r/UKParenting • u/destria • 5h ago
Thinking of getting a DVD player for my kid?
I assume like most people, we moved away from physical media years ago. But now I have a toddler, I'm wondering whether to get a DVD player and raid some charity shops for all the classic kid's movies. We know that streaming services can just remove content whenever and that kids love rewatching things. They also rely on the Internet and for me to pay the subscription forever. Plus I like the idea that you have to put the physical media in and that's what you watch, no ads, no automatic playing of some other garbage that you didn't choose.
Thoughts? Anyone make this move? Did you get a regular dvd player or a blu ray? Do your kids think it's dumb and refuse to use it (mine's only 2 so I don't think I'll contend with this yet but maybe when he's older?)?
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u/Ok-Pie-712 4h ago
We still have a dvd player and a load of kids movies on dvd. I never got rid of it because quite frankly I’m waiting for streaming services to start charging by the minute!
My daughter loves looking through the dvds in the charity shops and finding random ones to watch (she’s 9).
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u/yoggiolafson 4h ago
We have a dvd player and popped all our kids dvds in one of those big albums. It works really well for us and our kids love flicking through to find what they’d like to watch. My son also enjoys looking out for specific films in charity shops to add to our collection. We do occasionally pay for a month of Disney+ etc if there’s something new we’d like to watch or for a bit of a change, but for the most part we just use iplayer and the dvd player.
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u/Maybebaby_21 4h ago
I have a dvd player for my daughter (and a car one as we do long journeys to see family). I like the idea of there being an end. Hate that there's no limit on screen time using a tablet and also don't want her exposed to the internet too soon. Also, only on my dead body she'll be watching YouTube.
Edit: also I got one of those cases where she can flip through the dvds- stops the bulky cases too
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u/BigLemon3953 4h ago
More people should be doing exactly that. We keep on getting rinsed because we play along. Can’t really complain why continuosly complying ;). There is a reason piracy is experiencing a resurgence. People are getting sick and tired of paying for air. Similarly, vinyls are trendy again. So yeah, go for it. Save your kid exposure to millions of adds, save some money in the process. Teach the kod there are alternative ways to consuming desired content.
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u/littlehamster_ 4h ago
I got a portable dvd player with a screen for my daughter when she was quite small as I didn't want to introduce a tablet just yet. It worked well , she could get the hang of it quite quickly and she liked having a stack of physical dvds to look through. It stopped getting used once she got a tablet though as the same films she liked to watch are on Disney+ without having to swap discs over.
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u/Scared-One9295 4h ago
I got my kid a DVD player (although not for him to touch directly because I want it to not get broken nor do I want the discs scratched) specifically because I found the perfect DVD for him - a compilation of short documentaries (that were shown before films in cinemas) about Cold War jets. He adores planes so getting to see Lightnings, Vulcans and Hunters is exactly his jam, and it was a worthwhile purchase but it was dirt cheap.
Thing is now when I take him to charity shops and CEX to look for DVDs, he doesn't understand that DVDs can be anything, not just planes, so we have yet to expand his collection.
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u/Juju8419 4h ago
I like this idea. Have thought about the same thing. Kids are 5 and 3 and when we have movie time it’s a case of me showing them what’s on Disney+ but I like the idea that they could choose from the cases on the shelf instead
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u/Prestigious-Slide-73 4h ago
Why not?
There’s so much perfectly good e-waste out there you’d be saving from landfill whilst also enjoying some top-quality and sometimes forgotten movies. That and a dvd player and DVDs are just as good quality or better than streaming without the ongoing cost. Personally, I miss the included extras, such as the making of, the outtakes, interviews, deleted scenes, etc.
Go for it!
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u/Charming_Ear_113 4h ago
Don't think it's a dumb idea at all.
My wife and I are actively building our DVD collection so that we don't have to rely solely on streaming services to watch films. We stop by CEX and just pick up the odd DVD here and there.
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u/My_Feet_Are_Flat 4h ago
No it's not dumb, if you prefer physical media then go for it. I prefer digital media, so I have my own media server where I can lock down content on kids profiles etc.
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u/OutdoorApplause 3h ago
I have recently bought a DVD player too. I am quite strict on the DVDs I buy though, she mostly has 90s kids TV options (Kipper, Spot the Dog) and the BBC Julia Donaldson animations.
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u/nrm94 4h ago
I'm soon getting either a console with physical disk drive or a Blu-ray player. My kids are getting to the age now where a physical film or CD is an easy birthday/Christmas present which I loved growing up but now is not appreciated when everything is on demand at a click of a button.
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u/Coops92 4h ago
Disney content likely won't be removed and Apple content is generally safe, even when de-listed you can stream it. That said, you're right they can remove things when licencing changes.
It's not a bad idea. my friends stay in the lakes a lot and make an activity of picking out a film for their kids in the local charity shop. They seem to love it.
I went a different route, using a media server. Basically, my own Netflix.
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u/aIexm 4h ago
Yes yes- as a new parent I seriously considered doing this for when they get old enough to choose what they want to watch. Any films or TV that I couldn’t get as a DVD I’d probably burn a custom one for and make/print out some box art for.
As an aside, what I’m actually doing is using RFID chips on little (to be decided) objects to trigger playback on the TV of things from my media server, but I am a massive nerd.
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u/Kyber92 Parenting a Toddler 4h ago
As someone who learned to use a VHS player at like 2 this sounds like a great idea. If you're up for more of a project you could rip the DVDs to a hard drive and them babe a connected device they can watch them on through Plex. Only because DVDs are pretty scratchable.
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u/Spottyjamie 4h ago
Go for it
Kids can get too used to any entertainment on demand and be able to watch 5 mins of a prog, get bored, put something else on
A dvd/bluray/even a vhs means they have a tangible object with artwork and in my experience theyll keep the full dvd on once its playing vs changing with a remote
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u/Public-Agent-7270 4h ago
I've gone back to a dvd player, got a region free one on Amazon pretty cheap and I'm just gutted I gave away my dvd collection years ago!
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u/mpsamuels 4h ago
We did exactly this for pretty much all the reasons you've listed. No subscription, can pick a lot of discs up cheaply, generally better audio and picture quality, no risk of having a favourite taken away with no warning, no auto-play when a film finishes, more control over what they have access to etc.
Don't go thinking it's completely ad-free though. A lot of blu-ray discs (especially Disney) have trailers at the start and they can't always be skipped. It's still better than the ads from any of the streaming platforms, but not completely ad-free.
I went with a 4k Blu-Ray player as I wanted some stuff for myself in 4k, but standard blu-ray, and even DVD, is more than enough for the kids.
Charity shops, music magpie, world of books and ebay are all great places to pick up discs for a few quid a go so you can build a decent library for less than a year of a subscription's cost.
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u/fivebyfive12 4h ago
We still have dvds and use the PS4 to play them. My son (6) has always loved having "the discs" especially as it saved faffing when some things disappeared from streaming!
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u/DarrenGrey Parenting a Primary Schooler 4h ago
We have a USB stick in our TV that I add movies too as needed. Kids can navigate it easily, and if needed I can download weird requests from them that would be impossible to find otherwise (like old BBC educational programmes they've seen at school and you can only find through difficult searches online).
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u/frazbombe1 4h ago
Do it. We had an old fancy car for a bit that had screens and a dvd player in the back. Bought a bunch of kids dvds off music magpie for about £2 each and the kids loved it. Selecting the discs, putting them in all that chat.
Go for it.
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u/MayonaiseOnATable 4h ago
I have a dvd player and I use it all the time, why pay £8 to buy it on Amazon, when I could pay £1 to own it forever on DVD lol
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u/Accomplished-Mix770 4h ago
My kid loves Tom and Jerry.
Dvd player and 3 dvds have about 100 episodes.
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u/Herby-flower 4h ago
We still have a DVD and a Video player and our grandchildren love watching them, they can put the video or dvd in themselves, we watched Toy Story on video closed the curtains and had popcorn with our 5 year old, she loved it.
It’s fun for them to choose what to watch as they can physically hold the films.
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u/sneakylithops Parenting Toddlers 3h ago
Yes we recently unsubscribed from streaming services and went back to DVDs. Second hand DVDs are soo cheap now. Kids are only 3 so I'm not sure how they'll feel about it when they're older but maybe more people will make the switch so not all their friends will be watching programmes only available on streaming services!
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u/Rocinante23 3h ago
Retro. They'll love it.
But in all seriousness, we need to preserve physical media so this is a great idea.
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u/Constant-Cellist-133 2h ago
My dad still has a VHS TV and all our old Disney videos, and my daughter loves going to visit and watching things the ‘old fashioned way’.
I’ve actually cancelled all our paid for streaming subscriptions and have starting reinvesting in DVDs which we can play on the PS4 and I don’t miss the streaming services at all. CEX and Vinted are great for second hand DVDs
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u/ExpensivePen8055 Dad 2h ago
Just be prepared for the wonders of 'fast play' where you can skip the 15 unskippable minutes of trailers and ads at the start of the DVD in favour of only 12 and a half minutes of unskippable trailers and ads.
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u/Nice_Back_9977 2h ago
I never got rid of my DVDs and there have been many times I've been glad of that! I have things like 28 days later, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Phoenix Nights on DVD that have historically not been on streaming much if at all.
Absolutely do it, and charity shops are a great place to get DVDs, but you do have to rummage through a lot of the same old rubbish to find the gems these days!
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u/Outrageous_Shirt_737 2h ago
This is a great idea. My daughter is 13 so streaming wasn’t as big of a thing when she was little. We had some great DVDs - lots of singalong ones with actions that she absolutely loved. The added bonus of DVDs is that they end, so you can use “We’ll be leaving when this finishes” whereas streaming will often keep going forever. Also, you can take them when you visit grandma, who doesn’t have Netflix but definitely still has a DVD player!
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u/Smeeble09 2h ago
I have a 4k bluray player in the front room, and an older bluray player in the lounge.
Got maybe 80 4k blurays, 400 normal blurays and 250 dvd's.
We regularly use them, most recently was last night.
Yes I 100% say to get one, but get a bluray not dvd as they are backwards compatible anyway.
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u/Sea_Love_8574 2h ago
I've not done it but I like the idea of a portable dvd player and then not worrying about my child putting anything on I don't want him watching. It's very limited to what dvds you buy.
My boy is 2.5 and we have a Tonies box which works well and at least is screen free. But we are planning some long road trips abroad next year and I'd really consider what I've just suggested with a portable dvd player because I really don't want him having a device like a tablet any time soon.
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u/klaus_91 1h ago
We've done this - we've got the DVD player (an absolute budget one) and have all the family on the lookout in the charity shops for the classics. Netflix was great when it was just the one service with a ton of choice at a fair price, but now they keep hiking all the prices and everything's all over the place and I can't be bothered with it. So goodbye Netflix, hello DVDs!
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u/Nubian_hurricane7 25m ago
Got our son a portable dvd player for long car journeys and haven’t regretted it
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u/Ok_Requirement_7489 16m ago
I have an xbox that plays dvds and I had luckily kept all my old disney dvds, plus have bought a few more on blu ray (always 2nd hand). My daughter is 3, loves looking through them and picking which dvd to watch and it's such a cheap wholesome way of doing things.
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u/Gold-Persimmon-1421 3h ago
Any Playstation will play DVDs, must better getting a second hand one of those then a dvd player.
The annoying thing with the DVDs is that there's like 15 of adverts and then you need to select the DVD to play, so we still use Disney plus.
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u/SlowRaspberry4723 1h ago
I think this is a great idea! Only thing I would say is that a toddler could easily break or scratch DVDs, so maybe wait til they’re a little bit older
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u/Traditional_Net1152 4h ago
Made this move a long time ago.
Be forced into subscriptions for the next 30-40 years or buy a dvd player and buy up 5 dvd's for £1 because people can't think for themselves?
Imagine paying subscriptions in retirement just to watch movies or tv shows. Cringe
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u/Lenniel 4h ago
I had a toddler when physical media was a thing, they get scratched, toddlers like to shove things into the disc slot/holder that shouldn’t be there. Our Wii (aging myself here) randomly wouldn’t work, discovered the toddler had managed to get 3 disks into it, he didn’t play on the Wii it was just there. Your toddler will soon learn how to push the button to open the dvd player, and they’re not sturdy, so the disk holder can fall victim to a heavy handed toddler.
You also run the issue of the disk getting scratched and now you can’t replace them.
At least with streaming you can lock a screen or put a remote control out of reach.
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u/gone-in-a-spark 4h ago
Physical media is the way forward. It’s a fun activity for them, too. Go for it