One of the most publicized corporate blunders this year began with Netflix’s realization that consumers still like DVDs. A lot.

Netflix’s response, including raising subscription prices and its failed Qwikster spinoff, severely compromised Netflix’s subscription base, consumer trust and market value. All because people still like their DVDs.

And justly so; DVD chapter browsing and bonus content were such a dramatic improvement over VHS that after their release in 1997 consumers started buying movies like never before.  In 2002 DVD sales finally eclipsed those of VHS, which died for obvious reasons: it was a cropped, low-quality version of a film you had to play end to end. Compared to DVD, VHS obviously sucked.

I myself bought into the DVD craze and own around three hundred of them. Now that I do most of my viewing through streaming on my computer and other digital devices, you would think I would have switched to Download-To-Own (DTO) for recent purchases. But looking now at my collection in the two years since DTO became a viable option I own three VTO titles, or one percent of the movies I own. And I hate them. So much.

Compared to DVDs, DTO sucks. It’s like a digital VHS: pricey, no access to special features and clunky (or impossible) to move between devices. DTO’ing (yes, it’s now a verb) a movie off Amazon or Itunes is like owning a crappy DVD for three times the cost of renting it.

Renting digital make a lot of sense; you can watch the movie once and return it at the click of a button. That’s why people rent movies; to watch them once and return them. People who rent movies aren’t interested in special features; they’re not even sure if they like the movie yet.

Buying movies is a different story; consumers buy DVDs they’ve already seen to re-experience them, and also perhaps to learn about how they were made. DVDs conditioned consumers to expect the added value of special features. which DTO does not provide. This is why DTO, from a consumer standpoint, is not a suitable substitute for DVDs.

In other words, DTO sucks.

If I can rip a DVD onto my computer and play it with special features, why the hell can’t I buy that exact same thing in digital format?

Amazon and Itunes take a sizeable cut for their distribution services (around 30% per download). This is significantly higher than brick-and-mortar stores like Best-Buy, who often sell DVDs at a loss to drive shoppers toward other more profitable items in their stores. My guess is that the revenue discrepancy between DVD and DTO is a major reason for content owners to bet against the latter, even at the cost of consumer satisfaction and potential sales.

One thing’s for sure; as of this writing DTO is a crappy way to own a movie. It makes more sense to pirate or rent than it does to DTO, which right now feels like more of a punishment than anything else.

Also: not being able to screen capture Itunes movies sucks. That’s all.