pro-bassoonist

Why are you taken aback by my comment? We are discussing an article that argues why DVD is better than BD and one of the key reasons tossed around in this debate has been pricing. You come along claiming that every DVD ever released could be had for 4-5$ - I disagree with you.

Pro-B

beebs

Nothing is beneath Professional Bass if he or she thinks it wins the argument.

Fact remains, line up 30 Blu-rays... new US theaterical-released titles from the last 3-6 months and SD DVDs will be a fraction of the price without much effort.

bsmith

I'll have to admit, I hit this forum every day and I have problems with the general $4 to $5 average claim for several reasons (and it is not about calling anyone a liar).

- Unless you just started collecting DVDs in the last few years you have to take into account that the pricing we are seeing now is not what it was say 5 years ago. What is $5 now was more like $10 then. So are we claiming this for just within the last 12 months or going back several years for our entire collection?

- Now if someone has a database where they track what they paid for each disks and it averages out to that, then fine. Otherwise, it is a bit of a guestimate over 100's to 1000's of disks. On a bargain forum like this I just find it human nature to just stretch things a bit. Kind of like the average gambler that bets on a few games here and there and has a better memory of the wins then the losses, or the fisherman talking about the one that got away. Fun to talk about but not statistically relevant.

- Depends on what you buy. I can load up at Walmart and make that statistic but it doesn't mean I would really want those titles in a permanent collection. Personally, I monitor this forum daily and I would say with my purchases I am within the $6 - $12 range within the last few years, and probably within the $10 - $15 in the years before that.

In the end, there are just too many factors to take this statistic seriously (e.g., title bought, when bought, new vs. used, human nature to be competitive, lack of documented data).

There may be some who have done it. If so, I would like to see a list referencing some of the items above.

Trevor

Ok, trying to think of how you can disagree with this. Yes, if you only buy Criterions, rare foreign DVDs and imports you can't average $5.

But seriously, anyone reading this thread, from our posts here and the context of well established bargain hunting methods continuously discussed in this forum, has to know that I was referring to the type of DVDs the average person here buys.

I'm a bit more eclectic than average perhaps. I own almost 100 Criterions, many foreign titles, and several from other regions. I am too disorganized for an accurate count, but I am somewhere around 4000 films right now, give or take a thousand. I have spent less than $20,000 on those. And many of them were bought before I learned some of these standard shopping methods. I didn't really get into CH until a couple years ago when the deals got better and the average dropped to $5 or less.

You could take every film offered by Columbia House and Disney, add in every film sold by Big Lots over the years, and right there own 14,000 or so titles for about $4.50 average. Of course, many if not most of these titles have also been found elsewhere, retail and used, for that price. And many of the films not stocked at those 3 places have been found for cheap at various places new and used. I'm not leaving any films out (besides what I mentioned in paragraph 1) or overloading on bargain films. This is all the big new releases, all the Hollywood studio catalog titles, pretty much every film that anyone here has heard of. Pick the post popular 5000 American known films, and we could all own them for $25,000.

I find it quite odd that anyone familiar with this forum doesn't know that many of us, and they if willing, average less than $5 per film. Yes, it was slightly higher a few years ago, but right now, $5 is quite easy. Between just CH, Big Lots, and Walmart you can own pretty much everything for $4.50 average.

PS Personally, I rarely buy used, maybe 100 total. But people willing to buy used can average even less.

Trevor

I'll give you that. I've bought most of my collection in the last 3 years, and perhaps all those $1 to $5 titles do not quite offset the ones I bought at $10 or higher earlier. But I'm pretty confident that my average is still slightly less than $5.

But, right now, I could lose everything and rebuy my entire collection for about $4.50 average (given patience and the same sort of deals continuing of course).

Also, any one of us right now could buy pretty much everything for less than $5 average.

beebs

Have you looked in the DVD spending tab thread?

Trevor

A lot of people there aren't bargain hunters, that's not the main focus of the thread, but there are several people there with crazy low totals.

I was only OCD enough to do it for six months or so back in 2008, but it looks like I averaged less than $4 a film, and that included several blu-rays.

Edit to add: Seeing my 2008 post now, I'm tempted to spend the few minutes to complete the totals and find a total for the year. But I'm afraid that someone will see the edit stamp and accuse me of doctoring things.

beebs

I averaged $5.40 per movie/season in my 2008 spending tab, calculated out in excel including every last penny... including 9 Criterions. Although, one of those was used from the for-sale/trading forum here.

cpgator

I also wish I had as much time as some of you appear to.

Trevor

Yeah, I definitely post too much. But the bargain shopping doesn't take all that much time. It took me awhile, but once I got a routine down it doesn't take long at all.

I spend a minute or two a couple times a day checking the bargain forum for any amazing deals. Great deals, especially glitches, might only last hours or less. I've missed out on tons of things by not being a forum camper.

I do all my local shopping in one 2.5 hour circuit a week.

And a few hours a week online in my downtime at work on CH and other online deals.

PS - To complete my OCD 2008 list, I spent $986 on 281 films, a $3.51 average.

bsmith

No I haven't, but I will take a look. I assume it has titles so it should be very interesting. Like I said, if people are left to throw out these numbers off the top of their heads, I have a feeling many may be a bit over zealous about their buying savy. However, if the information is documented then I have no reason to question it again.

beebs

It has been ridiculously easy to spend $5 each on average for SD DVDs.

For those that scoff at "bargain bin" titles, I picked up a a dozen 2-Disc Warner Special Editions from Big Lots for $2.40-$3 in the last 6 months. All the President's Men, Network, Band Wagon, Big Red One, East of Eden, THX-1138, Philadelphia Story, Prince of the City, Ryan's Daughter, Giant, & Rebel Without a Cause. Tons of great art house, indy, classics, and foreign movies, too. The selection is there for those inclined to watch the Big Lots thread. All I do is watch for a new batch of titles to be reported and drive by the store on the way home a couple of times. I score almost all the titles I want.

cpgator

Certainly you can purchase old DVDs from Big Lots for cheap. Not really sure what that has to do with BD adoption. You can get a BD player, and still shop the DVD bargin bins.

Either way, I am not sure why the price makes DVD better. Were VCRs better than DVD players when they first arrived? VCR were much cheaper. Is a 13"B&W TV better than a 60" HDTV? You can get a lot of the 13" TVs for the price of one HDTV. Probably can even find one at Big Lots. Yes, BD cost more, but that is because they are a new tech. Not sure why that has anything to do with one being better.

Trevor

Why does price matter? Do you only buy premium food? Do you only buy tailor made clothes? Why not? Don't you want to enjoy things at their best?

See. It's a choice. You choose to buy cheaper clothes to afford more of them. You choose to eat "lesser" food to afford to feed your family.

cpgator

I understand the concept, but that make the cheaper clothes or food better?

Trevor

What we're exploring here is what is better for a consumer. Sure, a tailor made suit is "better" if only going by quality, but I'd rather have a complete wardrobe for the same price.

Your 100 BDs are better AV quality. But I would rather have 250 DVDs (from a much better selection playable in more than one place). I would argue that my collection is "better" than yours.

bsmith

I hear what you are saying and based on the thread here on Big Lots, I checked it out myself multiple times and came away empty handed each time. Again, it is highly dependent on what you are looking for and what you already have. Big Lots may work for you but it hasn't for me. I've bought maybe two things in Walmart bins over the years, mainly collections of public domain releases (Bonanza, John Wayne).

That is why I don't think making generalized comments about DVD prices works. I think it needs to be caveated based on taste and what someone thinks is worth while to own. Also, some titles that show up in those bins have been around for almost a decade. So it stands to reason that some may have already purchased them years ago.

Lutz

The only thing that makes DVD better in my opinion is its lack of region coding. When I can buy a relatively inexpensive region free Bluray player I will go with Bluray but before then I think Bluray is far too limiting.

Can someone tell me if I have a 37" LCD screen if there will be a big difference between Bluray and SD? I hear that you don't see much difference until about 50"?

gglass4269

BD is noticeably sharper on any size LCD. Those that claim different either have bad eyesight or are pro DVD

Arthur Dent

I'm pleased with BD on my 32 inch LCD.

tonymontana313

I'll take quality over quantity any day. If you prefer to amass a bunch of Walmart bargain bin titles, more power to you.

Trevor

Have you read what we've written? We're not talking bargain bin titles.

gglass4269

cant we all just get along? Where are all the Pro FILM people? I like BD and SD DVD. oh no! I'm an outsider because I dont fit in one category! Let's all hold hands and sing some John Lennon songs...

DVD Polizei

Seems like there are two different groups here. One group prefers DVD because it works and it's relatively cheap(er), and the other group is more demanding, wanting better audio and video, while still being clever in getting deals which are rather close to DVD prices.

Because of this, there is inherent disagreement. And a completely different set of standards and practices on obtaining those movies.

I'm not sure why DVD-exclusive/Blu-ray Hesitant folk are calling Blu-ray owners snobby. Most of us are not. We just want the best that is currently available. Unfortunately, Blu-ray owners are getting hit by not only the DVD crowd, but the movie studios who can't put a compilation together properly (such as a Blu-ray movie with the extras on a DVD, or a Blu-ray release missing several extras from the DVD release). In any case Blu-ray owners can appear to be better-than-thou, but it's just a different set of demands.

And I'm not calling DVD-only folk simple-minded either, but it just seems automatic to me, if you own over 100 DVDs or so, you're concerned with quality to some degree, whether it be audio, video, or both. Personally, I am NOT CONTENT with the DVDs I own. They are plagued with compression artifacts and shitty mastering. And because of Blu-ray being available, I'm not buying DVDs at all. Even before HD caught my eye, I was irritated with pixelated faces and posterized backgrounds on my movies. Even at $5 a piece, it's not worth it. I couldn't do anything about it, because that was all there was. Finally, there is something better.

hindolio

question:
answer: