Arkiv Blog
Collecting culture, platform news, and more.
A Film Festival Threw a Disc Party
A major film festival held a fair for DVDs and Blu-rays this month, with a swap and a Kino Lorber pop-up. The same week, Criterion put out 30 discs of Kubrick. Discs are invited back.
The Cardboard or the Movie
I designed and built a real home theater myself, speaker wire and all, and hid every speaker behind the screen and in the walls. Turns out that's the same instinct behind how I buy discs.
Collecting Is Better With Friends
Finding a copy you chased for years is half the fun. Telling someone about it is the other half, so Arkiv now has friends.
Shelf Stories: Jérémy
He already owns the John Wick films and ordered the box set anyway. A steelbook comeback, 300 digital films, and a Belgian collector who wants one place for all of it.
Every Collection Has a Personality
Arkiv described my ~800-title shelf back to me with startling precision. Turns out a ten-movie shelf can be just as legible, maybe even more so.
Nobody Told the Boutique Labels
After two years away I came back to disc buying braced for a sad, shrinking hobby picking over the scraps. Instead I found the object had quietly become the best it has ever been.
I Was Right About Andor. I Still Can't Own It.
I was the only person I knew who was excited when they announced Andor. It turned out to be the best Star Wars in years. Now I want it on my shelf, and I'm learning that isn't up to me.
Shelf Stories: Pedroca dos Filmes
Pedro owns Shaun of the Dead twice, on purpose. A rare Brazilian DVD, a subreddit post, and 200 films logged with more care than almost any collection I've seen. Meet the man behind the shelf.
DVDs Are the New Vinyl, and It Took Me a Two-Year Break to Get It
I've bought music and movies on every format for almost fifty years, vinyl to 4K, and never once stopped. Then, around 2024, I quietly did. For nearly two years. Here's what it taught me.
CLZ Movies to Arkiv: How to Move Your Collection
I signed up for CLZ Movies to see what everyone was talking about, then went looking for the export. It isn't in the app. What the app gives you is a backup file only CLZ can read.
Do Blu-rays and DVDs Degrade Over Time? What Disc Rot Actually Is
I own The Matrix, Enemy of the State, and Bad Boys on DVDs I bought in the late 90s. They still play perfectly. So do discs actually rot? The honest answer: it depends which disc.
No One Decided to Delete Terminator 2
Sony is removing 551 films from PlayStation libraries on September 1, including Terminator 2 and The Deer Hunter. I went looking for someone to be angry at. The unsettling part: there isn't one.
Buy It Now, or Bet on Later: What Happened to Buying a New Movie
A 4K preorder has sat in my cart for two weeks at $48. Lock it in now, or wait and bet it gets cheaper after release? That I can't decide anymore says a lot about where physical media is going.
The Collection You Can Actually Leave Behind
My sons fall asleep to the Ready Player One audiobook on a loop. It's the film I'd most want to leave them. You can't will an iTunes library to anyone. A shelf of discs is a different story.
Letterboxd Is Your Viewing Memory. It's Not Your Shelf.
I'm a Letterboxd patron with four of their t-shirts. It's one of the best things that's happened to film culture online. It also had no idea I owned the Fight Club Blu-ray.
The Tsundoku Shelf
There's a Japanese word for buying books you intend to read but never do. It's called tsundoku. I own Citizen Kane. I haven't watched it. I know I will.
The Walk Was the Point
The Red Rooster was a convenience store. The owners had carved out a corner near the back for VHS tapes. In a small town in 1985, this was an event.
I Own Two Identical Copies of Molly's Game (And Other Things I'm Not Proud Of)
I have 884 physical media copies. Two are identical editions of Molly's Game: same disc, pre-ordered a week apart. Sometimes I can't find a disc and just stream it.
Six Streaming Services, Zero Results: Why I Still Buy Blu-rays
Six streaming services. Not one had my favourite childhood film. Buying it digitally didn't feel like owning it. That's when it clicked.