VHS>DVD>HDDVD, Oh My! (1 Viewer)

[Brian_J]

I'm quite satisfied with my current DVD collection, and I'll still enjoy it in 10 or 20 years...

Except that the insidious conspiracy that is DVD rot will have taken its toll well before then.
Brian

 

[Artur Meinild]

Except that the insidious conspiracy that is DVD rot will have taken its toll well before then.

I'm not quite sure if you're joking, but at least I think you are...
I haven't yet experienced anything like "DVD rot", only defect discs from the factory...
I guess only time will tell...

 

[JoeDeM]

I don't think we are going to see HD-DVD for quite a while, oh sure the players may come out and a few Yoga HD-DVDs may come out, but DVD is such a cash cow right now, and only a very small fraction of back catolog movies have been released. Why would they butcher the cow when the milk is so sweet. Would I like to see it? sure I would, would I buy all my movies again I don't think so, some for sure, but do I really need an HD copy of Bridget Jone's Diary, Ben Hur would be a different story of course.

DVD for the most part are pretty good, even when projected to 100". I for one will keep on buying DVDs, they are cheap, they have good PQ, and lots of my favorites are coming or have come out.

Maybe when it gets released, it will be like LDs where, $100-$200 a pop and DVD will be the lower priced stuff $10-$20. I know I won't be lining up to buy them at that price.

 

[Ted Todorov]

It's trivial for commercial counterfeiters to illegally copy DVD movies. I don't see how refusing to release HD-DVD makes life harder for them.

Absolutely true -- and it will be just as trivial for them to copy the next format. I think the thinking is if stuff got out "into the wild" in HDTV (DVD) quality, they would never be able to make money on those movies again. There comes a point where no amount of marketing smoke and mirrors can persuade John Q. Public to upgrade to a newer format.

Look at DVD-Audio vs. CDs. DVD - Audio so far has been a complete dud, because unlike VHS to DVD, the differences can only be noticed by audiophiles with very expensive speakers and only on recordings where the source material is superb to start with. Meanwhile DVD-Audio is much less usable than CDs due to its copy protection. You can't burn copies for your car player, you can't rip MP3s for you iPod -- why in the world would anyone in their right mind trade their CDs for DVD-A? I wouldn't be surprised that the recent move to break the Red Book CD standard and "copy protect" (cripple, really) CDs is at least partly motivated by the desire to make DVD-A seem more attractive.

Since they don't trust copy protection to work, the movie/record companies seem determined not to repeat the CD mistake again -- release a close enough to perfect product such as the Audio CD from which no one besides a few audio/videophiles would ever consider upgrading. The rest of the consumers could make backup copies thus ensuring that they wouldn't have to ever buy it again due to media damage/laser rot/what have you. The idea that their revenues would entirely depend on the quality of their new products, rather than the ability to milk the "studio library" cow for ever and ever, terrifies them to no end.

Ted

 

[Jay Taylor]

I think a large percentage of our DVD collections are relatively safe from obsolescence when HDDVDs are produced.

The producers of many DVDs of older movies had difficulty getting the movies up to even DVD quality for release. When HDDVDs are the new standard, they may not be able to make a significant improvement in many of the old movies above DVD quality.

Our DVDs will probably play on HDDVD players and when new movies are released we can buy HDDVDs. Over time the number of HDDVDs in our collection will exceed the number of DVDs in our collection. But I personally don’t plan on replacing DVDs with HDDVDs unless there is a significant improvement being made and the movie was so spectacular that DVD quality was not enough.

Jay Taylor

 

[Darren Lewis]

If the new HDDVD players (& recorders?) are compatible with my exisiting DVDs then I'd probably start buying the new format. As for replacing my existing DVDs there'd have to be good reasons for each DVD

1. Much better picture quality
2. Better sound or more sound tracks
3. More extras[/list=1]
   
   
   
   I've got some films in my collection that I love and watch more than others, so these might be replaced if it was wrth it.
   
   
   
   The arguement of VHS over DVD is settled in my mind, and the benefits are huge.
   
   
   
   I've not got a DVD recorder (yet) until the formats settle down and there's a standard.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

When it was only VHS I never bought. Rented and copied or recorded off cable anything I wanted to keep. Now with DVD I have started buying some of my more favorite titles. Like others I would hope at the least that the new players would be able to still play DVD's. Otherwise, I hope that the new HD-DVD market remains a somewhat small niche market and regular DVD's are still the norm. In this way I could, if I chose, just ignore HD-DVD, as I am VERY HAPPY with the DVD quality and really don't feel I need anything better than that. My other concern, of course, is the quality of the DVD's, problems such as DVD rot. I think all studios should have a 100% one-for-one replacement policy on damaged DVDs, as long as it's not obvious neglect, like my dog chewed it.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I used to have quite a few VHS cassettes (and I still have about 40 or so). Then I discovered the vastly superior laserdisc system and replaced most of the VHS collection with LD.

Since DVD came around I have replaced a few LDs with DVDs, but I'm keeping most of my LDs. I'm only replacing some of my favourite titles and usually only when the DVD offers a substantial enough improvement in some way.

I guess this will be my approach whenever a new format is introduced.

You don't need to replace something just because you can...

 

[Brian Kidd]

I have many a pre-recorded video cassette; the reason being that I am a film nut and could not afford anything better for many years. I eventually was able to procure a second-hand LD player from a friend and do have a few of those. High prices kept me from purchasing too many of them. When DVD became affordable, I bought a player and have begun collecting those. My point is this: I love DVD because the quality is greater than that of LD. I loved LD because the quality was greater than that of VHS. I loved VHS because I could watch movies at home instead of having to take a chance on a movie coming to my local theater. I loved movie theaters because they play movies. In the end, when something better than DVD comes out,(and it will) I'm sure that I will upgrade to that as well. Does that mean that I'll suddenly begin hating all of the formats that came before? Heavens no! They allowed me to indulge in my greatest pleasure: watching movies! I'm glad they were around and I look forward to their progeny.

Now, that being said, I do hope that when/if HD-DVD players come out that they will be backward-compatible with current DVDs. My biggest beef with video game consoles so far has been that they haven't been. Now, the game companies have learned that people still enjoy playing older games, hence the GameBoy Advance and Playstation 2. Both offer great advances from their predecessors and both are backward compatible with older games. They're also selling like hotcakes. Consumer Electronics manufacturers must begin to take this fact into account when upgrading currently existing home theater technologies if they plan to succeed.

 

[DeathStar1]

>>My biggest beef with video game consoles so far has been that they haven't been. Now, the game companies have learned that people still enjoy playing older games, hence the GameBoy Advance and Playstation 2. Both offer great advances from their predecessors and both are backward compatible with older games. They're also selling like hotcakes. Consumer Electronics manufacturers must begin to take this fact into account when upgrading currently existing home theater technologies if they plan to succeed.

>>

This is one of the problems that I have with Game Systems as well. Not only do they take up space, but they eventually break down even if taken care of. My poor old NES is busted, even though my Atari works perfectly. Go figure. I just wish Nintendo would come out with a cool looking Multi Console that can play NES, SNES, and N64 games...

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Not only will HD-DVD players play today's DVDs (just like today's DVD players play CDs), but they'll likely up-convert them and scale them to 720P or 1080I/P with excellent results. If any of you have seen what a good HTPC can do right now for the image of a DVD on a big screen, you know what I'm talking about. When upconverted with good algorithms, today's DVDs with a source resolution of 720 x 480 can look beautiful.

Your existing DVD collection will therefore look even *better* played on your HD-DVD player displayed on your HD projector than what you see now on your NTSC TV.

That's not exactly a reason, in itself, to suddenly get rid of all those discs.

As to purchasing the same titles over again, it would depend on how much of an improvement you see with the new HD-DVD titles (for those that are produced...probably not all will be availble in HD just like there's still plenty of films on VHS that you can't get on DVD).

If the improvement is negligable, then you don't replace your titles. If it's significant enought to make you wish you had the HD image, then you do what you want to do and replace them if you want.

How is having the opportunity to buy a movie in high-def a bad thing? If you're happy with your SD-DVD version, you get to keep it. If you feel the HD version is a worthwhile improvement, you get to buy it too. Sounds like a win-win situation.

There will be no "format war" because your standard definition DVD discs will play on your HD-DVD player and look spectacular in their own right. The "war" will be reduced to a simple choice that you, as a consumer, will be lucky to have.

-dave

 

[Brian Kidd]

David,

Are you absolutely sure that this will be the case? If so, YIPPEE!!! It's about time something like this happened in the Home Theater Industry.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I've been right about all my other DVD predictions. I don't see why this should be any different...especially considering the evolution of progressive-scan machines, HTPCs, and scalers.

You can bet that no manufacturer would make an HD-DVD player that wouldn't play a standard def DVD...and you can bet that at a MINIMUM that player would output a 480P signal for your HDTV.

Heck, even SACD players and DVD-A players play red-book CDs.

-dave