JimRochester

You own over 5000 DVD's. I couldn't come up with 5000 movies or shows I wanted to see let alone own.

The last DVD's I bought were the 3 seasons of Chuck. The BD's got lackluster reviews and there were plenty of used SD's to be had. So I guess I will buy given the right circumstances however they were the only SD's in the last couple years. Other than that I really haven't seen any I desire to own. Every week I check out the DVD's being released and add them to my queue, if it is available in Blu they send that if not I get the DVD.

I went from one extreme to the other, from buying 5 a week to probably 10 or so a year. Rentals are fine for me. I only get to watch on Fridays and Saturdays so the 2 at a time with in store exchange gets me through the weekend

Travis McClain

Ladies and gentlemen, the single greatest first post in this forum's history!

As for the subject at hand, our financial situation has reached an all-time low this year (though we're hopeful that it's about to begin to turn around for us). But even without that, there have been a few factors that have contributed to slowing down our library's once reckless pace of expansion.

For one thing, having gone to Blu-ray last year has discouraged us from rummaging through Walmart's $5.00 bins. A decent chunk of our library originated there, and now there's a sense that anything we could find there we could also get on Blu-ray. And the reason we don't buy that title on Blu-ray is that we don't really have a strong desire for that title in the first place. Why pay $5.00 for a title on DVD when we won't pay $10 for its Blu-ray counterpart?

Also, we've focused more on the Unwatched Pile recently. It's actually felt good to (finally) watch some of these things we've had long enough that the edition we own has since been replaced by a better release. If we can just get through our remaining unwatched horror titles for this month's Horror Challenge, we'll be down to about 100 unwatched titles and that's pretty good for us.

Which brings me to another point. Participating in the monthly challenges has really nudged me into expanding my viewing tastes and habits. Just about everything I watched for last month's Criterion Challenge was streamed from Netflix, and while it was great to get our money's worth in September, there are a few movies I enjoyed enough I'd like to own them. Do I buy the DVD now, or try to be patient for the inevitable Blu-ray release?

And then there's Black Friday looming over the horizon. If we give any gifts this year at all, it'll be my wife's doing--I've been abject to exchanging gifts with grown damn people for years now. We won't have much to spend on BF, but I'm hopeful to at least snag Psych season 4 for $12.99 like we've done with the previous seasons. We'll see how it goes, but I'm trying now to get a sense of whether there are going to be any major releases I'll go for, or if it'll be one of those spread-the-money-around years, where we simply pile up the $2-5 titles.

CRM114

"Don't watch them" is a relative situation. Don't watch them in a year? 2 years? 5 years? I buy movies for the long term and mostly for an impulse viewing. I only buy movies that I feel are classic, must-haves. I do have a few lame movies here and there that I must have picked up dirt cheap for some reason.

My blu-ray purchases are very targeted however as I don't want to have a huge assortment (because they are too expensive). I will only buy blu-rays if 1.) they are cheap and visually awesome or 2.) are on my personal list of classic, must-haves. For instance, Apocalpyse Now is a must have. Thin Red Line was a must have. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a must have. I have all of them on DVD of course but will give them to my local library.

Travis McClain

I'm with you on this point. It doesn't faze me in the least to have even a favorite title collect dust for a few years. Lawrence of Arabia is one of my favorite movies of all time, but in the seven years since I've been with my wife she's only watched it with me once...and that was last year. I may have watched it without her during the beginning of our relationship, but I know I hadn't seen it in a good five years. At no point did it ever cross my mind that the irregularity of viewing should be a reason for me to part with the DVD.

JimRochester

Definately one of the factors for me as well. I was involved in an industry which serviced new mortgages. When the crap hit the fan a couple years ago I was laid off 3 times in 2 years. One of the times I was not eligable for unemployment. That really started the whole paring down. If I wanted to buy something I had to sell enough to pay for it. It was so easy to find a bunch of junk I didn't care about owning I just kept cleaning.

hasslein

For me its the eco cases, and lack of inserts (for older titles.) I won't buy them new anymore & wait for a used copy to appear of an older release that will still have the insert & regular case. .. so I'm still buying just as many, but not from the same places. And very few new. Unless from a discount store, like big lots or Ross

nmr1723

I've found myself not re-watching titles even if I really love the movie. Also, if I do re-watch a title, it's either an animated movie with my son...or something that takes advantage of my sound system (some of the Pixar titles sound awesome). I don't have an amazing system...but it's pretty damn good (Ascend Acoustics, ED Sub & Mirage Sub)...and I prefer to re-watch movies that have great audio. This leads me to watch more action/superhero movies a lot of the time...but I enjoy the audio so much that these movies (as mindless as they can be sometimes) are more fun for me to watch.

For this reason, I'm currently selling off tons of titles that I never watch. I'm getting rid of pretty much every DVD I have save for a few titles that are dear to my heart and the BD is unavailable (Indiana Jones, Finding Nemo, Iron Giant, LOTR extended, etc .). I'm also getting rid of some BD's of movies that I really enjoy...but don't see myself watching again in the near future (L.A. Confidential, Shawshank, Dumb & Dumber, Gattaca, etc.).

As many others have said...Netflix is a huge factor as well. Our "one BD at a time" plan combined with streaming gives us tons of titles to watch...and I have three rooms setup for instant streaming.

Last...I'm done collecting things. I'm more into tinkering with my AV system, PC, etc. these days.

I do plan on buying Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon and possibly the BTTF trilogy...but I don't see anything else on the horizon as of now.

CRM114

Lawrence is a perfect example. (And my wife has no interest in watching it.) But I do return to it every couple of years as its one of my top 5 all-time. This is a title I will buy in blu-ray the day it comes out too.

vjack99

I've cut way back because I rarely have time to watch what I have and because there are so few movies being released these days that I have any interest in watching more than once. There are still several on my list that I will pick up eventually, but prices remain high enough that I'm in no hurry.

Trevor

Those two things are extremely contradictory.

You're picky enough to only want to see less than .1% of all films and shows, yet you want to buy Chuck?

WMAangel

Why are you hating on Chuck?
That's a quality show right there, sounds to me more like the guy has taste!

Blu Man

Um, it's entertaining, but I'd hardly call it a "quality show".

JimRochester

Well ya got me there. Chuck was a present for my son but I like the show too.

At the height I had about 2000 give or take a few. When i got laid off I had to sell off some stuff in order to buy anything new. I then realized I had craploads of discs I purchased and never opened, Had seen, didn't like yet kept, and others I had seen but knew I would probably never watch again. Basically they were taking up space on a shelf for no other reason than to wow people that came over. I sold off or tossed out to pare down to the 900 or so I have now. I never blind buy anymore, I'll rent first then if it's a keeper I'll keep my eyes open for a purchase. If the wife says she wants it I'll get it then too.

To keep the story less than 10,000 words; i usually watch 2 or 3 Friday and again on Saturday. My BB online with exchange is good for 4 new movies a week. Then I'll dip in to my collection. For the one or two I might watch I don't really need any more than the number I've got. Like i said, it's not that I don't want to watch other movies, I just don't want to own them.

Artman

Trevor, I'm just curious...do you have a link to your collection? Don't see one in your sig...

Trevor

No no, it's a fine show. I was just lightly mocking the exaggerated statement of not even wanting to watch 5000 of the several million recordings in film history and yet buying something like that.
We're cool, I agree or understand every point you and others have made in this thread. But feel like no one has really answered my only point, about refusing to buy DVDs and only buying BDs, but just dance around it throwing out off topic comments. I see bucknaked's response now, and no, I buy mainstream stuff as well. Perhaps the 100 to 1 ratio is an exaggeration, but tons of stuff is DVD only still. Look at the total new releases of any recent week on Amazon, and there are several hundred DVD releases and maybe 50-100 BD releases. And this doesn't even count all the archive type releases and the low budget DVD distributors.

But yeah, we all have our own rationalizations and reasons for where we put our time and money.

My standard rationalization is that I spend less money on DVDs than a casual drinker or smoker does on their vices; but they have nothing to show for it except possible disease, and I have 5000 DVDs that my friends, family, and self enjoy daily.

I had one back in the DVDSpot days, but haven't made the effort to redo it since that went down. 5000 is probably a good rough number if you count all films, TV seasons, and misc DVDs, but it could be off by 1000 either way. Mainly mainstream stuff that most of you have heard of.

JimRochester

As I've said before on this board; people have coins they don't spend, stamps they don't mail and cars they don't drive. I myself have a 78 Trans Am in the garage that gets maybe 300 miles a year put on it. I have no problem with the collecting of DVD's. I thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of the hunt when I did it. Once the money got tight something had to give. I got out of the habit and discovered i really don't miss it. Watching rentals was enough to satisfy my craving for film and TV.

Gizmo

I'm at the point where I'm going to sell off a good 20-30% of my collection (if not more) and just rent. I've got far too many movies I've either never seen, or watched once. It's becoming a chore.

I'll still buy TV on BD/DVD releases as those give me the best value...but I think I'm done. I hope.

Xiroteus

I was never buying an insane amount plus I never buy anything as a new released due to the cost, I have to hold off a bit for cost reasons or to make sure it is a top level film, I have noticed this year that I am hardly watching films I already own I feel like watching television on dvd or movies that are new to me or top level favorites or at least a film I have not seen in years. I have under four hundred movies I believe (need to do a count) and even that is starting to film high with maybe too much filler from that $1.50 dvd sale on the pawn shop.

I have to buy a ton of replacement cases for most films even new ones.

That is very true, I have only seen around 1,500 movies in the last 7.5 years, and that includes new and repeat viewing yet not television shows, even so over SEVEN years to do that. Even with the back list I doubt I can get past 500 at this time, and even now I have some filler I will be taking a look at.

bse

I've started to sell off a lot of my unwanted titles or titles I'll never watch again, I'm pretty satisfied with even a couple of dollars, it's mainly about cutting down the size and the quality of films. As I stated before, I'm going to cut back drastically come November 1st, place an order a week and only buying blu-rays (and an occasional DVD) that I know I will watch multiple times, and I will defiantly stop blind buying movies because they are cheap, I've got a ton of $3 titles that I will never watch and are impossible to sell off. I want to basically make my blu-ray collection where I can close my eyes and any blu-ray I pick, is a quality film....in my eyes at least.

Xiroteus

I just did that for some reason as well as the $1.50 pawn shop sale, some are good some are really pointless and may be okay yet not worth more then a view, not really worth anything to sell either so one may say just keep them yet if I will never view them again there is no point in keeping them.

Not going to do that any more.

BuckNaked2k

^ Donate them to your local public library. They may be worth more as a tax write-off.

Pizza

A lot of movies I would normally buy on DVD/Blu are coming out on DVD-Rs. I've no interest for that media. So, my purchases have been slowly shrinking. Which, is fine.

JimRochester

We have several threads related to collecting so I guess it didn't matter which one I bumped.

For quite a few years now I acquire only a half dozen to a dozen or so discs in a year. Birthday, Christmas, a Marvel, Star Trek, TV season or war movie release. After the death of Blockbuster online I started going to a Family Video and the library. I grab a couple every Friday.

Now with my recent foray into UHD, I decided to take another critical look at my collection and try to trim things down and see what I may want to upgrade if any to UHD. I have HD DVD's and DVD's still in the shrinkwrap from 10 or 15 years ago. There are a few BR I'm donating to the library if they want them. A bunch I'm just tossing out. Too many I bought because they were on sale. When HD DVD was discontinued you could grab discs really cheap so I bought quite a few and naturally never watched them.

I haven't started streaming anything yet but will start at some point. I hate to be a contributor to the death of physical media but when I look at what I spent on discs to end up with stuff being thrown in the garbage I realize I could have had a used car. I did have fun while it lasted though.

There are still several movies in my signature, some of which have never even had a decent DVD release (True Lies) which I would still like to own. But the days of needing to own a pristine wrapped HD DVD copy of Daylight to gather dust are long over.

BuckNaked2k

Time warp.....to 2010!

morriscroy

Back in 2010, dvd/bluray wasn't even on my radar at all.

I only started buying a lot of dvds and blurays in early/mid-2011.


Fast forward to the present day (2017), I'm already "burned out" on dvd/bluray.

I actually abruptly stopped buying dvds/bluray sometime this past June (2016). But recently I fell off the wagon (over the past month or so) and went on a huge dvd/bluray buying binge, which felt like a "second wind" with another subsequent burnout.