going digital)  bear in mind all the other steps need to keep on going for typically 50 years or however long you intend to live for.

Here is an example of what you're competing with

War and Peace -> Written language -> Paperback -> Ability to read -> Brain that works -> Staying alive

There are many, many examples of 'Raw data' being unavailable after only 20 years when recorded and stored as purely digital.
People need to be willing to have an active plan that involves checking and trending all the technology stages required to maintain access to that 'Raw Data'. As a few of us around here have learnt with reel-to-reel, records, Beta and audio casette, if you want access to the data in the future you have to be constantly ripping the data onto 'the-new-thing' to maintain access. And never screw up and always have backups...without exception. Some common data you can most likely replace, commercial songs, important books however your own photos, videos and electronic information is entirely under your own control.
Plan for the expected but allow for the worst.

[khendar]

I'm not all that worried about that. I started the process of transferring my audio tapes to mp3 at one point, but it was too much effort for very little reward. Much of what I had on tape were DJ sets taped from the radio, which while cool, and now impossible to find, were of such low quality that ripping them wasn't worth the trouble. I had to make the decision to cut my losses and write that stuff off as lost. Same thing with some video tapes which I had recorded over the years (documentaries and music videos mostly).

I see where you're coming from. We can still watch home movies from the 70s recorded on super 8 (until the film eventually breaks down). What are the chances that we can still watch digital home movies in 40 years ?

[moj]

All media degrades and many forums of digital degrade fairly quickly,5-10 years for hard drive or CD/DVD. (Hard drives more like 5, CD's/DVD's more like ten but both will vary a lot) One doesn't have to go all in and most people are constantly tweaking this balance. I still have a large bookshelf or two that I don't plan on getting ride of. I just don't buy paper books anymore. Maybe if I go back to school, but maybe not? Do online class's make you buy text books? That would be a punch in the arm pit, $200 text books for class's you take online.

[MikeHz]

While I have plenty of digital music, I still like CDs for the car. They're easier to deal with. Just slip them in and let 'em play. With MP3s, I have to plug in the iPod, turn it on, and then fiddle around with menus until I find the right playlist.

[khendar]

While I have plenty of digital music, I still like CDs for the car. They're easier to deal with. Just slip them in and let 'em play. With MP3s, I have to plug in the iPod, turn it on, and then fiddle around with menus until I find the right playlist.

That's why I love my car stereo. It's got a USB socket and a touch screen. I just stick in a flash drive with all my music on it and browse away

[MikeHz]

While I have plenty of digital music, I still like CDs for the car. They're easier to deal with. Just slip them in and let 'em play. With MP3s, I have to plug in the iPod, turn it on, and then fiddle around with menus until I find the right playlist.

That's why I love my car stereo. It's got a USB socket and a touch screen. I just stick in a flash drive with all my music on it and browse away

That will be my next stereo.

[Zytheran]

While I have plenty of digital music, I still like CDs for the car. They're easier to deal with. Just slip them in and let 'em play. With MP3s, I have to plug in the iPod, turn it on, and then fiddle around with menus until I find the right playlist.

You can get smart car radios that enable one to control the iPod from the radio controls and the user interface on some is OK. So rather than choosing stations or CD tracks the same control selects playlists.
I leave my iPod in the car and plugged into the USB port on the radio so i only touch it when updating podcasts every couple of weeks or so. Depending on where you live this might not be an option because of security though.

(When buying one you do need to have a play with it in store with iPod plugged in or download the user manual from the web to make sure it's easy to use.)

[Johnny Slick]

Yeah, I've gone completely digital. I bought one CD last year because I wanted a single song off it and it was from the 80s and they don't have the song on any digital music service I can find. So I bough a used copy of the entire CD for the same price as 1 digitally downloaded song plus twice that for shipping. ($.99 for the CD, $2.00 for shipping!).

Yeah, that does still happen but I have to say, there is a *lot* available now. Just last week I, on a lark, decided to look up an obscure local band's 2000 album that I remember liking (Dear John Letters, Rewriting the Wrongs if you care) and... it was actually there! Needless to say I bought that ish.

The thing that I really like about this, even accepting the cost differences, is that if I had gone out and searched for this album at Silver Platters or one of the used record shops in the University District across the pond, I'd have probably eventually found it but it would have almost certainly been a used copy. This way still doesn't cost a *huge* amount - $10 for the album is less than what I paid for it new more than a decade ago - and on top of that I can be sure that much of what I paid for it is going to go directly to the guys who made this (the lead singer/songwriter's name escapes me at the moment). I just *love* how the market corrected itself in favor of the artist here.