Hi,

I'm looking to start building a good-sized DVD library and am interested in buying in bulk. I've heard of joining Columbia House, but I'm appauled by the business practices that I've heard from others. Anybody know an inexpensive way to build a decent DVD library with relatively recent movies (1990's and 2000's)?

I would wait a couple of years. When streaming media becomes the standard and DVDs become obsolete, they'll be much cheaper.

What is your goal of building a DVD library? Would it be more cost effective to have a Netflix account and basically have a library of 1000's of movies? Or are these all movies you will watch over and over again?

Im not really familiar with how Netflix works and would rather own movies than rent. Do you rent the movies with Nexflix and not return them? Does it become a hassle later on?

If I had a DVD collection of about 50 solid movies so that I have something for everyone, I'd be all set.

As mentioned before, clubs like Columbia House look great on paper, but when you research the hassle that people have gone through, it's doesn't end up being a good deal at all.

Netflix, they mail you a movie, you send it back. They mail you a new one. It's a monthly fee based on how many movies you can check out at a time. You can also watch movies online. It's great. Transit time depends on distance to their warehouse. Blockbuster does the same basic thing except that you can exchange movies in the store for free, but you don't get streaming movies online.

If you decide to buy, I'd go with half.com if you don't mind them used. If so, deepdiscount.com is absolutely the best deal you can find. They take their sweet time shipping if you choose the "free shipping" option.

Ryan

Every once in a while I'm at Blockbuster or Wal-Mart, I'll end up walking out with a nice-sized stack of older cheapo DVDs on sale. They're not the current releases, and it's not like the real popular ones all go on sale later on (that I can see), so many times they're B-ish type movies (some old classics, though).

But, if you're willing to lag riding the leading edge (much less the bleeding edge), you can get away much cheaper. I do that with a lot of things (appliances, etc.), the latest and greatest usually comes down in price eventually. Plus, all the kinks are worked out. A few years ago my new car had a CD player, my previous was cassette tape. My home DVD player is fairly recent. I still record with VCR tapes.

Armed with Bluetooths, HD TVs with large HD screens, Blackberrys, etc., is just a waste of money, but you have to have the personality for it (or not be able to afford it).

go to pawn shops. you can negotiate especially if you are buying lots, and they are cheap. you can also go to yard sales, flee markets, check out craigslist, sometimes blockbuster and the like have decent sales, the clubs like columbia house (although you really get limited selection for their promo and buying after their promo isn't necessarily a good deal), or go to any other video rental store.

1. Cheap HTPC with DVI or component out and SPDIF audio out
2. One or two TB hard drives
3. Netflix subscription
4. DVDShrink 3.2 - rip to .iso, no compression
5. VLC Media Player

Once you can double-click a movie title on the screen, load any of 100s of DVDs in 2.3 seconds (with full menus and special features), watch it with perfect digital audio passed to your surround receiver, you'll never want to handle a disc again.

Added bonus: My 6-year-old can watch Barbie Mariposa another 274 times and I won't have to clean a disc or repair scratches.

www.swapadvd.com

Also, take it from somebody who owned 80 DVDs at one point; DVDs are one of the worst investments for entertainment. Especially if you buy them new at retail prices.

If you really must own a massive DVD collection

1) www.swapadvd.com <--- DVDs for the price of postage, plus you can get rid of DVDs you own but dont watch for credit
2) Buy used at amazon.com or ebay.com
3) Build an HTPC to store your digital media files

I am personally looking to build an HTPC with massive hard drives to store my digital media as DVDs take up A TON of space.

Keep in mind that ripping and keeping videos from a rental source is technically a federal crime.

Just to nitpick, it's copyright infringement, which in most circumstances makes it a matter for civil, not criminal courts.

My NetFlix subscription has primarily been used to get clean copies of previously-purchased DVDs my hellion daughter has scratched to pixellated unwatchability. The clean disc gets ripped to the media server. Any new movie I really want for myself is likely to be on sale at Target well before NetFlix's queue gets it to me anyway.

Regarding the use of NetFlix or other rentals for the singular purpose of building a library of ripped movies, I'm largely unsympathetic to those particular copyright holders. I can't really defend my position here, since they're entitled to their royalties. I just have a very negative opinion of the four-letter orgs and like to see them get screwed, even if only a little bit. I guess this makes me a bad person.

Speed limits are posted in clear view too, and not many people go the posted limit (I go 5 over and people are constantly zooming by me).

I guess the market will have to come to a solution. Maybe they'll figure out a way to encrypt music and videos to make it as secure as it once was when buying an LP* or 45RPM (you could copy to cassette tape eventually).

If it's easy to copy, people will do it. You're probably OK as long as it's for personal use. When you start selling them is when it gets a little dicey.



* 33 RPM

I'm also not a fan of purchased videos. I check mine out of the library, for free.

My husband is always poking around Blockbuster, yard sales and book sales to see what cheap used DVDs turn up. In our area there is also an outlet for a video chain to sell their excess previously viewed DVDs fairly cheap.

I'm currently on craigslist trying to negotiate with some people who want to get rid of their WHOLE DVD collection. Some have 100 DVDs, some have 300 DVDs. Although 300 is a bit much, if the seller lowers their price, I'd take it! Just a good general collection is all I need.

Do you have a large family??? If I were you, I would really start off small. Unless, you are a pack rack or get an extremely good deal then you will just turn around and resell those DVDs.

I have completely eliminated my collection as I don't watch any of the anymore.