Lately I've been seriously considering, "going blu". But I have quite a few hesitations. For close to a decade now I've been slowly building my ideal dvd collection. I'm no fly by night guy who goes out and buy's dvd's just for the hell of it. Almost all of my 1200 dvd's have been well thought out decisions. Everything is something I'd watch again. I always get the best version available, I collect steelbooks, slipcases, OOP dvd's and I keep everything in great condition. I'm a collector basically, something I've taken pride in.

Now the thing that makes me nervous, is my vhs collection. I used to have maybe 500 movies on VHS, a number which I've dwindled down to around 75. However, within a year of "going dvd" my vhs collection was quick to become the red headed stepchild of my movie collection. Out of every 50 movies I watch on dvd I probably watch 1 vhs. It's gotten to the point where whenever I watch something on vhs I inevitably have to wash my hands after handling the case because of dust.

My quandary is this, I've spent so much time, energy and passion building my dvd collection, that I'm just not ready to let go and let it become the red headed stepchild. I've finally gotten to the point that I have a really respectable collection that's taken a decade to build and it feels like by going BLU I almost have to overnight concede to the fact that, yeah, that's all over. Time to start again.

And quite frankly, I'm not interested in starting again if it means I'll have to repeat the process again in 10 years.

So my question to the board, for all you blu ray users out there, once you went blu, did your dvd collection become obsolete? Does it still have a place in your collection? do you still watch them with frequency? or are they more less just sitting on the shelf waiting for a blu ray replacement?

Thanks,
Chad

Yep... as soon as I bought a blu ray player, my DVDs stopped working!


In all seriousness though, I've got around 850 DVDs and 160 BDs, and even though I tend to favor my BDs, I still pop in DVDs all the time. For one, converting over will be a long process.... There are a lot of movies out there that simply aren't available on BD yet, and of those that are, even then I'm not compelled to update just because it exists. Often, I'll wait for the price to get really low before I bother. Not to mention special features... if there are any that didn't make it over to the BR, then the completist in me makes me hang on to the DVD as well (for exampe, american psycho/Hellboy/The Thing).

In short, I guess my opinion is that going blu isn't starting again.... its just continue on.

Your DVD collection won't become obsolete to you trust me. It's nowhere near the jump that going from VHS to DVD was, where now VHS seems like absolute shit.

Exactly.

I've never been a heavy collecter, so the amount of DVD's I had never was an issue when I went Blu. And even if you have a lot of DVD's you can still go Blu and watch them. Your DVD's don't become obsolete and you don't have to rebuy them. You can rebuy some of them if you want, maybe your favorites, but other then that I just started buying movies I wanted in Blu Ray instead of DVD, simple as that.

What do you mean? In terms of the actual physical change from tape to disc or image quality change? In terms of physical difference your absolutly right, it was a pretty big change, but in terms of image quality the jump from DVD to Blu Ray is bigger then VHS to DVD.

Let's just say this...my DVDs of HK action nature....are lucky they hit DVD when they did. I don't see much of them hitting R1 Blu anytime soon...some took a very very long time for it to happen.

Some DVDs have better editions than the Blu-Ray (I'm looking at you, RoboCop and Predator)...so films like that will stay in DVD form for me. And any recent film I don't own..will most likely go Blu if the price is right or I can just wait for it drop in some cases. Again..some Blus are already coming out at great prices so..it's ez.

I mean both.

My wife and I just made the jump into Blu Ray last week. Here's what I can report:

Prior to "going Blu," she was convinced that it was a lot of techno-gobbledy-gook about better quality that wouldn't really be enough to make much of a difference in the viewing experience. And she insisted that, if and when we did finally acquire a Blu Ray player, we would not upgrade our library as that would be expensive and redundant. She surprised me with an early birthday gift of a Samsung BD-P1590 on the 18th, and the first title we bought was Star Trek. The very next afternoon, she ran out and bought Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen because she wanted to watch another Blu Ray and it was on our wish list anyway. Since then, she's become reluctant to watch anything we have on DVD and tonight we ran into Walmart for some groceries. She--not I--splurged to pick up The Departed and Wedding Crashers on Blu Ray for $10 apiece. We already owned each title on DVD.

Now, will we replace everything in our DVD library with its BD counterpart? No, for all of the same reasons as everyone else (availability, pricing, just not that concerned, etc.). Will we continue to watch DVDs on our Blu Ray player? Of course we will. But it's genuinely exciting to see visual details previously unclear even on DVD. We watched Wedding Crashers tonight, thinking that it would be a truer demonstration of Blu Ray quality than something more special effects-laden like Star Trek or Transformers. We were astounded, and kept asking one another, "Did you see...?" throughout the whole thing. I'm definitely looking forward to the rumored Blu Ray release of Lawrence of Arabia next year, I can tell you that for sure.

My dvd's will always be around. Just got my laserdisc player fixed so I will be watching them more often. Just got a blu-ray player and 18 blu-ray's. My plan is too watch one blu-ray movie a week(Monday night's). So that means I will need to purchase at least 52 movies for next yr. When I look at the upcoming release schedule -only a handful of movies appeal to me. I won't be double-dipping very often but if there is nothing new that I want-I will double-dip. I will get a few tv series on blu-ray,alittle animation/anime and mostly music besides movies.

I own 3000+ dvds and 550+ blus. I make all of my new release purchases on blu and only movies I like alot will I upgrade to blu. If it is a movie I am on the fence about, then pricing usually is the deciding factor. I have no regrets about going blu. I love movies and I will always welcome anything that makes my viewing experience that more better! I have accumulated such a big unwatched pile these last several months that I haven't got to watch many dvds lately. I participated in the horror challenge for October and watched quite a few dvds. It will take years for some things to be released on blu so I don't mind waiting. Until then, I will happily watch my dvds!

My wife bought my Blu Ray player around this time last year as an early birthday present for me. Originally I thought I was going to buy everything in Blu going forward but such wasn't the case. In the last year sure I bought about 80 but only about 15-20 were movies that I already owned on dvd(most of them being the Bond Steelbooks). Anyways while more of my purchases are becoming blu ray I still buy a fair number of dvd's again mainly due to lots of older titles still being unable on blu and my wife also decided that she would continue her Disney collection in dvd format so that it remains more uniform.

I went blu November 10th when I purchased the UP blu ray combo pack & November 13th when I bought my first blu ray player at the Grand Opening of our Best Buy (Insignia NS-BRDVD3). No plans to replace most of my 775 dvds but will be buying nothing but blu from now on. Got a 2nd Insignia (same model) on Black Friday for the bedroom so I can play blus wherever I am. I was planning on staying dvd much longer but when Disney put out the combo pack & for once didn't just put a movie only disc on the dvd I stuck my toe in the blu water & then the deals at the new Best Buy on players was too good to resist. Got 2 good players than I paid for sd dvd players.

DVD obviously doesn't look as good as Blu-ray but it doesn't need to. There are so many titles I couldn't care less about upgrading because like it's been said here, some just don't need to be if you already have it. Kevin Smith's "View Askew" movies, RoboCop, The Terminator, and many, many more DVDs I have that are just fine as is. If it's a movie I don't have, I'll now get the Blu-ray as my default purchase.

Cost is a big factor, as just yesterday I found the new "Skynet" version of T2 for $10 and if it wasn't for the price I wouldn't have bothered simply because I don't watch that movie very often. I've watched the "Extreme Edition" DVD only once, and IT was $10 when I got that!

Beetlejuice was a movie I refused to go near because the damn thing was always $30+ everywhere I saw it. Then Walmart had a sale and I got it for $10. Trumps the $6 DVD with the very poor quality. The image on the Blu-ray is fantastic.

I think you'll only end up replacing an older title outright only if the Blu-ray has everything the DVD has. Warner titles are great for that. Sometimes you're pretty much stuck keeping a DVD if you want all the extras and they weren't carried over, like "Braveheart", "Independence Day" and others. The "Star Trek" Blu-rays are good for including the DVD's bonuses in addition to new HD extras, but they force you to keep the DVDs anyway because of the different versions of the movies. Win some, lose some.

If you prefer staring at an aesthetically pleasing collection and fear it losing it's luster, stick with DVD.

If you care about how your films looks, go Blu.

It's that simple. You aren't deciding which one of your children to kill. If you're a fan of film you owe it to yourself to have the best possible presentation available. That's Blu-ray.

I went Blu in august of '08. I said I wasn't going to upgrade titles unless they hit a certain price and criteria. Well, almost all of my double dips have met my requirements. the ones that haven't were so cheap it didn't matter. I still buy the less than occasional dvd. Usually something like the X-men animated series from the nineties which will probably never be restored well enough to deserve a Blu release. Little Rascals, and Three Stooges are included in that, and so are other TV animation. But I have traded in about 500 dvd's to get store credit. Blu has such superior sound and video, that one of those is atleast worth a upgrade.

That's complete bull crap. Presentation (audio and video quality) is only a very small part of a movie. Story is at least 95% of the equation, imho.

VHS, DVD, BD is all pretty much the same for me. I have some films on all three formats, and I enjoy the same film just as much on VHS on my Mom's old TV as I do in a fancy HD home theater.

I don't think you have much to worry about regarding the next format. The next step is 4K, and that's going to be a very hard sell to mainstream consumers. It will be like SACD, I think.

Well, actually the next step is (real) 3D, but it will use the same disc structure. So, it's not as if it will be incompatible with current players. Besides, I have no interest in applying fake 3D to 2D movies, so I would only want 3D versions of movies that were actually made in 3D. That rules out many, many titles. Some people don't like 3D anyway.

I was in the same boat as you when DVD first came out. Back then I was proud of my 100 VHS movies. The convenience in DVD was great but at first I didn't want to buy a new expensive player and have to spend more money to update my collection. So through the years as the studios favored DVD more and VHS less, I found myself loosing interest in movies and moved on to other things. I finally bought my first DVD player in 2007 but at that point I had an HDTV and they just didn't look good. In all I ended up buying about 9 DVD's. At the same time I almost skipped an entire format, really it wasn't worth skipping and should have gotten a player back then. Through it all though I still ended up not even viewing my VHS movies anyways.

I think one of the biggest problem some people have with Blu-ray is that they've built such large DVD collections, they are upset a new format is taking it's place. If to you it's more about the format and the effort you've put into it than stay with the DVD. But if you truly appreciate viewing and hearing the movies in the best way possible, than upgrade. Sure, once you start viewing more and more Blu-ray movies, the DVD's will continue to look worse because your eyes will be more trained into the picture quality.

The upgrade to Blu-ray for me was easy because I really didn't have a DVD collection and I really wasn't happy with the dvd quality. Now I'm up to 50 movies on Blu-ray.

i think my bluray collection will be just as aesthetically pleasing now that
many releases come with slipsleeves
in addition i find the smaller cases cute and will end up saving space
as an extra bonus.

This.

Went blu when hd-dvd died. No regrets.

What he said is only bullcrap in that not everyone who loves film can afford Blu-ray. That's simply the truth of the matter.

As for what you've said, story might be 95% of what appeals to you - and certainly great movies rarely exist without great stories - but Blu-ray is essential for film fans who want to see films in the best possible presentation possible. The reason I say this is because the format reproduces the theatrical experience more than anything else. The possibility to view cinematography as fully intended is enough reason to upgrade. And lossless audio allows me to hear sweeping scores from my favorite composers with clear and distinct use of the surrounds so I can hear all the different instruments in play at their very best. Then there's the details the director may have wanted us to see, but we didn't notice as well before... The Shining, to me, or any Kubrick film for that matter, is a great example of films that seem even more detail-oriented than they already did when you view them for the first time on Blu-ray. It enhances the experience for great cinema. But, of course, if the story and film-making as a whole isn't there then it just makes crap look a little better visually (and that's all). That's to be expected.

After 10 years of thinking about it I'm selling/trading most of my 1500 title dvd collection. Primary Reason: I need the room for more Blu-rays.

The only "expensive" part of Blu-ray is making sure you have the equipment playing it. The upfront cost is the only "expensive" part. One may not need a decked out sound system (which I don't have due to the fact I live in a townhouse), but I made sure I had a television that blu-ray was going to look amazing on plus a PS3. The total cost of that came out to a little bit more than $1400, but it was a purchase I was completely okay with to make the transition over to BD.

[I didn't need the PS3 per say, but reviews had it as one of the best BD players along with the fact it was a gaming console too.]

I'm happy that I've made the switch over to Blu and being able to afford the discs is such a bullshit excuse. This forum may be the reason why I haven't paid more than $15 on almost all the titles I own, both new releases and catalog titles. Out of the almost 100 BDs I own since my transition to the format, I've only paid more than $20 on a handful of titles (mostly being television series and boxsets).

4K is going to beyond niche as a majority will not have the equipment capable of being able to utilize 4K in all it's glory. Considering most major cities aren't even capable of utilizing 4K projectors in their theaters, let alone 2K, I don't see this transition happening for years, if not decades.

Don't know what to tell you with that many movies. I had about 350 DVD's over three yrs ago when I stopped buying in anticipation of Blu-Ray. That decision's payed off handsomely, DVD trade in's were much better a few yrs ago than they are now.... and I've got about 250 BD's and all of 50 DVD's remaining. Saved space, money... and I intend to upgrade the remaining DVD's over the next few yrs as the rest come out. I get a sense folks with such large libraries of films (and imo that's what they are) that there's an element of pride there, and obviously the impracticality of having to deal with so much stuff. But if they still bring you joy than be all means keep enjoying them.

Buying a really GOOD HDTV is a big expense. So is the sound system if you want HD audio. And upgrading movies you already own IS an added expense many DON'T want. $10 a BD upgrade may seem low to many, but it adds up. 10 movies upgraded at that cost is $100. 100 is $1,000. In any case, I think it's a legitimate concern. Blu-ray is totally worth it though. Absolutely.