There are plenty of reasons to reconsider your streaming service subscriptions, from rising prices to privacy concerns. As companies are desperate to make money, the convenience of turning on an app and watching something instantly is no longer as appealing as it once was. The streaming experience just isn’t worth it.

Fortunately, there is a better alternative, and that involves physical media. If you don’t have a Blu-ray player yet, now is the time to invest. Here’s why.

Blu-ray provides better image quality

Streaming services don’t offer fidelity

Perhaps the biggest reason to invest in a Blu-ray player right now is that it will provide incredible image quality, far better than any streaming service you subscribe to. Even if you’re paying a premium on the best Netflix tier, for example, the quality you get from a physical disc is going to be superior and more enjoyable for anyone who craves cinematic fidelity.

The problem with streaming services is compression. In order to get you a vast catalog of titles in a quick and timely manner, platforms need to shrink files through a process known as compression. Data behind titles is simply too big, so these files need to be reduced in size in order to travel across a Wi-Fi or LAN network. The process would take far too long otherwise.

Compression, however, takes away certain details and components of these titles. Often, these details aren’t particularly noticeable. However, you are losing something, and sometimes compression can result in shows or movies that are ugly or dark or blurry. Compression processes look for things it thinks people won’t track; mostly they are fine details. But such processes are not all equal; a smaller platform may not do it as well as a bigger platform. Maybe you don’t notice the loss of detail in a character’s hair, but compression can mess with shadows, removing contrast and detail in dark scenes.

Regardless, physical media in general and Blu-rays in particular don’t have that problem. There is a physical disc containing all the data of the title, and it is available to enjoy fully. If you have invested in a quality entertainment setup, with a 4K TV with the top HDR formats and , then you’ll want to make sure your source material is up to the task.

Blu-ray player supports immersive audio

Enjoy lossless sound with physical media

Not only does a Blu-ray player give you the opportunity for superior image quality, it will also grant you access to immersive, faithful sound as well. Just as streaming services remove details from video, they can suffer when transmitting audio as well.

With a Blu-ray disc and compatible player, you’ve an opportunity to actually experience lossless audio. You can unlock features that aren’t viable when streaming titles, especially if you’re streaming via Wi-Fi and not over an Ethernet cable. Blu-ray uses audio formats like Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio that are superior to the lossy formats that streaming services you. Because there is more space available on a physical disc, audio is faithfully preserved.

If your home theater setup includes a quality speaker system, with a three-channel soundbar connected to rear, side, or ceiling speakers, then you’ll want to invest in source material that can support it.

Blu-ray players offer longevity and stability

Embrace true ownership and reliable entertainment

One of the appeals of having a Blu-ray player and a collection of discs is that it provides you with certainty in your home entertainment experience. A quality player can last over a decade, and like the discs that go with it, there is only a one-time investment. You’re not playing for the service every month as you do with a streaming service.

So the player is always there and its features are consistent. Your catalog is always consistent, too. With a streaming service, the library will change every week or month; some titles will be added while others will be removed. You can’t guarantee that something you want to watch will always be there. However, with a Blu-ray collection, what you buy is actually yours, and you’ll always have it available to watch.

Blu-ray players operate offline

Hide from intrusive ads and spyware

Another attractive feature of the Blu-ray player is that is can be removed from the online world. While some boast smart features and offer you the same apps you can get on your smart TV, it doesn’t require connectivity in order to be enjoyed. A Blu-ray player requires power, an HDMI cable to a monitor or screen, and a disc. That’s all you need.

That removal from the online world is mighty appealing to anyone who has concerns about privacy and who is fed up with ads and commercials flooding platforms and operating systems.

Unlike using a smart TV’s OS, such as Roku TV or Google TV, you don’t typically need to sign up for an account to use a Blu-ray player. And without an online connection, there is no regular exchange of data between the device and a company that is looking to learn about your viewing habits.

You’re also not going to get ads all the time when you’re using a Blu-ray player. Streamers will place commercials before, during, and after you watch titles; Prime Video is so aggressive that it gives you mere seconds after you finish a movie before it puts a random film on for you to watch. Prime Video is also working on dynamic ads that allow you to shop while you watch. It’s not long before ads come to your pause screen as well.

All of that means Blu-ray presents a more satisfying and less intrusive entertainment experience.

Invest in discs to protect against digital entertainment

The time is now to invest in a quality Blu-ray player and start amassing your physical media collection because more and more consumers are going to move in that direction, and the prices will go up. Streamer services, with their rising costs, lack of quality in terms of not just video and audio but also substance, mean that consumers are considering unsubscribing. Privacy concerns and constant ads also make the streaming experience exhausting and untenable.

All of that means that physical media will start to make a comeback. When you buy a player and a disc, you’re investing in years upon years of entertainment that belongs to you. You’re not paying a monthly or yearly fee to gain access to a catalog of titles that you don’t own, and you can’t control. You can invest in entertainment that is yours, and you can consistently rely on it; it’s also entertainment that isn’t going to be edited or altered, and it’s going to spy on you.

Blu-ray players aren’t prohibitively expensive right now, especially considering what you get in return. The time to invest is now.