Are you addicted to collecting movies?
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mikejonas — 13 years ago(February 21, 2013 09:14 PM)
This actually dovetails nicely with a discussion we're having on the DVD vs Blu-Ray thread elsewhere on this forum, in which my esteemed fellow forum member, foebane72, posted the following:
MikeJonas, why do you keep advocating streams and downloads in favour of physical formats? THE INFRASTRUCTURE SIMPLY ISN'T THERE, and won't be for at least 10 years.
What is it you hate so much about physical formats anyway?
THIS is why I'm in favor of streams and downloads.
The infrastructure "isn't there"? I guess there are 25 million Netflix subscribers (and millions of Hulu subscribers, and countless downloaders, both legal and otherwise) who would disagree. I guess the fact that the growth of streaming is outpacing Blu-ray doesn't count for anything.
Look, there'll always be room for physical formats, for serious collectors, for people looking to buy movies they really want, for people who don't have the said infrastructure.
But as technology marches on, and as many people in the world struggle with finances and hunger for entertainment, we NEED to outgrow the mindset of HeatFanSince2010 up there. I own about 300 DVDs, many of which are still sealed in package and many more which have just been viewed once or twice. I own about 150 Blu-rays, and likewise, many are unopened, many viewed only a couple of times since purchase. Few are of any significant resale value. Both collections take up a huge chunk of wall shelving.
We don't all have to be self-appointed archivists, amassing ridiculously large collections at great expense, blindly buying anything that comes out just so we can have it sitting on the shelf "just in case," gathering dust. For the movies we care to watch but shouldn't really care to own, we ought to start turning to streaming and downloading. It's more affordable, and the catalogs are deep; they may not have the latest, they definitely don't have it all, but it's still a bigger collection than most of us can accumulate, with titles that can be hard to find at rental or retail, and there's always something in there that you'll enjoy. And it takes up much less space. Sure, I have a few hundred movies on disc, but I can go weeks before pulling anything out of that shelf; with my connected TV, Netflix, and a cheap PC outfitted with a few terabytes of hard drives as a media server, I have thousands upon thousands of titles literally at my fingertips.
I'm not saying we should stop buying physical mediaI know I won't. But we can all choose to be more selective with our purchases, and choose only the ones we know will get some mileage on our players, only the ones that really need to be seen in 30 megabit 1080p video. Stop blind buying. Stop buying movies that you may have liked in the theater but don't see yourself watching multiple times in the foreseeable future. -
Redpunkboy — 13 years ago(February 22, 2013 11:48 PM)
My first DVD purchase was when I was 12. I bought Never Say Never Again. I remember being thrilled at owning that movie a James Bond movie I hadn't even heard of. It was a magical experience watching that first disc. Now over 10 years later I definitely own a lot of DVDs and blu rays. My movie buying became worse after I quit smoking cigarettes. I bought way too many blue ray too fast and now I have almost 400 of them. Sometimes I look at my shelf with pride other times with shame. At least I know I have an addictive personality and I plan on changing myself to be a better person this year. I've bought about 20 this year so far and for me that's already a success.
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mikekuhlman-415-393642 — 13 years ago(February 27, 2013 08:53 AM)
Nope. Been there, done that. I'm now addicted to physical exercise. It's healthy, and it's free.
I still enjoy WATCHING movies, however, and do notice the improvement in picture quality blu-ray provides!
Collecting movies is an addiction as expensive and unhealthy as any other, I suppose, if done more than in moderation, to what your budget can afford, and your addiction is what the movie studios are counting on. If you're collecting even crap sequels simply because you've got to have the whole film series, I think you need to find a way to channel that obsessive-compulsive nature into something that will actually do you some good, like exercise, or a detail-oriented job that requires that obsessive-compulsive nature and makes you money.
I think we're all getting wise to the multiple dipping of our wallets. -
foebane72 — 13 years ago(March 13, 2013 08:30 AM)
Thank you for answering my question, MikeJ I think.
As for my DVD/Blu purchases, they were perfectly reasonable and of films I'd rented or seen in the cinema and liked a lot, but now they've plummeted to nearly zero as I am moving to physical rentals, with LoveFilm, etc.
I did spend rather a lot on them, but in recent years that's been replacing perfectly good DVDs with Blus, as I realised that for some of the older films I've got, it's really not necessary - so I halted all that.
I will make certain exceptions, though - I see the Hobbit is coming out in a few days, and the day Spirited Away comes out on Blu, I'll be there - to rent at least.
MikeJ, when I said about "infrastructure", I meant more along the lines of bandwidth - if even a quarter of internet users downloaded movies in one go, then it would be severely strained, I would imagine - I don't know that much about this sort of thing. But I do know that YouTube users struggled in its early days, because of lack of bandwidth.
www.foebane.co.uk -
MaximumMadness — 13 years ago(March 13, 2013 07:51 AM)
Up until 2011, I owned about 1,100 DVDs (unfortunatly a lot of trashy action flicks I grew up with, considering I started buying when I was a teenager) and in the realm of 50 Blu-Ray discs. Then Tropical Storm Lee (and my own disorganization hit), so I only have about 30-or-so Blu-Ray discs and a hundred or so badly-damaged DVD's left due to flood damage ruining 90% of my things.
At this point, I'm not as addicted to buying movies as I once was, simply because I have so many to replace and I'm feeling overwhlemed.
My goal is to save up and start upgrading the essential movies that I lost by the holidays, and slowly build up a Blu-Ray collection.
Hopefully in a year or two I'll be addicted again and have replaced at least 100 of the essential movies I lost.
And FURTHERMORE, this is my signature! SERIOUSLY! Did you think I was still talking about my point? -
casablnka — 13 years ago(March 18, 2013 02:45 PM)
YES!
I am a movie fan.
I started collecting with Laserdiscs and have not stopped.
Lasers were the first format to use letterboxing and the were at broadcast spec, rather than the 420 lines of VHS. Of course lasers were expensive so I was limited in what I could afford to buy.
DVD opened things up for me even thought I ended up re-buying a lot of my favorite titles, but the collection felt more "complete".
Now I am moving to BD but I am limiting my re-purchases to the big widescreen classics I love so much.
Most of my collection is older movies '1930's - 1980's. Only Pixar and Disney titles are newer films.
I enjoy collecting movies and searching through my collection for films to watch again. Holidays have special films, and moods generally determine what I watch.
Streaming is the future - but the future is not here yet. What I enjoy now about streaming is the documentaries and odd specialty films. As a matter of fact I have found three of my favorite film on streaming (NETFLIX) that were never released on DVD.
but collecting is in my nature. As I kid I collected LPs of Film Scores, now I get to buy copies of the real FILMS! COOL.
Ric -
Smells_Like_Cheese — 12 years ago(April 08, 2013 02:53 PM)
I am, I get a lot of praise or criticism for it. It's an expensive hobby and I do need to take a break considering I'm getting married and saving up for a house. But I own 1400 DVD's, 500 blu rays and 28 special collector's editions. I'm a huge film fan, so it's hard to stop. But I do need to watch a couple titles I haven't seen yet like I just bought Big Trouble in Little China, but I heard great things about it.
http://www.facebook.com/kbautz1 -
gregbarnes — 12 years ago(May 01, 2013 06:07 PM)
Hi. My name is Greg Barnes and I'm an addict. I own far too many movies. I own at least 300 DVDs, at least fifty HD DVDs and about seventy Blu-rays. While that's not as many as a lot of people have, it's far more than I should have considering a good portion of them have never been opened. Many of them I got very cheaply [$3] at Big Lots, but some I paid $29.99 or more for for some foreign or indie releases. I really planned to watch them all, but there just isn't enough time in the day, especially considering my other addiction, which is going to the movies. Add to that all the streaming content that's available on Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Instant Video, not to mention the premium cable channels that run 24/7, my brain is swimming in content.
I will say that since the beginning of 2013, I haven't bought many movies because I realize how much it's costing me and now take into consideration my past track record for not actually sitting down and watching the stuff once I buy it.
P.S. My worst habit is replacing unopened DVD's with Blu-rays that are still unopened. Granted, I only do this when the prices are in the $9.99 range. Also, I am a completist and I (not in every case, though) like to own the sequels to a film, reboots notwithstanding. -
kseifner — 12 years ago(May 06, 2013 05:44 PM)
I am also addicted to collecting movies, because I will actually pay more to ship from overseas to my place. I have done this for the German box set of the complete series of 21 Jump Street for all of the original music, the German complete series of ALF and the Baywatch series, so far I have seasons 1-6 and I am hoping to get seasons 7-11(the last 2 being Baywatch Hawaii) and then the 2 seasons of Baywatch Nights. An additional note, I already own the R1 complete series of 21 Jump Street and Alf. I will also buy tapes of movies and tv shows that have not been released on dvd yet, like the vhs copy of the Director's cut of SCREAM(I know it is available to own internationally), half of the Babysitter's Club series, I am still missing 4 or 5 episodes.
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gregbarnes — 9 years ago(July 06, 2016 05:41 PM)
Wow, it's always odd when I stumble across something I wrote years ago and forgot about.
Anyway, since I wrote my first comment back in May of 2013, I went through a phase where I mostly stopped buying movies. I did kinda pick up again when I discovered the Blu-ray.com site because they have a lot of good deals. I tend to buy more on iTunes when they have a good deal or if it's something I can't find at a reasonable prize on Amazon.
I still believe in having complete sets, but I haven't finished purchasing all the Terminator, Jason Bourne, Mission Impossible series, etc. -
KDTfiles6 — 12 years ago(May 09, 2013 02:16 AM)
Wouldn't say addicted, but sure, I like getting DVDs. Started out with just getting movies every now and then. Moved up to getting a couple movies every paycheck. Once Show DVDs started getting cheaper I kinda made the switch from movies to shows. Now when I can afford (not very often lately) them it's strictly shows, and the only movies i get is out of the $3 used bin.
Bobby: "You don't shoot Bambi, jacka$$. You shoot Bambi's mother." -
KDTfiles6 — 12 years ago(May 14, 2013 01:35 PM)
I'm sure there are enough people doing illegal downloads/files shares out there that the proffits aren't as hight as you think.
I just like having real physical copies of the shows/movies I like to watch alot. That way if my getting older than dirt computer crashes I don't loose everything I've downloaded. When it comes to some movies and shows, Youtube is a good option if I only wanna watch something once or twice, without having to buy it.
Bobby: "You don't shoot Bambi, jacka$$. You shoot Bambi's mother." -
Sandoz — 10 years ago(April 29, 2015 04:51 AM)
The movie studio executives LOVE you guys! Keep breaking out those wallets, making those guys richer.
You know what the movie studio executives LOVE even more? All the idiots ready to throw in the towel on physical media so they'll once again have total control of the content they provide.
At least when you purchase a DVD or Blu-Ray, you "own" it, in the sense that it will always be available to you to watch when you choose to. You also have the option of giving it away to someone, or re-selling it either for a profit if it becomes a collectible, or to get back some portion of your purchase price. None of these apply to streams that you buy or rent.
Well then, I guess you're just not up-to-date if your cell phone doesn't make toast! -
mikekuhlman-415-393642 — 10 years ago(April 30, 2015 08:24 AM)
"You know what the movie studio executives LOVE even more? All the idiots ready to throw in the towel on physical media so they'll once again have total control of the content they provide.
At least when you purchase a DVD or Blu-Ray, you "own" it, in the sense that it will always be available to you to watch when you choose to. You also have the option of giving it away to someone, or re-selling it either for a profit if it becomes a collectible, or to get back some portion of your purchase price. None of these apply to streams that you buy or rent."
Agreed, Sandoz, and that's why I for one am not paying for downloads. I typically rent new releases at Redbox for $1 per movie. If I LIKE the movie, I'll buy it on blu-ray. If not, no more money spent. -
cornnetto — 10 years ago(April 30, 2015 01:07 PM)
You know what the movie studio executives LOVE even more? All the idiots ready to throw in the towel on physical media so they'll once again have total control of the content they provide.
I think that a bit like for music, movie studio executives were forced toward streaming, I think most would gladly go back in around of 2004 era of the peak of DVD sales before the generalization of download and streaming. -
moosefeathers — 12 years ago(May 16, 2013 10:04 AM)
I'm an addict. An addicted addict. I bought tv series, movies I liked and had seen before. Then I started blind buying, which believe me over the years, I have only thrown out two. Then I bought a blu-ray player, but as long as the blu rays play regular dvds, I won't be replacing most of them (only ones i think i would like in blu ray. For instance, I would have loved to have had Sons of Anarchy in blu ray, but since I started collecting in regular formati will keep buying in regular format. If I see a blu ray that I think will work for me, I get it. A few times I have gotten lucky and gotten a combo pack when a single regular was not available.
My problem is space. What I plan on doing (I have over 1,000 movies and tv series.[hangs head in shame]) is buying cd jewel cases and making my own cover sheets because i am being taken over by DVDs all over the place. Any empty spot I can find where a dvd pile will fit, I will put it there. I have two rooms, so shelving is not an option.I used to have them nicely placed in alphabetical order so when i wanted to watch a movie i just went to the shelf and pulled it outbut now, it's a project to find movies and even if i'm looking for a specific movie, i usually pull others out (I now have three 20 high TO WATCH piles.)
I am ashamed in front of people, but when i'm alone, i am not. does this make me helpless..?
People laugh because they say if i ever died, i'd be found under piles and piles of dvds
Swing away, Merrill.Merrill, swing away -
Htos_Drol — 12 years ago(May 25, 2013 10:06 AM)
I'm addicted and purchase blindly alot. However, the blind purchases usually feature actors that I like (Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, etc).
Some of the blind-buys are poor choices, but I keep them in the collection anyway. Although I did give the 'Our Man Flint' series to a friend because I just didn't like it.