Why I Own So Many Movies. (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

The idea of having that much space to be able to do that makes me happy. I wish I did!

On the other hand, nothing is forever and I’m getting a rude reminder of that as I’m transferring much of my collection to a HTPC. There are several discs of mine that have gone bad. It’s not a huge percentage but it’s unpredictable as to when a problem will strike. Best cases have been movies that are readily available and inexpensive to replace. But I also had one disc from a long out of print and outrageously expensive to replace set go bad, and some individual discs from TV on DVD/BD sets.

So I see those shelves and they make me smile but also make me feel a little worry too. Most will be fine; some won’t; and you won’t know about it until it’s too late.

 

[titch]

The idea of having that much space to be able to do that makes me happy. I wish I did!

On the other hand, nothing is forever and I’m getting a rude reminder of that as I’m transferring much of my collection to a HTPC. There are several discs of mine that have gone bad. It’s not a huge percentage but it’s unpredictable as to when a problem will strike. Best cases have been movies that are readily available and inexpensive to replace. But I also had one disc from a long out of print and outrageously expensive to replace set go bad, and some individual discs from TV on DVD/BD sets.

So I see those shelves and they make me smile but also make me feel a little worry too. Most will be fine; some won’t; and you won’t know about it until it’s too late.

The gentleman in the YouTube video is not concerned about everything being functional. The point of this collection is a display of everything that he has purchased, from VHS cassettes, through obsolete video disc formats, to the latest 4K UHD discs. In addition, he has mounted a sizeable collection of memorabilia, which wouldn't look out of place in Guillermo Del Toro's house. It is quite beautifully laid out, all the better to display wonderful cover art. It's like a museum showing a lifetime passion. I'm sure I could wander around that basement for hours. It's like bygone days in the early 1980s, when I would peruse all the videos in the store, thrilled by discovery.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And that’s the part that I totally love. And I think I always will.

 

[Ronnie Bernier]

In the early days of the Home Theater Forum, moderator Robert A. Fowkes (RAF) posted an essay entitled "Why Do I Own So Many Movies?

It's hard to believe, but that essay was written more than 25-years-ago...in 1992! But a lot of the ideas contained within are still valid for many HTF members today. It was written by Doug Pratt in the introduction to The Laser Video Disc Companion.

As RAF himself noted: "Even though it was written in pre-DVD days, it applies to this format as well and is as relevant as ever."

So let's talk about our collections and why having these movies is so important to us.

Note of warning. This is NOT a thread about physical media vs. streaming vs. digital ownership. Any posts that start to take the thread in that direction will be edited/removed.

This IS a thread about why we love the movies so much and why we want to have them in our personal collections.

HERE is the essay...including RAF's remarks about why he so often referred to it. Maybe you'd like to give some more contemporary examples of certain movies (or performances) that are important to you...and which are "must haves" in your own collection.

Or maybe you've had to answer that very question "How can you have so many videodiscs?!?" when posed by a member of your own family (maybe even your own spouse!) or a friend.

What's YOUR answer?

In the early days of the Home Theater Forum, moderator Robert A. Fowkes (RAF) posted an essay entitled "Why Do I Own So Many Movies?

It's hard to believe, but that essay was written more than 25-years-ago...in 1992! But a lot of the ideas contained within are still valid for many HTF members today. It was written by Doug Pratt in the introduction to The Laser Video Disc Companion.

As RAF himself noted: "Even though it was written in pre-DVD days, it applies to this format as well and is as relevant as ever."

So let's talk about our collections and why having these movies is so important to us.

Note of warning. This is NOT a thread about physical media vs. streaming vs. digital ownership. Any posts that start to take the thread in that direction will be edited/removed.

This IS a thread about why we love the movies so much and why we want to have them in our personal collections.

HERE is the essay...including RAF's remarks about why he so often referred to it. Maybe you'd like to give some more contemporary examples of certain movies (or performances) that are important to you...and which are "must haves" in your own collection.

Or maybe you've had to answer that very question "How can you have so many videodiscs?!?" when posed by a member of your own family (maybe even your own spouse!) or a friend.

What's YOUR answer?

 

[Ronnie Bernier]

The gentleman in the YouTube video is not concerned about everything being functional. The point of this collection is a display of everything that he has purchased, from VHS cassettes, through obsolete video disc formats, to the latest 4K UHD discs. In addition, he has mounted a sizeable collection of memorabilia, which wouldn't look out of place in Guillermo Del Toro's house. It is quite beautifully laid out, all the better to display wonderful cover art. It's like a museum showing a lifetime passion. I'm sure I could wander around that basement for hours. It's like bygone days in the early 1980s, when I would peruse all the videos in the store, thrilled by discovery.

Have been collector thru vhs,laserdisc up to current blu/ray 4K. Meeting with other film buffs, they revealing 3 to 4 thousand discs, I thought my 500 or so collection was too much. Funny how when people see my collection now, they reply...” OMG..are those all movies? But...if it was a (book) library..they excitedly say...Wow. Are those all books? It’s great to have your own personal film library. Whatever the reaction, it’s nobody’s business. Hell, I knew somebody who collected meat grinders. Check on Theo Kalimorakes website and see how many he has. from Ronnie Bernier

 

[Carlo_M]

Saw this piece and thought of this thread: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/opinion/future-dvds-streaming.html

Of course, it's probably a little telling that the author of the op-ed refers to the video format that's now 2 generations old...

 

[Mike Frezon]

That's an interesting article, Carlo...with a very interesting take on the topic.

Although it might be better served in one of the threads on physical media vs. streaming.

Personally, I'm hoping to do a complete overhaul of my collection in the next few months (a good winter's project!). This will include a thinning (more of a massive purge, actually) as I remove films that I know I won't want to watch again. This has nothing to do with an uptick of streaming on my part. While I got in on that great introductory price to Disney+, I doubt I'll even bother to renew it when it expires. I also have access to Amazon Prime but watch very little there.

For me, it's more a case of space limitations and continued disc purchases. And, most importantly, the realization that I am getting of an age where I need to lighten my load and realize I just don't need to keep certain films on my shelves that I am never going to take down to watch again. And while I am NOT obsessing over what's going to hap-pen to my collection after my death, I realize that neither of my kids will have the slightest interest in any of it. And my wife might have an interest in keeping maybe a couple dozen titles that she would ever pull out to watch.

 

[Worth]

That's an interesting article, Carlo...with a very interesting take on the topic.

Although it might be better served in one of the threads on physical media vs. streaming...

It's already in this one:

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/posts/4824468/

 

[timk1041]

You have a valid point about leaving collections behind for family to deal with.

I'm sure it would be more of a burden than a boom for most families. Many may not want the piles of reminders sitting around to see daily.

Probably most folks would box up and dump off at Goodwill since many people don't want discs anymore and don't want to have to store them all (for big collections). Enjoy them while 6' above ground and just know you're family will probably toss out soon after you're 6' under.

I know if I inherited 1000 discs the last thing I'd want to do is figure out how to try to sell them off. I'd toss out as fast as I could or put "FREE" on a box at the curb and consider it paying it forward.

Sad, but true.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And while I am NOT obsessing over what's going to hap-pen to my collection after my death, I realize that neither of my kids will have the slightest interest in any of it. And my wife might have an interest in keeping maybe a couple dozen titles that she would ever pull out to watch.

I figure my collection will not be considered a family heirloom either. My wife will probably grab the copy of “Princess Bride” that she brought into the relationship and that’ll be that.

I think I had a really great collection that perfectly suited my tastes and interests and needs until about 2014 or so, and then I just went crazy and justified buying things instead of renting because I had just gotten better gear to watch on and was getting a lot of great deals. But my collection took up two shelving units for nearly the entirety of my collecting life, and then in five years blew up to needing six units. That was just dumb on my part. In hindsight, for occasions when I bought discs because they cost the same or less than a rental, I should’ve considered them rentals and sold them off after viewing. Now I’m stuck with stuff I’ll never watch again that no one else wants either. Lesson learned.

I’ve been working on thinning my collection for a year and trying to return it to something more reflective of its original intent (movies I love that I enjoy rewatching, not simply movies that I’ve seen). It’s really rewarding to see my favorites up there standing out instead of buried in between a sea of titles I’m indifferent about.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Lesson learned.

At least you learned it at a young age. I'm too old to do much about it. Although my thinning-out project is due to begin soon.

 

[jcroy]

I figure my collection will not be considered a family heirloom either.

....

Now I’m stuck with stuff I’ll never watch again that no one else wants either. Lesson learned.

(More generally).

I've generally always considered my "stuff" will likely not become a heirloom at all. I never owned much of anything that was valuable.

Going back further in time, I encountered this first hand when my relatives were cleaning out the house of a then-recently passed away grandparent. By coincidence it just happened that I was visiting these relatives at the time, and noticed there was a stack of old technical books which caught my interest. I asked them about these books, where they mentioned that they were just going to throw them away since nobody in their extended family in the region was a technical / engineering type of person. I mentioned that I was an engineering major in college, where they just gave me this big box of ancient technical / math books.

(On a closer inspection when I tried reading these books, they were in German with writing that stated dates from 1931 to 1933 and the University of Berlin. I then realized these books were sitting in Israel on a bookshelf for over 60 years, and that my granduncle and grandaunt lived in Berlin, Germany in the early->mid 1930s).

 

[John Dirk]

(On a closer inspection when I tried reading these books, they were in German with writing that stated dates from 1931 to 1933 and the University of Berlin. I then realized these books were sitting in Israel on a bookshelf for over 60 years, and that my granduncle and grandaunt lived in Berlin, Germany in the early->mid 1930s).

Wow! That sounds like some valuable content to me. I've never even given much thought to what might happen to my collection after my departure from this existence. I do worry about my journal entries as I've made it a habit to write one pretty much every day for over 20 years. On the one hand, it would be nice if my family could have this content available for posterity but, on the other, a few of them might not like some of it's content. What can you do???

 

[jcroy]

The family historical context was interesting. The actual content of these books wasn't as interesting. As far as I could figure out, it was stuff that would be covered in college subjects like calculus, algebra, physics, mechanics, etc ... that an engineering major would cover in freshman and sophomore years nowadays. (I recognized the equations right away).

 

[cineMANIAC]

When did owning a large collection of movies become something akin to a mental disorder? That's how it feels listening to people whimsically talk about those of us who "still" collect physical media and predict the end of it. I'm sorry the general public is no longer enamored of their video libraries (absolutely no one complained about it 20 years ago) but I would never give up my collection for ANYTHING. Crazy, eh?

 

[Worth]

...I'm sorry the general public is no longer enamored of their video libraries (absolutely no one complained about it 20 years ago)

I think there's a false assumption at play here - I don't think the general public ever collected. The average person might have had a handful of favourites, but most people were always primarily renters.

 

[jcroy]

When did owning a large collection of movies become something akin to a mental disorder? That's how it feels listening to people whimsically talk about those of us who "still" collect physical media and predict the end of it. I'm sorry the general public is no longer enamored of their video libraries (absolutely no one complained about it 20 years ago) but I would never give up my collection for ANYTHING. Crazy, eh?

Probably the lumping/conflating in of generic hobbist collectors (whether movies, comic books, etc ....), with the extreme hoarding types on reality tv.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think there's a false assumption at play here - I don't think the general public ever collected. The average person might have had a handful of favourites, but most people were always primarily renters.

I think a lot of people dabbled and did impulse buys when DVD first came out, was easy to find in stores, and was cheap and hassle free compared to going to a store, hoping they had the title you wanted, renting it and then having to return it. But I think people realized they weren’t watching their purchases enough to justify continuing to make them, and the Netflix-by-mail model ended up being a great innovation for many people. Disc sales peaked in the early-to-mid 2000s.

Once something came along that made it possible to watch what you wanted without owning it, that was the end of the mass public’s flirtation with ownership. Buying a disc was always a mean to an end for most people; the disc collecting part wasn’t the actual hobby, the watching a movie with less steps than a VHS rental was.

 

[JohnRice]

When I was doing Architectural Photography full time, I shot a lot of multi million $ houses during a time when it was fashionable for them to have dedicated theaters. Later, that changed to multi-use rooms. There was a lot of money put into the theaters. One family had spent well over $100K on theirs. The seats cost $7K each, it had silk wall coverings, gold accents, and so on. It was a very large front projection system... using a $500 data projector, a mid-line Denon receiver and lower end Polk speakers and a single 10" Polk subwoofer. They owned maybe 5 movies on DVD total. I never saw a single house, no matter how fancy their theater was, where they owned more than a handful of movies.

...just sayin'...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Of course. The video store and Netflix by mail works just as well for rich people as it does for working class people. I would imagine that you’re gonna find far more people in those scenarios using those rooms to watch the big game than anything else.