Catalog your DVD collection

DVD is the biggest format in the home video catalog: 48,289 releases, against roughly 50,000 films. DVDs were reissued constantly — the same film came back as a bare disc, then a special edition, then a remaster, then part of a box set. 8,736 of those releases are already in at least one member's collection.

Why the disc, not the film

A list of film titles cannot tell you which disc is on your shelf. Videodrome on a fullscreen disc from 1998 and Videodrome on a later widescreen reissue are two objects: different transfer, different extras, different catalogue number, different price. If your inventory says "Videodrome", it has recorded the one fact you already knew.

So the catalog keeps one entry for the film and a separate entry for every release of it. Region, format, aspect ratio and packaging belong to the release, because that is what they describe. Your copy then sits under the release you actually hold.

What a DVD entry holds

Across 48,134 DVD rows the catalog records aspect ratio on 37,219, region on 42,639, identifying codes on 44,163, company credits on 45,059 and free-text notes on 21,404. The entry also has room for audio, subtitles, languages, colour, run time, packaging, classification, territories and the films on a box set.

Two honest gaps. There is no release date worth relying on — the field is new and only 256 DVDs carry one, because the old Filmogs form had no such field and people recorded the year on a company credit instead. And there is no condition or grading on the release: condition belongs to your copy, not to the edition.

Region and video standard

Region is recorded on 42,639 DVDs and leans European: Region 2 on 20,566, Region 1 on 14,127, Region 4 on 3,481, Region 5 on 2,971, ALL on 2,298 and Region 0 on 2,093. The Region 1 spine is deep, which is what you want if you buy imports.

Video standard sits beside it — PAL on 19,780 discs, NTSC on 13,922, nothing recorded on 14,040 — and it is a separate problem from region, not a second name for it. Both are covered properly in DVD and Blu-ray region codes explained, including why a PAL disc of a 100-minute film reads as 96.

DVD-5, DVD-9 and the rest of the spec line

Each format row carries a short free-text description next to the type, and that is where disc specs live. The most common are DVD-9 on 1,980 releases and DVD-5 on 1,040.

The difference matters when you are choosing between two editions of the same film. A DVD-5 is single-layer, 4.7 GB; a DVD-9 is dual-layer, 8.5 GB. Squeeze a long film plus a commentary onto a DVD-5 and the picture was compressed harder to fit — which is what a collector comparing a budget reissue against a special edition wants to know, and what the box rarely says.

One caveat: the same fact is spelled several ways. "DVD-9" has 1,980 rows, "DVD 9" another 507, "DVD-9 (Dual Layer)" 505, and "Dual Layer" on its own 314. It is free text, it was imported as free text, and nothing has normalised it yet. If you search that field, search for more than one spelling.

Aspect ratio and the pan-and-scan era

Aspect ratio is the field that separates releases people still argue about: 16:9 on 4,340 discs, 4:3 on 3,961, 1.85:1 on 2,935, 1.33:1 on 2,302, 2.35:1 on 2,271, 1.78:1 on 1,204, and a vague "Widescreen" on 971.

Those 4:3 and 1.33:1 entries are the early DVD years, when a scope film was cropped to fit a television. A fullscreen DVD and the widescreen reissue of the same film are different objects, and the aspect ratio is often the quickest way to tell which one you are holding when the artwork is nearly identical.

Packaging works the same way: Keep case on 23,935, Digipak on 1,957, Slipcase on 1,890, Box Set on 1,407, Snap case on 1,062. Snap cases date a disc to the first few years of the format all on their own.

Barcode or catalogue number

Identifying codes are the dependable part of a DVD entry. Catalogue-wide the counts run Barcode 54,293, Catalog Number 37,402, UPC-A 4,673, Part Number (Disc) 3,849, Cat# 2,826, BBFC Reference 2,358 and Matrix Layer 0 1,631.

When you are identifying a disc, use the catalogue number. It belongs to one release and no other. A barcode is often reused across a reissue, so two different discs can scan the same — which makes a barcode fine for finding a candidate and poor for confirming one. The matrix code stamped on the inner ring of the disc itself is the last resort when the case has been swapped.

What to add, and what needs fixing

Start with a shelf you know and add the release you hold, not the first entry whose title matches. Check the catalogue number before you add a copy.

If you would rather fix than add, company names are the open job. The most credited are Warner Home Video on 3,023 releases, Universal Studios on 1,891 and plain "Universal" on 1,823 — one company under two names, and there are plenty more pairs like it. Merging those is slow, visible work that makes every browse-by-studio list better at once.

Adding a release to your collection creates a copy, with its condition, where you keep it and what you paid; location and price stay private to you. See collections and wantlists for how the lists work, and editions and pressings for why the release level is the right place to stand.