DVD Library

[Marwood]

Annoyingly the most layers a Billy bookcase can have and still shelf DVDs and/or Blu-rays is eight, which is two extra shelves. There’s enough room for nine layers, but the middle shelf being in a fixed position means you cannot make the most economical use of the space. There’s not quite room for ten layers with four extra shelves to house only Blu-rays.

For blu-ray only I use a BESTÅ 60x20x64 cm frame, and add two shelves. I use 17 of these for my current blu-ray collection! They fit blu-rays perfect.

[kindaikun]

For blu-ray only I use a BESTÅ 60x20x64 cm frame, and add two shelves. I use 17 of these for my current blu-ray collection! They fit blu-rays perfect.

Could I ask how many blu-rays, on average, you can fit in per unit? Also, are the 17 units stacked together or attached to the wall individually?
Thanks

[Peacock]

I use the same same of BESTÅ as Marwood, I currently have 27 but need more!

I roughly fit 40 standard Blus in each width wise. I don’t actually use any shelves in them so I can stack 3 layers of Blus inside on top of each other. So that’s 120 per unit plus enough space for ten laying horizontally above the top row.

[Marwood]

Here is how part of my collection looks.



https://ibb.co/8ncd8bs3

EDIT: I just pasted the actual link to the image. For some reason I'm not able to embed it in this post.

EDIT2: I applied dominoe's tip and finally got it to work. Yay!

EDIT3: Hang on... Why is it so small?

[Peacock]

Wow! Can you tell me more about the glass shelves? The BESTA standard white ones I have are too thick to allow for three stacks of Blus.

[Swift]

Very nice, although the perfectionist in me immediately spotted that Fucking Amal is in with your G's and The Goonies is a couple discs out of place. I had to stop looking for fear of finding more.

[Marwood]

Very nice, although the perfectionist in me immediately spotted that Fucking Amal is in with your G's and The Goonies is a couple discs out of place. I had to stop looking for fear of finding more.

Thanks! Have sorted both now. I'm actually in the middle of rearranging my collection. I have consolidated all my DVD's and TV (both DVD and blu) in a single shelving system, which leaves all blu-rays to be put in Bestå's like the one in my previous picture.

[Marwood]

Here are some pictures of the shelving I use for DVDs. It is a modular product from Norway made of sturdy fir. Originally intended for books, it still works well for DVDs.





BTW, If any mods could help me how to insert my images properly in this post, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks

[domino harvey]

BTW, If any mods could help me how to insert my images properly in this post, I'd be very grateful.

I edited your post with image format tags. Just plug in the direct file URL in between the image tags next time you want to post an image directly on the forum (and upgrade your Thin Man box!)

[Maltic]

I have three area sections of uneven size: 1) USA, 2) Asia, 3) Rest-of-the-world

Each area section is split into two subsections ordered by directors (if I own 3 or more films from a director) or by decade.

The films under each director are in random order, since I own, like, 20 films at most by any one director.

The films are ordered alphabetically within the decades subsections.

I've sometimes had small genre-sections within the directors subsections. So Poliziotteschi would come after Pialat or wherever. But they evaporate as you acquire three films by the directors within the genre.

Hitchcock is in the US section btw.

[Marwood]

Wow! Can you tell me more about the glass shelves? The BESTA standard white ones I have are too thick to allow for three stacks of Blus.

Actually, the regular white shelves can squeeze in three stacks, but only allows for regular Amarays. If you want to fit non standard cases then the glass shelves are the ones to go for.

https://ibb.co/C5qnrwXJ

https://ibb.co/JLQXYKz

https://ibb.co/Nd85d1QP

[Marwood]

BTW, If any mods could help me how to insert my images properly in this post, I'd be very grateful.

I edited your post with image format tags. Just plug in the direct file URL in between the image tags next time you want to post an image directly on the forum (and upgrade your Thin Man box!)

Thanks so much for your help! I still can't seem to get the hang of it though. Could it be because I'm using Safari on a Mac?

As for The Thin Man, I actually only like the first one enough to rebuy on blu. And besides, the Warner Archive collection misses out on the documentary from the DVD box, so I'd have to keep that anyway.

[Marwood]

Wow! Can you tell me more about the glass shelves? The BESTA standard white ones I have are too thick to allow for three stacks of Blus.

Actually, the regular white shelves can squeeze in three stacks, but only allows for regular Amarays. If you want to fit non standard cases then the glass shelves are the ones to go for.

https://ibb.co/C5qnrwXJ

https://ibb.co/JLQXYKz

https://ibb.co/Nd85d1QP

The glass shelves cost a little more than the regular ones at Ikea, but they are slimmer as you can see, so worth it if you have many releases in non standard sizes.

[domino harvey]

BTW, If any mods could help me how to insert my images properly in this post, I'd be very grateful.

I edited your post with image format tags. Just plug in the direct file URL in between the image tags next time you want to post an image directly on the forum (and upgrade your Thin Man box!)

Thanks so much for your help! I still can't seem to get the hang of it though. Could it be because I'm using Safari on a Mac?

I use Safari as well. You’ll need to right click on the image in your link to get the “Copy” option, which will copy the URL for the image to your clipboard (you’ll need a direct link to the image, in most cases a JPG/JPEG, GIF, or PNG file)



Then put the URL between the IMG tags

Code: Select all

[img]PICTUREURL[/img]

[Matt]

Here is how part of my collection looks.

This looks really nice, and the smaller modular units look like they're great for someone who might have to move.

[kindaikun]

Here is how part of my collection looks.



https://ibb.co/8ncd8bs3

Many thanks for the info and photos, Marwood (and Peacock!)
I was concerned how the units would look stacked on top of each other but I quite like the effect in your pictures.
I had some shelves made earlier this year for my office but I've realised they're not going to hold everything so I'm looking at some smaller modular solutions for the overflow and these look like they might be suitable. I'll update with photos if I go for it. Thanks again.

[Drucker]

My kevyip has become too much to bear for me. I never minded having tons of unwatched discs, but the reality of having a child and not slowing down disc buying until recently has really exploded my unwatched pile. Beyond my unwatched pile, I start to realize there are so many films I've only seen once, and haven't had the chance to revisit in years, such as so many Hitchcock discs that came out between 2013-2017, for example. With this in mind, I spent the last few months doing a full catalog of my dvd inventory, labeling all films, releases, and labels. Not just releases owned, mind you. I even took the time to note every disc owned and all bonus/extra films as applicable (so for example, all the short silent films in the BFI Edition of Birth Of a Nation and the early shorts on MOC's Pialat's discs all count as films I own.)

Doing it all this way by hand was really fun. My stats are as follows:

Across 1,054 releases, I own 1,781 films. Again, this includes shorts all counting as 1 film each. Two cuts of the same film only cuts once (My Darling Clementine) but the bonus film on such a release would count as a discrete film.
Of the 1,781 films, I have watched 1,129.(63%). Abysmal!
Radiance (22% watched) due to its new-ness and BFI (35%) thanks to how exhaustive some of those box-sets are are the labels I have the biggest kevyips from.

Now, when it comes to releases, I fair better. of the 1,054 releases, I've watched at least one film from 859 (81%). So the Herzog Box, The Fassbinder box, all things I cracked open, watched some of, and never finished, are all counted in this numerator. I've actually watched at least one film from 94% of my Criterion releases, which makes sense given how they were the first films I owned when I started collecting.

I love collecting discs, but given how much I haven't watched, and all of the extras I haven't even watched, I may really try to abstain from buying any media in 2026. I mean I just have so, so much and at this stage in my life I lack the time. I own the Akerman and Jarman box sets but haven't even opened them due to my lack of time, but knowing one day down the road I will want to spend some real quality time with the work.

That's the other thing I've been feeling lately. Quality time with my favorites is a joy. I watched The Searchers three times when I got the new restoration, showing it to people that have never seen it. I revisited North By Northwest at the Paris theater the other month and it was a joy. If I have time to watch 3-4 films a month, and with the privilege of living in New York City, a lot of the time I'd rather see a film in a theater. As eager as I am to pick up the Oshima box, and watch those unwatched Bergman box set films, I haven't re-watched those Borzage silents I've loved. All that is to say, the endless cycle of accumulation is starting to wear on me, and I just feel like hitting pause on disc buying. This all goes doubly for records and CDs by the way.

[domino harvey]

As Andre Bazin said, “It is better to see a good film twice than to see a bad film.”

[senseabove]

I may be stashing my collection for a few months in the near future and am considering stashing part of it anyway, just for space's sake.

Anyone have recommendations for plastic storage boxes that are appropriate sized for a 95% BD/UHD collection (i.e. I'm not too worried about maximizing space for DVD-sized cases)? IIRC, domino, you store your collection mostly in plastic containers of some kind?

[domino harvey]

I used to and they were great (and I still use them for overflow), but Rubbermaid stopped making the Roughneck containers a while ago unfortunately. These were the dimensions if that’s helpful: 26.7" L x 15.8" W x 10.8" H

[Matt]

Those Rubbermaid Roughneck totes were indeed the best. I've got a few that are at least 30 years old at this point and they've held up better than newer Rubbermaid or Sterilite containers. That said, I've got some Sterilite ClearView Latch boxes that I use for books, and they're holding up well. I like that they've got fairly straight sides and stack well.

I already mentioned this above, but for DVDs/Blu-rays, I recently got some of these cardboard boxes. They hold a lot and are fairly sturdy, but probably won't survive more than one move or long-term storage. The same company makes some corrugated plastic boxes that are archival standard, but they're not cheap. I probably should have gotten those instead of the cardboard ones, but it would have been more than twice the price for the same storage capacity.

[onedimension]

Right now I have about two dozen banker's boxes full of blu rays sitting in a storage unit. Tragically.

My eureka moment was the realization that IKEA makes a dresser unit that has the depth to hold two rows of DVDS in each drawer.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/storklinta ... -60561248/



The plan is to have 4 or 5 against the wall(s). A much lower and less oppressive vertical footprint can hold the same number of discs as a BILLY shelf. And leaves space on top of the dressers and on the walls for mounting a television, having other objects and decor.

Some people might prefer to have all of their discs on display, but having accumulated at least a thousand over the last two decades - maybe two thousand - the Wall of Billy Shelves and narrow blu ray spines is just overwhelming.

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, Ira Robbins of Trouser Press was interviewed by NY1 not too long ago and he showed them his enormous record collection. He probably has far more than any of us will ever have, but as you can see, it's well-organized and easily accessible, resembling a well-kept public library (but without other patrons walking around). CD's make up a large part of his collection too, and it was interesting to see him use metal cabinets that I usually associate with office filing. It's actually not a bad idea, especially for anyone with CD-R's or DVD-R's in their collection as it neutralizes degradation from residual light. (They open the drawers towards the end of the segment.)

[dwk]

Right now I have about two dozen banker's boxes full of blu rays sitting in a storage unit. Tragically.

How many discs can you fit in a bankers box?

[fdm]

Those black filing cabinets are probably Can-Ams. I started out with several of those for my cds (which I filled up all too quickly) and nowadays contain the few movies I can still readily find in a pinch.