Why can't I buy Doctor Strange from Amazon?

But Amazon *does *sell the Dr Strange film on dvd!

:D:D:D:D:p:p:D:D

I must be lucky or something; none of the thousands of CDs or DVDs/BRs I own have ever just failed. I’ve had to replace a few CDs due to them getting scratched up, but that’s it.

Nothing is preventing the availability of the the physical disc. The physical copies of the movie are not going on sale until the 28th. I am fairly sure it is a deal between the studios and content providers to give them a chance to make sales first.

My experience too. Nothing lucky about it. There’s no reason or cause for them to fail unless you abuse the hell out of them.

The disc is to be released on 28 February. Amazon (almost?) always allows pre-orders for upcoming movies pretty far in advance of release. Except in this case. They are showing the disc as “Currently unavailable.”

Like I said I remember this happened with another Marvel movie (I’m 90% sure it was The Winter Solider) and my recollection was it was due to some corporate fighting that ended up getting resolved very close to the release date. This seems similar but I don’t see any stories when I Google.

It can happen, it’s just rare as hell. I’ve had one CD ever suffer from bronzing and I was able to rip it and make a backup before it disintegrated. But that was one cd with a known manufacturing defect.

Yes I understand the issue as I want a physical disc as well. This isn’t the first movie that wasn’t available for pre-order right away, I know I have seen this issue before, but I a still pretty sure it is a thing to drive digital sales.

I knew something like this was available, but is there a good website with a FAQ about this process? I want to know if I can keep my disk, if there are non-obvious eligibility requirements, et cetera.

I mean, I wouldn’t mind reclaiming some shelf space.

But I don’t have receipts on these DVDs, and many of them were acquired secondhand.

Article from the time of startup.

Vudu Disc-to-Digital (store version)

Vudu DtD (home version)

Another couple of ignorant tech questions: if you try to open a CD, if it will let you at all, you’ll see several different files.

1: If you (never mind legality for a moment) copied those files to your hard drive, can your system read them and play them as a movie?

2: If you have a downloaded digital movie, properly licensed and legal, from Amazon or Hulu or Ultraviolet or I don’t know who, is it one file, or a similar collection of several files?

(Do you just throw such files in a folder, or do you need sub-folders for each movie?)

Whether you can open those files depends on what you’re using to open them. VLC can handle them just fine (but then, VLC can handle darned near anything).

And you’d need a folder for each movie, because some of those files have the same name for every disc.

Whether you can open those files depends on what you’re using to open them. VLC can handle them just fine (but then, VLC can handle darned near anything).

And you’d need a folder for each movie, because some of those files have the same name for every disc.

Yes, (I assume you mean DVD up there) if you copy the TS_VIDEO folder to your hard drive, there are software tools that will play it just like a DVD.

Streamed video is nothing but a single channel of data that the decoders turn into video and audio streams for further processing by the TV and receiver. It’s the kind of file (MPEG2, MP4, etc.) that’s embedded in a disc folder like TS_VIDEO and is called up and played when the system navigates to it.

Put another way, the file structure on a disc is the video, the audio and all the pseudo-programming that links them, menus, closed captions, alternate audio and so forth together. You can dispense with all of it except the actual video/audio stream from one file, once you get to it. The structure makes it easier for Joe Couchpotato to get to the desired stream on the disc. No such structure is needed for digitally delivered content - so all that comes over the wires is that content.

Amateur Barbarian: I think I grok the first bit…but not the second.

Streaming stuff is like…what…a YouTube stream? I get to watch it, but not capture it? If I want to watch it again, I have to get it streamed again, and can’t watch it from files on my hard drive? I never get the files to keep, but can only let the data “pass through” my viewing software?

Damn, man! I don’t want that! I want the sensation, no matter how unimportant it may be in objective reality, that the movie is mine, in my hands, to hold and enjoy, even if me and my laptop are in BFE and there isn’t any internet connection at all.

(I keep my Kindle book reader totally separate and cut off from any data service. If I want a book on it, I pull it across the USB cable from my PC.)

More or less. Your movie files are “in the cloud.” Not all that radical a notion these days, where students have their entire data sets in Google drives etc.

“There I cannot help you, my friend.” - Inigo Montoya

I do understand; it took something of an epiphany to appreciate the idea of virtual movie ownership. I like it now, though.
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Mystery solved!

They also have the BR and the 3D BR in a regular case. Seems they have an exclusive on this for pre-orders arranged with the studio.

No, Target has it available for pre-order too. I think it’s the “Steelbook” (a metal case instead of plastic) that’s the Best Buy exclusive, not the movie itself. Still doesn’t explain why amazon isn’t taking pre-orders.

Okay so this is definitely some kind of game of chicken with Disney because I noticed that Rogue One comes out in April and that is also unavailable for preorder.

Also, I do realize I can (and probably will) buy it somewhere else, I haven’t been in a coma for the last two decades, but I wondered if anyone knew why.

Whelp, it isn’t just a preordering thing. Amazon still isn’t selling it. Definitely a dispute of some kind but googling only brings up stories about the first time it happend in 2014. Guess I will pick it up at Target or Best Buy on the weekend.