TV (in the form of Satellite/Cable) gave it up for good!

[jamesspo]

Interesting. I hadn't really paid attention to how deep (and/or unavailable) their catalog was. It's good to hear they're interested in releasing stuff on media. I'm a pretty voracious buyer already for both movie and old TV series, so I'm doing pretty well for content. I feel like I'm just scratching the surface on old movies though. At some point, I'm sure I'm going to run a bit dry, and will have to dig deeper . I hear you on the region-free player. That's on my list. I have seen a lot of good deals on foreign releases, in terms of both prices, as well as content being released earlier, or more completely.

They do have many things, though less each year because they continue to release new stuff on DVD that noone else will. Another thing is the prints they own that noone else has. For years they had the only good copy of Roger Corman's The Terror, but it's finally been restored and released on blu ray. I still buy VHS tapes--not many, but a few--because there are still movies that have never come out any other way. The Uninvited (Ray Milland) only came out on DVD last year, and I can name a dozen others. It's not as noticeable for the average movie fan, but once you get to the point where you're hunting for foreign releases, having trouble finding anything else to buy, and run into more movies that have never been released than those that have... That's where you end up after a few years of buying rather than renting. At least if you're into older movies.

For example, TCM irregularly aired the Hildegarde Withers mysteries. They were finally released this year on DVDR by Warner Archive. I have probably 100 movies/sets from the Warner Archive. Warner also handles DVDRs for Columbia & I think Sony. TCM isn't a studio, but more of a private archive. And they still have plenty left in their archive. Fortunately, they're very interested in releasing whatever they're allowed to, unlike some of the big studios. So until Sony and Universal buckle, we're lucky to have TCM who will release them. More important, they can still air some of the movies that we'll never see on legitimate DVD because of rights / ownership issues.

BTW, if you do go the buy route, get yourself a region free player. I've picked up many things from the UK way cheaper. For example, the Absolutely Fabulous box set was about $100 in the US, but I got the UK box (with one special episode missing) for $28 including delivery. There's plenty of other similar deals, especially in mysteries which are still popular in the UK.

 

[Larry C in Texas]

When I was a kid, we had 4 channels (3 networks and 1 independent), and if the President happened to be on, your evening was screwed (Jeff Foxworthy line, but oh so true)!!

I'll get rid of my DirecTV when they pry the TiVo box from my cold dead fingers. I'd give up a lot of stuff before I would cancel cable/satellite TV. YMMV.

 

[SiBurning]

It mostly comes up if you specialize. If I just wanted more general content, I could easily keep going for years by browsing the major stores. I have about 2000 horror & sci-fi movies on DVD, (and 500 others) and it's been tricky to find more that aren't truly awful. The studio issue becomes painfully obvious when you notice that half of your VHS tapes (which have no DVD release) are from Paramount Pictures, whose older content is owned by Universal. Fortunately, I'm also into mysteries & noir, so that's been keeping me busy for the last couple years.

 

[StillShaving]

They weren't saving you. Seriously though I watch a ton of sports, if the sports leagues ever wised up and let me actually stream my local teams I would do drop DirecTV in a hot minute. Since that will NEVER happen, they get my money every month. I call and ask for an extra $10-$20 off per month and they usually can find a discount code. Without the discount I would be slightly over $100 per month which is the mental block for me where it becomes too expensive.

If ESPN had OTA broadcasts, and local sports were available there would be a lot less need for cable/sat in my home. Even so, cable was canceled as part of a year long experiment to try OTA and internet streaming. What I found is just like their are too many good books to read, there is more than enough content available this way to occupy what free time is available. I couldn't see spending $2-3/day for content that was often not being watched.