Future of movie collections at home?

[rawdawg]

I haven't been keeping up with latest trends. Ten years ago I loved having my DVDs on display on my shelf, especially the criterion collection. Friends everywhere proudly displayed their collections including even the worst films. Same thing with VHS. What's funny is now my DVD collection is looking more like an eyesore, even my once coveted Criterion Collection.

I haven't made the switch to Blu-Ray. My TV is only 720, I didn't want to have to buy all my films over again, the battle between HD-DVD dragged on (now over), but even now that Blu-Ray won the feeling that it is only an intermediate format lingers and is waiting to die before it ever became a standard.

It feels like everything is switching to online subscriptions or on demand. But what does that mean about home collections? Is Blu-Ray going to be the standard for home collections? What's next?

 

[spice weasel]

My future movie collection will be based on rentals and streaming. I only buy Blu-rays of movies I REALLY like to watch repeatedly, and then only when I can get them on massive sale. I only have a few. Everything else I watch via Netflix streaming or their disc-based rentals. If I want to watch it again, I just add it to my queue again.

When I look at how much money I wasted buying DVDs, it makes me cry a little inside.

 

[rawdawg]

When I look at how much money I wasted buying DVDs, it makes me cry a little inside.

Yeah, me too! But wasn't it sorta so cool at the time to build a nice library? Now even my mint condition DVDs seems like trashy old VHS's I ended up throwing away.

There are certain disc's I will always want to own - Kubrick collection will always be something on my shelf. I'm a huge film guy, NYU film school, filmmaker, DP now, so I amassed a huge collection, and no way am I going to buy all that again. Even my Bergman and Fellini (et al) collections I spent years building I can't see myself ever rebuilding them again -- even though it would look nice next to my Kubrick collection. And the current DVD collections lost their appeal, like the old VHS's.

I want to buy "The Wire" set because I think it's the greatest narrative ever made for TV, but wonder if it's worth the money if I can get it on demand.

 

[mcarnes]

Man up and get a Blu-ray system. It's not like VHS to DVD. It's more like an extension of DVD, because a Blu-Ray system can still play all your current DVDs. So you just replace the discs in your collection a little at a time.

 

[xStep]

For movies I'd want to watch more than once, a physical medium is the only option to buy into. When I have that need to watch it, I just place it into the player and hit play. No wasting time going to the rental store, if it is even open. No waiting for delivery. No hoping it is available for on-demand delivery. No waiting for a lengthy, and lower quality & overly controlled, download.

So, yea, Blu-Ray is the new standard for collecting movies, until something better arrives.

I just reviewed my 200+ DVD collection and see that I'll be picky about re-buying titles that will be available in the Blu-Ray format.

 

[LethalWolfe]

It feels like everything is switching to online subscriptions or on demand. But what does that mean about home collections? Is Blu-Ray going to be the standard for home collections? What's next?

It feels that way because of all the buzz even though it's not that way in reality. Almost 99 percent of the video watched in the US is still done on television. It's like audio sales. For 10yrs now I've been hearing about how CDs are dead yet CDs, at least in the US, still out perform downloads both in terms of sales numbers and revenue generated. What makes that even more interesting is for something like 7 or 8 years CD sales have been declining so even w/this 'free fall' downloads still haven't eclipsed CDs yet. Though if trends stay the same that will happen in the next year or two but it will mostly be because CD sales have fallen that far not because legal downloads became that popular.

What we have today is more options than we've ever had before so while the golden age of physical media is in the past it will still be around because of practical reasons (only a small % of the world has broadband) and aesthetic reasons (not everyone is satisfied with streaming/downloading quality). Heck, even vinyl has made a comeback in the audio world.


Lethal

 

[bootedbear]

Almost 99 percent of the video watched in the US is still done on television

Streaming does not preclude television.

 

[Full of Win]

I've used RipIt (or MTR) to put all my moves into .dvdmedia containers, which now live on a 1.5 TB X 2 RAID drive (3TB total) near my home theater MacMini. Because they are in this format, any mac on the network can access the videos, and the quality is the same as with DVD, since its a direct copy (not a compressed version). For example, on the 23 inch ACD next to me right now, I'm watching The Dirty Dozen; while I use the 17 inch screen on my MBP to do work. I'm also using said computer to convert the files into iPad and iPhone compliant videos using HandBreak. Since the resulting files are on the network, I can add them to my devices from any computer in the house.

However, I can see this setup is boarding on the arcane;streaming is the future. Its not there yet, still a long way to go.

 

[bniu]

i prefer a more mobile lifestyle, i'll just buy the movies i really want off of itunes. my ipad is now my TV. I don't want to have a shelf full of books, movies, cd's, I want them all stored on one convenient storage device.

For that, I'll need a 2TB SSD. Can't wait for the day those will be really cheap!

 

[H00513R]

Unfortunately I think movies go the way of music and reside either in your computer or the cloud. It's unfortunate really. I used to love seeing the artwork and extras that some movies came out with to include. Damn internet, nothing's special now...

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I almost feel like the ideal entertainment center is a TV with a small PC (Dell Zino, Mac mini, etc) connected to it. This PC would also act as a home server, so that computers are nothing more than dumb terminals that are able to run their own programs and do their own processing.