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

[Randall Z]

my addiction to dvd began relatively harmlessly. 2 1/2 years ago I was looking to buy a new computer and decided to get one with a DVD-rom drive. Then one day, I saw the matrix on DVD for like $14 and decided to buy it. When I saw that the picture on my 13.5" monitor blew away my 25" tv I was hooked. I started buying DVDs to watch on my computer! a couple months later I won a few hundred dollars in an office football pool. The message was clear as day, God wanted me to buy a DVD player. So I picked one up (who am I to argue with the creator of the universe?). Now 90 dvds, a 32" HD-ready TV, 5 Polk speakers (no sub yet :frowning: ), and a denon 3801, I am very much like a crack head looking for my next fix whether on the software or hardware side.

 

[Robert Wainwright]

Oh yeah, reason #2...
I spent three years searching for a tape of Rock and Roll High School. Finally find a Mom&Pop store that had never rented it, ever. Got it for $25.
Two months later, I wander into Suncoast on my lunchbreak
There on the shelf is a new fangled DVD thingamabob of R&RHS.
I plead with the wifey for a month and I'm in.

 

[Doug Pyle]

W-I-D-E-S-C-R-E-E-N !!!
My journey into DVD:
0) Majoring in film for my Bachelor's in the 1980s (an extravagant education just for a hobby as it turned out, since my work now isn't remotely related).
1) Promise of viewing OAR widescreen at home made DVD ownership inevitable.
2) The Home Theater Forum. I lurked here for about 1 year before my budget and longing merged. (Couldn't afford LD at the time.)
3) The online DVD FAQ.
4) DVD players dropping to $550. It was a painful wait. (I can't believe how low prices have gone since!)
5) I thought I'd rent a lot, buy a little. I was embarrasingly giddy though, about the quality and all the extras I discovered that little CD-sized disk could do. So now I rent a little and collect a lot.
If you actually read all this, you should go watch a movie!

 

[Bill_D]

Simple. I became a father and kept missing the movies at the theater. By the time, I would find time to check out the flicks on my list, they were gone. VHS was always an option but only in its grainy, stereo form. DVD was the perfect solution. I actually prefer to wait for movies to be released on DVD to enjoy. Tuesdays are always a good day for me ..... DVD release day!

 

[Leon Liew]

I sort of got into the HT realm in late 1996 where the

laserdisc was still tops over VHS. I started my LD collection from early 1997 onwards. Then there was news about a new video disc format coming out. Quite skeptical

about it at first.

Got my first generation DVD player by Philips with Dolby

Digital out in 1998. Quite expensive during

that time. The first DVD was Godzilla(Roland Emmerich/Dean

Devlin) and never look back since. Love the video,audio,

extras,disc size and of course the widescreen anamorphic

transfers.

 

[cafink]

4) DVD players dropping to $550. It was a painful wait. (I can't believe how low prices have gone since!)

Tell me about it! I remember getting my first player Christmas '97, it was $600. Now, only four years later, the damn things are so cheap, I, jobless college student, was able to buy two of them as Christmas presents for casual friends of mine!

 

[Matt Butler]

As with most people on here I was a laser nut who converted. Price, size, extras, etc.
I got into laser cause I wanted quality, widescreen, extras. The DVD format took the experience further.

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

What got me into DVD? Three little words: Multi Angle Porn
Just kidding. :b
I was a long time laserphile, and loathed the DVD revolution when it first came about. Took every opportunity to badmouth it as highly pixellated, overloaded with compression evidence, DD/DTS not as good, etc. etc.
Then I actually bought a player and some discs. SOLD!
But what pushed me into DVD was Criterion. Their special edition DVD releases of Hard Boiled, The Killer, and Seven Samurai were $40 a pop compared to their $100+ Laserdisc counterparts. That sold me right there. I snatched those puppies up immediately.
Now they're highly prized collector's items (first-edition Seven Samurai, others are OOP). Wouldn't let go of them for the world, though.
Lovely thighs

 

[Todd Hochard]

I followed the development of DVD through various trade articles, buzz on the internet (early days of surfing), etc. I was sold on the concept about 2 years before it arrived. I just knew it would be good.

I impatiently waited for it, and then bought in the fall of '97.

Todd

 

[Jon_B]

I read an article a year or two before dvd was released. I realized the potential and vowed to not buy vhs from then on. I never liked the physical size of laserdisc. Too big for my taste. I also didn't like that on some you had to flip it over half-way thru the movie.

Jon

 

[AllanN]

Something never sat right with audio tapes. Rewind/Fast/Forward/Hissing/The quality degraded over time. Then I got a CD player and started buying CD's like mad. Same thing with VHS. But OAR and special content is what really sold me on DVD. I guess im just a digital junkie.

Although:

[Begin off topic rant]

"Digital can let us recreate the effects of anything we can imagine, accept for analog" -Me

I hope old George heard that and will do something about the glassy, pastel looks of the new Star Wars movies. What is he going to do next, make movies without actors?

[end off topic rant]

 

[Raphael]

I'm surprised more people haven't cited The Matrix as the reason they got into DVD.

The Matrix was the first movie I saw in a long, long time that made me gape in awe at what the silver screen could do. Back then, I wasn't a movie collector by any means. I had no interest in 5.1 sound, or even knew what it was. I didn't care about increased picture quality that much (I had a 15-inch TV at the time). Heck, I didn't even know about OAR.

But when I found out that WB was planning to sell The Matrix on DVD and not VHS, I was, at first, livid. After awhile, though, I figured if I liked a movie that much, I might as well get it on the best format possible. So I got it, not even having a DVD player. I actually bought two more movies (The Hudsucker Proxy and Monty Python and the Holy Grail) before finally getting a DVD-ROM drive for my computer some six months later.

Now, I'm itching for a Component-capable TV (hopefully a sexy flat-screener... too early in my life to dream about the uber-expensive 16x9s, although a projector is my ultimate video lust) and a receiver with some 5.1 action going to support my rapidly-growing collection (approaching the 50-mark, not too much for some of you guys, but a whopper of a collection by my standards).

 

[StephanieC]

A few years back we got a new computer with a DVD player built in. I decided to try it out and got Austin Powers because I knew I liked it a lot of the extras looked awesome. The rest is history

 

[LarryDavenport]

Slap Shot widescreen with the original soundtrack is what made me go out and buy a DVD player. Since then, October 2000, I've bought almost 200 discs.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I built myself a new computer back in '98 and got a really killer deal on a cdrom/dvd combo drive and MPEG decoder card. The package came with a DVD sample movie and I thought it was really neat! I loved how it looked great and that you could skip around the movie easily, unlike VHS. I was also amazed that there could be extras and the whole thing was not a linear presentation like on VHS (a definite starting and stopping point).
I was in a college dorm room so I had no room for a TV. When I finally got my hands on a TV I decided to get myself a REAL DVD player because I was tired of watching movies on my computer monitor.

 

[Eric T]

Two reasons for me:
1. I generally dislike seeing movies in theaters unless I go at a time when there is nobody there; I hate all the cell phones, talking, incorrect matting, and other common distractions.
2. DVD looks and sounds WAY better than VHS. I rented The Game on my way home from my first DVD player purchase and my jaw dropped in the very first scene where Michael Douglas splashes water on his face. I coudln't believe how good the picture and sound were. And The Game is not even what you would call reference quality. (very cool movie though )

 

[Jack Briggs]

Because it promised a better party. And also I heard that DVD could prevent blindness.

I am certain DVD is where it is today because

of the internet.

Yes, I agree. I wish a certain editor at a certain "home theater" magazine were capable of realizing such things. (Or at least be willing to admit to it.)

 

[DavidEC]

I don't remember if I had replied to this topic.. but in short the reason that I got into DVD's is simple....

WIDESCREEN IMAGES

And now the reason that I got into DVD's is in danger of being replaced with 'rull screen' releases.

 

[Oscar]

I think it was Jaws.
I was so amazed at the huge improvement over the restored VHS tape and also the DTS 5.1 soundtrack was just amazing!.
I know i got a little bit too late.

 

[Robert Spalding]

I wanted to get an LD player but a guy at Magnolia HiFi said to wait,,there was a new format coming out. I bought my first dvd in March 97 and my first player for 600 bucks in April 97