The search function didn't turn up any results for this, maybe I didn't word it correctly, I don't know.

I'm just curious as to whether you count TV seasons as 1 DVD in your collection, or do you count each individual disc? And why?

As far as I was concerned when I got DVD Profiler, I wasn't interested in padding my numbers by adding each individual disc from each season of a TV series (I'd have a MUCH higher count than I do now), so I just counted each season as 1. I was just curious as to how you guys (figuratively speaking, of course) counted yours in your collections? -kd5-

Each season as 1. No particular reason other than that seems to make the most sense.

Whatever DVD Profiler gives me.
However, I prefer each disk being a separate entry [ideally, subdivided by seasons as well, for the complete sets].
Not that I want to pad my count, but just that that way makes it easier for me to check things off and track progress and recall what I have watched and haven't watched. For instance, for some reason my viewings of Farscape, Buffy, and Six Feet Under have been interrupted. Since those titles, IIRC, have each disk as an entry, it's easy to recall where I was.

After looking at your collection, I can see where counting each disc has its advantages: You get individual episode summaries that way. As it is with mine, I get the series overview with each season, with episode listings (+ individual episode cast/crew), but no individual episode summary.

I may have to rethink this. -kd5-

I count each disc in the series set. Just makes more sense to me. If you have 7 discs in a series set...how can you just count that as being 1 disc???

It's not being counted as 1 disc. It's being counted as 1 "entry". If you have a movie that's stretched across 2 discs would that 1 movie be counted as 2?

1 season = 1 entry.

It depends on what you mean by "count". I've never really cared or had an accurate count of my collection, be it by title, disc, season, whatever.

I guess my first instincts when I hear "what's your count?" would be the number of films I own. If I did a count I think I would count each film as one, even if 4 films are on one disc; each disc of shorts as one; and each TV season as one, no matter what the episode or disc count is. But the number of variables and different possible totals hurts my brain so I just prefer to not care about numbers at all.

Each season counts as 1 DVD listing.

This.

I would actually prefer to keep it like I have it now: Each season counts as 1, but I wish there was a way to get individual episode information (in DVD Profiler) without changing the method of counting the DVDs, and without having to manually enter any of that information. -kd5-

For me each box set only counts as one with TV shows. A movie no matter how many disc is still just 1. 4 Film Favorites are just 1. Multipacks that cram 4 films on 2 1-sided disc with no extras are counted as 1. I even counted Psycho II, III, & IV as 1. However, stuff like X-Men trilogy, Godzilla Collection, ect,. are full individual DVD cases just boxed together. They count as how many there are not as one. Another exception I make is the Triple features that have all 3 disc full versions of the films. Identical to the regular releases with extras just packed together in one triple pack. Those count as 3 to me. I could easily store them in 3 extra DVD cases. They are 3 full movies. Hmmm ... if I bought one of those 100 movies on 50 double sided disc box sets ... I have no idea what to do. Counting that as 1 seems stupid. But tacking on 100 movies to my count seems weirder.

This is a great topic, BTW.

This pretty much sums it up for me. well said!

I still stand by what I said! If there are 4 discs in a series set box then thats 4 discs...period!

You can have the child profiles, like the ones for each disc in a box set, gets an entry without getting a number. That's what I do, add the box set, look for any child profiles and add them with only the main profile getting a number.

I guess the number of disks I have doesn't carry much meaning for me. When thinking of or responding about collection size, I think in terms of movie titles (don't consider variations based on cuts), TV series as a whole, and sometimes number of TV seasons.

It's funny; I actually just went through about two weeks ago and changed my DVD Profiler "count as" field counts. I decided that each TV season should count as a singular entry. I thought about counting based on the number of discs, but that made no sense to me since my organization doesn't rely on accounting for the number of physical discs I have. If I used binders or something like that I could see it, but I have them all in their cases on shelves so it's entirely irrelevant to me.

So then I decided that what "entry" really meant to me was "number of stories being told." That equates to an episode count. Each of the first five seasons of The Sopranos is 13 episodes long, meaning there should be 13 entries per season. The problem there, though, was that that bugged me, too. Ultimately I settled on counting each season as a singular entry, with my argument being that each season of a given show generally has its own unique arcs, etc. that tell a larger story. I used the logic behind a serial there; I don't count Batman and Robin (1943) based on its number of chapters; I count it as one story told in episodic installments. Ergo, the first season of The Sopranos is a singular story told in 13 episodic installments, ergo The Sopranos - The Complete First Season is a singular entry.

And now that I've explained all that, I'm again doubting my system. Gah! Why did you have to go and do this to me?!

It does get confusing. I was just thinking about how a lot of these extras were released on VHS as stand alones. Like "Making of". I used to have a VHS of the making of "Die Hard With A Vengeance". So I guess back in VHS days that would count as separate from the actual movie. 2 entries. Now it's just included on the special features disc.

I saw that "Bond Girls Are Forever" is on DVD on Amazon.com right now. Yet it's just a special feature on one of my James Bond disc.

Perhaps these should not affect count ... but should they be noted in our files? If we rate the film on a scale of 1 to 10 ... what about short films, mini-movies, cartoon episodes, making of, ect,. that are included on a lot of these DVD's. Every Pixar film includes some short film that was shown in theaters prior to the main feature. Should that be counted, made note of, rated separately? Should we have a rating for the film and then one for the contents of the DVD itself?

I know one ... The Pretender Movie Edition DVD. It includes two full movies. Should it count as ...

1 DVD
2 Films
2 Ratings (One for each film)

It gets confusing.

Oh! What about combo packs? DVD / Blu-Ray / Digital Copy ... is that 3 or just 1 entry? Should Digital copies count at all?

My head hurts now.

Another example would be The Making of Jurassic Park VHS, which was one of my favorite titles and is a bonus feature on the Jurassic Park DVD. I would certainly have counted them as two entries in the VHS era, but in the DVD era it seems that only the movie gets to count. And yet, I'm reluctant to go in and count every actual feature as its own "entry."

That standalone DVD was a Best Buy exclusive, released in conjunction with Die Another Day. It had a TV broadcast, though I forget which channel aired it or whether it hit DVD before or after the broadcast. The version that appears on Casino Royale is expanded to bring it up to date with that movie. I count my standalone copy as one "entry" and count Casino Royale as one, too.

These are the questions that preoccupy us. I can't answer them, but I sleep better at night knowing I'm not the only one who asks them!

I personally am of the mind that in the case of combo packs I only count the title itself and view the other formats as redundant copies. I personally prefer Digital Copies to DVDs because I'll take my iPod with me but not DVDs. The Digital Copy, though, is just a self-serving "compromise" the studios offer to prevent me from ripping the Blu-ray Disc I've bought. So far as I'm concerned, I only even have the DC because they won't legally allow me to make my own. I wouldn't count a CD and its iTunes rip as two copies of the same album, so I don't consider a Digital Copy a second existence of the Blu-ray Disc.

With DVDs in combo packs it's a little different because those are the same DVDs being sold separately. But, again, I only own the DVD because it was forced on me; I have no intention of ever watching the DVD from any of my combo packs. (Unless it's something like The Thomas Crown Affair, where for whatever reason, MGM omitted John McTiernan's commentary track from the Blu-ray Disc but threw in the flipper DVD that included it.)

I suppose what I'm saying is that in the case of combo packs, I only consider it a singular entry because the content is simply cloned in additional formats.

I don't count digital copies at all. I guess that could be considered a little inconsistent, but digital copies mean nothing to me, I will never watch them, so I totally ignore them. I've also only got a few titles with digital copies.

Other content on the disk, like the PIxar shorts - I don't count. If I watch a disk, an item in DVDPro, or the stuff on the disk I care about, I mark it off. I'm not really into commentaries so for purposes of my accounting, I don't have to listen to them, and if there are extras I don't care about, I don't watch those either. Most two disk releases, movie and extras on separate disks, are considered one item - I will either decide not to watch the extras, or I will watch them at approximately the same time I watch the movie, so it's like one item.

At first I did add the child profiles without counting them, but in relation to the Unwatched Movie Pile threads, I didn't want to watch 144 hours of content [tv series] and just check off one thing. So I numbered the individual disks, or at least the seasons, where possible.

To me, digital copies and special features discs are just part of the actual movie/DVD that I bought and therefore do not rate a separate entry in my collection. Having said that however, The Island, which was given to me as a Christmas present several years ago, was the version with a separate Bonus Disc in its own case. DVD Profiler offered to count that disc as a separate entity and I allowed it because in essence it was a separate entity. That's the only one of those I have though so I was only faced with that dilemma once.

To me, it's not about disc count, it's about documenting my DVD collection. I want to try what Jcheckel suggested with child profiles again. My first attempt automatically counted each disc in the season as a separate entity and gave each one a number. I'm going to play around with that and see if I can get it to give me the episode details without adding to the total count. -kd5-

as 1 because afterall it is one season, one set and who cares about trumping up collection #'s by disc total. then, you'd have to do it all that way. 2-dvd sets with two versions of same movie, a full-length docu on one, etc...

I don't think it's really a matter of inflating one's numbers. For myself, for instance, I think of it this way: Each episode in a season aired on its own night, had its own writers and director. In essence, a television season is an aggregate of X number of individual stories.

The film equivalent would be a box set; I wouldn't count the Star Wars Trilogy as a singular entry because Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi stand alone with their own release dates, some changes in production cast and crew, etc.

So if, as you suggest, our counting rules should be consistent (and I agree they should), then this singular topic does expose us to having to answer all of these questions. It sounds entirely trivial--and, really, it is--but for those of us who get caught up in the trivial it's rather important.

Just added child profiles which did NOT increase the number of DVDs in my DVD Profiler collection database (or didn't seem to at first), but DID want to increase the number on my DVD Profiler Online collection when I tried to upload it. Updating my online collection wants to add almost 300 to my count, which I did NOT want to do. I need to try to figure out how to undo these, I backed up the database after I added child profiles for the first series I checked. I can restore the database to undo all the others though. Dammit anyway! -kd5-

I count each title as 1. Don't count seperate seasons discs, extras, or combo discs

Okay, this thread got under my skin and since our plans today fell apart I've been exploring DVD Profiler for a satisfactory way to address this. Here's what I've currently instituted, and I'll use The Sopranos - The Complete First Season to illustrate. First, make sure to include Child Profiles for all four discs.

In the box set profile, click Personalize. Count as: 0. That's right, the whole box counts as nothing.

In the child profile for Discs 1-3, click Personalize. Collection Number: None. For disc 4, Collection Number is still None, but Count as: 1 (because there's only one episode).

The aggregate then, is 1 collection number, but 13 counted episodes.