The DVD Blog
Physical media, discs and old stuff
This is where I'll be blogging about my physical media collection.
The Phillips MP3/WMA-CD Playback (CD Soundmachine AZII37)
Alright... it's been a long time since this page doesn't get a new article. Anyway, onto to the topic.
On April 20th 2026, I was tinkering around my outdated bedroom's closet, at my father's house. What I decided to look at was the top shelf of the thing. The stuff I found was: My childhood songs burned disc, a baby monitor (which was likely supposed to be used shortly after I was born, although it had never been unboxed), and booklets on how to take care of a newborn. But what surprised me was this thing that looked like a boombox or a radio. What I found out was that it was a Phillips CD soundmachine, that could also play MP3 and WMA files, both of those being audio formats. While doing my first analysis, I checked on the buttons, and also opened the CD entry to see what was the last thing that had been played on it, up to that moment. That was a Baby Einstein CD, which was my favorite show when I was six, and also something I previously mentioned in this blog. It's that type of babies' show with puppets, toys and a bunch of transitions. Anyway, I went to the other bedroom shortly, and then went to the car (a 2011 Peugeot) to pick up the Scorpions CD and bring it upstairs. Just so you have an idea, it was made in 2001, and back then the band was very popular. Nowadays? Barely anyone talks about them, and they've vanished off the rock industry. I decided to listen to just one track, and personally, it just felt nice to refresh my mind with some true high quality music. Even recorded a part of the final verse for my VidTape channel. Now, what were the buttons like? Well, this is the summarized list.
Still, I might consider taking a look at and playing other stuff there in the future, such as the many burned CDs from the living room, or the CDs I have myself, like Djavan and The Beatles. Just so you know, my collection had been frozen since February.
Advantages and disadvantages of owning physical media
Inspired by @cafecomnaftalina
On this one, we'll be analyzing if you should still collect physical media in the streaming era. For people who think you shouldn't or want to collect, this one is for you. You might start collecting for other reasons, but I began doing it for pleasure since I really like it. I was born in 2012, so I got the DVD era, but I never went to a rental company, sadly.
Advantages:
1: The film will ALWAYS be yours.
For instance; you get a DVD for atleast 25 dollars, and once it's on your shelf, drawer or wherever you put it, you have it forever. On streaming, you have to pay a monthly subscription, and sometimes when you want to watch a specific movie, it has been removed. It's like you watch the movie in that moment, but you never know when it vanishes.
2: Availability
On physical media, you watch it whenever you want; all you need is the player (or a reader from your PC), the screen and the media. On streaming, you need the internet to download it, and when it goes down (or you forget to pay the internet), you can't watch the movie.
3: Rare media archival
As you saw in my previous article, the Santa's Music Box Maxprint release is already an example of this; however we're talking about media that NEVER made it to streaming. Take the Baby Gallileo DVD (also by Maxprint); it has the names of planets, which is already something far more technical for a babies' show.
4: The Extras section
At DVDs (and rarely VHS), you can find an Extras section, where you can see some interesting things, like director comments, behind the scenes, etc. On streaming, you basically can't access these since it's just the movie itself. Sometimes, the extras are described on the back of the case.
5: Extended versions
These are scenes that you won't find on streaming. Usually they come in the same media or as two separate versions. Going to these, you can see a lot of scenes that aren't included in the original movie.
6: Classic dubs
On streaming, most movie dubs are removed or re-done. Physical media allows you to watch the original dubs, which sometimes, they build the movie's essence.
7: Scene archival
On the physical media, you have the original version of the movie. On streaming, mostly they try to be politicaly correct, so when it comes to specific scenes, they are either changed or completely cut off. If you are on Disney+, you can notice they do it a lot, so you know what I'm talking about.
Disadvantages:
1: Quality
Back then, TVs used to be square, so movies on physical media would come in 4:3 to fit entirely. But on modern widescreen TVs, you'll notice black borders, so the movie doesn't fill the screen anymore. The quality can be low, or the compression can be damaged. On streaming services, they often try to strech the movie to fill the entire screen.
2: Disc damage
For people who shop online, this one happens oftenly. The discs might be scratched, broken or have holes at the bottom, meaning the film might freeze when played or stop working completely. Double check your discs before inserting them on the player.
3: Where to keep them
Sometimes, the cases or the media itself can occupy a lot of space in your room. For people who have a small room, keeping these will be difficult without causing damage to the media.
4: Absence of official releases
Most brands abandoned the DVD production, so collections are often incomplete. For instance, if you want a movie that's not available for DVD, you have to either get an exported one or... pirate the movie (don't try doing this).
PHEW, this article took real long to make, so hope you like it.
Santa's Music Box: 2005 Portuguese Dub (Maxprint and Double Sound re-release)
Archived: January 1, 2026
So if you don't know, Baby Einstein was a babies show from the late 90s/2000s, and it had a lot of dubs over time. But this brazilian dub is partially lost, and the thing is, my father had the 13 discs of this dub; not the official ones by Disney (which are already hard to find), but the budget Maxprint releases, which are even harder to find. Knowing this, on January 1st 2026, I went to archive the dub for Santa's Music Box from 2005 by Double Sound, one of the hardest media pieces to find. Recording this was a headache, but hopefully I put it into Internet Archive. However, this had another release; the 2003 release by Delart. This one stayed very short in the brazilian market, making it harder to find than the 2005 re-release, so it's still lost.
Why Music CDs are Treasures
This is something most people don't realize since nowadays people don't really care about music discs. Back on the clean-up we were doing to move, I got a Djavan disc (likely from my mom), and it had 12 tracks on it (even tho I only listened to one). CDs are important since you own the physical piece of art, with high-quality audio and history that won't disappear if a streaming service ever goes down. For example, you could hear smooth guitar sounds on the CD, while on Spotify, it would be unnoticed.