Anyone else struggling to watch al the films they buy?

[DisneyDreamer2023]

I keep buying new releases like Scanners 4K Second Sight as I don’t want to wait incase it goes out of print quickly.

Looking at the vast amounts I still need to watch in my collection, just a couple examples

Lord of the rings trilogy Blu (15 discs 26 hours bonus features)

Harry Potter complete collection 4K (25 discs 37 hours bonus features)

Blade Runner 4-disc special edition 4K

Alien Anthology Blu (60 hours bonus features)

Not only finding time to watch the movies but time to watch all the special features as well!
That’s over 100 hours of special features there to watch.

Anyone else having this issue? I got about 40 other films to watch through as well as the above mentioned.

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer2023

I keep buying new releases like Scanners 4K Second Sight as I don’t want to wait incase it goes out of print quickly.

Looking at the vast amounts I still need to watch in my collection, just a couple examples

Lord of the rings trilogy Blu (15 discs 26 hours bonus features)

Harry Potter complete collection 4K (25 discs 37 hours bonus features)

Blade Runner 4-disc special edition 4K

Alien Anthology Blu (60 hours bonus features)

Not only finding time to watch the movies but time to watch all the special features as well!
That’s over 100 hours of special features there to watch.

Anyone else having this issue? I got about 40 other films to watch through as well as the above mentioned.

Retire. I did about 10 years ago, so now I have plenty of time to do what I want.

[DisneyDreamer2023]

Originally Posted by Jay H.

Retire. I did about 10 years ago, so now I have plenty of time to do what I want.

Haha I wish! I think I have a long way off for that being 30.

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer2023

Haha I wish! I think I have a long way off for that being 30.

I was 42 when I retired. Lots of saving and shrewd investing. Anybody can do it.

It is kind of ironic that most collectors bemoan the lack of special features on certain releases, but can't find the time to watch the features that are included on other releases. C'est la vie.

[T4ffer]

I have 58% of my collection watched, and I watch a lot of movies, selected almost exclusively from among my unwatched Blu-Rays. So yes it’s hard, but for me because of so many blind buys.

What I’m happy about is that I’ve managed to increase the percentage, even by only a few percent, since the time I conciously started catching up - I think I was around 45%, but the collection has almost doubled since then.

[Number 28]

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer2023

I keep buying new releases like Scanners 4K Second Sight as I don’t want to wait incase it goes out of print quickly.

Looking at the vast amounts I still need to watch in my collection, just a couple examples

Lord of the rings trilogy Blu (15 discs 26 hours bonus features)

Harry Potter complete collection 4K (25 discs 37 hours bonus features)

Blade Runner 4-disc special edition 4K

Alien Anthology Blu (60 hours bonus features)

Not only finding time to watch the movies but time to watch all the special features as well!
That’s over 100 hours of special features there to watch.

Anyone else having this issue? I got about 40 other films to watch through as well as the above mentioned.

First it's excellent that you collect physical media and you sharing your experiences here.

In my opinion and my opinion only, you should enjoy your films and should not feel under pressure to watch all the extras or have to watch all the extras all at once.

The most important thing is the main feature, everything else is secondary.

The extras, bonus features is another reason to collect films and TV show over and above streaming.

Some of the hours you quote of the bonus materials seem to be excessive. I don't have those special editions so I can't comment on them. All I can ask, there will be some interesting material there, but does it not get into the territory of repetition and scraping the bottom of the barrel with some of the bonus materials?

Anyway, you have these titles on your shelf and unlike online media they can't just be withdrawn overnight. You have time to go back enjoy them at a later date.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer2023

Anyone else having this issue? I got about 40 other films to watch through as well as the above mentioned.

After collecting for the last 20 years across three disc formats (DVD, Blu-Ray, UHD), I find that it's always a struggle to make sure every movie gets attention. It's especially stressful if you're thinking about trying to get your full money's worth. These days, I'm more concerned about making sure I get through my blind-buy pile. Every other movie will get a viewing at some point, but I don't force myself to sit through a viewing for its own sake. If I really love and enjoy a movie I collected, it will get watched sooner or later, and I'd rather do it when I'm in a good mood for that particular movie and can get a better appreciation out of it.

It goes for the extras too. A lot of those hours might be counted from the commentaries. I only recently started getting into those, only for movies that I'm already well-acquainted with. I find that a commentary can be a good listen when I want to hear something informative but don't need to pay attention to the movie itself, so it becomes background viewing when doing something else. Everything else I'd only dig into if I have the time and interest. Sometimes that will mean spending a day on one single movie. It can be a huge time suck, but if I'm really engaged by the film, then my appreciation will deepen and it will feel like I've gotten the most out of it.

In the end, with a set time given you can either gleam through many movies and skip the extras, or watch just a few movies and dive deeper into all the content. I expect to keep most of my movies forever though, so I treat it as a marathon, taking it one film at a time as the mood and opportunity strikes. Chances are I'll never see every little thing in my collection, but I've gotten more mileage out of some titles than I expected, and it all balances out in the end.

[Rutger Lundgren]

You're supposed to watch them?

[GlacierTuba]

Buy > Watch > Keep or Cull > Buy

Don't let selection fatigue creep in either. A good option could be to get a tub or shoebox of some sort. Pick a random selection of titles - preferably across multiple genres so you get a good mixture - that you've not watched yet and fill the container.

Choose a random title from that selection until the tub is empty. Make a decision to keep or cull that selection of titles within a couple of days. Be ruthless. Fill the tub again and continue.

[filmlover22]

Not any more. I am limiting myself to LEs that I will regret not getting and letting most other releases pass. I know eventually I will watch these films and they will be available for me when I want to. But I am severely cutting back because it too difficult to justify a non-LE with my large unwatched pile. Until new non-LE releases are truly going to go OOP, then they will just have to wait for me.

[JoePo]

I must have 1,000+ still shrink-wrapped. I have two small children (despite not being anyone's idea of young) and a full-time job. I watch about 2 films a week. I think of my discs as something I will really start to smash through in about 10 years time but I do not expect to be able to buy much of this stuff then so...

Needless to say, I fear my discs rotting before I do.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by JoePo

I must have 1,000+ still shrink-wrapped. I have two small children (despite not being anyone's idea of young) and a full-time job. I watch about 2 films a week. I think of my discs as something I will really start to smash through in about 10 years time but I do not expect to be able to buy much of this stuff then so...

Needless to say, I fear my discs rotting before I do.

Same and same.

There are two main downsides to this approach:

• Rotting disks
• Upgrades coming out before you've watched the one you have

[scarletlion]

I still haven't watched the first ever Blu-Ray I bought:

[Marv Inc.]

I do these days. I used to be able to watch the movie and all the extras bar the commentary in one evening.

Now it takes me in some cases a week to watch one movie, watching a little every night before my partner gets home or when she's prepping supper.

[roguejp]

Originally Posted by scarletlion

I still haven't watched the first ever Blu-Ray I bought:

Go watch this soon. One of the best TWF had released imo!

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by roguejp

Go watch this soon. One of the best TWF had released imo!

Yeah I really need to, thanks.

[Jonatan C.]

Originally Posted by roguejp

Go watch this soon. One of the best TWF had released imo!

It´s great, you´ll never make a squat again without thinking of this movie. Really looking forward to Tetsuya Nakashima´s next movie to destroy me

[surfinhank]

Look at it this way: You often see people with multiple bookcases in their homes that are filled with books. The time spent reading or re-reading every book a person owns would take a lifetime. Don't look at it as feeling pressured to having watched everything, but more the freedom to have a selection of films available when you have the time or are in the mood for a specific film, genre, actor, etc.

And sure, disc rot is a possibility, but not a guarantee. I'm opening things with price stickers dated 10 or 12 years ago and they're playing fine. Plus, with all the reports of sales shrinking year after year, you never know when a film you're wanting will no longer be available.

[tomblu]

Yes, absolutely I am struggling. In fact it almost feels impossible to catch up now. I've probably got several hundred titles I've not seen and even worse I've developed the habit of not removing them from the shrink-wrap. Which with the recent uptick in scratched discs could well come back to bite me.

Yet still I keep buying more titles, I've got a bunch of pre-order, and I picked up some titles today from the Indicator sale, and from Arrow (although to be fair I did use £25 of credit, so including delivery it only cost me 50p).

Last year I watched just over 1 film per day on average, and I still don't seem to be making a dent, I'm just buying too much, it's as simple as that. It definitely isn't entirely healthy but especially with the limited editions, and FOMO kicking in etc, exercising sufficient self control has proven difficult.

All that being said, I do like the idea of having a large number of unwatched films in my collection, just waiting to be discovered. I've got films from a large number of genres purchased over a long time just waiting for the mood to strike. I've found many gems this way. I'm also in the process of moving now, so hopefully will be able to get my entire collection on display, which should give me a chance to downsize easier as well as being able to browse what I've got and just pick a random title to watch that feels correct at the time.

In terms of extras, I like to read the books/booklets and watch the ones that interest me, but I may need to be a bit more ruthless in order of what I am consuming. I'm definitely slacking at the moment.

I do tend to blind buy a lot but not totally without thought, I generally stick to titles that I think would interest me as opposed to just buying everything for the sake of it. There are quite a large selection of genres/countries I like so that tends to mean I've been picking up a lot especially with the 20% off we've been enjoying from HMV. I am quite good of getting rid of old titles I don't like or have upgraded etc. and using that to fund newer titles. Having said that I could probably do with culling a lot of the titles I thought were just okay.

I need to review my spending habits too.

Happy to hear what other people think as well.

[darrellmaclaine]

The UK has had a fairly relentless run of title deletions from every label going since about 2021, so it has changed the hobby quite a lot from picking things casually off a long-term wishlist into an often quite frantic race to get things you hadn't planned on rushing for and everybody has ended up with an overwhelming surplus. Things are definitely slowing down quite sharply now in that regard, and with all the UK labels releasing less marquee must-haves, the label sales plateauing into repetition, plus price increases and the end of the HMV discount, I feel that everybody has a well-deserved moment to pause and catch up with the last few years of panic buying.

So in short don't feel alarmed that you've ended up in over your head, I think everyone has!