Looking to build a DVD library!

[Jack Hammer]

My criteria for buying dvd's is fairly simple. I only buy movies that I believe I'll watch ~4 or more times in the next year. That makes them cheaper than renting. I currently have about 600 dvd's. Most of them I've watched many more times than that. I try to buy movies I really want when they first come out - usually $13.98 @ CC. The rest are the $3.99 & $4.99 specials at CC & BB or the 4/$20 at Blockbuster. Point is always buy them on sale.

Jack

 

[evilkat]

I'd take the money I intend to invest in a DVD library and just buy a dual format player. HD DVD and Blu-Ray are about $20 a pop.

The problem with that idea is you'll have half your collection in blue ray and the other half in HD-DVD. And once the war eventually ends, then you have half your collection on an unsupported gen. 1 player

I'd rather buy the cheaper DVDs right now and wait for the format issue to settle and then invest on a really good player later on.

 

[jonnythan]

The problem with that idea is you'll have half your collection in blue ray and the other half in HD-DVD. And once the war eventually ends, then you have half your collection on an unsupported gen. 1 player

Or you can have your *entire* collection at 480p instead of 1080p.

That's not a trivial difference.

 

[evilkat]

Or you can have your *entire* collection at 480p instead of 1080p.

That's not a trivial difference.

But my 'entire' collection will not remain static. It's going to grow as new movies come out and new releases are made. The newer ones are going to be in 1080p. The older ones will be 480p of course...but if I really feel the need to get it in a higher-res version I'll go out and buy it from the $9 bin for HD dvds

 

[highfihoney]

Yeah right, with that mentalitly I'll NEVER be able to build up a collection (see my previous rant post above!).

I went through every format so far,vinyl,8 track,reel to reel,cassett,cd,dvd a,sacd,beta,vhs,dvd & im calling it quits with cd's for music & dvd for movies,both formats were around long enough to flood the market with millions of titles to choose from cheaply.

I dont think blu ray will catch on with the masses,most people allready have dvd players & will look at the cost of blu ray discs vs dvd & choose the dvd,just look at the death of sacd to see whats going to happen to blu ray,consumers dont care about this issue only audiophiles & videophiles do & our numbers are too few to make a format stick around.

I think your smart not to get caught up in all this blu ray nonsense,people say their waiting for "the smoke to clear" but the smoke will never clear,after blu ray there will be another format promising even greater benifits & so on & so forth,history has showed us that is the way it will happen,instead of waiting on blu ray keep buying dvd's like you are now & then take serious advantage of people dumping their state of the art $2,500 dvd players in order to go blu ray,i know in going to

 

[Hans]

Hi, and welcome to a whole new level of addiction.

You already own good titles!

I got about 300DVDs. Some good movies that I treasure much:

- Saving Private Ryan
- Goodfellas
- The Matrix trilogy
- The X-Men trilogy
- any Harry Potter movie
- any Tarantino movie
- any Pixar movie (all of them mindblowing on a good HT)

At 300, I have mostly every DVD I want, there not much coming out worth buying these days anyway, maybe a dozen a year... Nowaday, I keep a very small list of movies I really want, mostly classics, and pick 'em off as I see them at good prices here and there.

You should really consider buying only what you plan to watch more than once. As you will find out soon, there's always somebody that has currently more DVDs than you will ever have

To really kickstart a DVD collection, you could check out E-Bay under "Wholesale DVD". Me and my buddies at work really got some good movie collections at well below 4$ per DVD. There are different size lots too. Check it out. Just be careful and read the fineprint, as usual.... Anyway, just by browsing those collections, you'll surely find some movies you want anyway.

I never buy movies full price, I always wait for second hand deal at blockbuster or similar. You can also pick up really great titles for 5$-8$ each at BB, HMV and Futureshop.

I hope it helps. Good hunting.

Cheers.

 

[evilkat]

Hi, and welcome to a whole new level of addiction.

You already own good titles!

I got about 300DVDs. Some good movies that I treasure much:

- Saving Private Ryan
- Goodfellas
- The Matrix trilogy
- The X-Men trilogy
- any Harry Potter movie
- any Tarantino movie
- any Pixar movie (all of them mindblowing on a good HT)

At 300, I have mostly every DVD I want, there not much coming out worth buying these days anyway, maybe a dozen a year... Nowaday, I keep a very small list of movies I really want, mostly classics, and pick 'em off as I see them at good prices here and there.

You should really consider buying only what you plan to watch more than once. As you will find out soon, there's always somebody that has currently more DVDs than you will ever have

To really kickstart a DVD collection, you could check out E-Bay under "Wholesale DVD". Me and my buddies at work really got some good movie collections at well below 4$ per DVD. There are different size lots too. Check it out. Just be careful and read the fineprint, as usual.... Anyway, just by browsing those collections, you'll surely find some movies you want anyway.

I never buy movies full price, I always wait for second hand deal at blockbuster or similar. You can also pick up really great titles for 5$-8$ each at BB, HMV and Futureshop.

I hope it helps. Good hunting.

Cheers.

Hans, thanks so much for the ebay tip! Boy they have a lot of stuff in the wholesale section, although I can't say that I like a lot of the movies in the bigger bundles!! How has your buying experience been with these deals? Were they scratched or ever damaged?

 

[Jack Hammer]

EvilK, you should also consider the movie you are buying. I have some movies that wouldn't be worth it, $wise, to me to have in the new format but I really like them. These are titles like Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 original, not remake), C.H.U.D., Heathers, Last Man on Earth, etc.

I'm sure you have a core group of movies you really like that wouldn't benefit much from being in HD/BR format. Find those cheap on SD DVD and add them to your collection. Movies like Constantine, Fifth Elemement, or LOTR would benefit more from HD/BR than a movie like Thank You for Smoking would.

I haven't been buying too many movies the last year or so because their haven't been many movies I consider worth buying. The movie industry has been in a bit of a slump - their are some good movies being made and that have come out, but not lots of them like there were 3-4 years back.

 

[JKL1960]

I have a fairly small collection of films but when I started collecting I decided on a theme. The theme I collect around is War or Military based films. I still buy others but I wanted to avoid buying everything I saw (I can't afford that). I define war movies fairly loosely. Loosely enough that I could excuse buying Seven Samurai.

While it isn't a large collection it does have some damn fine films in it.

Idi i Smotri (The best war film I own.)
Grave of the Fireflies
Dr. Strangelove
Full Metal Jacket
Paths of Glory
All Quiet on the Western Front (A must have war film)
Life is Beautiful
Schindler's List

Plus a bunch of the regulars like Battle of Britain, Kelley's Heroes, Saving Private Ryan.

I check the top War films at IMDB and look for those. The obscure foreign films are very interesting. It gave me the excuse to buy Flags of our Fathers the other day and I check most clearance bins for war films. I don't even care if they are good sometimes.

 

[evilkat]

A good idea Jack. As HiFiHoney also mentioned, sticking with the DVDs for the time being makes sense to me. I plan on migrating some of my favorites over to HD if need be,

JK, those are some fine war movies, and Seven Samurai is definitely a classic! I'm surprised you don't have any of the submarine series (Hunt for Red October, K-19 Widowmaker, or U-571)! You should probably get band of brothers. What a powerful series!

 

[JKL1960]

A good idea Jack. As HiFiHoney also mentioned, sticking with the DVDs for the time being makes sense to me. I plan on migrating some of my favorites over to HD if need be,

JK, those are some fine war movies, and Seven Samurai is definitely a classic! I'm surprised you don't have any of the submarine series (Hunt for Red October, K-19 Widowmaker, or U-571)! You should probably get band of brothers. What a powerful series!

I only hit some highlights. I most certainly have Das Boot. Also U-571 and guess what, Band of Brothers. Band of Brothers is quite outstanding.

I still need Bridge on the River Kwai and want to get Battleship Potemkin. Some of these movies can be quite expensive and some are hard to find. Nobody in town has a copy of Downfall (I live in a smallish city) .

I can see an order coming soon.

 

[bane1202]

ive got prob ~400 dvds and got most of them from the aforementioned 4/20$at blockbuster or for the ones that I can never find there I make a list and pick them up at deepdiscountdvd.com when they have a coupon available... back in november I found a 50% off one on a deal website and went to town.. keep your eye out on slickdeals.net or fatwallet for the coupons or sales... my advice is to pick actors or directors that you like and pull them up on imdb and see what other movies they have done that got decent ratings.. sometimes ill go on theme sprees like old westerns or old black and white samurai films.. buying movies at random will often give you a collection that you watch 20% of with the other 80% gathering dust.. and kudos for staying out of the format war.. im also sitting on the sidelines for a victor to be determined.. i could actually benefit from a 1080p source because of screen size though so I will eventually make that switch

 

[The Dukester]

Some titles I would suggest:
(Not in any particular order)

Second Hand Lions
Flyboys
Serenity
The Rundown
The Mask
Van Helsing
Forrest Gump
The Bourne Idenity/Supremacy
Batman Begins
A Knight's Tale
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Big Fish
Starwars
We Were Soldiers
The Patriot
Tango & Cash

That should give you a pretty good mix and are some I have watched several times.

As others have said, I echo buying used and buying often Forget the format war for now. 1080p will be cheap enough soon enough, but enjoy movies now for less. You can always buy your most favorites in HD later as well as future releases.

 

[villeneuve]

Cough, Cough netflix, cough cough, blockbuster, cough, cough, dvd shrink, dvd decripter, dvd burner in your computer= a really big dvd library.

 

[villeneuve]

these may have been mentioned.....
suicide kings
traffic
the big lebowski
fight club
heat
collateral
constantine
layer cake
snatch

 

[jonnythan]

Cough, Cough netflix, cough cough, blockbuster, cough, cough, dvd shrink, dvd decripter, dvd burner in your computer= a really big dvd library.

If you're going to go the illegal route, download Grabit and connect to your local newsgroup server.. then they're all free

 

[Kai]

Well evilkat I look at it this way. If I pay say $15.00 for a movie and sit in the comfort of my home, on my recliner sofa, next to my wife, a bowl of popcorn between us and get to keep the movie in my collection I consider it money well spent.
I may have seen it only once or twice over the past several years but I can watch it any time I want. That is worth a lot.
If I were going to build a HD/BR library it would probably contain only a dozen or so movies. I have not bothered buying a HD/BR player and will not for some time mainly because of the cost but also a bit paranoid of the format I buy going room temperature and losing the format war hehehe.

The last time I went to the movies...Talladega Nights...I spent $12 bucks on 2 tickets...matinee doncha know hehehe...and $20 bucks for two sodas and a large popcorn...enjoyable but not worth the money and unless I buy the movie...which I did lol...I can never watch it again until it hits the air in some fashion or I rent it.

Most of my movies cost around $6 dollars and even if I do watch them only once are totally worth the price.
Build your library with your favorites first, or recommended movies, then add on as you can find them on the cheap.

 

[evilkat]

Kai, u're right of course...I naively made the calculation based on brand-new DVD prices, not the used prices or bargain prices

I know better now!

 

[Nick250]

I am curious, does anyone else besides me have The Dirty Dozen in their collection? If was a gift, but if I knew it was on DVD in the first place I would have gotten it myself.

Nick

 

[The Dukester]

I am curious, does anyone else besides me have The Dirty Dozen in their collection? If was a gift, but if I knew it was on DVD in the first place I would have gotten it myself.

Nick

I bought it a couple of years ago for my uncle. He died and now I should get it back. We watched it together a few weeks before he died. Great flick!