I have so many movies, I'm thinking of throwing away all the cases . . .

[Chainsaw Mage]

Okay, in the grand scheme of life, this is a pretty trivial issue. But I'm still wondering what you guys think.

I've got tons of movies on DVD. Tons. And they take up tons of shelf space. Tons. So the other day this strange, alien, unbidden thought creeps into my mind: THROW AWAY ALL THE CASES.

Now keep in mind, when I say "throw away" I mean simply, "Toss in the recycling bin." I mean, it's all plastic, right? And the inserts are all paper/cardboard, right? Just recycle the suckers!

So the voice goes on: PUT ALL YOUR MOVIES IN A COUPLE OF THOSE BIG CD/DVD STORAGE BOOKS.

It seems so radical, so alien, so . . . so . . . possible.

Any of you done this? I see two enormous benefits: space and convenience.

But tossing all those cases and inserts seems . . . wrong. I've been doing this with music CDs for years, but I'm not a big music guy. I AM a big film guy, though. Hence the hesitation.

 

[Richards]

Gaaaaah! Next you'll be--WRITING IN A BOOK!

*Head explodes*

Johnathan

 

[fba827]

i could never throw away the plastic boxes.

Instead, I would recommend that you take some of your movies off the shelf and put them in a storage box (I use those file storage boxes you can get from office supply stores). so stuff i haven't touched in a while but don't want to part with goes in there, or maybe i have it sorted by genre and all my tv show collection dvds go in there, etc. leaving the movies on the visible shelf space.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

i could never throw away the plastic boxes.

Instead, I would recommend that you take some of your movies off the shelf and put them in a storage box (I use those file storage boxes you can get from office supply stores). so stuff i haven't touched in a while but don't want to part with goes in there, or maybe i have it sorted by genre and all my tv show collection dvds go in there, etc. leaving the movies on the visible shelf space.

But that's just moving the space problem to another part of the house. We live in a two bedroom condo, and space is really at a premium (it's me, my wife, and our daughter). And I like having all of my movies/TV shows accessible.

Hmmm. Momentum gathers.

 

[Alan Shutko]

I stopped using the CD storage books when I pulled a CD out and it couldn't be read because the book had somewhat bonded to the surface and left pits. A CD resurfacer cured it, but I'm not trying that again. I'd be somewhat in favor of tossing the cases and putting them in some decent archival bag like comics.

What I would be more likely to do is what I've done with CDs. Rip them and put them all on accessible network storage, ready to stream to your devices. Put the boxes of cases in deep storage somewhere you don't need to get at them. I still have the CDs because I like to have them in raw form, but they're locked away somewhere I don't need to get at them. Maybe for you that's in the attic, or a relative's house, or in the rafters above the garage, or in a storage locker. There's no reason they need to be accessible if all the content is on a disk somewhere.

And hard drives are a lot cheaper than they used to be, and you can get terabytes on a network easily.

 

[El Mahdi]

I've done exactly this for years. (15 to 20 years for most of my CD's, and at least 10 years for most of my DVD's).

As long as you keep your discs clean (free of fingerprints, dust, etc.), put them away clean, and keep them in a normal indoors environment (room temperature, no extreme humidities, etc.), the discs will keep in the storage books for extended periods with no adverse problems. They'll only "stick" to the inside of the book after extended periods if they were exposed to elevated heat or humidity for a significant amount of time (like sunlight from a window), or had grease or grime left on the disc.

 

[jasper]

We have over 400+ titles and 3 organizers.
The big one has general movies.
The other two are split between James Bond collection, tv shows, Shakespeare, Cartoons, musicals, documentaties.
Unless the dvd is for my wife's school work, the day we watch the dvd it goes into the organizer. The ones still in the cases are movies to be watched. Or her pt ones.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

We have over 400+ titles and 3 organizers.
The big one has general movies.
The other two are split between James Bond collection, tv shows, Shakespeare, Cartoons, musicals, documentaties.
Unless the dvd is for my wife's school work, the day we watch the dvd it goes into the organizer. The ones still in the cases are movies to be watched. Or her pt ones.

This is what I'm thinking of doing exactly. One organizer for horror, one for TV shows, one for documentaries, etc.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

What I would be more likely to do is what I've done with CDs. Rip them and put them all on accessible network storage, ready to stream to your devices.

Uh, by "stream to your devices" do you mean "put a DVD in my DVD player?" 'Cause that's the tech level I prefer to operate at, dude.

 

[GreyLord]

I did this several years ago. Make sure you buy quality DVD cases and you probably shouldn't have a problem. Cross my fingers, I have not had any problems yet with things sticking, this is the first I've even heard of such a thing...so hopefully it never happens to mine. I do keep them all clean of grease and grime.

I have two 320 DVD Books...aka...each holds around 320 DVDs. The amount of boxes was simply overwhelming, so I tossed the boxes and put them in the DVD cases. What used to take shelves and shelves...now fit simply on the top of one shelf which is next to the TV. HUGE on saving space.