Today is kind of special for me (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

Today marks the 2-year anniversary of me and my family finally getting into DVD.
I knew about DVD coming before I knew my wife. When it was out and I explained the concept to her, she was all for it. Nevertheless, we waited until the market "matured". And we could investigate what we wanted.
On Sept. 11, 1999 I went to Best Buy and, for $299.99, bought the same Panasonic A120 I have today, as well as our first DVD: Exorcist - Special Edition, which is still the only version we own today. We chose that title because...we'd never seen the film!

I took it home to my wife, who had stayed home with our son, and hooked it up in our apartment to our 13" TV!!! Sharing it with 3 videogame systems!
By the time 2 months later we had got in by mail the 5 free DVD's that went with the player (LiS, LW4, 6D7N, SG, SMom), we already had bought 55 DVDs!
Two years later, in a new house with a 32" TV dedicated just to viewing (not playing videogames) we stand at the brink of a sort of landmark. Today we will purchase the 3 animated Tolkien movies and the 3 Dr. Who discs.
These six discs will bring us to a total of 850 DVD discs!
So 2 years, 850 discs, and $12,244.32 later (wow...we could have bought A CAR!) we find that the state of the DVD world has changed dramatically. But our love for the shiny little discs has not.
And I wanted to take the time to thank all of you on-line, here at HTF, but also at sites like DVDFile, The Digital Bits, DVDTalk, DVDJournal, DVDReview, and VideoTropic for enhancing our enjoyment - AND our collection - over the course of the past two years.
Long live DVD!

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DAVE/Memphis
Widescreen is Family Fun!

 

[Cees Alons]

How sad to think it's more than a DVD per day

.
Congrats, David, with a very wise choice!!
Cees

 

[David Lambert]

How sad that I don't average WATCHING a DVD per day.
Of course, from now on I will recall this day with much different thoughts...

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DAVE/Memphis
Widescreen is Family Fun!

 

[MikeEckman]

Heh...that is a good way to remember today, however I think that something else will stick in my memory of this date.

 

[David Von Pein]

Interesting David L.!

Now, 9/11 has a dual significance for you no doubt.

How many DVD's now ..... you're well over 1K I imagine.

 

[David Lambert]

What made you dig up THIS old thread?
Yeah, that was a really regrettable post in the early hours of that day, considering all that happened just a few hours later. No, I won't look at any Sept. 11th anymore as an anniversary of buying a piece of equipment anymore. :frowning:
And to answer your question, yeah I'm over a thousand now. 1078 if you want the exact number, with 2 more arriving soon.
Cheers,

 

[Ronald Epstein]

David,

This is a nice thread to read.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you

for deciding to buy that player on that fateful

day. If you hadn't, you wouldn't be the fine

upstanding member of this forum that you are.

It's nice to have you here.

 

[mark_d]

FWIW, and completely OT - I may have a more positive reason to remember September 11. It's the date my wife is due to give birth to our second child. No holding of breath, though, it's been a troublesome pregnancy so far...

Wierd that on that day the big news I was waiting for was the official launch of the TPM disc. Sometimes things get put into perspective in the worst possible ways.

Mark

 

[David Lambert]

Wow! Ron, I cannot express how *HONORED* I am that you feel enough to write that about me. I am quite happy to be here, and am glad that I positively contribute to the Forum. I feel close to many of the HTFers; it's a great place to come and discuss/promote our hobby!
Thanks always goes to you and Parker for provided the Forum. Thanks goes out to the many HTFers who contribute here as well, probably much more so than I do! All in all, I still consider myself a newbie here; it's barely been six months. I hope that everyone else feels that I am worthy to be a guest here; I know I don't always spread sunshine, but hey we all have our bad days.
I still wish I hadn't picked that particular day to crow about my anniversary and collection. Events demonstrated to me that it matters very, very little.
Mark_D: you have a much more important event to celebrate on the upcoming Sept. 11th, or thereabouts. Stephanie and I also had a troubled pregnancy. One couple who we count among our greatest friends had an even more troubled pregnancy than ours...so much so that they missed being in our wedding, and each were in the wedding party! In both cases the result was a strong healthy boy, each of whom are doing extremely well today. I'm sure we'll all be thinking of you, and wishing you the best. Just remember to think positively, and give her all the support she'll need. All my best.
David VP - it is my sincere hope that by the coming Sept. 11th that I can spend the day reflecting on the severe loss of life that day...but ALSO be able to enjoy my DVD's or any other ***Peaceful*** endeavour that I choose to. I wish the same on everyone, everywhere.
Cheers,

 

[John Fieldstadt]

It's reality checks like this that we can all use once and awhile. I find myself obsessing over trivial things like what movies to buy this week and then something will hit me over the head (like the recent passing of a friend) and I realize that this is hobby is meant to be fun....a diversion, and nothing more. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun, important part of my life, but it has it's place as do all things...........think I'll call my little girl now

 

[JasenP]

That reminds me, does anyone know how disable the function in DVD Profiler that keeps track of how much you have spent?
That is a powder keg waiting to blow when my girlfriend finds it.

 

[Patrick Mirza]

850 DVDs in two years?!?! Wow, that beats my collection growth rate! At my two-year anniversary, I "only" had 200+ discs!
Congrats!
Just one thing: is your wife as proud of this milestone as you are, or does she shrug her shoulders and think of all the money you've "wasted"?

 

[David Lambert]

I will let her speak for herself!

(By the way, I have no idea what she's about to type, so we'll get it at the same time!)

she shrug her shoulders and think of all the money you've "wasted"?

Stephanie's response: I wouldn't call the money "wasted". Most times I sit back and shrug my shoulders because I know this is just a hobby that he has, (of course many of the DVD's are mine or my son's) and he will eventually move on to something else. Sometimes my jaw does drop when I see the ending numbers. Yes, I do sit down and watch most of the DVD's with him and visa versa. It's not only his hobby, it's mine too (just not as deeply). If this comes as any surprise to David or anyone else on this forum...I'm SORRY, but you asked!!!

 

[Seth Paxton]

What a cool thread this turned out to be both due to it's original bad luck and the responses afterward.

It's amazing to be "transported" back to the mindset we had just a few hours before the attacks, a time that seems so distant.

And we can still rejoice in our DVD hobby after some time passed.

Now to make you envious David, my buying has slowed to more essential titles (and my g/f rarely has her own DVDs she wants) so my "to be watched" list has fallen to 14!!

Yes, only 14 DVD/LD in the house that I haven't watched since I bought (all films I have already seen though). Kinda sad that my goal it to get that number to 0 yet I keep buying. Luckily for me FEB was slow on DVD.

 

[David Lambert]

My "to be watched" count is at 310 at the moment!
Believe me, they'll get watched. I've been taking time out from DVD viewing to play with my new Vectrex a bit, but this weekend I was hoping to have myself a Trekathon and kill off the remaining 5 ST:TOS discs that are unwatched of the 25 that I own (I still have 15 more to buy sooner or later).
That's just around 8 hours of viewing from Friday after-dinner to Sunday bedtime, which I can do while I clean house and do chores, etc. (since I've seen these episodes so thoroughly in the past). So if there's still time left I'll watch Mind Meld, Trekkies, & Free Enterprise (the latter of which should arrive by Friday; I won it off eBay this week) to complete the experience.
I'm hopeless, eh? :rolleyes
Given that there's 3 DVD players in the house, if you include the drive on this PC I'm using, then there's no reason that the count cannot be below 300 again after the weekend is done. After all, Stephie and our son Stephen will watch some discs, too.
Hey, I just realized that I've completely justified Stephanie's post in its entirety!

 

[mark_d]

Thanks for the kind words, David. Although it's not something I'd wish on anyone, it's reasuring to know that it's not a unique experience and that people have come out the other end OK.

Oh my! Rereading that it sounds pretty sick when I'm talking about pregnancies - but you know what I mean!

Taking it back to software a little, and not to make this too much of a Lambert love-in, yes, I'd say you're a valuable guest here. You've definately helped me make decisions when contemplating kid-friendly software. My post count may not be high, but I lurk here a hell of a lot and a Lambert post is usually level headed and worth a read.

Appologies if I'm all fawning and have embarrassed anyone, but I've had a -really- bad couple of days and it's a change to be focusing on positives. Too much bitching and moaning goes on in this world (and I'm as guilty as anyone) so it's nice to give credit where credit's due.

Mark

 

[David Von Pein]

BOY! A lot of replies since I refreshed this thread!
Don't know why really, but I was going through some older threads (which I think is fun to do) and happened across this 9/11 thread. I'm glad it wasn't locked up.
Thanks, David L., for your nice comments. All the best to you as well!!
I've still got a ways to go to catch up to a lot of you guys (on # of DVD's that is).
But I've only been collecting since July 2, 2001, and I've amassed approx. 230 titles! So, I guess that's not too bad. :b
P.S. ... I ditto the sentiments of most everyone that uses this forum: IT IS EXCELLENT!! HTF is a great place to go to every day. I learn something new about DVD/HT just about each time I log on! Everyone on here is most friendly & helpful. No backstabbing or petty arguments (like you find on a lot of similar forums).
Question: Because this forum exists, do a lot of you HTF members find yourself NOT watching as many DVD's as you might [because you spend so much time at the forum]?
Oh, what the heck! Our DVD's won't degrade. They'll still be there.

 

[Alex Spindler]

This thread warms my heart. I wish I had more metrics to measure my DVD growth ( I believe I started in the Summer of 99 with my Pioneer DV-414 that is in the bedroom now). My collection may not be quite as impressive as yours (236), but I love it all the same.

 

[David Lambert]

mark_d:

Question: Because this forum exists, do a lot of you HTF members find yourself NOT watching as many DVD's as you might [because you spend so much time at the forum]?

Answer is "YES", and I can speak for other HTFers as well, since there was a poll on this a couple of months ago. Many of us do this. Sometimes it's fun to discuss and debate and learn about your hobby as it is to actually "perform" your hobby. This place is our "clubhouse", and there's nothing wrong with that, is there?
Have a great day...and spin a disc whydoncha!

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I'm three DVD models into my obsession.

Well Running My DVD Discount Report and seeing my Total $$ Amt of DVD's today, I'm not sure to be happy or Sad for you The Hobby is ceertainly a money eater, but I'm still enjoying the ride. If HD-DVD does come along soon I'm sure it would even invigorate my interest as I have started renting more and buying less. And then I look for Previously viewed specials. I hate Blockbuster's practices, but with the number of copies they stock now it's easy to pick up a slightly used copy of a recent release as much as 50% off. THat's worth the wait.

Once again Congrats and my sympathies.