Do you remember...? (1 Viewer)

[John Kilroy]

Hello everyone! It has been a long time since I logged on here at the HTF, and my have we grown! I joined in 1997, and have some great memories of this place!

DO you remember:

-Buying that first Toshiba DVD player for $599?

-The title of your first DVD?

-When HTF had one forum? And then we took the big step of splitting into Hardware and Software? That raised a few eyebrows around here.

The Yamaha DSP-A1?

-Replacing your Toshiba DVD player so you could have DTS?

-The DIVX wars?

-Coupon madness with 800.com Buy.com etc... giving three DVDs for a dollar to buy market share?

-Updating Steve Tannehill's and Bill Hunt's web pages every five minutes to see what studios had jumped on the DVD bandwagon?

Ahh, good times.

Well, this is just a quick note to say hello to all the old timers here, I see some familiar screen names. I think there were just a couple hundred of us at first, and now this must be one of the biggest discussion forums on the web. And it has always been the best!

JK

 

[Bryan X]

I was late to the HTF party, but do remember the DIVX wars. I got my first DVD player in 1998. I can't remember my first disc off the top of my head.

 

[Michael D. Bunting]

I also originally joined in Nov/Dec 1997 - but somehow I had created 2 profiles on the forum and Ron deleted my older one (at my request).

Anyways, I remember the 800.com stuff....got 3 DVDs for $1.00

Reel.com also served me well...

My first player was a Panasonic...I think it was $599 as well....

and my first disc was National Lampoon's Vacation

 

[MarkHastings]

-getting 5 free Warner Borthers DVD's with every player purchase?

 

[mylan]

I remember the Divx wars well, I still cannot shop at Circuit City because of it.
My first player was a second gen. Toshiba, the 2107, that I got for $450. It came with Batman and Robin, Eraser, and I think one more I can't recall. It still plays but will not recognize some newer Disney discs so I finally put it down in the basement junk heap. I still to this day, cannot figure out how to get to the battery in the Toshiba remote but it never required one in its ten years of operation.
As far as the forums, I came to the party much later, in 2005 but I wish I had found the place alot sooner, I would have been so much better informed

 

[MarkHastings]

Remember all of the problems that the original Toshiba players had? My first one (97'ish) had an issue with the digital out (i.e. the decoder couldn't keep up and would silence every now and then) - The hardware upgrade was more expensive than the current players that were out, so I ditched it for a new Toshiba (dual disc player).

And yes, that player had issues with some of the newer Disney DVD's - The "Dinosaur" DVD would take at least 20-30 seconds to change menus. In fact, the photo galleries didn't even work at all.

So yes, I do have quite a pile of old DVD players in my spare bedroom. And (besides the format war) that's why I'm waiting to get into HD players.

 

[mylan]

Yep, I remember the first gen problems, I read everything I could get my hands on in anticipation for the second gen players to come out. I got mine in late Nov. of 97. I too am waiting awhile on the HD-DVD/BD situation for the same reason.

 

[Karl_Luph]

Yes, I was lurking here back in 1997, not as a member though.With the knowledge I learned here at this great site, I bought my first dvd player, a Toshiba SD-3108 , believe it or not, it still works great! I never upgraded the chip so there have been a few newer discs that it won't play. Gladiator was one of them. Mark is right,there was a promotional offer going on back then, that if you bought a Toshiba dvd player,you'd get 5 free dvds.

 

[BrianW]

I lurked for almost two years and then joined in January of 1999.

That seems like a lifetime ago.

I remember everything you mention, except I got my first DVD player (a Toshiba that I still use today) for $400 -- a first generation unit marked down when the second generation units were about to come out. Although it has refused to play only a handful of discs (maybe a dozen or so), I still use it when I can because its user interface is a joy to use compared to my newer DVD player. There's no audio decoder on the DVD player, so I've always been able to listen to DTS tracks, even on this first-gen unit.

My first DVD was Warner Bros. Contact, which I purchased several months before even getting a DVD player. (Yes, it sat on my shelf all that time.) That DVD finally bit the dust due to DVD rot, and I was happy to replace it with a new copy just last year.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Ah, memories. I bought my first (and second) players in September 1997.

After waiting for prices to come down and bugs to be worked out I finally bit the bullet and bought a first generation Toshiba, the 2006, I think, on a Friday. I had heard that 2nd generation players were expected soon, but the handful of local brick and mortar stores that even carried DVDs and players at that point either never heard of them or said they were still months away. That weekend I learned right here that they would be in stores the following week! A few phone calls later I found one store in another town that would have the new ones (2007? 2106? Damned if I can remember. ) So in an incredible display of willpower, I returned my first player, unopened, to the original store for a full refund. Since the new players didn't hit store shelves for a couple of days, I was left with my first two DVDs and no way to play them for about 72 hours. (The Usual Suspects and Fargo - I would go through several copies of each before the world figured out that there was a slight problem with Polygram's infamous "guillotine" slider case - which everyone who has ever bitched about Warner Bros.'s snappers should see in action - and started storing them in regular CD jewel cases.)

Definitely remember checking Steve T's and Bill Hunt's sites several ties a day (and later being excited about meeting both at the 2nd HTF national meet in L.A.) BTW, who else remembers Steve registering the domain name "starwarsdvd.com", planning to use it as a "trip-wire" to give us a head's up when the movies were finally coming. (He thought Lucas and/or Fox would be looking to register the name themselves when they were close to a release, at which point he'd give them the name for nothing, since it would have served his purpose.) Instead he heard from Lucasfilm's lawyers a short time later - and immediately gave up the domain. (Smart move, the Empire had nothing on those guys.)

 

[mylan]

Joseph, speaking of DVD cases, I have Apollo 13 and Backdraft that came in the same jewel case as a CD, I have never seen any other DVDs packaged this way. BrianW, I haven't seen any DVD rot yet, that just gives me something else to worry about!

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Babe: Pig in the City also came in a standard-sized jewel case. But my copy of Apollo 13, which was the original release, came in a keepcase. (I also have the anniversary edition with the IMAX version and the original.)

Remember the DIVX wars? I fought in 'em son! (At least to the degree that writing letters to the studios, streering friends away from DIVX and Circuit City and agitating on the 'net counts as fighting.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Yee-Ming]

The only thing I really remember out of John's list is my first DVD: The Matrix. My killer app, if you will, and the day it was out in the shops here, I got it and a DVD-ROM kit for the PC. About a year later I got an HTiB, with my first proper DVD player, a Pioneer DV535. I didn't join HTF until April 2002, when I was researching a "proper" HT setup, by which time it was already split into the various forums that still exist today. And the DIVX wars didn't really have any bearing on us non-Americans.

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

First movie - Contact. Still going strong.

First and still my only DVD player - Pioneer DV-333. It too is still going strong and never met a DVD it didn't like.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

Same here.

 

[Michael Warner]

I was late to the party but jumped on board when the Toshiba SD-2109 dropped to $299 in early 1999 (my sister is still using it to this day). Soon thereafter I discovered the wonderful world of internet deals and the DVDs began rolling in by the truck load. My first DVD was "Stalingrad" which I had purchased back when I was using the DVD-ROM on my computer to watch movies.

I have to admit that I'm a bit wistful for those days. I had far more free time and the new world of DVD was so exciting that it became my primary hobby for the next few years. Now I'm lucky if one or two releases a year get me at all excited. Heck I even downsized my home theater due to lack of use over the past few years.

 

[Brandon_T]

Contact was my first movie as well.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Didn't join until 1999, about a week after buying my first machine (a Panasonic costing £350 - about $600) which had been chipped to play multiregion. The first batch of discs was a bunch of five from the local HMV store which had an offer of buy five and get the sixth free. I cannot remember all of them, except one, which was Goldeneye. Incidentally, the five discs cost me £100 (prices only came down in the UK a couple of years later). At the time the DVD section of the shop was one rack, as opposed to the ten or so racks reserved for VHS.

The irony was that I'd only gone into my local hi-fi shop to buy a new interconnect cable. The DVD player was being demonstrated in the shop and I was hooked instantly (incredibly, I hadn't seen one up until that point). I thought my wife (who was with me) would resist, but when she saw that you could instantly skip to another chapter she insisted we bought it on the spot (you know how we all have irrational bugbears? - one of hers is never being able to access the right place on a VHS tape to get the next recording). Never being one to refuse my wife's requests I of course complied.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Yup I remeber all those points John. My first player was a pre DTS toshiba as well. My first DVD was Twister and its one of the few that I later replaced with the DTS version. I couldn't stand the jaggies the Tosh had so I sold it and bought the Panny 320 instead using its onboard decoding connected to a Technics SA-AX6.

 

[RickER]

My first DVD player was a Sony 3000 (i think) in 97. Bought my next one a year later. The Sony 7700, and it still plays great. I started lurking around here in 98-99 but didnt feel the need to participate until much later. I bought Batman and Robin, Space Jam (for the kids), and of course Blade Runner at the same time i bought my first DVD player. I read Steve's site everyday...and i miss it still. I always read The Bits, and used to love DVD File, but i dont even have that on my favorites anymore. Funny, i went from an LD guy to DVD guy overnight. I was an LD collector for almost 20 years. The last LD i bought was Tenchi Moyuo: The Movie in 97. Sold most of my LDs as soon as i saw the writing on the wall! Wow, its been 10 years!