Do you archive/buy your fansubs?

[lubczyk]

Do you guys archive anime series that you have watched? I used to backup fansubs, but after a few series it got tedious and I figured that I would rather venture out and watch new anime rather than go back and see something I've already watched.

I don't buy DVDs anymore either. I just rent them if they're available and return them. I love movies like the Godfather, Star Wars, Terminator, et cetera, but I've seen them so many times that I don't feel the need to own the movies.

I think the only discs I buy nowadays are Video Games due to the replay factor and multiplayer.

I basically download all the anime I watch and delete it when I'm done with it. There's too many interesting series/movies to see so I have never felt the need to rewatch them.

So all my entertainment purposes are filled with on-demand, fansubs and PS3 games.

How about about you guys?

[-KarumA-]

I archive my fansubs, not all of them only those I think are worth keeping to watch again
If a series is really good I might consider buying the dvd box if I can find it in a store nearby or online where I can pay for it without creditcard and that isn't too expensive =3

[C.A.]

Me and my friends burn into dvds so we can share and exchange good anime.

[xia]

I only keep some fansubs. When they're licensed, they're erased and bought.

[Zu Ra]

Archive fansubs yes over 200+ DVDs and counting . NOPE I dont buy fansubs thats just wrong . I do have a habit of buying DVDs to show my support to the series .

[Utter_iMADNESS]

I archive all my anime except for the ones that are really bad. I find that every once in a while I have the urge to re watch a certain episode or show, but since I'm always downloading the high quality .mkv's, I'm starting to run out of room on my computer and my external hard drive and running out of room for my DVD's >.<

[qtipbrit]

Originally Posted by Geta Boshi

Archive fansubs yes over 200+ DVDs and counting . NOPE I dont buy fansubs thats just wrong . I do have a habit of buying DVDs to show my support to the series .

I don't know whether or not it's "illegal" to sell fansubs, but it's definitely immoral, and you don't find many people selling them nowadays.

Personally, I will only archive stuff that I'm at least 75% sure that I will rewatch.
Generally, it's the action anime I particularly liked, the best of the dramas I've seen, and the occasional other series.

With the limited space on my outdated laptop, I could probably store 10 anime series at most, and I've just about done so, being that I have a little under 6 GB of free disk space left.
Soon, I'll have to start burning DVD's and moving stuff.

[Vexx]

I keep all my fansubs I liked (offline) because they're just hellavu more convenient for taking on vacation and whatnot. However, I buy *all* licensed anime of fansubs that I keep --

The only sort of "buying fansubs" I tolerate is someone who is helping those who have lousy or restricted internet connections -- and they're just doing it for the cost of the media and some depreciation of the equipment and their time. In other words, just sneaker-netting for the less fortunate, not a business.

I'm just fortunate that a great deal of what I like is too "niche market" for the R1 companies to try apparently.

[yezhanquan]

Not that hot into anime, so no. Bought only a few series: Hellsing (anime, not OVA), Kiddy Grade, Last Exile and Eva. Oh, and Rumbling Hearts.

[DragoonKain3]

I personally find archiving a pain in the butt, and not nearly worth the time to do it. Considering I'm more of an otaku about RPGs (which take a helluva time to finish), I'd rather spend that time playing those. While it's true I can burn and play at the same time, I get irritated if I have to break from playing every 10 mins or so just to set up the next disc. Maybe when blu-ray burners get cheap I might consider it, since it would only usually take one blu-ray disc to burn one cour of anime, but even then I highly doubt it.

That said, I buy all the anime I would have liked to burn if ever it gets released in R1. I consider myself a missionary of anime of sorts; I lend all my DVDs to whoever I get acquainted to that even has a passing interest in anime. And really, apart from the pretty box and some nostalgia, that's all the reasons I have for buying anime.

(As such, I don't buy sub only series period, as the first question I am always asked is "Does it have an english track?")

[SeijiSensei]

The rise of 720p fansubs raises some issues about archiving vs. buying for me. I'll probably continue to buy DVDs of my favorite series if they're released in R1. (Llike Vexx, that's often not the case for me either.) But 480p DVDs aren't really competitive with well-made 720p fansubs in terms of quality. I suppose some day they'll all be on Blu-Ray (at an even higher price than anime DVDs sell for now, of course), but at the moment DVDs are losing out to the best work by the subbing community.

[ironfrost]

Originally Posted by qtipbrit92

I don't know whether or not it's "illegal" to sell fansubs, but it's definitely immoral, and you don't find many people selling them nowadays.

You know that pretty much all bootlegs are taken from fansubs these days, right? And yes, it's completely illegal, but so are fansubs in general.

In answer to the original poster's question, I do archive my fansubs, but only full series. I download lots of episodes of different series at the beginning of each season, but if I don't enjoy them enough to watch the full series there's no point burning them to DVD either. Plus, there's nothing more annoying than watching half a show and not being able to find the rest of it.

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

I personally find archiving a pain in the butt, and not nearly worth the time to do it.

Really now? I don't find it all that hard to do, its just that at the end of a season there are sh*t loads of data to transfer

I don't like burning series onto DVDs as I think it is a waste of space, DVDs and easy to lose. With my extensive system of externals I hope none of them breakdown or it would break me down

I like to store and collect finished series as you never know when it may come in handy.

I do buy some licensed series that I liked but that depends on how much I like the series. Kiminozu flew off the shelf pretty fast when I found it though

[DragoonKain3]

Pain in the butt, not as in it's difficult, but it's really monotonous. Get DVD, plunk DVD in, select files to burn, wait for burn, recheck if it burned correctly, take out DVD, put in new DVD, rinse and repeat. Of course, I could do something in the mean time, but my personality really REALLY hates to be interrupted in the middle of something especially if its as frequent as every 10 mins.

As for externals, I thought about it in the beginning, but in the end I opted to just spend the money on DVDs. I found out that by haggling and buying in bulk in an anime convention, I can get as low as $20 on some of the less popular/older series boxsets. Which really, is what I'm interested in apart from a few new/popular shows. Thus, the $200-400 I would spend on a good, spacious external hard drive, I'd rather spend on box sets where I can get around 7-15 boxsets at that price on average. While it's true I store 10x or even more at that price in an HDD, the ability to easily lend my friends anime, the new english track I probably haven't heard of, being able to support the R1 industry somewhat, and the pretty boxes decorating my book shelf is more than worth the price.

Then again, I'm itching to watch j-dramas right now, and considering how much bigger those are, maybe I should invest in a 1tb internal right now. Gotta wait till after Anime North though lol.

[Terrestrial Dream]

I keep all my favorite animes, before I would delete them when I am done but after while I kinda want to watch it again so rather then downloading them all over I just decided to keep all my favorite animes. Also from time to time I like to watch some of the scene from my favorite anime like last fight in Gurren Lagann or GaoGaiGar Final.

[Alleluia_Cone]

Unless the series in question is terrible, I archive all my anime. If the series is really great, I'll still archive a copy as well as purchase a DVD version.

[Westlo]

I archive the majority of fansubs I download even though I rarely watch them again.

[KholdStare]

Due to HDD problems, I don't archive, and I only buy a few series that I think are beautiful. I think certain people like qtip can name the only two anime I archived and two anime I bought.

[relentlessflame]

For myself, I'm a chronic collector of stuff both official and otherwise. I find it very, very hard to delete anything I ever downloaded -- ever -- whether it's anime or anything else, because I really have gone back and had to find things a few years old! The old "you never know when you might need it!" thing. So, I guess I'm a packrat. I used to archive everything to DVD, but then I fell behind and hard drives became cheaper (they're always on sale!) so now I tend to just go and buy more hard drives. Unfortunately, I now have nearly 3 TB of hard drives connected to this machine, and they're all full, so I either need to go buy another hard drive, or spend the entire weekend burning stuff to DVD (which is slow and tedious).

You getting the picture that I need help for my packrat mentality yet?

Beside that, I made a decision when I first started watching fansubs that I would buy every series I watched to the end. Unfortunately, at some point along the way I thought it would be a really great idea to also start purchasing the Japanese DVDs for shows that I didn't think would get licensed as well. And it was a great idea, except for the fact that it's so darn expensive. And then I got the idea that I really should buy all the music CDs for every show that I watch. And then I started buying figures, and magazines, and manga, and artbooks, and games, and... Besides, once you've started collecting something, you can't stop half-way! And...

So yeah. I'm a packrat, and a spend-a-holic. This is how my family once explained that I'd never be rich. It's also why there's barely even a path to walk around here...

To sum up and answer the question, on both counts it's a resounding "Yes!"... to the peril of my wallet and well-being. Not exactly a highly recommended lifestyle unless the idea of piles of credit card debt and more "stuff" than you know what to do with seems as appealing to you as it seems to for me...

Restraint... pffft... where's the fun in that? /me returns to sorting through yesterday's new arrivals...

[NorthernFallout]

I only archive those I consider excellent. BL, NGE, LS, AD etc.
Too much HDD space if I were to archive them and I can't burn them.