I think DVD's are great and I want to replace most of my video tape collection with DVD's, but a lot of the movies I have are older comedies like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Dumb and Dumber, etc. The DVD's don't have many extra features, so I'm worried that they're going to come out with special edition DVD's for these movies and I will have to replace my existing DVD's. Example: I bought the Swingers DVD, but I read that they are coming out with a Swingers special edition soon. Please help
When you first see a DVD in the store and notice it is "bare bones", check the internet to see if there is a special edition coming out. There are tons of internet sites that give release dates for DVDs... Most of your older movies won't have special editions unless they were big office or Academy Award winners (Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump) or fall into the realm of "cyult classic" movies (Clerks), or they were part of a series (Nightmare on Elm Street, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon) I highly doubt we'll be seeing a Bonfire of the Vanities special edition any time soon...
It always pisses me off when the special edition comes out. Check the website for the Criterion Collection DVDs...they are awesome. Still, DVDs dont wear out, they are easier to store and keep, and you might as well buy instead of rent in most cases because you (well, I) forget to take the DVD back on time and get nailed by double late fees.
DVD is the only way to go. I replaced all of my VHS about 3 yrs ago. I have gotten stuck with a few bare bones editions, but I just sell them on Ebay and get the special editions. My dvd collection online, it is a little out of date. There is also another cool site called http://www.dvdaficionado.com/ that lets you keep track of all your DVD's online, I am setting up my collection there. Also go to www.dvdcouponpost.com they have a great forums(bbs) all about DVD's and anything related.
I rolled the dice and bought Bottle Rocket on DVD last week. It's bare bones, but it has been out for a while. What I can't figure out is why I couldn't find it anywhere for less than $25 when there is nothing on it but the movie. The Criterion Collection version of The Royal Tennenbaums came out last week and was packed with extras for only a couple of bucks more. BTW, if you have the Bottle Rocket DVD, you can see the building I live in at the 1hr 12min 30sec mark.
I forgot to say: I just got in from Columbia House: -Independence Day - Collector's Edition -Pulp Fiction -Home Alone 1,2 -Forrest Gump - Collectors Edition -The Fast and the Furious Also just ordered 6 dvd's from playcentric.com for my birthday (they have 3.50 off every dvd) -seven years in tibet -nothing but trouble -the fugitive -air force one -austin power - International Man of Mystery -Last Action Hero total shipped - 69.22 They have some cheap dvd's and reasonable shipping.
i don't understand my fascination with dvd's... for 21+ years, i only bought 5 VHS movies in my lifetime, i never cared about buying movies... than when the DVD craze hit years ago, i started buying them left and right... now i have around 50 dvd's... why am i so intent on buying dvd's, when i never cared about buying vhs's? and its not the "extra features" b/c i've only looked at those a total of 3-4 times in the past few years... wierd stuff...
same here drapg - I used to record a lot of stuff from tv, but I hardly bought VHS, now I have over 60 dvd's!
I rarely ever bought prerecorded VHS movies, either. Probably because if I wanted a copy of a movie, I would just tape it off the TV when it was on HBO or something (or on Pay-Per-View). Then the copy I had was just about as good as the copy I could buy. I've bought a whole lot of DVDs, though. Sometimes they're for things that weren't made available on tape (like complete seasons of TV series), but the main reason is because DVD is just a better medium. I don't mind paying $20 for a DVD because I know it will last for many, many viewings. Also, having the ability to jump to the scenes, not having to rewind them when I'm done, and the added bonus sometimes of some decent special features makes buying DVDs a better use of my money, I think, than buying VHS was. I don't know how many DVDs I have, but I know I've purchased a lot of them (the last time I counted, it was around 150, which wasn't that long ago).
that is a lot mrpaige - but still small potatoes compared to some of the nuts that I have seen, over 1000 dvd's. I just don't have that many favorites that I would buy. I usually don't buy a movie unless me or my wife/son like it... Think of how much money you have spent so far on your DVD's buy any for your bday?
I don't know how much I've spent overall. I got my first one nearly two years ago (around September of 2000), so it really hasn't been a whole bunch of purchases given the length of time. But yeah, I imagine it's really added up. I didn't really buy any DVDs specifically for my birthday, though I did order Better off Dead and Real Genius the other day. I should have those tomorrow. And I suspect some folks I know might have gotten me a DVD or two as a birthday present. There just aren't that many DVDs out right now that I want but don't already have. I only buy them if they're movies I liked and will watch multiple times (though I have purchased a few that I thought I liked better than I did, especially some older movies that I remembered liking better). And I buy several for my kids to watch, too.
I too have bought into the DVD craze. I bought my Toshiba SD1200 in like Spring of 2000. Now I have like 40 DVDs total. Some of my latest purchases were: Harry Potter, Ocean's Eleven, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Boiler Room. The key is to buy movies that you'll watch repeatedly. For example, I wouldn't sit through A Beautiful Mind or Titanic again because they were just way too long. Something like American Pie or Shrek, however, can be watched infinite number of times.
I purchased some VHS movies that I'm now replacing with DVD's. Braveheart, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, etc. My main reason for upgrading was the higher quality sound which I would notice when I upgraded my surround sound system. I also like to watch the movies the second or third time with director commentary on if it is included on the DVD. I was about to upgrade my Pulp Fiction from VHS to DVD, but noticed there is a collectors edition coming out with additional features, so I decided to wait. Blockbuster has a great Lord of the Rings rental card/free DVD offer right now and I was planning to purhase it anyway, check you local blockbuster for details. (No I don't work for Blockbuster)
Baqui99 is completely right... only buy movies you will watch more than 4 times. And as the wife and I can attest Shrek can be watched over and over. Our 2 year old daugher was sick on the 5th, 6th and 7th of July and Sherk is her favorite move and those 3 days it played non-stop (15 times in 3 days), and I still watch it when she makes me.
we have two dvd's that we have watched a billion times -Armageddon - at one time we used to watch it everyday -National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (this is our 2nd copy of this title, we watched it so many times it broke)
I still don't get what the deal is with the "extra features". I personally couldn't care less about them. Just give me the movie and take $5 off or whatever. They sucker people into buying the same movie about 3 or 4 times with "widescreen version", "director's cut", "behind the scenes", and "super duper pooper scooper" versions. It's insane. lol. Anway... I never bought a VHS movie in my life. Had no reason to since I was never really into watching/renting movies. But damn, I've gone nuts since then. I think I've bought about 15-20 dvd's in the past year or so, and it'll go up this year... I'm tempted to go out and get all 7 seasons of star trek the next generation, but then I see the price... uuuh. Maybe I'll wait.
I consider the extras to just be gravy. It doesn't affect my purchase decision at all. There have been extras I've really liked, especially commentaries. But most of the time, they're just extra stuff taking up room. I don't think the price point would change without the extras, though (as evidenced by the fact that many barebones discs are released without extras at the same price as those with extras). As for widescreen, though, that's a must for movies that were originally in widescreen (though there are some movies I've bought that were the ''Pan & Scan" or "Crappy" versions. The Vacation series is all P&S, as are several older Steve Martin movies like The Jerk, The Man With Two Brains and Three Amigos). I've only bought the same movie twice because of upgraded editions. One was Charade, and that's because I screwed up and bought a horrible version released by some fly-by-night operator. The picture quality was horrible, the sound stunk and it was pan & scan to boot. So, I went out and bought the Criterion Collection version (which is now out-of-print, as I understand it). But the Criterion version was out when I bought that original copy. I just didn't know any better at the time. The other one I got the upgraded version of was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I just wanted the extra stuff because I'm a Monty Python fan and a fan of that movie. But those extras were worth the expense of buying the second copy. It doesn't bother me as much when there are years between releases of the special editions. Like this new Clerks disc that'll come out some time. Well, I got my use out of the original Clerks disc. If there are extras worth having on the new disc (and there probably will be as Kevin Smith movies often have great extras), I imagine I'll buy it and not be upset about it at all. But when the special edition release is just a few months after the first release (and planned all along), that can be very annoying.
Just bought some cool 2 pack DVD's from Wal-Mart for 14.95 a piece. He Got Game and Good Morning Vietnam SOS (Summer of Sam) and Hand That Rocks the Cradle 30$ for these is pretty good. I haven't seen Summer of Sam, anyone else seen it? I didn't think it would be that good, but I do like Mira Sorvino!
