Episode 220.5 - Minisode 220.5

[theworstbuddhist 572]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:09 AM, Cameron H. said:

Like Paul, I’ve pretty much purged almost all of my physical media, but I disagree with him putting Raiders of the Lost Ark in the “R’s.” While it might seem counter intuitive, because it’s a part of the Indiana Jones series, it should really be filed under “I.” 

Also, perhaps controversially, all Bond movies should be filed chronologically and under “B,” and Predator movies should be filed under “A” with the Alien series.

Ultimately, it’s more important that a movie series remains intact than for your collection to be strictly alphabetized.

I pretty much hate all of the sequels to Raiders with increasing bile for each successive release, but I did notice recently that when they list the movies on Netflix, they have revised the title of the original to the rather clunky "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark", so I guess they agree with you.

[CaptainAmazing 127]

Just finished finally getting around to unpacking and organizing my DVD/Blu-ray collection after a move and finally also integrating in a bunch of movies from my sister's boyfriend that he no longer wanted, so I'm feeling especially qualified for this one. My movies are alphabetical, and the one exception is when it's a series. Sometimes I ran into the same problems as everyone else with how to categorize a series. Led to a Mel Brooks 3-pack of History of the World Pt. 1, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs going under "M." I think I've also decided that movies that start with "A" should have the "A" ignored, just like it's customary to do with "The."

Also, the collection is really heavily biased towards titles that are further up in the alphabet. The halfway point is only up to about G or H. Must be because producers were worried about theaters that list movies alphabetically or something.

Had a roommate in college that kept all of his individual discs to two giant CD binder cases, but also sorted them alphabetically. Also had an entire separate smaller one for movies that he had gotten semi-recently and hadn't yet had the chance to move everything down a slot for yet. Genre may have worked better for him. There was also this awkward moment where he flunked out and was gradually moving out and had already taken one binder home. This meant that the other roommate and I could borrow any movie of his we wanted, so long as the title began with a letter that came earlier in the alphabet than G.

Had an ex who had something like 1,200 movies and sorted them in several shelves of varying sizes around her living room, I wanna say by genre.

[CaptainAmazing 127]

17 hours ago, Ofcoursemyhorse said:

See I've recently started going in the opposite direction and am slowly building my physical media collection back up. Including that I only buy physical copies of my video games as well. 

All the shenanigans with the FCC and net neutrality got me in the frame of mind that if I can somewhat lessen my reliance on streaming if there are sudden jumps in billing, it'll help out in the long run. 

A few years ago while re-watching the six then-existing Star Wars movies in the run up to TFA, I got to thinking about the streaming vs. physical media debate. Particularly about how my Original Trilogy Special Edition VHS tapes were now worthless, and maybe I should be worried about my DVD collection as well. Asked in a geeky group that I'm in on Facebook what they thought about the physical media vs. streaming debate, and every single response anyone else made was pro-disc/anti-streaming. A lot of that was because the places that you buy streaming movies on technically still control them in a sense, and your movies could be lost if they ever shut down or just decide a few years from now that you need to buy them again to keep watching them. Only way that could ever happen with discs is a very strict firmware update for disc players that includes DRM, and good luck getting one of those onto my bargain basement Blu-ray player with no Internet connectivity.

I haven't owned a gaming console since 2010, so that's not a concern for me. Also, the death of UltraViolet had me thinking that people weren't purchasing movies on steaming anymore, just watching whatever was on streaming services. That said, half the articles on UV's closing give me that impression, and half of them are PR doublespeak that make my head hurt.

[LeadTool 0]

On 8/23/2019 at 10:06 AM, theworstbuddhist said:

*a single tear rolls down Matthew Perry's cheek*

I prefer Matthau/Randall if that's an option.

 

[GrahamS. 803]

4 hours ago, theworstbuddhist said:

I pretty much hate all of the sequels to Raiders with increasing bile for each successive release, but I did notice recently that when they list the movies on Netflix, they have revised the title of the original to the rather clunky "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark", so I guess they agree with you.

They did that because Lucasfilm itself did that. If you look at the Blu-Ray set—which I don’t own but have gotten out of the library (and I will defend Last Crusade but not the other two)—Raiders has been changed to “Indiana Jones and...” on the box.

i guess they were worried that people born in the 21st century would be too dumb to realize Raiders was the first movie on their own. Pretty friggin’ condescending, if you think about it.

[Cameron H. 23786]

26 minutes ago, CaptainAmazing said:

A few years ago while re-watching the six then-existing Star Wars movies in the run up to TFA, I got to thinking about the streaming vs. physical media debate. Particularly about how my Original Trilogy Special Edition VHS tapes were now worthless, and maybe I should be worried about my DVD collection as well. Asked in a geeky group that I'm in on Facebook what they thought about the physical media vs. streaming debate, and every single response anyone else made was pro-disc/anti-streaming. A lot of that was because the places that you buy streaming movies on technically still control them in a sense, and your movies could be lost if they ever shut down or just decide a few years from now that you need to buy them again to keep watching them. Only way that could ever happen with discs is a very strict firmware update for disc players that includes DRM, and good luck getting one of those onto my bargain basement Blu-ray player with no Internet connectivity.

I haven't owned a gaming console since 2010, so that's not a concern for me. Also, the death of UltraViolet had me thinking that people weren't purchasing movies on steaming anymore, just watching whatever was on streaming services. That said, half the articles on UV's closing give me that impression, and half of them are PR doublespeak that make my head hurt.

That’s true. Strictly speaking, you’re only licensing the title. However, I’m not too concerned about either Amazon or Apple shuttering their doors anytime soon  I mean, they could have an issue or two where distribution rights get mangled and you lose a movie, but I’ve never experienced that, and I’m not too worried about it.

Another issue I have with physical media (besides taking up space), is that I just wasn’t watching them. They were just sitting there. If I was trying to decide what to watch, I was never like, “Let’s crack open the binders and thumb through what we’ve got.” Yes, I’m re-buying a bunch of stuff I already have, but that’s just the way technology goes. No one has 8-tracks or cassettes or VHS tapes anymore. If you had anything on those formats that you still wanted, you would eventually have to rebuy them anyway. With iTunes and Amazon Video, for a reasonable price, I can upgrade from SD to HD, save space, and have my library easily accessible from anywhere.

[GrahamS. 803]

And I guess I should say that when you say “Lucasfilm” these days, what that really means is Disney.

(this was not a response to Cameron H., it was meant to follow my previous post, but he managed to post before I did. So sorry if this made anyone say “huh”/give them subject whiplash.)

[gigi-tastic 2322]

I have a very off filing system for books and movies. I go by theme? Like my fiction bookshelf starts with classic children's books like Mary Poppins then flows into historical fiction jr fiction (the books set farthest in the past being first) then eventually after many themes ends up with adult mysteries on the top shelf. I can't even remember how my DVD cabinet is but I know that I have a whole set up devoted to spy/ thief shows with my beloved Leverage having pride of place. 

I'm fully aware it's insane but I can't have it any other way. No one should live like me it's pure madness!

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

10 hours ago, gigi-tastic said:

I have a very off filing system for books and movies. I go by theme? Like my fiction bookshelf starts with classic children's books like Mary Poppins then flows into historical fiction jr fiction (the books set farthest in the past being first) then eventually after many themes ends up with adult mysteries on the top shelf. I can't even remember how my DVD cabinet is but I know that I have a whole set up devoted to spy/ thief shows with my beloved Leverage having pride of place. 

I'm fully aware it's insane but I can't have it any other way. No one should live like me it's pure madness!

That's how I do it with books!

Not sure I would with movies, but I don't really buy hard copies of those anymore.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

10 hours ago, AlmostAGhost said:

That's how I do it with books!

Not sure I would with movies, but I don't really buy hard copies of those anymore.

My dads are  all pretty old 4- 7+ years or so but I have a lot. I got most of them as gifts. 

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Because I'm an aesthetic bitch I have to organize all my physical media by the cover color. My DVD shelf looks like a rainbow and it makes me very very happy. No one else usually goes to my shelf to find specific things, but I know where everything is because I've memorized these DVD covers so that's all that matters to me. I put my books up by genre and keeping the series together, but someday I may switch that to colors as well.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

5 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

Because I'm an aesthetic bitch I have to organize all my physical media by the cover color. My DVD shelf looks like a rainbow and it makes me very very happy. No one else usually goes to my shelf to find specific things, but I know where everything is because I've memorized these DVD covers so that's all that matters to me. I put my books up by genre and keeping the series together, but someday I may switch that to colors as well.

I always want to do the color thing but I'm too lazy

[CaptainAmazing 127]

Two other reasons why I haven't switched to non-physical media that I thought of: Cost and simplicity. Cost is simple: A lot of these movies I bought from a $5 DVD bin years ago (still especially proud of getting Jurassic Park that way in about 2013 before the price spiked with Jurassic World). Other than re-purchasing my movies outright on digital at maybe $10 each, the only option I know of is Vudu has this pretty cool thing where you can scan your DVDs at home and then buy the digital versions for $2-$5 each, with just a couple of smallish catches, like Disney won't allow their movies to be included. But at about 100 DVDs, that's still more than I'm willing to spend. Plus Vudu is probably the most likely non-obscure streaming service to go the way of Walmart's iTunes knockoff (which, BTW I can't even find the name of on Google).

Other annoyance would be simplicity. Some movies are cheaper on one service, others on another. Plenty of discs nowadays come with a free digital copy to a single streaming service, and you don't get to pick which one. So you're either going to pay a little bit more to get all of your movies on one service, or you're going to have to hop back and forth between them, sometimes hunting for a movie that you can't remember what service it's on. Granted, the majority of your movies will probably be with your favorite service, but not all.  IIRC, the purpose of UltraViolet was to create a unified portal to have them all in one place, but we know how that went. Disney's MoviesAnywhere may or may not eventually take up that role if the other studios go along with it.

Also, I guess this is just me, but I can count on zero fingers all the times that I was out somewhere and really wished I could watch a specific movie that I owned at home. I can certainly imagine being on vacation or something and wanting to see a specific movie that I own, but it has yet to happen. Maybe if I had kids and an iPad.

There's also the small side issue of movies from Apple will only work on Apple devices, and the others (Google, Amazon, and Walmart's Vudu) are owned by pretty evil corporations. And Apple's really no saint anyhow. But really, none of the studios are that squeaky clean to begin with.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 hour ago, CaptainAmazing said:

Two other reasons why I haven't switched to non-physical media that I thought of: Cost and simplicity. Cost is simple: A lot of these movies I bought from a $5 DVD bin years ago (still especially proud of getting Jurassic Park that way in about 2013 before the price spiked with Jurassic World). Other than re-purchasing my movies outright on digital at maybe $10 each, the only option I know of is Vudu has this pretty cool thing where you can scan your DVDs at home and then buy the digital versions for $2-$5 each, with just a couple of smallish catches, like Disney won't allow their movies to be included. But at about 100 DVDs, that's still more than I'm willing to spend. Plus Vudu is probably the most likely non-obscure streaming service to go the way of Walmart's iTunes knockoff (which, BTW I can't even find the name of on Google).

Other annoyance would be simplicity. Some movies are cheaper on one service, others on another. Plenty of discs nowadays come with a free digital copy to a single streaming service, and you don't get to pick which one. So you're either going to pay a little bit more to get all of your movies on one service, or you're going to have to hop back and forth between them, sometimes hunting for a movie that you can't remember what service it's on. Granted, the majority of your movies will probably be with your favorite service, but not all.  IIRC, the purpose of UltraViolet was to create a unified portal to have them all in one place, but we know how that went. Disney's MoviesAnywhere may or may not eventually take up that role if the other studios go along with it.

Also, I guess this is just me, but I can count on zero fingers all the times that I was out somewhere and really wished I could watch a specific movie that I owned at home. I can certainly imagine being on vacation or something and wanting to see a specific movie that I own, but it has yet to happen. Maybe if I had kids and an iPad.

There's also the small side issue of movies from Apple will only work on Apple devices, and the others (Google, Amazon, and Walmart's Vudu) are owned by pretty evil corporations. And Apple's really no saint anyhow. But really, none of the studios are that squeaky clean to begin with.

Regarding pricing, obviously buying nothing is cheaper than buying something, but in my case, it’s not like I swapped out my collection overnight. Right now, I’ve set aside two binders of DVD’s I’ve upgraded to HD to donate to the library, and I have about three more waiting to be (slowly) replaced.

Also, I wait for sales - which they have every single week. And most of the movies they put on sale are older movies anyway (so pretty much the stuff I’m trying to replace). For example, I bought The Matrix Trilogy in 4K the other day (w/ extras) for 4.99 each. 

As far as convenience, it’s not so much needing to watch movies on vacation (although, I do have kids and being able to download a few of their favorite movies is great for long trips), but it’s nice to have at your fingertips. It’s perfect for if you want to, say, watch an Unspooled or HDTGM movie on a lunch break. Also, in my household, my wife prefers video games over watching movies. With digital media, we can still hang out together in the same room, but still engage in our preferred past time. I’ll watch a movie on my phone, tablet, or laptop while she slays some orcs. We discuss what we’re doing while we’re doing it, and neither of us is exiled to another room or forced to do something they don’t really want to do. It’s pretty win/win for us.

I mean, I’m not trying to proselytize or anything - lol. Whatever works, works. This just happens to work for us.

[muttnik 476]

On 8/25/2019 at 11:55 AM, Cameron H. said:

No one has 8-tracks or cassettes or VHS tapes anymore

Cassette tapes are somewhat making a small comeback. I don't really understand it myself, but you can buy current albums and (full price !!!) players.

My first college date was organizing a massive DVD collection after my date had a hard time trying to find a specific movie. I told him I'd be happy to help him get it organized. We took everything off the shelves, dusted them, made sure the correct discs were in each case, and then set them in stacks to organize (by letter (leaving out the articles), keeping series together in order of release, and a separate director's section for his favorites in order of release). I think at the time he thought it was true love or something, that I'd happily do that for him, but really I just like organizing things. Always have. I remember going to Zany Brainy for Goosebumps books and finding the section badly out of order, so I started reorganizing it. I still do that. Just last month I was trying to find a specific lipstick tester but all the testers were in the wrong places, so I put them all back where they were supposed to be.

Anyway, I go back and forth with myself on physical vs. digital media. On the one hand, it does cut down on clutter and environmental waste, and it's much easier to find niche and out of print materials. On the other, algorithms, being at the whim of third parties on what and when you can see something, issues of ownership, rights issues, horrible redubs, etc. Plus, streaming killed video and music stores, and those were the two best jobs I ever had. (So much organizing!)

[Cameron H. 23786]

8 minutes ago, muttnik said:

Plus, streaming killed video and music stores, and those were the two best jobs I ever had. (So much organizing!)

I would love for Video/Music stores to make a comeback. I miss that feeling of discovery from just browsing the aisles. There’s really not an online equivalent to flipping through CD’s and DVD’s. 

[taylor anne photo 11311]

On 8/25/2019 at 1:55 PM, Cameron H. said:

No one has 8-tracks or cassettes or VHS tapes anymore

I've kept many VHS tapes because of nostalgia and the fact that many of the Disney ones aren't the same as they were on VHS. Too many added scenes or things taken out but I wanna at least have SOMETHING that is OG. I still also have Titanic because I need my future children to understand the hardship of getting to the climax of the movie and it cutting out and you having to rewind the first tape before getting to the second half of the movie lmao.

[Cameron H. 23786]

10 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

I've kept many VHS tapes because of nostalgia and the fact that many of the Disney ones aren't the same as they were on VHS. Too many added scenes or things taken out but I wanna at least have SOMETHING that is OG. I still also have Titanic because I need my future children to understand the hardship of getting to the climax of the movie and it cutting out and you having to rewind the first tape before getting to the second half of the movie lmao.

I guess I meant “most people” not “no one.”

I think the only VHS I have left is a video of my old band doing a show, but I have no way of watching it

[taylor anne photo 11311]

1 minute ago, Cameron H. said:

I guess I meant “most people” not “no one.”

I think the only VHS I have left is a video of my old band doing a show, but I have no way of watching it

I'm here to bat at your generalizations, Cameron

My mom definitely has a bunch of my ballet performances on VHS but definitely same cause I think she finally ditched the VCR. She is the kind of person that will hold onto shit until it legitimately breaks and we had one of those giant box TVs with a VCR included until I got back from college lol.

[ol' eddy wrecks 212]

16 hours ago, muttnik said:

Cassette tapes are somewhat making a small comeback. I don't really understand it myself, but you can buy current albums and (full price !!!) players.

I've noticed the same with VHS tapes, starting somewhere around 2010-2015.

It seems mostly niche though, in terms of

Retro-hipsterism (there's a scene of Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver watching VHS tapes in Baumbach's of While We're Young to illustrate the lifestyle difference). Wanting simpler times of some sort, I'd guess.

Some collector mentality (just liking to collect vintage media).

And there are some movies that are still only available on VHS. (Again, niche)

Nostalgia?

I think the format is just flat out inferior to modern formats, so I roll my eyes at the first group.

[ol' eddy wrecks 212]

For organization... I just rip all of my stuff, put it on my NAS, to which I have a dedicated HTPC hooked up to it, which is connected to the TV.

All to ignored as I lazily switch to the firestick to stream something.

I'm playing around with PLEX on the firestick to access my collection from there, but it doesn't handle all the formats as well as I need, so I have to play around and possibly encode a lot of my collection now.

In terms of shelf organization, I did the binder thing a long time ago, but when I built it back up with the blu-rays, I found myself wanting to keep a lot of the cases (I like the artwork on some of them), so it's all more, dedicated bookshelf of a disorganized mess mostly. Organized mostly by genre, director, unalphabetized. I only have about 200-400 discs, but fortunately I don't really have to try to find anything.

[CaptainAmazing 127]

2 hours ago, ol' eddy wrecks said:

I've noticed the same with VHS tapes, starting somewhere around 2010-2015.

It seems mostly niche though, in terms of

Retro-hipsterism (there's a scene of Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver watching VHS tapes in Baumbach's of While We're Young to illustrate the lifestyle difference). Wanting simpler times of some sort, I'd guess.

Some collector mentality (just liking to collect vintage media).

And there are some movies that are still only available on VHS. (Again, niche)

Nostalgia?

I think the format is just flat out inferior to modern formats, so I roll my eyes at the first group.

I know that in the case of cassette tapes, there's a few teens out there today who want to throw a band they just saw and liked a couple bucks and get a tiny something back in return, even if they can't really use it.

[muttnik 476]

8 hours ago, CaptainAmazing said:

I know that in the case of cassette tapes, there's a few teens out there today who want to throw a band they just saw and liked a couple bucks and get a tiny something back in return, even if they can't really use it.

Isn't that what stickers, pins, and/or patches are for?

[questionmarks 18]

This is making me miss my DVD collection!!! It's been very fun to read though all of this.

So y'all would put A Clockwork Orange under C (and not A)? Or would some of you say K for Kubrik?

[CaptainAmazing 127]

On 8/29/2019 at 10:47 PM, questionmarks said:

This is making me miss my DVD collection!!! It's been very fun to read though all of this.

So y'all would put A Clockwork Orange under C (and not A)? Or would some of you say K for Kubrik?

I would say C. Filing it under K reminds me of this humor columnist in the local (Charlotte) paper who would do bits like “It’s time for another entry in the Clip-n-Save (column name) encyclopedia. Today we’re talking about Southern food. File it under “C” for “Cholesterol.”

Then one day he revealed that he learned several readers actually were clipping, saving, and filing them.