I'm in Rental Mode (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

Maybe you can explain it as boredom, I've been in this DVD hobby since the beginning maybe I've already gotten alot of the basic releases, but new releases have not been moving me of late. Nothing that screams Buy me over rent me. I rented alot of late, Joyride, KPAX, Zoolander, Heist, Sexy Beast. Some of these have been pretty good films, but nothing that screams REwatch me. Maybe I've hit a wall, maybe there's not just those A titles, but I like B titles and have not been so inclined for a purchase.

In Fact I've been devoting most of my purchases to Older films and TV series, in fact I'll probably pick up Bull Durham today. But in the next 6 months or so I will Buy Black Hawk Down and Lord of the Rings, Maybe Shallow Hal, but nothing looks to be more than a rental for me, with perhaps a Previously Viewed Purchase.

How many of us old "DVD War Horses" are experiencing the same? I'd like to see if I'm not alone.

 

[SteveK]

Dave- I've always rented far more titles than I purchase, but that is even more true now. I'll probably purchase Harry Potter, and will definitely purchase Monsters Inc and Beauty and the Beast later this year, but I'm satisfied with simply renting most movies. As you mentioned, there seem to be very few titles likely to be REwatched frequently.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I'm currently paying off a TV, not to mention a new vinyl floor. So I'm being much more selective now than I used to be, but I never was able to carelessly purchase a large number of titles.

Steve K.

 

[Ken Stuart]

Well, in my case, I've been renting a far greater percentage of DVDs over the past 6-8 months than before, because now I have to pay for the DVDs. :frowning:
Those of you who were buying DVDs a couple of years ago, remember the "$10 off - no minimum" coupons for purchasing from online web sites. As a result, I averaged around $7-$8 cost per DVD.
Nowadays, unsurprisingly, I pay, well, $10 more, and at $18 a pop, I'm glad to rent for only a couple of bucks - especially for films I will never spin again.
And best of all, thanks to DVD, when I rent a film, I now see it usually in Anamorphic Widescreen with 5.1 digital sound.
A good example is the latest Merchant-Ivory film, The Golden Bowl (another adaptation of a Henry James novel).
I paid far less than one movie theater ticket to rent it, yet I saw the film in greater clarity than the theater image (albeit quite a bit smaller), and in equivalent sound to the movie theater (I was an audiophile even before the advent of laserdisk).
Another great aspect of rentals is the opportunity to take a chance on a film you would not be willing to buy sight unseen.
So, I say - rent a DVD !

 

[Clint B]

I love renting as well--as long as the DVD is in its OAR (sorry, but I just had to say that).

 

[Christopher_S]

I rent fairly often, too. However, if I am going to rent a film, I make sure to get it in the first few days it's available. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for rental copies to get smeared, scratched, and unwatchable. At least around here.

CDS

 

[Seth Paxton]

Dave, I found JAN/FEB/MAR to be thin months anyway, thus the renting has been higher.
I still buy great classics or good current films and estimate that I buy about 15-25 new releases per year. Probably will end up being the same for the 2001 stuff.
But a lot of those haven't been released yet. FOTR, Potter, Monsters Inc, BHDown, Amelie...already have Memento, Hedwig, Moulin Rouge, Jay and Bob, Pledge, AI, Ghost World, Princess and the Warrior, Shrek, Bridget Jones' Diary, Shrek, POTA, JP3, Made, and Rat Race.
JP3 and POTA are my "demo" fodder films...I don't need any others (like Pearl Harbor). Made is because I like Favreau/Vaughn and Rat Race because it actually makes me laugh most of the time. The rest were in my top 20 for 2001, so I consider that a "normal" amount of buying.
Oh and I will be picking up Donnie Darko, a film I wasted $3 renting when I should have just bought it...but I didn't know that till I rented it.
Compared to that 20 or so buys I've seen over 100 2001 films, so I only buy 20% of what I see, and I would say at least 50% of those other 80 were rentals, maybe more.
As for catalog titles, well for me it's been thin, maybe 4 a month on average in 2002. Plus after awhile you start to own all the catalog stuff you want. I can only see buying maybe 100 more catalog titles total at this point (with 650 films at home already). Lots of stuff I like, not so much I feel the need to own though.