What originally got you into DVD....... (1 Viewer)

[Nate Anderson]

I was never into Laserdisc, mainly because I was too young to afford it, although I regret not having the opportunity to really get into it.

However, I got into DVD pretty early. My Dad bought a player in 1998, and my first two DVDs, Wild Things and The Wedding Singer, were bought even before I was certain we had a player. My parents were simply "Seriously talking about it."

My first two discs were quickly followed by City of Angels, and a couple of others.

I must say the two biggest plusses for me were:

1. Getting to own movies I could only rent on DVD

2. Widescreen...Widescreen! WIDESCREEN!!!!

Needless to say, I'm at about 350 discs now, and growing.

 

[Gary_E]

When I saw the first titles being released on DVD included Blazing Saddles widescreen, I began selling off my LDs and jumped ship to DVD. I've never looked back.
-Gary

 

[Christina_V]

For me the #1 reason was widescreen!!!!
Also better picture & sound....i was so sick of pan & scan crappy quality VHS.....that i told my mom how great it would be ect,that she bought us one for Christmas in '99 & i've never went back.....ok ocasionally get some VHS's that are OOP,not on dvd ect,lol,to see finaly.
To think i was against it at first,since i was trying to get my mom to buy a LD player for years..........i loved how they look with kewl cover art,but the price is WAY to high..that i would'nt have been able to afford anything, + side breaks,uhhh. + they where to big and would take up to much space,while dvd...the price is right & size is great,more convineant.
Extras are nice to,but not the most important thing to me......though commentary's(on some titles,not all),deleted scenes & trailers are a must!!!

 

[Angsty]

For me, it was picture quality and lack of wear and tear on tapes. No more "killing" of vhs tapes due to frequent watchings.

Angela

 

[Derek Miner]

I'll tell you what turned me...

I had finally found a place to rent laserdiscs. They had everything, all the special editions I could want... The import copy of "Leon: The Professional"... They started with a small DVD section in back. One day I was checking out the new product they were receiving and there it was... "Little Shop of Horrors" Special Edition with the ORIGINAL ENDING.

Thankfully, I was able to snag a copy of that before it got recalled. This was before I even had a player. The following Christmas, I took my gift money and plunked it down on a new Toshiba.

 

[Robert Wainwright]

I was a day away from breaking down and getting an LD player. As luck would have it, before going to the mall that Sunday, I saw an episode of "At the Movies" where Gene and Roger did a side by side comparison of VHS, LD, and "the future" of home cinema DVD. I hung out until the prices came down to $350US.
Thanks Gene! (RIP)
Thanks Roger!

 

[Mark Zimmer]

It's all about OAR.
Funny that The Exorcist keeps cropping up in these discussions. My Exorcist link goes back more than 10 years now, when Video Watchdog #6 had a cover article on the movie, the subliminal bits and other goodies. I devoured that, and became a regular reader. Along the way, I was educated about OAR and the benefits of widescreen on LD and the glories of commentaries. Man, I was all set to get LD and enjoy this too.
Since discs were so expensive, it didn't quite happen right away. Then I went to a horror/scifi convention where they were playing movies round the clock on LD---the SE Abyss, SE Aliens, etc. I liked what I saw, except for the layer changes. Abrupt halts felt like commercial breaks rather than an immersive movie experience. I left terribly disenchanted with the idea, and turned to widescreen VHS (I must have accumulated nearly every one of Best Buy's offerings, largely to encourage the format).
Then in late 1997 I happened to run across a magazine called Widescreen Review. The issue featured Mars Attacks on the cover, and as a Tim Burton fan, I checked it out. Here they were talking about something called DVD that was knocking the socks off of LD. Intrigued, I checked into Steve Tannehill's now sadly defunct DVD Resource website and its terrific forum (later replaced by the HTF), and got fired up as never before. This seemed to be what I was aching for---widescreen, extras and no side breaks (well, other than a bunch of misguided abortions mostly perpetrated by Warner). I was just about wild with anticipation, and started buying discs well before I'd saved up for a player! When I got word (again from DVD Resource) that the 1st-gen Sony S3000 was being discontinued because it was too good a player for its price point ($600)--and it was--I bit the bullet and have never looked back. A widescreen TV, 4 DVD players, 2 receivers, 2 subwoofers and several sets of speakers later, I've got to say that this fulfills my childhood dreams of watching great movies whenever I want beyond my wildest expectations.
What a great hobby!!!!

 

[Blake Heinzeroth]

It was the movie "Pi". I'd never been a huge film buff, but I really liked this movie when I saw it. Turns out the DVD was going to be released months before the VHS, and that's when I decided to buy a DVD player. Since then, it's been a growing obsession!

 

[Artur Meinild]

I got into DVD because of the quality and storability/size improvement. And WIDESCREEN of course!
I was never into LD, mainly because I knew the next generation video-disc would appear in the near future.
I had a few VHS tapes (about 20), but since I got my DVD player I've collected nearly 150 discs!

 

[Iain Lambert]

Mark Zimmer's story is quite close to mine, actually. When I started to read this thread a moment ago, I thought, "I bet I'm the only one who bought into it for widescreen Mars Attacks!" - seriously surprised I'm wrong there...

Yes, I wanted to have a copy of Mars Attacks! in widescreen, and in the UK it was really hard to find. So, I slapped down the money to import this new thing from the US called 'DVD' that Steve Tannehill made sound so cool on his website. And here I am over 2000 posts later on the forum that site introduced me to.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

They were like laserdiscs in convenient 5" 50% off the retail price form.
Regards,

 

[Brett_B]

For me, I loved collecting movies on VHS, but the problem I had with VHS was that the more the tape was watched the worse the video (and audio) became.

I was interested in the laserdisc, but did not like the fact that you had to flip the disc (or insert another disc altogether).

When I read about the technology where you could have a feature length movie on one side of a CD sized disc, with better quality than a VHS and laserdisc, and costing about the same as a VHS movie I felt that this was the best direction for me to head.

 

[David Susilo]

I bought my first DVD player at the end of March 1997. Kinda stupid for the time being since at the time, there was NO MOVIE WHATSOEVER in Toronto (other than IMAX badly mastered Antartica and Africa the Serengeti in 2.0).

I bought it because it's a new technology, I gotta have it.

During the 1st year of introduction, I have to wait to buy movies since every title that I even remotely like, I already own.

Today, it's a totally different story. With a wife and a kid, it's the movies' turn to wait for me to buy them.

 

[Jacques C]

Why? ValueAmerica.

Anyone remember them? I was interested in DVD, but when I saw that through them I could get a $250+ dollar DVD player for $110 (or something like that), I jumped on it.

Of course I saved $140 there, only to spend 30x that on 200+ DVDs plus DIY speakers and subwoofer in the 3 years since.

I think DVDs should have a Surgeon General's warning on them: WARNING: DVDs more addictive than crack cocaine.

 

[Eric Bass]

What got me into DVD? Easy....The Matrix.

Never saw it in the theater, went and rented it one night. Later on I'm walking through best buy and see the DVD for sale but no VHS tape. That pretty much settled it for me. So of course I personally can't wait to tear out my hair if/when rental pricing windows come to DVD.

 

[Todd H]

I got into DVD around late '97 or early '98. I didn't own a player until around 2000 (before then I watched them on my computer on a 19-inch monitor).
A lot of things attracted me to the format. First and foremost was the picture. I was amazed the first time I saw the quality of the video. No more blurry mess like VHS!
The sheer coolness factor of having an entire movie on one tiny disc without having to flip the thing also attracted me to the format. I had considered laserdisc for a while, but side breaks really turned me off. DVD took care of that.
I also enjoyed the fact that I could watch deleted scenes and other special features. I especially enjoyed the director commentaries.
The fact that the medium didn't deteriorate like tape was also a consideration. I had a pretty big tape collection before DVD, but it always annoyed me that the picture got progressively worse the more I viewed the tape. Not so with DVD.
And finally, OAR played a part although not originally. At first OAR didn't matter to me much. I knew I was missing part of the picture on widescreen movies, but didn't really love films enough to care. After watching DVD for a while I began to appreciate the beauty of OAR. Eventually my love for films grew to the point that now I refuse to watch a movie unless it's in its OAR. So you could say DVD turned me from a J6P to an OAR nut! Now I'm right at home with the rest of the nuts...

 

[Nate Anderson]

A few random reactions:

Todd- Welcome to the insanity!

Jacques- You're absolutely right Buddy! DVD's are more addictive than crack cocaine. Amazing, isn't it? And I have almost 300 discs to prove it!

Needless to say, I own all these discs, and a player, but I don't have a car...I wonder why?

 

[Josh W]

It's cool to read all the different stories. I got into DVD because I ran out of room to store VHS, and DVD's took up less room. I bought my first player in mid 98 and started upgrading my media. For the first month all I watched was DVD and didn't really notice much difference (compared to VHS) on my 25" Pro-Logic system. But when I went back to watch a video I just wanted to puke. So here I am a couple hundred DVD's, Dolby DigitalDTS sound system and front projector later and still excited as hell about it.

 

[Yoshi Sugawara]

The clearer picture and sound on DVD caught my attention, and the added special features made me get into DVD...

Then I was bothered about "the black bars" - until I came across thedigitalbits.com and found out I've been misled for 20+ years!

Then I became interested in 5.1 digital sound and picked up a Sony HTIB...

Then bought a 32" Sony WEGA and enjoyed the benefits of anamorphic widescreen...

Then bought a new subwoofer (Sony SAMW40) for more oomph...

Now eyeing new speakers and new reciever...

That little interest has led to so much more! It's a fun experience so far, to try to recreate the theater experience (and in some ways, eclipsing it)

 

[Ron-P]

The picture quality.
Peace Out~