Last week, we asked how many Blu-ray discs you own. For this week’s poll, let’s find out how many of those movies in your collection you’ve actually watched.
Like many collectors, I’ve managed to acquire a large library of movies on disc, more than I could possibly have enough time to actually sit down and watch. Until now, I hadn’t really given much thought to counting the disparity between how many movies I’ve watched and how many I haven’t. However, I did have the foresight to track my viewing habits by flagging titles in DVD Profiler after I’ve finished watching them. That allowed me to export a report and do some math.
Between DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray, I own 956 movies on disc at present. (I’m not bringing Laserdisc into this.) It turns out that I’ve watched 522 of them, or approximately 55%.
To break that out a little further, I’ve watched 44% of my Blu-rays, also 44% of my HD DVDs, and 73% of my DVDs.
Because I realize that not everyone will be able to pull up an exact count like I have, we’ll keep the poll to broad estimates. I’ll let you make your own decisions about counting methods.
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Alex
There’s a few that are my wife’s choice selections that I haven’t watched yet. Anne of Green Gables comes to mind. Other than those, there’s a couple of discs that I haven’t watched, but they’re of movies that I have seen at another point.
HuskerGuy
If I own it, I’ve watched it.
lordbowler
The real question is how many discs that you own have you played? I’ve seen most movies I own, but I’ve not played about half of my discs.
I’ve seen the movies in theater, on TV, Netflix, etc. I’ve then bought the disc and never watched it again!
William Henley
I agree. I have seen probably 90% of the movies I have own, but as far as how many of the discs have been played, I am probably around 1/3rd (since there was no 1/3rd, I chose 1/2). If I bring VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD, than I am probably at about 95% I have seen but about 1/4th of the medias that I have watched. Shoot, probably half the laserdiscs I have, I only have them to show off to friends. IMHO, it says you are a true movie buff if you have Laserdiscs in your collection. And if someone asks, I can actually fire up the laserdisc player, but yeah, a good portion of my laserdiscs have not been watched. I truthfully don’t even know why I picked up Young Einstein, except maybe that I paid only $1.50 for it.
Aaron Peck
I’ve watched pretty much every disc I own. There’s only a few that are still in shrink wrap, but I’ve actually seen those movies in the past. I don’t have any blind buys that I’ve never watched.
Josh Zyber
AuthorTo clarify, I was specifically asking about how many of the discs themselves you’ve watched, whether you’ve seen the movie in another media (theater, broadcast TV, etc.) or not.
EM
I chose “I’ve watched the majority…”; but if that response and “I’ve watched every…” had referenced sets or units instead of individual discs, I would have gone with “I’ve watched every…”.
Upon acquiring a DVD or Blu-ray, I usually pop it into a player the same day to at least sample it; if I can’t watch at least the feature material in its entirety the same day, I make it a priority to do so within the next few days. Of course, it might take longer with sets of multiple movies or episodes.
My viewing rate of discs is not at 100% because of two factors: recent acquisitions and multiple features. I don’t shelve an acquisition until it is “watched enough”. I have shelved some multiple-main-feature (movie or TV episode) sets without watching every single feature on the set; usually, though, I’ve seen the unwatched material somewhere before. Perhaps my most unwatched shelved discs are the Star Trek original-series Blu-rays; not only are there episodes I have not bothered to re-watch in Blu (“The Alternative Factor” is brain-damaging enough in standard def!), but I’ve also watched very few of the “enhanced” episodes in any format.
It’s hard for me to imagine buying sets that I would not watch, for I collect only what I want to view and re-view.
William Henley
Well, now, if we are talking about SAMPLING a disc, I could say that I have viewed most of them, and the ones that are still in shrink wrap, they are movies that I have rented from Netflix before.
I don’t think I have ever bought a movie with no intent of watching it, I think my issue is that SO MANY movies have come out between September of last year and now, and I bought more than I have time to watch. These past two weeks, I have gotten through two series and a movie that I bought months ago. They will all get watched, and rewatched, I’m just drowning in my queue!
William Henley
Darn, wish you could edit in the blog. Yeah, if you asked this question about 9 months ago, I could probably say that I have watched most of them.
EM
Many people whom I know offline think that I have a large collection of DVDs and Blu-rays; but the responses to last week’s mid-week poll tended to blow my collection out of the water, not that I was surprised.
The same people who think I have a large collection (for the record, some 340 units, including 51 Blu-ray releases) are sometimes surprised when I say I am selective in my purchases. But really, I am. Each disc or disc set has to contain some work that I truly wish to keep for posterity, that I wish to watch many times and to be able to watch at a moment’s notice. I have to feel sure, and I can be merciless in deciding in what doesn’t make it into the collection.
Years ago, a friend who did have a larger collection than mine made the unusual comment that he liked my collection more than his. I don’t think he meant that I had movies that were better than anything of his; I think he just meant that there was less “fat” in my video library.
I wonder if lesser selectivity is a contributing factor as to why many of the respondents are reporting large or largish quantities of unviewed discs. Note that when I talk about selectivity I don’t mean “good taste” and so forth; I just mean a high personal value to the collector him- or herself, regardless of whether the film is arthouse, grindhouse, or somewhere in between.
Brian Darroch
The one thing I tend to buy and not watch all of is TV series. I own Buffy, Angel, Friends, X-Files, Farscape, Stargate SG-1 etc but I haven’t watched all the episodes on disc. I tend to watch some occasionally when in the mood e.g X-Files – War of the Coprophages is a personal favourite
Josh Zyber
AuthorAh yes, the Darin Morgan quartet of episodes: Humbug, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, War of the Coprophages, and Jose Chung’s From Outer Space. Those are reason enough to keep my X-Files DVDs around, and are the only episodes I’m likely to rewatch on a whim.
It’s amazing how, in a show that ran nine seasons, those four episodes stand out so clearly from the rest. His two episodes of Millennium (Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense and Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me) are excellent as well.
August Lehe
As soon as I figure out how to upgrade my player, maybe 60%. And when I retire end of 2012, I should be close to 100%!
Josh Zyber
AuthorYou people who’ve watched most of the discs you own are really putting me to shame. You know that, right? 🙂
EM
Delighted to be of service. 🙂