A fond farewell to physical media (and Quickflix)

We wanted to watch the movie "Milk" but didn't make it to the cinema. Around here we gave up on the local video store several years ago - the range is really poor and having to go to the store physically to pick up a collection of data seems down right archaic.

Quickflix has been great, they have a wide range of titles but they don't carry many of each from what I can tell. We really wanted to watch "Milk" but there was a wait so I took a look at the iTunes store and it was there, immediate gratification. So that was it.

We have an Apple TV and a decent internet connection so it was ready to play just seconds after purchasing. It's a little more expensive than I'd like to rent some bits, and the 48 hour window to watch once you start is punishing, but it's very convenient.

I've enjoyed Quickflix especially for some of the Blu-ray disks we've seen (The BBC Earth series for example), but many Blu-ray disks are disappointing and I hear if you have a good DVD player the quality is getting closer. Quickflix doesn't have enough Blu-ray range and I hate the way they constantly warn me that I'm hiring a Blu-ray disk - surely after I've hired a few without issue they could lay off the warnings?

Milk's a lovely film, with great performances all around. Harvey runs a camera store and there are scenes in the dark room that brought back memories (not quite the ones in the film). I morn the loss of the dark room, I morn the friendly local video store, I even morn for Quickflix (although I'm sure there's a few good years left in them yet).

But bits are bits.