Do you remember...? (1 Viewer)

[Brandy S]

My first DVD player was a Yamaha (795 I believe) that I bought for $599.
My first DVDs were Spies Like Us and Waterboy.
I had a Yamaha DSP-1, NOT the A1. The DSP-1 was a dedicated processor with Dolby Prologic and a thousand other options. I used it for a guitar processor until a few years ago. It even had +/- pitch change!
My Yamaha player is still running strong and plays just about everything I throw into it.
I didn't fall for DivX or the coupon deals!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I joined the HTF party and DVD owners circle in the fall of '98. I remember just about all of John's points. My first player was a pre-DTS Sony 300, which is still running fine in our bedroom. I built up a collection quickly taking advantage of those great online deals at 800.com and reel.com.

My first DVD's were Tomorrow Never Dies and Animal House, and I shortly thereafter received the 5 free Warner DVD's for buying the player. I think Contact is the only one I still own -- the rest were pretty bad films, such as Lost in Space, Sphere, etc.

My former next door neighbor was a casualty of the DIVX wars. After watching a movie on our system on New Year's Eve, he knocked on our door the next day, since he was so excited to tell me he had purchased a player that morning. The smile on my face turned sour when he said "I went to Circuit City this morning...". Oh, well, at least he never purchased any DIVX discs after we discussed the format, and the player served him for many years as a regular DVD player.

 

[Buzz Foster]

My first player was a Pioneer, and the first title was "Mars Attacks!" However, I did buy the first progressive player. Geez, that was pricey. I think my Creative Zen outputs progressive these days...

I got nine of those DVDs from 800.com.

I remember DVD Depot tanking. I was one of the lucky ones that actually got his POTA set before it did.

I rememebr buying "MST3K: The Movie" for $15 off the shelf.

I remember when one store in Albuquerque rented DVDs, and I could ALWAYS have the latest release on the day it came out, even after the crowds had come in after work.

I remember my ex buying a portable DVD player. It was a Sharp, and it cost $1000. My current got one free for buying some dockers.

Oh, and I didn't joint HTF until 1999 because I was active at Steve Tannehill's DVD Resource site. I only left there when the door hit me in the ass.

 

[Marty M]

I had started a thread of HTF memories a couple of months ago on my eighth anniversary of being a member here. I joined in December 1998, shortly after I had purchased my first Sony DVD player. It was a 2nd generation model that had just gone under $500, without DTS. It is actually still working, and in my son's bedroom, now.

I remember going to my local Block Busters after getting my DVD player and the manager wasn't even sure when or if they would be even be stocking DVDs. The jury was still out in late 1998 as to whether DVD was going to stick around.

I also remember that I joined when there were less than 2,000 members. As of today, there are almost 70,000 members. I have to admit that I miss the initmacy and small-town feeling when it was a smaller forum, but Ron and Parker have done a great job of keeping this one of the friendliest, civil forums on the net.

 

[Don Giro]

I've only been here since early 2004, but I fondly remember much of what has been previously discussed in this thread:

I don't remember exactly how I found HTF, but I remember it was referenced on a DVD site I visited which was polling users about whether they would like the site to incorporate a forum. One user wrote "Why bother when we've already got HTF?" My curiosity was piqued, and I've never looked back. And I really miss Ernest Rister's posts.

I missed out on the 800.com 3-for-a-buck deal literally by 15 minutes.

Reel.com was quite liberal with use of coupons, and I was able to amass quite a library of DVDs at their expense (is it any wonder they were one of the first to go under during the "DotCom Shakeout"?)

BigStar was another great site for deals: I remember a long stretch of time where almost every DVD I bought shipped at around $7.

I got the Criterion "Silence of the Lambs" and "This is Spinal Tap" from shopping.com for $12 each, brand new (including shipping)

I remember the horrors of the Divx war, and couldn't imagine having to hook a player up to a phone line just so I could "rent" something I had to go out and physically purchase beforehand. Good riddance...

My first DVD player was a second-generation Panasonic, and I paid $599 for it. It had built-in DTS decoding and crapped out me after two years. I was reluctant to make the switch to "this newfangled DVD thing" because I had about 200 laserdiscs and was unsure of investing in a new format. The deciding factor was low disc price and easier storage.

My next player was a Toshiba 2200, which I lovingly referred to as "My Warhorse." It never met a disc it didn't like (with the exceptions of "High Fidelity" and "Emigma"). It began showing signs of wear and tear about a year ago, and I replaced it with a new Toshiba I am less than happy with. The warhorse is collecting dust under my bed because the idea of throwing it away breaks my heart.

"Contact" was my first DVD, (and also my first "double dip" in disc format, since I already had the laserdisc) which I bought because it contained THREE audio commentaries (the laser had only the Jodie Foster commentary).

 

[MarkHastings]

LOL - BigStar! I still have that bookmarked in my old bookmarks.

 

[brentl]

Kilroy was here, yep I remember you.

I remember hearing about this "new" disc on the pages of stereo review in 1995(I think). I also remember Blockbuster fighting BOth dvds being released in widescreen AND the fact that they were fighting for a "rental window" just like for tapes. Strange, but I haven't rented there since.

My first player was the Toshiba 2108 ... oh sure, I could have gotten the 2006,3006 or 2107/3107, but neither offered DTS outputs. I remember the Pioneer a1(hope I'm right) being the first mass market Dolby digital receiver, and Harmon Kardon offering the ADP-303 as a standalone decoder.

YEP,I miss the days of one big forum, and really miss Steve's site too

Life was so much simpler then

B
Went from the 2108-2200-7832/Denon 3 series, no HD-dvd YET!

 

[Francois Caron]

My first DVD player was a second-gen Sony DVP-S500D which I still use. It cost me $850 Canadian.

My first DVD was Video Essentials which I bought BEFORE buying the DVD player!

And yes, I remember everything else. In fact, I remember the LaserDisc days along with knowing what a Criterion was long before it became popular enough that the clerks at video stores no longer thought I was asking for a title!

 

[RyanAn]

Reel.com's "Bottle Rocket Cash" financed my initial collection. Answer trivia and get ten bucks off? Hells-to-the-yah!!!!

ry

 

[Brian Perry]

I discovered HTF while doing a search (no Google, maybe Alta Vista?) for the newly released Star Wars movie (Episode 1), and finding Ron Epstein's unflattering review.

First DVD player: Sony DVP-S7000 (still in use in a secondary system)

 

[Holadem]

I've heard much about Ron's infamous SW:Ep I review, I've never actually seen it, is it still floating around in some corner of the net? A cursory search yields mostly snipets and broken links.

--
H

 

[PhillJones]

This is going to make you guys feel old.

I remember my Dad buying our first DVD player and DVD. I can't remember what the player was but it may have been Toshiba and was pre-DTS. It was, region 2 since we lived in Britain (my family still do).

The disk was The Terminator.......Region 1.

The local hifi shop hadn't quite done enough homework.

My first player was an HP laptop with a margi DVD-to-go card. The PC itself lacked the horsepower, it was all very ad-hoc. My first DVD was Trainspotting.

 

[Buzz Foster]

Oh, jeez Phil! Yeah I remember DVD decoder cards, because cpus lacked the power to do it.

My next system will replace my dedicated MPEG-2 encoder, as cpus are now much faster than that old thing.

 

[Scott Simonian]

Ah yes...my first dvd player was a Toshiba. I couldn't afford to pay the extra $200 for a "jog-wheel" and component connections so I got the $400 Toshiba. Less than a month later, I switched it out for the Panasonic A110. The first ever dvd player with DTS. Had it foreverz until it put put putted outta commision.

First two dvds I bought. Fifth Element and the Long Kiss Goodnight. My first two 20th Century Fox dvds were Predator and Speed. I still have all of these dvds. I think the only dvd I ever had to throw out was 'No Escape' I love the movie but our copy had the last 5-10 minutes of the English track cut out. It suddenly goes silent at the end. I had to put it on the Spanish track to listen to the end of the movie. Ahaha, i think it rotted and we tossed it. Memories....

I didnt sign up here until just before my mmmm Sophmore year? Maybe my Junior year in high school....I got into the dvd game around 98' but didnt show up here until a bit later...

DSP-A1? Oh, how could I ever forget? It was the first flagship receiver (oh, integrated amp, lol) I droolled over. To this day I wouldnt mind taking one. I fucking love those. And the newer models too...

Divx? Ahaha, I never fell for that shit. Yeah....20th Century Fox for some reason wanted to start here first. Shit, I dunno why anyone would want to go to the store, purchase an inferior dvd...usually not in widescreen and not including a 5.1 and then buy it again...stupid.

 

[MarkHastings]

Does anyone have a list on the initial DVD releases?

I remember going to a SONIC seminar in '97 and they were showing off DVD technology with Eric Clapton Unplugged (released May, 1997). That was the first DVD I ever saw and (at the time) assumed it was one of the first ones released. But I seem to recall Twister being even sooner...

...Just checked and Amazon has it around March '97

 

[Jack Briggs]

I found Home Theater Forum by accident. Back in 1999, I was searching the Web for any information on HDTV (and I cannot even remember which search engine I was using back then). Somehow, one of the links turned out to be for this place.

The site was interesting. And I joined the following day, and my first post was a thread-starter. Innocently, I asked the members of this elite site if anyone knew of any plans to bring the 1974 John Boorman film Zardoz to DVD.

Of course, when I asked I had no idea that it would be Home Theater Forum itself having a major, major role in bringing that film to DVD.

And, yes, I remember well 800.com. I bought my first titles online from 800.com.

Things sure change over the years.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

1st player was a Sony DVP500D, cost $499 in spring of 98, wouldn't output DTS but had onboard DD decoder which worked well with the Technics receiver I had at the time which had 5.1 analog inputs. 1st discs were Contact, The Mask, and Trainspotters bought from Costco (at the time they were the best source for dvds, but didn't sell players for another year or so).
That player was replaced about 6 months later with the Sony 550D which would output DTS (had upgraded to a Yamaha RXV-795 by then). The 550D is still in daily use at my ex's house and still performs flawlessly.

When the Toshiba HD-DVD player was released last April at the same $499 price as my first SD player it suddenly became a no-brainer.

 

[Chris]

Been with the forum since.. hmm. Well, the site will say infinite. I have archives back to late 95. (Delphi)

Here's what I remember:

(1) Paying almost $800+ & a huge fee to get one of the first DVD Players & a 16:9 TV.
(2) I bought two right off the bat: BladeRunner & Long Kiss Goodnight, if I remember right.
(3) Hell, I remember when the HTF was basically twelve people or so who kept posting like crazy and no one had any issues posting their home phone #s. I remember a fight breaking out on Delphi over a major disagreement regarding speaker wire that resulted in at least five seperate phone calls between several different people just so that everyone wouldn't leave the conversation mad
(4) DSP-A1. Owned one. And had it for a very short time before I dismissed it for Rotel Seperates I purchased from someone else on HTF.
(5) Pusha. Replace my Toshiba for DTS? Do you remember shipping Denon 3600s and the like to MSB Tech (http://www.msbtech.com/) so they could modify it to support DTS? For only $399??
(6) Yes, remember DIVX wars very well. Then again, I said at the time that if DVD stayed super cheap (relative to LD at the time) that studios would have to do something or the rental market would be dead. I was totally wrong. (I was anti-DIVX, I just thought that DVD price would go up)



How about these:

(1) Long discourse over whether or not the Pioneer CLD-99 Elite was a better player then a CLD-97.
(2) The constant "does speaker wire make any difference" debates
(3) Updated list (weekly) of LDs known to be fabbed in Sony plants famous for discs that rot..

and so on..

 

[Edwin-S]

Let's see.

I remember my first player was an SD-3109 which I bought,I believe, in '99. It was also my last player up until my purchase of the Toshiba HD-A1. My SD-3109 still plays. I also bought a cheap Chinese-made regionless player for playing some R2 stuff.

The first DVD I bought was "Das Boot: The director's cut". I was impressed with the fact that I could select the original German language track with or without subtitles or an English dub track.

I remember DIVX, but was never actively involved with the battle against it: other than refusing to purchase such a system. I was not interested in having to hook up a phone line and pay a license fee to be able to watch movies that I still had to purchase on a disc.

I remember stumbling onto this site in 2000 and joining up. I have been posting my, mostly, inane comments ever since. It is hard to believe that I have been a member of this site for almost 7 years. Time flies.

 

[ZacharyTait]

My first DVD player was a Panasonic A120 that still works. The only other one I've ever bought for myself was a Sony one 5 1/2 years ago that also still works. I also bought 2 GE players with the Sony (they were all on clearance at Wal-Mart) and giving them to my mom and dad for Christmas. As far as I know, they both still use them. They don't make them like they used too!

My first DVD was Saving Private Ryan non-DTS. I bought it several months before the player due to a roomate at the time who had a player and I just used his.

I don't think I lurked at the HTF very long before I joined.

I did miss the online DVD deals back in the day. Doh!

From the get-go I knew that DivX was doomed to failure. Common sense told me that people wouldn't go for something this convoluted.

My collection currently stands just north of 400 and I look forward to increasing it next year after I graudate from college and get a real job!