How long does it take you to decide what to watch? - Blu-ray Forum

Captain Flint · 12-31-2018, 05:22 PM

I'm not sure if there is a thread already, but I can't find it.

How long does it take you to decide what to watch on a given day? This question popped into my head just a little bit ago as I stood in front of my collection for a solid 25 minutes staring blankly because I couldn't decide what I wanted to watch tonight. It takes me anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple hours of thinking to decide what I want to watch on a given day.

meremortal · 12-31-2018, 05:25 PM

The problem isn't deciding, it's finding time. When I get home I generally do other stuff outside the house and when I'm back home I'm already tired and have to bond with the gal before bed. Weekdays I usually don't watch movies at home but we use the AMC stubs pass at the theater. So I usually watch stuff of 'my choice' on weekends.

Rzzzz · 12-31-2018, 05:29 PM

About 2 seconds. I just grab something from whatever genre I am in the mood for. The ones I haven't seen or watched in awhile being first....

bsend · 12-31-2018, 05:30 PM

I have a big to watch list, and it takes time for me to find my movies (my shelves aren't the best organized, but space is an issue).

Since I have limited time, I try to think about what titles I would want to see depending on how much time I have (can't start Heat at 10pm at night, but can certainly catch an 80 minute slasher film). Once I have my time frame set up, I snag the movie I was thinking of and get to watching.

F13BluRay · 12-31-2018, 05:36 PM

It used to take a while to decide especially if it's not just me watching.

Now I use the Collection section of this website. We go through which movies we haven't watched and pick from there. Goes a lot quicker to just go through the 'Not Watched' section of my collection

Worship.my.wreck · 12-31-2018, 05:41 PM

It takes me so long, a lot of the times I just end up on my phone or on here lol.

Also, I tend to search for movies through "my collection" on this forum, rather than physically going through them. Sometimes it makes it easier. Other times I'll sit in front of my collection and go through it.

MifuneFan · 12-31-2018, 05:50 PM

Sometimes a long time, sometimes instantly. A lot of times I'm going between wanting to watch a movie over again, or see something new.

I also have this issue with my gf when we want to watch something on Netflix or Amazon. She likes romantic comedies, I like pretty much everything else, so it's sometimes hard to find a compromise film, and we browse forever to get something to watch lol.

DNSK · 12-31-2018, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Flint

I'm not sure if there is a thread already, but I can't find it.

How long does it take you to decide what to watch on a given day? This question popped into my head just a little bit ago as I stood in front of my collection for a solid 25 minutes staring blankly because I couldn't decide what I wanted to watch tonight. It takes me anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple hours of thinking to decide what I want to watch on a given day.

Lol! I can relate. It happens to me all the time. I often have to watch my movies at night after everyone is in bed and by the time I decide it’s so late I can’t stay awake for the whole movie. I don’t know if it is an age thing or too many to pick from?

slimdude · 12-31-2018, 05:57 PM

This is one of the sure signs of having too many movies, which is one of the reasons why I've been drastically weening down, and selling the majority of my collection, instead of the OOP titles. One day, I just stood and took a look at all the movies that I had, and I said to myself: this is ridiculous! I literally felt like hoarder, and that wasn't good at all. From then on, I was on a mission. You only have a little over 400, but just imagine thepeople who have thousands of blu-rays. They will never watch all of those movie. I bet the majority of those blu-rays are still brand new and sealed, and they're continually buying more. Unless a person is retired, and have a lot of time on their hands, there is no possible way that anybody can watch every movie in their collection, especially when they're working full or part time.

arsenal_fan · 12-31-2018, 06:00 PM

This is why I hate Netflix and even Vudu. They are so full of movies I haven't watched, I can never pick anything. With my collection in front of me, I find it very easy to just pick a shelf and then pick any movie from it in like 2 minutes or so. I don't go comparing one movie to another across multiple shelves. So I recommend the pick a shelf technique

P.S. My shelves are alphabetically sorted and not by genres.

Leslie Dame · 12-31-2018, 06:01 PM

I have all my movies listed at IMDb. It gives you countless options to sort your collection, which in my opinion is pretty cool. I have a seperate list with movies I haven't watched in some time. One feature I use often when undecided is to sort the movies by popularity in descending order. I usually pick the most popular or second most popular. Or I do it the other way around, sort them in ascending order and watch the least popular one.

Popularity scale changes once a week so there might be a complete different movie at the top or bottom, so it never really gets boring when picking a film.

jawsfan1975 · 12-31-2018, 06:03 PM

I try to plan my watches so I don't waste too much time choosing. I watched First Blood last week due to reading an article about Rambo 5. Then yesterday I was talking to a friend about my favourite 007 film and ended up watching License To Kill. This saves me a lot of time.

Talal86 · 12-31-2018, 06:05 PM

I usually go to my unwatched pile and choose based on the running time

I haven’t been home in 6 months, but my purchases didn’t stop, it actually increased, so I’m looking forward to see how the pile looks like now

starsteam · 12-31-2018, 06:07 PM

I generally plan a month ahead. Everytime I buy a new movie I add it to a list, and then I take titles out of the list into a monthly-watchlist. If I don't finish everything for that month than the remainers go back into the list. If I finish early I pull some more titles out of the list. It allows me to chop down on my unwatched list but still gives me variety throughout the year.

I usually always do a theme though. Like for December I did superhero movies due to Aquaman's release and that I haven't watched any of the DC films I've bought since Justice League came out. Next month I'm having a action-movie marathon as I haven't had one of those in two years and really need to trim down that genre from my list. Some months I might spend binging a TV series.

As for rewatches, it's spontaneous. If I just feel like watching something and I'm not too busy with my unwatched list, I'll pop it in. But I always have something I need to watch, the only times when I have to do any hard thinking is what theme do I want to do next and which titles do I want to include in it.

critterdvd · 12-31-2018, 06:14 PM

I actually created an excel macro for this exact reason.

Whenever I'm not sure what I want to do, I download a list of my collection from the collection tracker, select a genre, and then put it through my randomizer which gives me three results. Usually from those three I can pick something that sounds good.

Although lately I've been on a commentary kick, so I've been googling "Best DVD Commentaries" etc and If I have the disc, I'll pop it in.

Cremildo · 12-31-2018, 06:18 PM

Hardly more than a few seconds. I generally know what I'm in the mood for.

Tone blare · 12-31-2018, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsend

I have a big to watch list, and it takes time for me to find my movies (my shelves aren't the best organized, but space is an issue).

Since I have limited time, I try to think about what titles I would want to see depending on how much time I have (can't start Heat at 10pm at night, but can certainly catch an 80 minute slasher film). Once I have my time frame set up, I snag the movie I was thinking of and get to watching.

That's pretty much how I do it. I only have time to watch movies on my days off (Friday, Saturday, sunday) so if I dont have new purchases to watch I've pretty much spent the week thinking about what I wanna watch. I've noticed if I stare at my collection for a reasonable amount of time I'm just in one of those rare moods where I'm not in a mood to watch anything.

kwr212 · 12-31-2018, 06:32 PM

We created a movie jar with slips of paper for unwatched titles. If we don’t have a movie in mind already, we do a jar movie. It is good for forcing you to watch random purchases that you’ve been putting off too.

RCRochester · 12-31-2018, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Flint

I'm not sure if there is a thread already, but I can't find it.

How long does it take you to decide what to watch on a given day? This question popped into my head just a little bit ago as I stood in front of my collection for a solid 25 minutes staring blankly because I couldn't decide what I wanted to watch tonight. It takes me anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple hours of thinking to decide what I want to watch on a given day.

It's happened before in the past. Now I usually think ahead of what I'd like to watch and if nothing springs to mind, I go with my gut. Part of it was that I didn't want to watch a blu-ray that I've already watched if I had too many unwatched discs or blind buys. Now I try not to let that influence me. If you have a hard time making your mind up though, a good idea is to do marathons, for example, decide you're going to watch all of your John Wayne movies for the next week or month, that way it narrows down your choices and if you skip one today, you know it'll be something you view fairly soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slimdude

This is one of the sure signs of having too many movies, which is one of the reasons why I've been drastically weening down, and selling the majority of my collection, instead of the OOP titles. One day, I just stood and took a look at all the movies that I had, and I said to myself: this is ridiculous! I literally felt like hoarder, and that wasn't good at all. From then on, I was on a mission. You only have a little over 400, but just imagine thepeople who have thousands of blu-rays. They will never watch all of those movie. I bet the majority of those blu-rays are still brand new and sealed, and they're continually buying more. Unless a person is retired, and have a lot of time on their hands, there is no possible way that anybody can watch every movie in their collection, especially when they're working full or part time.

As per usual, what you said literally has nothing to do with the topic of the OP. Even if you only have twenty movies, you could still stand there not being able to decide what to watch.

filmbuffTX · 12-31-2018, 06:33 PM

It depends. This month I’ve been watching almost nothing but Christmas/Holiday movies. I have them all grouped together in a cabinet in my living room. So really it’s just been what’s the next holiday movie I haven’t watched yet.

Other months I have a slight idea of certain movies I want to get to. I tend to watch things I buy new in that month. Or I might try to watch an entire franchise or an actor’s or director’s filmography. Sometimes I watch things in themes or groups. Movies that complement each other well.

I do get “option paralysis” from time to time where I’m just staring at the shelf and pulling movies out for 20 minutes.

12-31-2018, 05:22 PM	#1
Captain Flint Blu-ray Knight Top contributor Member since:Apr 2015 4K collection:199 Blu-ray collection:712 DVD collection:51 Trading Score:1	How long does it take you to decide what to watch? I'm not sure if there is a thread already, but I can't find it. How long does it take you to decide what to watch on a given day? This question popped into my head just a little bit ago as I stood in front of my collection for a solid 25 minutes staring blankly because I couldn't decide what I wanted to watch tonight. It takes me anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple hours of thinking to decide what I want to watch on a given day.

12-31-2018, 05:25 PM	#2
meremortal Blu-ray Champion Member since:Jan 2012 Location:Bedford Falls Trading Score:258	The problem isn't deciding, it's finding time. When I get home I generally do other stuff outside the house and when I'm back home I'm already tired and have to bond with the gal before bed. Weekdays I usually don't watch movies at home but we use the AMC stubs pass at the theater. So I usually watch stuff of 'my choice' on weekends. Last edited by meremortal; 12-31-2018 at 05:32 PM.

12-31-2018, 05:57 PM	#9
slimdude Banned Member since:Apr 2009 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Blu-ray reviews:8	This is one of the sure signs of having too many movies, which is one of the reasons why I've been drastically weening down, and selling the majority of my collection, instead of the OOP titles. One day, I just stood and took a look at all the movies that I had, and I said to myself: this is ridiculous! I literally felt like hoarder, and that wasn't good at all. From then on, I was on a mission. You only have a little over 400, but just imagine thepeople who have thousands of blu-rays. They will never watch all of those movie. I bet the majority of those blu-rays are still brand new and sealed, and they're continually buying more. Unless a person is retired, and have a lot of time on their hands, there is no possible way that anybody can watch every movie in their collection, especially when they're working full or part time. Last edited by slimdude; 12-31-2018 at 06:22 PM.

12-31-2018, 06:00 PM	#10
arsenal_fan Blu-ray Guru Member since:Jul 2011 Location:South Florida MA collection:167 Digital collection:303 iTunes collection:188 Prime collection:3 Trading Score:245	This is why I hate Netflix and even Vudu. They are so full of movies I haven't watched, I can never pick anything. With my collection in front of me, I find it very easy to just pick a shelf and then pick any movie from it in like 2 minutes or so. I don't go comparing one movie to another across multiple shelves. So I recommend the pick a shelf technique P.S. My shelves are alphabetically sorted and not by genres. Last edited by arsenal_fan; 12-31-2018 at 06:05 PM.

12-31-2018, 05:29 PM	#3
Rzzzz Banned Member since:Nov 2016 Location:Behind enemy lines 4K collection:18 Blu-ray collection:1414 DVD collection:544 Blu-ray reviews: 6	About 2 seconds. I just grab something from whatever genre I am in the mood for. The ones I haven't seen or watched in awhile being first....

12-31-2018, 05:30 PM	#4
bsend Blu-ray Ninja Member since:Nov 2015 4K collection:280 Blu-ray collection:4058 DVD collection:2001	I have a big to watch list, and it takes time for me to find my movies (my shelves aren't the best organized, but space is an issue). Since I have limited time, I try to think about what titles I would want to see depending on how much time I have (can't start Heat at 10pm at night, but can certainly catch an 80 minute slasher film). Once I have my time frame set up, I snag the movie I was thinking of and get to watching.

12-31-2018, 05:36 PM	#5
F13BluRay Power Member Top contributor Member since:Apr 2008 Location:Massachusetts 4K collection:164 Blu-ray collection:623 DVD collection:56 MA collection:668 Digital collection:214 iTunes collection:122 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:85	It used to take a while to decide especially if it's not just me watching. Now I use the Collection section of this website. We go through which movies we haven't watched and pick from there. Goes a lot quicker to just go through the 'Not Watched' section of my collection

12-31-2018, 05:41 PM	#6
Worship.my.wreck Blu-ray Champion Member since:Apr 2016 4K collection:362 Blu-ray collection:2016 DVD collection:121	It takes me so long, a lot of the times I just end up on my phone or on here lol. Also, I tend to search for movies through "my collection" on this forum, rather than physically going through them. Sometimes it makes it easier. Other times I'll sit in front of my collection and go through it.

12-31-2018, 05:50 PM	#7
MifuneFan Blu-ray Emperor Top contributor Member since:Mar 2012 Location:New York City 4K collection:27 Blu-ray collection:1143 Trading Score:69	Sometimes a long time, sometimes instantly. A lot of times I'm going between wanting to watch a movie over again, or see something new. I also have this issue with my gf when we want to watch something on Netflix or Amazon. She likes romantic comedies, I like pretty much everything else, so it's sometimes hard to find a compromise film, and we browse forever to get something to watch lol.

12-31-2018, 06:01 PM	#11
Leslie Dame Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Dec 2010 Location:Germany Blu-ray collection:1003 DVD collection:1857 Blu-ray reviews: 7	I have all my movies listed at IMDb. It gives you countless options to sort your collection, which in my opinion is pretty cool. I have a seperate list with movies I haven't watched in some time. One feature I use often when undecided is to sort the movies by popularity in descending order. I usually pick the most popular or second most popular. Or I do it the other way around, sort them in ascending order and watch the least popular one. Popularity scale changes once a week so there might be a complete different movie at the top or bottom, so it never really gets boring when picking a film.

12-31-2018, 06:03 PM	#12
jawsfan1975 Blu-ray Guru Member since:Jun 2010 Location:Florida Home Theater Gallery:13 4K collection:328 Blu-ray collection:1046 Blu-ray reviews: 52 Trading Score:141	I try to plan my watches so I don't waste too much time choosing. I watched First Blood last week due to reading an article about Rambo 5. Then yesterday I was talking to a friend about my favourite 007 film and ended up watching License To Kill. This saves me a lot of time.

12-31-2018, 06:05 PM	#13
Talal86 Blu-ray Champion Top contributor Member since:Dec 2010 4K collection:227 Blu-ray collection:374 DVD collection:2 Trading Score:74	I usually go to my unwatched pile and choose based on the running time I haven’t been home in 6 months, but my purchases didn’t stop, it actually increased, so I’m looking forward to see how the pile looks like now

12-31-2018, 06:07 PM	#14
starsteam Blu-ray Champion Top contributor Member since:Sep 2015 Location:Alabama 4K collection:456 Blu-ray collection:5467 DVD collection:3246 Digital collection:1330 Trading Score:261	I generally plan a month ahead. Everytime I buy a new movie I add it to a list, and then I take titles out of the list into a monthly-watchlist. If I don't finish everything for that month than the remainers go back into the list. If I finish early I pull some more titles out of the list. It allows me to chop down on my unwatched list but still gives me variety throughout the year. I usually always do a theme though. Like for December I did superhero movies due to Aquaman's release and that I haven't watched any of the DC films I've bought since Justice League came out. Next month I'm having a action-movie marathon as I haven't had one of those in two years and really need to trim down that genre from my list. Some months I might spend binging a TV series. As for rewatches, it's spontaneous. If I just feel like watching something and I'm not too busy with my unwatched list, I'll pop it in. But I always have something I need to watch, the only times when I have to do any hard thinking is what theme do I want to do next and which titles do I want to include in it.

12-31-2018, 06:14 PM	#15
critterdvd Blu-ray Ninja Member since:Mar 2008 Location:Southern California 4K collection:423 Blu-ray collection:4034 DVD collection:2208 MA collection:983 Digital collection:192 iTunes collection:534 Prime collection:21 Trading Score:5	I actually created an excel macro for this exact reason. Whenever I'm not sure what I want to do, I download a list of my collection from the collection tracker, select a genre, and then put it through my randomizer which gives me three results. Usually from those three I can pick something that sounds good. Although lately I've been on a commentary kick, so I've been googling "Best DVD Commentaries" etc and If I have the disc, I'll pop it in.

12-31-2018, 06:18 PM	#16
Cremildo Blu-ray Archduke Member since:Jul 2011 Location:Brazil 4K collection:165 Blu-ray collection:1050 Trading Score:51	Hardly more than a few seconds. I generally know what I'm in the mood for.

12-31-2018, 06:32 PM	#18
kwr212 Active Member Member since:Aug 2013 4K collection:914 Blu-ray collection:3754 DVD collection:602 MA collection:164 Digital collection:158 iTunes collection:2231 Prime collection:7 Trading Score:3	We created a movie jar with slips of paper for unwatched titles. If we don’t have a movie in mind already, we do a jar movie. It is good for forcing you to watch random purchases that you’ve been putting off too.

12-31-2018, 06:33 PM	#20
filmbuffTX Blu-ray Duke Top contributor Member since:May 2015 4K collection:267 Blu-ray collection:6361 DVD collection:2270 Digital collection:1617 Blu-ray reviews: 2 Trading Score:16	It depends. This month I’ve been watching almost nothing but Christmas/Holiday movies. I have them all grouped together in a cabinet in my living room. So really it’s just been what’s the next holiday movie I haven’t watched yet. Other months I have a slight idea of certain movies I want to get to. I tend to watch things I buy new in that month. Or I might try to watch an entire franchise or an actor’s or director’s filmography. Sometimes I watch things in themes or groups. Movies that complement each other well. I do get “option paralysis” from time to time where I’m just staring at the shelf and pulling movies out for 20 minutes.

Best Blu-ray Movie Deals