Old Trader Dropping by to Say Hi!
 

I haven't posted or traded for quite a long time. I just stopped by to say "Hi" to all my old friends! (if any are still around!)

Maybe, I'll start trading again someday soon. I miss you all! :D

Just wondering what has changed over the years. Are most people trading divx/data DVD's these days? Are you all trading by upload/download or still mailing the old fashioned way? I am trying to convert all my old DVDs to divx and back up on hard drives, but it takes so darned long! Those old DVD's seem so archaic now! LOL

Jenny McClintock

WOW Jenny !! how have you been girl!!

What has changed..oh boy..well a lot of us do HD trading- backing up our items to hardrives, and others have small ones, we fill up- send to our trader, they take off- and fill back up.
Compared to disc trading-

I myself, converted my entire media collection to Hardrives.
25 3 TB drives for tv
5 for movies
1 for comics
1 for music

I find this much easier- got rid of all the actual media, no pulling, no copying.
Cheaper to send- easier to find- Everything networked, so I can just pull and watch.
No intimidating 'large' trades- no heavy cost of shipping.
Love it.

Many of us download- or capture-
but there are many who still use actual media-
regardless of how, we are still collecting and sharing! the most important part.
Many lost shows finally found too!


Glad to see you here- hope to see you stop by more

OH and the biggest change in my life?
Quentin Xavier 18 months
Kennedy Phoenix 6 months.

First of all, congrats on those ADORABLE new additions to your life!! And I don't mean the HDs! LOL

Thanks for the update on the trading world. Sounds SO much easier that it used to be!!

When I get some time, I have to get some info on how you (and others) did your backups ... software, etc. I would love to do some HD swaps with you!

Good to talk to you again! :D

Oh yeah a friend of mine and I swap little portables we got on amazong for like 50 bucks at black friday- every month she is in charge of some shows, and vice versa, then we fill it up with music, games, movies- shows- so much easier- don't need a cable bill anymore, just due to that- nice that I can watch, if I don't like- no loss on discs or time to make menues and if I really like, I can keep an eye out for the retail sets....the technology has come this far, we shoudl take advantage of it!

I'm migrating to HDD too, both for organization, and for safe DVD backups. But I'm not tossing my original burns. HDD can die too! I'd hate to lose my collection.

I'm also share rarities online (disc-free), as it's not easy for me to get to the PO these days. Remember, I can't drive anymore, although I hope that can change someday.

I also plan to decompile some sets with crappy menus, out of order episodes, bad episodes, etc, and fix them.

I went for Seagate 2TB Fantom drives, which cost about $125 each. Very, very nice drives!

me too. moved to hdd external desktop hdds.
most are western digital. one is seagate.

about 2 years ago, 2TB external desktop hdds were about £65 ($100).

then the floods in thailand severely affected the production of electronic goods.
hdds prices shot thru the roof -2TB hit about £100 ($150).

now, they're down to about £75 ($115) tho you may find the odd lower priced one.

i do my best to look after the hdds.
they're in a cool, dry, out of direct sunlight place.
i always take care to plug/unplug them when the electricity power is off.
and so on.

hdds will wear & tear.
i think i'll have to transfer everything to brand new hdds in a few years - maybe 7 years time?
all depends of course.
so i'll do a few surface scans and then decide whether they need replacing.

in theory, if a drive fails, there should be a chance to retrieve some of the stuff.
but i'd rather not face that problem!

Us personally
 

Us personally due to how much, the tactile media was taking up a lot of space- which is what prompted us to do HD storage---
once we had it all stored, we also were planning on keeping everything- but then after reading up we decided to do a RAID back up system.

Now, the only tactile media we have are 'speciality' things...we kept our laser discs, especially large box sets- we kept dvd retail sets- but anything backed up or archived on discs, we backed up, RAIDED- and then I have been trading off the items- however, anything I send out- I write down on my old inventory list- who it went to.
So far, no tragedies that would hit both our backups, but the few things we might not be able to replace, we have.
And the common things we probably won't need to, we can track down or worst case scenrio netflix/half.com/ebay or go to the trader it went to.

Just because it is a digital age, I don't assume I can replace anything- but that is part of why I run the chain- is to put rarer things or such, out there in more hands (like the unaired pilots chain)

Amazes me to this day, I have an old spiral notebook of shows and movies I was seeking in 1989- and up. And recently I found 4 of them...
crazy what shows up when....

But as far as ease of trading, watching- the HD's have it hands down to going to the basement pulling discs, loading them up- going and putting them back.

I do 2-3 harddrive trades a month for music, comics and beyond- and it is SO much easier. And cheaper.

I still have my handwritten notes too, for what was recorded on a tape.

That's my current project -- to move all tapes, including commercials, to high bitrate Blu-ray compliant MPEGs (720x480 @ 15MB/s). It's better than DVD, more bitrate, and the high end VCRs will make the tapes look better than when I recorded them. I'll save them all to HDD, and backup that HDD to another brand/manufacture of HDD.

Sad that more people don't use good VCRs. It would remove so many crappy sets that way. The recent Patty Duke set, for example, could have been perfect. Not that tracking-error, shaky, chroma noise filled mess that it was. (I wish I had the origianl tapes from that person. I could do a much better job!)

You all are light years ahead of me when it comes to technology. I have just started backing up my old DVDs to a 1TB WD HD. However, this process seems to take so long.

I am too busy to work on it right now, but when I resume, I will read the technology forums here and ask for advice on the best/fastest way to do this. Basically, I have just been converting the DVD files to xvid/mpeg using freeware on my old Vista Laptop. I am starting with my rarer shows (so far ... Baby Bob, Emeril, Mr. President), because I know that most of the standard stuff is floating around out there in mpg/avi somewhere already.

Thanks in advance for all the wonderful info (which I will need)! Glad to know that you are all still trading and having fun! :D

I'm not converting -- that loses quality.
I'm saving the DVD as ISO, then using a WDTV Live player to stream them to my TV.

Using 9 drives at a time, several hours per day, it takes about a month to rip 1,500 discs. :eek:

Yes, takes a LOT of time. :o

It has taken me 22 months so far- to do about 30,000 discs....but i have help, multiple drives computers and haven't been working full time since having quentin...


And low and behold, as I was just talking about shows- and rare things coming to light, I was just given a box of beta tapes that contain episodes of turnabout, my living doll, a rare muppets show I never heard of 5-6 more tapes of unaired pilots..
so the conversions continue

Did someone say "rare muppets show"?;):D:p

What is it?

:eek: 30,000 discs!! Wow! Impressive collection!

Yeah...I'm a bit of an addict. I have to say having HD's makes it easier to collect tho...If I had to guess I've added another 5 thousand the last year due to that- but hey my kids will never be short of entertainment!
And as long as there are items I am still searching for, I will always be a die hard collector

Danny, I got someting called tales of the tinkerdee- probably not rare to you but it was new to me

Yes I do have this special;)

Is this an off-air recording or a studio copy? Do you other Muppet stuff from these beta tapes?

Not sure, sorting through as I go- so far found the below- Not sure of what, or how much- just importing the tapes in, can tell what show it is

double trouble
sister kate
suspense
tales of the tinkerdee
sanford arms
disney- wonderful world of- specials and other disney items
daves world- looks liek season 1 and 2 complete
bus stop
way out
tales of tomorrow
macabre theater
a lot of unaired pilots- uncle buck, sudsbury, the three stooges scrapbook., those were the days, fearless, friends and enemies, area 57...more to sort through
a lot of anthology series...
will be working on it awhile- might be more muppet stuff with kids- don't know yet..

I am borrowing the tapes from a friend who is packing up her moms home (she passed on) so I only have a few weeks to borrow them..so trying to get it all imported- but only have one beta machine--

No problem. Let me know if you find any Muppet things. Thanks:)