We're not movie buffs, by any means. But we've got a modest collection of DVDs gracing the shelves of our TV unit. DVDs that go entirely un-watched, save for a few series' worth of Sex and the City episodes that have played through many a girl's night in. The rest—well, the rest should be making their way out the door soon, but I just can't purge them yet.
From what my mom tells me, the introduction of the VCR was a pretty big deal back in the day. For the first time ever, you could own a moving picture. Since then, we've been obsessed with amassing a collection of motion pictures and the entire series of favorite TV shows.
In life before Netflix, our collections were a blessing, not a burden. There was always a DVD to pop in and watch when "there's nothing on TV." But now with Netflix and Hulu, empty Friday nights are spent searching through an endless queue of streaming options to find a film or show that strikes your fancy. If you're anything like me, you never turn to your in-house DVD collection for entertainment anymore.
But still, I can't seem to shake the feeling that I don't want to get rid of my DVDs just yet. I'll probably end up waiting until the DVD is as obsolete as VHS tapes are now. With Netflix seemingly trying to phase out their DVD rental plan in favor of streaming, it might not be too long.
On the other hand, if you're ready to purge your DVDs, there's a wealth of resources to help you do it. Here are a few ideas for trimming your collection, digitizing your DVDs and trading in old movies for an Apple iPad.
Have you purged? Are you on the brink of tossing your DVD collection? Are you a movie buff who still gets tons of use out of their discs? Let us know in the comments!
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I haven't purged entirely, but what I have done is gotten rid of the cases (except for my really nice boxed sets) and organized my discs so they take up waaay less space.
Also, who's to say what format these movies will be in if you get rid of a DVD? Will Hulu, Vudu, Netflix, PSN, Amazon, etc., be around forever? They all use different pricing and formats for storing movies. I have always based my DVD buying on movies that I would be willing to watch 10 years from now. If you can't see yourself doing that, don't buy the DVD!
If you choose to purge the Planet Earth set, I'll pay you for shipping. That's one I can watch over and over.
Pretty much. Either I get movies from swisscom bluewin TV (Swiss version of Netflix) or from piratebay if it's not yet available.
Have you thought of ripping them to your computer first? We use HandBreak for our Mac and then I can load them on my iPad when we travel -- especially useful for entertaining kids on long car trips.
I kinda like LovelyGeek's idea of storing the discs somewhere other than their cases... maybe just box up the cases and store them elsewhere. We rip all our DVDs/Blu-rays and use HTPC+Boxee software to play our movies. We do re-watch our ripped movies/tv shows quite often (though we do have quite a selection with 200+ titles).
I kept the discs but put them in albums.
I used disc pages for standard 3-ring binders and put the covers and booklets in sheet protectors right along with them. My collection used to take up an entire bookcase but now takes up one shelf.
I have a few box sets that I can happily watch over and over, but they aren't available anywhere on streaming. They aren't going anywhere. I have a few other movies that I love, also not on streaming. Otherwise, I never bought that many DVDs to begin with, so not much to purge.
Anything that gets watched a lot (ie stuff my 2 1/2 year old watches) gets ripped and played over boxee. The rest of the DvD collection stays. Packed tight in a cupboard, they don't take up a lot of space. I think the biggest shift right now for us is not displaying them at all. We still have a very large rack of CDs in the living room, but somehow, that feels different.
I have been optical media free for a little over a year now. No more dusting off movie cases. A lot less clutter in the media cabinet. I'll never go back.
I have over 1000 its hard to par down!
No way! I still watch them! I didn't read the comments first so this might have been said, but you could throw away cases and keep CDs in zip cd cases instead. All in one. Maybe alphabetized so they are easy to find too.
We didn't throw them away; we store them in albums. They were digitized and live on a server now. We use a little Netgear box to play them.
Cyber75sax is on to something. Netflix or Hulu outages, forget to pay the internet/cable bill... my DVDs are always there. I paid 5-10 bux for each DVD and have them as long as I have a DVD player (including on computers, etc, and driving through rural no-reception areas or camping). Whereas I pay each time I want to stream something and it's not "mine", or have to leave it in the format in which I downloaded it? I'll stick to the DVDs... for now.
And is the author of this post so young that they don't remember Beta or those flat Disks that you inserted the entire plastic envelope into the player. VHS being the first time you could "own a moving picture" is lulz.
Personally, I don't think I'll ever get rid of my DVDs/Blu-Rays/whatever is next. I'm the kind of person that if I'm going to actually buy something, I want all the bonus features you only get on hard disc and I almost always buy the Special Edition if there is one (also meaning I won't get rid of the packaging b/c there's usually something special about that as well).
Then again, I'm selective about what I buy. I never purchase anything I haven't already seen and loved, either in the theater or rented. Despite this, my collection is much larger than you'd think it is!!
Most live in binders now. At some point I'll rip 'em all to a hard drive and stash the binders in deep storage for backup.
I agree with MandaPanda. I buy for the extra features. The commentaries are often worth the price alone. Ripping them just gives me the movie (which I still do so I can occasionally play them in the background) but I'd never get rid of them. Actually, I often hope Apartment Therapy would do a series of posts on creative optical media storage. :)
Side note: If you're not a fan of movie commentaries, I suggest watching all of them for Seven, Fight Club, and Anchorman. You'll love those extras when you're done.
i got rid of all my movies/dvd's 2 years ago. they take up way too much room and honestly, once I buy them i never watch them again. Why bother?
i just took them all to dvd trading company and they paid me pennies per disc, but i'm supporting a local business and someone else can benefit from my pristine dvd collection.
I kept maybe 10 movies b/c they are my favorites and I keep them in a dvd file box that I found a few years ago which works really awesome for me.
I'm not getting rid of my DVDs, I have two large disc changers. With the few Blurays I buy, I just rip and store on one of my NASes.
I tried to watch some favorite movies on Netflix the other day - Ella Enchanted and Princess Bride - and they weren't available!!! REALLY, Netflix, PRINCESS BRIDE? The best movie like, ever? So screw it, I'm going to continue buying my favorite movies and TV shows.