Hi there guys.
I am originally from Birmingham England, and grew up from the age of 4 in one house that I owned (after my parents passed) with my wife until last July. I was there for 52 years!
I started my media collecting at a young age initially by recording TV and films off the TV with a tape recorder I got for Christmas 75. We got our first VCR - a Sony Betamax C6 - in October 1983 and in 1986, shortly after starting work, I purchased my first VHS a JVC. It was a used machine from Radio Rentals but was refurbished with new heads etc. It was a fabulous machine that recorded beautifully. At the time I worked in the "record department" at WHSmith and so I got 25% off all purchases. I started buying movies and within a year I had a modest collection of about 140. My grandad passed away on Christmas day 87, and left me some money that allowed me to purchase a betamax camcorder, and a hi fi Panasonic VHS. By now I was buying tapes in threes and fours collecting movies and when I did stop buying in early 94 (I swapped to laser disc) I had over 2000 pre recorded and when I stopped "taping" 4000+ tapes I had recorded off air.
A small lottery win in 1998 allowed me to buy a "big screen" rear projection set (a 50" which was massive back then!) and a new thing from the US called a DVD player. Again I was off replacing films I had bought on VHS, widescreen VHS and then laser disc.
In 2001 I bought a Philips DVD recorder - that was awful and was junked quite soon after and I moved to Toshiba. I had that until it broke in 2008.
I got my first Blu-ray in 2008, and bought an Oppo 103 (which is still in use) two years later. Latterly I bought in 2017 an Oppo 203.
My job from 2002 to last year was as a designer, at a manufacturing company. I had them build me a steel shelving system, three boxes deep and that had holes at the back to pass through wires to my projector.
In late 2021 I backed the Philips 4K U5 UST projector kickstarter and that is now the one I use in the USA with a TCL 75" in the living room for "every day" viewing.
When I moved I downsized a lot - I sold about 800 discs and shipped the rest to the US. I now mostly watch discs as there is so little on TV I want and I want best sound and PQ available.
I have about 120 steelbook editions (I had more but sold a load)
My genres are sci fi, westerns, Bond and similar.
I have included some pics from 2022 before everything was shipped