Two Questions About DVDs/VHS Tapes

[Guest El Satanico]

As I stated in another thread, Lucas isn't going to release the original trilogy on DVD in their original form. Only the Special Edition versions.

Well C.H.U.D. when i said i hope Lucas doesn't digitally "enhance" the movies for the DVD release i meant more then he already did for the SE releases.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

DVD will be obsolete in 2 years when they start producing the new DVD format that uses different light color for the laser, thus making the discs hold about 2 or 3 times as more data.

The new players will be sky high priced, and from what I hear they won't play CDs or DVDs..

 

And then after that, (about 5 -7years) you have the holographic data discs that have a huge storage compacity. Problems with the format now are that the discs are light sensitive and expensive to produce..but in a few years they'll solve those problems...

[Guest Karnage]

Well they could put the discs in a case similar to a floppy disk...

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

DVD will be obsolete in 2 years when they start producing the new DVD format that uses  different light color for the laser, thus making the discs hold about 2 or 3 times as more data.

The new players will be sky high priced, and from what I hear they won't play CDs or DVDs..

Ya think so? I doubt it. DVD is bigger now that VHS, and you think some new, uncompatible, expensive format will make it obsolete in 2 years? Yeah right.

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

Well C.H.U.D. when i said i hope Lucas doesn't digitally "enhance" the movies for the DVD release i meant more then he already did for the SE releases.

Oh, well Lucas said he will. He said there is even MORE changes he wants to make to the original trilogy before he releases them on DVD. So even the SE's that were released won't be the same as the DVD versions.

[Guest redbaron51]

bah to both.

 

Beta ownz all of j00.

 

 

 

actually DVD

[Guest El Satanico]

Well C.H.U.D. when i said i hope Lucas doesn't digitally "enhance" the movies for the DVD release i meant more then he already did for the SE releases.

Oh, well Lucas said he will. He said there is even MORE changes he wants to make to the original trilogy before he releases them on DVD. So even the SE's that were released won't be the same as the DVD versions.

What? Ah son of a bitch...god damnit Lucas.

 

South Park was right...the big name directors are out of control.

 

We must stop this madness...and Free Hat

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

DVD will be obsolete in 2 years when they start producing the new DVD format that uses  different light color for the laser, thus making the discs hold about 2 or 3 times as more data.

The new players will be sky high priced, and from what I hear they won't play CDs or DVDs..

Ya think so? I doubt it. DVD is bigger now that VHS, and you think some new, uncompatible, expensive format will make it obsolete in 2 years? Yeah right.

I dont think so, I know that Hollywood wants more money. The people who bought DVD players back in 1997 when they were $1000+ just because they were new and cool will buy these new players, which will be on the market in the next 2 years for the same reason. It won't totally squash the DVD format in 2 years, but it will become an alternative and I say 2-3 years after. The new blue laser technology will also be important because movie studios will be able to fit HDTV compatable movies on them and you know the push towards HDTV is a main thing right now.

 

I was however wrong in the fact that the Blue Laser players won't be backwards compatable in a way. The current idea appears to have newer DVD players to include both blue and red (old laser) lasers so that they can read both DVDs that use the red laser and the new SDVD (Im calling it Super DVD) read by the blue laser. However the SDVDs wont be backwards compatible with regular DVD players that use just a Red laser.

So if you want that super slick copy of a movie in a couple of years, you'll have to go with the SDVD players..

 

Confused, read the links below, it might make more sense..

 

Couple of links to enjoy:

 

The Blue Laser DVD conspiracy

 

Holographic Discs - Several years down the road...

[Guest Bosstones Fan]

I am possibly the only one here who isn't in awe of DVD.  

No, you're not.

 

I personally don't see why everyone is so damned giddy over DVD. I mean, I admit that the picture and sound are better on DVD, but why is that so important? Someone please explain this, if you can.

 

Maybe it's just me not being THAT big of a movie geek or something, but I really couldn't care less about a DVD containing tons of behind-the-scenes stuff, extra (or deleted) footage, or whatnot. All I care about is spending two hours of my time watching a movie, being entertained (or not), and then going on with my life.

 

You give me a choice between spending $20 for the DVD version of a movie or $10 (and probably less than that) for the VHS version that shows the exact same movie, I'm going to choose the $10 VHS version every single time. Why? Because at the end of the day, I will still have seen the same movie as you...and be $10 richer to boot.

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

Sorry, but I enjoy movies. And for me, part of enjoying them is seeing them in widescreen, with good sound and a great picture. VHS offers none of the 3 (widescreen rarely, the other two... forget it).

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Also, DVD doesn't deteriorate (or at least doesn't deteriorate as quickly) like VHS does. I recently rented Demonic Toys, and since the tape was from its original edition (it's been LOOOOOONG out of print), I was saddened because there was a lot of static at the beginning (and the Videozone ) and there were a lot of specks and other distortions throughout. Plus the tracking was off.

 

I also have the same problem when watching my dad's old tapes or some of my friend's highly generated wrestling tapes. You can't notice it on new tapes, but you will soon enough... deterioriation is everything. I just wished they would release more older films on DVD, because the difference between the DVD and old VHS versions, and even sometimes the TV broadcasts of the movies, are striking, even on a lo-fi system such as mine.

[Guest J*ingus]

You give me a choice between spending $20 for the DVD version of a movie or $10 (and probably less than that) for the VHS version that shows the exact same movie, I'm going to choose the $10 VHS version every single time. Why? Because at the end of the day, I will still have seen the same movie as you...and be $10 richer to boot.

Aha, my fine young friend, you have just brought up a very nasty skeleton which the recording and video industries desperately wish to keep in the closet.

 

DVDs are cheaper to manufacture than videos. A lot cheaper. You can make a dozen DVDs for the same price that it takes to make a single VHS tape. Yet DVDs are more expensive, usually twice as much as video tapes.

 

Why? Ask the industry, and they'll give you some double-talk about how DVDs are still new technology, they aren't selling as many, production costs are still relatively high, and prices will indeed drop at some unspecified point in the future.

 

To show how valid that claim is, ask yourself this: why do CDs still cost more than cassette tapes? Greed, plain and simple.

[Guest Bosstones Fan]

To show how valid that claim is, ask yourself this: why do CDs still cost more than cassette tapes? Greed, plain and simple.

Jingus, I couldn't disagree with your point even if I wanted to. As long as I have a choice, I will ALWAYS choose the cheaper alternative, whether it be CD's vs. cassettes or DVD's vs. VHS.

 

What's sad though is that music cassette tapes are all but extinct mostly because the record companies wanted them gone; they realized the gold mine they were sitting on with CD's and knew that if they forced everyone to buy CD's, they could make a ton of extra money while incurring only a fraction of the costs. That's one reason why I burn 98% of the CD's I acquire these days: I got sick and tired of being ass-raped by the big record labels for CD's with only two or three listenable songs on them, so I decided to turn it around on them for a while by burning my own. I'd buy more cassettes, but I can't find them anywhere.

 

Unfortunately, the same thing will happen to VHS. The movie studios will phase it out simply because they want to make all the extra profits that await them with DVD's.

 

I'll say one thing: they're gonna have to fight me tooth and nail to get me to switch to DVD, because I simply refuse to spend the extra $10 or so DVD's cost if I don't have to. It's so ridiculous what they're doing to the buying public and I for one have had enough.

 

Now if they want to climb down off their big pile of money and make DVD's a little more affordable, then I'll be perfectly willing to "upgrade." But until that happens, I'll keep my VHS, thank you.

[Guest Karnage]

DVDs are in widescreen. VHS isn't. That's the important thing.

[Guest cabbageboy]

Yeah I hate that letterboxed shit. Haha!

 

I have been hearing about widescreen for damn near a decade now. I still think it sucks, plain and simple. I don't get movies can't be filmed simultaneously in widescreen for the theater and flat for TV. They did that sometimes back in the 50s.

 

I mean, on newer movies from the past decade the whole widescreen thing isn't even noticeable on TV. I can't tell a whole lot of difference in Forrest Gump on TV full screen in regards to the theater. However, the letterboxing does help if you watch an old Cinemascope movie like The Robe. Otherwise people look 10 feet tall and the color is muddy.

 

Widescreen is possibly the silliest invention in the history of film. It doesn't do anything all that important, doesn't make the film any better....it just means you see it on a really big screen. Oh, and when you watch it on TV you have a distorted full screen or a letterboxed picture where half your TV is taken up by black bars. Color me unimpressed.

 

I would say more people watch movies on TV than watch in the theater, so it doesn't make any sense to screw the TV viewer.

 

Anyway, in regards to DVD and tapes. Here is the biggest secret that no one wants anyone to know: DVD is NOT a huge amount better in terms of picture and sound. Maybe a little better, but if I have a good tape and a strong digital cable signal I can tape stuff that is nearly as strong as a DVD. It's funny but I taped the Best Years of Our Lives off digital cable a while back and I think it is better than the DVD I have (sound is better anyway, picture maybe slightly weaker).

[Guest J*ingus]

Personally, I think that different screen ratios work better for different movies. Comedies and such don't need widescreen, if anything it gets in the way. But for epics or action movies, it definitely helps in my opinion.

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

Wow, that was one of the most ignorant, uneducated rants about widescreen I have ever read.

 

Blockbuster loves people like that.

[Guest El Satanico]

Widescreen doesn't make it a bigger screen. Widescreen just gives you the proper screen size compared to the hacked up looking smaller screen scan & pan gives 95% of the time.

[Guest Karnage]

Some movies are completely ruined when they are panned and scammed.