DVD Thinpak and other Slim Cases - Page 29

HD-DVD and blu-ray are not slim enough for my taste, they could have gone more!

At the recent chat with Warner Brothers, an HTFer asked when WB will begin using slim cases in its boxsets.

The WB reps responded that the slim cases "make sense". They went on to say that while they may not use them in every set, they probably would on those sets in which the titles will ONLY be available in the box (they gave examples like Busby Berkeley & The Thin Man).

That sounds like positive news! In an earlier question--in which the reps were thanked for taking part in the chat and listening to the concerns of the members of the HTF--they responded that they are glad to listen to their consumers...and wryly commented that otherwise they'd still be using "those awful snapper cases"!

LOL

Comic book guy: "Worst case ever!"

And who says people don't own up to their mistakes anymore?

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After switching from normal DVD cases to slim, now I'm considering using DVD Binders for the rest. Anyone has experience? Are they safe? I'm not very much worried of causing scratches on the DVDs. I'm more concerned about the melting! Had a bad experience recently. I had some DVDs in a 20-DVD plastic case (kind of one-CD binders) and discovered that somehow the DVDs had been slightly glued to the plastic! (I imagine due to the heat) that has never happened to my DVDs in their proper DVD cases! So this is the major concern I have about using Binders.

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Sam: Why?!

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Well, space! space! Also this printing thing takes a lot of time and some times you just don't have the time to work on all of your DVDs!

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That, my friend, is why you should "trim" your original covers.

I just went through and brought my collection up-to-date.

I got a paper cutter last summer and it has made the job that much easier...and more accurate!

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And more painful!

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Where can I get a template or free software online to make up covers for Thinpak DVD cases? I'm trying to finish a project for family home movies for relatives and these are nice cases to use. Please let me know if any software is better or worse to use.

Thank you!

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Paul: Shoot me your e-mail and I'll send you a ThinPak Photoshop Template if that's helpful to you.

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Just checking in to say I am still happy with my UniKeep binders. New pic:



The spine labels are from a P-Touch label maker, black on clear. Black on white would have been more legible but I really like the translucent look.

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Will_B: That is one good-looking set-up there! I might explore that for space sake myself. (Although I LOVE a lot of my DVD covers.)

Question: How often do you have to re-arrange all the letter sets as the collection grows? That would drive me crazy.

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And an action pic, to boot! Have you ever considered hand modeling?!

Nice shot, Will!

How many DVDs, again, in each binder?

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The thick ones on the left side of the pic are 1.5 inches thick and they hold 80 discs each, but I am now leaving a few more empty pages in each than I originally anticipated would be needed, so figure more like 50 or 60 discs per binder. Bear in mind many movies are 2-disc sets.

I suggest anyone starting out should only use the 1.5 inch size. But I also use a smaller size. The thin ones to the immediate left of my hand are only 1 inch and hold only 48 discs, and I use those for some of the longer running tv series. Long running shows like Farscape, Xena, Highlander, and Hercules fit exactly into the 1 inch ones, by pure chance.

But generally tv shows go into the larger 1.5 inch ones, a few shows per. I try to arrange them thematically, but the tv series arrangements are the fastest to change since tv sets often have many, many discs. I'm not sure what the best way to do tv shows is yet, honestly.


I'll say once a year. I originally underestimated how many empty pages should be kept in each binder. So I expanded it once, at which time I did indeed have to relabel. My housemates get a kick out of my "F - K" binder, but that was just chance. As it stands now, the breakdown is:
A-B
C-E
F-K
L-N
O-R
S-S
T-Z
Your results may differ. If you don't buy science fiction I think you'd have less "S" discs.

Recently I had the bright idea that I could buy trading cards of some of these shows, and put them in the binders too. I figured that since tradings cards of shows like "24" or "Battlestar Galactica" take pictures of each episode, they'd serve as a kind of visual episode guide. Big mistake. They fit just fine, and it was neat to have tradings cards to the left and the discs to the right -- but the tradings cards weighed a ton, being cardboard as they are.


That Kastanza guy keeps getting all my gigs!

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Will: Do you keep the cover art in the folders, too?

If not, what do you do with it? Trash it?

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I put the cover art elsewhere. You *could* put them in page protectors inside those binders but that takes up way too much room.

The one thing I *do* do is on the television binders I print out an 8.5x11 poster of the tv show. That acts as a divider of sorts between the different series. And it makes sense, because we're talking just a very few sheets of paper - I have maybe a dozen tv shows on dvd. Not much effort for anyone with a color printer. This pic is from a few pages ago:



Since I took that pic I've gone back and replaced the page protector with one that has a clear left-most border (where the hole punches are) rather than white. The white is distracting.

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Will, do you have any problem with the DVDs getting stuck to the plastic? I'm just afraid that after a while (like 5-6 years), they get damaged due to that! How long have you had them like this?

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Do you keep the keepcases, too?!

I've (probably foolishly) got all my empty keepcases stored in cardboard boxes in my garage attic. Why? I don't know. I think I need to develop a strategy for their disposal. (Ha! How's that for bureaucratic gobbledy-gook for "I think I need to have a garage sale!)

BTW Will, thanks for also sharing a picture of your left hand! I have a much more well-rounded impression of you now!

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Well it's polypropylene (both the black backing and the clear front of the UniKeep pages), not a polyvinyl, so I don't expect there will be any problems. It's as inert as you can get.

If you've ever handled a tacky, almost wet-like plastic, then you most likely handled a polyvinyl. That's no good for archival storage. I've seen some good page designs ruined by the use of vinyls. Why would anyone put a plastic that is leeching plastic softeners (that's the wetness) against a DVD? Just sounds like a bad idea all around. Plus if you do a google search on the differences between polyvinyls and polypropylene, you won't go near polyvinyls again.


Nah. Well, the silver ones that The Abyss and Trek and A.I. came in. But the commonly available ones, nah. It feels good to throw that shtuff away.


This is getting disturbing.

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Will, what do you do with dual sided discs? I would be very hesitant to put dual sided discs in a binder.

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I was gonna dump all of my cases, but when my parents had a huge tag sale, I put them out (not thinking they'd really sell). I started off at 10 for $1, then some guy wanted them all, so I gave him several boxfulls (probably 200-300) for like $10 or $15.

Not too bad.

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Yeah. I mean, you got something for stuff that was useless to you...and the guy you sold 'em to got a GREAT deal!

He's probably using them to sell bootleg stuff and is putting his kids through college.

I'll probably do something similar. The cases aren't doing me any good sitting in storage. Gotta keep up my mantra: less is more (except, of course, in terms of DVDs!).

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Thanks Will for the info. I will look out for that polyvinyls and polypropylene stuff! I hope I can tell the difference later. It sounds technical!

About the keep cases. At first I also kept them but with time I came to the conclusion to throw them away. Life is too short! But Mike that's the first step. When you throw them away, you are just closer to the next level, put them all in Binders! Buhaha HA hahaha!

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I dunno. Binders just don't appeal to me.

Ya know how people have practically charged me with felony assault for trimming my cover art to fit into ThinPaks? Well, no heretical rhetoric from me, but I just don't think it would be my preference to have the DVDs collected into bulk storage like binders.

Of course, I keep an open mind on these things...and now that I've just passed Babe Ruth with the size of my DVD collction (715), I may ultimately change my mind. Although I don't hope so since I've made such a commitment in time & $$$ to ThinPaks.

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Ok, I just bought a 100 DVD case and it is 100% Polyester. What's this? Is it good?

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100% polyester can NEVER be good!

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Well, polyester is polyethylene terephthalate (PET)... You're safe! It isn't a vinyl. I hadn't heard of polyester being used, evidently because it is expensive.

Check this out:

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Thanks. I have to say that after few days, I'm very happy with the result. It was real fast. In few hours I threw out 100 plastic cases and instantly shrank them to a tinny space! I do this to my “lesser beloved” DVDs. I still use slim cases for my “beloved” DVDs!

I also don't go alphabetical. What I do to find them, is that I add the location of each DVD in DVD Profiler.

Mike, come on. Join us. You know you want to! Don't resist!