From DVDs to Streaming

Among the film-related belongings I brought with me when we moved was a small stack of DVD and Blu-ray inserts that promised a digital copy of the movie in addition to the physical media purchase. Even though I've acquired quite a library of DVDs and Blu-rays over the years—all denuded of their cases and nonessential inserts (I kept booklets and more informative inserts) to be stored in binders, which take up much less space—I apparently never sought to claim such digital copies, relying instead on the physical media itself, or streaming services. Regardless, I kept all of the inserts for potential future use.

Rather than just recycle the inserts unused at this late date, I decided to see whether they still worked. In some cases, I might have acquired the DVDs and Blu-rays a decade and a half ago, so it was an interesting experiment. There were just more than 20 such inserts. Apparently, such redemption codes were more commonly used with Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases rather than DVDs

In some cases, the URLs on the inserts no longer worked. In other cases, the offer had expired, which makes sense given how long I've had these. In one case, the service—Disney Movie Rewards, later renamed Disney Movie Insiders—has shut down. Launching in 2006 and rebranded in 2019, Disney Movie Rewards was shuttered in late 2024 after almost 20 years of operation. That, too, makes sense with the launch of Disney+ in late 2019.

But many, perhaps most of the insert URLs and codes—long alphanumerical strings, all—still worked. I ended up parceling out the redemptions across several streaming services. Most of the codes that still worked went to Google Play if it was an available streaming service. The next largest set went to Fandango at Home, if Google Play wasn't offered. And one movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, landed in Movies Anywhere, if neither Google Play nor Fandango at Home were available options. I created new accounts for Fandango at Home and Movies Anywhere because I hadn't used the services previously.

(Interestingly, for at least one of the URLs that didn't work—but not for Disney Movie Rewards—I could still redeem the code via Movies Anywhere. I'm glad I tried!)

I still own the DVDs and Blu-rays—physical media remains the most secure way to retain ownership to the media you buy—and will likely turn to them first as I watch my way through my movies before releasing them to friends, family, and the wild. So I've yet to experience accessing or watching the movies that now reside in my Google Play, Fandango at Home, and Movies Anywhere libraries. Having redeemed the codes on the Web using my laptop, it's clear that I can watch the movies on my MacBook, and I've used Google Play before, so I have a sense of what that experience will be like.

But it'll be interesting to see whether it's worth downloading the Fandango at Home and Movies Anywhere apps—I presume they exist—to my television. I now have two movies available on Movies Anywhere, five on Fandango at Home, and nine in Google Play.

Perhaps more interesting, we'll see how many times I want to watch Gods of Egypt or Infernal Affairs.