Do you curate your large blu-ray collection? (1 Viewer)

[The Obsolete Man]

If my interests come up in conversation, for Sci/fi I am considered a way out weirdo, classic movies are boring, and of course musicals are only for gay people.

What, you've never put on Cannibal: The Musical for anyone?

 

[TJPC]

What, you've never put on Cannibal: The Musical for anyone?

Never even seen it!!

 

[Carabimero]

I let life curate my DVD/BD collection for me. Examples: When I saw the third new Star Trek movie and young Spock found a picture of old Spock's crew, it made me go back and watch all the original Star Trek movies, then the series. Recently my wife was watching BRAVEHEART and, upon seeing Patrick McGoohan, I started watching DANGER MAN. I went from the 30-minute episodes to the one-hour episodes and straight into THE PRISONER. Last month I went to see the third Apes film in the theater, and it sparked an interest in watching the original movies, then the TV series, then the Apes animated series. If I am missing my dad, I watch the series we so enjoyed together: ANDY GRIFFITH, GOMER PYLE and BARNABY JONES, just to name three. So you get the idea. I watch large parts of my collection, over and over, but it's rarely premeditated. It's usually inspired by something I see or feel. And when the mood hits, it sure is an insane luxury to have complete franchises of all my favorite shows...

 

[bigshot]

My friends want something different every time. They wouldn't ist still for the same
genre weeks in a row.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

My friends want something different every time. They wouldn't ist still for the same
genre weeks in a row.

Only once and a while do friends attend. The thing I really enjoy when I do something like Science Fiction films of the 1970s is in watching them all in a month you get a real sense of the time...in this case the decade of the 1970s. It literally takes you back to that period and reveals what frightened and concerned people then. As we know these films tend always to be about more than their surface elements...so for example Zardoz is not about a guy running around in a crimson diaper. Particularly in the 1970s when these films trafficked more in ideas than special effects. There is a high level of intelligence and thoughtfulness at play in films of this decade that is nearly nowhere to be found now where films in the genre today tend only to be about the effects, pretty cinematography and are puddle deep.

So, really the programming I do is mainly for me to assist me in going through all the films in my collection. This is really what I am attempting to do when I select films for each month.

 

[bigshot]

I will binge watch TV, but I don't do that with genres. I'm a honeybee going from flower to flower. I don't often watch films alone. It's more fun to have someone to talk with about it after the movie is over. I think that I watch differently from many people because I have a projection system. The only TV set I own is in my bedroom and that's just to watch news while I get dressed in the morning. Dropping a screen and turning off the lights is a completely different experience than watching TV. It's changed how I view. I watch a lot less than when the TV ran all the time in the background, but the experience of each individual film is stronger.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I watch little to no television outside of something like this Twin Peaks revival or sports. I have never really binge watched anything except perhaps Stranger Things when I watched that over the course of three nights. Movies are my go to entertainment though and I prefer them over television. I don't have the patience for most shows. I also do a lot of reading so what I like about a watching a film is I can spend a couple hours with that and go read. I have caught up with some shows long after they were over on television. Rome, Deadwood, Hannibal, and The Knick to name some...and I have considered watching The Wire but have not yet got to that one. Where the "adult drama" really is not much of a thing anymore at the cinema it appears it is alive and well on TV.

I had been attending a film festival with friends every summer for years up on Lake George where we set up a big tent on the lake and screened films (projected from a blu-ray source) with a theme. This was fun but we have not done it in a couple of years now. I was in Europe much of this summer, then New York City and Maine. So, not only was there no Lake George but I did not have much time for watching films this summer.

This month I am watching a variety of films leading into the big October slaughter of horror. However, because last year I began answering my door with an axe on my shoulder I am trying to rethink my approach to October this year.

 

[bigshot]

I'm region free so I get a lot of TV on DVD and blu-ray from Amazon UK. There's a lot of fantastic television being made, but most of it doesn't get to broadcast in the US. Sometimes Netflix and Amazon. I especially like Norwegian Noir. I keep finding more series in that genre and they all seem to be good. I'll watch those shows two hours a night for several nights in a row to get through a story arc. But movies I always mix up, unless I get sucked into a box set like I just did with the Richard Stanley documentary set.

 

[TravisR]

I watch little to no television outside of something like this Twin Peaks revival or sports. I have never really binge watched anything except perhaps Stranger Things when I watched that over the course of three nights. Movies are my go to entertainment though and I prefer them over television. I don't have the patience for most shows. I also do a lot of reading so what I like about a watching a film is I can spend a couple hours with that and go read. I have caught up with some shows long after they were over on television. Rome, Deadwood, Hannibal, and The Knick to name some...and I have considered watching The Wire but have not yet got to that one. Where the "adult drama" really is not much of a thing anymore at the cinema it appears it is alive and well on TV.

Definitely. Every year still has some excellent dramatic movies but for years now, I've been most excited by the long form dramas on TV. Also, I think you would like The Wire. There's a lot of names and characters to keep track of but TV doesn't get much better.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

But movies I always mix up, unless I get sucked into a box set like I just did with the Richard Stanley documentary set.

So, how did you like those Richard Stanley documentaries? I have been pondering watching them...mainly to see where he has been and what he has been up to...and am sort of curious about the subject matter. Being that you said you got "sucked in" I am guessing that you enjoyed them. I was thinking they may be a good add to my October viewing, what do you think?

 

[bigshot]

They're fantastic. He reminds me of Herzog. They reflect Stanley's world view the way Herzog's films do. I watched Otherworld first, then after I watched the rest, I realized that the last documentary on the DVD was the prequel to Otherworld. Now I have to go back and watch Otherworld again and get what I missed. There are things on these documentaries that no one else has been able to put on film before. Stanley is fearless. The quality of the docs on the DVD is pretty rough, but it's OK. They still pack a wallop. Stanley's introductions are really necessary for understanding what his purpose and process was.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Thank you, Stephen. I will give them a go then and thanks to you I have an order to watch them in.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This has been a very cool thread to read, with all of the different ways people interact with their collections.

I keep track of mine in an Access database. Every time I buy a new title, I throw it on the scanner to get a cover art image, and then enter the file path for the resulting image and details about the title into one of four tables:

1. Blu-Ray Movies
2. DVD Movies
3. Television on Blu-Ray
4. Television on DVD

I have some nice reports that bring in the cover art and display the titles in different ways, and then I have a bunch of queries that combine and mix and match from the four tables.

I use one query in particular to try and get through the backlog of unwatched titles: "All Movies (sorted by date last watched)" This combines the "Blu-Ray Movies" table and the "DVD Movies" table into one list and sorts it first by date watched (least recent to most recent) and then by date purchased (most recent to least recent). So that way, all of the unwatched titles are at the start of the list, with the most recent purchases first.

Eventually, once I've gotten through the backlog, the films I've gone the longest without watching will be at the top of the list. But for now, I try to pick from the titles still in shrink wrap.

If a new Marvel movie's coming out, I'll rewatch the couple previous ones most closely related to it. And this December, ahead of the release of The Last Jedi, I'll watch all of the Star Wars movies again in chronological order: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Other than that sort of thing, I don't do a whole lot of curating. I've misplaced my Blu-Ray for one of the Harry Potter movies, but if that ever turns up again I'll probably do that franchise over eight nights, maybe with Fantastic Beasts beforehand.

 

[bigshot]

Plex and Kodi puts it all in a single database. And it scrapes to enter all the data for you.

 

[Mike Frezon]

This has been a very cool thread to read, with all of the different ways people interact with their collections.

I keep track of mine in an Access database. Every time I buy a new title, I throw it on the scanner to get a cover art image, and then enter the file path for the resulting image and details about the title into one of four tables:

1. Blu-Ray Movies
2. DVD Movies
3. Television on Blu-Ray
4. Television on DVD

I have some nice reports that bring in the cover art and display the titles in different ways, and then I have a bunch of queries that combine and mix and match from the four tables.

I use one query in particular to try and get through the backlog of unwatched titles: "All Movies (sorted by date last watched)" This combines the "Blu-Ray Movies" table and the "DVD Movies" table into one list and sorts it first by date watched (least recent to most recent) and then by date purchased (most recent to least recent). So that way, all of the unwatched titles are at the start of the list, with the most recent purchases first.

Eventually, once I've gotten through the backlog, the films I've gone the longest without watching will be at the top of the list. But for now, I try to pick from the titles still in shrink wrap.

If a new Marvel movie's coming out, I'll rewatch the couple previous ones most closely related to it. And this December, ahead of the release of The Last Jedi, I'll watch all of the Star Wars movies again in chronological order: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Other than that sort of thing, I don't do a whole lot of curating. I've misplaced my Blu-Ray for one of the Harry Potter movies, but if that ever turns up again I'll probably do that franchise over eight nights, maybe with Fantastic Beasts beforehand.

I'd be curious to see that sometime, Adam. Next time we take in a classic restoration at a local cinema, say!?!

Is it something you can access on your smartphone?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'd be curious to see that sometime, Adam. Next time we take in a classic restoration at a local cinema, say!?!

Is it something you can access on your smartphone?

I would love to show it to you Mike next time I see you in person, but I don't currently have a means to do so. I believe there are Access database viewers for Android, but I've never experimented with them. And my 2016 license for Microsoft Office doesn't include Access, so the database is still using the Access 2003 format (and the Access 2003 program).

But to give you a glimpse, I took some screenshots (Click to enlarge):

When you first open the database, it presents the list of tables. Some (Blu-Ray Movies, Digital Copies, DVD Movies, Television on Blu-Ray, Television on DVD) are updated constantly as I acquire new titles. Others (Disc Formats, Distributors, Genre, Purchase Locations, Ratings, Television Categories) are mostly static and utilized so I label things consistently and don't keep having to type the same repeated bits of data over and over again.


I've also created a bunch of queries when I want to see specific information about my collection arranged in specific ways. These queries pull in data from multiple tables. The query in this screenshot in the "All Movies (sorted by date last watched)" list I mentioned in my previous post.


I also have a series of printable reports that utilize the scanned cover art images. I mainly use these when I have guests over and want to give them a quick way to browse my collection for something to watch. I've also used them for lending purposes. These reports can be saved to PDF and emailed, which also makes for a nice way to present my collection to others.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Nice. Very cool.

I don't know anything about Access.

I'm always amazed that people can so consistently keep such a database up-to-date. I just scan bar codes with DVD Profiler and let the software do the rest. Even then, I don't track purchase costs or where I got the titles, etc. It's basically just an inventory which is probably used most often to keep me from re-buying titles.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Nice. Very cool.

I don't know anything about Access.

At work, I have to manipulate very large datasets drawn down from an old Unisys mainframe, so I'm in Access all day long. Accordingly, when my previous system was no longer working for me, it seemed like a no brainer to me create an Access database.

I'm always amazed that people can so consistently keep such a database up-to-date. I just scan bar codes with DVD Profiler and let the software do the rest. Even then, I don't track purchase costs or where I got the titles, etc. It's basically just an inventory which is probably used most often to keep me from re-buying titles.

I used DVD Profiler early on and liked it a lot. But I ultimately wanted more customization than what I was getting. Going the Access route is definitely more labor-intensive, but I know I can get down to exactly what I want and then present it how I want.

I do agree that the #1 job of a title-tracking system, whatever system you choose to use, is to avoid duplicate purchases. While I can't bring the whole database to my phone, I can send a PDF of an output report to my phone. And then if I'm fighting the crowds on Black Friday, I can check quickly and see what I already have something.

 

[bigshot]

Plex and Kodi use scrapers to hit databases of information on the internet and build a Netflix-esque user interface with credits, synopsis's, images and even theme songs to TV shows. It's searchable by genre, actor, director, etc. All that gets built automatically. All you have to do is give it title and date or series title and season/episode number

 

[DaveF]

My wife has an iOS app for tracking purchases, MovieBuddy+
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/moviebuddy-movie-library-manager/id965645508?mt=8

I use trakt.tv to let friends browse my library in advance of a movie night and to sometimes browse online.
https://trakt.tv/users/shoutingman/collection/movies/title?genres=

I don't "curate" otherwise in terms of viewing. And in practice, I watch TV as the great majority versus movies. Movies are great, but for a while now, I'm much more drawn to the long-form stories being told on the networks and streaming services compared to movies. I find I far more enjoy 5 hours of "GLOW" over 2 hours of "Guardians... Vol 2".