Summary
- Prioritize buying Blu-rays of movies personally important to you or not available for streaming.
- Use streaming services to discover new movies to add to your physical media wishlist.
- Choose Blu-ray versions wisely based on quality, price, and research to build a collection economically.
There’s never been a better (or cheaper) time to fill out your physical media collection, and I have a long list of movies that I’d like to own on Blu-ray before my chance to snag them passes by, but I don’t have infinite money, so some need to be prioritized.
I Can’t Buy Every Blu-ray, So I Need a System
There are hundreds if not thousands of movies I’d like to own as small plastic discs taking up space in my home. Clearly, buying all of them in this format is impossible, and it’s not like I’d have the time to watch them all anyway, so there are some rules of thumb that move discs lower or higher on my wishlist:
- Movies or shows that are personally important for some reason. So for an 80s/90s geezer like me, that’s why I first bought titles like Robocop (twice), Neverending Story, Back to the Future Trilogy, The Terminator, Terminator 2:Judgement Day, and you get the picture. I’m a walking cliché. What can I say?
- With the highest priority titles out of the way, we get the “I want it, but it’s not essential” category of disc. Here I tend to buy older titles first, because they are most likely to disappear from shelves as new pressings probably aren’t coming.
- I also give priority to movies and shows that I know we’ll watch repeatedly over the years, such as seasonal titles, or comfort films and series. This is why I splurged on the complete remastered Star Trek:The Next Generation Blu-ray boxset.
- Finally, movies and shows that we discover aren’t available to stream anywhere, get added to the list. It often happens that my wife, or I will remember a movie, try to find it on a streaming service, only to realize that for one of many reasons it’s not available, and probably won’t be. If I can find that on disc, it’s going in my collection.
Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Complete Series Blu Ray
That means, in general, I’m not going to spend money buying physical copies of (for example) Marvel movies, because there’s no reasonable scenario where those won’t be streamed for the rest of my natural life and even if they went offline, there’s like a billion pressings of these mainstream movies.
Related
Why I Bought Star Trek on Blu-ray Despite Streaming Services
I don’t have to suffer from saucer-separation anymore.
Streaming Services Are a Great Way To Try Movies Before Buying Them
Disney+
While I like to buy physical versions of shows and movies that are gone from streaming services, these same services are invaluable for discovering new movies that I would like to own on a physical medium. Sadly, more and more releases, especially streaming originals, aren’t getting physical releases, but for third-party content this isn’t the case yet.
So, since my streaming subscriptions are a fixed monthly cost, I can watch movies for “free” and then if there’s one I really like it will go on my Blu-ray wishlist if I know that I’ll watch it again someday.
If you haven’t really spent much time shopping for Blu-rays, you might not know how complicated it can get. There are often multiple versions of the same movie, with varying levels of quality, special features, and rarity. Personally, Blu-ray.com is my first port of call whenever I want to buy a Blu-ray and I don’t know which version to get, or even if a Blu-ray of a given movie even exists.
It has just about all the info I need, including what sound formats a given disc supports, if it has a region lock, whether the cover is reversible, and so on. And, of course, you can use the site to manage your wishlist, though I don’t use that feature, however. For me, it’s about getting information about titles.
The UHD Version Isn’t Always the Best!
You might think that I always go for the 4K version of a Blu-ray when available, but actually I rarely buy a 4K Blu-ray for a few reasons. One of the big ones is when the 4K has been produced by using AI upscaling, instead of re-scanning the original film stock at a higher resolution. The AI upscaling algorithms can absolutely ruin the look of the film, and you’re better off just buying the FHD disc and letting your TV or player upscale it the old-fashioned way. It looks great, don’t sweat it.
The other reason I tend to skip the UHD version of a movie, is that they are just so much more expensive. There’s no real reason to buy a $50 disc when I can get the FHD version of the same movie for $10 or less? FHD discs look great, and usually look significantly better than the 4K streaming version of that movie. If I was watching my movies on a 100-inch TV or certain projection setups, I’d be more enthusiastic about the 4K version of a movie, but until prices eventually come down, I’d rather add five FHD discs to my collection than a single 4K title.
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4K Blu-Rays Have an AI Upscaling Problem: Buyer Beware
Forget about what AI could to do the future, what about how it can alter our past?
I Check Every Marketplace for the Best Prices
Since I’m aiming to build a substantial collection of movies on Blu-ray, UHD Blu-ray, and DVD, I need to get the best deals. Every dollar saved means a bigger collection. So, when I’m on the hunt for a specific title, I will try and compare prices from as many sources as possible. This includes the second-hand market.
That Star Trek boxset I recently bought retails for $200 where I live, and getting a “used” copy for $100 was a big win. The set is pristine, so there’s no downside. Blu-rays in particular are hardy discs and I have yet to encounter a single used Blu-ray that has any sort of playback issue whatsoever, so don’t be afraid to save a few bucks if you can get a used copy in good condition.
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