Has Anyone Else Quit Buying DVDs?
 

Hi All, I'm just wondering if I'm alone in the fact that I've all but quit buying DVDs?

2-3 years ago, I owned over 300, and I realized that I would buy every DVD just because I wanted to see the movie, and I'd watch it one time, then it would collect dust for years!

Upon realizing that 2/3 of the movies I owned weren't movies I wanted to keep, I unloaded most of them, and kept my favorites.

Now, I still have those core movies and watch them occasionally, but I just don't buy DVD's any more. I started getting BlockBuster.com and SEVEN movies a month for $7.99, and find that I am pretty much set.

Another factor is the hi-def race. I have mixed feelings on this,

1. I am going to wait till one of the 2 formats wins
2. I feel that regular DVD is "good enough" so I'm not in any hurry.

Anyone else in the same boat as me? Frankly, I'd rather buy a 12-pack of Newcastle than a DVD these days.

Hm. 12-pack of Newcastle or...Se7en + A Room With a View + free 300 movie pass for $10 at Best Buy recently? A case of Newcastle or the Almodovar collection for $25?

That 12-pack you're buying plus that $7.99 for the BB membership could have netted you four GREAT DVDs w/tons of extras from BB AND 4 tix to 300.

I'll keep taking advantage of great DVD deals/sales and use the savings on the occasional 12-pack.

I actually went through the same phase. I often bought movies I liked when they were cheap and later found myself questioning why I had them. Other movies I would watch once love then shelve and probably never watch again. This led me to seriously reconsider my collection and now I keep only big favorites. Netflix helps to continue my thirst for cinema.

I also have slowed down in buying movies on DVD. The main reason I used to buy them more at the beginning was because that was pretty much the only way you could watch them. I got into DVDs before they were in rental markets, so either I bought the DVD or I lived without it. Because of that, I probably bought more than I would have.

I have found that I have settled back to my purchasing habits that I had when I was collecting VHS tapes, and that's to buy movies I know I would want to watch more than a few times and just rent the others or try to pick them up when they are dirt cheap, like five bucks a disc.

I've slowed down considerably, but that's mostly because I have pretty much everything I want. Sometimes new stuff comes out that I want, but it's pretty rare these days.

I'm pretty much the same way. As for the new stuff, it seems the regular editions all eventually drop to the $5-$10 range over the span of a couple weeks or months.

No I still buy tons of them. I'll go through phases where I spend all my time playing games or reading books but I always come back to movies.

I feel like renting anything is a ripoff. Especially DVDs that are nowadays ridiculously cheap.

Since I just recently passed 700 titles I have slowed down but only because I have 99% of what I want. I still buy new releases same as always & occasional catalog titles as they become available. I also double dip when a quality SE comes out so I have some of those to get once in a while. Even though I havg a 50" Samsung dlp I don't plan to go high def for a long time & I really don't think I'll replace what I have. Standard dvd when done right is still great to me.

I compulsively/impulsively buy any DVD that I want to watch.

Once I watch the movie on DVD I ask myself if I think I would ever watch it again. If the answer is no, I sell it off, usually only losing the cost of what a rental would have been.

As a film student, for me buying DVDs is part of the process of gradually building a personal library, but if you're a casual viewer I can't imagine building a huge collection unless you entertain a lot.

I use to buy everything under the sun. Now I've really cut down and usually rent. I still collect some TV shows and some movies I really enjoyed on the big screen. Until prices go down for the new formats, my buying days are coming to an end.

In the early years of DVD, I bought like a madman. I got up to around 400 or 500 titles and found stuff collecting dust or sitting on the shelf unwrapped for months (or possibly years). I went thru my collection a year or two ago, sold off the stuff that was worth a lot of money and kept only what I would consider my personal 4 to 5 star movies.

I decided once HD-DVD and Blueray came out that I would not buy anything unless it was $5 or less. But due to this rule, I have now seen my dvd buying pick up a ton in the last 6 months due to Circuit City/Best Buy who seem to have great titles at 5 bucks all the time now. Hell, wait 6 months and you can have new releases at that price nowadays (if only the stupid music/cd industry would get a clue!).

Rental is still my preferred choice of seeing flicks blindly though. I have been burned too many times by "highly acclaimed" movies only to be seriously disappointed. I Netflix a title and if I love it, 6 months to a year down the road I buy it (used or new) for 5 bucks or less usually.

I hardly never buy new DVDs on the day they are released. The thing is if I wait even a month, that same DVD is going to be half the price. I kick myself in the ass ever time I see a certain TV show on sale for $19.99 knowing that 1. I paid $50 for it the week it came out last year and 2. the fact that I haven't had time to even watch it.

The reality is that I just don't have time to watch dozens of new movies. I tend to buy my movies used too. I just picked up the Departed at Hollywood for like $8 used.

I made a conscious effort to cut down on my buying a few years ago. I sold a bunch of stuff and never regretted the decision. Some reasons:

- Save money and space
- Netflix
- Unsure if I'd want a bunch of DVDs taking up space in my home in a few years when different technologies and distribution models are more popular and accessible (blue-ray, hd-dvd, on demand, downloads, etc.)

...and this is from an "old-timer" who remembers when DVD-Talk was mainly a discount code site. Anyone else remember the 800.com "3 DVDs for a Penny" Sale? Yep, those were the days.

In the words od Office Space, 'No, Hell nah!' I will slow down every now and again, depending on how much I'm spending on instruments, truck parts, cd's, etc. but for the most part, I still spend way to much on movies on a regular basis.

I am waiting out the high def war also, but figure backwards compatability will take care of me.


On a side note, my friend was trying to tell me the other day, that in ten years there will not be a physical format for movies or music anymore. I simply told him, 'You have obviously never felt the joy of seeing your complete John Carpenter collection lined up on a shelf, or looked tried to decide if Dirty Harry should go in your Clint Eastwood or Don Siegal section, because there are enough collectors in the world to keep hard copies of media alive'

Nope. Buying more than ever! :)

I have a MASSIVE DVD & CD collection. Call me "old school", but I doubt if I'll even ever own a MP3 player. I guess I'm too afraid of losing everything if my Ipod died on me or my computer. I like having the "physical" format of my things.

I'm constantly buying DVDs. Like others have said here, they are so cheap these days, it's hard to pass up on them when you see them laying in a bargain bin for $5!

Count me in as another who's buying has slowed because I've bought most of what I've wanted. I'm more interested in older (or obscure) movies finally getting a release... plus a few new releases.

nope. I love movies too much to stop buying them. Plus, Best Buy and Circuit City constantly have $4.99, $5.99 sales on titles almost every week. It's hard to pass on those prices.

Not as much as I used to, but still buying... Im more discerning now for sure, plus I try to only buy on HD or BD. But even then not always. I still have my impulse issues and not being able to wait. For example, just bought Charmed season 8 from Australia last night because I dont want to wait for it to be released here.

I am a hardcore viewer but have slowed my buying down to the point of purchasing used dvds 98% of the time and 2% new. BB TA program allows me the freedom at greatly reduced rates to audition which movies deserve to be owned by me and also getting my fix of seeing vast quantities of films

I'm with most of you - buying has slowed or stopped. Kept a few movies I had to have in my library (Blade Runner, To Live and Die in LA, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and a few others). Went nutty the other day and bought Miami Vice 3 + 4 and Night of the Comet.

Have Netflix for last 1.5 years and get so many of the movies I used to own. I had nearly 500 titles, but sold them all on eBay and now only have about 15 titles.

Netflix is easy, cheap, and works.

A big thing for me cutting back was a combination of factors. I got tired of the waiting game on my favorites. Once I quit paying a lot of attention, it seemed many of them began to come out.

I got tired of studio double dipping.

I got tired of DVDs with no extras. When DVDs first came out, they had color booklets and all sorts of cool stuff. Now it seems about 90% of movies come in a plastic case without even so much as a paper insert. Took a lot of the fun out of it for me.

I realized that DVDs would eventually go the way of VHS, and I wanted to unload my stuff while I still had a chance at some decent cash for my collection. Which I did.

I wasn't watching half of what I owned. I'd do like many of you - buy it, watch it once, and never watch it again.

It also seemed like I always had 40 or 50 titles I'd never get around to.

Anyway, I've found other hobbies, now. I still lurk in here, because of my fondness for movies.

No matter how hard I try or how much I have unwatched, I can't stop buying. I think it's literally a disorder. It's even worse now that I'm buying Blu-Rays.

just rent from netflick or blockbuster or ondemand for comcast. occasionally will buy a dvd tv show set, watch tv show set once, then ebay it to use funds to buy other tv show set. also don`t hardly bother with Columbia House any more. yep times are a changing.

DVDS ARE MY CRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$5 or less sales all the time