Well, great for you guys. Far from me to comment on any subjective matters as tastes, ways, means, etc. I've been reading this forum for a long while, and my fascination is purely related to the mechanics of such collections. And although I trust very little charts and stuff like that, I can't help but fall back on numbers. By the time I hit 250 on imdb I already might not know some titles. Collections in the thousands... it means I can watch a movie every day for at least 3 years in a row without repeating. If I have to watch 2 movies in a row every day... I guess there are some guys in the world that are tied to the movie industry and that's their job to watch movies every day, but I have to wonder how all they got together on this forum . Because for the average movie-lover I don't picture him as having the time to watch 2 movies every day. Furthermore I cannot imagine the... elasticity of such a passion/interest. It's probably just me and my limits. Can't help but notice though, tongue-in-cheek style, that you can collect 2 or more movies every day... but that's something else.

As for the technical side I'm very convinced that this big, physical collections have no future. DVDs definitely look nice all stacked together but - say I have a non-hacked standalone player -  by the time I have to look through one of these mighty collections, pick up the title, put it in the player, go through the forced commercials, some unskipable, then watch the movie... I grow tired after so many years of this procedure. It's my way now. Type the title - it pops out as I'm typing. One click - it plays.

And arguably you can stream it everywhere, multiple locations; especially for DVDs, bandwidth won't be a problem even to stream more at once. And then there are N routers, RAID arrays and so on. It certainly might not look like the idea to embrace when you have so many titles in your collection - I used 6 drives just to cut the ripping time for ~500 discs - but the idea has certain advantages.

Quoting m.cellophane:

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Quoting unimatrix01:

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So how is that compared to flipping discs... after you spend some time looking through that gargantuan collection of racks and walls, and rooms, full of cases?!

I know where they all are. And they're not even in alpha order. 

OK, this is meant to be a very friendly observation, don't take me wrong: you do realize you don't have to know where they are? Up to around my first 200 DVDs I knew exactly from what store/online retailer I bought each, what was the general occasion, what version it was - if I should look for the... italian version 'cause it's longer - and so on. And my CDs were always arranged in their cases to be straight while facing up, not rotated 3 degrees, God forbid.
I don't know if I'm right, it's just my opinion now that these are THINGS. Meant to serve you. It's the art of the movies that should be praised - if necessary, not the way a DVD stay on the shelf (or not). There are ideas to be watched, talent to admire, not spending time doing intricate math about this new type of shelf that has a geometry that'll allow storage for 100 discs more than the old shelf. Just my point of view.

Quoting 8ballMax:

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Quoting unimatrix01:

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I would question that you can like so many movies, so many series. You buy them to have them, not to like them. And in the end, you don't own your collection, it itself owns you. Racks and walls, and rooms, and attics, warehouses, etc. Who's winning here? You watching the movies or the dust on that 2482nd disc on the 13th shelf? Hmm.

With all due respect...speak for yourself. You may not like so many movies in your collection but I love movies. Every film I purchased, I purchased because I either liked it or had high hopes for it. I'm not in it for any records or awards. I've watched every movie in my collection, many more than once. And how I spend my hard-earned income is of no concern to you or anyone else for that matter.

Good day

Well put 8ballmax,

Ive spent the past god knows how many years making my collection what it is today. Fair enough there is a few in there that I may not want to watch ever again, but like you, I bought with high hopes that it would be my cup of tea.

But over all, we spend our hard earned money on some thing we love to do, and thats collect and watch movies to our hearts content. My collection is over 1000 (still haven't finished putting all of them on my list!) and it took me a long time, but im proud of it! 

Quoting skipnet50:

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... I also recognized many years ago the tragedy of the material that has been lost to the vagaries of time, accidents and film degradation, in some small way I am trying to do my samll part to make sure some of these treasures will be preserved. ...

... I can promise you that Hollywood is digitizing everything these days BUT they are also retaining hard copies of every title as well, and taking new steps to preserve the Original film as well.

Skip

Another thing about hard drives is that they are not guaranteed to last forever. 

The friend who worked so hard on convincing me that hard drive is the best way to store music has also asked me to store a complete backup of his collection at my house (on additional hard drives, which he will send me).  This is in case of disaster, like fire or flood, but also just in case one of his huge hard drives suddenly crashes to rise no more.  So if you are cautious, you maybe end up storing the collection and stashing it on TWICE the number of hard drives you need just to store the movies once.

Oh -- and since he has always known that media-server storage is subject to the ills that plague all computers, he has never actually gotten rid of his physical CD collection.  So he has that in storage too!

Rrealistically, it seems kind of iffy to have just the hard-drives. So you can spend a LOT of money setting up a movie jukebox and just wind up with MORE stuff.  Except maybe the physical movies are in the attic instead of all over the living room.

I like to view my collection as a library. I enjoy buying movies, and have the freedom to see whatever I'd like, whenever I like. I love buying new shelves and to keep all movies in order. Adding the VHS and laserdiscs, I'm up to appr. 6500 titles, so no need to stop now.

Sure, many I only watch once (actually most, but I do plan on rewatching quite a lot sometime) but most times I won't be able to find half of the titles available to rent. And renting is a hassle. (I also have no option to buy downloads, and of course no desire to).

People spend their money on all kinds of things, so I see no problem spending my own money on movies. It also gives me something to do the day I retire. Even if 8ballMax may have overreacted, I don't see any reason why others should in any way care about how we spend our money.

Somehow people get shocked over my collection of movies, but see it as natural to spend the same amount I have on movies, on a car which will drop half it's value in a few years. Or spend it all on parties.

Well, It's hard to see but this is how I handle my collection. It is a little difficult to take pictures that accurately show how it is set up.  I have a room dedicated to the primary collection library with the last picture showing overflow in my home office.

Quoting NightHawke:

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Well, It's hard to see but this is how I handle my collection. It is a little difficult to take pictures that accurately show how it is set up.  I have a room dedicated to the primary collection library with the last picture showing overflow in my home office.

LOL, we now have proof that you are a very sick man, Night. Nurse Ratched said she will never let you out alone again.        

Skip

His profile link says he has over 7060 some DVDs, so more than your average Blockbuster I do believe!!!