Does anyone still buy and collect DVDs?

Interesting. I know if some reputable name company offered a plain player, I'd buy it in an instant. These maddening smart machines and complex deep menus are driving me away.

What happened to plug and play?

 

I still have my LG BP550 Blu-ray player. Just a plain, no-nonsense Blu-ray player. There is a similar player that does 4K but it's about $200 (I think it's called the LG UBK90). I just can't afford to spend that much on a new player. I might buy it if it were closer to $100.

 

I've been experiencing problems with my low end Sony 4k player playing Blu's and DVD's - lots of skips and freezes - so I went back to a very basic little Sony Blu-Ray player and the same discs work fine. I'm starting to think 4k isn't really worth the hype unless maybe it's movies that were recently made. My eyes are getting old though admittedly.

All my purchases from the various Black Friday sales are finally rolling in. I have to say there were some fantastic sales this year - pretty much every boutique label had some kind of sale or other with some as low as $7-8 for Blu-Rays. I also noticed that Kino Lorber seems to have a major sale nearly every month with some fantastically offbeat titles. My exploitation coffers are full!

 

Panasonic makes the best Blu-ray players currently. Old movies put on 4K work just as well as recent movies.

 

Boy - I am finding more and more individual sellers are trying to pass of DVD-R's these days. I'm almost at a point where, if it doesn't come from an established retailer, I'm going to give it a pass. It's good to ask ahead of time on almost anything you buy on Ebay these days. A few guys have told me they 'didn't know' they weren't real DVD's. A real shame but I guess it was inevitable. Another nail in the coffin for physical media.

 

For certain genres, eBay is ripe with DVD-Rs and bootlegs.

 

TV series are the most prone to fakes because of the number of discs. I have gotten bootleg disks and authentic disks from reputable buyers in the same order so these boots can be mixed in with regular stock. Perhaps even the seller is unaware since they don't check discs and these were sealed anyway.

 

Just got home from Big Lots. They had a ton of tv series for good prices. Most were 5 dollars a season. Spent way more than I planned. Good titles like, Have Gun Will Travel, I Love Lucy, Mannix, The Untouchables, Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction, Mork + Mindy, The Gene Autry Show, Hogan's Heroes, etc.. There were also half seasons of shows like Bonanza, Rawhide and The Fugitive. I went a little nuts and came home with 2 big bags full!

 

I used to think that, but even Panasonic stopped updating my friend’s player. It was a top of the line player with 7.1 analog output, component output and HDMI. The streaming apps are useless and the Panasonic marketplace hasn’t been updated in years.

 

Another bunch added to my library: 3 Godfathers / A Farewell To Arms / Ali / Batteries Not Included / Blackmail / Buster Keaton At MGM
Triple Feature (Parlor, Bedroom & Bath / Speak Easily / The Passionate Plumber) / College Swing & The Big Broadcast Of 1938 (Double
Feature) / Doloris Claiborne / For Love Of The Game / Get On Up / Hell's House / James Stewart 6-Movie Western Collection (Destry Rides
Again / Winchester '73 / Bend Of The River / The Far Country / Night Passage / The Rare Breed) / John Wayne Triple Feature (The Big
Stampede / Ride Him, Cowboy / Haunted Gold) / The Karate Kid Collection / Our Miss Brooks / Perry Como's Christmas Show / Ray / Rudy
/ Run Silent, Run Deep / Saboteur / The Stranger / What! No Beer? / The Wild One / Young At Heart.

 

Though they have never rented... We still have one "mom and pop" dvd/record shop in my town of Lancaster, Ohio. "PULP REALITY." That sells used vinyl, video games, dvds and blu-rays. It's been in business for 10-15 years and shows no sign of closing. They have a big bin I call the "50 Cent Speedway"with dvds for fifty cents. And just did a huge buyout from a collector of about 1500 "classic" movie DVDs- all in the range of $3 to $10. I come home with a bundle after every visit.

 

My Panasonic 9000 and 820 have performed flawlessly. I have Panasonic's first BD player, the BD10, still. I have it on my stereo to play my little collection of music discs. I had two Oppo 203's. I really liked them. One of 'em boke and won't do anything but light up. The other one works but has white spots in the picture. I might get it fixed...???

I don't use the streaming apps on any of my players. I use my Tivo for that. I keep it simple, play disc.

Panasonic has a rather limited presence in the United States in recent years.....

 

The Panasonic Blu-ray players streaming apps became redundant when Lance's Sharp LCD died and was replaced with an LG. I recently disconnected my lifetime Roamio. The OTA north west of Philadelphia has gone down in quality that only the TV can receive PBS. The streamings apps on the Roamio are nowhere as responsive as a vintage 2015 Roku 2. It's disappointing that streaming apps brick long before the key device around them fails. Sorry about the rant.

 

Bought Planes Trains & Automobiles in the bargain bin last fall. Also bought Thief with James Caan.

 

Big Lots has good BDs for $3-5 each; I usually go once a month (one county over).

 

I often rent a DVD from RedBox. If given the option to rent or buy as often occurs, if I like the movie I’ll usually buy.

 

I totally agree. It seems the idea of simply plugging in a modern DVD player to a modern TV requires Apps, patches and Bells and Whistles. I also understand recent video game systems are similar in this aspect as well. I am against the idea of being 'online' when watching DVDs and playing Video games, as what happens where the server is down or no internet connection in remote areas.

 

We are still struggling, but I've gotten to the point that I think it would be wonderful, and should be required by legislation, that all this machinery should have a basic non-smart option setting that people like me can choose. 'Spose that's as unlikely and quaint as saying all cars should have a standard drive option

 

Hire a driver who speaks your language.

 

If you wanna rant in the right direction, I'd look around at the several entertainment giants, Crumcast and the others, that are buying up all the streaming services as fast as they can. They probably want old apps on players to go away. They might just want folks to be herded towards their latest wizz-bang, little streaming devices....??? What's that old adage, "power corrupts and erupts up-chucks..." ....or something like that...

Always remember, Emperor Ming darn near became ruler of Earth without getting off his sofa on the Moon. That's the actual beachboy history of the Human struggle. That how all this Apps-olutely stuff began and led us to this place today where once lofty Apps have been moth-balled and sit in rows, parked in the Hudson River. It's a disturbing sight but that's the world we live in today and probably tomorrow and the day after next.... The greatest of the greats of our time, Ian Dury, once said, when you blow out your birthday candles wish for another birthday but that's beside the point, at this point. Apps fall just like great empires all did. Nero lit an App fire that has never stopped.

 

the Walmart near me has a bin of assorted DVD's, all mixed up and piled on top of each other on the cheap. I bet the ones I want on the bottom, but I'm not about to go digging around.

 

How hard would it be just to stack them with the title up, instead of just throwing them in a bin ? Reminds me of the cutout albums at Woolworths in the early 70's where they just throw them in a pile and you had to dig your way thru it.

 

Well, if it helps I have a Sony BDP-S1700 that's a very basic machine. You just turn it on, it loads up and there's this plain, cleaned-up menu where you can choose between the disc in the drive or the USB drive (if you, like me, always have such a thing plugged into the player). And that's it. I could connect it to the web, but I won't do that as I have other devices for streaming, YouTube etc. Never had problems with new blu rays, either.

No 4K, though. Just a standard blu ray player, but that's all I need

 

Sometimes it's worth rooting around in those bins-I've found a few good titles in those bins.

 

I ran to Big Lots yesterday, and while they had some TV related DVDs, the bulk of what they had was still movies... It does sound like your Big Lots had a much better selection than the one here.

I did manage to find the final season of "Rawhide" (season 8), "Have Gun, Will Travel" season 4-volume 1, and "Bosom Buddies" season 1 (that was is an impulse buy, as I haven't seen the show since the 80s and wanted to see what I thought of it nowadays). I also bought the big box of seasons 1 thru 3 of "The Untouchables", so I didn't walk away totally empty handed.

I wish our Big Lots would have had the shows you mentioned like "Bonanza" & "Petticoat Junction"... They had "The Andy Griffith Show", but only season 1, which I already own, so no luck there..