I finally did it...I'm off the fence (almost) (1 Viewer)

[Nick Graham]

I couldn't hold out anymore. At 10:00 CST, 8:00 Pacific tonight, nearly my entire collection of standard def DVDs goes on the auction block on eBay, along with my Samsung DVD-HD931 player thrown in. There is a lot of good stuff in there, and many a good box set, so hopefully the lot will fetch a decent price.

It's been a fun 8 years, but the HD-A1 is too tempting to pass up, and it's time to snag a TrueHD capable player for under $500 while I still can. The titles coming out (and recently released) from Warner and Universal alone are enough to where I will not consider this a bad investment even if it goes the way of Betamax. With Toshiba successfully targetting both the early adopter and the second tier market with their player and disc prices, while Blu-Ray focuses only on the wealthy early adopter, I'm hoping this will be a solid, long term investment. If not, I'll still have Batman Begins and Supes Returns in TrueHD. If Lionsgate has decided to go format neutral come the new year as rumored, that's all the sweeter....

Of course I could get no offers on my eBay listing and look like an idiot for posting this, but hopefully by the end of the month I'll be enjoying Ash, Batman, R.J. MacReady, and others in high def.

 

[BrettGallman]

I would hold off on putting your SD collection eBay. The A1 is a fine upconverter, and it will be years before some titles are even in HD. Just a suggestion.

 

[Chris Dugger]

I must agree...

The A1 upscales a great picture from SD.

I own close to 1700 SD titles.... I have commited to only buy new titles (with the exception of GREAT catalog titles).

In testing my SD's with the A1 on a 12 foot screen, the results were awesome.

So, My SD collection (and my upscaled laserdiscs) are safe for quite sometime.

Dugger

 

[David Ely]

I couldn't imagine completely getting rid of my DVD collection in one go. My collection is safe on the shelf while it slowly gets replaced by HD counterparts.

 

[Nick Graham]

Ah, but without selling the standard def discs, then I can't justify going hog wild on an HD-A1 and multiple titles. My growing urge for HD-DVD happened around the same time I started to feel really ridiculous for having nearly 200 DVDs that did little more than collect dust or get borrowed by friends, so I'm kinda killing two birds with one stone. I'm still keeping abou 1/5 of my SD stuff, namely obscure stuff unlikely to be released on HD or Blu-Ray anytime soon, TV stuff (namely animated Batman, Supes, JL), Disney Animated Stuff, some Fox titles (X-Men and X2, specifically), and stuff from companies who have yet to pick a side in the HD war (such as my large selection of Anchor Bay horror titles....there's no way I'm parting with my Romero zombie movies until I know HD replacements are on the way). I'll still buy the occasional SD disc......I need to get The Propostion, which won't likely be on either HD format for a while, and I also need to order the Region 3 X3 2 disc set, since Fox once again is screwing Region 1 consumers by giving us a single disc release while the rest of the world gets the 2 disc SE.

Even if Blu-Ray prevails, I'm an avid gamer, so I'm sure I'll have a PS3 within the next year or two (I'm quite happy with my 360 currently).

 

[Paul Arnette]

It sounds like you are 'throwing the baby out with the bath water' to me. I have a Toshiba HD-A1, and I am committed to HD DVD going forward. Though I have not adopted Blu-Ray, and I do not intend to anytime soon.

Because of this situation, I allow myself the option to purchase SD DVDs from studios that do not support HD DVD or from the smaller independent studios that will not be adopting HD in either format anytime soon. It is my opinion that BD and HD DVD are going to remain niche formats for a while. Why limit yourself to three studios worth of films?

In the end, its up to you to decide what's right for your financial situation, etc. For me, I have resolved to make HD DVD my priority, severely limit my future SD DVD purchasing by excluding 'double-dips' unless there are extenuating circumstances, etc.

Also, as others have said, the Toshiba HD-A1 is a fantastic upconverting player. I recently watched X-Men: The Last Stand on my new Mitsubishi WD-65731 via the Tosh's HDMI, and it looks near-HD. If you get rid of all your SD DVDs, I'm afraid you are going to be missing one of the truly amazing features of the HD-A1.

 

[Jace_A]

The HD-A1 won't play R3 DVDs, only R1 DVDs.

 

[Nick Graham]

I know, but my region free Theatertek loaded HTPC will. I probably overstated when i said I was selling my enitre collection....it just feels like I am. A quick count and it appears I am keeping 67 of my 195 titles. I'm just selling the majority of it, and all of the box sets.

 

[AaronSCH]

Well Nick, I did the same thing. I sold nearly 1200 SD DVDs... made money on some and lost a bit on others. It was quite alot of work packaging and shipping all those DVDs but I am down to fewer than a couple of dozen which are currently listed. By the way, Mailers 4 Less has a great bubble mailer that costs about 30¢ a piece. Look for them on Ebay. My decision was easy after I brought home my first HD-A1. Though it is a terrific upconverting DVD player, the SD images just didn't come close to what HD DVD produces. I decided to keep the Disney and Pixar animated stuff but everything else is gone. I also figured it would be better to sell at the beginning of a trend so that I could maximize the return. I now have a handsome account to draw the funds necessary to fuel my new obsession and feed my two HD-A1s. I expected to have some remorse but the anticipation of new HD DVD material has me interested in my home theater all over again. I have 57 HD DVD titles and can't wait for the holiday season kick off! Good luck.

 

[Brent M]

I just can't imagine getting rid of all my favorite movies on DVD especially when there's no way of knowing when they'll be released in HD. We all know HD looks much better, but it still doesn't mean that you can't enjoy a well-mastered standard-def DVD. That kind of behavior seems a little too "feast or famine" for me, but to each their own.

 

[AaronSCH]

Well Brent, I was actually someone that didn't even think that there was a need for a new format. I was pretty damn content with my DVDs until my curiosity got the best of me. I was innocently shopping at my local Best Buy when I noticed that damn HD-A1 begging me to take it home. The compulsion began with that fateful purchase. When I got it home, it immediately began to taunt me, taking its sweet time opening its door. But after a few patient moments, I was seduced by those razor sharp images, vibrant colors, true directional sound, nifty new menu screens and the promise of better things to come. Yes, I abandoned my DVDs, but it was time to move on. We were going in different directions and I needed new stimulation.

 

[TravisR]

I guess I'm weird but I buy DVDs because I like the movie not because of the number of lines of resolution. I'll still watch laserdiscs and if I like the movie, I don't mind that it doesn't look as good as a DVD or HD.

 

[Brent M]

Exactly. I'm all for the highest quality picture and sound possible, but the fact of the matter is I can't watch Star Wars or Pulp Fiction or Raiders of the Lost Ark on HD-DVD. There's no way I'd consider selling off DVDs of my favorite movies just because they're not mastered in high definition.

 

[John H Ross]

Wow. Gosh. Selling off your SD-DVDs like that is a totally ridiculous thing to do IMHO. Did you sell off all your CDs when DVD-A and SACD were put out there? Nope, thought not...

You do realise it could be 10-20 years (or never) before your favourite films make it to HD disc right?

It's a hell of a sacrifice to lose all those (presumably great) movies just to watch Batman Begins with a slightly prettier picture!

John

 

[AaronSCH]

Well John, you may think it's ridiculous but I did the same thing with my VHS collection. I don't feel like I lost anything. I enjoyed all those films for less than the cost of a rental and got more than my money back on many limited releases. Your logic makes no sense... Why move into a new house when you have a perfectly good roof over your head? Maybe the new house has more of what you want and can better accomodate the things you want in the future. I was also smart enough not to buy Sony Beta, Pioneer Laserdisc, DIVX, Sony Mini-disc, Sony SACD, Sony UMD and certainly not Sony Blu-ray. I believe in track records.

 

[Brent M]

Aaron,

I think you're missing the point. It's perfectly fine to upgrade SD DVDs you might have to HD-DVD, but why get rid of movies that might not be out on the format for years? I can't imagine selling off my favorite movies with no idea of when they might come out in HD. It is still possible to enjoy upconverted SD DVDs(which can look pretty damn good IMHO) while buying into HD-DVD.

 

[Nick Graham]

If any of the titles involved in the sale had been actually picked up and watched by me within the last 6 months, it might be different. However, they have not (aside from the 1 or 2 I had bought within the last 6 months). It's great to know you own pretty much every movie you love, but at the same time, is there a point to owning them if you don't watch them any more? If you haven't touched them in months,a year, sometimes years? Honestly, I miss the fun of the early days of DVD, where you'd anxiously await each new announcement to see what was coming out. With this sale, these discs will actually be used and enjoyed again, as opposed to collecting dust, and I will get to enjoy being part of the early days of a new format/s like I did with DVD.

BTW, to take a look at was was sold (the deal was closed today), go here:
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.ht...&id=nickgraham

For what I kept, look here: http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.ht...&id=nickgraham

I did not intend to start an argument or debate by opening this thread...I opened it out of the excitement of jumping headfirst into a new format and the joy of starting the hobby from scratch again. 99% of the titles I sold are A list titles and cult classics that will assuredly be on one of the new formats sooner than later, the others are movies that I love to death (Affliction, Buffalo '66), but had not had the urge to watch in a long, long time.

 

[Cees Alons]

Right!

One post removed.
Please stop forcing your own point of view onto someone who made his own intentions clear.

You may feel differently about certain points yourself, or even "not understand" his position, and in fact you're free to politely state so.

But continuing to argue about it in someone else's thread after it has been extensively explained (even when an original poster is not obliged to do so, BTW!), even "advising" him based on your own different views is past common courtesy as we're used to on this forum.


Cees

 

[Robert James Clark]

I feel your pain Nick (and your excitement!). I have beloved titles that I just haven't watched in ages simply because of the advent of High Definition. I've only sold those SD titles that I either already have on HD-DVD/BluRay or are known to be coming out, but the ol' DVD enthusiasm is gone. I no longer rush out on Tuesday to buy the latest releases (much to my wife's chagrin, who probably could care less)...

 

[Chris Dugger]

Well....

Being on the bleeding edge of Laserdisc and dvd... I understand you plight....

One thing I did learn is that I had to be careful with what I parted with....

It will be a very, very long time (if ever) that some of those films you parted with will ever make a return in HD.

But, I also understand the "collecting dust" statement.

Dugger