Which DVDs will you rebuy on Blu-ray?
Prompted by a lively discussion at AVS Forum, CNET considers different strategies for replacing DVD collections with Blu-ray Discs.
Last week, we noticed an interesting conversation over at AVS Forum titled "Your Blu-ray replacement strategy," where users commented on how they decide which of their DVDs to replace with Blu-ray Discs. It's a fair point to discuss, because while most people didn't hesitate to rebuy their VHS tapes on DVD, many would argue that the gap between DVD and Blu-ray is smaller and it's only worth replacing certain titles. Furthermore, some people are just tired of repurchasing movies altogether, after buying them on VHS, DVD, and maybe even Laserdisc. Some of the strategies from the discussion were pretty interesting:
Poster Phanson is mostly a deal hunter:
I replace my SD DVDs with Blu-ray:
1. If the price is right. Example: I purchased both of the Kill Bill discs the other day for $40, with a $20 rebate for owning the SD DVD. Trade my two SD DVD discs in at dvdplanet for $8. That means those discs were $6 each net. Darn good deal. BTW, I would have upgraded these at full retail also.
2. Movies that I really enjoy and have replay potential.
3. Quality usually isn't an issue. Most of the time it is a nice upgrade on video as well as audio.
As for new releases, I do not purchase SD DVD anymore.
Poster BuckNaked's method is a bit more sophisticated:
Here is an exercise I recently went through, which I found very helpful:
1. I imported my collection from DVDSpot into an Excel spreadsheet.
2. Then I deleted all the non wide-screen TV shows, documentaries, and music video collections on DVD. This left me with 484 titles.
3. I then went through the list, and highlighted my current Blu-ray titles in blue (42), and HD DVD titles in red (48). This left 394 SD titles remaining.
4. I then went through the list of 394, and made an honest assessment of each remaining SD title as to whether or not it was worth it to me to upgrade. For each "yes," I highlighted the title in yellow.
5. The final result yielded 77 additional titles (including trilogies, etc.) I have to have in Blu-ray once they are available. The remaining 317 titles will remain in my collection in all their SD glory, and will be just fine for me.
While we admire how rigorous that method is, we have to admit Elementalism probably had our favorite response:
I don't really have one. Right now we will rent from Netflix. But I have no interest in replacing what I already own.
We know plenty of readers have no interest in Blu-ray and are perfectly content with DVDs, but we're more interested in those who are into Blu-ray and have to pick which titles to buy. What is your criteria for a "rebuy"? Will you just rent Blu-ray movies? Or is the jump to HD significant enough that you want to replace your entire collection, when (and if) the movies become available?