jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Movies and music have gone the way of the paperless office. It's all a big lie. You don't see many CDs for sale in stores because people think they can just download them. People say they got rid of all their CDs because they didn't need them. It's the same with movies and TV shows on DVDs. This has turned out to be another Big Lie. Pick a couple of good movies from the past and try to find a place you can watch them for free. The Netflix inventory consists of more than fifty percent self-produced movies - zombies, apocalyptic future, comic book films, and pure junk.

We pay a lot for Amazon Prime, but more and more of its films require rental or purchase. A friend recently mentioned the very funny "Carry On" series of films from England. You can watch some if you pay $5.99 each on Prime. You've heard the expression "You get what you pay for." I've always thought that was a meaningless expression, but now, we're paying, but not getting.

I have a huge collection of CDs - about 720 in a large wall rack, plus others here and there. I probably have a couple of hundred movies on DVD. Without the actual "old fashioned" media, all that entertainment would cost me money.

Well, that's my first rant of the day.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I have nearly all of my music in physical forms too, CDs, LPs, CSs, close to 7,000! And I have many hundreds of DVDs, Blu-rays, and VHS movies. Takes up a lot of space. Though I try to restrict my movie purchases to ones I will watch repeatedly. I also view movies on Amazon-Plus, Paramount+, and Google originals, and the like.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

There are movies I would like to see on each of the streaming services, but I'm not going to pay $100 a month for them.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

My son literally has several thousand DVDs and VHS tapes (many films never made it from VHS to DVD) for just the reasons you mentioned. He collects mostly American and foreign horror and classics and is part of a huge network of collectors. When the apocalypse comes and civilization collapses, he'll still be watching his shows while the rest of us will be fighting over the last rolls of toilet paper and six packs of beer.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I put my videos into a database program, but when I switched computers, I didn't reinstall it. I should get back to it. I'll have to remember the name before I can reinstall it.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Exactly!

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

I have 474 movies and TV series on 647 DVD's - in process of copying them to external drives. Once complete with digitizing them I would like to integrate into the movie app - still learning the app using an external drive.

I have 39GB of music that I have ripped from my CD's to my computer - in process of integrating them into my music app and putting in the cloud.

A friend downloads movies (paid subscription) and then puts them in his movie library on another computer - he runs them through a program that keeps the movie only and removes all other coding - he says it works fine and has a library in the thousands. He said as long as he's not sharing/selling the ones he makes - personal use only - he is ok... He offered the program to me and showed me how to use it but I declined at the time - don't have the time to do that - too many other things going on.

Hmmm, maybe I should get the program and an AI bot to do it for me

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

LOL

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I didn't know you could download and save movies from streamers. Does he use one of those adapter boxes to record onto a computer?

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

He just downloads the movies to watch offline - Netflix, Prime, Stars and Apple have the option - plus there are webistes for free movie downloads - FMovies, Popcornflix, Tube, Vimeo, etc... a search for best free movie download websites shows a bunch of them...

Red6

Jerry, I am betting that you have not moved in many years. From your posts here I read about your tools, your workshop, house etc. Nothing wrong in that but if you ever have to move, you will regret every box and truckload you have.

I was you 20+ years ago. I had a lot of my father's tools, I had VCR tapes, CDs, DVDs, players for all these, TVs, collectibles of all kinds, clothes that I never wore or could wear again, and on and on. In fact, I had truckloads of "stuff'. Some stuff that I had not used, or seen, in years. We had a huge house cleaning and many old hobbies and hobby items and collectibles were sold or donated. I gave all my tools to my son who is getting married and buying a house. He is graduating soon and will join the ranks of those working or "putting on the yoke" for the long pull.

Well after moving around about 7 times after 1999 I have adopted the "simpify" life style. It is a modified minimalist style. If I have something I have not used in the last several months, I get rid of it. I usually sell it or in the case of clothing, I donate it. I used to have dozens, maybe hundreds of books. But they are mostly all gone now. Most of my reading now is done on my tablet where I have many books stored. I also visit used bookstores where I buy and then resell books that I want to read. We cut down to one TV and one DVD player to play the DVDs that we purchase/resell at the used bookstore. Everything else we stream.

Our philosophy now is that if we cannot get our belongings in one medium size U-haul truck, we have too much stuff. It is a very liberating feeling. We recently sold our home last July and are now living "on the road" moving every 6 months or so, and visiting places we have always wanted to see. We have a 30-day cruise coming up in March and when we return, we will be moving again in May to new places.

I am reminded of passages from Thoreau's writings:

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of.

Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot!

But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.

sgt hop Loc: baltimore md,now in salisbury md

i have about 30 operas on dvd and a load of classical music on cds....good enough for me...also have some of my childhood 45's frankie laine, four aces,etc....i'm set......

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Yep, we’ve been suckered in by the predatory capitalist machine. Ownership of things will become a thing of the past in the not too distant future and we’ll have to rent everything, except possibly food.

Stan

RainierView Loc: Eatonville, WA

Wow, you guys blow me away. I thought I had a lot of CDs, only a little over the 300 on my Sony 300-disc CD player. All songs from the 50s thru the 80s that I listen to on the Sony 120w per channel equalizer/amplifier to 4 large speakers from the 80s that still play crisp and clear.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It's gotten to the point that I can't move. I would need a long freight train to get all my stuff from here to there. Everything is so important that I can't throw it away. If I throw it away today, I'll need it tomorrow.

I have boxes of things to look through and either donate or bring to the dump. It does feel liberating to get rid of things, and I do that occasionally. An upside to having too many things is looking into a box or opening a drawer and finding a nice surprise from the past. I recently saw my slide rule from high school in the garage. : )