Lists, completism

[peterbirks]

Why are so many men completists? In a fit of momentary insanity a year or so ago I decided to convert my 600 or so videos to DVD. Needless to say my entire Video collection is neatly categorized because, well, that's what men do. But this newe DVD recorder would give me an opportunity to put everything IN ORDER. The episodes of Six Feet Under, or Northern Exposure, or The Shield (and so on, ad infinitum) that currently resided in higgledy-piggledy fashion on various videos could be neatly brought together.

Well, that was a year ago, and some progress has been made (by which I mean, about 5%). What I had originally seen as a five-year-plan is rapidly turning into a lifetime's work. And, more irritating, nearly all of the series have at least one episode missing. For the completist, this is akin to making the whole thing worthless.

And, when I think about it, what is the point? Am I ever going to watch these things again? Probably not. And if I were, why don't I just go out and buy the DVD collection? But it's the process, the getting of things into order. Men's brains must work in very mysterious ways.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I admire your effort. I have the same plan, for my measly 250 VHS tapes, but can actually work out that I will never watch them all. I would like to do some though, and will keep such things as the Tour de France (back to 1986) even if they are allegedly druggies.

How difficult is the conversion?

Northern Exposure one cannot buy on DVD, though please correct me if I am mistaken. Even if one could, like The Simpsons it would be prohibitively expensive. One volume came out, I bought it, the rest hit the rocks. Don't really know why. I would happily trade for any you have, and may even have some of the missing ones.

Siggins

Re Northern Exposure

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

So, Mike in a thread about lists, you want me to provide a list? Apposite, I guess.
My relatively few NEs are from series four and five but I have quite a few of those), the late episodes. Whenever there is a repeat I try to catch it. I'd certainly be interested if oyu had any of the early progs.

Conversion is just boring. You put a tape in the machine, a blank DVD in the recorder, and press play on the tape and record on the DVD. Setting up the system isn't difficult. I use a Vivanco multi-Scart device (available at Dixons) which has a neat AV2 to AV1 copy button. You tune the "channel" on the DVD to AV1 and you are away. You can even watch a different programme on the TV at the same time.

Pete

Videos, and photos

[(Anonymous)]

Fortunately I own only six videos, none of which I'm very keen on, so the issue doesn't arise! If I were keen on any of them, I think I'd simply buy the equivalent DVD and benefit from the improved quality.

However, I have oodles of old negatives and slides neatly filed in binders, which I'm very slowly scanning when I get around to it with my Nikon CoolScan V film scanner. I now have a digital collection of nearly 7000 still photos, including both scans and photos from digital cameras. All these digital or digitized photos are dated and indexed.

So, like you, I have a mammoth task before me that will probably never be completed. Fortunately, a lot of my old photos aren't really worth saving anyway.

Jonathan, near Barcelona

Apparently it is a standard gender divde

[(Anonymous)]

Men are collectors: they want *all* of them, and if there's a hole in the collection, they're either driven to complete it, or they lose interest. Women are hoarders: they just want more (pairs of shoes, ...)

Iain.