I would nearly bet you are in a minority of one here.
No. I like the boxes. BTW, Rumplesink, if you’re just going to get the disc, why don’t you just ask for it only? EDIT: I mean it just sounds like a waste.
Yep, minority of one. As cheap and throwaway as much DVD packaging is, tossing them out is a little like tossing out an album cover — the artwork has the potential to give the viewer a sense of the film at a quick visual glance, and impart a mood or style that enhances the film. If I feel like watching a movie and I’m not sure what, I can glance through my collection, where the artwork on the cover might hit my mood in the right way and help me figure out what I feel like watching.
@Tom – I see what you’re saying, but flicking through the DVD wallet and seeing the titles does the same thing for me.
DVDs without their packaging look incredibly cheap and pirated in my opinion, so this approach is not for me.
I spill coffee on everything I own…
I don’t think I dare to put them all in a wallet.
But seriously, I see your point. If I was to throw away the packaging, though, it would have to be the films I don’t care that much about.
I find this fascinating. When I started thinking about throwing the packaging away I had much the same attitude as most everyone here, but the more I thought about it the less it made sense to keep the packaging to the point where I just couldn’t justify it on the grounds of any sort of logic other than from the viewpoint of possibly selling the DVDs at a later date. And if it’s the case that you’re buying a DVD with the intention of selling it somewhere down the line then why buy it in the first place? Why not just rent it? I really don’t see how the packaging of a DVD can affect the ownership and viewability of a film. It’s just a plastic box and a sheet of glossy paper after all.
Most people that sell their DVD’s propably didn’t plan this when buying them. I have loads of DVD’s that I know I’ll never watch again, I’ll either sell them or store them away at my parents house.
I’m an art freak, so doing this to Criterion discs makes me cry a bit. And, practically speaking, if a friend ever wants to borrow a movie, the cases make it much easier.
You should at least be recycling them.
Harry…you keep using “cuz.” I don’t think that’s a word. You should be using the word “because”
“I do recycle BECAUSE I eat my own poop BECAUSE I’m fat and I like to eat stuff”
I can’t do it but you are ahead of the game, I think. After Blu-Ray the next step (which is already hear) is downloading to a hard drive. Packaging is on it’s way out in at least the next 10 years. For those of us who like to see what we own on a shelf hopefully there will be some kind of rotating screensaver type function that will loop through all the title’s on one’s hard drive.
I understand the logic of wanting to save space but I like seeing all my movies displayed on a shelf (similar to the Seinfeld joke about people displaying books in the homes). It may be silly but I’m ok with that. One question that I have (in addition to the already mentioned “what if you want to sell them?”) is what do you do if you someone wants to borrow one of your DVDs? Do you just give them the disc with a case? Do you have spare sleaves or cases? One of the great things about having a large DVD collection is being able to share it with friends and show them great films that they may never have seen. A lot of times I’ll buy a film I love specifically so I can let others borrow it so they can see a great film they might have missed.
All my Criterions are in the shape of an orange cone on my desktop. VLC!
I won’t switch to Blu Ray in fear that the packaging isn’t as good. So ya I might be weird but I love looking at the box art, and having all my DVDs proudly displayed in book cases along my wall.
The idea of the future being just getting films online makes me sad. Still music has turned into that, but CDs are still sold. I have a friend who’s passion is music and he only buys CDs, no iTunes.
@Drew – What do you mean, Bluray packaging isn’t as good? The cases seem almost identical to me in terms of quality. In fact, I actually really like the Blu-Ray cases because they’re a little smaller and thinner so more can fit on a shelf.
@Fredo
If someone wants to borrow a disc it’s no problem – I have soft cotton sleeves, or I can use some old cd or dvd cases I have lying around.
@Mike Spence
Actually I have a vast collection of films in .avi format. In fact I probably have about 100 or so foreign films that I’ve bought, because I only buy the ones I REALLY like, but I have at least 3 or 4 times that number of foreign films on an external hard drive that I have plugged into a USB slot in my DVD player. So I have a foreign film ‘jukebox’ of about four or five hundred foreign films permanently plugged into my DVD player which is hooked up to my TV and ready to go. Currently I’m going through a lot of my collection and converting them into .avi format so I can watch them this way. Works for me.
Yeah, i love packaging but I also love space. Every time I move I wish I had my movies on an external hard drive so I could just carry them under my arm. Packaging also jacks up the price. Holding a long sought after collection in a crowded store has always been exciting but with money the way it is right now I may be ready to give up certain shallow joys for the sake of seeing more films and saving cash.
The aesthetic appeal of packaging and liner notes is one of the few things keeping me from pirating films off the internet. If everything does, as predicted, go to a strictly digital format, I will probably end up pirating all my music and movies. This is unless they can somehow offer another motive for paying for what anyone can get for free.
But to stay on topic, it’s basically an appearance thing for me. Packaging is great. Plus, at least in my experience, those wallets are a great way to scratch up discs real fast. Maybe if I had a gigantic DVD collection I could see myself considering some sort of space saving measure. But even if I did, I’m fairly confident I’d take the cover and liner notes out of the case before throwing it out.
R u nutz?
I love the boxes… is like a preview.
… the Fight Club soap bar.. the American Beauty torso…. the infinite white in Fargo… the puzzle pieces in The Game… I could go on forever.
@Withnail:
Actually, I started off doing that…I kept all the inner sleeves somewhere for the longest time, but at some point I just chucked them – again in the end I just couldn’t see the point of having them lying in a cupboard somewhere on the off chance I might want to sell them one day.
I do this with my music cds or used to. Unlike DVDs, its nice to have your music collection in an easily portable manner. The thing is I stopped this since at least for me, my discs get scratched up alot easier in the wallet sleeves as opposed to just leaving it in its original box on top of a shelf.
I once had several CD’s get ruined on me because they melted into the plastic sleeves of a portable wallet. So no, I don’t gamble with my discs anymore. I’m lucky enough to have several built-ins for storage, and it would take a while to overflow them.
I need to find a new book case because I’ve just about filled up the two I have. But too many DVDs is a problem I like having.
I am the opposite. I love to look at all the credits and pictures first thing when I buy a new DVD. I am amazed to look at the filmographies of everyone listed down to some of the lesser help on the film crew. It is kind of a hobby of mine, so I never throw out the packaging. I also am a huge fan of cover artwork. I have made several tape and CD jackets complete with fonts chosen for the Thank you’s to the actual pictures used on the cover. It is a very long and drawn out process. I think you just tossing the packaging is not only a waste but is really a disrespectful (not intentionally, of course) act to the hundreds of people that make their living putting those packages together. Also, in the Orient, they say that the first thing a person eats with is their eyes. Seeing the meal is actually the first moment of eating there. I think that when you walk into a video store, the packaging of a new film can be your first experience (and impression) of something you’ve never seen before. Take Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson. What an amazing and striking cover…it draws you in, even the font of the word Magnolia. I certainly can understand WHY you do this. You explained pretty clearly that it is a space issue for you. All I can tell you is if it doesn’t bother you to do it, than who cares what other people think?
@Daniel:
You know, I don’t feel bad at all throwing the stuff away because in 99% of cases (no pun intended) the packaging is awful. I can’t remember the last time I bought a DVD that even had a piece of paper inside, next to the disc, never mind an actual booklet with useful or interesting information in it. The old Warner Brothers cardboard cases were dreadful, and most of the new Amaray cases feature a plastic locking mechanism which either breaks or encourages you to bend the disc to get it out. They’re hastily slapped together, mass-manufactured products that seem to have had little or no thought or attention to detail put into them. I’m not saying I’m making some point out of protest or anything – like I say it’s a practical thing but I don’t feel there’s any great loss by binning the stuff. And I don’t care what other people think – I was wondering if there was anyone else who had gone down the same route. I reckoned I surely couldn’t be the only person in the world who’s come to this conclusion. So far, though it seems I am! There is one DVD case however that I’ve never thrown away due to the fact that a great deal of thought and attention to detail has been lavished on it. It sits atop my DVD player to this day, and I’ll probably never throw it away because it’s just so well done. It’s the Criterion Videodrome DVD. The case looks like an old videotape complete with ex-rental tape and an old numbered sticker that all looks as if it’s been done with a felt pen. Wonderful.
I too throw away the boxes but I keep the inlays on the off chances that in the distant future I choose to sell them I can restore them. But yeah space is the real concern here. As for the packaging well I don’t really care. Packaging has nothing to do with cinema anyway.
A wall of DVDs is impressive if you want to show off to visitors but eventually it becomes too much. My collection is currently just over 2100 and that would require 33m of shelf space. Currently my collection uses up only about 4m which is just 12% of its original size.
I think you render your collection completely worthless (for resale) by discarding the packaging. If it becomes a viable option, I would happily import my collection into some sort of digital-only library, but if I did that and then wanted to sell the original DVDs (which will never happen), I wouldn’t be able to if I didn’t have the packaging. Or at least I wouldn’t get nearly as much money for them.
There is far too much time and effort put into the packaging (especially Criterions) to simply throw it away. Not to mention, part of what you’re paying for is the artwork, essays, and layout/design efforts of the people behind it.
Someone touched on this above, but I like books. I like to see the spines, enjoy the covers, and feel inspired by them. I also really enjoy owning and displaying CDs and LPs, and reading the liner notes, lyrics, etc. The same goes for my movies. It all adds to the appreciation of the movie/music/story.
If I feel like my collection is getting too big, I’ll give some away or sell a few. One thing I might suggest to those who feel they don’t have enough room to display, is only displaying your “To-Do List”: movies I’m planning to watch in the next few weeks/months (depending on available space)… So it’s all of my latest acquisitions, along with items from the closet that I’m ready to revisit. The rest are in accessible storage. This goes for my music and books, too.
In short, I strongly disagree with this practice. But… to each their own.
No matter wat u do, just remember it is u. And nothing wrong 2 be different. ( Cuz every1 is XY )
sometimes
你总会问: 为什么我和别人不一样 ?
我说 : 为什么要和别人一样呢?
McBean
The first thing I do when I buy a new DVD is to remove the disc from the box and put it away in one of my DVD wallets. I then throw the box complete with cover in the bin. There are a few reasons for me doing this, but mostly it’s because I have a lot of discs and I don’t have the space to keep all the packaging. To me only the actual disc matters. Obviously, from a collectors point of view this would be sacrilege (yes I have a few Criterion films in my collection – some quite rare like the original issue of Seven Samurai and Robocop for example) but like I say, to me the only thing that matters is the disc itself, so all packaging – Criterion or not – is disposed of. Does anyone else do this?