Why do you buy DVDs?

and also Spencer, of course. why is the New Order DVD going to be your last?

It no longer makes sense because of things like Netflix, the fact that DVDs will be replaced by some future higher definition disc, and/or replaced entirely by subscription streaming. Also, it's not longer like VHS, when something was in print and you should get it now. Now that it's been on DVD at least once, there is at least one digital source floating around. I used to fear that some rare things would never again see release.

i only buy dvds if they're impossible to find outside of purchasing them or i realllllly love them and want to see all the bonus features/commentary/etc. special editions are a beautiful thing.
also, it's nice to own the flicker because every now and then i wake up with a hankering to fry my brain.

The New Order DVD may be my last because it's the one thing I've wanted most (after my favorite films were finally all released) and it's taken so long and it will be a good reminder of when I stopped wasting money. That said, I'm making a couple exceptions already for things I'll watch a lot and have been waiting for: Playtime and 2046.

I used to buy them because I was trying to give myself a whirlwind tour of great cinema. Then I realized I was kind of wasting my time and enjoying the films less than I should (and had a ton of films I'd never get the chance to see).

I only buy DVDs now if it's something I know I love (the Errol Morris box set was the last thing I paid money for) or is impossible to get through Netflix (or would need more time than Netflix gives me), like the Avant-Garde DVD that just came out from Kino.

Also, I now have a Cinefile membership which is like Netflix but is an actual local store, so I don't have any turnaround time in the mail (although I occasionally have to wait a few days for big new releases).

Spencer's got good points -- I still scrounge DVD bins for used stuff (and sometimes I come across really good deals) but I rarely if ever purchase new these days for the reasons he outlines. But like Fetchboy says, there's something about having all the bells and whistles to hand, and I'm not a Netflix fan precisely because I prefer literal on-demand -- as Spencer notes, subscription streaming, easily the better option if the quality is good.

Right now the next DVDs I'll probably get are to complete collections I already have -- a last few Monty Python and MST3K efforts -- plus that there New Order DVD, which is a long overdue treat, and the occasional film-I-caught-in-cinema I want to see again regularly at home (The Nomi Song is a prime example here). Otherwise I usually ask for more expensive sets for Xmas as gifts, which is a nice way to scare up Criterion efforts, I've found. ;-)

Also, it's a space issue too, of course. At some point I'm ditching all the boxes and just doing the wallet/book thing with what discs I have, I figure.

do you look at many of the DVDs you do own and think of them as "wasted money"? i suppose i do that with many of my posessions.

sorry about the faux naive tone of the question but i've never used anything like netflix and only became aware of it in the last week or so.

xposts

Of course keep in mind what *could* eventually happen is such a shift in model that later editions/media are so amazingly higher end that DVDs became dirt-cheap second-hand commonplaces. But unless the standard *everyone* uses is hyper-hifi everything and anything then ye olde DVDs become an effective and portable way to still see/hear a hell of a lot. (As it is I'm still v. happy to have held off buying a flat-screen/plasma TV as the prices for those continue to collapse dramatically.)

do you look at many of the DVDs you do own and think of them as "wasted money"?

Not really. As I've ceased much in the way of CD and book buying as well, I look on the DVDs I've picked up over the last couple of years as fun, occasional indulgences.

i bought 2 volumes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" recently, but they are practically impossible to see in the UK, and i'll probably buy the others when they appear over here.

I try to only buy them when they're movies I want to watch over and over and over, so I don't have many but the ones I do have, I love. Once in awhile I buy one I haven't seen before, and if I don't absolutely adore it, it feels like a waste of money.

there's also the matter of being able to torrent movies and burn them to dvd yourself. which is great for stuff you (a) have already seen and would like to view again, (b) weren't that enthusiastic about when it was in theaters but you have a vague curiosity

I buy DVDs of things I know I will watch over and over. Mostly TV shows - you have to keep in mind that in Australia unless you pay shitloads for cable (its like $40 a month or more), you dont get any good TV shows really. Even when they do have a run on FTA tv, it gets broken up with football finals and "special events" and news overruns and then they move it to a midnight timeslot and then go "oh, its not rating!" and yank it off the air.

So, I have bought Futurama, the Simpsons and Bablyon 5 - and yes, I watch them quite often. I have a small collection of other TV shows I know I'd never see again otherwise, like the Goodies, Blackadder, the Young ones etc. And I have some movies - maybe 15 or 20 - that again I know I love and will watch more than once. Its nice to have a small selection you can just chuck on at a party or when relaxing.

I may sound a bit anal, but I really dont like the idea of torrents for movies or music. I know for a fact (as I work in the industry) that ISPs watch for that stuff like hawks, and WILL come down hard on individual users for it. Also, why not just go buy a secondhand copy of a movie on DVD for $10 from a record shop (which is what I usuall do).

Collection fetish, collecting obsession, obsessive completism...

Shall I go on?

I buy DVDs with comparative restraint, compared with, say, books and CDs.

I don't watch things over and over. I just don't incorporate visual media into my life like that. I have four VHS videos, and all of them I have a) acquired accidentally, and b) never watched more than once. (For the record: The Birds, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Rosemary's Baby, and Dracula (new Glass score))

Funnily, I watch very little actual TV. If I'm bored and want to just pas time idly, Futurama goes on, not whatevers on the box.

Since I got Netflix I've stopped buying DVDs entirely with the exception of out-of-print stuff that's out on vaguely-legal DVD-Rs (stuff from 5 Minutes To Midnight, etc.)

dvds were great when i was still a soundguy and could bring them into the bar to show on the house TVs between bands. but now, i hardly ever watch movies or tv(aside from daily show/reno 911/family guy).

tho my roommate having the Twin Peaks series was handy for forcing on others.