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2014: The year the DVD enters adulthood
DarthDimi
Behind you!Moderator
According to various sources on the web, Twister was the first film ever to be released on DVD. That happened in 1996, which means that the pioneering DVD film release turns 18 this year. Obviously the DVD format had been engineered many years before, but let's not get caught up in those debates. What matters is that we have been buying DVD's for 18 years now. Time to reflect on the format, shall we?
I started collecting films around 1992. Betamax and Laserdisc formats were never a big hit where I live, so it was all about VHS. Of course I experienced soon enough the various 'troubles' with VHS tapes. They would lose image and sound quality after several viewings, they would present most films in the awful 1.33:1 ratio and they would take up a lot of space in the house. (I still have large boxes full of those tapes in the basement.)
When the DVD format arrived, at first I figured it was too expensive. For the record, I was still in my teens so anything in the range of 30 or more dollars was simply out of reach for me. But around the turn of the century, DVD prices had dropped significantly. And I readily started collecting them. Not a lie: the James Bond Special Edition DVD box was actually the first bunch of DVD's I bought. (I was older then, so the 30 or more dollar range wasn't necessarily out of reach any more. ;-)).
I swiftly noticed the advantages of the DVD format. Most films - though not all - would be presented more or less in their original aspect ratio, sound and image quality marked a stunning improvement over the old and soon-to-die VHS format and they do not occupy quite as much space as tapes used to do. Nowadays I'm still a DVD collector. I watch tons of movies (525 in 2013!) so I prefer to pick them up cheaply. That's why BR hasn't yet entered my house. One might say that I'm a huge fan of the DVD format. Here's why:
The positives
* Low price. Unless you're always looking for the most special, steel-cased, multiple-disc edition, many films are practically given away for free if you wait long enough. Now, some films mean so much to me, I will dig up that extra special deluxe edition immediately upon its release. But so many films, good films!, can be bought in some of those best-buy baskets in the local supermarket for 5 dollars (or euros) or less. Half a year ago I bought a great edition of Casablanca still in pristine, unwrapped condition for about 8 euros. It's unbelievable sometimes the kind of gold that gets sold for no more than a dime.
* Image and Sound Quality. This one speaks for itself. I have heard complaints that DVD's lose data too overtime. I believe that can be true. So far though, I've never had any experience with that myself.
* Bonus features. I must, however, confess that I'm not a bonus feature obsessed person. In most cases, I couldn't care less about audio commentary, behind-the-scenes promo stuff or even the highly overrated 'deleted scenes' part. Only in the case of films I truly consider worthy of extra time, I will suck all the extras dry. Bond films, Star Wars, Kubrick, Blade Runner, Hitchcock... when I know for sure that I'm not wasting my time doing it, I will watch everything they burn on the disc. But no matter how much I love the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, I'm really not interested in three more discs full of making of documentaries. I'll just stick to the films, Peter. Sorry.
* Original aspect ratios. I'm horrified nowadays remembering that in the 90s I endlessly watched films that were cut up to fit our old 4:3 TV screens. As my understanding of aspect ratios has improved over the years, I'm mad even that they made us do that. Fortunately, a lot has changed since then.
* Subtitles and Language options. Subtitles: it's not so much their presence, as it is the option of their absence what I enjoy most. I live in a country where English isn't supposed to be people's native tongue. So when you bought a VHS tape long ago, it automatically came with fixed subtitles. Not exactly needing them, I grew more and more annoyed with them. Now at last I can sit through my favourite films without subtitles crawling up all over the place. Furthermore, when I do need them, say when it's a film in Chinese or Russian, I have them at my disposal. That way, I can still experience the film in its original language, which is the only way! No distracting dubs, just subtitles and the original soundtrack.
But of course DVD's have a few minor points too.
The negatives
* Frozen warnings and time consuming menu animations. Some DVD's allow us to just scroll right through the first couple of 'chapters', usually containing anti-piracy warnings, trailers and other commercials, but not all. Not on a regular DVD player at least. I hate most of these things! Firstly, the anti-piracy warnings are only printed on legal DVD releases; pirate copies almost never have them - obviously. So what on Earth they try to achieve with this is beyond me. Also, why is there an FBI warning on my Region 2 DVD of The Hobbit? I don't live in the USA, feds. Furthermore, if these "piracy is theft" bits keep coming, one truly starts gravitating towards illegal copies: at least then your film begins straight away. Another piece of animation that bothers the hell out of me, is this irritating Dolby Digital 41 sec. film that most of the time CANNOT BE SWITCHED OFF! After many years of watching DVD's, I am perfectly aware Dolby Digital exists, people. By now in fact, I don't like Dolby Digital any more. I want to kill it, I'm the Van Helsing to its Dracula. This is what my nightmare are made of.
* Technical flaws. When they exist, there's little one can do. If a tape contained bad data, a scratch, whatever, you just fast forwarded beyond the flaw and continued watching. DVD's with issues are often a real burden. My ALLO ALLO Series 7 DVD will not play the final two episodes. Not on my DVD players, my parents' DVD player, my PC... So the flaw exists on the disc itself. The episodes won't load and the hardware will freeze. One for the bin? I would think so, but trying to find another copy so far hasn't worked. It seems that my regular stores no longer have it. So I had to roam the Internet in search for free TV websites and at long last managed to watch them there. Once a DVD goes nuts, it stays nuts.
Even then, the negatives cannot compete with the positives. Now, as TV's have grown larger and more High-Def, and as their prices have also dropped in recent times, it may be that I will soon switch to BR. One of the reasons, however, for not having turned to BR just yet is that I'm not a sucker for over-perfumed digital patchwork. I watch a lot of 'older' movies, like movies from the 70s. I want to experience them as they were made. A digital makeover very often renders them unauthentic. I can't imagine watching the raw Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the grainy Jaws all polished and sterile. I need the 'lesser quality' (by modern standards) because that's how it was originally meant be; that's what gives many older films that extra charm! Another reason why I haven't much cared for BR so far, is that I simply don't need some of those fancy bonus features. Why, for the love of God, would I freeze my film in the middle of a scene to call up information I can as easily find on the Internet afterwards, or to change angles of perspective!? I just want to watch a good film, and if I find it really interesting, I will read books on how it was made or watch special features. But I'm not switching to different angles or whatever during the film. It's as if you stop eating in the middle of your great meal to take a sample of the food and study it for its vitamin and mineral content.
Anyway, as long as they keep putting out DVD's, I'm buying them. I love the DVD format. And the DVD has finally entered adulthood. Many happy returns!
I started collecting films around 1992. Betamax and Laserdisc formats were never a big hit where I live, so it was all about VHS. Of course I experienced soon enough the various 'troubles' with VHS tapes. They would lose image and sound quality after several viewings, they would present most films in the awful 1.33:1 ratio and they would take up a lot of space in the house. (I still have large boxes full of those tapes in the basement.)
When the DVD format arrived, at first I figured it was too expensive. For the record, I was still in my teens so anything in the range of 30 or more dollars was simply out of reach for me. But around the turn of the century, DVD prices had dropped significantly. And I readily started collecting them. Not a lie: the James Bond Special Edition DVD box was actually the first bunch of DVD's I bought. (I was older then, so the 30 or more dollar range wasn't necessarily out of reach any more. ;-)).
I swiftly noticed the advantages of the DVD format. Most films - though not all - would be presented more or less in their original aspect ratio, sound and image quality marked a stunning improvement over the old and soon-to-die VHS format and they do not occupy quite as much space as tapes used to do. Nowadays I'm still a DVD collector. I watch tons of movies (525 in 2013!) so I prefer to pick them up cheaply. That's why BR hasn't yet entered my house. One might say that I'm a huge fan of the DVD format. Here's why:
The positives
* Low price. Unless you're always looking for the most special, steel-cased, multiple-disc edition, many films are practically given away for free if you wait long enough. Now, some films mean so much to me, I will dig up that extra special deluxe edition immediately upon its release. But so many films, good films!, can be bought in some of those best-buy baskets in the local supermarket for 5 dollars (or euros) or less. Half a year ago I bought a great edition of Casablanca still in pristine, unwrapped condition for about 8 euros. It's unbelievable sometimes the kind of gold that gets sold for no more than a dime.
* Image and Sound Quality. This one speaks for itself. I have heard complaints that DVD's lose data too overtime. I believe that can be true. So far though, I've never had any experience with that myself.
* Bonus features. I must, however, confess that I'm not a bonus feature obsessed person. In most cases, I couldn't care less about audio commentary, behind-the-scenes promo stuff or even the highly overrated 'deleted scenes' part. Only in the case of films I truly consider worthy of extra time, I will suck all the extras dry. Bond films, Star Wars, Kubrick, Blade Runner, Hitchcock... when I know for sure that I'm not wasting my time doing it, I will watch everything they burn on the disc. But no matter how much I love the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, I'm really not interested in three more discs full of making of documentaries. I'll just stick to the films, Peter. Sorry.
* Original aspect ratios. I'm horrified nowadays remembering that in the 90s I endlessly watched films that were cut up to fit our old 4:3 TV screens. As my understanding of aspect ratios has improved over the years, I'm mad even that they made us do that. Fortunately, a lot has changed since then.
* Subtitles and Language options. Subtitles: it's not so much their presence, as it is the option of their absence what I enjoy most. I live in a country where English isn't supposed to be people's native tongue. So when you bought a VHS tape long ago, it automatically came with fixed subtitles. Not exactly needing them, I grew more and more annoyed with them. Now at last I can sit through my favourite films without subtitles crawling up all over the place. Furthermore, when I do need them, say when it's a film in Chinese or Russian, I have them at my disposal. That way, I can still experience the film in its original language, which is the only way! No distracting dubs, just subtitles and the original soundtrack.
But of course DVD's have a few minor points too.
The negatives
* Frozen warnings and time consuming menu animations. Some DVD's allow us to just scroll right through the first couple of 'chapters', usually containing anti-piracy warnings, trailers and other commercials, but not all. Not on a regular DVD player at least. I hate most of these things! Firstly, the anti-piracy warnings are only printed on legal DVD releases; pirate copies almost never have them - obviously. So what on Earth they try to achieve with this is beyond me. Also, why is there an FBI warning on my Region 2 DVD of The Hobbit? I don't live in the USA, feds. Furthermore, if these "piracy is theft" bits keep coming, one truly starts gravitating towards illegal copies: at least then your film begins straight away. Another piece of animation that bothers the hell out of me, is this irritating Dolby Digital 41 sec. film that most of the time CANNOT BE SWITCHED OFF! After many years of watching DVD's, I am perfectly aware Dolby Digital exists, people. By now in fact, I don't like Dolby Digital any more. I want to kill it, I'm the Van Helsing to its Dracula. This is what my nightmare are made of.
* Technical flaws. When they exist, there's little one can do. If a tape contained bad data, a scratch, whatever, you just fast forwarded beyond the flaw and continued watching. DVD's with issues are often a real burden. My ALLO ALLO Series 7 DVD will not play the final two episodes. Not on my DVD players, my parents' DVD player, my PC... So the flaw exists on the disc itself. The episodes won't load and the hardware will freeze. One for the bin? I would think so, but trying to find another copy so far hasn't worked. It seems that my regular stores no longer have it. So I had to roam the Internet in search for free TV websites and at long last managed to watch them there. Once a DVD goes nuts, it stays nuts.
Even then, the negatives cannot compete with the positives. Now, as TV's have grown larger and more High-Def, and as their prices have also dropped in recent times, it may be that I will soon switch to BR. One of the reasons, however, for not having turned to BR just yet is that I'm not a sucker for over-perfumed digital patchwork. I watch a lot of 'older' movies, like movies from the 70s. I want to experience them as they were made. A digital makeover very often renders them unauthentic. I can't imagine watching the raw Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the grainy Jaws all polished and sterile. I need the 'lesser quality' (by modern standards) because that's how it was originally meant be; that's what gives many older films that extra charm! Another reason why I haven't much cared for BR so far, is that I simply don't need some of those fancy bonus features. Why, for the love of God, would I freeze my film in the middle of a scene to call up information I can as easily find on the Internet afterwards, or to change angles of perspective!? I just want to watch a good film, and if I find it really interesting, I will read books on how it was made or watch special features. But I'm not switching to different angles or whatever during the film. It's as if you stop eating in the middle of your great meal to take a sample of the food and study it for its vitamin and mineral content.
Anyway, as long as they keep putting out DVD's, I'm buying them. I love the DVD format. And the DVD has finally entered adulthood. Many happy returns!
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Comments
Having said that though, even though I am also annoyed by the inability to skip past anti-piracy and copyright notices, DVD is still my favourite ever format (although I am coming around to Blu-Ray more and more).
Moost negative thing be is that some tv series not or only partly be released
Iam talking about:
The Saint S3 & S4 & S6 and S5 episode 13 and later..
Batman Animated Volume 3 & 4
Nikita original tv series S2 and later..
Charlies Angels S4 & S5
Dark Angel S2
More http://www.imdb.com/list/EKfyU91RFxA/
and some stores stil thinking we live in 2002-2004 with there prices. Also i hated it when packages changed or error's on disc.
Blu-ray where i realy started with in 2013 and bought my player in 2012 also have some problems like some re-released from movies on Blu-Ray get a les release on that format. Inspecialy special features who sometimes not subtiteld too or changes in movie like color, scene's or dubbing. http://www.imdb.com/list/bv8BwGG8L4Y/
It look like it earlier close to end with more and more stores closed.
I play DVDs often, and am in no rush to buy a BR player.
I agree it sometimes better to release movies on dvd, inspecialy movies in the 1:33:1 format. With dvd it have option to watch it full screen.
I also stil thinking or i must buy The Hitchcock movies with i expect a lot of them be in 1:33 or 1:66:1. As some people notice already with my complane about Skyfall be is that iam a very visual person and if things look to good i can have a problem with it. Also my personal opnion be is that there messing around with Twine BD based on footage from that anouchment footage.
I think Disney and Warner Home Entertainmt inspecialy i hoped on be inprovement on BD, but stil disapointed sometimes. Audio inspecialy a good reasen why i go for BD disc. I can use now the some avaible DTS tracks from dvd and like it can watchting bonus material who be take over from 2 disc SE on 1 disc and some previous dvd 2 disc SE material never be released in my country.
BD stil have some things to inprove. Like the space should be used more for tv series. A BD25 (25GB) already close to 3x so much room as DVD 9 (9 GB). This mean that S3 & S4 (32 episodes) of The Saint can be released on 4 BD's or 10 dvd's. S1&S2 have 39 episodes be released on 12 dvd's.
Yes, I like the old ways too, but unfortunately all now sadly obsolete technology takes up (too much?) space.
...'Freddy Got Fingered.' I don't know what's worse, the fact that I picked up some movie I had never, ever seen before at such a young age for the hefty price of $20, or the fact that my Mom didn't punch me for making such a terrible selection.
As for my format choice now, I've pretty much offloaded all of my DVD's (sans films that aren't currently on blu-ray) for BR titles I want. I have quite the selection now, and I enjoy the quality of every film I see.
Formats keep changing, we all know that. But with my DVd collection I have some confidence. It's already a digital format; if at one point it cannot be played directly on any available hardware, I predict that we can at least rip and convert the content pretty easily.
Right after Bond says "I came prepared for a cold reception" there's a pause before it cuts to the next scene with the helicopter.
Tough way to learn things. ;-)
I agree with Samuel. As someone that works in retail it's fair to say that DVD still out-sells Blu Ray on the whole. People often look for cheap films and are more likely to find them for under £5 on DVD.
Even the new releases are relitively cheap.
I'd say about 20 years (I think). They were being phased out in the early 2000s. As far as I know I don't think DVDs are quite at that stage...yet.
From personal experience several of my friends still rely on DVD and only have a very small number of Blu-Rays in their collection.
My first DVD I was bought actually, for Christmas 2001. The first Lord of the Rings film. After that it was On Her Majesty's Secret Service for my Birthday. I can't remember after that.
On that note I always find it quite funny when old films make references to technology that was cool at the time:
"Relax...we've got everything in this mug man...TV, CD, full-bar VHS"
What I find interesting is that a DVD-ish format had already been devised for the early 90s but VHS was a lot cheaper so they never go around to make it successful. Music CDs and CD-ROMs for computers, by contrast, were gaining popularity very rapidly. But movies kept being released on tape for many more years. ;-)
I do have some Blu Rays (got the Bond boxset for Christmas), but I still find myself buying DVDs more often than not, just because they're cheaper.