DVHS decks for $600. Ok, I'm starting to get tempted. (1 Viewer)

[Mark_Wilson]

Yeah, Fifth Element was awesome, I taped it. Too bad it wasn't in 5.1. It was OAR which is very strange for HBO. I'm hoping it'll show up again in 5.1. The Matrix was first broadcast on HBOHD in DPL and then later on in 5.1. Desperado looked damn good too last night.

 

[Tom Blizzard]

--------- Wow, To be a thread with the title: "DVHS decks for $600. Ok, I'm starting to get tempted." It looks like there are only about three or four of us who are tempted.

--------- I bought my JVC DVHS from OneCall last week too. $499 is a GREAT buy as far as I am concerned. My second S-VHS VCR was the first model Sony put out and I paid $1000 for it about ten years ago.

--------- Most of these comments remind me of us old LD holdouts when DVD was just getting started.
Regards, Tom B.

 

[Derek Baker]

The Matrix in HD? How did that look??

 

[Mark_Wilson]

The Matrix in HD? How did that look??

It was MAR'd to 1.78:1. Couldn't tell if it was Open Matte or cropped. I'd say OM since scenes didn't look constrained like Tucker or High Crimes did. Other than that it looked very good. Colors seemed more realistic than the dvd. It had less grain than I remembered the DVD having, but after comparing them they were the same. Besides the animation titles, I'd say Swordfish is probably the best looking HD movies I've seen on Sat.

 

[Brian-W]

HBO originally showed Matrix in OAR, but Dolby 2.0. The MAR is 5.1

 

[Mehdy]

HD DVD(hopefully backwards comp with dvd)will not take
6 years!!! You guys are fooling yourselves. HD DVD is here
NOW-either blue ray-which is on sale in Japan with dics priced at 29.99 US or Red which was introduced last week
which is backward comp AND no major changes in Manf equip
necessary. Look say what it is A Temporary BAND AID until
HD-DVD arrives in mass quanity, in case you don't know VHS is DEAD-more costly to produce the discs, larger storing area. You were suckered when you bought this already dead
format-it the Manf's last chance at sucking money out of
an inferior format doomed for failure.......

 

[Ron Boster]

Mehdy:

I appreciate all your opinions up until the "suckered" comment. To spend $500 for a player and an average of $20-$25 per movie to have the BEST possible picture for my 106" screen is a decent cost vs benefit ratio for me. When HD DVD arrives, I'll jump on board too. It's all relative to the values each individual attributes to the benefits....has no relationship to the "man" suckering me into buying a HD VCR. You can't force your values into my world (value system). It's the early adopters that allow the consumer electronic's industry to bring out new technology....your post sounds very similar to other posts in March of 1997....when people were critical of those of us who bought the first DVD players. And, I'm not saying HD VCR's are the future, but they maybe the bridge to pushing the HD DVD player on a quicker pace to the masses.

Just MHO
Ron

 

[Mehdy]

Look, in many cases the DVHS reviews that I read are no better than the current DVD's, nobody ever said that the
dvd release was INFERIOR to the VHS tape. But HDDVD is HERE-
NOW and you know this format is DOOMED-its not hip,compact,
and the cost does not justify the limited software of this
thing. DVD was different my friend, we KNEW this was going
mainstream the minute we put the first disc in the player,it was shaped like cd vs 33 LP. You can not sit here and say well dvhs will help get hddvd- I am sorry it already
exists- JVC could have expanded the life of this doomed format by SHARING IT WITH EVERYBODY-but no they got greedly
and by buying dvhd you are actually promoting this greed
mentality-and are working AGANIST a unfied format for HD-DVD
unlkie scad mess. You are dead wrong here, the opposite is
true...and you have been suckered BIG TIME into something you will throw away in less than a couple of years....5

 

[Paul_Scott]

HD-DVD...Here now?! WOW!
where have i been?

have you heard a release date for X-men yet?
any extras with that?
er...i suppose i should get a player first...
which format did they go with?
well who cares-the big thing is it's here.

WOW! i can't believe it ...It's Here...it's Finally HERE!!!!!!!

 

[Sean Patrick]

so...i have the infamous RCA F38310 which has no outputs.....so while i won't be able to record HD from my built-in directv receiver, and since my OTA antenna plug into the tv and basically goes into the same receiver, i probably wouldn't get much use out of this thing (other than watching prerecorded movies), right??

 

[Paul_Scott]

alright Mehdy,
now that i got that out of my system , let me tell you why i believe it will be a MINIMUM of 6 years before HD-DVD is in MY ht.
• at this point in time no format has been decided.
it may be Blu-Ray, or it may be red using a MS codec or it could be something else. this , to the best of my knowledge, hasn't been settled yet.

• dvd is a huge hit. there is still a lot of money to be made with this format, and will continue to be for quite some time with players available in wall-mart for $60.

• HD is still little more than a niche. any HD products for the next few years will be aimed at this niche. common & inexpensive will = DVD. lower production runs & higher costs will = HD.

• does anyone remember the first pressings of dvds- does anyone with higher end equipement 6 years later actually like to watch these early discs? sure some like Lost In Space are still reference quality, but most are quite an eyesore compared to recent remasters that take advantage of improvements in compression and authoring.
i would expect just the same for HD DVD.
i know i don't plan to jump into that until they are at least on the second or theird generation of players- not to mention that they are going to be at least $600 if not more upon introduction.

• i also don't plan to outlay a huge amount of money while there still isn't any software ( just like i won't do with Dvhs).
thing is though, if studios are working on HD masters for use on Dvhs- they'll have them ready to go when HDdvd eventually gets here.
there are benefits to everyone involved in seeing Dvhs sucsessful. even i realize this.
it also holds the studios to an absolute MINIMUM quality standard- very important.


but all this is just rehashing the old thread.

all i want to see is more variety in the catalog titles available and i'm in.
a remarkable set of transfers for the first 2 Alien movies will go a ways, but i need to see more.
this deck would now be so easy to put on my BB charge- but there is just no point in doing it until the software library is worthwile.

 

[Tom Blizzard]

QUOTE:"You are dead wrong here, the opposite is
true...and you have been suckered BIG TIME into something you will throw away in less than a couple of years...." END QUOTE

-----------I have S-VHS tapes of many, many "live events" and movies that will never be on DVD,(either NTSC or HD). Started taping them back in 1992. Watched one last night.

------------The JVC is backwards compatible for S-VHS and I was about to buy a new "editing" S-VHS VCR. Same price.
To me, the DVHS is a terrific added bonus. IMHO I'll make it longer than "a couple of years."

 

[Kevin Snyder]

I am confused by a prior post which mentions that the quality of the D-VHS High definition titles is not much better than DVD. Specifically, that the DVD picture quality was not inferior to the HD D-VHS presentation.

If you believe this, then you also believe that there is no advantage of HD over SD. If you believe this, then why in the world are you even looking forward to HD-DVD??? The picture quality of HD-DVD may equal, but will certainly not be better than D-VHS, given the fact that it is doubtful the bit rate will be HIGHER than currently used, which is higher than the standard HD rate of 19.9. This is due to space limitations, even with the blue ray.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding you. Do you feel that for some reason, the D-VHS is somehow showing inferior HD picture quality??? This is not analog VHS here. If somehow the tape is leading to an inferior quality picture, then it would be displayed as such by pixellation, etc. and not by analog video noise as is currently the case with VHS.

Kevin

 

[Ron Boster]

Mehdy:

I always wonder why someone seems so passionate about something they have no investment in....whether it be cables, power cords, (insert your choice here). It still comes back to my pocketbook and whether "I" see the difference in "my" screening room. I could care less whether you think anyone of us were "suckered" or not. We purchased it and we'll enjoy it. I noticed in your profile you list among you hobbies..."sex" and "comics." Those are two things I won't spend my money on...but you won't find me being critical of how you spend your money.

Back to the topic at hand...
Anyone with a unit have a favorite demo title? Anyother rumored future titles on the horizon?

Ron

 

[Mehdy]

Look, I dont care if you big screen is 108 inches or a
70MM theater-lets call this the way it is-G-VHS meaning greed-vhs. If $500 is a drop in the bucket-you just wasted
it when you could have bought 25 classic movies on DVD.
Ron: tell me are going to keep you G-VHS tape of fifth element(opps not out yet) when the HD 7.1 DD or DTS version comes out..and Ron tell me what you are going to do when this format is DEAD because unlike DVD, there is no market
for G-vhs tapes. Dont give me this would have been a contender crap-only if Sony had come on board would this think have a life span of five years TOPS. By the way ron, ten
years from now when the tape is degrading please inform me
about resale value of these TAPES(god I hate to say that word). You know when so many studios go for it, it is a GONER-yes, the studios whose business is to sell you the same movie OVER and OVER again-but with 40 million dvd players at least you have a chance to recoupe SOME of that
greed money-whereas JVC(I own it I dont share it) movie tapes are trash collecting Junk. The true name of this product is D-VHS meaning DOG-VHS and it a howler--AWHOOOOOOOO!!!!!

 

[Dan Hitchman]

One of the big reasons I keep on my "native 1080p from 1080p masters" soap box is that it would look SO much better than 1080i.

Interlaced signals are so heavily filtered to lower artifacts that it becomes almost worthless (that's why even on a 9" CRT some people had a hard time seeing a dramatic difference between DVD and D-VHS). That's why there tends to be a debate all the time on whether good 720p broadcasts are actually better than good 1080i.

With full 1080p (at various frames rates and refresh rates) you could get the best of both worlds.

1080i with a scaler to 1080p won't save you either because: 1) the damage due to filtering and edge enhancement has been done, and 2) mastering facilities haven't put out a signal with clean 2:3 flags for proper frame reconstruction yet.

If JVC puts out a D-VHS player that finally delivers on what they've promised at these WSR meetings: a decent price, build quality, 1080p, and full bitrate DTS 96/24 support, I will see what I can do to buy one (unless an optical format comes out that equals or betters it).

Dan

 

[Mehdy]

I am not antihometheater- But with studios getting us to buy one dvd version and then the next(army of darkness,stargate- 3 versions, Dune(tv two versions) a disturbing trend has emergered. A delebrate patten of creating a product which will be obsolete within a very short time- An example is XXX which the superbit version
is coming out 6 months after the inital release-why is that
bad-because I always assume that the studio will put out the
best product available-and columbia could have released this
version along side the other. Think of all the VHS tape collections and the decrease in value. I understand changing
formats is a necessity. I carefully looked at D-VHS and $500 is a drop in the bucket compared to my Hometheater system. TAPE is dead. I see this as a quick window to grab
some dough knowing that they will not put out movies on this
tape system very quickly. HD DVD will not suffer the same fate-tech wise the amount of money going in is 50 times dog-vhs, there is a company to promote the specs, This is apples
and oranges-but with the great start dvd has had,I think the
transition will be even faster because of the HD TV standard
and will you want to rent a moive when your tv brodcast is
superior, people will be more quality aware on this transtion. Why am I so upset-because greed is the root of all evil-once it infects-harm will be right around the corner. As far as my profile, besides sex and comics, I would like to add ROCK and ROLL>

 

[Ron Boster]

Even if the player becomes a door stop in a couple of years and the tapes are worthless, it doesn't matter to me. I'll have gotten a couple of years of enjoyment. I don't buy equipment with an eye on what it will be worth in resale value. I buy it based on how will it fit into my system and the personal "enjoyment factor." I could care less if JVC is lining it pockets with my $, as long as I'm happy with the outcome of my purchase.

You should take pride in the fact that you haven't bought into corporate greed and move on to another thread or start your own thread about why you hate D-theater? The intention of this thread isn't to debate D-VHS...good or bad...but whether the price point of $600 or less, presuaded those of us who have been tempted by the format.

 

[Mehdy]

I DONT HATE D-THEATER. I do think that the price point is the issue. Ron, tell me people got VALUE when they paid 2000.00 for this hunk of junk. When I looked into it for a
month it was 1500..but the time I was not interested is 995.00 at best buy-now it 600.00 there is a reason Ron-this is the titanic of home video equipment-or the ENRON of the
stock market. At my local Wal Mart a VHS is about fifty bucks....so I believe the value is not $600, not $500(april
price),not$400(may price),not 300(June price),not 200(july price) but at about 3 times the normal vcr price. If this had been $150.00 bucks I IN, I will BUY it-get the price of the tapes to a proper vhs price(15-20 bucks) and then you have VALUE!
There is a difference between being careless or smart.
I did not invest thousands of dollars in my home theater for
nothing-I WANT VALUE-I pay for performance not for resale value but my MITS 73 High Def is not going to be outdated
like Dog-vhs so soon. Take the extra money and purchase products which can create a much higher level of satisfaction. For all the people out there that spent 1500 or more for this-I COMMEND you. You did not know whereter this would be a major format at the time-That was VALUE-but not now...Ron when you know this is a dead-end and they are
still making a profit on these china/japan players they are
just playing this thng out...for $150 now your talking

 

[Ron Boster]

Mehdy:

I'm curious how you feel about Mits charging appox $1,000 to update their HD RPTV's? Not trying to start an argument ...just with the position you've taken, I would imagine you are not very pleased with their position on this issue.

Ron