DVD's Have they Lost their Luster? (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

I have to agree with a lot of Frank@N's comments.

I too feel the same as Dave (the thread starter), but I don't think my enthusiasm is dwindling because DVD's have somehow lost thier luster, I think it's more the fact that I don't have enough time to truly appreciate every disc I buy.

My facination with DVD's has grown so vast that I (as others have mentioned) have a separate area for "unwatched" DVD's. This area gets bigger and bigger all the time. I just can't imagine keeping up with my purchases, yet (at the same time) I can't imagine slowing down in my purchases because I LOVE the format so much.

I do find myself skipping a lot of the extras...I couldn't even imagine finding the time to listen to EVERY commentary track on the LOTR discs.I can totally relate. It does seem like such an undertaking when you see all the "unwatched" DVD's sitting there on your shelf...Of course, it's a different story when I pop them into the player and am WOWED by the presentation, but I do see what you're saying about looking at a stack of DVD's and thinking "When will I EVER have the time to watch all of these?" or "Why did I buy all of these discs?"

 

[Kain_C]

Wrong!! Great film, great quote, awful post however.

 

[BryanV]

All I want is a true version of the movie with a transfer that is done to the best of the (dvd) authors abilities. For a film lover there is no better time to be alive. I can go online and rent almost any movie from the worlds library and watch it on a very large screen TV in its OAR. 20 years ago I would have had to live in a city that first of all did revivals and then actually played some of the obscure movies that are on my top ten list. When they announced this format I was excited beyond belief and now 10 years later someone with a very very modest income was able to build a very nice home theater set up in his home with a 500+ library. If you want to bitch individually about annoying trends in Special Features then I will be right there with you. The DVD format has made dreams come true for film lovers of all income levels and will continue to do so.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

I am bored too tears with DVD.
Till TUESDAY!!!

 

[Carlo_M]

Well for me, I can say for sure that DVD is no longer the novelty it was way back when I early adopted in May of 1997.

With releases being so limited, I grabbed anything and everything that seemed semi-interesting, and watched some [quite frankly mediocre to horrible] extras because, damn it, I had to justify dropping crazy bucks on the player.

Now, I've gotten to the point where I am a lot more selective of what I buy. Now that I don't feel the need to keep dropping cash into the format to ensure its survival (and trust me for those of you who weren't there, we were a long ways from being sure that DVD would survive in 1997/8) and the current economic downturn still being felt in California, I only buy the titles I want. Whereas it used to be common that I would purchase between a dozen to 20 titles a month, I'm down to more like 4-5 titles.

And while the features and extras have gotten better, I only watch the ones that 1) interest me, and 2) I have time for. While I don't watch every extra, I have gone out of my way to make it through quite a bit of the LoTR EE extras. And I loved Lost in Translation so much that I went through all the extras (and I usually don't on most "regular" non-SE releases).

So I guess you could say it's lost its luster because of the situation that DVD is now in (mass market, and most every title I want is out). I'm sure when the OT of Star Wars comes out (despite being the SE versions) I will probably make my way through most of those extras.

Of course there are those "special" titles that inspire me to go through the extras (Star Wars OT, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, The Godfather, Alien Quad).

 

[Charlie B. Ch.]

I am also up to the point where I would not buy any re-release unless it features kick-ass LFE. I do not watch extras any more except for deleted scenes. I still buy new releases but HDTV has completely taken the majority of my attention & time. I only turn to DVD when there is nothing else to watch in HDTV.

 

[Marc Colella]

I haven't lost much interest for DVDs mainly because there are many independant and foreign films that are given subpar DVD treatment (or remain unreleased) - so the format has alot of untapped potential with the titles I'm interested in.

I'm always awaiting a re-release of these films in the hope that they will be given the treatment they deserve.

The luster would have been gone for me if I were interested in mainstream titles - since that's where most of the whiz-bang treatment is happening.

 

[Derek_McL]

Interesting thread : as far as DVD is concerned no its not lost its luster as an excellent way of collecting movies though sometimes I wonder if picture quality, sound quality, extras etc are blinding some to the quality of the films themselves.

Personally I would much rather buy a dodgy transfer of a classic than a pristine transfer of a poor film. To me its all about maintaining that personal vision of your collection and to me thats creating a home library which on the whole reflects the peaks of English speaking cinema. I'm not into foreign language films but love silents : bit of a paradox there but what I'm getting at is to maintain the discipline of buying your favourites and not just anything because of a few extra bangs and whistles.

After 5 years of DVD buying I think I'm getting ever closer to that perfect collection. Its interesting in the last few years as DVD has become more mainstream how some studios have expanded their release of catalog or unusual classic titles (Warner) while others have frankly gone into their shell just re-releasing old titles (Paramount). Almost as if the latest release is for J6P and thats all the organisation is now interested in.

So in 2004 where do the major studios of the sound era sit as far as classic releases are concerned ? Here's a brief summary of what I think and what I'd like to see and what I consider the chances are (though to be fair I've been surprised in the past).

MGM : the biggest studio of Hollywood's golden age most of the whose input is now owned by Warner who have very impressive plans for the next couple of years for releasing most of my favourites :
Judy Garland films
The Marx Brothers films
That's Entertainment Trilogy
Buster Keaton Silents
Other MGM Silents
Greta Garbo films
The Band Wagon SE
Gone with the Wind SE
Those and I'm sure a good few others are all earmarked for the collection.

Fox : their classics range is excellent and good value though they seem to be concentrating on more modern classics recently. Lets have more of the old stuff please ! Of the announced titles I can only see The Grapes of Wrath as a must buy. I'm beginning to wonder of the Fox musicals from the mid 30s to the mid 40s with Alice Faye etc will ever see the light of day.

Paramount : disappointing in that they still seem to have no plans for their silents. Their release plans for this year seemed lacking in imagination to me. Of the sound films only an African Queen SE, Ace in the Hole and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek really interest me.

Columbia : with the R2 release of the Astaire/ Hayworth musical You Were Never Lovelier I think I've pretty much completed my collection of this studio. Can't really think of any unreleased titles I'm desperate to see.

Universal : the studio with the most classic material still unreleased. Here's what I'd like to see :
The Marx brothers Films
W.C. Fields
Mae West
Ernst Lubitsch early sound musicals
Gary Cooper's early films
Marlene Dietrich
Preston Sturges

Sad to note a few of these look like long shots. I'd settle for a Fields set at the very least like the Abbott and Costello ones. Surely that can't be too far away.

Warner : again good plans for their own classic catalog :
Gangster films
James Cagney
Errol Flynn
Busby Berkeley
The Jazz Singer (1927)

I'd love to see more early musicals released as well as more Jolson which might be a bit more difficult in the politically correct age we live in.

RKO : Warner have the rights and only a few titles look to be certainties : King Kong SE and Bringing Up Baby. Not been much on the Fred and Ginger series which is really long overdue on DVD.

 

[Ray_R]

Ya mean they've lost their shine? Just joking...

 

[Jeff_HR]

You forgot to mention Bette Davis.

 

[MarkHastings]

A dust free cloth and some water will fix that right up.

 

[Carlo_M]

Not Benzine and a Brillo pad?

 

[Francois Caron]

I'm also one who finds that DVD has lost its luster. Just like many others here, I started with Laserdiscs, migrated to DVDs, have a modest collection of titles that I sell off from time to time, have a stack of unwatched titles, stopped listening and watching most commentaries and extra features...

The reason for my loss of enthusiasm might be that DVDs have now become "a commodity for commoners". When I was in the middle of the Laserdisc craze, I had something very special that very few people knew existed at all. But now with DVDs being part of the mainstream, what I have is no different from what my neighbour has. Even when I find a title that impresses me cinematically, the thrill of the technology itself is long gone.

However, all is not lost. With WMV-HD now available only to those with computers and display devices powerful enough to handle the format, we now have a new "exclusivity" we can enjoy amongst ourselves, and keep the clueless Joe and Jane Six-Packs out of the picture for a little while longer.

It's a bit like a private Geek club where only a select few can become members.

 

[Jeff_HR]

It sounds like you guys who have a loss of enthusiasm are technology junkies! Which means you will always have this feeling after awhile because there is always a new technology just over the next hill. I on the other hand am a movie junkie. I just want my movies & I don't really care that much about the format.

 

[JohnRice]

I don't think it is so much technology as feeling special due to the things you own. It's not exactly the "things you own owning you" deal of Fight Club but it's pretty close. Maybe you should go out and do something original or useful and feel good about yourself for that.

I can't believe how preachy I sound, but this is just weird.

 

[Mark-W]

Dave Scarpa-

I share some of your sentiments, and I have found that selling off titles that I have not watched in the last 12 months does help me not only justify newer purchases, but keeps my collection evolving and becoming more about my tatses and not the lastest blockbuster that caught my fancy for 15 minutes.

You asked, so I will tell you, I do NetFlix many titles, but just as often I find that I am just as well off buying at DVD, particularly the 2 disc SEs, and anything I don't want to keep eventually ends up on eBay.

As often as not, I end up coming out about the same as I would at if I had NexFlixed it, only I had "40 titles out a one time" instead of 4.

Still, I have noticed that my urge to have "complete DVD catalogs" of certain stars or directors has waned significanatly, as have my DVD purchases in general.

Aside from James Whale and Alfred Hitchock, I don't fell like I have to own every available DVD title.

I do think the "WOW!" of the technology is gone and the fact that so many television shows have come out makes me realize how impractical it is to own whole series on DVD if that series ran for a long long time, and there are bunches and bunches of series.

Maybe if I made a lot more money, it wouldn't matter, but honestly, buying DVDs that I will proabably not watch more than once or twice just doesn't make much sense to me.

Some DVDs still get me very excited, like the extended cuts of The Lord of the Rings films, and those 2 disc SE of Warner Bros classic films are captivating.

I don't feel like watching movies is "a chore," and frankly, if I did, I would go find something else to do, as others have already suggested.


Regards,

Mark

 

[NatL]

As for extras, I love the ones on certain films. Just a few, though. I think over time I have found that watching extras on most films is a waste of time. I just forget everything fairly quickly and that's that.

But it took a while to realize that!

As for collecting, I think early on I simply wanted to horde as many great DVDs as I could. But at a certain point I just got bored with my collection. I pared it down, and now am more selective. Now when I look at my shelves I see lots of movies I'd like to see - not just lots of movies I'm glad I own.

The same story as it seems everyone else is going through.

These two things are connected - features and collecting - too. Early on I viewed features as something that would make the object, the DVD, a more valuable part of my collection. Now that I don't care about the collection in the same quantitative way, I find that what matters is if I enjoy what I have.

N

 

[David Dias]

Having reached almost 750 titles I'm also cutting down a bit, because frankly I'm running out of room. I'm in the process of going through my collection disc by disc and ask myself this basic question: "Will I ever want to watch this movie again?". If the answer is No, then I'm selling it, after all what's the point of owning it?

 

[MarkHastings]

Yes, this is a big one for me too. It is (in a way) a shallow thing to think, but I've always been the guy that all my friends consider the "cutting edge" guy who always has the newest and greatest toys. Now, I see more and more friends installing bigger & better theaters than mine. :frowning: I'm no longer the "cutting edge" guy because everyone and their mother is doing the same things I am doing and I no longer feel unique. It's kind of like buying a new car (which no one owns) and then (after a year) everyone is driving the same car. You start to lose your individuality. Just like DVD's, my individual-ness has lost it's luster due to everyone creating HT's.

Maybe I'm just bitter.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

During my first few years I spent almost every spare dollar on a DVD. Now I don't tend to buy many (the occassional used disk).

The big difference has been the rental market. Until 2001 or so you had video stores with a dozen (at most) DVD's to rent. Even a mediocre home collection had more viewing material (my personal collection was larger than BlockBusters at the time!).

But now Blockbuster & the Indy video stores seem to get only DVD titles (Blockbuster only gets widescreen, imagine that!), and have, literally, thousands of titles to choose from, I no longer to need to buy a movie, I can rent it as easily as I could VHS in 1996.