D-VHS Widescreen Review's Industry Insider Discussion (1 Viewer)

[Bryant Trew]

Have any of you guys read the Runco Getaway discussion starting on page 36? I found it quite amusing because all of these guys support it regardless of its longevity. As far as they are concerned, it will push the sale of more high end hardware to the super elites (Runco projector clients), and that is just peachy. They want to encourage it because it will demo the need for new hardware sales. Even if it gets killed off by HD-DVD, they still want it because it serves their purpose - hardware sales.
Now what about us consumers who like to spend their money on technology that is going to last. What about those who see their hardware and software as an investment? What about us? Take a look at the one semi-doubter on page 44 (Bill Anderson). He made a statement about the potential of D-VHS having a negative impact because of the public's perception that tape is a step backward. Notice that not a single person responded to his statement? It's almost like as if D-VHS is expected to be an interim format whose only purpose is to fuel hardware sales for the likes of Runco and boost HD-DVD at best.
If you want hi-def pictures for some demo class material, then go for it. But, expect your investment to go the way of the dodo real soon. That is, if it has any kind of significant success at all.
So how can we change that scenario? Well, I think that the Runco people are confusing millionaires with true home theater hobbyists. I don't think that D-VHS is just for the wealthy, who often aren't hobbyists at all. They just have the cash to burn on a $20,000 projector, whereas 99% of hobbyists don't. The problem is that all of us know that D-VHS has a really limited life span, and that the format is vastly inferior (ergonomically and financially) to HD-DVD. We therefore are not willing to pay traditional entry prices ($1,000+) for something that might not even last 18 months.
If JVC were smart, they would drop the price of these machines to $350, where there is hardly a financial penalty for dabbling with an interim solution. At that price I'd buy into it with a half dozen titles to hold me over until HD-DVD.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

. At that price I'd buy into it with a half dozen titles to hold me over until HD-DVD.

The only reason I don't buy into it now is because I have an older widescreen model that only goes to 480p; since the television has a beautiful picture, I won't be buying another any time soon(or unless I need to, knock on wood). But I saw an HD-DVD Demo at a local High End store, and it looked amazing. I can only imagine LAWRENCE OF ARABIA or STAR WARS in this format. It would be breathtaking.

 

[Jack Briggs]

The problem is that all of us know that D-VHS has a really limited life span, and that the format is vastly inferior (ergonomically and financially) to HD-DVD.

How can D-Theater be "vastly inferior" to a format that doesn't even exist yet except in prototype form? There isn't even a consensus yet as to which format an HD-DVD will adhere--MPEG4 red laser or the Blu-Ray disc. Or either of those two.

And what's to stop a person with a $1,600 47-inch Panny HD RPTV from purchasing the JVC D-Theater deck (at less than the $1,000 msrp) and enjoying the superior picture quality of a D-Theater? One need not be ultra-rich to take advantage of D-Theater now.

D-Theater probably is an interim format that may help stimulate high-def display sales. Buying into it is up to you. DVD-Video will still be here.

I also think this discussion has occurred at least four times here in the past couple of months.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Even if it gets killed off by HD-DVD, they still want it because it serves their purpose - hardware sales.

The bigger the HD hardware installed base, the quicker HD-DVD comes.

DJ

 

[Bryant Trew]

Notice in the brackets it reads "ergonomically and financially". That refers to the fact that tape is vastly inferior to disc.

Of course you don't need to be ultra rich, but I think that most people in this hobby don't take too kindly to spending $1,000 on a player with such a short likely lifespan. With that kind of money, there had better be a very significant library that will support it over the next two years, and it better not go the way of DIVX when the plug is pulled. At that price it had better have the library and lifespan of laserdisc to justify that kind of cost.

I don't know about you, but I can only watch terminator 2 so many times, whether it is in hi-def or not. If the price was right, I won't mind spending throwaway cash at a throwaway format. $350 and we have a deal. Replace the VCR I don't use now and we may be able to talk. But at $1,000, most of the people I know with HD displays simply won't be interested.

Interim solutions need to be marketed at interim prices. I could care less about Runco's hardware sales - I care about my wallet.

 

[Dave Anderson]

At that price it had better have the library and lifespan of laserdisc to justify that kind of cost.

Oh please, like any other format is going to have the lifespan that VHS and laserdisc had. Technology just moves to quickly now.

That's not to say that D-VHS lasting only a few years at a cost $1000+ is justified. But the fact is, no one knows when HD-DVD is coming or if it's even going to be superior to D-VHS.

My only real concern with D-VHS is TITLES! If there are 200 titles released, then I don't care how long it lasts. If it's no longer manufactured, that doesn't mean I won't continue to enjoy it (ala laserdisc). Hopefully the studios supporting D-VHS can do the job. They certainly have a large enough library between them.

For many people, just having access to a few dozen high definition titles is reason enough to buy into it. Me, I want a dozen titles released that I would actually want to own. Then I'm in.

 

[Brian-W]

You can bet HD-DVD won't be recordable on day 1 of launch. Look how long it took for DVD recordable to show up both in computers and consumer stand alone decks.

 

[Sean Oneil]

I always looked at the home theater thing as a hobby or something that I do for my enjoyment, not as an investment.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

I read the article (as I do other WSR stuff ) and found it facinating. Once you have the option to watch a flick in HD you will never even consider watching it again in DVD. D-VHS is awesome!! I watched Xmen last week and was literally blown away.
I dont think the $1400 (or whatever) price tag is that high for a first generation player of a new technology. It isnt really that more than many of the high end DVD players of only 1-2 years ago.
FWIW,
Gregg

 

[Bryant Trew]

No, $1,400 is not very high for first gen. But that is only as long as there is going to be a second and third gen, and that is where I have my doubts.

PS: What was so facinating about the article? They rambled on without saying much that couldn't be condensed in 3/4ths of a page.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

I find any discussion about HD fascinating, or merely the thought of it
The quality of the HD tapes make HD Satellite look like regular cable! (well not really, but you get the idea).
Bring it on!!!

 

[Jack Briggs]

People, please pay close attention to what "Brother Gregg" is saying!
(He wasn't kidding about being literally blown away. The wind carried Gregg all the way here to Los Angeles, and I had to take him to LAX so he could catch a flight home. )
As home-theater enthusiasts, it would seem to me that we should be supporting whatever technology helps us close the gap between commercial-theatrical presentations and what we see in our own abodes. That's why D-Theater is a step in the right direction.
As WSR's editor-in-chief Gary Reber says, it's all about home theater "being the best it can be."

 

[Lewis Besze]

That's why D-Theater is a step in the right direction.

I let you make that step,I'm waiting for my jump for the real thing,in the meantime.

 

[frank manrique]

Once a HT fan gets to see X-Men, T-2, and U-571 D-Theater HD video material in action -zoomed out to fill the entire area of a 12 foot wide "scope" screen with the right equipment, like a professionally calibrated Dukane 9015 D-ILA display device- there just is no comparison to anything else of lesser resolution!
Their DVD counter parts, though great transfers they might be in their own right, just don't hold a candle to the HD images provided by this "obsolete" tape format (never mind that tape still is the medium professionals use).
What is even more interesting is the fact that those HD D-Theater images compare extremely well directly compared against with those of theatrical film prints (a few odd reels in the case of T-2 and X-Men; had no access to U-571 on film, unfortunately), something DVDs did not...at least not to the degree HD images does.
Many videophiles have paid a lot of money for first generation progressive scan DVD players (while some "high-end" DVD stand alone players, like Meridian's, are routinely priced stratrospherically without even the benefit of progressive scanning), priced not that much cheaper than the JVC 30000U D-VHS deck (which can be had as cheap as $1200), yet even those machines cannot deliver the superior level of PQ that the latter product offers (never mind that it also does S-VHS and plain VHS playback and recording in addition to HD recording. Try that with a recordable DVD!), while some others who have taken the HT-PC route (like me) have paid and are paying similar prices just to do DVD playback! So don't use the cost factor for not wanting to deal with the D-Theater format.
I would say that however excited am about this HD format I may be, the lack of more movie titles availability is what could prove to be D-Theater's demise.
Yet Gary Reber has recently stated at AVS Forums that a certain movie studio will release one of their recent movies on D-Theater day-and-day to coincide with the DVD release. That not only is this good news, but is also highly encouraging!
Btw, Lewis Besze...what is "the real thing" that would replace D-Theater? MPEG-4?... :rolleyes
-THTS

 

[RichardMA]

The sad thing is, no one is going to "die" waiting for
HD DVD, which of course will obsolete HD tape. The HD
tape format is interesting, and for owners of large screens
and projectors probably makes some sense, but it's still
the same crappy, fragile medium that VHS was/is. I can
hardly wait for the cheap HD vcrs, with their brutal
cheap mechanisms, chewing up the tapes, one day after they
hit the rental shelves. HD tape is an aberration, a good
aberration, like laserdisc was against VHS, but it is likely
to have just as fragile (no double meaning intended)
and existence as laserdisc.

 

[Bryant Trew]

As home-theater enthusiasts, it would seem to me that we should be supporting whatever technology helps us close the gap between commercial-theatrical presentations and what we see in our own abodes. That's why D-Theater is a step in the right direction.

"...whatever technology"?

That's being a bit blinkered IMO. What if DIVX came out with a HDDVD format and launched with 300 titles? Would you support that too?