Buying or Renting? (1 Viewer)

[Jesse Skeen]

I've been taking advantage of the local libraries since August- you can check out 5 DVDs at a time and keep them for 3 weeks, so I just go in, grab whatever 5 they have that I want to see, then when I'm done with them bring them back and get 5 more. I've been amazed at some of the stuff they have; I thought they'd be limited to purely educational or artistic titles, but I've also gotten such masterpieces as "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector". Problem is a lot of people abuse the discs, I've had a few movies ruined in the middle where they refuse to play through a scratch. Every time I tell the people at the library that they should check the condition of discs when they're returned and charge those who damage them, they say they don't have a practical way to do that.

Redbox gives out TONS of free rental codes too, check the site insideredbox.com for those. I can usually get a movie from there every day that I go to work and return it the next day. This of course is making it even harder to get through the tons of stuff I've already bought- I won't spend money on rentals, but when they're free it's hard to turn down.

With gas prices going up I've been spending less time going out looking for stuff to buy and more time at home watching what I've already got. The only time I go by stores now is when I'm on the way to or from work.

 

[David Levine]

I'm a buyer. I order a decent amount of stuff online, but that's only when I find good deals.

Gas prices don't affect me much as I have 2 Best Buys, 2 Circuit Cities, a large Target and a Big Lots within 2.5 miles of my house.

 

[Lucia Duran]

Our local library does not have a dvd section.

We have a netflix account that serves us well. we usually have out 3 movies at a time and their selection is more than proper. Frankly, I haven't bought any new dvd's in a while and most likely will not since netflix is around. I have really been enjoying the Watch Instantly feature on netflix. Some good old school stuff can be found through a decent search.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Gas prices really aren't a factor in my decline of DVD buying, other than being another annoyance in the budget. The biggest deterent in buying more SD titles is that I know I will eventually move to HD, and having done the double dipping on titles with DVD, don't see much reason to invest in SD versions when I'll be getting an HD version later, or at worst, buying the DVD once its price has dropped significantly. I'm also getting extremely selective in what I will buy.

As much as I enjoy collecting, I think I would be quite happy with an on demand service that offered a vast library of titles for casual viewing, with purchases of discs for my collection limited to things I know I'll rewatch with some regularity, unlike 90% of what I already have.

 

[Phil Florian]

Lately due to costs of everything going up in my life I have had to not only curb my buying habits but sell some stuff off to purchase what little I want. With two little kids and a house to keep up, buying without getting rid of something in return just isn't happening.

I still do and will buy things but only on DVDs I know I will watch over and over. I still have my Whedon DVDs, Band of Brothers and so on but even the awesome Deadwood series is gone from my collection. I have recently gone back to Netflix and find I watch more for that small amount of money than I do if I have to buy. I have watched 4 seasons of MI:5 (Spooks elsewhere) a show I liked but not enough to ever want to watch it again. This is how I am going to see The Wire, Big Love and other stuff that I don't get with HBO being off my list. I see them when I want, not when in reruns.

I just have to mix the two up. Sure, for $15 a month I could buy a single movie or a couple used but right now I get as many movies as I want and that's better for me. It is also good for my family as we get a lot of these old musicals that are fun once but not necessarily to see over and over. Saves on clutter, too. Nice to have shelf space for the handful of great DVDs and collections instead of shoving most in a shelf sight unseen until I get the urge to go digging, too.

I also echo the library idea. They are getting more and more titles and usually the kinds of imports and rare discs that the typical rental store won't carry. Somehow our neighborhood library benefited from someone with a huge love of Bollywood movies, too, so we have a TON of these things. Just can't find that anywhere.

 

[JoshuaB.]

I'm mostly a buyer, but my DVD purchases have decreased over the last few years. I buy more movies than TV on DVD (yet post mostly in the TV section), especially Criterion (they've been releasing a lot of my favourite films lately) and Warner titles, but I seldom buy a lot of recently-released films, preferring films from the mid-80s and older.

I don't buy that many contemporary TV on DVD anymore because most of the shows I want I already own. Instead I'm focusing on the few vintage shows I grew up with that still hold up well to my adult critical faculties (like Get Smart, The Fugitive, etc.). I've got too many TV-on-DVD sets that I haven't watched yet because of time (too many things to do in Vancouver!), so I'm being very choosy nowadays.

 

[Michael Rogers]

I buy what I want but used to buy a lot more then I did before.

I used to buy new release movies sight unseen if they were well reviewed. That practice has practically stopped.

Money is tighter these days but that's not the only reason.

I've grown increasingly upset with the current socio-political mindset of Hollywood (without going into any detail) which is a part of many of their movies and that discourages me from going to them and buying them a lot more than I would before.

I still break down the doors to get the classic TV shows I love and some movies which I have already seen and liked.

But I do have Netflix but otherwise do not rent because I hate time limits on a tape or DVD I want to see.

 

[Marty M]

Back in 1998 and 1999 I was buying only. First there weren't many outlets for renting and you could get new releases so cheap with all the coupons different etailers were offering.

Like Ron and several others have mentioned I was only watching many of the purchased DVDs once, and some not at all. My DVD purchases now are pretty much limited to TV series that I know will take me a while to go through. I purchase an occasional movie that I think I will want to watch more than a couple of times.

My daughters gave me a year's subscription to Netflix for my birthday in January and that is the way I have been watching almost all the DVDs I have seen so far this year.