How many times do you watch a TV series you have bought on DVD/Blu-ray? (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

And I'm more likely to wait something out for good sale if I'm on the fence about the show.

It varies. When complete series get deeply discounted, such as during some of the promotions on Amazon I am more open to a somewhat "blind" purchase.

In practice from a lot of trial and error, I've found that if I'm "on the fence" about a particular title and/or "waiting" for a heavy discount, then there is a high probability that that particular title will end up never being watched at all.

For that matter with recording broadcast/cable tv shows on the dvr, I've found in practice that if I end up leaving some unwatched recordings for very long periods of time on the dvr, it will end up being deleted unwatched in the end.

 

[Jenny Peerey]

Hello all.
I have a problem.
I want to buy some TV series on blu-ray, but the thing is I usually watch them only once, so I don't think it's worth it.
I have some series like Star Trek the original series, Batman, Twilight zone, and I have watched them all once.
I can't watch individual episodes, even if the storylines are autonomous. If I watch TV series, I want to watch the complete series from beginning to end.
So, I was curious, how do you handle this situation?
Do you watch them only once and then sell the DVDs/Blu-rays?
Do you keep them?
Do you watch them more than once, complete?
Do you usually watch individual episodes every now and then?

Some of them I watch over and over until I finish the series. Then I go through the whole series. Wait a little bit, then start fresh! This is my favorite series from the 1970's "Emergency!"

 

[Jenny Peerey]

Some of them I watch the entire 7 seasons until I get through them all. I wait a short bit, then I start Season 1 again!! This my favorite show of all time--"Emergency!" It was made in the 1970's when I was in Nursing School. Even after I graduated and started my career, I continued to watch! Much later on, it came out on DVD and I have every Season on DVD! Something about holding an actual DVD in my hands! I know people stream now and I do also. But, I will never give up my love of physical media! I am elderly now and homebound and my "Emergency" DVD's are right on my sofa beside me!

 

[dstrong]

I'll watch the entire series, then wait up to one year before I watch it over again.

 

[bmasters9]

Some of them I watch the entire 7 seasons until I get through them all. I wait a short bit, then I start Season 1 again!! This my favorite show of all time--"Emergency!" It was made in the 1970's when I was in Nursing School. Even after I graduated and started my career, I continued to watch! Much later on, it came out on DVD and I have every Season on DVD! Something about holding an actual DVD in my hands! I know people stream now and I do also. But, I will never give up my love of physical media! I am elderly now and homebound and my "Emergency" DVD's are right on my sofa beside me!

I didn't grow up in the 70s (me born in 1981), but I have Emergency! on DVD as well (the all-in-one of that 70s NBC medical/action series), and have enjoyed (and will continue to enjoy) it because it was a class act of flying colors all the way around-- well-acted, well-written, well-shot, well-produced, and just plain well-done (far better than many of today's medical or fire series).

 

[Sam Favate]

I may have told this story before, so bear with me.

When I was about 8, I watched The Monkees in syndication every day after school. It was something I looked forward to each day, even if I didn’t have any of their records. (They were out of print in the early-mid 70s.) I’d come home from school, have just enough time to get changed and fix a snack, and I’d watch The Monkees. (A cousin of mine eventually got me some copies of their first five albums in a used record store.)

One day, I came home from school with a younger cousin of mine. We were set to have a play date, but I told him the first thing I wanted to do was watch The Monkees. He was cool with that. Except, I turned on the TV and The Monkees wasn’t on. That was strange. I grabbed the TV Guide to check the listings, and sure enough, the show was missing from the schedule. I figured it had to be a mistake. I flipped through the pages, to see if it was listed for the rest of the week. It was not.

I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the newspaper, checking their listings to see if, just maybe, TV Guide was in error. It was not.

It dawned on me for the first time that the show had been removed. It was gone from the airwaves. I figured I’d never see it again. I sat down and cried. My mother drove my cousin home, because I couldn’t function for a play date. I was inconsolable. (It’s hard for anyone who wasn’t born before physical media and streaming to understand, but when something was taken off of television, or when a film left the theater, it was extremely likely you would never see it again — as in, not for the rest of your life!)

Right there, in that moment, even though I didn’t have any concept of what it was or would be, my love for physical media was born (even if that kind of physical media didn’t exist yet).

About seven or eight years later, when video tapes started being sold, I grabbed them and recorded everything I wanted, archiving everything that mattered to me. At age 16, I got a CED player and bought my favorite movies, to have and watch for all time. That would lead to collections of VHS, CED, DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD. (And yes, eventually, The Monkees on DVD.)

So, to me at least, TV (or movies) on DVD/Blu-ray/UHD isn’t about how many times I watch them. It’s about freedom of choice, not relying on TV stations or streaming services to show the things I want to see, and mostly, it’s about preservation of the films and television that matter to me.

 

[jcroy]

I may have told this story before, so bear with me.

When I was about 8, I watched The Monkees in syndication every day after school. It was something I looked forward to each day, even if I didn’t have any of their records. (They were out of print in the early-mid 70s.) I’d come home from school, have just enough time to get changed and fix a snack, and I’d watch The Monkees. (A cousin of mine eventually got me some copies of their first five albums in a used record store.)

One day, I came home from school with a younger cousin of mine. We were set to have a play date, but I told him the first thing I wanted to do was watch The Monkees. He was cool with that. Except, I turned on the TV and The Monkees wasn’t on. That was strange. I grabbed the TV Guide to check the listings, and sure enough, the show was missing from the schedule. I figured it had to be a mistake. I flipped through the pages, to see if it was listed for the rest of the week. It was not.

I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the newspaper, checking their listings to see if, just maybe, TV Guide was in error. It was not.

It dawned on me for the first time that the show had been removed. It was gone from the airwaves. I figured I’d never see it again. I sat down and cried. My mother drove my cousin home, because I couldn’t function for a play date. I was inconsolable. (It’s hard for anyone who wasn’t born before physical media and streaming to understand, but when something was taken off of television, or when a film left the theater, it was extremely likely you would never see it again — as in, not for the rest of your life!)

Right there, in that moment, even though I didn’t have any concept of what it was or would be, my love for physical media was born (even if that kind of physical media didn’t exist yet).

About seven or eight years later, when video tapes started being sold, I grabbed them and recorded everything I wanted, archiving everything that mattered to me. At age 16, I got a CED player and bought my favorite movies, to have and watch for all time. That would lead to collections of VHS, CED, DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD. (And yes, eventually, The Monkees on DVD.)

So, to me at least, TV (or movies) on DVD/Blu-ray/UHD isn’t about how many times I watch them. It’s about freedom of choice, not relying on TV stations or streaming services to show the things I want to see, and mostly, it’s about preservation of the films and television that matter to me.

The only times I ever felt this way about a particular tv shows, is the original Battlestar Galactica and later Buck Rogers. (Back in the day, I mistakenly thought the latter was a part of the former).

I watched the original broadcasts of BG during the brief time my family lived in america. During these times, I also watched Emergency! reruns.

When my family moved overseas, I knew that I would likely never see Battlestar Galactica again unless it was in reruns. As a "replacement", I ended up watching Star Trek TOS reruns instead.

 

[bmasters9]

I may have told this story before, so bear with me.

When I was about 8, I watched The Monkees in syndication every day after school. It was something I looked forward to each day, even if I didn’t have any of their records. (They were out of print in the early-mid 70s.) I’d come home from school, have just enough time to get changed and fix a snack, and I’d watch The Monkees. (A cousin of mine eventually got me some copies of their first five albums in a used record store.)

One day, I came home from school with a younger cousin of mine. We were set to have a play date, but I told him the first thing I wanted to do was watch The Monkees. He was cool with that. Except, I turned on the TV and The Monkees wasn’t on. That was strange. I grabbed the TV Guide to check the listings, and sure enough, the show was missing from the schedule. I figured it had to be a mistake. I flipped through the pages, to see if it was listed for the rest of the week. It was not.

I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the newspaper, checking their listings to see if, just maybe, TV Guide was in error. It was not.

It dawned on me for the first time that the show had been removed. It was gone from the airwaves. I figured I’d never see it again. I sat down and cried. My mother drove my cousin home, because I couldn’t function for a play date. I was inconsolable. (It’s hard for anyone who wasn’t born before physical media and streaming to understand, but when something was taken off of television, or when a film left the theater, it was extremely likely you would never see it again — as in, not for the rest of your life!)

Right there, in that moment, even though I didn’t have any concept of what it was or would be, my love for physical media was born (even if that kind of physical media didn’t exist yet).

About seven or eight years later, when video tapes started being sold, I grabbed them and recorded everything I wanted, archiving everything that mattered to me. At age 16, I got a CED player and bought my favorite movies, to have and watch for all time. That would lead to collections of VHS, CED, DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD. (And yes, eventually, The Monkees on DVD.)

So, to me at least, TV (or movies) on DVD/Blu-ray/UHD isn’t about how many times I watch them. It’s about freedom of choice, not relying on TV stations or streaming services to show the things I want to see, and mostly, it’s about preservation of the films and television that matter to me.

I would agree-- if it's something that matters to you, and it's on physical, I think you should have it to enjoy (I take it you did indeed get The Monkees on physical).

 

[jcroy]

I've thought about going the Plex route, but always stop myself short for the reasons you give. If I had started a Plex collection in the early days of collecting, I could find the time, but I really do not have the time to rips hundreds of (or more) Blu-rays to computer drives. I never even finished loading my titles in DVD Profiler for the same reason.

I only started buying a lot of dvds/blurays in 2011. (Before 2011, I had very little to no interest in dvd/bluray).

At the time, I already knew about HTPC type stuff. Though I quickly came to the realization a lot of it seemed kinda superfluous, other than for checking whether newly purchased disks were defective due to sloppy manufacturing and/or quality control.

When it comes to tv shows on dvd (or bluray), I just rip all the episodes into their own individual vob files, and play an entire season (in a single directory) by dragging and dropping a full season's directory into VLC player in random (or sequential) playlist mode. Easier than swapping out discs every 4 episdoes, while playing on the tv in the background when I'm at home.

 

[Bartman]

I've only purchased a few TV series on disc. I used Netflix DVD to watch series (& previewing movies prior to purchase) not available from Netfix or Prime streaming. Alas, no more. Now I'd recommend using JustWatch or ReelGood to locate the series streaming provider & sign up for a free trial or a month to watch the series. You'll soon figure out which ones are worthy of purchase, good luck!

 

[Keith Cobby]

I don't think most tv has the same rewatchability as films. But there are exceptions, my most watched show is Billions which I have seen 4 times in its entirety. Other shows I have watched more than once include House of Cards, Nikita (Maggie Q), Person of Interest, V (remake + original), The Night Manager, Agent Carter, Primeval, Fleming, Riviera, The Musketeers, The New Pope, Aurelio Zen, Sherlock (BBC), Miss Marple, Marple, UFO (Anderson), The Persuaders. I no longer keep discs of shows I wouldn't watch again.

 

[zoetmb]

Hello all.
I have a problem.
I want to buy some TV series on blu-ray, but the thing is I usually watch them only once, so I don't think it's worth it.
I have some series like Star Trek the original series, Batman, Twilight zone, and I have watched them all once.
I can't watch individual episodes, even if the storylines are autonomous. If I watch TV series, I want to watch the complete series from beginning to end.
So, I was curious, how do you handle this situation?
Do you watch them only once and then sell the DVDs/Blu-rays?
Do you keep them?
Do you watch them more than once, complete?
Do you usually watch individual episodes every now and then?

I no longer purchase ANY Blu-rays unless I think that I'm going to watch them at least three times, if they're also available on any of the streaming services that I subscribe to. I've got hundreds of discs that just sit on the shelf taking up space and mostly collecting dust. While there's a psychological benefit to "knowing" that I have this library of great movies and shows, in the end, if they're not watched, does it matter if they're on my shelf or in the trash (aside from the environmental impact)?

When I do watch series, whether on disc or streaming, I generally will binge about three hours worth at a time.

Back in the day, after completing a series (or a season of a series), I'd try and resell them, but these days, demand is way down and you won't get much for them.

A family member moved in with me recently and I had to make room for them. As such, I had to get rid of a bunch of stuff. I didn't get rid of any discs, but I did get rid of lots of books. It bothered me to do this because I liked the idea of having that "library". But in the end it didn't matter because I wasn't re-reading them anyway (although I did re-read lots of books during the pandemic), so what purpose were they serving?

 

[quantumsnoga]

For those who feel they don't have time to load discs into plex (or otherwise rip them), did you ever consider using your sleeping time? Kick off the load just before you go to bed, and check it out in the morning? One ought to be able to load 300 discs a year without spending much time. . .

 

[BobO'Link]

For those who feel they don't have time to load discs into plex (or otherwise rip them), did you ever consider using your sleeping time? Kick off the load just before you go to bed, and check it out in the morning? One ought to be able to load 300 discs a year without spending much time. . .

That would be a very small drop in a huge bucket for me... I own ~530 *complete* series of 1 to 10 seasons each and another 100 or so of series that were stalled, I own "enough," or that I'm still collecting. Even with a single season each assuming the typical 4 discs/season that would be ~2500 discs. When you realize that most series have 2+ seasons it could easily be 10,000+ discs. I doubt I'd live long enough to see the project completed by only doing one disc a day.

It took almost a year and a half for me to rip my CD collection to FLAC for use in a new car I purchased that didn't have a CD player option. That was doing 3-8 titles (or 3-15 discs) per day, every day (some were quick, others took much longer due to disc issues or copy protection which slowed down a rip considerably, and many others needed track input/adjustment and/or an updated label graphic). I'm glad I did that as it makes it easier to share things with my grandkids and I now rip a disc as soon as it comes in (much like I did during the tape days when I'd put a new album on tape as soon as I got it home). That project was enough to convince me I didn't even want to consider doing that for movies and/or TV content.

 

[jcroy]

I will rip every newly purchased dvd/bluray disc on the computer, once upon arrival at home. This is primarily to check whether there are any bad sectors due to manufacturing defects and/or crappy quality control. Defective discs go back to the retailer for an exchange (or refund).


My multi-terabyes sized external hard drives, are largely just temporary storage for dvd isos. (I usually delete the bluray isos, after the rips are done). So if I want to watch a particular show, I just copy the isos to a different computer connected to the tv screen via hdmi. Eventually older isos are deleted whenever I need hard drive space for newer discs rips.


If I want to revisit a particular show whose isos I have already deleted years ago, I'll just rip the dvd season set again to the hard drive.

 

[Walter P. Thatcher]

Like Sam Favate, I also want to own physical copies of favorite shows or movies so I can choose to watch when I want to watch. Nothing broadcast over-the-air or via subscription is guaranteed. Don't get me started on storing stuff on clouds; the very name cloud conjures up impermanence. Yes, physical media and its offshoots are not permanent in the sense of the great pyramids, but you will be the master of your video domain, not some third party who frankly could care less if you no longer have access to a favorite show or movie, especially if that show or movie is way off the mainstream.

A related recent experience of mine: On January 2nd to my shock the local Fox affiliate (isn't that Disney now?) dropped the Movies! channel which was (and would still be) my favorite go-to over-the-air channel. It's not TCM, but for an over-the-air channel for classic/vintage/noir movies, it's a great alternative. Literally, on New Year's Day, I watched "Cleopatra" on Movies! and the very next day, a mere few hours later, to my horror, what was Movies! was full of unending reruns of the epitome of junk filler "Hardcore Pawn". It's not like Fox didn't already have that very idiotic show on their other two subchannels. I now have the misfortune of having "Hardcore Pawn" on three channels, all the very same episodes, all on at the very same time! Zombie broadcasting. I complained but all I got was some functionary in the customer relations department of the local station telling me that Movies! would not be back. However, I should be of good cheer because the Quest channel is still there, which of course shows for hours on end (you guessed it) "Hardcore Pawn". Noriega could have been tortured by a continuous loop of that! I'm sure that show has a following just as some people enjoy Circus Peanuts, but come on, it's so fake and staged it makes "Pawn Stars" look Shakespearean! I understand the Movies! network is still looking for an affiliate here. Could it be that some local stuffed shirt was aghast that they regularly showed "out of date" B & W movies. Or, if Disney does in fact own the affiliate, was it penny-pinching or rights issues ("thou canst viddy anything 20th Century-Fox over free airwaves!")?

All that to say, buy what you love watching when and if you can so you don't fall prey to the whims of whomever or whatever controls the schedules in your broadcast region. You no doubt know more about what's good than they will ever know.

 

[Citizen87645]

In my last purge I removed TV shows that I kept up on at the time they aired but 1) never re-watched during the years I owned them and/or 2) were specifically on DVD because those sets took up a lot of storage space. Examples are How I Met Your Mother, Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development, and Elementary.

Some of those shows I do want to re-watch at some point (or so I think), so that began my using Cheap Charts to catch price drops of the digital versions, which in almost all cases are in HD, so are upgrades compared to their legacy DVD versions. That said, I'm a little late to the game of doing this, and it seems some of the price drops will never get back to what they were during the lockdown (which I admit is OK given the circumstances that led to said extreme price drops).

Some TV shows I definitely have a lot of sentimental feeling about, so will keep them in physical format (even if DVD) as long as I can. Examples are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Veronica Mars (which I will still pick up the digital copies for since they are in HD).

 

[mackjay]

My $0.02 - I only buy shows I know I love or like a lot. That cuts way down on how many I would own. There are a couple of exceptions--shows I had no other way to see (just a couple of those)--- As for re-watching: THE TWILIGHT ZONE (original) is one I have watched countless times and continue to watch. Same for The Hitchcock Presents/Hour episodes. But I will admit several of the others have not been re-watched more than once

 

[JediFonger]

serious question: have you watched the monkees since the recordable media started? like have you seen it in the last few years?

I may have told this story before, so bear with me.

When I was about 8, I watched The Monkees in syndication every day after school. It was something I looked forward to each day, even if I didn’t have any of their records. (They were out of print in the early-mid 70s.) I’d come home from school, have just enough time to get changed and fix a snack, and I’d watch The Monkees. (A cousin of mine eventually got me some copies of their first five albums in a used record store.)

One day, I came home from school with a younger cousin of mine. We were set to have a play date, but I told him the first thing I wanted to do was watch The Monkees. He was cool with that. Except, I turned on the TV and The Monkees wasn’t on. That was strange. I grabbed the TV Guide to check the listings, and sure enough, the show was missing from the schedule. I figured it had to be a mistake. I flipped through the pages, to see if it was listed for the rest of the week. It was not.

I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the newspaper, checking their listings to see if, just maybe, TV Guide was in error. It was not.

It dawned on me for the first time that the show had been removed. It was gone from the airwaves. I figured I’d never see it again. I sat down and cried. My mother drove my cousin home, because I couldn’t function for a play date. I was inconsolable. (It’s hard for anyone who wasn’t born before physical media and streaming to understand, but when something was taken off of television, or when a film left the theater, it was extremely likely you would never see it again — as in, not for the rest of your life!)

Right there, in that moment, even though I didn’t have any concept of what it was or would be, my love for physical media was born (even if that kind of physical media didn’t exist yet).

About seven or eight years later, when video tapes started being sold, I grabbed them and recorded everything I wanted, archiving everything that mattered to me. At age 16, I got a CED player and bought my favorite movies, to have and watch for all time. That would lead to collections of VHS, CED, DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD. (And yes, eventually, The Monkees on DVD.)

So, to me at least, TV (or movies) on DVD/Blu-ray/UHD isn’t about how many times I watch them. It’s about freedom of choice, not relying on TV stations or streaming services to show the things I want to see, and mostly, it’s about preservation of the films and television that matter to me.

 

[JediFonger]

1. i handle it by not buying stuff i know i wont rewatch, which is 99% of TV imho. i've got an extremely small/tiny amount of TV collection (well, small compared to most folks here on enthusiasts communities).
2. occasionally i'll sell it, for example the OG 1990s the flash. yeah i've seen it a couple of times... do i need to keep rewatching it for billions of times? no thanks i'll sell it.
3. i'll keep only the ones that i know i'll rewatch many times.
4. if it's a watch once (such as the flash DVD) then i sell it.
5. i dont normally watch the whole thing straight through as most TV colleciton i have i watched when they first aired on TV... and most TV series are full of duds. like some here, i actually rip the physical media that i want to rewatch and just pop into the TV series.

i'll give you an example i've seen most of chris carter shows and i own most of them on DVD/Blus. X-Files is one series i watched when they all first aired... and then again during syndication re-broadcast. then DVD and blus and so on. it is the only TV series that i've seen 2 or 3x every single episode or more during initial airing AND THEN i've seen it at least just as many times afterwards on disc. to me it's like a mini 43min movie every single episode, it's totally brilliant i get somn new everytime i watch it across multiple genres is what the show does for me. so i've got this ripped and will pop in randomly, just 2 nights ago i watched few minutes of s2 then s4 and some of s3 maybe a whole episode. i squeeze it as much as i can. and everytime i always feel impressed and feel like nothing today compares and in fact folks like vince gilian who got their start on XF owes a tremendous amount of debt for going through the XF "school" of showrunning.

anyway that's just me though.... i dont have a ton of TV on disc, but what i have i genuinely try to make its worth, otherwise i dont let it occupy shelf space.

now movies... dont get me started there, i tend to give many blind buys there "rent free" on my shelves hhashahahah

Hello all.
I have a problem.
I want to buy some TV series on blu-ray, but the thing is I usually watch them only once, so I don't think it's worth it.
I have some series like Star Trek the original series, Batman, Twilight zone, and I have watched them all once.
I can't watch individual episodes, even if the storylines are autonomous. If I watch TV series, I want to watch the complete series from beginning to end.
So, I was curious, how do you handle this situation?
Do you watch them only once and then sell the DVDs/Blu-rays?
Do you keep them?
Do you watch them more than once, complete?
Do you usually watch individual episodes every now and then?