[Rob Babcock]

What proportion of DVD movies do you guys buy vs rent?  I'd have made this a poll but I'm not quite sure how to set it up.  Has the decline in DVD prices over the last couple years induced you to buy more as opposed to renting?

I for one have never rented a DVD, ever, not even one!   When I got started in DVD I had more than BlockBuster did, and once I'd built a decent collection I couldn't see the point in spending $3 to rent something I could buy for $9-20.  I've got about 375-400 DVDs now.

My approach is to buy something if it really looks good or if I've seen it in the theater & enjoyed it.  If I'm on the fence I'll buy it used ($5-13 where I live).  I'll sometimes buy on sale and sell the disc if it doesn't knock my dick in the dirt (usually pay about $15 and sell for $7-8, after watching a few times).

I know a few guys here have pretty sizeable collections (namely Bubba), but a lot of guys just rent, except for their favorites.  Even guys that buy a lot probably also rent some, too, I'd imagine...

[Rob Babcock]

Secondary question; how many times will you watch the same movie?  I've seen some of my favorites over 50 times (eg The Princess Bride, Highlander, The 13th Warrior, etc.), but I know some people don't really much care to see a movie repeatedly.

[JoshK]

I personally only own maybe 8 DVDs and five of these I got free.  I pretty much only rent because I don't like watching a movie more than once unless it is phenomenally good.  I pay $3.50 to rent DVDs from our local ma and pa shop.

[Tonto Yoder]

I only have 3 movie DVD's: "Apocalypse Now," "The Cell," and "Irreversible" (since no one had this title to rent).  There are only a few movies that I'll watch again and again.

[bob82274]

I used to rent on a pretty regular basis.  I rented far more than I bought movies.  But then I started to notice that just about every disk I got from blockbuster (it was the only thing eve remotely near my house) was scratched.  Now a scratched CD is a pain but seeing as a DVD is even more sensitive due to its smaller pits this just amplified the problem.  I had several disks that were unwatchable all the way through.  That just pissed me off.  So now I never rent movies from blockbuster.  Actually I have only rented a couple of times in the past year.  Its from a place that its $1 a day to rent.  Since I usually watch the movie that night it works quite well if I ever need it.  But I havn't done this in months.  Much rather buy a movie considering how cheap you can get them now.  My collection is much smaller than Rob or bubba with only about 80 disks and a few seasons of television but I don't have a movie that I don't like.  Sure there are some that require more time between viewings but I still enjoy them.  One of the biggest things that has caused me to do this is the how cheap they have gotten.  Its a fairly regular situation where the DVDs I buy will cost less than my CDs.  Universal is trying to correct this but $10 for a CD is still a lot.  Get it down to $6 or $8 and I'll be a happy guy.

And Rob I know exactly what you mean bout Princess Bride.  Watched it again last night for the umpteenth time.  Its just a wonderful movie.

[dogberry]

I subscribe to Netflix.  I can have 5 movies out at a time for $32/month.  I've been subscribing since December 2000.  It's usually good enough for me to watch a movie once, but if I LOVE it, I'll probably buy it (not too many new movies fall into this category).

I own about 75 movies, but plan on buying very few more.

[mojoman]

My problem with the local Blockbuster is that they often do not stock the movies I want to rent in widescreen format.  What's the point of owning a ws tv if you don't watch in original aspect ratios.  I've complained about this at a couple of blockbuster stores but they seem to have this stock answer that what their customers want is full screen so I've stopped being a customer.  The movies I buy I generally know I want to watch more than once.  I've bought several off of half.com with good success but often I can pick them up at BestBuy or CC for 15 - 17 bucks.  I own about 80 movies/concerts.

[Ferdi]

I buy the stuff I want to have. I decide that based on what I see in the theatre, what I have seen on rental DVD or TV and of course your recommendations!

My renting behaviour has its ups and downs. Sometimes I don't rent for months and then I rent 3 a week. Really depends on my energy levels.

As for buying v renting: renting a DVD for me is like watching TV, only I get the control the program. If I do like a rental, I may buy later on, usually from play.com.

My DVDP is fairly sensitive so I get my share of rental duds but my local shop is very easy. I don't pay that particular rental and get to pick another.

[TheeeChosenOne]

Secondary question; how many times will you watch the same movie?  I've seen some of my favorites over 50 times (eg The Princess Bride, Highlander, The 13th Warrior, etc.), but I know some people don't really much care to see a movie repeatedly.

I fall into the "don't see repeatedly" camp.

For some reason, the only movies I'm happy to see again are the movies from my childhood (i.e. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Jaws, Caddyshack, Airplane, Animal House).

I'm a Netflix subscriber, btw.

[bubba966]

I rarely ever rent anything. I certainly never do it at any large chain store. As the customers of such places are your average idiot. And your average idiot doesn't know how to take care of a DVD. Scratched & dirty discs are no fun when lockups & stutters start up (one thing LD doesn't have a problem with).

On the rare occasion I DO rent a disc, it's only gonna be from a local shop (Scarecrow Video is the place) as they've got over 55,000 different titles. I'll rent something there (maybe once every couple of months) if it's something from another country that I've never seen and have no other way of seeing unless I import it myself. So if it's gonna cost me $50+ to import a copy, I'll rent it first to make sure I want to own it.

Other than that, I'll not bother renting, and will just buy it instead. As I've got a habit of not always having time to watch things I rent, and therefore returning them late, it turns out to not cost me much more to just buy it. The last time I actually figured it out, it was costing me almost $10 to rent a movie due to late fees. So if I buy a $20 movie, and watch it twice, it's paid for.

And that's one of the main reasons I've got a decent sized movie collection. I quit keeping track of numbers when I hit 600 movies. If I had to take a WAG at it, I'd guess I'm at around 900 or so movies now.

As to how often I watch something.

Most everything I own gets watched at least a couple of times. Somethings get watched 10-20 times. But I can't really recall watching anything more than 15-20 times. I know there's scenes in movies I've seen more than 20 times. But not entire movies. Usually after I watch something a dozen times, I'll just watch the parts I feel like watching at the moment. Sometimes it only takes a couple of viewings before I get to that point and just watch the scenes I feel like watching.

[byteme]

I buy exclusively.  I've got about 430 right now and about 100+ of those I haven't seen on DVD yet.  The first 300 or so were purchased "back in the good ole days" of internet DVD purchases when you could get a $10 off $10 purchase coupon and reuse it over and over.  Alas, places like Reel.com, freeride.com etc. are dead now and prices have gone up.

My average cost per DVD is still $5.37, but goes up every time I buy now, so my buying habits have changed quite a bit.  I now go for movies that I know I will watch more than once, LOTR, T3, Matrix 2, Finding Nemo, Old School, etc.  Other stuff I'll catch on HBO or just let pass me by.

If a friend recommends a movie they just love then we'll either buy it, borrow it from them and either watch and return or buy if we like it.  I've had Unfaithful for about 4 months now trying to fit it into the watch schedule but there always seems to be something I've been really wanting to see (Matrix, Lion King, Old School) that I'd rather watch.  Guess I better return Unfaithful huh??  I'll need to check out chapter 14 first though, I hear Diane Lane really brings it!!

[Rob Babcock]

I've been wanting so see that one myself.    Well, I certainly didn't get as good a deal as that, byteme.  Most of mine were purchased at BB & Amazon.com, with a few from Suncoast and a smattering of used ones.

The main crisis for me is the avalanche of TV series on disc that I want.  As a big SciFi fan I have Star Trek: TNG, Lexx, Farscape, Babylon 5, Hercules, & Andromeda.  But I'd still like to get Forever Knight (and maybe even Battlestar Galactica!), too.  And now Married...With Children is coming out, MASH is out, ER...I can't keep up anymore.

To me, even if something doesn't get watched an awful lot of times it's still nice to have it on the shelf.  Talk to a guy who has 10,000 LPs sometime- you could never hope to listen to all of them even once in a lifetime (you could listen to four LPs per day, 5 days a week and it'd take almost ten years).  But it's just cool to have a library where you can always find something you want to see or listen to.

A lot of people love Netflix, but it's not really for me.  I'm more about the "instant gratification" of grabbing a disc & throwing it in.  To plan ahead to see one, wait for the mail..that'd drive me nuts.

[byteme]

Rob, I agree.  Although you'd be surprised how many times I sit there and look at all 400+ and think - I've got nothing to watch!  Kind of like my wife in front of her bursting at the seams closet having nothing to wear.  

Trouble with Netflix for me is the fixed price and having only 4 at a time or whatever they allow.  however, as far as rental goes, I'd go with them WAY before blockbuster or even a local place.  The ability to just drop a disc in the mail and not have to make the LONG trek to the store is way too convenient.

[ehider]

This is a very interesting topic since I know over a dozen hard core videophiles who own 1000 or more DVDs (one has over 2500 in his collection!).

One day I asked a buddy how many of his DVDs he's actually watched more than twice (since he purchased the title). His answer was "about 10 of them, maybe 15". Later I decided to ask the same question to my other buddies and got similar type of responses! i.e. None of them had watched more than 20 of their entire collection of DVD's more than twice! (since their purchase of the DVD).

I asked other questions to my buddies about their collections and found that many had yet to see some of their purchased DVDs even once! (Although many had seen the movie in the past they had yet to watch their purchased DVD!). Many of my buddies pointed to the idea that they wanted to have a collection of "great" movies on hand for other people to experience too. (Some  were perterbed that I "questioned" their immense expendeture of money on DVDs they have yet to view too).

After my short poll of my buddies' DVD purchasing habits I am now wondering the following;

1. Could there possibly be some sort of ego trip associated with how many titles some people have in their DVD collections?

2. Isn't the core point of buying entertainment software to use it repeatedly and enjoy it time and time again?

3. Could purchasing tons of DVDs for some people be nothing more than falling into the "herd" mentality since buying DVDs has become so prevelant throughout America?

[Rob Babcock]

Herd mentality?   Could be, but it'd be no different than buying tons of LPs or CDs.  Unless of course you don't watch them; that would be a strange 'status symbol', as most non videophiles will look at you like you're nuts, right up until their eyes glaze over.  A Rolex might still impress people some places.

I occasionally buy faster than I can get them all watched, but in all honesty, I'd wager everyone here that has a huge collection probably has an LP or CD they've never gotten around to listening to.  

Somehow to me, renting seems "pennywise, but pound foolish."  Unless you truly don't ever want to see the same film more than once, paying each time would be an incomprehensible concept to me.  Ditto for pay per view movies for me, just a total head-scratcher.

But I'll also admit to being a hopeless collector; comics, stamps, ammo cartridges, cards, etc., I've collected many things over the years.  I'd hate to speculate at just what psychological factors lead to inveterate collecting, but I'll admit I have the gene!

[Rob Babcock]

"3. Could purchasing tons of DVDs for some people be nothing more than falling into the "herd" mentality since buying DVDs has become so prevelant throughout America?"

BTW, I think this is true, but it has nothing to do with the prevalence of DVD buying, IMO, but rather our cultural obsession with the accumulation of material goods.

[byteme]

Actually, a lot of the movies I've got on DVD that I haven't watched are classics or were dirt cheap or I needed another dvd to meet a coupon requirement.  If they don't fit any of those I bought the movie because I had just read it's review and decided it sounded great!  A BIG handful of the movies I've got left to see on DVD are over 3 hours long (Seven Samuri, Bridge on the river kwai, Outlaw Josey Wales, Titanic, Spartacus, etc.) and it's hard to find that kind of time to commit.

As for the herd mentality, BAAAAAA.