So who is sticking with SD DVD and why and for how long (1 Viewer)

[BrianRi]

I'll switch when hell freezes over or my dvds start to rot.

 

[Deane Johnson]

I have 1750 SD titles in my collection, and I've stopped buying until one of the formats becomes the likely winner. At that time, I'll begin buying again, but only high def.

 

[Mary_P]

I'll be sticking with SD for the foreseeable future. I have a decent-looking big-screen set; when that is beyond reasonable repair, I'll consider replacing it with hi-def. (Heck, that may be all I can get when that time comes.) Maybe by then there'll be a winner in the format war, or a truce with both formats being supported by all studios and hardware manufacturers, but if there isn't, I'll be sticking with SD even after I've replaced the set.

 

[Corey]

i'll stick be sticking with SD for a couple of years, but i'll be buying some HD titles when I'm able to buy a PS3 next year.

 

[Craig Beam]

We have a 50" Panasonic plasma HD set and an upconverting Sony DVD player, as well as Comcast HD. With over 500 SD DVDs in our collection, we're in no hurry to upgrade. Someday, I'm sure.... but not for at least 2-3 years. I just don't feel the need yet.

 

[John Kilduff]

I'll be sticking with SD DVD for the time being. Our family can't exactly afford a High Definition TV or either one of the new players now. I'll be sitting out the format war as well...Besides that, I still have plenty of DVDs I've only rarely viewed or never viewed at all.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I still have my VCR as well. What are the chances that movies like "Killer Party" or "Valet Girls" will be coming to any DVD format anyway?

 

[PatrickMD]

Until there's one format, I'm very happy with what I have. I'm a movie fan, not a technology fan. I'm waiting on newer things like "Superman Returns" but some older movies I've purchased like "The Spiral Staircase" - the way I look at it is if it's the only version of the movie on the market then it has the best picture quality available.

 

[bobraleigh]

i'm sticking with sd. i too still have vhs tapes of movies that will prolly never

see any version of dvd. not that big a deal to me. i watch mainly old movies

anyway, '30's and 40's. so there is only so much to be done to those films.

if they are already released and i have it i won't be buying it again just for a

format upgrade

 

[Brent M]

I swore I wouldn't buy into either format until there was a clear winner, but I caved and bought a Toshiba A1 HD-DVD player last month for $350. I figured at that price I wasn't only getting HD-DVD, but also a top-notch upconverting DVD player. In fact, the A1 does so well with SD DVDs that I sold my Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi(actually for more than I spent on the A1). Anyway, I've been blown away by the quality of HD-DVD and I'm glad I took the plunge. Watching movies like Batman Begins and King Kong in HD are absolutely amazing both visually and sonically. I can understand why a lot of people are reluctant to buy in because I was thinking the exact same way merely a few months ago. In retrospect, however, I'll say that if you have the spare cash on hand and you're a hardcore A/V nut do yourself a favor and jump on the HD bandwagon. You certainly won't regret the decision.

 

[george kaplan]

I'm waiting until either the format war is over, or there is a 2nd generation dual player. Since there's not currently even a 1st gen dual player, it's going to be quite a while before I go that route.

 

[Adam_S]

After a bit more thought, and looking at my dvd collection, there isn't much I'd really want to upgrade. Star Wars (original versions, I've got enough releases without buying the fuckers twice on HD as well as VHS and DVD), Empire of the Sun, E.T., Jaws, Spirited Away, The Incredibles, Beauty and the Beast, Seven Samurai (haven't bought the three discer), Band of Brothers.

The thing is, living in LA I get the oppurtunity to see films of all vintages on the big screen with an outstanding audience all the time. I've seen most of my favorites in 35mm, and I'm content with the occasional screening, I don't watch my collection enough to justify continued expenses for librarying purposes.

 

[Sean Aaron]

My widescreen PAL/NTSC tube set still works; I don't like the quality of broadcast digital and definitely am not impressed with plasma or lcd sets either in price or quality of picture (maybe if someone teaches the kids at Currys how to calibrate one, I'd consider flat panel, but right now I cannot trust the amount of artifacts I see on those displays -- not for £2K+).

Frankly HD just doesn't have that much going for it over PAL from what I can see, the pictures are _not_ photorealistic and the broadcast content is not compelling, so what would I watch? Films that I already own? No way I'm paying what I did for DVD when it was new to re-purchase movies in a new format for some extra resolution (assuming the remaster jobs even give you that).

I'm just tired of the rampant consumerism that drives these things. I buy tv sets that interest me when they come out; when that stops, I'll stop buying video formats altogether.

 

[James_M]

HD looks great and I'd love to get it some day. But I don't even have an HD TV. I own over 200 SD dvds and many of them don't even seem to realize SD dvd's full potential. I held off of Little Mermaid cause the picture could've been done better. Many SD dvds could benefit from being remastered or resourced. Heck, even some Blu-Ray/HD-DVDs don't look to great. I'd guess in five years we'll probably find out which HD format is the winner. And probably another five to get some releases I actually want rebuying if there's a real improvement. Even though I highly anticipate and yearn for HD quality movies, SD is still the most practical for now. Another part of me hopes it'll take longer for HD to catch on as it'd be kind of disappointing knowing all of my current dvd collection to be "outdated" in technology.

 

[Mary_P]

Interestingly, there was a piece on Good Morning America this morning about "the death of DVD" -- but it pointed to the advent of legal downloads as the major threat, never mentioned HD in either format.

I can't see that being a draw for me either, for a variety of reasons. Even after I get hooked up for a high-speed connection, I'm not crazy about the idea of losing movies I've paid for when my computer crashes. I'm sticking with DVDs for now, where if one disc gets damaged, it doesn't take the entire collection with it.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I've jumped into HD-DVD, but that doesn't mean I'm done with standard DVD at all. There's too many niche films I want to pick up (and for some unknown reason, Japan puts English subtitles on region-coded DVDs but not all-region HD-DVDs), and the HD-A1 makes them look pretty good for now.

Still, I don't necessarily see the sense in "sitting out a format war" if you've got the equipment to see some real benefit by picking up an HD-DVD or BD player; the jump from DVD to HD-DVD has been roughly the same as the VHS-to-DVD jump for me.

 

[Chris Roberts]

I'm sticking with SD for several more years. For one thing I don't have an HDTV yet. Also, I purchased all my DVD's so I could own the movies for many years to come. If I just wanted them for a few years before replacing them why buy in the first place. As long as the quality is good enough for me to enjoy the movie that's all that matters even if its not the best possible version. I realize this is HTF and better is always better, but I've spent most of my life watching movies on broadcast TV or VHS so the quality of DVD is still a huge step up for me. That feeling many here had when they first discovered DVD hasn't dwindled for me in the past 5-ish years. Its still an awesome format.

 

[Charles S]

Well, everyone else already gave all my reasons for staying with SD DVD, so I won't repeat them....but my feelings are identical to almost everyone elses here. Add me to the list of people staying with their SD DVDs. I love my DVDs, my non HD RPTV, and my DVD player. I ain't switchin to anything else for many, many, many years. And certainly not until prices drop way, way down. $$$ is harder to come by now than it was 8 years ago, so I won't be supporting anything "new"...heck in most people's minds, DVD's are still "new"...(I know people who still dont have a DVD player). When DVD has been around for 20 years like LD was then maybe I'll think of switching, until then SD DVD is my baby.

 

[SteveJKo]

Mary, I saw the tail end of that piece this morning. I've got to say, as a dance club DJ for the past 20 years, I've seen vinyl AND compact disc get killed by the download (both legal and illegal file sharing) situation. As much as WE the home theatre community love our movies on a high quality physical medium, the average person has always gone for quantity and convenience.

A cousin of mine, who spent quite a bit of money on a lovely sound system, bought an Ipod two years ago. Against my advice, after loading her hundreds of CD's into the Ipod, she GAVE AWAY all her CD's. After using the Ipod as an expensive Walkman she finally plugged the unit into her very nice and pricey sound system in her home theatre room. To say she was under whelmed by the anemic sound is an understatement. But what can she do? Her CD's are long gone. I could go on and on about this subject but what's the point? All of you know the recording industry is in very big trouble and brick & mortar music stores are even worse off. All we're going to be left with is MP3's we download direct from the label. I fear this is what's in store for movies as well. We can talk about the higher quality of physical mediums all we want, but so far all I've seen is the "convenience" kick the high quality medium to the curb.

As for the main topic at hand, being the middle aged poop that I am, I'm sticking with a physical medium. But it's standard DVD for me for now. I want no part of a format war. My family chose Beta back at Christmas of '81. Loved that thing. But quantity beat quality with the vcr wars and I'll let someone else handle the battle this time around.

 

[Edward Mann]

I read an interesting article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal that I think was spot on. The gist of the story was that industries that forced you to pay for something you didn't want are now struggling and trying to survive in the digital age. The two industries mentioned in the article were photography and music. With digital photography people no longer have to pay for prints of mediocre or bad shots like they were forced to in the past. The same with music, we don't have to buy 10 bad songs to get 1 good one.

Although I believe these support your theory that cost/convenience trumps quality, I wonder if movies might be slightly immune. Normally people aren't looking to just buy parts of a movie. I can see rentals going to download eventually, but for movies I want to keep, I really like to have something physical. FWIW

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I've owned an HDTV for 7 years now, but I have no plans to switch over from SD-DVD anytime soon. At minimum, two things have to happen before I consider HD pre-recorded media:

1. I'll upgrade my current 7-year old Toshiba HD RPTV to a newer digital display (LCoS if I had to buy one today, but maybe something else when I'm ready to buy)

2. The format war has to be resolved. For me, it's not the idea of spending money on a player that may become obsolete, but it's having a large quantity of HD software titles sitting on my shelf from an obsolete format.

Another reason I'm sticking with SD-DVD is that we travel quite a bit, and we'll take some DVD's and a portable player along on these trips. HD discs are not going to play on this portable player, nor on the 25-inch SD-TV and cheap DVD player in our South Carolina condo/rental property. I certainly am not going to purchase a HD player and TV for a rental property.

While HD does offer some picture quality improvement, I'm still very pleased with how SD-DVD looks on my setup. I've been marvelling over the quality of the new Bond transfers this week.

Finally, getting Blu-Ray via a Playstation 3 is of no interest to me, since I am not a gamer.