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vsp · 09-19-2001, 09:37 AM

Actually... I'm not a fan of the DVD format, or I'd probably have bought a player already.

I have no problem with the audio & video quality of VHS tapes (and don't see the need to pay an extra $5-10 for a DVD just for a sharper picture -- it'll be playing on the same TV and through the same speakers, after all). It's only in the last couple of years that I've seen a major advantage of CDs over cassettes (ease of ripping to .MP3s) -- they play the same songs, after all. DVDs don't have that advantage, or at least not easily, and my new Athlon doesn't have a DVD-ROM in it yet.

I loathe the "Here's a movie you already own, but it's in a new format, so buy it again" mentality that the MPAA and retailers perpetuate -- I can't think of a single album, for example, that I own on both cassette and CD formats. Why should I? I've already paid an inflated store price for it once.

A friend of mine went out and got one, and was spastic with glee over the concept. He sat down and plopped in A Clockwork Orange, we watched it, and he said "Whaddya think?" I reached over to his tape rack, picked up A Clockwork Orange on VHS, and told him that he'd just spent $250 (player + disc + cables) to watch something he'd already paid for on a player he'd already paid for. He looked at me like I was a Luddite.

I hate how recent movies have been marketed. For example, I've gone into the store to buy both South Park: BLU and Crouching Tiger on their release dates, only to find that only DVDs were available and that VHS tapes would come out "later." When? "Later. A few months from now. We don't know when. In the meantime, pay an extra ten bucks and two hundred for a player so you can hear the director talk about what he had for lunch during the filming of Scene 23."

Then you have all the rereleases onto DVD of movies that probably never should've been in the theaters in the first place. The Internet fanboys scream with joy when Movie X comes out on DVD, when it's been on the used rack at their local Blockbastard for $4.99 and has a three-inch layer of dust on it in VHS. But now we get to pay $24.99 for the DELUXE dust-collecting version! Woohoo!

VHS tapes are NOT REGION-CODED (apart from that little PAL/NTSC issue with European tapes). DVDs are. That alone is a major issue.

DVDs let you jump directly to the scene of your choice. Provided, of course, that you want to jump directly to the beginning of that scene and not somewhere in the middle of it, in which case you'll be using the same Rewind and Fast Forward buttons found on my VCR. Which, unlike a DVD player, I can _record_ on.

And then there's the little matter of DeCSS vs. the MPAA, which I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on.

I can see where DVDs have some minor advantages -- for instance, I love the idea of being able to pop in a foreign film and choose between dubbing and subtitles. If, that is, the film gets released in the US so that my region-crippled domestic DVD player can play it. Some DVD manufacturers do throw in all sorts of bells and whistles and enhancements with their movies -- which they could just as easily release on VHS in most cases, and which I might pay more for to justify their release, but they don't usually choose to do that. I can own a movie earlier on DVD than on VHS (and pay a lot more for the right to do so).

Can you tell that I'm just lusting for a DVD player of my very own?

Like I said -- my wife is a movie nut, and will likely enjoy those advantages and not care about most of the disadvantages. I'm tempted to get a second, brand-X region-free player for the bedroom TV for foreign discs... except that that TV doesn't have composite input, so I'd need to crank up the ol' RF modulator or get a new TV for that room anyway.

Sigh. Technology advances, and big business finds new ways to screw it up.

09-19-2001, 09:37 AM	#3
vsp Syndrome of a Down Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: West Chester Posts: 1,367	HONK! Wrong answer... Actually... I'm not a fan of the DVD format, or I'd probably have bought a player already. I have no problem with the audio & video quality of VHS tapes (and don't see the need to pay an extra $5-10 for a DVD just for a sharper picture -- it'll be playing on the same TV and through the same speakers, after all). It's only in the last couple of years that I've seen a major advantage of CDs over cassettes (ease of ripping to .MP3s) -- they play the same songs, after all. DVDs don't have that advantage, or at least not easily, and my new Athlon doesn't have a DVD-ROM in it yet. I loathe the "Here's a movie you already own, but it's in a new format, so buy it again" mentality that the MPAA and retailers perpetuate -- I can't think of a single album, for example, that I own on both cassette and CD formats. Why should I? I've already paid an inflated store price for it once. A friend of mine went out and got one, and was spastic with glee over the concept. He sat down and plopped in A Clockwork Orange, we watched it, and he said "Whaddya think?" I reached over to his tape rack, picked up A Clockwork Orange on VHS, and told him that he'd just spent $250 (player + disc + cables) to watch something he'd already paid for on a player he'd already paid for. He looked at me like I was a Luddite. I hate how recent movies have been marketed. For example, I've gone into the store to buy both South Park: BLU and Crouching Tiger on their release dates, only to find that only DVDs were available and that VHS tapes would come out "later." When? "Later. A few months from now. We don't know when. In the meantime, pay an extra ten bucks and two hundred for a player so you can hear the director talk about what he had for lunch during the filming of Scene 23." Then you have all the rereleases onto DVD of movies that probably never should've been in the theaters in the first place. The Internet fanboys scream with joy when Movie X comes out on DVD, when it's been on the used rack at their local Blockbastard for $4.99 and has a three-inch layer of dust on it in VHS. But now we get to pay $24.99 for the DELUXE dust-collecting version! Woohoo! VHS tapes are NOT REGION-CODED (apart from that little PAL/NTSC issue with European tapes). DVDs are. That alone is a major issue. DVDs let you jump directly to the scene of your choice. Provided, of course, that you want to jump directly to the beginning of that scene and not somewhere in the middle of it, in which case you'll be using the same Rewind and Fast Forward buttons found on my VCR. Which, unlike a DVD player, I can _record_ on. And then there's the little matter of DeCSS vs. the MPAA, which I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on. I can see where DVDs have some minor advantages -- for instance, I love the idea of being able to pop in a foreign film and choose between dubbing and subtitles. If, that is, the film gets released in the US so that my region-crippled domestic DVD player can play it. Some DVD manufacturers do throw in all sorts of bells and whistles and enhancements with their movies -- which they could just as easily release on VHS in most cases, and which I might pay more for to justify their release, but they don't usually choose to do that. I can own a movie earlier on DVD than on VHS (and pay a lot more for the right to do so). Can you tell that I'm just lusting for a DVD player of my very own? Like I said -- my wife is a movie nut, and will likely enjoy those advantages and not care about most of the disadvantages. I'm tempted to get a second, brand-X region-free player for the bedroom TV for foreign discs... except that that TV doesn't have composite input, so I'd need to crank up the ol' RF modulator or get a new TV for that room anyway. Sigh. Technology advances, and big business finds new ways to screw it up.