need help (what should I buy) !!!!!!!! (1 Viewer)

HI folks, I live in México, but soon I´ll be going to the states, I´m planning to buy a DVD recorder (I´ve reviewed a lot and phillips 985 seems to be an option), I consider to do the shopping there because in my country the price is at least the double!! of the retail price in US, but today I start reading reviews about D-VHS, I actually have a HDready TV set (sony 51" widescreen) 1080i capable, since in México there is no HD transmissions I´ve only seen 1080i images on x-box games, but the possibilities of watching my favorites movies on 1080i sounds amazing ,
The problem I find is,
My wife, never in the life would allow me to buy bought the DVD recorder and D-VHS deck (actually she doesn´t care about any resolution my tv can support), I really don´t want to restart my movie collection or start repalcing DVD´s , for example I know that If i watch any movie at 1080i, maybe I´ll consider having it in the two formats (not very parctical specially for my budget), so I nedd help about deciding what to buy ,
would you go for the D-tape (rewinding again) but with the high def advantage or just step up my dvd player with de dvd recorder
thanks for your support:

Hi Eduardo,
I'm also from Mexico, but my advantage is that I live in the border with California. I think the first question you will need to ask yourself is: How easy would be to get DVHS tapes in Toluca? I live in the border and I can't find them anywhere in Mexico side or US side, I would need to drive 2 hours into the US to be able to get them, or get them online. The problem for you is that not much online companies will ship outside US.
The other question is: If you buy a DVD player/recorder in the US, it will be region 1, how easy is for you to get DVD region 1 in Toluca? Unless you buy a multiregion DVD player/recorder (which I've never seen one) it will be pointless to buy it in the US.
Bottom line, IMHO, I recommend you to buy a multiregion DVD player in the US (not recorder), and just take the advantage of being cheaper than in Mexico.
Hope that helps.

Hugo

Thanks Hugo,
actually I have a multi region dvd player and it´s very easy to get region 1 discs ( many stores in Toluca and Mexico city), actually 80% of my dvd collection is region 1, about D-VHS tapes you´re very right, maybe at amazon, but I still don´t know, but your opinion gave me another perspective

Eduardo,

There are very few movies available on D-VHS, a tiny number compared to what's available on dvd.

I have a 57" widescreen HD-capable Sony, possibly the same as your 51" set except for screen size.

I have HBO-HD, Showtime-HD, and HDNet from DirecTV. I also own a good progressive scan dvd player.

I've watched a number of movies in HD on HBO and Showtime, and while the picture can be better than progressive scan dvd, the difference isn't huge. The huge improvement comes when watching stuff originally shot on High-Def video, not filmed movies, but almost all of this is on HDNet or PBS.

I am not the least bit tempted to get a D-VHS player at this time because the improvement of 1080i over 480p for filmed movies is not enough for me to justify the cost of the deck and the relatively few movies available. That's not to say the HD is bad, just that 480p on a Sony widescreen is so good!

Much of the video based HD on HDNet is available on D-VHS tapes from HDNet, but it's not theatrical movies but mostly documentary material and a few beauty pageants.