HD Anonymous and an early new years resolution

Smurfin

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There's been numerous threads in the past about "how many discs have you bought and not watched?", and I for one have been guilty of that - I still have some DVDs that I bought 9 years ago that are still sealed :eek: , and I swore I wouldn't do the same on HD. I seem to have a buying addiction though, because I haven't learnt from history! :suicide: So have you fallen into the old trap of buying HD discs then not getting round to watching them?

I did a quick count last night and out of around 250 discs (a mix of HD-DVD and BluRay), there's 150 on the shelf which I've not yet watched (!). There's been a number of discs that I've watched then traded which aren't included, so it probably looks worse than it is, but that's still one hell of alot of movies to watch! I must admit, with alot of the back catalogue titles I've seen the movie before and it's just that I've not watched the HD version, but even so I was surprised just how many are still sealed on the shelf. In part it's due to having a busy year, HD-DVD firesales and now (thankfully) it's beginning to settle down - I'm looking forward to catching up on lots of movies as the nights draw in :thumbsup:

I've also got 00's of SD discs to watch too, and now with my new SD player and plasma panel, SD looks stunning and my interest in DVD has been revived. Busy viewing ahead I reckon!

I'm almost glad that looking not only at the BR release schedules but the cost of alot of discs (just look at pre-order prices going up from Movietyme etc), my buying is about to slow dramatically - before Xmas I can think of only a handful of discs I want - Band of Brothers, Dark Knight and Indy 4. Not alot else really.

I've also been questioning why I buy certain discs of late too. I mean, why on earth do I buy some of these discs? For example (aside from the £2.99-£5 HD-DVD bargains), I've bought many discs which I've already got on SD and not watched for years. If I've not had a burning desire to watch a particular movie for the last 5 years, why do I buy them on HD? This has happened on many occasions with double dips, I'm wondering if I'm the only one to have this problem :suicide: :D

For example:

Apollo 13 - HD-DVD. Great movie, bought it for £11 2 years ago, but I have it on SD and haven't watched it for 4 years, and the HD disc is still sitting on my shelf unwatched (I do keep meaning to watch it though as I love it!)

Close Encounters of The Third Kind - BluRay. This is a criminal one - I watched this on TV when I was a child but don't really remember any of it. I bought it on BluRay on release day, and it's still sitting on my shelf unwatched (aside from the first 5 minutes where I looked at it and thought, this looks great, must get round to watching it properly), I then discovered a sealed Special Edition SD version that I bought several years ago :suicide:

Mission Impossible Boxset HD-DVD. I bought this for £30 when it first came out on HD-DVD and admittedly I watched MI:3 straight away, but the other two have lingered unwatched ever since. I owned the original movie on NTSC laserdisc (watched it a fair few times as in those days I always got my money's worth for £35 a movie!!!!), then re-bought it on DVD which after several years remained unwatched, then I bought it on HD-DVD :suicide:

There are many other examples, and I find myself - with alot of HD discs - watching the first 5 minutes to see how good the disc is, and thinking "I'm looking forward to watching this properly", and then never quite getting round to it :rolleyes: I read a thread about Bad Boys on BluRay this morning which made me think "that's a must buy"....but then I thought "hang on, I've not watched this for 5 years, do I really need the BluRay? And I don't know about anyone else, but often it feels like a 2 hour committment to a movie is too much and I don't have time, so I put on an episode of the Shield or another good TV series, and then end up watching 2 episodes which brings it to the length of a normal movie anyway :lol: .

So, with all of the above in mind (someone please tell me I'm not the only one), I've decided to make an early new years resolution.

1. With all those unwatched discs, I'm going to buy nothing but AAA releases that I want to watch straight away.
2. No more back catalogue purchases which I already have on DVD and don't immediately plan to watch that weekend (Indy Trilogy or LOTR aside ;) )
3. Not pay more than £16 for a new release - goodbye £18 discs!
4. Actually sit my a**** down and watch some of those lovely HD discs which are already on the shelf.
5. Stop reading the forums so much as it makes me buy discs! :D

Anyone else in the same boat? :)
 
i have allready set my limits on Blu ray disks

1. cost no more than £15(expect for Dark Knight and a few others.lol)

2. no more than two a week:)

i only have 7 but two are in the post and i am always looking on amazon for a cheap blu ray:rolleyes:
 
Apollo 13,three dvd versions and an HD-DVD disc,last version i seen was the DTS sd-dvd,then i bought the 2 disc,you're right,it's a bloody addiction:D
 
Well I certainly don't have as big a problem as the OP:rotfl:;) :)hiya: mate) however I did find myself buying cheap HD DVD's and then selling them on (some of them unwatched) not long after for one reason or another. I guess the only reason I bought them was because they were sub £5 and in HD.:cool: rather than how good the film was and if it had rewatchability.

As the wingnut said, have some ground rules.

Since i'm going to be late to the BR party (Blue by xmas 08) my rules are going to be.

Max ordering of 1 film per week
£10-£12 limit (excludes boxsets) - i'll probably buy for the first few months from these forums so that price should present no problems.
Only Double Dip on top titles and/or, try to flog my DVD version before I pick up the HD version.

PS- Apollo 13 - Great film.:smashin:
 
Anyone else in the same boat? :)

Yep, I have so many to watch .. I get spoilt for choice, and it takes me so long to decide which movie to watch, that I don't get time to watch it :suicide: :D
 
Yep, I have so many to watch .. I get spoilt for choice, and it takes me so long to decide which movie to watch, that I don't get time to watch it :suicide: :D

:rotfl::rotfl:

I doubt you're the only one.

I live in a new build flat (so little soundproofing:rolleyes:) and out of respect for my 2 neighbours (side and below) I like to have a film finished (and sound turned down) by 11pm.

Taking an average film at 2 hours I need to start the film at 9pm so if i've not started the process of picking a film by 8.30pm, I know i'll never get it finished that night:suicide::D
 
Yep, I have so many to watch .. I get spoilt for choice, and it takes me so long to decide which movie to watch, that I don't get time to watch it :suicide: :D


Ain't that the truth:thumbsup:
 
:rotfl::rotfl:

I doubt you're the only one.

I live in a new build flat (so little soundproofing:rolleyes:) and out of respect for my 2 neighbours (side and below) I like to have a film finished (and sound turned down) by 11pm.

Taking an average film at 2 hours I need to start the film at 9pm so if i've not started the process of picking a film by 8.30pm, I know i'll never get it finished that night:suicide::D

hehe that made me laugh. I always need to start picking a movie early, as there's always lots of umming and aaring, then me and the wife will disagree (she hates action movies the silly bint ;) ), or I just can't decide myself. Then it'll be a quick smoke before trhe movie itself, then the phone will ring :suicide: .... or I'll get in from work thinking "movie time!" then I get sidetracked, then it gets to a certain time and I think it's too late to watch a movie, I won't get to bed until midnight. So I'll not bother, but still end up going to bed at midnight :suicide: :suicide: :suicide:
 
Someone throw a blanket over Smurfin', he's on fire today!

:thumbsup:

Same boat, same films (more or less).

:rolleyes:

I've snapped up lots of HD DVD cheapies at £2.99, and I don't mind if they sit around a while - Might surprise myself one Sunday afternoon in 2011.

But I've really reigned in my purchases of full-priced releases. Generally I no longer buy any title unless I know I'll be chomping at the bit waiting to play it as soon as it arrives.

Steve W
 
Someone throw a blanket over Smurfin', he's on fire today!

:thumbsup:

Can you guess I was bored at work today? :thumbsdow
I've snapped up lots of HD DVD cheapies at £2.99, and I don't mind if they sit around a while - Might surprise myself one Sunday afternoon in 2011.

But I've really reigned in my purchases of full-priced releases. Generally I no longer buy any title unless I know I'll be chomping at the bit waiting to play it as soon as it arrives.

Steve W

That's exactly my sentiment. LA Confidential dropped through the letterbox today, thats the last of my pre-orders as I've cancelled Indy 4 @ £18.99.

Just had a quick look on Movietyme and they're almost in HMV's league. £20 for Iron Man Same Day Despatch....ridiculous. And all of their other pre-orders (for brand new titles) are £18.99 :suicide:
 
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hehe that made me laugh. I always need to start picking a movie early, as there's always lots of umming and aaring, then me and the wife will disagree (she hates action movies the silly bint ;) ), or I just can't decide myself. Then it'll be a quick smoke before trhe movie itself, then the phone will ring :suicide: .... or I'll get in from work thinking "movie time!" then I get sidetracked, then it gets to a certain time and I think it's too late to watch a movie, I won't get to bed until midnight. So I'll not bother, but still end up going to bed at midnight :suicide: :suicide: :suicide:
:rotfl:

I found this really funny. I'm exactly the same. I'll have enough time to fit in a couple of films up to 2 hours long each, and will sit there in front of my collection trying to (firstly) trying to work out what sort of genre i want to watch. Once i've decided that, i then have to pick the two films i'm going to watch with some sort of link. By this time, i find i don't have enough time for two 2 hour films, and i'm forced into watching two 1.5 hour films. After much peeing around, i'm reduced to watching a 2 hour film, if i'm lucky :)

Very occassionally i've been so desperate i've been scouting around for films lasting 80 minutes :D
 
I must admit, I am guilty of not watching a lot discs I buy. I limit myself to one disc a fortnight that I really want, and rent others. I also have Sky HD, so just use that a lot for HD movies.

At the moment, I seem to be concentrating on getting old classics on blu-ray, to see them in hi-def. Goonies, Gremlins and Poltergeist are just some I will be adding to my collection. (already got goonies).

Still waiting for the likes of Gladiator, Forrest Gump, War of the Worlds and others to really start building up.
 
That could have been writing the 1st post, it's incannily like my situation.

I've hundreds of TV sets still sealed as-well and, even if I stopped buying now, it would take me years to get through my unwatched titles.

I've made a decision that if I haven't got round to watching it in years (some up to 10 :eek:) then I might as well sell it instead of gathering dust, and if I do ever get the urge then I'll rent it. With that in mind, I'll keep the OOP titles that are no longer available.

I'm trying to rent more than buy but it's not easy, especially now that I get a 10% discount at The Hut for being a More Than insurance customer, which pushes most Blu-rays below my self-imposed £15 limit. :rolleyes:

I am truly addicted to buying more than I am watching, there's an undeniable pleasure when getting home from work and seeing a fresh delivery waiting for me. :D
 
haha I see I am not alone!!!!!

We've done well over the last 2 weekends, 3 movies in one day/evening the first weekend, and 2 movies this weekend :) We still fought over what we would watch, but she did concede to my choice after I pointed out I willingly bought her (and watched) Sex & The City on BluRay :D :suicide: And we've come up with a system of choosing movies. We alternate who chooses each time, and one of us will pick 3 movies, the other chooses which one of the three to watch. The only failure so far was when I picked Die Hard 1, Die Hard 2 and Die Hard 4 :D

Just updated my DVD Profiler and I'm up to 965 movies/TV sets :eek: - but why, you might ask, have I needed to update it since I started this thread? Because I've been on another disc buying spree :D :devil: :suicide:

I've actually bought another 12 discs - d'oh! But that said....I'm kinda sticking to my resolutions:

1. With all those unwatched discs, I'm going to buy nothing but AAA releases that I want to watch straight away.

I guess 12 discs in the last week means I've FAILED but only just I reckon ;) I've bought the last few £2.99 HD-DVDs that I half want ( :lol: why did I buy Daylight? ), of those though only 12 Monkeys was an essential. I've also bought a couple of Italian/French SD discs for the wife (she loves European movies), and on BluRay The Hulk, Hellboy II, Hancock and The Dark Knight.

2. No more back catalogue purchases which I already have on DVD and don't immediately plan to watch that weekend (Indy Trilogy or LOTR aside )

Errr see above. FAILED. Most of the HD-DVDs I have already on SD, but there again, they're only £2.99 ;)

3. Not pay more than £16 for a new release - goodbye £18 discs!

PASS!

Result, all of the new release purchases above were from HMV with Quidco, which means I was comfortably under my limit. I've not looked at Movietyme (aside from once when I logged off in disgust at the prices...I've not been back since) as I refuse to pay £19 per disc. Sorry Indy 4, you're going to have to wait....

4. Actually sit my a**** down and watch some of those lovely HD discs which are already on the shelf.


PASS! I've finally started to watch some HD loveliness (and SD), including, from my opening post in this thread - yes, Apollo 13! And it looks lurverly in HD :thumbsup: Also watched Inside Man on HD-DVD on Sunday, so now beginning to make inroads into the back catalogue collection :)

5. Stop reading the forums so much as it makes me buy discs!

FAILED. Bugger.

I must admit, aside from the new releases I've ordered above, I've not felt the need to go buy plenty of discs every week (let's just forget about the cheapy HD-DVDs ;) ) - it feels goood picking stuff from the shelf and actually watching the damn things! And tonight is Kite Runner night. Amazingly we're going to watch it within 24 hours of it landing on the doormat (oh, did I forget to mention I bought this as well? ;) ), which will be something of a record in our household!

I somehow think that I still suffer from OCD and it will still take years to watch all the discs I own (that's assuming I never buy another one!). But you know what? As it's getting colder outside and the nights are drawing in (all hail the extra hour in bed this weekend!!!!!!), I am watching more, and enjoying every minute of my AV system and the movies that tear through it :thumbsup:

Now where's me credit card........
 
And we've come up with a system of choosing movies. We alternate who chooses each time, and one of us will pick 3 movies, the other chooses which one of the three to watch. The only failure so far was when I picked Die Hard 1, Die Hard 2 and Die Hard 4 :D

:rotfl::rotfl:
 
I've hundreds of TV sets still sealed as-well and, even if I stopped buying now, it would take me years to get through my unwatched titles.

Exactly the same here:suicide:

Crazy thing is, if I'd waited until I watch the previous seasons from a series, before buying the latest ones, I'd have saved myself a bloody fortune:oops:

I am trying to limit myself now, to catch up on the TV stuff I've got before I buy any more.

I tend to keep pretty much on top of movies, as that's a couple of hours and done with, TV is a bit more of a commitment, so it's harded to get the mrs to sit through those, especially as she doesn't like most of it:rotfl:
 
I've also been questioning why I buy certain discs of late too. I mean, why on earth do I buy some of these discs? For example (aside from the £2.99-£5 HD-DVD bargains), I've bought many discs which I've already got on SD and not watched for years. If I've not had a burning desire to watch a particular movie for the last 5 years, why do I buy them on HD? This has happened on many occasions with double dips, I'm wondering if I'm the only one to have this problem
I fall into this category with many purchases, so you're not alone.

I intended on only buying 'must see' films or films I wanted and never got on DVD on the HD formats and then the HD DVD sales came along. :rolleyes:
 
We alternate who chooses each time, and one of us will pick 3 movies, the other chooses which one of the three to watch.

Ditto, that works quite well for me too... Although as I buy all the movies and AFAIK the girlfriend has never bought a single one... I'm usually pretty happy with the choice she makes. :smashin:

I keep trying to cut down, but I like buying discs, it's that simple. :D

I'm still buying cheap HD-DVD's and sure I'm now rather close to scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I'm still finding a few films I'd never had bought on SD for a fiver, yet got on HD-DVD for £3 and actually really enjoyed them, either they were totally different to what I expected or I simply never noticed the film.. Not got many films I haven't watched currently, so I've just ordered another batch of cheap HD-DVD's :D

BR wise, I'm not really buying any re-releases on BR. I refuse to pay full RRP (ie £13-£18) for a film which is avaliable for a few quid on SD-DVD or I probably have already anyway.. I'll wait for the BR re-releases to hit bargain boxes before I even consider those..

I am also trying to be picky about what new releases I buy on BR. For example I bought Hulk and Iron Man blind as I expected them to be great movies, and they were.. But I didn't buy Indy 4 'cos it's a pretty dire film IMHO after seeing it at the cinema.. Whereas in the past I probably would have bought it anyway.. And likewise where I might in the past have just got the SD-DVD version for £10, if I thought it was perhaps not worth the cost of a BR, I'm reminding myself if I don't think it's worth buying on BR, why on earth buy the SD-DVD ?? :D Or if it is worth buying on SD-DVD maybe I should get the BR version..but then I won't buy a film on BR if I don't like the film... it gets so confusing at times.. :rotfl: SO I just don't bother with either if I don't rate the film particularly.


So in my case I think I'm starting to curtail my disc spending but could do better. :smashin: :rotfl:
 
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Exactly the same here:suicide:

Crazy thing is, if I'd waited until I watch the previous seasons from a series, before buying the latest ones, I'd have saved myself a bloody fortune:oops:

I am trying to limit myself now, to catch up on the TV stuff I've got before I buy any more.

I tend to keep pretty much on top of movies, as that's a couple of hours and done with, TV is a bit more of a commitment, so it's harded to get the mrs to sit through those, especially as she doesn't like most of it:rotfl:

I'm so with you on that one! For example, for a while I had The Shield season 1 and 2, then season 3, 4, 5 and 6 came out in pretty quick succession. I bought Season 6 on release day for about £25 while doing the food shopping, and several months later I've only just finished Season 3. I think you can get Season 6 for about half the price now :suicide:

What a muppet!!!! :D

The worst one though is the HD-DVDs. Although of course its demise couldn't have been predicted, I still have titles sitting on my shelf that I paid £14-£15 for (and are still sealed)....and now you can pick them up for £2.99!

It all comes back to OCD with buying movies..... :rolleyes:
 

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