It turns out that people still watch DVDs

Stack of DVDs
Photo from Stocksnap.io

I decided to clean out my very small DVD collection. Out of all the mini collections or groups of things I own, my DVD collection is probably the smallest. It’s probably not even sufficient enough to be called a collection, though – there were probably about six DVDs and one little boxset.

Most movie buffs will have an easy time converting to digital, I think – everything is on Netflix or on the Apple Store or easily obtainable online, unless you are into really rare bootlegs or something. Not too long ago I had disposed of pirated DVDs and torrented files burned to disc, because they were definitely easily obtainable online for a small price (or Brandon had them somewhere and told me there was no point keeping them in disc form).

Not only do I have no idea where our family’s DVD player is, but I have not owned a desktop computer for several years, and only own a MacBook – which doesn’t have a CD drive. Because why would you ever need one?! :D

The only CD drives that I really have available are that of my record player (which also amusingly has a cassette player – by the way, I got rid of all my cassettes some time ago, even the rare Nirvana ones 😭), and the one in my car. The one in my car is rendered useless because my phone connects to the car automatically and I can play music from there. I suppose if I didn’t have internet, I could use the CD player, but I don’t keep CDs in my car, and the radio may not be such a bad option.

Anyway, I was left with DVDs I couldn’t even watch.

Copying DVD content

It turns out I am one of those people who watches television shows that no one else knows about… I had searched online for some of the shows and movies I had on DVD so I could purchase and download, but with no luck. Lockie Leonard, for example, is an Australian television series from about eight years ago that is no longer airing. I couldn’t find anywhere online where I could purchase and download.

I ended up borrowing a Superdrive from work so I could copy the DVD content to my computer and eventually, dispose of the DVDs. A Superdrive is just a disc reader that you plug in to your MacBook via USB. Apple obviously created the product for people who were like, “OMG but I need a CD drive, WTF?”

I used the application Handbrake, as recommended by some coworkers, to copy the DVD content. I had a hard time copying some of them. The files I ended up with were pixelated and skipped a lot. Nothing was wrong with the actual disc, but I suspect there were some settings I had to go through to fix it up, or there was protection on the disc preventing it from being copied in that way.

I didn’t feel like waiting another hour for some discs to copy, and I realised I hadn’t watched some of these DVDs for many years. I gave up and decided I wouldn’t really be at a loss. I really liked the shows and movies but not quite enough to watch them again.

The “problem” of sentimental value

I managed to successfully copy DVDs with my dance and school music concerts. The quality turned out alright, even though some of the files were 10GB alone! I am still wondering what to do with the DVDs and the cases, I might just destroy them. The covers are nothing special, they are over a decade old so the quality is pretty grainy. Over the years I stopped ordering the dance concert DVDs, so in a way I don’t feel I had the dedication to them to begin with. :P

I also copied my graduation ceremony. I don’t know why but I only have one of my graduation ceremonies – maybe sales declined? :P Chances are, I couldn’t justify buying it for my “fifteen seconds of fame” through a 90-minute ceremony… also, the DVD came in a cheap plastic case so I’m sure as hell it wasn’t worth the money.

The important thing is, I have digital copies on my computer of what is sentimental, and I probably won’t look at them in decades, but it’s one of those things that you feel like you have to keep in some way, shape or form.

I’m not going to forget that I had some great dance concerts, and I don’t get to keep the hats I wore from graduation, but at least I’ll personally know the years of study I endured.

Selling the rest

I put some of the DVDs on eBay just to see what would happen. I didn’t expect anyone to buy my DVDs but I set them at a starting bid of $0.99 and put a reasonable Buy It Now price. Some people doubted they would sell, but in the end, all of them sold! Sure, I only ended up profiting $2 from them, but it’s still something. One of them sold for $0.99 + shipping (pathetic – it was also brand new) but I still got an extra buck or two because I had set the shipping price a little high.

I wasn’t really doing it for money, but it was an interesting experiment and makes me think of what other junk I can sell on eBay.

I’m just joking. The strange and interesting part that makes me happy is that I didn’t just dump the DVDs at the charity store, but was able to find people who really, actually wanted them.

Now

I am going to dispose of the more personal dance and music concert DVDs. But I still have one remaining – a boxset of the entire series of Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, which I still really love. The show doesn’t get old and I can’t find the whole series online anywhere. I don’t think I can copy them effectively, either. So it’ll just have to be something I hold onto!

Comments on this post

i used to have tons of DVDs and now i don’t know where they are. okay maybe not really. i do know where some of them are, probably, but not all of them. i don’t know where 80-90% of my dvds went. growing up, i bought a crap ton of films that my mom had to store them in containers and i’m not sure where she stored them now since those containers are no longer in our living room.
i remember being a movie junkie that i always have been, i used to buy pirated DVDs (pfft) because i was too dumb to figure out how torrent works and now look at me, torrenting everyyyythiiing.

I have not owned a desktop computer for several years – omg amazing lol. i was a laptop user for years until college, where i begged for my mom to give me the permission in building a gaming desktop pc. it worked and it’s now my ultimate station in my room, heh. *tryna be some cool IT geek like in movies, heh* 8D
but seriously though, desktop makes everything a lot nicer imo. and i haven’t touched my macbook in mooooonths. the last time i used my macbook was, what… during my thesis and that’s months ago. i mostly do everything at home on my desktop; faster processor, bigger RAM, bigger screen, etc.

oh cassettes. don’t we all remember the time we use pens or pencils to twist around that circle part thing on a cassette (gee, i suck at describing things). i used to do it all the time as a joke and i’d end up breaking it hahaha

my macbook is from the early….2011 one, i think so it still has a CD drive and tbh, i don’t understand how people can live without a CD drive. well sure, maybe they don’t use it a lot but it’s better to be safe than not having it completely. a friend of mine who bought the newer release of macbook pro said it annoys him because he had to buy a separate, external CD drive, pfft. have i also mentioned about how annoying it is that my macbook pro has so little usb ports? urgh, the ports are definitely designed for people who use apple wireless bluetooth mouse, which is hella expensive because, let’s face it, if i use a logitech wireless mouse — the one with micro usb thing — there’s no way i can plug the mouse’s usb AND my usb at the same time due to space limit. pros and cons, i guess that’s what you get from a minimalistic design, lol. (i sound like an apple hater :P)

the only CD-materials i still keep until now are probably music albums. i used to buy them quite a lot just to support my favorite artists. believe it or not, in indonesia, music stores are closed so i don’t know where to buy physical albums anymore. sucks, huh. but yeah, i don’t think i’m going to dispose them since they’re pretty expensive but we’ll see in the future.

Heheh you’re so funny! But I understand what you mean about rotating the cassette tape if you didn’t have a rewind button. :P

I built my own PC and played games but I suppose I am the opposite to you. I don’t feel like I need the big screen anymore! I use one at work with a MacBook Pro but at home I rarely use my external screen. I rarely feel limited. I can’t work very well with a mouse (my hands are small and I used a left-handed mouse), so I use a trackpad, but I hate that too. I haven’t found the right thing.

The new MacBooks are too minimal. I have an early 2015 model and I love it. No issues at all, it’s definitely the computer for me. 😊

I still keep some precious CDs because of their sentimental value. Mine are signed or the music I listen to is hard to find. I also still collect vinyl records. But the same love doesn’t translate to DVDs. I got rid of some CDs but only because I didn’t like them anymore or they didn’t have that sentimental value.

Not knowing where things are is one of my biggest problems still living at home. My stuff tends to get hidden amongst my family’s stuff, and they haven’t adopted (and probably never will adopt) the minimalist culture like I have. Ugh. I feel your pain.

As a family we had a lot of pirated DVDs because our internet was so crap that torrenting was going to be a pain, too. I only downloaded music from the internet but never movies. My brother managed to, but he got caught and we got a warning from our ISP because he torrented a movie that was relatively new at the time. Oops. It was a big scare, not sure how many people they caught, but he stopped torrenting after that.

I built my own computer but it was not really for gaming, so it definitely was not very fit. Funny that you are the opposite – I love my laptop! I use a big screen at work, and sometimes I use an extra screen at home. But at home, I tend to ignore the big screen and forget it’s there… I guess one can always adapt to a new workspace though. I don’t play games as much as I used to. ;_;

That is funny, I haven’t needed to use a CD drive yet, and I’ve lived without a CD drive since 2013! ;p I’ve also never had a problem with the amount of ports on the MacBook Pro. I use the trackpad and don’t use a mouse. So like I said, I guess you adapt to your workspace, and I’ve definitely gotten used to just using the keyboard and trackpad that is on the laptop.

I have some music albums that I collect because I like the artist, or they are signed, but since the music is available digitally and on the internet, I might be getting rid of the ones that are not signed. Problem is, I have a little collection of all the Nirvana albums and their singles collection, and it’s a little tough to part with when you have a little dedicated collection! D:

I have hundreds of DVDs, and those are the ones I don’t want to get rid of. When I moved out of my parents I got rid of the ones I didn’t want, and they’re were so many! I seriously don’t know how I’ve ended up with such a large collection – I rarely buy anything on DVD now!

Glad you managed to sell them online. I wouldn’t have thought you’d have got that much for them, to be honest. Like you say, most people just download films and TV shows now.

Congrats on getting rid of so many!

I rarely buy DVDs anymore because as you pointed out everything is easily accessible online. However, if it’s something that I LOVE (aka Doctor Who and nothing else basically) then I’ll buy the boxset or DVD.

To be fair, I have a MacBook Pro and I only sprung for it because of the CD drive so I could play Sims 3 and watch my DVDs XD But now that Sims 4 is out and you can download it, I don’t even need it anymore. Lololooool, such is life.

I have not owned a desktop computer for several years – me either! I use one at work, but on a personal level it just doesn’t work for me. How will I lounge in my pyjamas in bed with a big ol’ screen?!

I’ve used Handbrake, it’s pretty… shall we say, handy (heeeheheheeeee).

At least you got some money from it off eBay even if it’s only a little bit :) eBay is always hit and miss for me. I’m hardly a seller, but when I do have something I can never seem to get rid f it through eBay unless it was my iPhone 5 which I managed to sell.

I have a couple of DVDs too and I hardly watch them either.

As you saw by my tweet the other day I am also going through a cleaning phase. My brother is a HUGE dvd addict, he has almost two bookshelves. For him its a collection. Personally as long as I have my Harry Potter DVD’s I don’t need anything else.

I just finished exams and am on this mission to clean the crap out of my room. I want to downsize especially my closet have a lot of one time pieces. Need to build a proper wardrobe. I think I remember you writing something about it. Its my mission before 2016 is up to at least get the stuff I no longer need/want into boxes so I can eventually sell or donate, but at least get it out of my room. Once I downsize I have big things coming up (aka my blog) I hope to be back soon! I try to keep up with reading your posts. I just miss the community so much.

I only own 1 DVD and it was certainly helpful to have it back in August when I went back to my college town and hadn’t turned our cable back on.

My roommate, on the other hand, has dozens of dvds. From all the seasons of Boy Meets World to other dramas like ER and countless movies. I never run out of things to watch because of her. xD

I do admit though that I much prefer online streaming to dvds. More and more computers are being made without the disk drive and I never use the one on my own.

But I’m glad you were able to find good homes for all your dvds.

My mom is the one that still clings to DVDs instead of Blurays but it happens <3 Don't worry, I can't really tell the big differences between Bluray to DVDs but my husband can. XD

When I saw you tweeting that you were selling DVDs, I was, too, a little doubtful that people would actually buy them! I mean I have a huge collection which I ‘gave’ to my mom to throw away but she never did and now she displays them in her room *gah it looks like a mess* but since I read this I might actually attempt to sell DVDs on eBay. I wouldn’t have guessed people would still buy them! I would automatically turn online/Netflix/iTunes/amazon for an online version of it to purchase so it’s strange to me that people actually bought it!! Even though it’s not a lot, it’s still something :P I recently sold my Pandora charms on eBay – I didn’t expect a lot because I was like do people still value Pandora bracelets and charms nowadays – I remember when it was so popular a few years ago but now I don’t hear about it often. But I ended up getting £50 after selling just 2! Mind you, I only have a small amount anyway (9? 10?) :P

Eeeeep I feel you! My mum does the same thing, I hand something to her or tell her I don’t want it and she just hoards it. D: That’s not entirely what I wanted! But yeah, give it a go, if it doesn’t work out just take them to the local charity store or something. I’ve also asked people at work if they want stuff, it’s an easy way to get rid of it.

I didn’t think of selling Pandora (I still love all my charms!) but now that you mention it, you made me want to look on eBay for a teapot charm that has been retired that I really want! ;) I only have about 10 charms as well, I am not a huge “collector”. Some people get charms when they are pretty but I try to get charms that actually mean something. :P

I have a big collection of dvd’s and a small collection of blue rays. The dvd’s take up two small bookcases and nearly two large bookcases! I have been trying to downsize. I bought them when it was the best option, in the days before Netflix and cinema, buying or renting were the only real options. Ryan desperately wants me to downsize and only keep my favourites or the special editions (like the ones I have signed by cast members or the steel books).