Where to buy DVDs??? (1 Viewer)

[BobHaymond]

I am BRAND new to HT; I have my speakers and my TV, reciever, and DVD are on the way. Cabinet man comes tomorrow to start wall construction. Several Questions: are there good and better places to buy DVD's ? Am I correct in surmising that Star Wars I, II, III are not on DVD? Are there ever different quality DVD's for the same movie?

 

[Michael Reuben]

Welcome to HTF! I'm moving this to Home Theater Basics.
Some short answers: If by "Star Wars I, II, III" you mean the first 3 films (which are really numbered IV, V, VI), no they're not out on DVD. Yes, some films have been released on DVD in more than one version.
As for places to buy DVDs, I suggest you start by browsing the Retail and Wholesale Vendors Feedback forum. You can compare prices for online vendors at DVD Price Search.
M.

 

[Ryan L B]

how bad are those region 0 star wars trilogies that are going for aroun $60.00 on Ebay

 

[Cees Alons]

Probably very bad: they are copied from LD, VHS, or even worse. The DVD versions haven't been authored (made for DVD version) yet.

Except Starwars I (TPM), of course! But you don't have to buy that one on Ebay.

Cees

 

[Kevin McCurdy]

Bob

If you have a BJ's wholesale club in your area you may want to check there, Our local BJ's here are selling pallets of DVD's between $9.99 to $15.99 and then they have others that around the normal prices. Walmart also has some reasonably priced DVD's. I also watch the sales flyers in the Sunday paper for the new releases at Best Buy and Circuit city.

There's another section of the forum called Coupons and Bargains where another member lists a weekly roundup for the best prices of the week at area stores.

As for differences in quality of DVD's there are some. The one's that stick out in my mind are Criterion collection DVD's and there's another that's called superbit although I'm not sure how much of a difference you'll notice with superbit, but the one thing I believe you do get with those DVD's is a DTS soundtrack. Enjoy.

 

[Chauncey_G]

A place that I use almost exclusively is www.deepdiscountdvd.com which has excellent prices and free shipping. I've been very pleased with them.
To elaborate some on the various qualities of DVD's for the same movie: usually the only difference might be if a film is re-issued. You might see that a disc has been remastered or struck from a better print than a previous release. Good places to find info on various DVD's (other than here, of course ) is www.dvdfile.com or www.thedigitalbits.com . Kevin mentioned Superbit titles. These are released by Columbia, if memory serves, and supposedly offer increased quality picture and sound at the expense of extras like deleted scenes or audio commentaries. I believe there is still some debate on whether or not the Superbits actually deliver on that or not. I can't say either way since I don't own any (I like the extras the other discs come with).
Hope this helps!

 

[Rod Melotte]

I buy mine on ebay. Take the retail price - add sales tax and make a bid that will give you a $2 deal. Out of 20 DVD's I save about 23%. Never any problems.

 

[BobHaymond]

Thanx to all for the info!

 

[DanaA]

Best Buys has a decent selection and decent prices. I bought 2001: A Spacy Odyssey tonight at $19.98 and Red River at $8.98.

 

[DanaA]

One more thing: If you don't mind used, Hollywood sells them at times at 2/$20. Usually, the ones placed in the bin are those where the rental usage is decreasing and they're trying to lessen their stock.

 

[MarkMaestas]

Also, if you don't mind used, Blockbuster sells off their rentals at $9.99-$14.99. The ones in my area have 25% off sales on a fairly regular basis. Also, half.com sometimes has decent deals.

 

[Rod Melotte]

DOn't limit yourself to 1 store. They all have a slightly different selection and slightly different pricing. No one store is the perfect store. Target is really trying to bring in customers and Wal-Mart is also finding that cheap DVD's will bring in people.
Best Buy has good deals ever Sunday. Check out their ad's
http://www.bestbuy.com/mandm/default...prodtype=movie
I bought the NEW T2 for $7. THE NEW ONE!!

 

[Jenna]

I purchase most of my DVDs at Best Buy - because they have the largest selection. Check the Sunday advertisements, and if you see an advertised lower price (say at Circuit City) on a DVD you want, take the ad to Best Buy - they'll match the price AND give you an additional 10% off.
I've also purchased DVDs at Sam's Club; and have gotten some good "used" DVDs at Blockbuster, and our local grocery store chain, "Ingles" sells their rental DVDs after a few months to make room for new ones (due to their very limited space).
Last but not least....give a look at your local pawn shops. DVDs (some still in their original wrap) can be had for as little as $10. You can also trade or sell your unwanted DVDs there as well. At any given time, my local pawn shop has at least 30-50 DVDs on their shelf (as well as PS2 games). You can return them if they're scratched.
For hard-to-find DVDs, try Suncoast Motion Picture Stores in the mall. The prices are higher, but they tend to carry the hard-to-locate offbeat titles.

 

[Ryan L B]

Only go to suncoast if you have tried the majority of places and come up blank since they sell retail value on older titles.

 

[Dan Lindley]

Hi,

I'm surprised no one's mentioned it, but be careful at the big stores to make sure that you are buying widescreen, anamorphic 16x9 versions of the films. Sometimes the larger stores sell pan and scan versions of films which cut off part of each scene, and don't allow you to take full advantage of your new and beautiful system!

Dan

 

[Thomas_Berg]

www.deepdiscountdvd.com

 

[Seth Paxton]

Another good tip for newbie buyers...
PRE-ORDER. Many online sites give big discounts (20-30%) if you place your order BEFORE the DVD is released. This is because it helps them more accurately purchase from the distributor. You can save a lot of money this way. This is true for ANY new release, even an older title just coming out on DVD (or a new version being released).
When looking at buying a movie SEARCH THE SOFTWARE SECTION for the title. I mean use the search function and have it look for your title in software.
The reason is that a NEW & BETTER VERSION could be on the way in a few weeks or months, or there may be 2-3 versions out there and not all of them will be equal. If you see nothing on it, you might still ask.
Online vendors might not always note a new version coming out, especially if it's not official yet.
BEST BUY is great on NEW FILM RELEASES, not so great on most catalog releases (older films). Something like Jurassic Park 3 or A.I. will usually be very cheap there for the first week, though maybe not as cheap as an online pre-order.
Watch out for mall stores. Anyplace that sells CD's too high is probably going to sell DVDs too high as well.

 

[Mark_CP]

Check out fight.divx.com they will find you any DVD at the best price possible! I use it all the time!

 

[Thomas_Berg]

Link Removed doesnt work for me. i'd like to give it a try if i did something wrong...