Upgrading to DVD / was: Re: Of all the time-travelling stories on the show....

[MagnusTrask]

It takes all kinds. I can't really sit in judgement of someone else's purchases when I'm looking at over 1000 episodes of a 40 year old soap opera on my shelf...

My original post was misunderstood.    It wasn't about DVDs and was only critical of companies having a shallowing effect on the culture as a whole, by overwhelming it with ... i can't keep this up, bec. of eyes.   i know the discussion has moved on, but i wasn't criticizing buying dvd's.   

[Phil]

No offense meant, I was replying to the whole thread.  

[Brandon Collins]

You know, Housefly Cameo has a point about the 1000 episodes of a 40 yr old TV show thing. lol. That is so true.

I just was looking for some insight as to why people replace their videos with DVDs. Thanks for the insight. I'm still not sure I'd do it unless it was a movie I REALLY loved, but to each their own.

[Phil]

I'm a movie nut, and I really enjoy a good, packed to the gills DVD. If there is a decent "making of" feature, and a commentary track by the filmmakers, I can spend 3 or 4 days with a movie I love. It's a more engaging experience than a regular ol' VHS.  And in the case of some films, the film transfer is surprisingly updated. 

[Brian]

I started buying DVDs in January 2001, when I tore up my Blockbuster rental card in front of the clerk because he wouldn't credit me for a defective VHS tape! and I have never looked back.  DVD is so much cleaner, brighter, etc....and with movies mastered as anamorphic (16x9) widescreen in 5.1 sound...wow!!  Even the DS DVDs look so much better than the old VHS tapes.  I'm now on my 4th DVD player, which upconverts to near HD quality for my widescreen plasma HD TV...  All I can say is this:  if you have good eyesight and good hearing, then you WILL appreciate the increase in quality.  Trust me, I thought my mid--okay: late!-40s eyes, with tri-focal glasses, would never be able to tell the difference between the old standard def TV and video and the newer HD and such...but I can.  I have not been disappointed, and you won't be either.  (BTW--DS looks pretty darned good when zoomed to fill the 16x9 screen).

[Lydia]

A good thing about most DVDs, which does not apply to the Dark Shadows DVDs, is dubbing and subtitles.  I enjoyed Gosford Park and The Full Monty much more with English subtitles, and French dubbing and subtitles on several movies have certainly improved my knowledge of the French vernacular.  Alas, however:  Working Girl has French dubbing but not subtitles, and my listening comprehension is not good enough for me to get what the French for "bony ass" is.

[Raineypark]

  I enjoyed Gosford Park and The Full Monty much more with English subtitles

Luciaphil and I once had a hilarious conversation about how useful closed captioning was when watching "Gosford Park".....

[Phil]

And now the downside - I just got collection 10 in the mail. As usual, a couple of the discs were rattling around inside the box. I think they might be scratched, but I'm still on collection 6, so it'll be a while before I get to those discs, and I don't want to hump ahead. I wonder if MPI will replace just the scratched ones...?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If they're only slightly scratched, they should still play fine. That's one of the advantages of DVD - they have to be REALLY scratched up before they're unplayable.    And even at that, there's stuff available to repair the scratches. 

[michael c]

sometimes when i look at the massive,unwieldy pile of d.s. tapes i have(episode one through the start of the quentin hauntings before i switched to dvd)i think i should sell them and upgrade my entire collection to the dvd format.

but in the end i just can't justify that expense.

i do plan to purchase the first year dvds when they become available because i'm missing some episodes there.

[Brandon Collins]

Yea my Uncle is into DS and has a whole box full of those DS tapes. The only reason I could see to upgrade them would be so the tapes don't wear out and then you can't watch it anymore, but more than likely by the time they wear out, the DVDs will be a lot cheaper. Well, hopefully.

[Gothick]

The added clarity and richness of the DVDs is an allure, but I have to confess that the main reason why I am slowly switching my collection over to disc is SPACE.  I have nearly all of 1968 on DVD now and the little boxes take up a little over a linear foot of shelf space, as opposed to a couple of rows of shelves which was the case previously.

For various reasons I have to move around a lot so space is a definite consideration here.

I do advise the person whose discs were loose to "test drive" each of the discs.  I always do that when a new box arrives.  By test drive I mean put the disc in the player, make sure the menu comes up, and check a couple of scenes in a couple of shows.

G.

[BuzzH]

the main reason why I am slowly switching my collection over to disc is SPACE.

Yep, me too!  I used to live in a VERY small, cramped walk-up and it was cluttered to the max w/stuff.  I now live in a two-story duplex (like a townhouse) and do NOT want it to become cluttered like the walk-up.  So I've started to find ways to have all the stuff I REALLY need or want w/out cluttering up the place.  One way is to convert VHS to DVD and put bookshelves into walk-in closets! 

One plus for me regarding the DS DVD's is when MPI was releasing them to tape I was in college full time and couldn't afford to buy them.  Now I'm REALLY glad I couldn't 'cause I can get them on DVD instead! 

[Alondra]

I just was looking for some insight as to why people replace their videos with DVDs. Thanks for the insight. I'm still not sure I'd do it unless it was a movie I REALLY loved, but to each their own.

I have now got the DS DVD's and the quality is much better than the videos and there are a lot of advantages with them. There are 10 episodes per disc instead of 5 per video. If you only want to watch a specific episode you can choose it on the menu rather than having to watch two or three to get to the one you want to see. They do take up much less space. I had about 70 or so of the videos (out of 200 regular series + 54 collector's series videos) and the 26 box set DVD collections take up probably less than 1/4 of the space of those 70 videos.

But I will not be upgrading my entire video collection to DVD, only as I can a few of the movies I watch the most often like Gone with the Wind and Pride and Prejudice 1995 version, which I have in 6 videos. The reason for that of course is cost.

The problem is the market is forcing everyone to upgrade whether they want to or not. You can't even find VCR's or videos in stores anymore. Everything is DVD. It's the same with music, everything now is CD rather than cassette. If you choose to keep your videos, that's fine but there may come a day when your VCR breaks down and you won't be able to play them any longer unless you're able to find another VCR. I think it's pretty sad that this is the case, and it's all so they can make more money as people buy the same movies on DVD as they bought on video a few years ago. That's fine if you have the money for it.

Of course someday something else will replace the DVD and we'll be forced to upgrade again.

Alondra