I look around the world for a 3D version first, then 4K. If there doesn't seem to be any chance that it will ever come out on 4K, I will buy the Blu-ray. TV stuff, if there's no Blu-ray in sight, or the occasional Special Interest is all I buy in DVD format.

Update: The last DVD I bought was November 2018, Robin Williams from Time Life. Before that was April 2018, then skip all the way back to May 2015.

Love Ghost Whisperer!

Within the last couple of years it seems that the load of DVDs I bought is exploding!

This happens because of some simple reasons:
- Especially old TV I prefer very much on DVD. My TV is not oversized. I was so happy when I got one season of Star Trek: The Next Generation on BluRay as a bargain - and got disappointed watching it! I never will be able to understand why they add the black bars left and right instead of making the BluRay simply with the episodes in 4:3. For sure, the movie quality is much better on BR, but I hat thos bars. For DVDs I can tell my player to show me the (old) movies in full screen. So they are stretched (others might not like that) and I don't have that ugly bars.
- As nearly "everyone" is out for Netflix and all the other streaming platforms, you can't discuss with people about movies anymore. They watch! Okay! But there is nearly no bonus material on any of the streaming services. And you might agree that for several movies even the bonus might be more interesting than the movie itself. But streaming is the 3rd reason for me actually buying more DVDs than ever
- People prefer streaming and see their formerly beloved collection now just standing anywhere and collecting dust. A lot of them give them to you for free or to a price so low that I simply can't say "No" (e. g. "J.A.G." is a series with 10 seasons and 54 discs and last year I got the whole series for just 20 bucks including postage). That means that I mostly buy 2nd hand (online or on street markets) but mostly series and older movies
For quite new movies I always take a look around when they are offered as a bargain on BluRay, but as so many of the new stuff simply is not that interesting anymore for me according to the change of style of storytelling, blood and explosions, I don't have the neccessity to buy so much BluRay. And step by step my wish list of DVDs becomes shorter, but it is not done yet. And maybe, until it IS done, some "new old" series will find their way to it 

But in a time where the 2nd hand market is bigger than ever and a little bit of patience could save up to 80 % of the price you would have to pay for the same disc new, in a time where (at least here) all video rental shops have closed and even renting would have been more expensive than buying, I simply can't resist....^^

I just bought a bunch yesterday. When there are mountains of them at places like Goodwill and Value Village for $2-3, it's hard to justify not. This is especially true of older comedy and horror, much of which has yet to see remaster to BluRay, much less 4k.

Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:
But in a time where creating BluRay became quite easy, why do they not create them in 4:3? I've done BluRays with old movies myself, no problem keeping them in their size - and then the player is able to stretch the picture to full width of the screen.

I'm a bit confused about what is exactly your point here? What do you mean by "stretch the picture to full width of the screen"? To a 4x3 or 16x9 screen? And "stretch" as in zooming in or messing up the aspect ratio?

The picture on a BD is usually 1920x1080 pixel (ratio 1.78:1) so they do fill the sides up for old 1.33:1 material. Sure they could put such material on as 1440x1080 pixel, but what exactly would that gain? Nothing for 16:9 TVs that have been standard nearly 2 decades now. And everything else should be able to do zoom-ins itself.

As for the topic: last DVD I bought was in '14

Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:
Quoting scotthm:

Quote:

You might try hanging some attractive curtains in front of your TV and open/close them to match your video image.  Those black bars on the side will be a thing of the past.

Sad to say but they aren't. They don't keep classic 4:3-series (e g. Star Trek: TNG or Battlestar Galactica) in 4:3 but "enhance" them with the black bars to 16:9: For sure the optical quality on BluRay is much better, but the bars suck.

Once again, if you hang curtains in front of your television and open them just enough to see the episode, but not enough to see the dreaded black bars, then those nasty black bars will be a thing of the past because you cannot see them through your attractive curtains.

Personally, I can't imagine wanting to watch a 4:3 program stretched out wide to fill a 16:9 TV screen just to avoid ignoring the non content on the sides of the 4:3 image.

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Quote:
I'm a bit confused about what is exactly your point here? What do you mean by "stretch the picture to full width of the screen"?

"Zooming" usually is enhancing ALL sides, stretching means only the width. So if I watch an old movie or series (4:3) on a 16:9 TV and use the stretching tool, then I don't have the black bars left and right.

But - like mentioned before - if they take old series (4:3) and allready use the black bars to reach 16:9, I can't stretch anything anymore as the picture allready IS full size. And that sad fact made me going back to DVD at least for tv series of the time before 16:9 was standard.

Quoting scotthm:

Quote:
Quoting Magmadrag:

Quote:
Quoting scotthm:

Quote:

You might try hanging some attractive curtains in front of your TV and open/close them to match your video image.  Those black bars on the side will be a thing of the past.

Sad to say but they aren't. They don't keep classic 4:3-series (e g. Star Trek: TNG or Battlestar Galactica) in 4:3 but "enhance" them with the black bars to 16:9: For sure the optical quality on BluRay is much better, but the bars suck.

Once again, if you hang curtains in front of your television and open them just enough to see the episode, but not enough to see the dreaded black bars, then those nasty black bars will be a thing of the past because you cannot see them through your attractive curtains.

Personally, I can't imagine wanting to watch a 4:3 program stretched out wide to fill a 16:9 TV screen just to avoid ignoring the non content on the sides of the 4:3 image.

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How do you see black bars when they are by default, black.    Anyway, if you watched in a dark room you won't have anything to compare those black bars to.