So...are you mixing-in your HD discs with your SD-DVDs? (1 Viewer)

Cinescott said:

I feel your pain. I have enough shelving space for 200 Blu-rays and that is about where I am at. DVDs have been banished to boxes in a storage closet, with the exception of a few frequently-watched titles.

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All those posts were from nearly a year ago (September 2011).

My wife and I are working on a new "media storage plan" for our home. We've got some new room available to us now that both kids are out of the house and on their own. Ah...the empty nest.

So, the project is underway (after years of being on hold). Gone will be (I hope) the cardboard boxes of various discs in the basement.

But, I do intend to continue to segregate the Blu-ray discs from their DVD brethren...except in various genre like TV and performing arts (concerts, Broadway shows, etc.). The Blu discs will hold the place of honor in the living area...where the HT is. The rest of my discs are expected to reside in one of the newly-spare bedrooms. My CDs will continue to reside in the basement...for now.

Is funny that you found and revived this thread, as I meant to. Over a year ago I combined HD and DVD TV shows. To make room I expanded my storage with some slat wall shelves from a Blockbuster that went out of business and moved the TV titles to these shelves in another room. Two weeks ago I took the plunge and combined DVD and Blu-ray. I have my collection divided by genre: Western, War, Holiday, Horror, SciFi/Fantasy, Drama, Comedy, Action, Family, Classics, Concerts, and Musicals. Now each category is a mixture of DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray organized alphabetically. It makes it that much easier to find a movie, and takes the pressure off to upgrade all the DVDs as they aren't in their own section anymore .

To answer the question no mixing in. All the DVDs currently are packed in boxes preparing for our move.
The only ones that are together are blus that are missing content that is on the DVD. So they are next to each other. Example would be Ronin the DVD has extras not on the blu.
Eventually I plan on buying cases that I can put both discs into and get rid of the DVD case.

Adam Gregorich said:

Is funny that you found and revived this thread, as I meant to. Over a year ago I combined HD and DVD TV shows. To make room I expanded my storage with some slat wall shelves from a Blockbuster that went out of business and moved the TV titles to these shelves in another room. Two weeks ago I took the plunge and combined DVD and Blu-ray. I have my collection divided by genre: Western, War, Holiday, Horror, SciFi/Fantasy, Drama, Comedy, Action, Family, Classics, Concerts, and Musicals. Now each category is a mixture of DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray organized alphabetically. It makes it that much easier to find a movie, and takes the pressure off to upgrade all the DVDs as they aren't in their own section anymore .

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OK, Adam, how do you do genre...Is Alien horror or sci-fi? Is M*A*S*H a war film, comedy, or drama? Is Back to the Future a comedy, or sci-fi?
I cannot do genre separating. To many movies are more than one! I would forget what area i put it in.
All my movies are in boxes, so we can try and sell our house. I miss my movies. I only have about a dozen of the newest (that i have yet to watch) out.

I have a weird system for my collection, but I have had to start mixing BDs with DVDs for the sake of space.

Interesting topic. I have experimented with different placement options over the years - the one I've been most satisfied with has been mixing DVDs and Blu's. I used to have the Criterions together (DVD & Blu-ray), all my exploitation titles (Code Red, Blue Underground, etc) and even tried to do the "movies-by-actor, genre, etc, thing but moving everything around every time I added a title felt more and more like a chore so I just stopped doing it that way. Space was also becoming an issue. I enjoy looking at my vast collection (sometimes as much as watching the movies themselves ) so being able to take everything in, with the various packaging styles and such, is really fun.

Originally Posted by cineMANIAC /t/269517/so-are-you-mixing-in-your-hd-discs-with-your-sd-dvds/150#post_3956700
I enjoy looking at my vast collection (sometimes as much as watching the movies themselves ) so being able to take everything in, with the various packaging styles and such, is really fun.

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Very true! I enjoy the diversity and uniqueness of my collection, too.

Unfortunately, it is a lot of work keeping things straight. One of the things I find is that I might spend more time dealing with my collection (organizing, shopping, researching, etc.) than I do watching it! That's a bad thing...except that I still enjoy myself. But I still wish I had more time to watch this incredible selection of films I have built.

Right now I am busy inputting all the titles into DVD Profiler in anticipation of this physical reorganization of the discs/cases themselves.

GREAT topic. I love hearing how others view and deal with their collections. Here's my own...

I've never hesitated to combine DVDs and BLUs -- for me, it's about the movies, not the video resolution or the size of the case. For most of these years it was just alphabetical, eliminating all question about where to find something on the spur of the moment (the always-aggravating exception being double-feature or multiple-feature sets). At first, I kept TV shows separate from movies. Then, as my Disney collection grew (I eventually acquired all the Treasures and Legacies, and every feature film that meant something to me, which is a LOT), I moved that to a separate area.

But as the collection grew dramatically over the past few years, I grew dissatisfied with the bulk of it being alphabetical. I wanted to categorize the films somehow or other -- but not just as a typical store would do it. This isn't a store. It's my home. I felt it should be personal -- it should be done in a way that means something to the collector.

So, a couple of months ago when I needed to file a stack of new discs, which had grown to be quite the chore, it finally struck me to try grouping by director, for the simple reason that the "auteur" sensibility had been my default in thinking about film since literally the early 1970s. I started with a few traditional favorites for whom I had a sufficient number of films, just to see how I liked it -- Hitchcock, Bergman, Welles, Kubrick... and I was hooked. I started placing the director groups on their own set of shelves, freeing up a lot of space in the main section so it was easy to file new stuff. You couldn't do an entire collection like that (there are just too many miscellaneous titles for which it wouldn't make any sense), but as soon as I've accumulated, say, three or more titles where the director (or producer, in cases like Val Lewton) is the draw, those join the grouped section.

Having reorganized that much, I could now see that the large miscellaneous section had potential for further groupings, which would make total sense but wouldn't depend on a common director, such as: Hammer and Amicus films. Universal and other US monsters or horror or sci-fi. Harryhausen animation. Musicals. Westerns. Traditional comedy acts (A&C, L&H, Marx, Stooges). It continues to evolve. And there's always the occasional question of cross-categorization for some film or other. In those few cases, I go with my gut -- whatever means the most to me.

Oddly enough, this system helps me to better manage the constant challenge of real estate in general. My favorite thing, though, is that the collection now means more to me, and is more accessible, as a collection. And when friends come into the room, instead of just being numbed by shelves and shelves of a whole lot of discs, what they're now able to see (if they're interested) is the core of what my personal tastes run to. This is where the meaning is -- what, for me, it's all about.

My Blu-rays are in a built-in bookcase in downstairs office next to theater room. SDs are in slim cases upstairs.

I haven't mixed DVDs with HD DVD or Blu-ray, primarily because I wanted to keep "hd" video separate and I have shelves where the shorter HD DVD/BD cases fit, but standard DVD does not (that, and I'm lazy as I have a whole bunch of things that are still in stacks waiting to go on shelves). I do plan to reorganize this fall (my work schedule will be somewhat lighter than usual, sadly for my wallet, but fortunately for my HT viewing time). I will keep my current organizational categories (mostly be genre) but I will mix in the formats as I adjust the shelves. My HD DVD and BDs are already mixed together, so DVD won't be too much of an issue (I've changed my mind from my original idea to keep "hd" separate from "sd").
I have an historical feature film category (that one is important for my work)--films are arranged in chronological order of the events they portray. I have them sub-divided into US and international history (westerns go into US history, for example). If more than one film subject is from the same time frame (westerns) or about the same event, then I order them by production date (The Birth of a Nation, for example, is first among Civil War films on my shelf).
Other categories are fairly straightforward: sci-fi, comedy, drama, action-adventure. I also have a "classics" section (anything before 1970 can be included, though not necessarily--Forbidden Planet is in sci-fi, for instance). I keep boxed sets and TV series in separate categories. I also have a music category (alphabetical in classical and non-classical--I don't further divide by musical genre, though I do it with audio only).
I face similar issues with SACD, DVD-A and redbook CD--each format is kept separate and divided by musical genre.

RickER said:

a comedy, or sci-fi?
I cannot do genre separating. To many movies are more than one! I would forget what area i put it in.
All my movies are in boxes, so we can try and sell our house. I miss my movies. I only have about a dozen of the newest (that i have yet to watch) out.

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Good questions. Alien is SciFi, MASH is Comedy, as is BTTF. Cowboys and Aliens is Action, not Western or SciFi. Often times the deciding factor is "Will Annette (my wife) watch this?" If the answer is no and it deals with war, aliens, space or cowboys then it will end up in Western, War or SciFi which are all on the top shelf. For the past six months I have been combining "upgraded" titles into cases with the Blu-ray. For instance I just bought the one disc BD of Singing in the Rain. I also have the 2 disc DVD, so I combined all three discs in a three disc Blu-ray case with the slip cover from the one disc Blu-ray. I just order the cases in bulk from: http://www.sleevetown.com/blu-ray-hd-dvd-case.shtml

Things used to be alphabetical, but that was years ago when we had under 1000 titles. Now we are north of 4000 so it makes sense to break it out by genre. For us when we watch a movie we feel like a Comedy, Drama, or ??? so its easier to go to that section.

Its fascinating to see how everyone else does it, even if there is only one right way

Adam Gregorich said:

even if there is only one right way  

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Never was I in more agreement with a statement here on HTF. Obviously My Way!
Actually, I do mix, and mine are organized by genre and then sub-genre. So, within Westerns, I might have Wayne's separate from the rest, or Comedies - Fields separate from Marx separate from The Roads. And my sub-genre are usually by either Star or Director or Series. Within a grouping, I usually go chronologically.
As for categorizing, I tend to think how I would describe a film. And also, I like to keep my bookshelves 'clean', so I don't spill over to the next shelf and leave some 'orphans'. But this means, that if I add to a section, I might move one of these multi-genre to the shelf that is less full.
David

Originally Posted by David Weicker /t/269517/so-are-you-mixing-in-your-hd-discs-with-your-sd-dvds/150#post_3956838
Actually, I do mix, and mine are organized by genre and then sub-genre. So, within Westerns, I might have Wayne's separate from the rest, or Comedies - Fields separate from Marx separate from The Roads. And my sub-genre are usually by either Star or Director or Series. Within a grouping, I usually go chronologically.
As for categorizing, I tend to think how I would describe a film. And also, I like to keep my bookshelves 'clean', so I don't spill over to the next shelf and leave some 'orphans'. But this means, that if I add to a section, I might move one of these multi-genre to the shelf that is less full.

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I didn't go any further into it above, but this is all pretty much my practice as well. Interesting how the John Wayne subset quickly became such a good idea.

Chas in CT said:

I didn't go any further into it above, but this is all pretty much my practice as well. Interesting how the John Wayne subset quickly became such a good idea.

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I sub divide my classics section this way. Ditto the clean shelves concept.

Heh... Will probably be doing a bit of reorganizing this week before I host a movie marathon day while the family is away on vacation w/ my in-laws leaving me home alone.

Will see about finally putting together the other small-ish media case (w/ mission style doors) I bought from DeepDiscount a long while ago, but held off building due to our long stalled plans of a move. My BD collection has grown so much that I really need that 2nd case (and then some).

Still no plans to mix BD w/ DVD, especially now that I've upgraded so many DVDs to BD (and will likely upgrade many of the rest given the right price). Well, I guess I might mix the small collection of TV shows I own though.

I did finally toss most of my small collection of old LDs a couple months ago though I did save most of the better covers/jackets w/ plans to use them for decoration in my eventual "new" HT room... that is, if that ever works out...

_Man_

I did finally toss most of my small collection of LDs

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I hope you didn't throw out anything you'll regret later
I stopped disposing of DVDs while anticipating upgrades (to other DVDs or Blu's) - there's just no telling what will or won't make it to the newer edition until it actually released. I don't even rely on press releases anymore as they're not always 100% accurate. Made lots of mistakes but I learned my lesson

Originally Posted by cineMANIAC /t/269517/so-are-you-mixing-in-your-hd-discs-with-your-sd-dvds/150#post_3958776
I stopped disposing of DVDs while anticipating upgrades (to other DVDs or Blu's) - there's just no telling what will or won't make it to the newer edition until it actually released. I don't even rely on press releases anymore as they're not always 100% accurate. Made lots of mistakes but I learned my lesson

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I have bought back a few things I casually tossed or gave away before having their replacement in hand and knowing exactly what's on each one and whether there might be a reason to hang on to something. Fortunately, those items were readily available, cheaply and in good shape, on the secondhand market. Nevertheless ..... lesson learned!

Always segregated. My obsessive compulsive disorder won't allow for anything else
Here's my current storage setup.

Three shelves. The one on the left is TV on DVD, with a small section of TV on Blu-ray right at the top. The middle is movies on DVD, and the third is movies on Blu-ray.
I originally had TV on Blu-ray with the Blu-ray shelf, but ultimately decided against it.
It's like a Venn diagram!
Note: Picture inserted by Mod

My movies are separated from TV sets, but Blu-ray and S-DVD is mixed for my discs are alphabetical by title. Except, collections such as this upcoming TCM Universal Rarities and they have their own corner.

I also don't get rid of a title that is coming out on Blu-ray until I have it in my grubby hands.

I am in clear and preset danger of being buried alive by my collection. Segregation is the least of my worries. (Isn't that Blu-ray-ist, anyway?)