How to Buy (and Actually Own) Your Movies and TV Shows in 2026
Watching TV shows or movies has become easier than ever. The streaming services you already subscribe to offer more content than you could ever watch. If something you want to watch is only available on a certain platform, you can subscribe. If it’s only available for purchase or rental digitally, you can do that too. But with the rise of streaming, the concept of owning and building a home video collection has faded into the background. It seems fewer and fewer people want a disc collection at home. We prefer everything to fit neatly on our smart TVs.
But streaming is far from perfect. Perhaps you were hoping to watch something on a service you already pay for, only to find it’s gone; perhaps the movie isn’t streaming anywhere at all, and there’s no way to watch it online. Owning a physical copy of a movie or TV series is truly the only way to guarantee you’ll be able to watch it whenever (or wherever) you want.
Plus, building a movie collection that perfectly suits your tastes is simply a joy: entertainment seems less ephemeral when you can associate it with a physical object rather than an icon in the sea on your Netflix home screen. If you’re looking to get back to the way things used to be, here’s how to start building your own home video collection in 2026:
Buying movies and TV shows digitally is not the same as owning them.
Modern streaming devices and TVs don’t limit you when it comes to buying movies or TV shows. You can still buy them through Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku, Google TV, or through various apps you use. Prime Video will happily sell you Titanic ; Apple will let you buy a box set of all seasons of The Office ; you can even buy The Dark Knight on YouTube through Google Play Movies & TV.
The thing is, buying digital content doesn’t actually mean owning it. It might seem that way: click “Buy,” pay a hefty fee, and you have access to the content anytime, anywhere, from any compatible connected device. But when you buy a digital TV series or movie from Apple, Amazon, or Google, you’re actually paying for a license , not for the rights. You’re paying for the privilege of viewing that content for as long as the platform holds the rights. If Prime Video loses the rights to “Titanic,” you lose them too, even if you paid $19 for it.
This doesn’t mean digital content doesn’t have its place. These stores are especially good for renting movies when the one you want isn’t available on streaming platforms. You might also consider “buying” TV shows and movies on these platforms, as licensing can be cheaper than a movie ticket, and you’ll definitely get value for money from watching them that way. I have several movies I bought on iTunes ten years ago that I still have access to, and I watch them regularly on all my Apple devices. But back then, when I bought them, I thought I owned them. I was wrong, and that’s why I haven’t clicked the “buy” button on these platforms in years.
For true ownership, physical media must be purchased.
If you want to truly own your TV shows and movies and ensure you won’t lose access to them, you need to invest in physical media. In 2026, that mostly means discs. If you’ve fully transitioned to streaming services, the idea of bringing DVDs and Blu-rays into your home may seem downright futile—but without them, your collection will forever be at the mercy of the platforms that license this content.
Here’s the catch, though: even when you buy physical movies and TV shows, you’re still only acquiring a license to watch that content—that’s why you can’t show a movie publicly just because you own a DVD; you still have to pay for the rights to show it outside your home. Technically, the companies that own the content can revoke that license at any time—it’s just much harder to deny someone access if they have a physical disc. The situation is a bit more complicated with modern Blu-ray discs and Blu-ray players, which connect to the internet and could theoretically block your access in the future. But as far as I know, there are no documented cases of this happening, while marketplaces like Prime Video have lost licenses and revoked content from users. So, basically, if you buy a movie or TV show on disc, you essentially own it.
There are many video formats, especially if you’re interested in acquiring older media (from VHS to Betamax and LaserDisc). But for now, let’s assume you want to start a DVD and Blu-ray collection. These are the easiest physical media to acquire for movies and TV shows, and also the most versatile in terms of playback.
Physical media often looks and sounds better than digital copies.
This isn’t a nostalgic opinion: while streaming quality can be excellent, modern discs will always be superior. Sure, your 4K stream on Prime Video will be much better than a low-resolution DVD, but even 1080p Blu-ray surpasses it in some categories. 4K Blu-ray, meanwhile, is the absolute gold standard.
The main reason is bitrate—the amount of information displayed onscreen at once. Generally, the higher the bitrate, the more detail the video will contain at any given time. This differs from resolution, which simply represents the total number of pixels in the video. (4K has approximately 8.3 million pixels per frame—3840 pixels by 2160 pixels—while 1080p has just over two million pixels per frame—1920 pixels by 1080 pixels.)
When purchasing movies and TV shows digitally, you’re only concerned with the resolution—HD (1080p) or 4K—not the bitrate. Although 4K streaming video has more available pixels than a 1080p disc, a higher disc’s bitrate allows it to display more detail in its two million pixels than 4K streaming video can with its 8.3 million. While discs can only handle the information they contain, streaming must take into account many variables related to your home internet connection, and therefore sacrifices bitrate.
Let’s take The Dark Knight , for example: I have a 1080p Blu-ray disc with a 24 Mbps bitrate . I also have a license for the 4K Dolby Vision version from Apple TV. After some tweaking of my Apple TV , I was able to view the streaming data, which showed that while the maximum bitrate was 24.24 Mbps, the average was hovering around 15 Mbps. That’s still a decent amount of data, but interestingly, even with 4K resolution and Dolby Vision HDR audio, the Apple TV stream is carrying less data than my 1080p Blu-ray disc. I have a good internet connection, but perhaps if I could connect my Apple TV directly to my router via Ethernet, I could get a bitrate of 24.24 Mbps and match the Blu-ray disc. What if I upgrade to 4K Blu-ray since it has a 47.16 Mbps bitrate and supports HDR?
While 4K streaming video can be comparable to (or even superior to) 1080p Blu-ray, Blu-ray (4K or not) will always be superior in audio quality. Streaming audio has a more compressed bitrate than discs, even more so than video. While my Apple TV copy of The Dark Knight could theoretically match the bitrate of my Blu-ray copy, its audio only peaks at 383.88 kbps. Blu-ray, however, supports 16-bit Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio at 48 kHz, which has a variable bitrate but should theoretically reach 4608 kbps (16 bits x 48 kHz x six audio channels), as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 at 640 kbps. Simply put, you get a lot more audio data from the disc. In the 4K Blu-ray version, this is implemented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 format with 24-bit resolution and a sample rate of 48 kHz, which, using the same calculations, gives 6912 kbps.
The key thing here is that it all depends on the TV and sound system you use to watch movies or TV shows. If you’re using your TV’s built-in rear-firing speakers, you may not notice any improvement in quality. But if you have at least a soundbar, or even better, a more sophisticated home theater system, discs will definitely sound better. The same applies to picture quality: if you have a high-quality TV panel, you’ll notice sharper scenes, more film grain, and a lack of compression, especially in dark scenes.
Where to buy Blu-ray and DVD in 2026?
The good news is that even in 2026, finding physical media for movies and TV shows is easy. You don’t need to search specialty stores or buy used items: major retailers like Walmart and Target still sell all kinds of physical media, including Blu-rays and DVDs. You can head to Walmart right now and buy “Zootopia 2” on Blu-ray, or head to Target and buy “Vice” on DVD. But for a more curated selection, you should definitely keep an eye on Amazon or even Best Buy. Barnes & Noble is famous for selling Blu-rays and DVDs from the Criterion Collection, though you can always buy them directly from Criterion .
You might think that since “nobody” buys discs anymore, these things must be cheap. On the contrary: physical media can be expensive , especially Blu-ray (and especially 4K Blu-ray). I recommend following a site that tracks deals on physical media, like Blu-ray.com . You can sort by type (4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD, etc.) or simply browse all types of deals to see if your favorite discs are available at a reasonable price. But if you’re into this kind of collecting, and especially if you buy new movies and TV shows, be prepared to spend a pretty penny (it’s no wonder members of the r/Criterion Reddit group mark the Barnes & Noble Semi-Annual Sale with 50% off deals on their calendars).
You will need a device to play DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
If you’re fully immersed in streaming, you might not have a DVD or Blu-ray player. If so, you need to fix that. Believe it or not, companies still make Blu-ray players , though their numbers are dwindling. Two companies, Pioneer and Reavon, exited the market in 2025, but good options still exist, with Sony and Panasonic leading the pack. CNET recommends the Sony UBP-X700M , which can be purchased used on Amazon for under $300 .
On the other hand, if you own a gaming console like a PlayStation or Xbox, you already have a Blu-ray player—with a few caveats: Xbox models, including the PS5 , don’t support Dolby Vision HDR, only HDR10. If you want Dolby Vision, you’ll need to purchase a separate player. But if you simply need a device to reliably play your growing movie collection, your PlayStation or Xbox will do just fine. (Just make sure you buy a model with a disc drive.)
You can copy the contents of your discs to fully enjoy the benefits of digital ownership.
If you want the durability of physical media and the convenience of digital ownership, you can go full circle and create your own private streaming service. You can take any physical disc you’ve purchased, copy the video files, and upload them to a private server. Then, you can use programs like Plex or Jellyfin to access these files from anywhere. You can watch them at home, of course, but you can also stream them on the go. This also serves as a backup: if something happens to the disc (or if the studio somehow revokes your Blu-ray license), you’ll always have a backup copy of the disc.
You may need some additional equipment for this. If you’re ripping DVDs, you’ll need a DVD player connected to your computer and a program like Handbrake . If you’re ripping Blu-ray discs, you’ll also need a Blu-ray player that can connect to your computer and a program like MakeMKV . While ripping DVDs is fairly straightforward, ripping Blu-ray discs can be a bit more complicated, especially if they’re 4K discs, so you may need a detailed guide for best results .
As for the legality of this method, most movies are encoded onto discs using digital rights management (DRM) software. While creating a backup copy is often considered fair use, circumventing DRM in the US is also a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , meaning it’s illegal. Well, technically . And while I won’t encourage you to break the law, if you invite me to watch a movie on your personal Plex server, I promise not to report you.