Collecting and Watching

[slimdude]

The bad thing about buying a lot of movies without watching any of them is that, you'll have hundreds of unopened movies accumulating, not being watched, and you don't know if they're defected or not. Whenever you do decide to finally open a movie to watch it and it's defected (months or years later), you can't exchange nor return it because, the exchange/return time frame from the retailer has exceeded, then you'll be stuck with a brand new defected movie, that you can't do anything about. That's money down the toilet.

[MazeRunner]

I still have blind buys from Black Fridays of 2-5 years ago that I haven't even watched yet. Fortunately my "blind buy yet to watch" blu list is only around 15 or so.

But yes, there are days where I'll spend all evening just killing time on Youtube/Reddit/these forums and be browsing Ebay and Mercari for deals lmao.

But there are days where I can watch 4-6 blu-rays in one day so I feel like it evens out.

But I feel like my taste in film changes. I'll try to re-watch movies every 2-3 years but I'll watch something I bought and haven't watched since like 2011-2016 and then I ended up not liking it as much and wanting to get rid of it lmao.

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by slimdude

The bad thing about buying a lot of movies without watching any of them is that, you'll have hundreds of unopened movies accumulating, not being watched, and you don't know if they're defected or not. Whenever you do decide to finally open a movie to watch it and it's defected, you can't exchange nor return it because, the exchange/return time frame from the retailer has exceeded, then you'll be stuck with a brand new defected movie, that you can't do anything about. That's money down the toilet.

1. I open everything I buy more or less immediately, and at the very least well within the return duration, so I can at least look at the discs.
2. That said, while what you said is something of a concern, it's actually never been an issue for me.

[thecooldud]

There's maybe a couple I haven't seen yet but no more than that. All I can think of at present is Smokey and the Bandit and Wanda Nevada, which I'll... get around to lol. Otherwise I usually watch within a few weeks of acquiring them.

[Thomas Veil]

A third category would be staring at your collection trying to figure out what to watch...this sometimes wastes more time than I care to admit. I like to call it movie picking paralysis.

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by Thomas Veil

A third category would be staring at your collection trying to figure out what to watch...this sometimes wastes more time than I care to admit. I like to call it movie picking paralysis.

Now THIS I can relate to. I've figured out that if I spend more than 15 minutes trying to decide what disc to watch, I don't really want to watch any of them. At that point, I surf the 'net and watch South Park on Comedy Central (it's always on late at night).

[dylrichard02]

Originally Posted by Thomas Veil

A third category would be staring at your collection trying to figure out what to watch...this sometimes wastes more time than I care to admit. I like to call it movie picking paralysis.

I went though this exact situation last night and I made me think about how much I need to slow down on purchases.

That's when I turn on YouTube or just rewatch an episode of Miami Vice.

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by Jay H.

I never understood the whole "I own it but I never watched it" way of thinking. If I like a movie enough to buy it I find the time to watch it. Not everybody is the same way, of course.

I watch everything the night I get it, or at least within the first week, to test every disc (just one per set though, I'm not going to watch it on BD if I have the 4K lol but there were a few 4K sets I bought that I didn't have a 4k player yet... so those BDs were tested) to make sure it works and doesn't have any glitches/errors.

There are a handful of older Disney movies I've gotten from DMC or when DMR was closing and I got a bunch to use the points up. Those are just sitting waiting to be watched... one day lol But the stuff I actually buy gets watched ASAP.

I've never had a problem picking something out of the stuff I own, it's the stuff on streaming and DVR that takes my time.

[traths]

I always watch the new movies I buy first before they go on the shelf. Otherwise I would just be wasting money on movies I'm not going to watch or movies that are going to sit on the shelf for years before I watch them.

[Lsalas76]

I might be the only one and this may be weird I collect Steelbooks only for the most part but don’t watch movies. If I do watch a movie I usually watch it digitally and not on disc. I also spend more time on this site than watching movies.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by slimdude

The bad thing about buying a lot of movies without watching any of them is that, you'll have hundreds of unopened movies accumulating, not being watched, and you don't know if they're defected or not. Whenever you do decide to finally open a movie to watch it and it's defected (months or years later), you can't exchange nor return it because, the exchange/return time frame from the retailer has exceeded, then you'll be stuck with a brand new defected movie, that you can't do anything about. That's money down the toilet.

I don't always watch new movies I receive all the way through when I get them, but I always open the packaging and throw the disc in for a quick spin just to make sure it works. I haven't gotten a defective disc yet (miraculously so, it seems), but it does ease my mind a bit.

[tama]

It's rare for me now to have more then a handful of unmwatched films. I usually get to them the week they arrive if not the night I get them. I do still have that massive Criterion Ingmar Bergman set I have to get through. Probably about 10-12 films there and Fellinis set. Only seen a few films from that set.

[drush9999]

My unwatched pile is over a hundred if not two, but collecting is half the fun for me.

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by Thomas Veil

A third category would be staring at your collection trying to figure out what to watch...this sometimes wastes more time than I care to admit. I like to call it movie picking paralysis.

I can't really say I do this for the same reason; I've said elsewhere that I pretty much always know what I want to watch next.

But...I do still find myself more than occasionally just looking at my shelves. Often just pulling something down, looking at it, putting it back. Especially with multi-disc sets, or ones I got fairly recently, I'll pop it open, flip through the discs, close the case, put it back on the shelf. I just have to handle them.

It's not something I spend a lot of time doing. A few minutes here and there. And I never don't feel like that's a little strange, but it's a compulsion.

Today it was my Poirot Complete Collection, which I've had for like a year.

I should point out that this isn't specific to blu rays. Back when I had a lot of physical books, I did this constantly with those as well.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by slimdude

The bad thing about buying a lot of movies without watching any of them is that, you'll have hundreds of unopened movies accumulating, not being watched, and you don't know if they're defected or not. Whenever you do decide to finally open a movie to watch it and it's defected (months or years later), you can't exchange nor return it because, the exchange/return time frame from the retailer has exceeded, then you'll be stuck with a brand new defected movie, that you can't do anything about. That's money down the toilet.

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

1. I open everything I buy more or less immediately, and at the very least well within the return duration, so I can at least look at the discs.
2. That said, while what you said is something of a concern, it's actually never been an issue for me.

I have Slimdude's scenario covered as well. I copy every Blu-ray I purchase to my hard drive temporarily just to confirm all the data on the disc can be read properly. I do this whether I intend to keep a backup of the disc or not and I do this within a day or two of purchasing the given Blu-ray release. If I encounter any bad sectors along the way when attempting to copy a given disc I know there will be playback issues more than likely. In the event that happens I put in for an exchange, rinse and repeat. Following this approach is beneficial, irrespective of when I decide to watch a given disc as I'm avoiding any potential playback issues ahead of time, whenever that time happens to be.

And here's a scenario where my approach is especially helpful. Take the "Mission: Impossible: The Original TV Series (1966)" boxset for example. It consists of 46 discs. Within a week of receiving my copy I had confirmed that each and every disc could be backed up without issue. It would be impractical in this example to binge watch all 7 seasons within the return window just to ensure none of the discs present issues. Ensuring each disc can be backed up successfully accomplishes the same thing. As I mentioned previously, I'm building a library when purchasing Blu-ray's. Only makes sense to confirm the data on the given disc is readable before "officially" adding it to my library. Makes for happier customers, i.e. myself, friends and family come the day any of us decide to give the given disc a spin.

[chuway]

I'm getting better at watching movies I just bought. But then that leaves movies I bought before that I didn't watch right away and...yeah it's a problem.

[Aclea]

The hunt - nowdays more for best price than the much-missed pre-internet trips into the city to trawl the racks of several bricks and mortar stores for an elusive title - is intoxicating and too-good-to-miss sales or misprices do tend to sometimes eviscerate restraint and keep my to watch towers from ever shrinking. I'm a bit better at keeping the shark-like feeding frenzies to a minimum and my buying has decreased over the past three years, but when I do go mad in a sale I tend to look upon it as squirreling away nuts for Winter: I may not be able or in the right mood to watch them right away (especially if I have a houseguest who hates, say, Westerns or musicals) , but it's there for when it is the right time to see them.

One thing I have found is online orders rarely get watched on arrival. Where an increasingly rare instore purchase might get watched when I get home, the wait for an online order to ship and arrive can temper the enthusiasm and urgency to watch it as soon as possible unless it's a major must-have.

[mpengle]

Originally Posted by AmishParadise

Tell me. Have you read every book at your public library? Have you watched every stream offered by a given streaming provider? Catch my drift? I don't think in terms of building a collection when purchasing Blu-ray's. I'm building a library, a library with no strings attached, no Internet connection required, no monthly subscription fee, no lack of control over content availability and so forth. The more titles in my library I have yet to watch the better. And the library isn't just for me. It's for friends and family as well so.

I understand the sentiment behind your reasoning but this is a fairly weak analogy. Even if I had an unlimited amount of time and was still a big reader, I would never read even half the books in my local library because I have no interest in reading them. Same goes for a streaming service such as Netflix. Just because I have access to the media doesn't mean I care about half of what is available.

To be fair and to sound a bit hypocritical probably though I have a major backlog on movies/tv shows but I'm buying stuff I absolutely want to watch myself. What good is a unwatched media library to me in the end if much of it is unwatched.

[monwobbbo]

My buying has slowed to a crawl. Not hard to keep up on movies. TV shows take longer but I don't binge watch.

[meremortal]

Collecting can be a "rabbit hole" for a lot of people. By that I mean the emotional investment may be pretty high and it becomes part of your identity. Everyone's obviously different, but this is an enthusiast forum and so I'd imagine a lot of people have visiting the site and shopping for movies as part of their routine. As the OP mentioned, I don't doubt for a moment that a lot of people here spend more time reading the forums and organizing their collection compared to time spent watching movies. People seriously into collecting are often also very competitive towards adding more to the collection and thus researching for deals, finding out release dates, etc. All of this can take more time and effort than it seems. I'm usually pretty envious of people who can just watch a movie on stream and call it a day. If you ever get to the point where you feel overwhelmed by your collecting or it in any way causes problems with your budgeting, for example, then you probably need to stop and evaluate what you're doing. Watch for signs of burn out and make sure you still enjoy the experience of watching films and not just collecting them.