How Long Have You Been Collecting Physical Media?

[Slob]

Audio: about 1971, age 13.
Video: 1983, age 25. Got a VCR and a blank tape for Christmas. Got home with it on Christmas eve and wasn't sure what to do with it. First thing I did was hook it up, running audio cables to receiver and putting on MTV. It was mono but still cool. HBO was having a secret sneak preview at 10pm. I stuck in the blank tape and the movie turned out to be CREEPSHOW. So I guess that recording of Creepshow from HBO was the first time I possessed something on video.

[Scott in UK]

Originally Posted by BStecke

As far back as I can remember

..... I always wanted to be a gangster.

(sorry, couldnt resist)

[blackadder213]

I guess when I was a teen in the 1980s I started getting VHS tapes, some purchased and a lot taped off TV or copied from rentals.

Sometime in the 90s I found out about laserdisc and started getting those because I wanted widescreen movies. Very few VHS tapes were widescreen.

Turn of the century for DVD and so on...

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Scott in UK

..... I always wanted to be a gangster.

(sorry, couldnt resist)

Is it sad that as soon as I read that, the song Rags to Riches started playing in my head?

[LMFAObros]

Started when I was young in the mid-00s when my parents used to buy me DVDs around the time BD came out. Adopted Blu-Rays around 2010 when I got a cheap Toshiba player(the irony) and a few Universal discs from my local grocery store. Started Hardcore collecting around 2015 before joining this site as I was burnt when I grabbed the local lethal weapon set and it had the dreadful 06' BDs included

[Bobbyjoe766]

1985.

[fitprod]

I started collecting movies in 1983, when I was 13, when my mom bought our first Laser Disc player. The first two titles were Star Trek II and Tron.

Never bothered with VHS.

Started making the transition to DVD during the soft launch in 1997.

Bought my Toshiba HD DVD player in March 2005, and started buying discs from the studios not supporting Blu-ray at the time.

Started buying Blu-ray discs just prior to picking up my PS3 in October 2005.

After the implosion of HD DVD the at the end of 2007, I had sold all my HD DVD player and media to a friend by April 2008.

Started buying 4K UHD discs and player in February 2016.

Fitprod

[traths]

1998-VHS
2000-DVDs
2011-blu-ray
2019-UHD 4K

[InuYashaCrusade]

I've been collecting for literally my entire life. It started off with VHS tapes that my parents bought in the late 90's (3-4 years old or so) and then transitioned into something that I passionately collected on my own. I don't know if you can call it collecting from that young but it is definitely where it began. I had to purchase Pokemon Indigo League on VHS tapes because I had gotten into the anime when Gen 2 began airing on TV, so I missed out on the original seasons. Same story with InuYasha DVDs in 2003, the entire reason I got a DVD player for Christmas that year.

A lot of what I watched I couldn't view live on TV because it aired so late in the night, so my grandpa would record it on blank VHS tapes for me to watch later on. That was a lot of fun looking back on it, binge watching whatever a blank tape could hold. Eventually I began going to Sam Goody and Suncoast on a weekly basis to buy my anime DVDs or staying up on the weekends to view live on TV.

All in all, I'd say my personal collecting began around 2001-2002 with Pokemon VHS tapes.

[hansnfranz]

I wouldn’t call what I do “collecting” as many of you here do but I’ve been buying physical media since 1994 with the purchase of my first Discman along with Rolling Stones-Voodoo Lounge. I bought VHS throughout the 90s, DVDs from around 2001-2008 and Blu-ray from 2008-present.

I used to buy CDs like crazy but just like it was for everyone else, pirating was irresistible with the launch of Napster, Kazaa Lite and subsequently BitTorrent. So the overwhelming majority of CDs I own were bought from 1994 to around 2003. Today I only buy CDs from my favorite bands especially when the packaging is special like with the latest Tool album.

[jrsl76]

Movies and Music - probably 1986 or 87, which would make me 10 or 11 depending on exactly when.

Semi-Seriously collecting would have happened around 1990 to 1991 when I was in high school.

[drush9999]

1982, my family got our first VCR, recorded stuff off TV mostly as sell-through VHS was extortionate at the time. I had an original tape of Return of the Jedi in 1986 for my birthday. Had odd movies as presents. Didn't collect in earnest until the early 90s, when I had my own money. Probably had around 500 VHS releases along with tons of stuff recorded off TV. Almost got into Laserdisc but DVD came out which I jumped on in late '98. Then Blu-ray and now looking like I'll start on 4K.

[AgentOrange]

We hardly owned any VHS tapes growing up (except the Disney ones for the smaller kids). I did start buying CD"s in the very early 90's and have (still have) a pretty good CD collection - don't add much to that these days, maybe a couple per year.

I didn't get into "collecting" movies until I started purchasing DVD's after a few years into that format. At first i just started doing it simply because I realized they were getting really cheap compared to VHS and laserdisc, so instead of renting some random movie I wanted to see for $4-5, I could just buy it for $5-$10 for the most part - and then watch it multiple times. I also started dabbling into Criterion collection and foreign films for the first time after about a year or so. So at this stage I probably started getting more serious about it around 2000.

[The Great Owl]

I've been collecting physical media since the late 1980s, when VHS tapes were first available for decent prices.

The first movies that I bought were The Shining and Moonraker.

[Falaskan]

Too long. Can’t wait to melt down the physical box sets and sell the discs for profit on eBay.

[stvn1974]

I made dubs of my favs on VHS from rentals and would get the occasional store bought tape. I got my DVD player early in launch and remember getting Taxi Driver as my first DVD on the same day. Been a financial hole ever since. But I do enjoy my collection and collecting.

[Morsoth]

In December 1989, when I was 9, and my first legit VHS was Batman (1989), but I already had plenty of movies taped from the TV on VHS. Around 1995 I was really into collecting VHS. I think I had around 150 when I decided to switch to DVD in 2001. When I switched to Blu-ray I had 450 DVDs. Now I try my best to lower my Blu-ray collection to 1000...

[kwr212]

VHS - not a big collector in the '90s, as I was a kid, but even as a child I tried to collect all the Disney animated canon. I think I ended up with all of them too by the late '90s, then shortly after our family sold pretty much all our VHS at garage sales. I don't own any VHS currently and have no way to play them. I didn't even know what LaserDisc was until the format had already died.

DVD - 1998 - As a teenager with my first job I bought a DVD player and my first DVDs. I remember a few came with the player. I think the first one I bought on my own was The Matrix. I had a small collection until around 2002 or so, when I started getting more into film history and became more conscious with my buying choices. I had around 150 or so by the time I started college in 2004, then my buying pretty much came to a halt as a broke college student. For the next decade I mostly saw films in theaters, at the school library on CRT monitors, or on my laptop.

Blu-Ray - 2014 - We got our first 1080 3D TV and I started actively collecting again. I upgraded almost all of my DVDs to the new format, if they were available. I already had a few Blu-rays, but my first movie purchase with the TV was Prometheus 3D.

4K UHD - 2018 - We upgraded to a 4K HDR television. I started upgrading titles from Blu-ray to 4K when available. I still watch titles on DVD and Blu-ray, as these are the only formats for many titles. I started buying 4K before getting the TV, but my first UHDs bought specifically to watch on the TV were John Wick 1 and 2.

I now have 1500+ titles across DVD, Blu-ray, and UHD formats. I'm working on getting more of my absolute favorites before it becomes difficult to find discs at reasonable prices. I don't see myself re-buying films on digital. For the times that I stream, I'll use streaming services or digital rentals. I just don't trust the permanence of digital ownership enough to pay to buy a title.

[edwn1220]

Twenty-three year ago I started with VHS; it was a lean collection, mostly blockbuster titles from the 90's. What really got me hooked on movies was the introduction of DVD. I bought Superman the Movie in 1999 and the rest is history. I totally skipped the VCD format which was nothing more than a VHS on a disc, qualiy-wise. I snagged my very first BD, 24 Season 7 for >$40 in 2009. I shifted to the next format in 2017 when, out of curiosity I got Hacksaw Ridge UHD and that was almost a year before I bought my 4K player.

[Peavey]

Started in the late 80's.