Start collecting TV series, how to find deals?

[Brammm]

I've been thinking for a while I'd like to start collecting my favorite TV series (and movies) on DVD/Bluray/4K. Last WAN show, I heard @LinusTech and @Slick talk about the same thing, but how they wait for deals to snag up things. 

 

Is there anyone here doing the same? How do you find these deals? What sites are best for keeping an eye on? 

 

I'm in Belgium, Europe though. Do I need to watch out for certain regions or are region locks easy to get around nowadays? 

[Monkey Dust]

Europe is region B for Bluray. I understand that to make a Bluray player region free requires a hardware mod, making the player expensive. Or you could use two players, one euro spec, one US.

[Brammm]

1 minute ago, Monkey Dust said:

Europe is region B for Bluray. I understand that to make a Bluray player region free requires a hardware mod, making the player expensive. Or you could use two players, one euro spec, one US.

I've been thinking for a while about building an HTPC at home, would that new Pioneer 4k bluray player be region unlocked? 

[WereCat]

6 hours ago, Monkey Dust said:

Europe is region B for Bluray. I understand that to make a Bluray player region free requires a hardware mod, making the player expensive. Or you could use two players, one euro spec, one US.

I have never had any BR medium or player so this is a big surprise for me.

 

Is there seriously a region block on a movie you bought? WT actual F?

[Nuluvius]

All this talk of physical discs and dvd players... Such antiquated technology.

[Brammm]

53 minutes ago, Nuluvius said:

All this talk of physical discs and dvd players... Such antiquated technology.

I like to collect things, so why not collect my favorite things, even if it's on antiquated technology. And as Luke and Linus said, the extra content on DVDs/Blurays is almost never available on Netflix or whatever.

[Nuluvius]

35 minutes ago, Brammm said:

I like to collect things, so why not collect my favorite things, even if it's on antiquated technology.

Compulsive Horning?

37 minutes ago, Brammm said:

the extra content on DVDs/Blurays is almost never available on Netflix or whatever.

I have never had a problem finding it.

[dalekphalm]

12 hours ago, Nuluvius said:

All this talk of physical discs and dvd players... Such antiquated technology.

Talk to me about antiquated technology when I can easily and readily stream Blu-Ray quality 1080p movies - keep in mind that an average Blu-Ray Movie is around 35 Mbps bit rate.

 

Netlix and Youtube are "good enough" quality, but not great quality. When I watch a movie on my Plasma TV, I enjoy the additional quality that Blu-Ray offers.

[DildorTheDecent]

3 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Plasma TV

There's some proper antiquated tech right there. 

[dalekphalm]

23 minutes ago, DildorTheDecent said:

There's some proper antiquated tech right there. 

Damn right - however, still superior to LCD based HDTV's

 

Only the Quantom.Dot type Samsung LCD based TV's come anywhere close to a Plasma. And only OLED actually surpasses them in all metrics.

 

OLED would be my preferred TV display but damn they're still way too expensive.

[JR1911]

16 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Damn right - however, still superior to LCD based HDTV's

 

Only the Quantom.Dot type Samsung LCD based TV's come anywhere close to a Plasma. And only OLED actually surpasses them in all metrics.

 

OLED would be my preferred TV display but damn they're still way too expensive.

I briefly demoed a 4K 65" OLED TV yesterday at a store and the image quality was damn good. But like you said, OLED TVs are still expensive, the one I tested was 2900€. When they get down to about 1500€ I might consider getting one.

[Nuluvius]

16 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Talk to me about antiquated technology when I can easily and readily stream Blu-Ray quality 1080p movies - keep in mind that an average Blu-Ray Movie is around 35 Mbps bit rate.

It's honestly never been an issue for me. I stopped using DVDs years ago, much less clutter.

[RumSwift]

On 8/18/2017 at 8:15 AM, Nuluvius said:

Compulsive Horning?

I have never had a problem finding it.

It's not hording at all... Especially not compulsive hahahahaha.

 

You could just use eBay if they're older series'. Don't know about Belgium but the UK's CD/DVD stores are selling things really cheap these days (Apart from HMV) so why not look for some stored around yourself? 

[Nuluvius]

Just now, Rhyss said:

Don't know about Belgium but the UK's CD/DVD stores are selling things really cheap these days (Apart from HMV) so why not look for some stored around yourself? 

They are 'selling things really cheap these days' because it's junk 

[RumSwift]

1 minute ago, Nuluvius said:

They are 'selling things really cheap these days' because it's junk 

One mans junk is another mans treasure. 

[PineyCreek]

On 8/18/2017 at 1:37 AM, Brammm said:

I like to collect things, so why not collect my favorite things, even if it's on antiquated technology. And as Luke and Linus said, the extra content on DVDs/Blurays is almost never available on Netflix or whatever.

And yet I keep all my old game consoles and media....LPs, cassettes, laserdiscs, VHS.  There's ALWAYS someone willing to buy eventually, and until then, I can enjoy them.  Not to mention that they simply don't rerelease EVERYTHING on new media.  There's stuff on LD and VHS that never made it to DVD or Bluray, and the digital copies are crap because no one will bother remastering the originals.

[Misanthrope]

On 8/18/2017 at 1:37 AM, Brammm said:

I like to collect things, so why not collect my favorite things, even if it's on antiquated technology. And as Luke and Linus said, the extra content on DVDs/Blurays is almost never available on Netflix or whatever.

Well read the thread to start with: Look at all the hardware region shit you have to deal with.

 

Honestly the current models of streaming or selling digitally on the regions you want should suffice vs all this hardware locks and such.

[IczerOne]

On 8/18/2017 at 1:42 AM, Nuluvius said:

All this talk of physical discs and dvd players... Such antiquated technology.

IF you live in the country like I do then you will be glad to have them. I still stream a ton of stuff but there are times that the net goes out ( like all the time) and have a hard copy of it comes in handy but i still love my old hardware as it still works great ( vinyl,dat,tape cassette, 8-track, reel to reel ) those things will work when you need them. Like it still buges me that the only way to get games is to download them. I like to have a hard copy of what I bought. 

[Nuluvius]

6 hours ago, IczerOne said:

I still stream a ton of stuff but there are times that the net goes out ( like all the time) and have a hard copy of it comes in handy

Internet downtime doesn't present a problem for me in relation to existing media...

[divito]

"Collecting" is a fine point in some ways, but I primarily collect to my NAS. I'd rather rip my whole collection / get digital versions to download than worry about storing and actually using the physical media each time I wanted to change something. Using Kodi or Plex is a lot easier. One could argue that the quality isn't the same (and for plenty of my movies, they were acquired well before standards in ripping increased), but I'm not a snob and realize that the differences aren't especially discernible or vast enough to be unenjoyable.

 

As for what to check, just your local / electronics websites that sell them. Occasionally, you'll have eBay listings that are good deals as well. There's really nothing special about finding stuff, just continually looking.

[dalekphalm]

On 19/08/2017 at 7:41 AM, Nuluvius said:

It's honestly never been an issue for me. I stopped using DVDs years ago, much less clutter.

Which is fantastic - that's what is great about being an enthusiast! We have choice. You choose to use Streaming media (Presumably such as Netflix, Youtube, etc) - and you find those platforms of sufficient visual quality.

 

I use those services as well, but prefer to watch full quality Blu-Ray rips (or direct from the disc, if I haven't had time to rip it yet), because of the additional detail, quality, better sound (generally, because of Master Audio, but not always), etc. I get to enjoy the superior fidelity of a Blu-Ray, and you get to enjoy the convenience of instantly streaming whatever you want.

[Nuluvius]

12 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

You choose to use Streaming media (Presumably such as Netflix, Youtube, etc) - and you find those platforms of sufficient visual quality.

That's the problem with assumptions, they can be wrong I am afraid. Nope, I don't actually use those (with the exception of Youtube for non film/series related content).

[dalekphalm]

Just now, Nuluvius said:

That's the problem with assumptions they can be wrong I am afraid. Nope, I don't actually use those (with the exception of Youtube for non film/series related content).

You admit to using Youtube, which is a correct assumption. Whether you use it for movies/TV series or not is irrelevant. Youtube does not market itself by having movies to watch (although they do now), so you assumed that I assumed you used it for watching movies - which is kind of ridiculous, I've never even heard of someone using the Movies option on Youtube.

 

Thus, we both made incorrect assumptions.

 

So my question is: How do you consume your content? Do you stream most of it? Download digital files? Do you simply not watch Movies/TV shows? Or do you use, shall we say, a more "grey" method of acquiring content to watch?

[Nuluvius]

20 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Thus, we both made incorrect assumptions.

I reacted to the fact that you'd placed it into the same category:

37 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

(Presumably such as Netflix, Youtube, etc) - and you find those platforms of sufficient visual quality.

And even went on to state that:

24 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Youtube does not market itself by having movies to watch (although they do now)

So my assumption was at least based on some facts.

 

In any event you have directly asked me a number of specific questions:

25 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

How do you consume your content? Do you stream most of it? Download digital files? Do you simply not watch Movies/TV shows? Or do you use, shall we say, a more "grey" method of acquiring content to watch?

One of which I will deign to answer; yes I do indeed watch movies and TV shows. 

[dalekphalm]

6 minutes ago, Nuluvius said:

I reacted to the fact that you'd placed it into the same category:

And even went on to state that:

So my assumption was at least based on some facts.

 

In any event you have directly asked me a number of specific questions:

One of which I will deign to answer; yes I do indeed watch movies and TV shows. 

I will no doubt make another assumption as to how you view your content, specifically because your answers are very evasive and you avoided answering the question. My assumption may be incorrect, but I don't think it is.

 

If my assumption is correct, which I will keep to myself, then it makes this entire conversation quite interesting, most especially your initial comments. If my assumption is incorrect, then your comments are mostly confusing and oddly evasive.

 

Either way, I'm bowing out of this part of the thread discussion.