D-VHS on the way? Studios pledge Support in Thursday's Conference (1 Viewer)

[Gareth Flynn]

No one here appreciates the lack of extra audio tracks (so useful for commentaries and such).

Why can't D-VHS support multiple audio tracks? How is a bitstream which includes a video track, 4 audio tracks and 2 subtitle tracks any different if it's pulled off a DVD or a D-VHS tape?

 

[Glenn Overholt]

I have a feeling that the analog VCR's will be discontinued as the digital ones take hold - and eventually will replace all of the VCR's that are currently out there.

I can also see broadcasters 'flipping' a switch and making the show unrecordable on digital machines. Get it?

Glenn

 

[Brett Cameron]

If a digital VCR was hooked up to a regular tv like a Wega, would these tapes play and look better then their dvd counterparts?

 

[Frank]

If a digital VCR was hooked up to a regular tv like a Wega, would these tapes play and look better then their dvd counterparts?

Maybe and maybe not.
It depends on how it does the downconvertion.
How would you like to buy one of these DVHS players and a bunch of HDTV movies and find that you get a message on your screen that you must switch to the 480i mode because of copy protection.
It's possible that this could happen as far as I know.
It might be that the HD output is only available through the digital port.
If this is the case, I'd be surprised if they sell any tapes at all.
Can you imagine how upset people would be?
Frank

 

[Roger Rollins]

Remember S-VHS? It had marginal success as a home recording device, but NEVER caught on with the mass market overall, and whatever attempts were made to sell pre-recorded S-VHS tapes (I think there were a few like ROBOCOP and ON GOLDEN POND) were a miserable disaster.

This too, will die like DIVX. With DVD Recorders here and probably becoming more affordable by Xmas, and TIVO becoming very popular and already capable of recording HI-DEF, there is no need for D-VHS.

D-VHS will die.

It's been around for years, and those who have invested in it, will have to put up a big fight to try and get it accepted. Learn from history folks, IT WILL DIE! It's outdated before its time.

Sure HI-DEF DVD is not around the corner, but the very people who have HI-DEF TVs are the people who are too smart to have to be stuck with a tape-based format that (no matter how much "better" the picture might be) will still be subject to wear, creasing, drop-outs, jamming, no random access, no special features, no multiple tracks,etc.

Also, the tapes will cost more to make than DVDs do, so the pricing will be higher.....

IT WILL DIE...and let's do all we can to help kill it!

 

[Frank]

How would you like to buy one of these DVHS players and a bunch of HDTV movies and find that you get a message on your screen that you must switch to the 480i mode because of copy protection.
It's possible that this could happen as far as I know.
It might be that the HD output is only available through the digital port.
If this is the case, I'd be surprised if they sell any tapes at all.
Can you imagine how upset people would be?

I have had a DVHS HDTV recorder for over two years and have had no problems with it.
The main thing about these new movies is copy protection! That is my primary concern.
Frank

 

[RobertR]

I can also see broadcasters 'flipping' a switch and making the show unrecordable on digital machines. Get it

Yes, but it would be stupid and pointless. "Buy this recorder that we won't let you record on!". Silly, but of course being silly won't stop them.

 

[Brian-W]

I love how everyone is jumping to conclusions about 'cropped' movies since there is zero data at this time to support this. Sure, HBO crops their movies, but by their choice, not the studios.

Given that DVDs for the most part are OAR (or pan-scan) and not cropped from the studios, I wouldn't worry just yet.

As for playing back D-VHS tapes via ANALOG outputs, that's the whole point. The JVC deck currently available does NOT HAVE DVI output.

D-Theater is a separate encryption scheme vs. DVI outputs.

Lastly, those of you waiting for HD-DVD will be waiting a helluva a long time. Don't give me "they've demoed it, it is real" argument. No studio is about to rock the boat of revenues on existing DVD. When DVD reaches a plateau in which sales are slowing, that's when HD-DVD will hit. "Hmmmmm...they're not buying as much anymore, and we've released all our catalog titles. Let's re-release everything in HD-DVD, they'll buy it all over again!"

D-VHS in my opinion is merely a test if it's really safe to release HD content for public consumption, if consumers will buy a higher quality format at a higher price, and if it won't have as much of an impact on DVD sales.

I highly doubt Fox/Dreamworks/Artisan are going to release a flood of material. I'd be willing to bet it's a trickle of titles here and there, and mostly titles that have already been made available on DVD.

 

[Frank]

As for playing back D-VHS tapes via ANALOG outputs, that's the whole point. The JVC deck currently available does NOT HAVE DVI output.

But it does have a copy protected digital Firewire output.

It's possible that true HD output will only work though it and not the analog outputs.

Frank

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I severely doubt that DVHS will ever become more than a niche product. The early adopter who wants to record HD can, and there are non copy protected models available now which I believe do record HD just fine w/o the protections.

DVD will continue to be supported just fine. And the heavy protections on DVHS can and will be broken (remember how unbreakable CSS was?) rendering all this a moot point. The bottom line is that most people JUST GOT a new format, AND they don't have an HDTV yet, so DVHS has no point for them.

even here, how many people are going to drop 2K on a deck that might not even work with their current expensive HDTV?

The solution to the firewire debacle will probably be routing it through a computer which will decrypt it and route to VGA/Component outputs

 

[rajiv]

Even for the HT enthusiasts like many or all of us here, the prospect of going back to tape is repulsive for the basic facts of it being bulky, mechanical wear of the tape and the lack of random access.

Since 1998, I have personally destroyed two good VCRs before putting them in the trash. Why? I was angry because they didn't play a tape which played in another machine. This reflects the frustration and anger over a tape based format. However, many of us have a lot of home video on VHS and would like to preserve it. With the introduction of stand alone DVD recorders this material can be effectively archived. The future machine for many early adopters is the stand alone DVD recorder that works like a VCR, but it has a native resolution of 480p.

D-VHS is not dead, rather it is stillborn.

 

[Larry Gardner]

The problem I see here is that for the immediate future D-VHS will be mostly a playback medium - and an expensive one at that.

1. True, you can record 4 hours of HD on one blank tape (at $20). How much broadcast TV is being broadcast in HD? And when it does, do you think the studios are not going to insist on encrypting so that D-VHS will not record. That is the whole purpose of the D-VHS encryption system.

2. By the time that HD broadcasts are common - don't you think that HD-DVD will be upon us. Just the fact that HDTVs are not being purchased by the mass market, should tell the studios something.

3. Prerecorded D-VHS movies for $40. What features are they talking of comparable to DVD - subtitles, commentaries, seamless branching, multiple versions, scene index, ... ?

I can't see many people purchasing these machines for select titles ($30-$40) and recording broadcast TV on $20 tapes.

Now if they also release a D-VHS camcorder - maybe.

 

[Deane Johnson]

So then how long will it be until J6P demands P&S on D-VHS?

Deane

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I can't believe the studios are investing

in this format.

Going back to tape?!

I don't care how good it looks -- it

will not be accepted by the masses and you

can hold that quote for years to come.

You think the general public is going to

want to go back to tape after DVD?

Why aren't we investing the money and progress

in the next Hi-Def DVD format?

This is as silly as DIVX was.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This is one video format that this early adaptor is skipping!

Crawdaddy

 

[Mark_Wilson]

So was there any announcements today regarding D-VHS that we haven't already heard in the last two days?

 

[Norm]

Its not competition between formats. It's about giving people with high-definition television's a high-definition option. Eventually D-VHS will lose to a high definition disk format, in about 3 to 5 years. I can't believe people are so upset over this, as if it's a threat to DVD. Big deal, so DVD will no longer be considered the high-end product.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Norm;

What I fear the most is that the introduction of D-VHS could stall the release of an HD-DVD format, which is what I think we all want. If this new format becomes successful, then what's to motivate studios to release and support an HD-DVD standard?

 

[Norm]

Jeffrey, high definition DVD is the holy grail, and I don't think anything will stop it. The Studios, the Player manufactures all know this. There is a market for this that DVD cannot fulfill, at this time. I know if I had a high-definition television I would want to be able to record in high-definition and watch pre-recorded high-definition movies

 

[Tim Kline]

I don't feel there's any need to worry about this..
Tapes are dead. All of the major stores have shrinking VHS sections and the average person is learning how much better DVD is, especially with players getting as cheap as they are. I doubt many people, after already adopting DVD, will suddenly jump ship and get tapes again, digital or not. VHS collections are being replaced by DVD and people won't want to go back.
If anything, D-VHS and HD-DVD will end up the "elitist" thing, kind of like what Laserdisc was.. or HD-DVD will end up the norm one day and the players will be backwards compatable.. something like that..
anyway that's just my idea