DVD ETC. MAGAZINE ASKS: DVD versus D-VHS? (1 Viewer)

[Brian-W]

You know Jack, the one thing that I find amazing is no one in this thread who owns D-VHS is preaching to others that this is the end-all-be-all format, or that they need to adopt it.
In fact, I think pretty much everyone who owns D-VHS in this thread clearly acknowledges this is a stop gap format. When are people going to learn that there is NO CHOICE at the moment between D-VHS or HD-DVD? When there is an optical HD format available (regardless of pre-recorded content), then these "D-VHS vs. HD-DVD" arguments would have some validity.
I mean, $400 for a deck, $400 for a HD box w/firewire, and a $4 S-VHS tape (or $7 for a D-VHS tape) for HD movies!!! Honestly, for a $4 tape, I could care less if after a dozen viewings it degraded, it's a cheap medium. And if it did degrade, erase the tape and record over it again.
I think people are worried more about a format than the content that's on the format. When are people going to realize that it's "Home Theater Forum" and not "Home Optical Disc Forum".
It's the content people! Not the format.

 

[Brent M]

Rob,

I agree with your arguments on DVD not looking very good on a 9 or 10 foot screen. I'm using a 43" plasma right now for movies and at that size, most DVDs look stunning. I would very much like to move to a front projection system sometime in the future, but I have been a little disappointed when I've seen DVDs playing on them in the past. If D-Theater had the amount of titles available that DVD currently has, not only would I have a player but I'd probably already have a FP system in my home. For now, though, I think I'll just stick with my DVD/plasma set-up and wait to see how the HD-DVD thing works out(which isn't looking real good right now).

 

[jjames]

I currently have over 500 DVD's and a DVI DVD player. The DVI player makes DVD's look soo much better than before. But to think that DVD looks good enough, you probably haven't compared the two.
However, I also have about 30 HD movies on D-VHS and D-Theater. These are amazing, I find myself watching less and less DVD's because of the quality. I agree it's a temporary solution until HD-DVD's come out but I think that's a few years away still. The tape format is a little hard to go back to but for what you get in quality, I can live with it for a few years.

These are just my opinions on the format.

Jeff James

 

[PaulP]

Tape is a four-letter word.

 

[Brent M]

Jeff,

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a DVI DVD player and who makes them? I'm currently using a Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai and I've never seen anamorphic DVDs look so good, but I'm interested to learn more about these DVI machines you're talking about.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

DVI is the new Digital Video Interface, which can include copy protection.

The big advantage to DVI is the fact that it is a digital connection. This keeps the video in the digital domain, and avoids the digital-analog conversion when using component outputs. This avoids various forms of artifacting that can arise as the result of the digital-analog conversion.

It is a "cleaner" looking picture.

The two most popular DVD players at this time with DVI output is the Samsung 931 (can be had for about $250.00) and the Bravo D1 from Vinc. (retail $200 from their website).

Denon is working on a Universal DVD video/audio SACD player with DVI output.

 

[Brent M]

Rob,

Thanks for the informative response. Just curious, do you have one of these DVI DVD players or have you seen one in action? I'm just wondering if a $250 player with DVI would actually look better than my $1200 non-DVI machine. I can't imagine much improvement with DVDs over what my Pioneer Elite offers, but I guess there are always enhancements to be made. That said, however, I don't think I would swap players even if the DVI machine looked a little better as I utilize the SACD and DVD-Audio capabilities on my Elite and I wouldn't want to give that up.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Yes, Brent. I have seen a direct comparison of a Samsung 931 vs. a Sony 9000ES (not a cheap player).

There were three people present for this comparison: the owner of the two machines in question (at his dedicated HT with a 133 inch diagonal Firehawk screen using a Dwin TV3 DLP projector); another person from AVS/HomeTheater Forum, and myself.

After direct comparisons, we all agreed that the Samsung had the edge in picture quality. This was not a huge advantage by any means (we are talking about a reference quality DVD player by Sony), but the Samsung with DVI output gave a "cleaner" picture that looked more stable for lack of a better word. Someone there said that he would compare the difference as going from an S-Video connection to Component connections, and I think that is probably as good of an analogy as any.

I purchased the Bravo D1 (the Samsung stretches all 4:3 material to 16:9 which made it a no sale for me) for my Dwin TV3 to hold me over until one of the major players (like Denon) releases a Universal player with DVD-A and SACD with DVI output. I would wait for something like this before giving up your Elite.

You should see very good improvement with a DVI connection on a Plasma screen (or any fixed pixel display).

 

[Brent M]

I just have one more quick question for either Rob or Jeff. Have either of you directly compared a D-VHS movie to a DVD through a DVI player and if so, what were your conclusions? Did the DVD running through a DVI player come close to the D-VHS presentation or was it only marginally better than DVD through a normal player? I'm very interested to hear your findings when you get a chance. Thanks.