After all, with Netflix and the like costing so little, buying a DVD isn’t cost effective unless you intend to watch it at least a dozen times or so.
As others have mentioned, they have limited selection—often not the films I want to see. If netflix (or any other streaming service) has the films I’d want to see, that could change things. Having said that, I don’t buy very many dvds (I don’t think I own more than fifty.) Of the ones I own, I like having them available to re-watch and analyze. I also love having some of them so when a friend comes over and says, “I never saw Harakiri” we can pop in the film and watch it right there.
I must also confess that the I have a fetish for the well-designed dvds/dvd containers.
“The fact is that I spend more money now making movies than watching them,”
I don’t think that’s very difficult. My first film cost $7,000 (and I’ve made three films!) – I can’t imagine how many DVDs I’d have to buy to eclipse that. hahaha
@ Santino
Your filmmaking? Cool.
>why don’t you ever rent? It seems worth it to rent and then buy it if you really like it.<
Most of the time I know what I want…sometimes I blind buy based on interesting-looking cover/description, or (usually) a filmmaker whose work I like. If the movie turns out to be total crap. I get rid of it (Goodwill donation or trade in at the local fleamarket).
Last time I rented a movie was back in the early days of VHS (late ’70s/early ’80s).
Btw, besides those redboxes at the grocery store the only places to rent movies for me are blockbuster and the library. The public library is actually not bad, but it’s still pretty limited; blockbuster is even moreso.
If I knew for sure every movie I ever wanted to see would be permanently available on streaming services, I’d stop buying.
But how do I know a year from now some company isn’t going to say “We own the rights to this movie now, NOBODY GETS TO SEE IT HA HA HA HA HA!” Good thing I have a permanent physical copy. I have access to it that no big corporation can control.
What if I want to see A Brighter Summer Day, or Chimes At Midnight, or any one of the many films not licensed in region 1. Good thing I have a region free DVD player, so if anyone anywhere in the world produces a copy I can obtain it.
This industry is moving in the direction of letting license agreements dictate access. I own to prevent this from restricting my access.
^Yeah, to me it seems like if you rely strictly on streaming, you’re dependent on a company to give you access to their goodies. And at any time they could take it away and there’s nothing you can do.
Maybe I’m insecure but I don’t want to have to rely on someone else to give me the goodies I desire.
as others said……a film you love made physical. That is part of what makes well packaged sets so appealing to me.
Interesting about supporting artists. Lately, I find myself only buying dvds by directors who are self releasing their films. Joe Swanberg has a pretty cool subscription service release. Kentucker Audley releases his own films as well. But there is a whole world of NoBudge filmmakers that are releasing their own works and most often they are much better than shit I see in the theatre and elsewhere. Also, this helps the filmmakers continue to make the films they want without restrictions.
Agreed. If we are able to buy a film directly from the filmmaker/musician/author’s website, we would certainly prefer to do so. So many great artists can barely make a living and most of them are willing to basically give their art away.
Independent Artist’s Store Sections:
No Budge
Foreign American Pictures
John Korty
Slightly Off Topic: There is a quasi-debate between David Lowry (Cracker, Camper van Beethoven) and Travis Morrison (The Dismemberment Plan) on the financial burden that downloading music has on independent artists. A summary with links can be found at the Washington City Paper . The Lowry article convinced my to buy records from local/indie bands The Horse Thieves , Phil Elverum and, (eventually) , and Humble Cub —-all out of pure guilt. The article got me thinking about movies too, anyways.
I’m a sucker for great special features (especially commentaries), but I do like the instant access to the movies I love. I have become more selective over the years. Part of that is realizing that my money can/should go toward more important things and part is that every purchase I make is one less movie I desire to own. For the record, I own a shitload of movies.
I buy only blu rays. The quality doesn’t get better than this and I can afford to.
I totally understand those who don’t, but I get really pissed off when people try to make those who buy look like dumb for paying.
Who wouldn’t want to own the entire Criterion Collection?
For me, quality comes first and foremost so it’s Blu-Ray unless impossible to get. I want the best available playback experience, much like Roberto above.
I have Netflix streaming, but it will not be near Blu-Ray for quite a while, given the slovenly US open-market adaptation of truly effective nation-wide internet, let alone full 1080 “pipes” that can deliver that…even now, Netflix is eating a ton of bandwidth every day.
I am worried about the great classics going away on Blu-Ray before I can afford to get them, but I will do what I can.
I do enjoy having a collection, to lend out, to have choices in viewing, to look at.
But the most honest (and possibly dumbest) reason is physical copies of art make me happy. I love DVDs the way I love books. There are only so many hours in the day but just looking at a DVD or a book fills me with a little joy as my mind connects them to the experience of watching/reading the work or the possibilities of watching/reading the work. Obviously the act of watching or reading beats just looking, but even that gives me joy.
I will say that back in the day I used to just buy every movie I wanted to see, while now I’d say about 90% of my DVD/Blu-Ray purchases are films I have seen and loved.
I’m under no illusion that every material form of media that is purchased will be obsolete in 10 years. Therefor, knowing that BLU-RAYs will be the last definitive material format, I try to purchase only EDITIONs that I think will be worthy of having as a “collection” 50 years from now, akin to a RECORD or some sort vintage collection. (i.e. mostly only Criterions and ilk)
I’m under no illusion that every material form of media that is purchased will be obsolete in 10 years.
When I was in the 7th grade, I clearly remember walking through my local video store and saying to myself: “DVD’s—these things will never catch on.” I have recently said the same thing about thumb drives, iPods, E-Books, and blu-rays. I still can’t believe they updated the Nintendo 64.
I will say that back in the day I used to just buy every movie I wanted to see, while now I’d say about 90% of my DVD/Blu-Ray purchases are films I have seen and loved.
This sums up exactly how I am now. I poured so much money into DVDs in my (relative) youth. Now, I only buy a handful a month. They have to be amazing or sometimes blind buys that are supposed to be amazing.
It makes absolutely no difference to me how I access my film collection. If I could scroll through the titles of my DVD collection on a device the size of an i-Pod, click on a title, and have it instantly play on my large flat TV screen, I’d be in heaven (and dump all my DVDs).
To me ownership is important because taste and demographics change. What online services offer now may not always be available and I’d hate to be even more at the mercy of marketing and sales teams.
All I want is access to the movies that I like. If there was a way to download everything onto a compact, reliable device I’d be all for it. I’m betting technology will get there eventually.
“There are only so many hours in the day but just looking at a DVD or a book fills me with a little joy as my mind connects them to the experience of watching/reading the work or the possibilities of watching/reading the work.”
Beautifully said.
One of the reasons for buying DVDs is because it seems to annoy some people.
I’ll jump on board that train, we’ve had this “Are DVDs obsolete?” discussion before but this is the first time that I recall that the pro-DVD commentators are pointing out that, “Look, we know you disagree but what the fuck, it’s our goddamned money.” I still would be a DVD buyer if it were not for the reasons I’ve cited — I don’t look down on people for owning DVDs and one of my initial interests in owning them followed under the archival/personal library defense given by many here. It’s just that now my personal library takes up a prohibitive amount of real estate and I am not in a position in my life to fund that real estate.
—PolarisDiB
Thanks for all the responses everyone. Very interesting. I own a ton of DVDs myself, as I too don’t like to be beholden to anyone else when I want to watch a film. I also undertook the Sisyphean task some time ago of copying all the ones that I couldn’t live without onto hard drives. This is what made me think to ask the question, as now that I have the DVDs and the same films on a hard drive hooked up to my tv I don’t want to watch the discs, as there’s too much hassle getting to the actual film (trailers, anti-piracy warnings etc), whereas with the HDD I just pick the film I want from the list and the film starts instantly.
The day I start finding used BluRays for 1.99 will be the day that I buy a hi res TV and BluRay player.
The other day I found a copy of Full Time Killer for 99 cents. Hard to compete with that.
Also you never know when some film’s director is going to ‘Update’ your favorite film and try to wipe the original cut from existence.
A few years ago when they released the Star Wars trilogy with the original cut as a separate disc, that will probably be the last release the original cut will ever see.
My reasons for still buying a few DVDs have been covered mostly by others. I only tend to buy DVDs for films that I know I will be watching a few times. So, re-watchability is a major factor. If I love a film, I tend to want to watch it every so often. Also, I don’t like to only be able to watch streaming movies on my computer. As my computer is NOT hooked up to my TV, I prefer to watch a good film on my TV, not my computer. I’ve got my DVD player hooked up to my sound system – which means I get awesome sound when watching a DVD. Not so when watching on my computer (which is a desktop – not portable).That’s why DVDs work for me.
Now, most films I really want to watch I get from the library in DVD, if I am seeing it for the first time. That way, I get all the special features, booklet articles, etc. For my money, Criterion is still the landmark company for quality DVD releases. Just saw their issue of Certified Copy. The disk came with a ton of special features, including a rare early Kiarostami film that I had not seen before. I always give the interviews a listen, too. So, I can’t understand those who think DVDs are passe or those who only watch films streaming. Heaven forbid that DVDs should ever cease to be. I love all the films on DVD I own, and will be picking up those I don’t yet have that I intend to be re-watching.
Besides, just like I am still buying books, as others have pointed out, looking at a shelf of books, DVDs, or records/CDs one has loved over the years is like looking at photos of dear family members or friends. Lots of fond memories that no amount of streaming can replace.
One of the reasons for buying DVDs is because it seems to annoy some people
Yeah, that too!
Certified Copy on BLURAY was jaw dropping.
Talk about a Quality benchmark.
Used to buy DVDs sometimes. Now I just download stuff 24/7. No idea why people are talking about rewatchability in this thread. Hard drive space is cheaper than buying DVDs.
Lucas Hard Drive space becomes a bit limiting if you start worrying about quality I feel and films not being the only thing filling the harddrives, music another for example. I already have 2 2 terrabyte harddrives and most of it is going toward music and tv series. For a large film collection outside of my physical stuff I would need to extend to more harddrives . Even then if you get HD level it’s still compressed with stereo audio, also compressed otherwise your having a bluray rip which is like 20gig conservative. I do get the pluses if you just want loads of films and your not worried about anything else though.
Why would I when VHS are going so cheap?
Scorpio Velvet
@Drunken Father Figure of Old
That’s what I also do and agree on that. :)