My DVD storage solution (for now)
 

OK. Well, I thought long and hard about this... as you can see from the photo below, I am clearly running out of space for my DVD collection. More shelving is not an option. Moving is not an option.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...stuff/dvd1.jpg

Many here will consider this idea just an awful and unforgiveable thing to do, especially considering it requires some minor alteration to the slip-cover (gasp!)... although I suspect it's not quite as bad in the eyes of the DVDTalkers as putting your collection in binders (shudder).

NEWSFLASH! Thinpacks are thinner!

So, I had a few thinpak DVD cases lying around, from some old blank DVD-R's I had... and I took out the slipcover of the standard dvd... trimmed about 2mm off each side (and since they usually give you a little wiggle room, I didn't have to cut any wording), and voila. Much needed space for MORE DVD's. I was worried that the title on the spine would be illegible, but much to my surprise, the rounded thinpak edges make the title still very much readable.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...tuff/slim1.jpg

The picture is slightly misleading, but, the thin-packs, with the slightest bit of pressure on them will roughly be a 2-to-1 ratio with your standard sized DVD case.

Look, nobody wants to have to do this, but... but after switching a few discs over, I have to say I'm pretty darned happy. Those of you starting to hurt for space, I urge you to give it a try... it's nowhere near as awful as you think it might be... in fact, I actually am starting to prefer the slim look. Of course box sets, special packaging, digipaks, and steelbooks will just stay as they are. As for snappers? they suck, and I have no qualms about scanning a flipper onto glossy paper, and chucking those.

ohh, and you can get 100 thinpack cases for < $25.

Let the bashing begin....

edit: duh, I just realized I put 10 regularly sized movies on the left, and 11 thinpacks on the right, but you get the idea.

You monster. ;)

Pretty clever, although the titles on the spine seem a little tight; I can't make out the title of the DVD that's 3rd from the bottom on the right. I'd also be interested to see how the front and back covers look both before and after the trim.

I found a page where someone else had the same idea as you, although he extended it to mult-disc sets and special packaging as well (some of which required printing new covers).
http://darius.mobius-soft.com/~andrea/ht/thinpaks.shtml

When Hollywood video was blowing out their inventory a few months ago, many of the titles had cases that were in pretty rough shape. I had purchased a huge package of slim DVD cases years ago intending to use them for DVD-Rs and such, but I still had quite a few.

My wife has a really nice paper cutter, so I started trimming the edges, and using up those cases. As the OP said, special cases stay, and I haven't gotten good enough to scan and redo snapper covers, but it's a start.

I just picked up a few titles at Gamestop's "buy 2 get 4" sale last night, and most of them are going into slims.

It's actually a pretty good idea.

But being a DVD package designer, I couldn't bear to cut wraps. I'd be more inclined to scan the wraps and redesign the spine so the whole thing felt perfectly into a 7mm case. And then I'd have to put all the original cases into boxes for storage...

Fortunately I have about 300 DVDs worth of space left on my shelves, so i don't have to consider it for a while.

But it is a pretty clever idea.

et tu, brute? -wink-

That just seems like a whole lotta work. How many DVD's do you own? And you want to do this to just about all of them?

I have about 1200 DVD's. So, yeah, it's not going to be easy... but, its mindless... you can easily do it WHILE WATCHING a dvd. Hey, its not for everyone, I know...

I think this is a pretty good idea and something that I will eventually do myself but right now I'm not strapped for space. Maybe I'll get about 100 of these thin paks and get started on it myself.

I wish someone made a thin case with a little wider front and back cover so you could put the wrap in the case without cutting anything. I would convert mine in a heartbeat. Can't bring myself to cut but my resistance is shrinking. I rarely sell anything. Most of the time I give stuff away that I no longer want. I might try this with my kids discs as a test run since they pretty well abuse the hell out of their DVD's.

do you mind taking pictures of a cover you've trimmed with a cover that hasn't been trimmed so we can see just how much is cut off?

I like it.

I built a wall of Ikea shelfing recently (bad picture of it in one of these storage threads here), will hold maybe 1200 cases, thinking that it would hold all my non-TV DVDs. Well, it is already overflowing.

I go back and forth between getting rid of a few hundred DVDs, putting a few hundred of them back into binders (and storing the cases at my storage site), or now this idea.

If I choose this idea, I could start with my lesser titles that I might sell or give away someday anyway, which number in the hundreds, and that will give me another year or two of space.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ts/cropped.jpg

it is sort of tough to capture, but I think you get the idea... of course, the 1st few I did by hand, with some scissors so it's a tad wonky... but I've started to use a straight edge cutting thing my wife has... again, you only need to trim a bit on the right and left hand sides... no trimming is necessary on the top and bottom. You might be able to get away with folding over that little section on either side, instead of cutting, but, it's tough as it is such a small amount to work with.

some people cannot live with trimming even this much off, and I can respect that... but for me, I just don't care that much about "resale" values, etc. It is more important for me to have more space on hand for a larger collection.

And, I gotta tell you... I really, really, really like the look of the movies in the slim cases...

Best price I've found on-line for thinpaks is here:

http://www.checkoutstore.com/SLIM-Fr.../clrcase7s.htm

others (hey SarithaAnn!) now have begun doing this as well, and started posting the results over at another site I frequent:

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...n/thinkpak.jpg

you're using 7mm slimpaks right? i wonder if 9mm slimpaks wouldn't require you to trim anything at all.

Ive been doing this for a while, i have just over 1000 DVDs and at least half of them are in ThinPak's but I don't "cut" the covers I just print out new ones and store the originals in manilla envelopes. I also change any DigiPaks to either slims or regular DVD cases because I hate the hubs they use for them and store the original boxes in a storage container in my closet

yes 7mm. I haven't come across 9mm slimpaks yet... although, make it wide enough, and you sort of defeat the purpose.

http://www.checkoutstore.com/SLIM-Bl...lkcases9mm.htm

instead of being 1/2 as thick as a standard it's 2/3 as thick.

That's quite an old article. DVDCA has been dead for about 4 years now.

GenesysDTP.com has all kinds of slim cases. I've used them for years. I'm awaiting some 14mm(standard DVD size) 6 disc cases right now. I'm converting my Stargate: SG-1 sets over. Here's a comparison shot from a user in Rix's forums:

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2491/sg1hv8.th.jpg

Check out all the custom cover sites to convert your box sets over. You can see a few I did(Cheers, Seinfeld, Arrested Development) in the Cover & Cases section of this site. Rixgrafix has all your sci-fi needs with covers for Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar, Farscape, etc. He does fantastic work.

Dude, you don't need to cut shit. Just fold (inwards) about a quarter inch off the back (or an eighth of an inch each side), and you're fine - easier and less damage than cutting.

yes, I've previously mentioned this as an alternative to cutting... but considering the thickness of what you want to fold, it might be difficult for some and potentially not worth the trouble.

OK, so, I ordered these cases waaaaayyy back on 3/23. What was on my doorstep when I got home today, on 3/25? Holy crap! I guess it was worth the $20+ shipping expense afterall.

As for the cases themselves, there are one step down from say, the thinpaks that are in the Shield, or Seinfeld sets... not quite as sturdy, but still decent... I find that a lot of thinpaks have difficulty keeping the disc locked in... but these really do a great job with that... its just that the outside plastic sleeve is a bit on the flimsy side, but all in all I'm quite pleased.

Oh, and I've gotten good at making that little fold on the edges, so you can all calm down now, I am no longer cutting them. :)

I have a friend that does this. I constantly give her shit. If it doesn't bother you that's cool but, I think, being a collector, the packaging is just as important as the film included sometimes. I could never butcher my collection like that. I'll stack DVDs crotch-deep all over my floor before I chop them up to fit into little cases.

Best Buy sells pretty good thin-packs (I forget the brand name). They're clear, sturdy, lock the disc into place well, and have clips for inserts. They're around $15 for a pack of 30, so only fifty-cents a piece.

Wow... Sorry, but the very thought of "mutilating" my DVD collection that way gives me the willies!

I was wondering how long before the drama queens showed up.

We could make a new DVD Talk game - guess the name of TallGuyMe's movies. -biggrin-

those aren't mine. :)

Look, I understand... it's a polarizing issue... if you don't have space issues, then don't do it... but I think its preferable than binders...

I have no problem picking out the disc from the spine in the thinpacks...

The symmetrical OCD in me really likes the thought of having the same cases for everything in addition to space saving, but the perfectionist OCD in me cringes at the thought of cutting/bending the covers. Curse you!

Are the ones linked above for half that price bad quality or something?

There's nothing wrong with considering it mutilation. Many of us, including myself, would rather cut off an arm than cut off a portion of each of our dvd covers. As someone mentioned, my "collection" consists of both the films and the presentation of them (ie. packaging, display, etc). To me, cutting up the packaging would be ruining a part of what makes my collection my collection.

If it doesn't bother you, then that's good for you. But don't get defensive when people consider it dvd blasphemy.

I didn't see the price, but yeah they are better - they at least have clips - I can actually fit a Criterion insert (approx. 24pgs.) in there.

Well, It's not TallGuyMe's collection, but here's my list:

8 Seconds
28 Days
Babel
Benny and Joon
Blade
Bridget Jone's Diary
The Butterfly Effect
Casanova
Crazy/Beuatiful
Creul Intentions
Curse of the Golden Flower
- (Daywatch) ?
Face/Off
- ?
Fear
Garden State
Hairspray
- ?
Hope Floats
The Island
Knocked Up
Ladder 49
The Last Kiss
The Last Unicorn
Little Miss Sunshine
Look Who's Talking
Marie Antoinette
The Mirror Has Two Faces
Monster House
The New World
- ?
Panic Room
Pieces of April
Rudy
RV
The Saint
Scream
Shrek 2
Sister Act
Speed
Stardust
Steel Magnolias
Thelma and Louise
Throw Momma from the Train
Transformers
The Truth About Cats & Dogs
Uncle Buck
The Village
Walk the Line
Wedding Crashers

A few yrs ago I converted my double-alpha cases to the regular dvd cases... I later regretted it but was still able to trade them in.

I now recommend that if you have space issues (and what usually goes along with that - time issues), it might be time to start trading in dvd's. That, along with buying Blu-Ray (not as thin as the thin packs, but still space-saving) has just about halved my shelf-space. Now that the fat's been trimmed I do enjoy my collection more, and I've got my cd's on the other shelf. :)

I don't think I could ever cut up my DVD's either. I guess its a decent solution if you have space issues, but luckily my collection is toping out at around 400 and going Blu-Ray is going to help due to the size of those cases.

that's quite ghetto

desperate times call for desperate measures.

I guess its a matter of space and how many DVDs you have. But since we're asking questions, how tall are you TallGuy?

6'7"

I guess the game didn't last long. ;)

I think it's a good idea though, Tall...it's definitely better than binders if you're into saving your collection. And they look pretty good, I was just razzing ya.

BUT, I still think it's solution #2 - after selling off some of the collection. But that's just me. At least see if you have anything OOP and worth something before cutting up the covers?

well, I've become quite good at folding over the covers, so I am no longer cutting them... putting the original dvd cases and/or slip covers up in a box in the attic... trust me, I would rather NOT do it... but, until I can afford a 2000 square foot media room, ya have to do what ya have to do. As for selling off some of my collection, I know the moment I sell it off, I'd regret it and end up rebuying it. :)