Inspired by PD's How Many DVD Poll - How do you store your DVDs?

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

We've been struggling with how to store our DVD collection. It has unfortunately outgrown the shelving made exclusively for the DVDs and we would hate to add another piece of furniture or have to do another built in as a temporary solution.

We had been considering DVD binders that allow you to store a large number of DVDs with their liner notes and graphics and not have to use the shell case.

Like these:

Do any of you guys use binders like these?

How do you store you DVDs?

 

[Charade]

Because I have so many, it's impractical to store them in cases. Takes up WAAAAY too much room.

I use these

They have 40 numbered 2-sided sleeves. Stores 80 DVDs.

I also use a program called DVD Collector to catalog them. I have a printout (update from time to time) listed alphabetically. I don't alphabetize them in the storage boxes. Took to long to reorder them when I got new DVDs. The new ones just go in the next available holder. Each box has numbered holders and then each box gets assigned a letter. So if I want to watch Charade (he he), which is stored in B74, I just go open storage box B and grab holder number 74. Tada!

I have three 80 size storage boxes and two 160 size storage boxes.

 

[cardaway]

Those folders look great but I could never give up some of the great packages that go beyond the standard black (or Disney white) plastic box.

Along our dining room wall I have two rows of DVD shelves. One along the floor with box sets on the top. Above that another row of shelves hanging on the wall above the box sets. We also have 40 Disney DVD's in the daycare area in two cool DVD storage trays we got through the Disney Movie Club a few years ago.

I may go that folder route for the plain plastic box releases if I ever run out of room on the shelves. Chances are I'll just start taking out titles rather than getting folders though.

How do other people organize them?

My wife requested that we separate them into sections so it's easier to find what we are in the mood for. I ended with with four sections... SciFi/Horror, Drama, Comedy, and Family. Some movies don't fit into any one category so my sections don't exactly match your local retailer.

 

[Charade]

Mike, the progam I use (movie collector http://www.collectorz.com/movie/) is something you might be interested in. When I make a printout, I can custom print the columns like year released, genre, run time, IMDB rating, storage location, etc... If you loan one out, it will keep track of that too!

I would hate to have to reorganize them alphabetically or by genre each time I got a new one or ran out of room if I sectioned them by genre.

 

[caitycaity]

i'm like mike - i wouldn't want to get rid of some of the packaging. for now we have made more room on our shelves by moving or getting rid of other things. we have quite a few, but i don't like the idea of just saving the disc.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Charade - where did you get those storage boxes and the program you are talking about? Sounds interesting!

Cardaway - I thought the same thing about the packaging on some DVDs. I figured we could just use the binders for the DVDs in the regular old black/white shells and keep the specially packaged DVDs and sets on the shelves we have.

 

[cardaway]

Mike, the progam I use (DVD collector) is something you might be interested in. When I make a printout, I can custom print the columns like year released, genre, run time, IMDB rating, storage location, etc... If you loan one out, it will keep track of that too!

I would hate to have to reorganize them alphabetically or by genre each time I got a new one or ran out of room if I sectioned them by genre.

I posted in the poll thread that I use a online database called DVD Profiler that does the same things. I've made printouts to make sure I didn't miss some when I first uploaded the collection. After that I just log them in and place them on the shelves. I've left room on each shelf so I can add new titles in order and I shuffle them around when necessary. Not that bad really given the room I've left on each shelf.

It just so happens that we re-organized our "office" room this weekend including adding two more racks for CD's. Ever heard of a similar database tool for music? I've got almost as many CD's as I have DVD's.

 

[Charade]

I got them at Office Depot and at the local computer show.

The program can be found at

http://www.collectorz.com/movie/

They have them for music, books, pictures etc. as well.

 

[Charade]

Ever heard of a similar database tool for music? I've got almost as many CD's as I have DVD's.

http://www.collectorz.com/music

 

[Shelby5514]

While we don't have an extensive collection, DH has saved them to our hard drive, backed them on a second drive and then sold them on ebay...we've only kept a few special ones and they don't take up much room at all.

 

[cardaway]

http://www.collectorz.com/music

I followed the link that you posted after my post. Looks interesting. I might give the free trial a shot with a portion of my movie collection. The advantage of the DVD Profiler site I use is that the service is free unless you want facy hi-res graphics for the DVD cover images. Since I certainly don't need those...

Because of the problems at DVD Profiler I wouldn't mind switching.

 

[ktulu]

If you want to keep them in the cases, then check out boltz.com, they have cd and dvd racks that are expandable, if you have a wall long enough

We have one for our CD's, and it's awesome. We'll probably get one for our DVD's one of these days.

darren

 

[cardaway]

If you want to keep them in the cases, then check out boltz.com, they have cd and dvd racks that are expandable, if you have a wall long enough

Those are pretty cool. I saw a site once where somebody showed how to make something similar with the standard PVC pipe that can be bought any any hardware store.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I followed the link that you posted after my post. Looks interesting. I might give the free trial a shot with a portion of my movie collection. The advantage of the DVD Profiler site I use is that the service is free unless you want facy hi-res graphics for the DVD cover images. Since I certainly don't need those...

Because of the problems at DVD Profiler I wouldn't mind switching.

If you don't mind me asking, what were the problems you found with DVD Profiler? I would love to know the plus/minuses of each program before I pick one and spend all that time entering in movies.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I have a fairly extensive collection of movies and music. I keep all my dvd's on storage racks that I bought. I do need more room for them. I wish they had ones that went higher instead of just wider. I looked at the boltz.com site and don't care for those. I personally don't like metal furniture. It must be wood for me.

I refuse to use wallets or anything that requires me to put discs inside something. I use wallets for all my compilation cd's and it's a royal pain whenever I get anything new. I also refuse to have things out of alphabetical order. I don't want to have to look at a list every time I want to listen or watch something. And my collection is too big (music-1500 albums, movies-1700 titles) so I would have a huge list to look through to find things.

So, if you like to keep things alphabetized, don't go with anything that will cause you a lot more work and headaches.

My movies are kept in 3 different "sections". Disney, Other Family and all other General titles. And to catalog all my stuff, I just use plain old excel.

 

[KarenAylwood]

I'm also not sure what to do with my DVDs now that I've filled the two shelves I bought. Mine are dark colored wood (ok, they probably aren't REAL wood, but look close enough!) and I have one on each side of my TV stand.

I use dvdspot.com to keep track of mine and I have about 125 now. The shelves I use I bought at Target in the DVD section of the store for $25 each when we moved in here. Some movies have spread to the TV stand as well and now we're just about out of room. I'm also currently wondering what to do.

I would never store them in sleeves because I love the packaging and half of my collection is Disney- I like to consider myself a "collector" and would NEVER get rid of the packaging- that's part of why they're worth so much!

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I would never store them in sleeves because I love the packaging and half of my collection is Disney- I like to consider myself a "collector" and would NEVER get rid of the packaging- that's part of why they're worth so much!

Exactly! Besides, what would you do with all the plastic cases you have left over. You have to store them, throw them in a dump to stay there for the next how every many years or try to sell them.

BTW: Anyone have any white dvd cases they want to get rid of? I'm in need of some. But only the ones with the "push button" release. Both single and doubles.

 

[cardaway]

If you don't mind me asking, what were the problems you found with DVD Profiler? I would love to know the plus/minuses of each program before I pick one and spend all that time entering in movies.

The site was down for a period of time, not sure how long, but I believe it was at least a couple weeks based on what I was reading posted by other users. No access at all.

Beyond that I've had issues getting updates numerous times. When I connect it asks me if I want to update the lists of new titles and then it suspends doing it when it times out.

Lately many of the new titles have very little information, and more often than ever, the info is wrong. It's real obvious when you go to upload your collection and there are many titles with updates available.

That's not everything that's been bad lately, but it's all I can think of right now. I've also read about others having the same issues, so it's not just me.

On the other hand, it's still the best I've treid so far. It's very easy to add titles when it's working correctly, in fact I believe it's the easist to add a large new collection to since it allows you to pick titles from a list. When it's working right I love it.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

On the subject of what you would do with the cases. We would just pack them up in boxes and put them in the attic. That way if we ever wanted to go back to using the boxes we could.

You guys that have 1000+ DVDs and still have them on racks must have a huge room to put all those racks in!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Thanks Mike!

I did download it and enter a couple of movies. I was impressed at how easy it is - just enter the UPC and bam, there is all the info.

I guess since it's a free program, I can't complain. Might try out that other one that Charade talked about and see if it's worth buying into.