Is it still worth owning DVD's? (1 Viewer)

[DavidofLondon]

I've got well over 1000 DVDs now. In due course I'll start getting one of the HD formats (after the dust hassettled in the format war). But I'm happy with DVD quality, yeah HD is better, but I'm not going to dump the DVDs some will be replaced but the TV stuff (around 60%) won't be worth replacing as they mostly won't improve anyway.

My DVD Collection, is just that "a collection" its about choice. I don't have to decide what I want to watch in advance and order somethething online that won't arrive for 24 hours. I don't have to go out to the local library. I don't have to worry about returning it before some deadline. I just watch it how and when I want.

Its more than just DVDs. Its freedom, its choice, and its mine!!

 

[DonRoeber]

I rarely blind buy anymore, thanks to Netflix. I still buy plenty of DVDs, adding to my over 700 title collection, but now my collection is only full of titles I really want to own, rather than titles I bought just to see if I liked it.

Netflix has saved me a lot of money, and has improved the "health" of my DVD collection.

 

[Jon Martin]

About the rush to rent from Netflix, depending on the type of plan you are on, there really isn't a rush.

I'm on the 5 at a time plan, which means that, if I keep each for a week, I can get 25 or so a month. That gives me plenty of time to watch them. I can hold on to one if I want to watch it later, and mail the rest back. So, there really is no rush.

And you figure, 25 DVDs a month would cost you up to $1000 to buy. So, you are saving over $960 in the price of blind buys.

And as for stopping to buy SD-DVD, DVD has been around for over 10 years now, and many titles are only now being released. Many of the B and C titles (especially those that didn't sell well) may NEVER make it to the next format. Due to companies changing hands, music rights, etc. Look at the DVDs that are already out of print.

So, I'll still be buying.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I am in your boat almost exactly, except that I subscribed to Netflix about six months ago (to avoid paying $50 for a copy of Triumph of Nerds (PBS doc about Jobs/Gates), and found Netflix to be a superb substitute for watching some H'wood junk that I missed in theater, but was curious about.

Otherwise, my DVD collection is just that, a collection. How many times I watch a given DVD is irrelevant -- for instance, I've seen Vertigo 5 or 6 times on the big screen and have never watched my DVD (which I have triple dipped on -- I bought it alone, the two versions of the Hitchcock collection (an I re-gifted the older copies to friends) -- but every DVD collection should have Vertigo -- when I get around to watching the DVD is hardly relevant...

And I also have plenty of classics I'm still waiting to buy: Preston Sturges' still missing in R1 movies, I eagerly anticipate the Eric Rohmer box from Criterion this month, and there are plenty of films that I am dying to see that are yet to be even rumored for DVD. HD is a total irrelevance right now when it comes to classic/foriegn/art films.

Someone wake me up when Criterion and Studio Canal start putting out HD discs.

Ted

 

[Joe D]

I have around 200 DVD's, a good sized RPTV, and a sweet audio setup.

I have slowed down purchasing DVD's because there are less films coming out that I want and I can't afford to blind buy as often as before.

I am thinking about getting Netflix so I can watch all the movies I want to see but don't want to risk getting a dud.

DVD quality is usually pretty good and most recent transfers are great, so I don't feel the need to replace that many anytime soon.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Ron I would'nt stop buying SD Dvd's all together, I know you like alot of Classic cinema. Titles such as Fox's Film Noir Series, I doubt will ever be issued in a Hi Def format. So while buying new films it makes sense to wait for HD, there's alot I'll still be buying on SD DVD's for many years to come.

 

[Ted Todorov]

You are right -- they are more like books, which you do want to read -- but obviously no one with a book library of a few thousand volumes reads most of them very often...

In my case, before DVDs I was collecting posters and screenplays of movies I loved -- DVDs have replaced that -- but in a lot of cases they serve the same function -- a memento from a film I love, even if I have no near term plans for re-watching it (and if I do, it's often on 35mm instead of DVD.)

Ted

 

[MichaelBA]

That's a good perspective. But then maybe 1/4 of my 120 DVDs are honestly just crap that I really never should have wasted money on. Boo. Now I HAVE to buy like SIXTY more movies to get to my 150 DVD "media library" and not have anything in it that's embarrassing! But Netflix has GOT me! Can't buy!

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

The comparison to a library (of books...) makes sense. Is it "worth" having hundreds or thousands of books, most of which won't be read very frequently?

As for movies, I'm not buying into the "forever upgrade" thing - at least not for most titles. Sure, I'll replace some - just a few favourites - when it's time for a better format. I've got a bit over 400 DVDs now. Only a minority of those have been watched more than once so far. Doesn't make sense to me to "upgrade" all those titles to watch them once or maybe twice again - before it's time for a further upgrade...

I've also got a number of laserdiscs. And I haven't put myself in a position where I have to "hook up" a LD player before I can watch a LD.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

DVD collecting has began to fall into the category of 'conspicuous consumption', I feel. Having a 'library' of films on DVD is pretty silly, really, when renting most DVDs is fairly quick and simple. The space that DVDs take up is also a problem. The idea of having all the films you love, like or find interesting at your fingertips makes the movie buff feel powerful and 'in control'. It also gives one status of some kind amongst friends - "Hey, check out my DVD collection; I have over 3,000 titles from silents to CGI blockbusters, foreign classics to crude comedies!" which is an empty gesture, really. Collecting music is much more rational, as music can be listened to at home whilst reading, on the PC, doing housework, in the garden or all over via MP3, i-Pod player, in the car, at work, on a long train journey and can be ulitised at social gatherings like parties, weddings and even funerals. Fully experiencing a 90-180 minute feature film requires one's full attention for it to be a worthwhile pursuit. In those 90-180 minutes, you can listen to perhaps 5 pieces of music, whether it be rock/pop, Jazz, Classical. In short, you get more value for money with music on CD.

I, too have 700+ DVDs now and recently I realised that I have too much 'dead wood', ie. titles I know I will probably never watch again, though I still feel that those films are good, even great, but they no longer have a place in my heart of hearts. If I may use a big word, my collection needs to be 'individuated', in other words, put into an order where everything of high emotional, personal, meaningful value is assimilated into a whole, so that the collection is strong and deeply personal so that it has sort of 'shape' to it. I think that these kinds of clean-outs or defragment procedures are necessary every now and then. I still take chances with blind buys (most of my purchases are blind, in fact) but I now have a rought idea of which types of films to avoid and which types greatly appeal to me. I live in the UK and rent as much stuff as I can, but many films have to be purchased on R1, R3 or R4. There would be about 50 films that I would defintely upgrade to HD DVD without batting an eyelid - like the most visually beautiful films that I admire deeply - but most of my standard-def DVD collection would remain in tact.

Each person is different and like different films, but there has to be kind if rationale to it, some kind of cut-off to one's passions. Decadence ultimately leads to dissatisfaction.

Sorry for bumming anyone out, but there is some truth in what I am saying.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

"As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself."
- Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century European philosopher

 

[Joe Karlosi]

But Dave, while I tend to agree in this case I'm not sure that's a definite given (I'm playing Devil's Advocate here) because I've heard that very argument for DVD, and even music CD ("well, THIS movie or album will never come out on DVD/CD"). I even recall back in 1997 when I was an early adopter to DVD and all the LD collectors were so dead set against it, they doubted this or that would ever make it to DVD. One title in particular which a fellow fan and I were discussing in a laserdisc specialty store in '97 was Bela Lugosi's THE HUMAN MONSTER (aka "DARK EYES OF LONDON").... he was purchasing the LD and smiling triumphantly, saying "THIS will never come on DVD"... but it did.

 

[george kaplan]

You might have a point if it really were quick and simple to to rent the dvds you want. Tell you what. Let's say tonight you want to watch the Criterion version of Hard Boiled. Or the widescreen version of The Odessa File. Good luck with those, I certainly would not be able to do so. I categorically reject the idea that having my library of dvds is silly in the least!

 

[Joseph Bolus]

See ... That's my perspective as well. The movies that I watch over-and-over again probably only number around 100 or so (the Disney/Pixar animateds, Star Wars, Star Trek; James Cameron, Stephen Spielberg, and Tarantino-directed movies). But when I can purchase an impulse SD-DVD for $10 or less of something that I have only a passing interest in I'm going to do it. Just last week, for example, I purchased the "Airport Terminal Collection" for $12 (that's 12 dollars!!!) at Costco. That's four movies for 12 dollars. And all four movies were presented in their OAR with anamorphic enhancement. Now, truthfully, I'll probably *never* view "Airport '79"; but I'll view the other three movies in the set at some point; and have already viewed the original "Airport" movie twice. Will I feel compelled to re-purchase this on HD-DVD at some point? Nope! But I'm already playing these discs on a HD-DVD player and enjoying them.

With SD-DVD, the future is now! And we, the consumers, are all getting the deals of our lifetime in entertainment value. I'm riding this wave for as long as I can!

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

George, first, I myself have never had any problem in renting films I want. In any case, I am never that desperate to see a film the next day or day after. At any time there will be 20 films at the top of my rental list that I want to see in the immediate future, ie. the coming month. It's not like seeing the film will cure my toothache, cough, etc! I am a very patient man.

Secondly, hey, if you love Hard Boiled and The Odessa File, if they are in your top 100 films of all time, then keep them permanently in your collection. But surely you don't feel that strongly about EVERY DVD you own?

I think that things have gotten skewed nowadays: The rabid demand for films that haven't yet be released on DVD to be released immediately and with a perfect transfer and copious extras so that it can be added to one's collection that is now looking like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, there at one's fingertips, but more than likely destined to gather dusts for years, because one is busy surfing the Net for news of the other unreleased films. It's a vicious, unending cycle, like drinking sea water - the more one drinks, the more thirsty one becomes. It's a form of mental masochism, sometimes causing mild anxiety. At the end of the day, there are other things to be doing. I find that I become jaded if I watch films too often, week in, week out and reading about them and their DVD releases on a daily basis also begins to lose its pleasure. It all gets out of control and the initial purpose to it all - getting immense pleasure and insight from films, is lost in the mêlée of searching for and reading info on DVD releases, ordering DVDs, awaiting their arrival, setting them aside, watching them and then assimilating them into your collection, etc.

This is just my take on it all, based on my own behaviour and experience. Not everyone will feel this way, but your not being entirely honest if you say that there is no truth in what I am saying. It's great when one is starting out a collection, but after 500 titles, it becomes a sort of chore and at 1000, 3000 or more it surely must be moving close to irrational obsessiveness, even addiction. Isn't it better to have a concise collection of films that you genuinely and deeply appreciate and find enriching, constantly rewarding. As I say, I am constantly blind-buying films that sound really interesting, but ultimately fall short or would not bear repeating to my eyes, ears and mind - a good diversion, but forgettable. I feel this way about much rock and pop music, whereas the music of Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Bartok, Debussy, Rautavaara and many more are firmly a part of my character, just as many philosophers and writers are.

My values will obviously be different than anyone elses, so I am not trying to give advice, instruction, just food for thought.

 

[RickER]

Can i get an AMEN with that, brother!

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I saw my very first demo of Blu-Ray the other day at Circuit City, it was a trailer for Ultraviolet and my jaw was on the freakin' floor!

However, that being said, I will not be upgrading for some time, i'm waiting to see who the victor is in this war. I have 0ver 800 titles and my philosophy is, when I feel like watching a particular title, it's there. That may be tomorrow or next year, but it's there when I want to watch it.

Upgrading one's collection for a new format is nothing to fear, it's part of the hobby, the nature of the beast, when I know for sure which format is winning, and there are enough titles, I will gladly upgrade and start my collection anew.

BTW, SDVD will never be obsolete, all future HD and Blu-Ray players will be able to play them, they'll just no longer be produced anymore that's all.

But were talking waaaay down the road here.

Ron,
it breaks the heart to learn that you've jumped ship on SDVD. :frowning:

 

[BrettGallman]

I haven't jumped onto the HD-DVD bandwagon yet, and at first did decide not to buy any more SD-DVD's, only rent them. Then I figured that many of the titles I wasn't on SD weren't going to be available on HD anytime soon. So, I've pretty much broken down on that front.

Also, another somewhat paradoxical thing: The movies I'm looking forward to most on HD-DVD are movies I already own on SD. For example, Batman Begins and the LOTR Trilogy are the deal-makers for me. Once I come over to HD, I don't know how that will affect my SD purchases, especially for new releases (which have a better chance of being released on HD).

One thing is for sure: I won't ever stop collecting, because I like to know that if I want to watch something, I have it at my fingertips. Sometimes, I don't decide what to watch until I see it on my shelf. Not that easy to do at the rental store or Netflix.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Also, SDVD remains a format that still delivers a satisfying HT experience, sure the A/V quality is much better on HD and Blu-Ray, but SDVD is still very acceptable IMO.

It isn't like the jump from VHS to SDVD, although the jump in quality is considerable from SDVD to the new formats, that's not what I mean, I mean that VHS is unwatchable crap, SDVD is not unwatchable by any means, IMO anyway.

 

[Jacqui]

There are still so many classic titles to even be released on SDVD. So I guess those of us who are collectors will continue to collect SDVD in the hope that it strongly encourages studios to continue releasing their classics on DVD. If you look at Warners and Fox, they are by far the leaders in classic releases. Universal and Paramount have really slowed down. I just don't want studios deciding to hold back their classic catalogues in favour of releasing current SDVD on HD-DVD. I want the unreleased classics brought to life!!!

Besides, there is no way I can afford to think about purchasing HD DVD.