John Galt

We're all here on a collecting forum, and I think a lot of us share the same habits. For most of our adult lives, we've been able to purchase 99% of the movies we've wanted to own on some form of media format. Once DVD came out, we were able to add TV Shows to that list as well. Now we're facing a few different scenarios. Studios aren't making media available on every active physical format with the same frequency as in the past. Streaming companies producing their own content and not wanting you to own it. Or studios moving to digital only altogether.

Personally, I love having all my media in the best Audio/Video option possible, and I love having continuity across my collection. I hate having The Andy Griffith Show season 1 on Blu Ray, and not being able to purchase seasons 2-8 on Blu Ray. Yeah, I can purchase it in HD digitally, but it's not the same from my perspective when it's not all in the same place. Then there's movies like The Irishman, which I have no way to own, physically or digitally. Without titles like that sitting in your collection, will you even think to watch them again in five, ten, or twenty years from now? What would happen if Netflix eventually pulled it from their service altogether?

Just curious to get some other perspectives and how you think you'll adjust your collecting.

E Unit

For me, it's pretty straightforward. Since I started collecting, I picked up everything in sight that caught me eye. Flash forward 20+ years later and I only buy 4K discs for movies that really will show off the technology with picture and sound. I barely buy blu's and DVD's, unless they come in the set with the 4K discs. Only exceptions are special edition sets like from Arrow. I don't buy any seasons of anything anymore, just digital. Overall, extras are either limited on disc and/or they're available on digital.

Meathead

I moved last year and sold off my CD/DVD collection for pennies of what I originally paid. 95% of my blurays have been sitting in storage ever since. I've become much more selective on what I buy physically (almost nothing now) since going almost entirely digital. Heck even getting me to spend $4.99 on a MA eligible digital title... I skip them most of the time now.

morriscroy

I have made peace with my extreme compulsive collecting "ocd" behavior.

In order to avoid any further ocd behavioral problems, I actively avoid anythng released on 4Kbluray. I am willing to sacrifice any and all current/future "best video/audio quality" on physical media, in order to have my own "peace of mind". (ie. Don't ever jump onto the ocd treadmill in the first place).

Though with that being said, current I am only willing to buy less popular scifi movies on dvd (or bluray) released by bottom feeder movie companies. (The Asylum stopped releasing their movies on bluray several years ago, except for their Sharknado franchise).

Occasionally I'lll still buy recent/current tv shows on dvd. (It is a rarity for generic network procedural tv shows to be released on bluray).

Michael Corvin

I buy whatever I feel like I will watch and get my money's worth. Whether that's a new release or rebuying a movie in 4k that I've already bought before. As long as it gets viewed I'm good. TV series buying has slowed, mostly because nearly anything I want to watch is streaming somewhere. Case in point, I rewatched my BD of Pushing Daisies S1 earlier in the summer that I already owned. When it came to start season 2 (that I didn't own), I tracked it down on the CW app. The app is ass, but if this was a few years ago, that would have simply been an instant amazon purchase.

I've stopped buying any used or cheap movies "just because" to fill up a media shelf like in the heyday of DVD collecting. That also includes far fewer blind buys than I used to. I still justify it as $20 to own, when I would have spent the same or more (for 2 people) to see it in the theater, but I don't do it all that often anymore.

Adam Tyner

One of the biggest differences for me is that in years past, I bought everything that caught my eye upon release. Unless it's an I-must-have-this-now-or-my-life-has-no-purpose title, I'm far more likely to wait for a sale or price drop. And I often lose interest in the interim, so I wind up buying less than I would've otherwise. Of course, it's also easier now (for better or worse) that a lot of the types of horror movies I used to buy no longer even come out on Blu-ray -- they're pretty much all DVD/VOD only.

Time is a bigger factor than money. There just aren't enough hours in the day anymore to watch movies the way I used to. For years on end, I had a 100% complete collection of Criterion's Blu-ray releases, and I watched every single one of 'em too. But shortly before getting married, I started to amass a significant backlog, and now I only buy 10-15 Criterion releases a year.

milo bloom

I have narrowed my wishlist to things I want to have as part of a library archive. The used DVD store still gives discounts for buying multiple items, but I no longer pick up titles just to fill that out. I get only what I want and nothing else.

I've learned to walk out of the store empty - handed rather than buy something just to say I took advantage of a coupon.

We're also going through the DVD collection and selling off titles that we're okay with not having or only watching via streaming.

morriscroy

Years ago I use to buy D-list (or lower) horror movies on dvd (or bluray), mostly produced by bottom feeder movie companies (such as The Asylum, etc ...). Too much of this stuff got kinda tiring after awhile, especially the "found footage" type stuff.

So I don't even bother buying current/recent dvds/blurays of this type anymore. Not even the $1 or $2 titles, which so much of it ends up as.

fujishig

Even if streaming never became a thing, I think every collector comes to a point in their life where they have just too much stuff and realize they aren't going to rewatch a fraction of it (or to the point where they have so much stuff they can't easily find something when they want to watch it anyway). I came to that point with comics,then graphic novels/tpbs, books, manga, dvds, games, blu-rays.

Stranger Things was dirt cheap at Target (because the media didn't sell) and I picked up the first season for the cool packaging, but then never picked up the second. Why? It's never going to leave Netflix, at least not any time soon. I will probably never even crack open the first set. Same with Game of Thrones, at some point (before it went downhill) I figured out that if I really wanted to rewatch, I could just resub to HBO. If I really want to own it, they will always come out with some new edition anyway. And say the media went away and the streaming went away, there are... alternatives.

That's not to say that anything lasts forever, but certainly I don't feel the constant pressure to buy something because it might someday not be available. The big things now are censorship and the availability of things that society deems undesireable, and that I think drives the collector's market a little, but unless we enter into a totalitarian state that controls our viewing habits, I doubt it'll be a major problem (and if that happens we have bigger problems).

All that to say I'm fine with streaming the majority of my media. I make exceptions for stuff I want to support (like Mill Creek Ultraman, for instance), but that's much rarer than it once was.

TomOpus

How will I? I've already made adjustments.

OldBoy

Got rid of all my DVDs and will just continue with physical, probably just blus and digital until I die.

kd5

The "changing media landscape" hasn't changed the way I do anything. I still don't stream or download movies, and I still buy movies on physical media. The only thing that's changed my collecting habits is the fact that, with the exception of anything new I might want, I already have pretty much everything I've ever wanted on DVD and Blu-ray, and I'm even pruning ones I don't particularly care about because I really don't want (nor can I afford) to build another room on my house. Plus my wife wouldn't really appreciate that...

kefrank

I really love physical media. I love having a real, physical library of movies on my shelf that I can watch at top notch quality without depending on any third party service.

That said, my practical outlook is changing. Like others have mentioned, time is a limited resource and I just don't have enough of it to watch my large collection of blu-rays. Maybe more significantly though, in the last 6 months I've been giving strong consideration to drastically reducing my material possessions and possibly moving into a tiny house in the next few years. The prospect of living a more minimal and simplified life is very appealing to me these days and my wife is feeling similarly. Part of the inner conflict for me is that I'd have to get rid of almost all of my physical media, but even with that internal conflict, there's something appealing about whittling down my collection to just a single shelf of what would be the handful of true essentials for me to continue to physically own. So I'm seriously pondering what that would look like these days and only buying a select few releases anymore.

John Galt

Sounds like almost everyone has either already, or is in the process of severely cutting down on media purchases altogether. Definitely the opposite of what this forum would have experienced 15 years ago.

I think for me, I love owning the media and having it all together. I don't mind digital over physical in theory, but I want control over my library and DRM makes that pretty difficult. If I could just buy every title I want, download them, and keep them all organized myself; I'd be perfectly happy with that solution. The issues for me are having to use several different services to manage this, and depending on those services not to screw up your ability to access what you purchased.

milo bloom

Yeah, time is the big one for me too. I'm 46 now, and I'm wondering if I'll ever get through my backlog even once, much less repeated viewings. I can definitely see whittling down to a core library of essentials, but I'm willing to work on that over the next few years.

As for digital access, as long as there are "alternate" means, I'm not overly worried about anything becoming truly inaccessible, but the presentation is occasionally lacking so I'm glad there's still collector's like us.

BobO'Link

Like others, nothing's changed for me. I purchase fewer titles these days mainly because I own copies of almost everything I'd want to own. I'll upgrade things to BR if it's truly a better transfer of a favorite title. I have no intention of purchasing 4K at all. I don't purchase digital unless it's with Amazon Slow Shipping credits.

asianxcore

I still buy a good amount of BDs & DVDs but not as much as I used to on a monthly basis. I think like many here, my collection has gotten so large, it has become a bit easier to be picky about releases.

Recently, I spent a bit during the Barnes & Noble Criterion sale but I hadn't bought much from that sale in years previous.

I rent digital releases that I'm unsure of but other than a single Independent Horror Film that cost me $3 to own, I haven't bought films digitally, nor do I plan on starting.

JeffTheAlpaca

I think I have adjusted and bought less

If I can avoid getting everything again on 4K I think I am good

Not a lot of good movies the last couple of years or a lot of movies with my favorite actors being released.

I stopped buying every comic book adapted to a movie on Blu-ray.


I am more selective now but will not completely give up on the hobby.

PhantomStranger

Still plugging along, collecting what I like.

TomOpus

Since they're not releasing everything in 4k, makes it esier.

EdTheRipper

Same. I had actually slowed down a lot for a few years because my discretionary income was going towards independent wrestling. Now that that is effectively finished for the foreseeable future, I've decided to get back into collecting. Mainly Scream Factory titles at this point.

davidlynchfan

Right now is actually the BEST time to be a movie collector, all the best editions, 4K at its cheapest, just about all the important titles are out. I wish I could’ve skip the DVD era somehow... I would probably be a richer man with better editions.. of said titles. But I’m still trucking along and buying just about whatever I want.

John Galt

I'm kind of surprised by the amount of people on here avoiding 4K. The improved Audio and Video are incredible and well worth it from my point of view (assuming you have the ability to see and hear it properly).

I just wish the digital options were better. Not being able to download 4k titles, and the compression over streaming are turn offs for me.

orangerunner

Fast-forward 15 years;

"Right now is actually the BEST time to be a movie collector, all the best editions, 16K at its cheapest, just about all the important titles are out. I wish I could’ve skip the 4K era somehow..."

davidlynchfan

Yes! 16K editions of my favorite movies in about 15 years. Can’t wait for that one too then.