Why Don't I Own More Movies on DVD?

This is a follow-up to my post last week where I cheered on the demise of the DVD format. In the course of writing up the article, I briefly reflected on how few DVDs I own myself. My entire media collection is probably about only about thirty discs, and a good chunk of those are television show boxsets. Most of the professed cinephiles I know have collections that require separate shelving, while mine just has a shelf. From the dates of the films, most of my purchases were made when I was still in school, and the rest are almost all gifts. I can't remember the last time I just went and bought anything for myself. Apparently I'm part of a larger trend too. According to the LA Times, everyone seems to be cutting back on buying DVDs.

I thought I'd do a little navel gazing and try to sort out how I got to this point. As a kid, like many others, I dreamed about owning the video store and got starry-eyed whenever I met anyone with a particularly impressive library of films. I hoarded beloved VHS tapes when I was in high school and scoured Ebay for rarities when I got to college. On the other hand, as a professional cheapskate, I never got into the habit of buying newly released films, and nearly all of my acquisitions are used or discounted. Of course, that doesn't explain why I stopped scouring Wal-Mart bargain bins and Blockbuster's racks of used rental tapes - my VHS copy of "Iron Giant" has far more awesome cover art than any of the retail versions and cost me a cool $3. Or why I make so little use of services like Glyde and Swaptree that are geared toward bargain shoppers.

A big reason is that at some point I stopped watching the films I own. I would watch a newly purchased DVD once or twice to see the extras and the commentary, but then it would go on the shelf to gather dust until a guest came over and requested it, or until I needed to move house. My media consumption habts have changed drastically since when I was a kid, and I no longer watch the same handful of movies over and over again. Instead, I'm constantly trying to play catch-up with all the movies that are available to me in theaters and through rentals. Where ten years ago I might have pulled out old standbys like "Edward Scissorhands" or "Beauty and the Beast" for a dull weekend, now I'm more likely to go for that obscure Romanian film that never got domestic distribution, but just popped up on Netflix. When I want to rewatch films for the extras, it's easy to rent them.

I do have favorite films that I've seen multiple times and never get tired of. I watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" all the way through to the end every time I find it playing on AMC, but I don't own a copy myself. It used to be that if you didn't own a film yourself, there was always the hassle of going down to the rental store or the library in order to find a copy if you wanted to see it. You'd also run the risk that the title might not be available, or the waiting period would be prohibitive. Accessibility is the reason why I finally caved in and bought the original "Star Wars" trilogy on DVD when a set was released with the unedited versions, because who knew if I'd get the chance again? I'm also more likely to buy films and TV shows that are more obscure, because I don't know if they'll be available in another year or two or ever. "Close Encounters" will never go out of print, but my favorite anime series might.

That kind of uncertainty is going away quickly, though. Now we're down to a two-day turnaround on Netflix, or a digital copy of most mainstream films available instantly if you don't mind paying a little more. It's not a perfect system, especially for the most ardent film fans, but it's getting pretty good for the average movie lover. DVDs don't take up nearly the amount of space that VHS tapes did, but they do add up. Subscribing to a service like Netflix is essentially like having access to a giant library of films that you don't have to maintain. There aren't that many films that I want or need immediate access to anymore. It would be different if I had kids, or if I had a hobby like vidding, or if I needed the films on hand for reference as an academic or filmmaker. There's still a nice feeling of certainty knowing that I can pop "The Nightmare Before Christmas" into the DVD player whenever I want, but the last time I actually did was to test my speaker system.

Finally, there's the little matter of the Red Queen's Race of media formats. I made a conscious decision to stop buying VHS tapes around 2003 because DVDs were starting to dominate. Now we're seeing Blu-Rays hitting the market, along with the first wave of digital downloads. I think that non-physical digital media is where the industry is headed, but until the studios figure out a way to start including the usual DVD extras with the files available now, I'm not keen on biting just yet. And I'm not holding my breath for a full-scale launch of digital downloads to rival DVDs and Blu-Rays any time soon, because once everything goes digital the content will be harder to control. The studios aren't going to let that happen without more protections in place. We're going to be in this transitional phase for a while, giving me another reason to hold off on making purchases en masse.

I still buy plenty of DVDs, but generally not for myself. As the holiday season approaches, I like DVDs as a default gift when I can't think of anything else to get someone. They're easy to wrap, easy to store and transport, and picking mixes of different titles for people is fun. For myself, though, I'm spending the money on more movie tickets and renewing my rental subscriptions.