DVD Library

[zedz]

I think most people who see how my music collection is filed would agree that it's excessive. If they manage to avoid the falling shelf deathtrap.

[zombeaner]

Have you not already conquered this issue via The 400 Blows? There should already be a precedent.

[swo17]

Solution: only owning The 400 Blows.

[zedz]

And anyway, in that case the BluRay wouldn't be smugly sitting RIGHT NEXT TO the box set, and thus provoking swo's apoplexy.

[EDIT: Assuming filing by spine number, naturally, or is that too presumptuous?]

(How insensitive we all are to this man's problems!)

[Brian C]

Shelve the movies outside of the box. That way, you can actually see all spine numbers 66-69. Then just replace Orpheus. The box itself will be empty, but no one will know it because that part will be facing the wall anyway.

[knives]

Just do what I'm doing and not upgrade until it's possible to get all three and sell off the boxset.

[swo17]

Assuming filing by spine number, naturally, or is that too presumptuous?]

It is. I file my Criterions (together with my MoCs) by director, with each director's work ordered chronologically, and with directors ordered chronologically by the earliest film in the collection. It looks as awesome as it sounds.

And now you know everything about me.

[zedz]

In that case, I think you're a disgrace to all mathematically-inclined obsessive collectors everywhere! [/gloveslap]

EDIT: I just re-read what you wrote. Do you really file chronologically by director? If so, you are truly one sick puppy. [/highfive]

[swo17]

Do you really file chronologically by director? If so, you are truly one sick puppy. [/highfive]

That's a rather crass way of putting it, but yes.

[Tom Hagen]

I file chronologically by director as well. I then organize the various directors into broader "meta categories" related to various film movements, eras, nationalities, etc.

It probably only makes sense to me.

[matrixschmatrix]

I keep my Criterions and MoCs on shelves, but everything else gets put into binders- I wish I could figure out a way to organize them that would mean I didn't have to keep taking everything out and moving them to squeeze new things in, but the only way I can think of that would accomplish that is 'chronologically by purchase date', which is just silly.

[oldsheperd]

I keep my ccs seperate from my other dvds on a different shelf. The other dvd I try to keep organized as well, but I'm only really concerned with my dog not trying to eat them. I've lost High and Low and the cases to Santa Sangre and Forbidden Planet because of her.(Not too mention my Camp Lo cd and my Hall and Oates greatest hits cd cover)

[captveg]

I just separate my Criterion Blus and DVDs, then have 'em by spine # within their relative section. By doing this the Antoine Doinel box and the 400 Blows blu are nowhere near each other, and the same will happen for the Orphic Trilogy and the Orpheus blu.

[daniel p]

I sold off Au Revoir Les Enfants, and bought the Blu (on way now) which I will just put in the Malle box.
I'm unsure what to do with Orpheus, probably the same.
I haven't upgraded 400 Blows yet, I still have the Doinel box sitting there. I just love the packaging, but truth be told there's only one film I would rewatch more than once.

I wish the entire Malle and Cocteau boxes were being upgraded, would make things a lot easier!

[HistoryProf]

I keep my Criterions and MoCs on shelves, but everything else gets put into binders- I wish I could figure out a way to organize them that would mean I didn't have to keep taking everything out and moving them to squeeze new things in, but the only way I can think of that would accomplish that
is 'chronologically by purchase date', which is just silly.

I want to put my "everything else" into binders....i've been thinking about it for a while now - where do you get sleeves to put the discs in? Are they just regular 3 ring binders?

[matrixschmatrix]

I want to put my "everything else" into binders....i've been thinking about it for a while now - where do you get sleeves to put the discs in? Are they just regular 3 ring binders?

I use these- they protect the discs from dust and what have you, and the individual pages in them are swappable (meaning if you get a box set that goes in the middle of one for whatever reason, you can just grab a page off the end, fill it up, and put it in the middle, instead of having to switch absolutely everything.) It's worth it, the cases stay nice and undamaged in the attic, and I can carry a lot more of my collection around.

[Felix]

Do you really file chronologically by director? If so, you are truly one sick puppy. [/highfive]

That's a rather crass way of putting it, but yes.

Zedz, how do you file them if you don't do them chronologically by director??? Other than doing the whole lot chronologically, which would be interesting as a one-off but not for permanent, I can't think of any other way to do them? (I make an exception for Alien, Lon Chaney - though i have awful problems with Chaney/Browning films- Die Hard and Christina Lindbergh but I always feel guilty doing so.)

[matrixschmatrix]

Do you really file chronologically by director? If so, you are truly one sick puppy. [/highfive]

That's a rather crass way of putting it, but yes.

Zedz, how do you file them if you don't do them chronologically by director??? Other than doing the whole lot chronologically, which would be interesting as a one-off but not for permanent, I can't think of any other way to do them? (I make an exception for Alien, Lon Chaney - though i have awful problems with Chaney/Browning films- Die Hard and Christina Lindbergh but I always feel guilty doing so.)

Mine are alphabetically by director's last name, which has its own issues- I decided that for my purposes W.C Fields and the Marxes count as the directors of their movies- but has the advantage that I can actually remember most director's names, whereas I'm terrible at chronology.

[scotty2]

Chronologically by director, but not by director's birth date--by the date of the director's first film in the collection. So all of Bunuel before all of Hitchcock, which would change if I ever picked up Blackmail.

[Gregory]

Whatever happened to good ol' alphabetical? If I want to remember which titles I have by a given director, I've got to use old-fashioned memory, which is still pretty reliable. I can't imagine having to remember who directed a handful of the titles I own, or having to look them up every time.
I use what's called a "rough sort": all the A titles jumbled together, then all the B titles jumbled together, etc., which requires just a bit more hunting. Shifting around is generally minimal, as I reached a point a couple years ago when the DVD collection really should not expand. The Blu-ray collection, tucked away somewhere else, is growing but still fairly small. For DVDs, I try to sell at least one for each one I add.

[matrixschmatrix]

I like having all of a director's movies grouped together- if nothing else, it means a lot less breaking up of box sets.

[Gregory]

I solve that problem by grouping all the multi-film sets together before the alphabetical system. I'd estimate only 2/3 of these are director-themed. With a few of the multi-disc sets that have each title in its own case, I flattened the outer box, put it in storage, and put the lesser titles into a binder or in my "movies I don't really care that much about" box in the closet. This is the kind of thing I have to do, as I don't have the space for everything to be accessible in the same place. Part of me wishes something the thickness of the ThinPak cases had been the industry standard, with the thickness of regular keepcases used only for 2-disc sets or releases with thick booklets. I did end up switching many of my cases over to ThinPaks, which required some minor acts of butchery.

[matrixschmatrix]

I really would advice DVD binders- the discs are perfectly safe, you can put the cases somewhere out of the way, and you can store literally thousands of discs in a cubic foot or two.

[Gregory]

With the various ones I've used, the discs often tend to get surface scuffs no matter how careful I am. When I decide to sell something on Amazon, these little marks mean the difference between listing something as "Like New" or "Very Good," which can affect price and how quickly it sells.

[matrixschmatrix]

I'm surprised, that's never been an issue for me. Although I never list anything as 'Like New', as it seems to be an invitation to disputes, even the double sided discs I put in binders seem to come out perfectly well. Maybe it varies with the material used for the sleeves.