The Burnzo Diaries: A TRIP DOWN DVD DRIVE

A couple weeks ago, I was browsing around in the CD/DVD section of a Barnes & Noble, kind of enjoying myself to be honest, thumbing through the DVDs, and seeing if they had any good deals. Barnes & Noble has, by the way, become a place to find good deals on DVDs and CDs. I’m not sure when exactly this happened because B&N used to be a place where you would find the exact opposite of a good deal. The DVDs and CDs were always so expensive there, probably even more than “retail price.” It was always better to go to either Walmart, Best Buy or (if you were from the New England area) Newbury Comics for all your DVD and CD needs. At least this was the case during the first decade of the millennium and probably even well into the second decade of the millennium.

Now, however, we’re in the third decade of the millennium and the world has turned around 180 degrees. Barnes & Noble is now one of the best places to go for new DVDs. This is partly because Walmart and Best Buy barely even sell DVDs anymore. As for Newbury Comics, only one store location sells them that I know of (the one in Norwood, MA.) and they’re used DVDs—not new. But Barnes & Noble? Not only do they still sell them but they sell them for really good prices, too.

There is a caveat, though. The quality of the DVDs sold at Barnes & Noble isn’t quite what it used to be. I’m not talking in terms of picture quality; if anything, the resolution of the DVDs is probably the best it’s ever been or at least the best that a DVD is capable of having. I’m talking more in terms of the DVD disc quality, which is usually a colorless silver with black text, and the DVD case quality, which is a soft plastic and rather flimsy. When you flip the DVD case over, you usually see a stamp somewhere on the box that says, “Made in Mexico.” DVD cases used to be made out of a durable hard plastic, many of them were even made with nice glossy cardboard, but that is no longer the case anymore.

This probably explains why the DVDs at Barnes & Noble are so cheap, usually around $5 or so: because they’re produced cheaply … in, yes, Mexico (no offense, Mexico, but it’s true). On one hand, it’s nice that there is still a place out there in the world that sells new DVDs for reasonable prices, but I can’t help but long for the days when DVDs were made in a higher-quality manner.

Anyway, while I was at Barnes & Noble, a group of teens came into the DVD section, looking like they had just smoked the grass, eaten 3-5 bags of Funyuns and were out and about wasting time with each other. They waltzed up to a display of DVDs, saw a movie they liked, said, “Oh, look, they have [name of the movie]!” but then proceeded to say, “Who the hell even has a DVD player anymore?!” and then they walked off into another section, eventually left the store altogether and likely went off somewhere to smoke more of the grass.

My heart felt broken.

Because you know what?! I (emphasis on ‘I’) still watch DVDs. And I watch them a lot. I LOVE DVDs. And I’m not ashamed to admit it, ok, you guys? You think you’re sooooooo damn cool smoking the grass and eating all your Funyuns and then you come waltz-i-ling into the DVD section of the Barnes & Noble and make me feel so foolish for looking through the DVDs in a serious (not an ironic) manner. Yes, it’s not like I’m a hipster looking through the DVDs to be all hip and retro. I’m just a regular totally serious non-hipster guy looking through DVDs.

Ok. Deep breaths, Matt. You’re sounding bitter now.

Ahem, so … um … uh … what I’m saying is my heart was kind of broken when I heard those Gen Z-ers put down DVDs. But let’s face it: what they’re saying is true. DVDs no longer have a whole lot of relevance. Most people streeeeeeeam their movies now and I don’t blame them. It’s easier and it’s better quality. If people do decide to go the physical media route, they usually go with Blu-rays or even the 4K Ultra-HD (aka UHD) Blu-rays that are becoming more popular now (albeit rather expensive). And I don’t blame them for doing this, either. Because Blu-ray image resolution is waaaaaaay better than DVD image resolution.

I always find myself trying to justify the reason why I still predominantly watch DVDs, but there really isn’t much justification. I often point out the fact that DVDs have so many cool “extras” on them, especially director commentaries, and you can’t get those on streaming platforms. You can, however, usually get those extras on Blu-ray discs, along with the superior image quality, so, at the end of the day, I’m left with little reason why DVDs should even exist anymore. They’re certainly cheaper than Blu-ray, though, and even cheaper than UHD Blu-ray.

But I think, more than anything else, I just like DVD for nostalgic reasons. There was a period of time, maybe from the year 2000 to about 2008 or so, when DVD was king! Hollywood was investing so much time, energy and (more importantly) money into making some serious, kick-ass DVDs. I mean, they were NOT messing around. Compare a DVD that has been released in the past 10 years to a DVD that was released in the early-to-mid-2000’s. It’s night and day. The DVDs released during the first 5-8 years of the millennium had extras up the wazoo and often even came with a whole second disc so they could include even moreextras. Compare this to a DVD made within the past 10 years and what do you see for extras? Oh … um … something along the lines of … NOTHING. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a few deleted scenes and maybe a blooper reel. Not to mention the fact that they come in the aforementioned soft plastic DVD cases. And the DVD box art? Oh, don’t even get me started. Boooooooring!

No, DVDs of the past ten years and DVDs of the early-to-mid-2000s are two different breeds. No, scratch that—they are two different species. This is why, if I do buy any DVDs, I usually only buy used DVDs, ones that were made near or around this 2000-2008 era. This is because they were made with so much more TLC back then …

… but also, again, it is undeniably for nostalgic purposes as well. Part of me is likely “chasing the dragon,” trying to recreate that high I got when I bought and watched my very first DVD.

I believe it was the summer of 2000, to be exact. I had just gotten a brand-new Mac PowerBook G3 for a high school graduation present (read about this computer in my blog RIP PowerBook G3). This computer was quite possibly the best computer you could get at the time. It had, like, 8 whole gigabytes of memory! (calm yourself, don’t have a heart attack). It was also powerful enough to edit video on (which I did). It had a great colorful, high-resolution screen. Firewire Ports. USB ports. Some other ports I definitely never used. But most importantly it had a DVD-ROM drive. This DVD-ROM drive was the very first DVD player I ever owned. Everything had been VHS in my life up to that point. This was certainly the dawn of a new era.

The very first DVD I bought and played in my DVD drive was Blade Runner. And it was Blade Runner for two reasons. Reason one: I really liked the movie Blade Runner. Reason two: I thought Blade Runner was the kind of movie that would look siiiiiiiiiiiick on a DVD.

Well, I was right.

I still remember the experience so vividly. I popped Blade Runner onto the tray of the DVD drive, slid the tray back shut and pressed ‘play’. Wow! It looked just like film! (or so I thought at the time). Also, helping enhance the experience was the fact that I had Cambridge SoundWorks speakers hooked up to my computer. These speakers were state-of-the-art at the time, came complete with a subwoofer and packed QUITE the punch. I just remember the opening shot of the movie where we see an aerial view of a futuristic, dystopian-looking Los Angeles, there are the petrochemical “flame flares” shooting up into the sky and there is a heavy bass sound that accompanies them. That bass sounded so unbelievable with the Cambridge SoundWorks subwoofer. I think I nearly cried because the experience was so visceral and, no, I’m not exaggerating.

I was officially hooked on DVD.

You may remember this DVD promo that played at the beginning of many DVD discs in the early 2000’s.

This was another DVD promo video that probably looks familiar, as it played at the beginning of all 20th Century Fox releases in the early 2000’s.

I subsequently went out and bought a few more DVDs and what was interesting was that I didn’t necessarily buy DVDs of my favorite movies. Did I like the movies I bought? Of course. But, more than anything else, I specifically bought DVDs that I thought would look and sound great on DVD.

This was why the second DVD I ever bought, I believe, was Gladiator. And this was a good move. Because Gladiator looked phenomenal on DVD. And sounded phenomenal, too.

The third DVD that I bought, I believe, was Jaws. Same deal. Looked phenomenal. And sounded great, too.

Oh, and I can’t forget about The Matrix, which was definitely a movie I bought knowing it would look and sound awesome on DVD (it did).

Now, the first generation of DVD releases—that is, the DVDs manufactured and released in the late-1990s to around the 2000 area—did NOT have many extras on them. For example, my Blade Runner DVD, which was released in 1997, was one of the first DVDs ever manufactured. The DVD came in a “snap case,” which were the standard DVD cases at the time. These cases were made out of a glossy cardboard bound with a plastic snap that you snapped open with your thumb. There were virtually no extras on this DVD with the exception of some “cast and crew bios.” Remember those bios? You would click on them and some silent, written biographies would load onto the screen. I don’t think anybody ever read these (although I think I did).

The Blade Runner ”snap case.” Don’t you just want to snap it open?

Around the turn of the millennium, however, the DVDs started to feature more and more extras on them. They at the very least included trailers, sometimes even two or three trailers, including TV spots. Occasionally there would still be written bios or written production notes as well. But, in addition to all these underwhelming DVD extras, you started to see more behind-the-scenes featurettes, more deleted scenes that had been left on the cutting room floor and even other random stuff like actor screen tests or features that were exclusive to DVD-ROM, such as the ability to download and read the movie’s screenplay.

And, of course, there were the director commentaries. But I should probably mention that director commentaries were not a completely new thing. Commentaries were featured on LaserDiscs before DVDs, the earliest one being done by Martin Scorsese for a 1990 LaserDisc release of his film Taxi Driver.

However, director commentaries became much more commonplace with DVDs.

Since I was a film student at the time and very interested in film, I LOVED the director commentaries. I would always listen to them if they were available on the DVD. I probably learned a hell of a lot about film by doing this, too. Tim Burton’s commentaries stand out as being among my favorites. And Ridley Scott’s. Quentin Tarantino’s. And so many others.

I remember the worst commentary I ever heard was the one for The Exorcist recorded by the film’s director William Friedkin. I don’t think he understood what he was supposed to do. Instead of giving behind-the-scenes insights into the making of the film, Friedkin basically just did a play-by-play-like commentary of the action that the viewer could already see with their own eyes. It was terrible! Maybe since doing that commentary he figured out how to do them better, so maybe not all his commentaries are like the Exorcistone, but, man, it was the worst.

The Friedkin commentary, however, was probably the only really bad commentary I ever heard. Some were more boring than others but most were usually good and some were even great.

The other cool thing about the commentaries was that you could turn them on and off with ease. You could press the “audio” button on your DVD remote and the track would come on at any point while you were watching the film. This was also, by the way, how you would switch languages or switch from 5.1 DTS surround sound to 2.0 Dolby Digital surround and/or stereo sound or, in some cases—especially in the case of an older movie—you could listen to the original mono sound track. In rare cases, there would even be a “fart track.” Ok, there was only one DVD that had a fart track and that was Wet Hot American Summer. This was a track that had all the original audio from the movie except that, every once in a while, you would hear fart sounds. Yes, that was the whole track: you watched the movie with the original sound track only with added fart sounds. It was hilarious and all you had to do was hit the “audio” button a few times on your remote in order to access it.

Speaking of the “audio” button, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the “angle” button, too. Remember that? This allowed you to switch camera angles when you were watching a DVD. The only DVD that utilized this feature (that I remember, anyway) was the Beastie Boys’ Video Anthology Criterion Collection DVD, one of the best DVDs ever made. This DVD featured several Beastie Boys music videos from the 1980s and 1990s but contained multiple camera angles you could switch to by just pushing the “angle” button on your remote. There were also, by the way, a bunch of different song remixes for each video that you could listen to by just pushing the audio button on the remote. You could do all this angle switching and audio switching in real-time while you were watching the video. It was one of the most interactive DVDs ever made.

The Criterion Collection’s Beastie Boys Video Anthology DVD.
It really is one of the coolest DVDs ever made.

Now, I collected DVDs from about the early-2000’s to around the mid-2000’s, and when I say I “collected them,” I don’t really mean that I had too many of them. I mostly bought DVD copies of my favorite movies, I still bought some DVDs that I thought would just look and sound good on DVD, but I would also buy a DVD simply when it looked like it would be a good DVD. For example, I bought the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs “Platinum Edition” two-disc DVD because it looked like Disney had put a ton of effort into making it.

The Snow White “Platinum Edition” DVD complete
with “Saver’s” (the thrift store) price-tag.

I also remember the DVD for Dario Argento’s Suspiria (another two-disc special edition) looked so cool and I bought that DVD even though I had never seen the movie before and had no idea whether it was even good (as it turned out, it was, of course, a great movie). Included on one of the discs as an extra was a music video by the Italian progressive rock band Goblin. Goblin wrote the entire soundtrack for Suspiria. I loved that Goblin music video so much that I think I ended up watching it more than the actual movie itself.

The Goblin video, included as an extra on the Suspiria DVD. FYI: it’s a little dark.

One other great DVD I must mention was The Nightmare Before Christmas, which most notably featured some early short films by Tim Burton called Vincent and Frankenweenie.

The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD, which
is packed with hours of cool extras.

What am I forgetting? The DVD for Se7en was great. So was the DVD for Memento. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was an outstanding one, too. Again, these are not necessarily my favorite movies, but I remember the DVDs for these movies being top-notch.

My favorite DVD of all time … or, well, really it’s a whole box set of DVDs, is the Criterion Collection’s John Cassavetes “Five Films” box set. I got this DVD set sometime around the early-2005 area and I watched the hell out of those things. Sadly, there were no commentaries, but there were some excellent extras on those DVDs, including interviews (both video ones and audio recordings), featurettes, alternate versions of the films, alternate openings to the films, documentaries—all sorts of gems.

The John Cassavetes “Five Films” DVD box set.

After the 2005 area, I stopped buying DVD and this was for three main reasons: a) I didn’t have a lot of money to spare, b) DVDs were easy to get through the local library and c) Netflix was on the rise. I ended up selling most of my DVDs, usually to Newbury Comics. At the time, the thought of making some extra cash and downsizing my clutter sounded appealing to me. Granted, I kept a few super-favorite DVDs or DVDs that were too scratched to sell. But probably about 95% of my collection got sold off.

Years later, I regretted this decision to sell my DVDs. There were often times when, on a whim, I’d feel like watching my favorite movie, but I wouldn’t have any means of watching it since I no longer owned it nor was it currently available on any online platform (unless I paid an arm and a leg for it).

A few years ago, however, I started getting a lot of these DVDs back into my possession. See, around the time of COVID, people were doing a lot of cleaning around the house and my local library came up with the idea of allowing people to drop off their used books and, yes, also their used DVDs for free, just to get rid of them, and then the library would sell the books/DVDs to other patrons for a dollar each. It was a win-win for everybody. A win for the people wanting to declutter their house. A win for the library that wanted to make a few extra bucks to keep their ship afloat. And a win for people like me who still really like DVDs but would never spend a whole lot of money collecting again.

Long story short, I started “collecting” again and when I say “collecting,” I really only purchase a DVD if it’s one of my favorite movies or it simply looks like too good of a DVD to pass up. For example, not too long ago, I got The Wizard of Oz three-disc collector’s edition DVD for—that’s right—only a dollar. The Wizard of Oz is not necessarily a favorite of mine, although it is a movie I like and appreciate, but a three-disc collector’s edition for only a dollar? You can’t pass that up. And I didn’t. I’m glad I didn’t, too, because I discovered a commentary track on there that was one of the best commentaries I ever heard. It was basically a commentary moderated by a film historian, but it spliced together all sorts of different interviews from Wizard of Oz cast members (including Margaret Hamilton—the Wicked Witch) and/or family descendants of the cast. For a person like myself who is very interested in old Hollywood history, this commentary was right up my alley.

The Wizard of Oz three-disc collector’s edition.

In fact, some of the best DVD commentaries I ever heard have been done by film historians or critics—not the directors themselves. The commentaries for the John Cassavetes films Husbands and Love Streams(the DVDs of which were released well after the aforementioned box set) come to mind. They feature some incredibly fascinating film critic commentary that would only be better if done by Cassavetes himself, although that would be impossible since he passed away in 1989.

But, yes, I guess one person’s trash is another person’s treasure and that is certainly the case with DVDs right now in 2026. People are practically giving DVDs away these days, but then there are people like me who take them into their homes, clean them, give them love and treasure not just the movies but all the interesting extras that were products of about a 5-10-year period of time when DVD was king, a time when Hollywood really cared about making some great DVDs.

Seriously, finding some of these DVDs is almost like finding a treasure chest or maybe a time capsule from a bygone era. When you really dig into the depths of these discs, you find it amazing to see how much effort was put into a lot of these DVDs that were made in the video format’s “Golden Age.” I’m thinking about The Lion King “Platinum Edition” DVD that takes you through a virtual African safari as one of its bonus features. Or the Jurassic Park DVD that has a whole bonus section on its disc that teaches you about dinosaurs. Not to mention the E.T. DVD that teaches you about the planets in our solar system.

The Lion King “Platinum Edition” DVD.

But, heck, forget about all the random extras you may find on DVDs and take something as simple as the DVD menus: some of them are so clever and well thought-out. If you want evidence of this, just pop in a Seinfeld DVD. Every single season and I think every single disc has its own menu theme, one that is usually inspired by one of the episodes on that particular disc.

Today, I am happy to say that I have actually managed to find another copy of pretty much every single DVD that I foolishly sold back in the mid-2000’s. Don’t get me wrong here: I am still well-aware that DVD is an inferior format to Blu-ray and the wave of the future for physical media is probably the 4K UHD Blu-ray or whatever the hell those things are called, but, again, those ultra-HD thingys are, like, forty bucks a pop and used DVDs are practically free these days, so, for now, I’m sticking with DVD.

Also, don’t think I don’t stream, either. I do stream movies. I stream a lot, actually. But I also like having a modest collection of physical DVDs. Because if I have the urge to watch my favorite movie but it’s not available on any streaming platform, then—boom—I can just pop in the DVD. Isn’t that great?

Do I sound like an old man? Have I turned into the very person I thought I would never turn into when I was a child? Am I sounding like Grandpa Simpson? “Back when I was your age, we watched our movies on DVDs!” Am I talking too much about something that is old and irrelevant? Do I need to stop holding onto the past and be “more present”?

Probably.

Or maybe I’m being smart. Maybe someday DVD will have a resurgence, much like how vinyl records have had one of late. Maybe I’m a few steps ahead of the curve and my collection of DVDs will become super-valuable one day. Or at least I’ll be able to say, “I was into DVD before it became cool again.”

Either way, DVD will always be my format of choice, the one I cherish the most. Most of my childhood consisted of watching VHS, so one might think I would cling to that format over DVD, but let’s face the truth about VHS: it’s terrible. The video quality was terrible back then and is even more terrible today since all the VHS tape has deteriorated over the years. No, DVD is my format of choice. As for Blu-ray? I will never have any beef with Blu-ray; I actually own several Blu-rays and appreciate its superior video quality, but at the end of the day I guess I just don’t have the same emotional attachment to Blu-ray that I do to DVD.

So DVD will always be for me. What say you? Do you think DVD is nothing but a dinosaur, or do you think there is still a future for DVD? Let me know in the comments.

…

MATT BURNS is the author of several novels, including Weird Monster, Supermarket Zombies!, The Woman and the Dragon and Johnny Cruise. He’s also written numerous memoirs, including GARAGE MOVIE: My Adventures Making Weird Films, My Raging Case of Beastie Fever, Jungle F’ng Fever: My 30-Year Love Affair with Guns N’ Roses, Bostonwood and I Used to be a Gamer. Check out these books (and many more) on his Amazon author page HERE.