What's new

DVD: 11 Years Later. Anyone tired of this format yet? (1 Viewer)

cineMANIAC

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Messages
2,730
Location
New York City
Real Name
Luis
Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum but have been visiting for 5 years. I have 1200 DVDs in my collection and i gotta tell ya, after more than a decade of collecting movies i feel the same way about it as i did back in 1997. I started buying movies even before i had a player. I have no real interest in blu-ray for one main reason: i do not believe older films will look that much better on the format than they look on regular DVD unless the studios physically restore every film they release and thats not gonna happen. "Digitally Remastered" isnt good enough. As for extras, nobody needs 3 commentaries, 2 discs and a 2 hour making-of on every movie, especially newer stuff. All in all, i'm perfectly content with my library as it is and, yes, original artwork on the package is very important too. Long live standard DVD!
 

Micah Cohen

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 8, 2000
Messages
1,161
I was worried this would be a downer thread. Some super early-adaptor moaning that we're not yet watching digital films downloaded directly to our brains while zipping about in our jetpacks.

While I myself am sort of pissed about the jetpack thing, I otherwise totally agree with you.

I never bought into VHS (no OAR, etc). I bought into DVD early-ish, happy about the availability of great films in their OAR. Now I have a small collection of films on standard DVD. I own pretty much everything I'd want to own and I rent the rest (like new stuff). I just built the be-all home theater that will last me... until the electric grid goes down, I guess; a simple 5.1 setup with my ten-year-old receiver-amp. And when the lights go down in my theater... I'm happier than a pig in slop.

No plans to rebuy much of the re-re-releases they keep doing, and no plans to move to BR at all. I'm standard and loving it.

Viva standard definition!

MC
 

Jason Seaver

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
9,303
Go ahead and keep believing that; it won't make it true.

Anyway, it's a silly question. Why would someone be "tired" of a format? It's still as good (or a bit better) at presenting movies as it was when it started; there's nothing inherent in the format that has really worn on me like rewinding and flipping discs. There's a better option out there, sure, but I probably won't be tired of DVD until I'm tired of movies (which isn't likely ever happening).
 

Greg_M

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 23, 2000
Messages
1,189
High Def should have come out 11 years ago (it was supposed to) so now that we all have large collections of DVDs we're going to have to replace them with Blu-Ray. Just Hollywood's way of milking home video
 

CraigF

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2002
Messages
3,117
Location
Toronto area, Canada
Real Name
Craig

I don't know about that, at least for now and perhaps as long as BD exists, if it gets replaced by something better soon enough.

A lot of the stuff on BD now is not very impressive IMO. New movies tend to have MUCH better transfers than pre-Blu transfers...totally unsurprising. After you've bought a few cat titles, I can almost guarantee you'll be very much more particular about which DVD titles you replace with BD. Screen size, viewing distance, how much you like the title etc. etc. coming into play too of course.

OTOH, if buying an old title now, for the first time, might as well get the Blu... On the other other hand, it's not like DVD players will disappear anytime soon. If a movie looked good to you before, it should still look good to you now. Maybe not as good as it could be, but still good enough to be pleasing entertainment.
 

Bonedwarf

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
151
Real Name
Steve

You have your wording wrong. You are not going to HAVE to replace them. You may CHOOSE to, but you will never HAVE to.
 

Greg_M

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 23, 2000
Messages
1,189

When you have a high Def Digital set and a Blu ray player you won't want to return to the old formats (I don't think I've played a laser disc in years and you can't play them on a a High Def set)

After 2/09 things will start to go HDef and just like the old VCR standard DVD players will find there way to the basement. In a number of years you won't be able to by a standard dvd player
 

Chris S

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2000
Messages
2,546
Real Name
Chris S

Need, no. Want, YES!
htf_images_smilies_smile.gif
 

MatthewA

BANNED
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
9,727
Location
Salinas, CA
Real Name
Matthew
You can play anything with RCA or S-Video plugs on an HDTV (or hook them into a receiver that goes to one). They don't look all that great, but they work.
 

PaulDA

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2004
Messages
2,708
Location
St. Hubert, Quebec, Canada
Real Name
Paul
Tired of a format that has allowed me to enjoy films in OAR (with very few exceptions) with far better PQ than any previous format (again, with very few exceptions)? Of course not. Just this afternoon, I enjoyed a classic Bergman film on SD DVD (Winter Light) and it looked fine.

However, as my collection of over 120 HD DVDs (and about a dozen BDs)--with "old" (pre-1990) films accounting for about 40% of them--can attest, "old films" can certainly look better in hi-def. Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Searchers and How The West Was Won have certainly never looked as good as they do now in hi-def (some of these looked great in SD, but the improvement is notable). Alas, it will take years for many catalogue titles to come to hi-def media, so I'm not going to stop watching (and buying) SD titles anytime soon (unlike some, I do NOT consider SD "unwatchable"). But enjoying what SD DVD has to offer does not mean I cannot (or should not) also enjoy what hi-def media have to offer. It doesn't have to be an "either/or" situation (just as I have not stopped listening to my redbook CDs despite my collection of SACDs and DVD-As). It's about the movies and music, not the format.
 

John Sparks

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2001
Messages
4,538
Location
Menifee, CA
Real Name
John Sparks
To darn many of my sci-fi and horror are "ONLY" on DVD and will never see the light of day in HD.

Most of them are beautiful prints, not HD of course, but great just the same.

I only double dip to BD if it's one of my favorites!
 

Patrick McCart

Premium
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 16, 2001
Messages
8,196
Location
Georgia (the state)
Real Name
Patrick McCart
I'm not sure why anyone insists that anything older than the 1990s wouldn't benefit from HD. After seeing caps of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I was surprised to see how it looked like film. SD doesn't allow for that range of detail for grainy 16mm. Sometimes it can with extremely careful mastering (like Fantoma's excellent Kenneth Anger collections), but grain generally isn't friends with SD MPEG 2 compression.

Besides grain, you'd be surprised how older films look pretty much like new ones. I've seen a dye-transfer print of The Wizard of Oz and it looked like a new film. The softer focus and lighting did give it a different look, but it was quite a revelation. Even one silent I saw in 35mm looked great.

However, I do think this mental block is going to keep most pre-1960s films off BluRay. There's the the following issues: black and white, film grain, color, mono sound... and just the age. I do think studios are going to step up, though. WB has Being There on the slate, which is not a film I expected to come out so "early" in the format. It was released on DVD in 2001.

While the films are especially well loved and still-popular, I like how WB is bringing out The Wizard of Oz, Ben-Hur, and Gone with the Wind next year. Fox, even if it's to cash in on their remake, has The Day the Earth Stood Still coming.

I'd love to replace all my DVDs with BluRay editions, even if only marginally "better" but I'd expect proper jobs to look great. With Kino putting Metropolis on the slate for 2009 (making it the first silent feature in BluRay*) and Criterion being a bit interesting with releases (like The Third Man, despite being very popular), too.

(*Paramount included The Story of Petroleum on There Will Be Blood in full 1080p)
 

CraigF

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2002
Messages
3,117
Location
Toronto area, Canada
Real Name
Craig

Now now Patrick, nobody said that.
htf_images_smilies_smile.gif
I regularly buy catalog titles on BD, but I am very particular which ones (thanks to this forum, I can make IMO wise choices). If anything, it's many of the quickie BD releases from the 80s/90s/newer that are relatively sucking. Some of the classics (I mean by age too) obviously got state-of-the-art transfers that surpassed SD capability so they still stand up well in hi-def. Many of the "less classic" more modern films were not so well-treated. That's all.

If anything, it's the very wide-scope and/or epics of the past that are easiest of all for me to duplicate in BD. I still buy SD too, especially for mainly dialogue-driven stuff, like comedies, when it's cheap enough (i.e. Superbad SD for $10 vs the BD for $30-something, locally). Sometimes, I just don't need hi-def badly enough, but naturally I'd choose it if we're talking a few bucks. So yes, sometimes price matters for the BD upgrade, but eventually I usually cave if I really like a title.
 

Chad R

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 14, 1999
Messages
2,183
Real Name
Chad Rouch
I personally don't see BD as a replacement for DVD. When I made the switch from Laserdisc to DVD, I rebought everything. But, now that I have a Blu-ray player, I don't feel that need. A few choice titles that I dearly love get upgraded (like "The Thing" for instance), but for the most part I don't feel that itch. To me, Blu-ray compliments my DVD collection. Newer titles I want will definitely be in High Def, but I'm really not converting most of my older collection. I can still enjoy most of my DVDs right alongside the Blu-rays.
 

Joseph Bolus

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
2,779

And that is the proper attitude to take.

I was an early HD-DVD adopter and can certainly attest to the fact that older films look magnificent in HD. (Forbidden Planet and Blazing Saddles on HD-DVD were incredible to behold.)

When HD-DVD folded I got a little jaded regarding home HD formats. I dumped HD-DVD altogether and am currently enjoying my DVD collection via one of those new Tosh XDE DVD players. (It helps that my main display is a native 720p device.) But as soon as I can get a profile 2.0 Blu-ray player for around $200, I'll be upgrading to HD again ... and I'll *still* be enjoying my DVDs. After all, all Blu-ray players will always be able to play DVDs.

Five years ago I read an article in EW that stated that DVD may have been the best "bang-for-the-buck" entertainment value in history. IMO, nothing has changed to alter that statement.
 

CraigF

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2002
Messages
3,117
Location
Toronto area, Canada
Real Name
Craig

Especially these days. I have been blown away by some of the SD DVD releases of late. But have yet to be astonished by any BDs, except for the audio in some cases. (I guess I was impressed by the Smilebox video of How the West Was Won though.) Maybe my expectations for BD are too high? And my expectations of SD (over the decade) not quite so high.

What is not covered in the BD reviews here, mainly because it can't realistically be, is how good the SDs are in comparison to the BDs that get raved about. There's a place and circumstance for both formats. I never like it when people make a "religious" choice, saying there is only one way, and everything else is crap. To many, the fact that DVDs continue to exist is a constant thorn in their side.

I have noticed, at the local Wal-Marts, that very recently they decreased the DVD shelf space and hugely increased BD shelf space. That is a definite sign of how things are going, or more likely how they'd like them to go (since I think the manufacturers also pay, one way or the other, for shelf space at WM)...
 

cineMANIAC

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Messages
2,730
Location
New York City
Real Name
Luis
Just to clarify Im not tired of DVD, not by a long shot. Iam first and foremost a film buff. To me, the most important feature of any DVD is the film itself and I want absolutely the longest version possible of ANY release. Im glad Universal decided to release Waterworld in an extended cut. If ever there was an example of how a film can be butchered editorially, this is it. Picture quality is a close second. This depends entirely on the studios' desire to properly present a director's work onto the format and this simply isnt a priority for most studios. How can Anchor Bay release Halloween every year in "better" versions but neglect gems like The Philadelphia Experiment and Alice Sweet Alice? Blu-ray is undoubtedly the next hot thing but when it gets past the gimmick stage and prices come down i may reconsider buying into it. Meantime, Im gonna keep buying regular DVDs until they stop making them.
 

JackKay

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 27, 2004
Messages
461
Once and a while I'm a early adapter, years ago I got a 1080i CRT 36" (no HDMI), works out to about a 33" wide screen +/-. The DVD's look just fine and the HD-DVD's were wonderful (via XBOX), but I know when I go to Blu-ray in a year or so, I will really need a 50" to 60" to really enjoy the difference. Anyway, I think within 5 years memory sticks will be large enough for HD and already have something like 6X the bandwith of Blu-ray via USB (who knows with USB 3.0). Plug them into the computer over night or into a Kiosk at the grocery store for 5 minutes with your choice of any movie ever transferred to HD. Then just plug them into your receiver or the side of your TV. I love buying movies and having them in my hand, but a mechanical optical disk drive is...just old tech.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,855
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top