My attempt to be less reliant on those streaming services led to that meltdown last week. Well, here came the good part. I was on the lookout for some bargains.
My first ports of call were eBay and MusicMagpie.
All 8 Potter films. I have seen most of these, but in the wrong order. I was lucky enough to visit the studio on one of my nephews’ birthdays. It was enough to pique my interest and, at £7 for all 8 films on Blu-ray, it seemed a steal.
Then on eBay, I found the whole Lord of the Rings set. £4 for the trilogy. I have seen these before, but not for years.
£11, which was about £3 over the cost of one month of Netflix, with some films I was excited to watch.
So, on the first night, I tried The Philosopher’s Stone. This analyst is getting to that middle-age category (did the Atari reviews give that away?), so I was surprised there was no subtitle option on the menu.
A quick Google search told me that old Blu-rays expect you to press the subtitle button on your remote. But of course, I’m using one of those universal remotes. So it turns out people at Hogwarts either shout at each other or whisper. Given my next option was to turn the sound up, yeah, I don’t think my neighbour would appreciate that.
The next night, it was time to follow Frodo. The film starts with a menu. The menu offers subtitles. The picture looks great.
I lay there with the electric blanket on, thinking I had cracked it. I was watching a film I actually owned. One where I had read the back of the box. All was great.
Then the picture got stuck.
Now, I do want to point out that a quick stop-start fixed it. I absolutely don’t regret getting back into physical media. But when you spend a while with real discs and real cables, the result can be real headaches.