As the DVD turns 25, why people still love collecting them — even with a shelf life

Cameron Spurrell has been collecting DVDs since 2001 — and even after years of adding to his growing stockpile, he still remembers the first two he and his family rented.

After buying a brand new DVD player, the family brought home rentals of The Majestic, starring Jim Carrey, and Summer Catch, with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel.

"My sister and I sat, and we were like, 'Special features? Behind the scenes? That's how they make movies?,'" recalled Spurrell. "It was this surreal thing, because you all of a sudden had more to do with the DVD than you did with VHS."

DVDs, or digital video discs, were first introduced in Japan in November 1996, meaning they've now been in production for 25 years. And while many have moved on — first to Blu-ray Discs, and now to streaming accounts — some still hold tight to their favourite DVDs.

But will these discs last the test of time? According to research published by the Canadian Conservation Institute in 2010 and revised in 2019, the average lifespan of a DVD or Blu-ray is between 10 to 20 years, suggesting the older titles in your library could start to fail.

Spurrell, who has a particular fondness for teen slasher films, points out that not every title he collects is available to stream.

"I've got movies on DVD that aren't even made into DVDs anymore, and [movies] people often forget about," he said. "A lot of those cult-classic '90s movies that you might have watched once in 1997, and completely forgot about it ever since."

When the TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender was first removed from a streaming service a few years ago, DVD collector Ram Saund said it made him realize the value of physical media.

"I just got fed up with the fact that something, even though it is available anywhere, kind of almost has an expiration [date] to it because of licensing," he said. "It just made sense to have a physical copy in my hand."

At the Vancouver Public Library, DVDs remain a fixture.

Kay Cahill, the library's director of collections and technology, says they're on pace for about 750,000 DVD circulations this year, though she notes that number is about half of what it was in 2019, before the pandemic.

Despite the fact DVDs haven't fully rebounded, the library plans to keep a strong collection — as long as the content is available, said Cahill.

"I think there's an interesting sort of equity piece to DVDs," she said. "Because we also know that they're popular with people who can't necessarily afford the paid subscription services or don't necessarily have the equipment at home or the internet connection to be able to stream."

The top circulating title for the library this year has been the Oscar-award-winning Parasite, which has been checked out more than 950 times.