Blu-ray Disc storage

[LordSummerIsle]

I'm wanting to start storing my discs in sleeves to save space -- running out of room. But I've heard horror stories of sleeves making discs unreadable, and not just because of scratches.

What about Tyvek sleeves? Would those be safe?

[gardengirl1331]

Oh people are going to give me hell for this I know, but I'm one who doesn't keep any packaging (aside from a few titles which I keep the cases, but not the disks in them).

I keep them in archival binders that look like leather bound books. I label them by genre and then in each book by theme to keep them organized. Some of the disks have been in them for over 10 years now and I have not had one problem (knock on wood). The only problems I've ever had with disks is right out of the package when I first get them, and those have been with mostly 4k stuff. I have had a DVD not play on me recently (but I had just bought it) and returned it since it was bought used in very good condition, but when it came it had a MASSIVE cluster of scratches that you could physically feel deeply, and it froze pretty bad. I've also bought a few lately that have had scratches but play beautifully. DVD and blu ray only, a 4k disk wouldn't play if they looked even close to that! I know people say it's bad to not keep them in cases, but this works well for me, and my entire collection is on 4 bookshelves with room for quite a bit more.

[agenda]

Originally Posted by gardengirl1331

I'm one who doesn't keep any packaging (aside from a few titles which I keep the cases, but not the disks in them).

I keep them in archival binders that look like leather bound books.

[themp3000]

I completely get it. I’ve been considering new options and figuring things out.

I’ve put some of mine into Sanwa brand binder/wallets. They are a little more pricy than the usual binders but there’s definitely some good quality to them. I think what really sold me on them was they are super soft pockets and have a decent thickness to them. This is one of the ones I’ve got. I don’t know how legit their claims are but having had them for a couple of months, I’m still pretty impressed. I also store them handle up so there’s no pressure on any discs.

I considered Discsox and those cheapo sleeves to keep the artwork but I did the numbers and I didn’t like it/didn’t trust it. I’ve heard Tyvek sleeves leave micro scratches but I don’t know how much truth there is to that long term.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by LordSummerIsle

I'm wanting to start storing my discs in sleeves to save space -- running out of room. But I've heard horror stories of sleeves making discs unreadable, and not just because of scratches.

What about Tyvek sleeves? Would those be safe?

These are awesome: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-...69&sr=8-4&th=1

I bought two of them to keep my family/kids titles in and they saved me quite a bit of room.

[gardengirl1331]

Originally Posted by agenda

[andjar01]

The only way to store a big collection in a normal house.

[agenda]

Originally Posted by andjar01

The only way to store a big collection in a normal house.

[TheWalkingDead]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by agenda

Originally Posted by agenda

lulz

[TheWalkingDead]

Originally Posted by gardengirl1331

Oh people are going to give me hell for this I know, but I'm one who doesn't keep any packaging (aside from a few titles which I keep the cases, but not the disks in them).

I keep them in archival binders that look like leather bound books. I label them by genre and then in each book by theme to keep them organized. Some of the disks have been in them for over 10 years now and I have not had one problem (knock on wood). The only problems I've ever had with disks is right out of the package when I first get them, and those have been with mostly 4k stuff. I have had a DVD not play on me recently (but I had just bought it) and returned it since it was bought used in very good condition, but when it came it had a MASSIVE cluster of scratches that you could physically feel deeply, and it froze pretty bad. I've also bought a few lately that have had scratches but play beautifully. DVD and blu ray only, a 4k disk wouldn't play if they looked even close to that! I know people say it's bad to not keep them in cases, but this works well for me, and my entire collection is on 4 bookshelves with room for quite a bit more.

Can you post pics of them?

Originally Posted by andjar01

The only way to store a big collection in a normal house.

What brand are those?

[reason108]

For years now some of my collection is stored in Disc Gear 120 faux leather cases. These are the flat top shaped ones; though I have a couple of their rounded ones too. But, of course, you can't stack the round ones on top of one another. These are the only things that I have found that won't scratch my discs after trying pretty much everything else. Then what I normally do with the packaging is take the Cover and any inside materials and put those in archival comic book bags with backings. Then, those are stored in comic book storage boxes. It's a great way to store everything and keep it safe too.

[SammymeBlu]

Originally Posted by andjar01

The only way to store a big collection in a normal house.

[Pondosinatra]

Ya, I couldn't bring myself to ditch the cases, even though from a space perspective it makes sense.

You can check out my Media Room gallery to see what I did. Thankfully I still have lots of space left.

The only thing that's changed is I now stack them horizontally to use up all the cabinet space.

[milojthatch]

It seems as if they are becoming harder find suddenly, but I use Hipce cases for much of my collection. That and I combine titles into a single traditional DVD/Blu-ray case in custom covers to save space. I've never had issues with Hipce cases and I think they look good. The Container Store used to carry them. This is what they look like:



Do what you need to do, space is an issue for most. That's a big reason digital "collectors" push that concept. I personally feel physical media is superior, but regardless space is an issue. The most important thing is make sure you don't damage your discs however you end up storing them. Keep in mind issues of dust, weight (discs on top of discs or other things on top of discs), ease of finding and retrieving your disc and maybe lastly, display.

Good luck!

[gardengirl1331]

Originally Posted by TheWalkingDead

Can you post pics of them?

No sorry I don't have a hosting page to put them on. But here's what I get. (hope it's ok to post a link- https://www.bellagio-italia.com/coll...ck-dvd-binders if not they're the bellagio-italia black binders, people complain a bit about the other colors but the original black ones are great, I've never tried the other colors because I want them all to match, also they sell extra inserts, don't buy them, the original ones we first got we loaded them to 14-15 pages instead of the 12 they come with and they bent a little weird from being over-filled, with just 12 they work great and we haven't had any issues with them since) Like I said I've been buying these binders (and will be buying more this week since we're running out of room now that we're collecting "bigger" editions that have more than one disk per movie) for over 10 years now and have not had a single play back issue with any DVD or blu ray. I do worry more with the 4k stuff being more sensitive, but we're just extra careful with those. I want to get the photo inserts so I can make my albums look nicer and match better, but they only sell them as inserts so they get WAY too expensive doing it that way, if they'd just sell them as photos as a different product I'd get them.

It's not a space issue for me, it's not liking having bookcases full of movies taking over my whole living room that I don't like. And years and years ago when we had them like that everyone would look at us like we were insane. For some very odd reason no one says that about the books?! Not sure why since we literally have 7 very large bookcases and 6 medium bookcases overflowing with books throughout the whole house?! I worked for an indie bookstore for 4 years then in a college library for over 13 years, so I guess I just want all the movies to look more like books? Who knows?

[gardengirl1331]

And like I said we have two "small" (meaning they're 39" wide and 30" tall) bookcases with two shelves each that hold everything. But due to us needing more binders as our collection grows my husband plans on building another bookcase the same width to match but he'll make it with three shelves so we can add another 15 binders to them (we have 7 binders on a third bookcase on their own with some books we'll move those over and buy another 8 or so binders) Each binder holds 48 disks. We keep some extra disks (like if a movie comes with a 4k disk and blu ray and a DVD or a second blu ray with lots of extras if it's not something we watch a lot we'll keep that third disk in the case under our TV stand that hold the stereo, record player, and 4k/blu ray players. We also keep the old DVD of movies that we upgraded in the cases if it has extras not on the new 4k if it's a movie where we'll watch the extras more than once, otherwise that old DVD goes to my sister and/or her kids who get all our old stuff when we upgrade.

[vwnut13]

My question is, how do you find your movies?

Clearly you can't sort them alphabetically, as each time you add a movie you would have to shift each disc to a new spot.

Do you keep a spreadsheet cataloging which binder and which page each disc is in?

[50strat54]

and then there's digital

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

and then there's digital

[gardengirl1331]

Originally Posted by vwnut13

My question is, how do you find your movies?

Clearly you can't sort them alphabetically, as each time you add a movie you would have to shift each disc to a new spot.

Do you keep a spreadsheet cataloging which binder and which page each disc is in?

If you look at the link, you can see in the photos of the binders there is a little paper label, we print our own using a template my husband found for this binder specifically. We label them all in categories, and keep each genre together. Then inside we arrange them by theme, sometimes by director.

ie: (since it's the season I'll pick a horror movie binder)
the label says "Vampires, Witches and Ghosts" inside I have all our vampire movies that are not also under my "horror comedy" binder, same with witches and ghosts. So I have Dracula, Salem's Lot, 30 Days of Night, Lost Boys, Fright Night, and the remake, Near Dark, Let the Right One In and Let Me In (even though they're also foreign/foreign remake I put them under vampire instead), John Carpenter's Vampires, Daybreakers, Byznatium, Interview With a Vampire, then the Craft, and the VVitch, I also put Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters here even though it's not horror I just wanted it kept with the other witch movies (but the Witches, both the original and the remake are in the children's binders), then Ghost Ship, Thir13en Ghosts, House on Haunted Hill, Gothika, the Others, Woman in Black, the Haunting, Poltergeist, 2 and 3, Mama, Crimson Peak, Session 9, the Fog, Occulus, Haunting in CT, What Lies Beneath, and the Forest.

Other labels are things like "Serial and Psycho Killers", "Teen Comedy and Drama", "Wedding and Divorce Comedy", "Spy and Undercover Agents Action", "Criminal Action", "Graphic Novels and Comic Books", "Criminal and Dark Comedy" and "Dystopian Future".

Think of it more like a library with sections/genres rather than something in A-Z order, but without them being A-Z in each binder, they're by subject instead.

This works for us because we tend to want a movie based on what we feel like watching, so if we want a zombie movie we don't have to go through all A-Z movies, we just grab that binder. We also do a lot of fests where we'll watch all serial killer movies on a rainy (if we ever get rain again!!) sunday.