DVD Resale value question?

[SeattleEd]

That is why you have a "backup" plan. External hard drives are becoming less expensive by the day. I have several of them.

HDs maybe be coming down but they aren't reliable as well. They are prone to crashing. Hence why companies do not depend on HD for redundancy and back up. Tapes are the way to go.

[SeattleEd]

I read somewhere before that the DVD media even have a life expectancy before you lose your data.

DVD-R or DVD+R media claims to have a 100 year lifespan which is not the case. Depends on manufacture but so far it's impossible to test such a scenario and yes, it's happening, you will lose your data on burnable DVD media and CD media in due time due to low shelf life.

[SeattleEd]

Blue Ray can't increase the quality of a TV show that was video taped.

So selling your video taped TV shows on DVD and rebuying them on Blu Ray is a waste of money.

I beg differ All pre-HD shows are standard def source (640x480, w/4:3 AR) but they can be cleaned up and up-sampled to include the clarity. They do clean the sources at times while other times they don't.
We rip Blu-rays at work with SD materials on it and it's easy to spot. While others are mastered to HD, and this includes content that has been mastered from SD source.
DVD is SD and now limited. You have to remember when ANYTHING that is mastered to DVD, it 's compressed from the source, so right there you losing quality from the source.
It's noticeable.

[kennermike]

Mike,

Did you go to Silver Platters and Easy Street Records?
They never give you a great deal to begin with but, yes, they have gone down.
Easy to make copies of DVDs and now you can rip Blu-Rays as well.

yes I went to Silver Platters ,Easy street sucks even worse and Underdowg records is ridiculas.trying to wiedel down my standard dvd for Blu Ray's

[SeattleEd]

Underdawg is struggling and rumor is they are going out of business.
Easy Street is know for ripping people off, even vinyl when it comes to rare vinyl. They play it off like it's not that rare then turn around and jack up the price. Same with movies.
They have a good selection of new stuff but overpriced.
Silver Platters is struggling as well and they do have a great selection that they bought from Tower Records.
It's going to be tough to unload DVDs soon. Best bet is to have a yard sale but that is too much hassle here during fall and winter.
You can always do Half.com but they are owned by eBay so rates have gone up, again.
I did this to unload A LOT of CDs and made good cash but the shipping was a nightmare. Never again.

[kennermike]

I beg differ All pre-HD shows are standard def source (640x480, w/4:3 AR) but they can be cleaned up and up-sampled to include the clarity. They do clean the sources at times while other times they don't.
We rip Blu-rays at work with SD materials on it and it's easy to spot. While others are mastered to HD, and this includes content that has been mastered from SD source.
DVD is SD and now limited. You have to remember when ANYTHING that is mastered to DVD, it 's compressed from the source, so right there you losing quality from the source.
It's noticeable.

Im with Ed on this one

[Brad]

One of the big trends I have noticed is that many Blu-ray releases include a Blu-Ray, a regular DVD copy, and a digital copy for one price. I like the idea because I can watch the movie on my blu-ray LCD or play the regular DVD on my old DVD player and tube tv.

Also, just with vinyls, etc. there will always be a market for DVD's. Just think about all the movies out there (many of them out of print) that aren't even in Blu-ray format.

I also like that you get 3 versions with the newer BR discs! And I agree that there will always be a market for DVDs. We enjoy our collection and like the idea of popping in a disc whenever we want. In fact our son has spent the last week watching all of the Seinfeld seasons.

It also comes in handy when we travel. Bring one or two of our laptops with and everyone can watch what they want. It works well for long trips too and since I usually do all the driving the Mrs. and Jr. can each sit back and watch some DVDs to pass the time.

[Brad]

You have to remember when ANYTHING that is mastered to DVD, it 's compressed from the source, so right there you losing quality from the source.
It's noticeable.

Yep, and the same thing goes for CDs. This is why I will not get rid of my vinyl collection nor will I get rid of my turntable.

[cjefferys]

A few years ago, I was guaranteed at least $5.00 trade in value when I got rid of DVDs at Blockbuster, now..forget it. Out of print DVDs of some of the more obscure/cult/genre stuff can still bring good money, but used DVDs of mainstream stuff that's still in print are near worthless. I took a stack of DVDs (mostly titles that I upgraded to Blu-ray) to my parents' yard sale this summer and they sold briskly at $2 to $3.00 a pop. That seems to be the upper limit of what you can get for many titles, I just tried to forget how much I paid for those ones.

[SeattleEd]

Yep, and the same thing goes for CDs. This is why I will not get rid of my vinyl collection nor will I get rid of my turntable.

Exactly. Have all my rare vinyl and fav albums in mint condition for analog playback.
What I would recommend for you audiophiles is DVD-A. This is also night and day.
I took this format for a test run on my commercial brand Kenwood 5.1 surround system. Very mediocre sounding with no EQ.
Album I used to test was the soundtrack to Casino Royale(featuring Herb Alpert and Dusty Springfield) engineered and mastered by Phil Ramone. This album is known for it's amazing mastering passed on to vinyl for a commercial pop album, hence why the original mint vinyl version are worth a lot. True fidelity and engineering amazement.
I tested out three versions of this album. The commercial CD(44.1kHz/16bit), HD CD(48kHz/20bit) and DVD-A (92kHz/24bit). Of course the DVD-A had higher resolution and sounded amazing. But not as good as the vinyl version which I've listened to on an amazing system. It's like the musicians were there.
However, better technology will allow someday to replicate analog resolution. Seems like it's just around the corner too.
But I digress from the issue at hand. Sorry.

As I stated before, hard copy formats WILL go by the way side and digital will become the standard. But hard copies will always be around until they become obsolete. If you are going to sell, unload now because kids are now savvy when it comes to making copies of DVDs.

[mazinz]

DVD-R or DVD+R media claims to have a 100 year lifespan which is not the case. Depends on manufacture but so far it's impossible to test such a scenario and yes, it's happening, you will lose your data on burnable DVD media and CD media in due time due to low shelf life.

Hate to burst your bubble on this but that is not exactly true. It is true if you use crap garbage media and not bother to hunt down actual good brands while checking media codes (ex taiyo yuden are an excellent media to use). If you are already experiencing data loss, then it makes me want to ask you that it might be the way or where you have them stored as well as what media brand you were using. A lot of factors can play into shelf life, but to say they will all crap out in due time is just not true at all

I DVD is SD and now limited. You have to remember when ANYTHING that is mastered to DVD, it 's compressed from the source, so right there you losing quality from the source.
It's noticeable.

This is also not exactly true either. Depending on your source and WHAT methods were used to convert whatever material to disc may not be noticeable at all. In some cases and depending on what is done with filtering you can actually get a cleaner better pic than what you started with (hell even the infamous jvc-drm100s dvd recorder deck has wonderful filters on input and cleans up a vhs pic very nicely, giving you a better pic than what you ran in). However if we are talking about actual film and since film has no resolution of course it may never look as super clean or good as the source, but that goes for bluray as well

[david_b]

Oh, I love the resale prices on Amazon. I always buy used, so it's fun to get 'em for pennys on the dollar.

Waiting for a year to buy a favorite new movie..? Never a problem.

Besides, most of my collection's vintage TVs and movies anyways, so I'm not big into wanting BluRay. I always recall having to watch some '60s show in b&w or hazy color anyways back in the day, so why would I need them in BluRay or 5.1 audio..?

Ah, the JOY of being old and not caring.

david_b

[Adam West]

Not to get off topic but the same can be said of books. I know it is still in its infancy but Kindle and other electronic media is taking off.

I personally prefer having a hardcover book in hand as well as turning the pages (just a personal preference). It is unbelievable how cheap you can purchase used hardcover copies of mass produced books on Amazon or garage sales. I can usually buy them for about $1 a piece.

[megocrazy]

I don't pay over $3 for any dvd unless it's a full season. In fact $2 for a single dvd is actually high on the yard/garage sale route here in the northeast. I see flea market vendors with $4-$5 price tags that lug the same 10-20 crates of dvds back and forth each week to sell a handful of them.

I bought season 4 of South Park last weekend for $3 at a yard sale. DVD resale is definately on the decline. $1 dvds are pretty much the norm and 50 cent ones are common at yard sale and flea markets here. Ebay is only acceptable if you buy multiple dvd lots to spread out the shipping costs.

I've actually bought sealed dvds for $1-$2 at yard sales and returned them for store credit. Still haven't hopped on a blu-ray player. I like to wait until the technology is perfected and established before jumping in. Don't like to be like the HD/DVD owners out there.

[wolfie]

If you think dvd's are cheap, i'm still buying VHS, in some cases they pay me to take them away.