So...are you mixing-in your HD discs with your SD-DVDs? - Page 6

First time I've quoted myself in a message!

Well, the collection continued to grow... but my wife and I got increasingly frustrated with our tiny living room/TV room.

Originally, most movies were in a large cabinet in the living room... some 600+ titles or so. Then I built shelving on the stairwell landing going into the basement. That contained all the TV DVDs, and any movies that were a trilogy or larger. THEN the BluRays got their own shelf down there.

Our living space was overrun.

So... I ended up ripping most DVD's to the Drobo attached to my desktop Mac (which I barely use in favour of my MBP), with the highest quality I could manage. Took me over three months, but now all the DVDs are boxed and stored... and everything is available for viewing through the Apple TV2. The BD disks all have their own display now... and I have much more room for MORE DISKS!

I kinda miss seeing a lot of the custom covers I made though... laugh!

blurays in projector room, 3d blurays sqirrelled below, like some guilty secret.

Majority of SD elsewhere on shelves.

My issues started back at the time that I was collecting VHS tapes - and I was able to fill a bookcase with somewhere north of 300 of them, double-rowed on each shelf.  The rest began multiplying across all the other shelves and bookcases in the living room. 

 

Then the laserdiscs and DVDs arrived and all the rest of the shelves quickly filled up.  

 

The numbers got to be enough for me to box and retire just about the entire VHS collection to the attic.  I sold or gave away almost all the VHS movies I had which had been duplicated either on laserdisc or DVD - unless there was something specifically different that was not available.  (The '97 Star Wars SE's, the TV cut of Star Trek TMP, a few other odds and ends)

 

Then the DVD situation got out of hand, and I had to divide out some subsections - like TV shows, concerts, sports, documentaries.  At this point I was having serious trouble finding space for any books on my bookshelves.

 

Then between the Blu-rays and the SD DVDs, the situation continued to blossom, until I finally broke down and bought two Ikea custom cabinets.  At this point, I have managed to contain the collection within the cabinets, with separate sections for Blu-ray and SD DVD in alphabetical order, and then separate sections for TV, music, plays, sports, documentaries, science fiction, animation, franchises (Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, James Bond, Matrix, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc), and a couple of shelves for the bigger box sets.  I have also separated out the Criterion Blus and SDs on the top shelf of each side of one of the cabinets, for the obvious reason.

 

Even with this, I have only been able to keep things under wraps by retiring DVD editions of movies that have been supplanted by Blu-rays.  In most cases, I have kept the DVDs boxed in the attic, as the Blus either did not carry over all the features of the DVD, or had other differences.   The nice part of this arrangement is that I've been able to find shelf space for all of my books again!

I've been mulling integrating my entire collection into one big A to Z configuration. Currently I've got everything separated by format and TV shows/films. I think it's something we all do instinctively (separating the formats) but lately I've been wondering what my collection would look like if everything was together. I've experimented a little by combining all the cult titles and so far I like the "feel" of that setup. As for space issues, I purchased a large CD/DVD binder and am currently storing all "lower-tier" and B-title discs in it and got rid of the Amaray cases (but removed and kept all the paper inserts and artwork in case I hit the Lotto someday, after which I will buy a bigger house and re-acquire all the cases and put everything back .

Mine are mixed together.

Approximately 400 titles - two-thirds are DVD and many are not likely to be released as Blu (classics - although surprised/happy by the Rathbone Holmes set). Almost all my Blus are upgrades. I don't keep the DVD if I upgrade (sell or give to my sons) - just stick the Blu into the same spot where the DVD was.

As for organization - loosely by genre. Within genre, either by series or actor - if not part of a series or major actor, usually release date. Most of them are in one tall shelving unit. Since its full, I have a couple of groupings elsewhere. Laserdiscs are in another room - most were replaced by DVD, but haven't gone through the hassle of selling. Two cabinets of self-recorded VHS in the back of a closet. Rarely watch the Laserdiscs. The VHS has mostly been replaced by DVD, but its out of the way, so why bother cleaning it up. There is some stuff in my VHS that has never made it into the digital world (since most is SLP, not worth it to copy to DVD)

David

numbers first, then A-Z , originals before remakes, tv mixed in the lot, makes it easy to find exactly what i want 

Always kept separately. all of my dvd's are only material that was created in SD, so will never be on Blu-Ray

I organize by film first and format last (with the exception of those big box sets that just don't fit into shelves). My primary organizational tool is director, and since this is my own private filing system, I get  to choose which directors have "earned" a spot on my shelves. Within each director, I file chronologically rather than alphabetically. It;s the archivist/librarian in me, because those are the terms in which I think of films and I like to see the progression of careers across my shelves.

 

After that, the films not already filed by director are then sorted by genre and then, for foreign language cinema, country (British and Canadian go in with American films into genres). I also separate out and subdivide TV into genres.

 

I don't have HD-DVD, but I still have a few VHS and a lot of home-burned DVD-R (dubbed down from old VHS recordings or from DVR recorded from cable) and those are filed in with the DVDs and Blu-rays. And as I upgrade, I pull out the old format and replace with the new. It works for me.