In many ways we've all been duped into thinking DVDs are the next big thing and videos are obsolete.
For something like the Simpsons where you want to stop and start, vidos are better. You think, ah I'll watch a simpsons, you put the DVD in, you watch the startup stuff for 30 seconds then it gives you the selection menu, you select 'select episode' then think which episode you were up to in your fifth rewatching of the DVD select that episode and then watch it.
With a video - you just put it in the machine and it carries on playing from wherever you got up to last time.
DVDs are great if you want to pick and choose where you want to watch from eg a music concert, you can just pick the song you want to watch from the menu, but for stop/start stuff like the Simspons, South Park, comedy videos eg an hour long Ben Elton routine - I think videos are better.
Cartoon Quote- "Now one close call would be enough to send a smart guy runnin', but Daggett never had the sense the good lord gave an onion" (Angry Beavers: "The Legend of Kid Friendly").
I didn't know that, I've had my DVD a while now. So if I was halfway through a particular episode a month ago, but then stopped it and put it back on my shelf. If I now pick it up again and put it in the player, will it remember where I'm up to? Even though I may have watched about ten different DVD's in the meantime??
I still think DVDs are a rip off, case in point Simpson series �39.99 at xmas, �19.99 now!! LOTR video �3.99 now. Still if cosumers are totally hooked on DVDs then I can't blame the sellers for trying to bleed us dry.
I must confess I also have hundreds of DVDs but am beginning to wonder whats so great about them.
"Death Blow" wrote in message news:1gbroqm.lukh3c1a9a2pgN%[email]...
But one reason video prices are so low is because people have moved onto DVDs.
I look at some of the titles, and their prices are so low that I am almost tempted to buy a VCR at this late a date.
But surely the low prices are because far fewer are buying them. I suspect their time is limited, because DVDs are so much more convenient.
Note that switching over to DVDs does not mean people have to dump their video collection or VCRs. They can simply decide to buy in the new medium when appropriate or from now on.
I've only had a DVD player since late September. And apart from joining the Columba House DVD club (so I could get the enrollment "freebies"; I've now fulfilled after only two full price selections, and I can now quit and rejoin), the only DVDs I've bought have been ten dollars or under. Considering I can't see a first run movie for that little, and it's now hard to buy a paperback book for less, I wouldn't say that price is too high. And surprisingly, they aren't junk titles (like films that lasted a week in 1985). Things like "The Great Escape" (as parodied in the episode where Maggie goes to daycare), and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World". This week, one store has the same line down to 2 for the price of one, and they've already dropped the price from $9.99 to $8.99 so I paid six dollars each for the three I bought on the weekend.
[Moving the text Neil's responding to up where it belongs.]
It depends on your player. My Sony 705 remembers the last 40 discs I've interrupted in the middle, so for it, sure. I've found discs I haven't watched for months still end up playing the closing credits when I play them again. Cheaper players may have a smaller memory (I think the cheapest Sonys remembers the last 5 discs or so), that's still only discs stopped in the middle.
A few discs (Disney, in particular), have an awful number of ads I must skip before reaching the main menu. Some VHS manufacturers had the same habit, so there's nothing particular about DVD here. However, with the memory function, after I'd finished watching the movie, I could immediately jump back to the beginning by pressing "1", and stop it there. The next time I started it up again, that's where it would start.
Surely there's nothing particular about DVDs here either? *All* industries squeeze as much money as they can out of customers during Christmas season -- especially hot products. VHS certainly did. Not so much any more, simply because they're on their way out. If you want to save money, wait.
I recently saw the VHS version of Fellowship of the Rings included for free with five blank VHS tapes. :-) They are cheap because the market is shrinking. I think VHS in fact is more expensive to produce, because they require large machines to record the tape from beginning to end while threading them in their cassettes, while DVDs can be pressed in one quick operation. You could argue that DVDs are a rip-off for that reason, but there's no way they could have gotten away with making VHS more expensive at its low quality. I doubt that VHS is very cost- effective at its current prices.
I wonder if Star Wars Episode III will be out on VHS at all.
While I wonder how anyone could feel that VHS is better. Clearly, you have an old DVD player without the memory function, but I'd think even the chapter selection would overcome the minor disadvantage of not having the disc start up where you left off, when you add in the improved quality and all the extras. A VHS deteriorates noticeably after only a few viewings.
And Simpsons? I'd think that a TV series with many episodes per disc was *especially* suited to DVD. If you want to watch one particular episode, you can immediately find it in the menu. For VHS, continuing where you left off is all you *can* do. Otherwise, you have to search backwards and forwards to find out where it begins.
I can only assume that you've grown into particular viewing habits from watching VHS for a long time, and you're trying to fit DVD into the same habits.
Well, they have a high "Hype-factor" but the look good in the collection. Can't blame people for charging a high price either whet people buy. It is supply and demand. fear enough.
Oh, I think -so-. A little thing called Chapter Breaks, for starters.
Jon-
Cartoon Quote- "Now one close call would be enough to send a smart guy runnin', but Daggett never had the sense the good lord gave an onion" (Angry Beavers: "The Legend of Kid Friendly").
It can, with the right equipment. I have that functionality with my HTPC (home theater PC) using the software DVD player Theatertek. Theatertek prompts you to resume (if you enable the option) from the last point you were watching when you insert a new DVD. Works like a charm.
Most people don't watch shows or movies for detail. They aren't compulsive about getting every fine detail, rewinding and playing through same segments numerous times in order to catch nearly invisible background bits.
I've never had a VCR. The fact that they are tape means you risk killing the tape, either through wear or when the VCR acts up and eats the tape. The advantage of a VCR is that one can record on it; that was a big factor originally, and now it's still cheaper than a DVD recorder. I'm tempted to buy a VCR now, when they are at the end of most of their life cycle, because it would be nice to tape that late night movie instead of staying up and watching it.
But I did get a DVD player last fall. One reason was how impressed I am with CDs, none of the finicky adjustment to get to a given track (as on a cassette), but easy to skip around (unlike on a turntable) and each playing will not wear out the medium just a tiny bit more each time it's played.
It is great. And if you're doing all kinds of rewinding, then this is better since the wear will be on the player, not the medium. Your fuss over not knowing where you left off is fairly bogus, since the DVD player provides a very good indication of where in the DVD you are, and it's not difficult to write that down, if needed. And unlike a video cassette, this is an absolute figure. If someone else watches in between your viewings, you aren't stuck with a tape counter reading that means nothing, or the expectation that the tape will be in the same place as you left it.
"Michael Black" wrote in message news:c4pf7d$eec$[email]...
it's played.
I haven't done it with a DVD, but I have played CDs so many times that they no longer work. An ex-girlfriend of mine fell asleep while her CD player was on "repeat" for a certain track. In the morning the track simply wouldn't play (in that CD player or any other).
"Nitesbane" wrote in message news:9sZbc.10754$[email]...
they
Sounds strange to me, In college my roommate and I played comfortably numb the entire 10 days of finals. CD still plays great today, as it did for 240 hours non-stop way back when.
It started out as a dare that went horribly wrong. People would stop by at all hours to see if it was still playing. We couldn't turn it down below 2 or so, so yes, you could easily hear it the whole time.
what about dvd lag? how it jerks between chapters sometimes? and sometimes mine will decide to skip 5 seconds here or there, no reason in particular. the sound and picture quality make it all worthwhile though, and the zoom function certainly did the hard yards in that final scene of resident evil
one annoying thing about DVDs is how they sometimes show clips from the film or tv show whilst you're navigating the menu. you then get sick of those few seconds and it just annoys you when they come up in the episode/part of the film they're in. a DVD i have ruins some really good jokes that way.
your argument is terrible. what if you want to skip an episode? sure a DVD takes more time to load, but those 60 seconds (max) of annoyance at the start is more than made up for by the fact that you can access any part of any episode instantly. i mean, can you imagine? what if you wanted to watch the last episode in the tape? or couldn't remember a song at a certain point in an episode? with tapes, you'd be nailed.
I like both......VHS is good for recording the weekly shows on TV that you might miss and DVD's are good for watching on trips and easy to carry around. TiVo is nice but you can't bring that recording to your friends house or let someone borrow it like you can VHS.
In alt.tv.simpsons on Wed, 7 Apr 2004, Jon Barry wrote :
Recording DVD players are coming down in price too, but I suspect many people are delaying buying one because of what happened with the old VHS/Betamax fiasco.