Brett, the problem is that DVD can not only get better. It can get much, much worse. The cost of production is dropping steadily and it won't be long before the market is flooded with thousands of crappy discs. I've got nothing against putting crappy movies on disc, but do a good job with what you've got!

If the major players- with big budgets and huge expected sales- can't get their act together, what hope do we have that anyone else will? They need to be held to a high standard to encourage all these smaller emerging players.

Trust me. Things can (and likely will) get much worse.

ab

Net-net I think DVD is a good thing for all of the aforementioned reasons. Sure it can always improve and without a doubt is not being used to its maximum potential by creators/owners of content.

Separately, on the Betamax issue, while it came before VHS and was arguably technically superior, its failure was due to the fact that initially it could only record one hour worth of video vs. two hours for VHS. That gave VHS the backing of Hollywood studios (movies are typically 2 hours long) and its eventual success over Betamax.

And "Video2000" was better than both of them.

I don't understand your statement. How does a protection scheme slow you down? Only if you try to copy them (there are two forms of copy protection on major label DVDs). Many do not have protection.

You long for VHS. After viewing your VHS 10 times your picture quality and sound quality will fade into a jittery mush.



I personally don't really cream for extras. Some commentaries are fascinating. But if you don't like them.. no one is forcing you to watch them. Just buy it for the movie.


Some menus are annoying. Yep. How about this. If you want to watch a specific scene it can take a few minute to FF or REW. DVD you can skip to anywhere on the disc in a second -without- ruining or degrading the media.


These are just added features to the DVD protocol. You consider Pan&Scan an advancement?


A moronic comment. DVD has a specification that all Players and DVDs must adhere too. I have old players, I have new players. I have first generation DVDs, and new ones. Although some have quirks because of bad mastering. A spec is a spec. It's like saying that my CD player sucks because the new CDs use a different technology. Whatever.



Studios are there to make money. Some are ridiculous like the tons of versions of the Evil Dead series etc.



Are you for real?

I'd just like to know if the 3 people who just commented on this ever bothered to read the date? I don't understand how you can be yelling at a guy on a thread that's more than a year old. But that's just me.

Anyway, Malata 996/520 DVDp is an answer to some of this. Plays all discs, gets by the RCE security as if it was never written, translates back and forth between PAL and NTSC discs, essentially infinite zoom, XY scaling that no other player has, progressive capability, very good interlaced output, and on some discs the ability to skip over the FBI warnings.

Odd. I thought I was making a contemporary observation about the merits Video2000, not the qualites (whether they suck or not) of DVD.

I'm confused. I have had a couple different players, (entry level Sony, then Panasonic progressive scan) and have had no problems.

The other thing that confuses me is why no one has mentioned the benefits of the picture quality of DVD. VHS is only rated at 240 lines of resolution, DVD is double that and if you have a decent display device (I recommend Pioneer Elite for rear projection and Runco for front projection).

Digital sound, six discrete channels as opposed to four non-discrete channels. If you think this is no big deal try watching a movie sometime with your center channel unhooked!!

Have you seen the quality of some of the remasters!! I just picked up "Speed", big difference!! Have you seen the DVD version of "Conan the Barbarian", WOW!! You can't get that anywhere else.

DVD isn't perfect, I realize that, but very little in the consumer electronics industry is, there are always trade-offs, but until something better comes along, enjoy the picture and sound quality DVD offers, corny as it sounds it is unsurpassed by any other format.

Having lived with my fairly extensive DVD collection (I buy, not rent), I had to rent a few when my mom got a DVD player and I was visiting. Jeesh! What do these people use these DVDs for? Freesbees? Doggy toys? Marital spat weapons? 3 out of 5 had skipping problems due to lacerations ...

Other than that, I'm happy if I get a good anamorphic transfer with good 5.1 sound, anything else is reason to celebrate. Having watched several hundred through Sony DVP-7700 and DVP-9000ES players, I haven't had any format problems other than a few defective pressings.

Could they be better? Absolutely. The bottom line will always drive any mass market technology. But every time I play a DVD I thank God profusely it isn't a VHS tape.

And yes, greed, greed, greed ... when will they learn?

Cheers,

DJ

HEY BSCHULER, WHEN WAS LAST TIME YOU LOADED YOUR VIDEO TAPE IN THE COMPUTER TO GET EXTRA MATERIALS OR THE SCRIPT TO SCREEN FEATURE?I HAVE FUN LOOKING THROUGH THE MENUS AND FINDING EASTER EGGS. DONT BLAME THE FORMAT BLAME CANADA(OOPS,HOLLYWOOD) BY THE WAY DOES YOUR THUMB HURT WHEN YOU FAST FWD THROUGH YOU TAPES?

I saw that you mentioned Nuon... perhaps you don't understand exactly what it is. Nuon was developed AFTER DVD-Video was standardized. It was not created by the DVD Consortium, but by another company that thought... "Hey, we can make a player that does all DVD does, plus more." They marketed it themselves, so the fact that Nuon DVDs don't work in non Nuon players has nothing to do with the DVD standard, but the fact that it contains information specifically for Nuon players. It's like an extra that the DVD studio put in. They thought it was cool and they wanted to try it out. Consider Nuon to be the SACD of DVD... different technology.

As to incompatibilities with DVDs from player to player, that has nothing to do with emerging technology either (with the exception of Superbit... which aren't standardized either). Perhaps you need to look further into the nature of DVD. DVD-Video, in and of itself has been a standard since the beginning. There have been NO new additions to the standard. All players are supposed to work with all of the standard features availble for DVD. The reason that some do not is because of the player itself. When the first DVD players came onto the market, there was nothing to test them with. No one was using multi-angles, or animated menu's or such. Because of this, the manufacturers of the players didn't test to see if these features performed flawlessly. It is the fault of the manufacturer, not the DVD standard that incompatibilities exist within you DVD player. You could look into a firmware upgrade that could solve many of these issues. It may even be free.

If you are looking for more info on DVDs, I highly suggest checking out the following site.

[Link: dvddemystified.com]

I'm just going to quote myself since it applies again.

I agree with most of what is being discussed & I had a LOT of problems mentioned here but lost just about every single one of them after dumping my Pioneer 404 & replacing it with the Toshiba 5700. Further, the Tech at the AV HT store tells me a lot of the DVD players sold are out of adjustment & need to be reset.

Dougofthenorth (RX-V1 replaced by the RX-Z1!!)

RU? I have to agree with spikey, it's intersting to pose an actual question and criticism to a poster who is probably producing the quality DVDs that have kept this type of discussion at bay for a year.

DVDs have potentailly really nice stuff, but in the hands of folks making a dollar while saving a nickle: they'll happily skimp on bonuses in one version to do one better in another.

What I don't understand, however, is how "Apocalyspe Now: Redux" or the "Blade Runner: Directors Cut" can't be more like "T2: Ultimate Edition". How do they justify removing the actual theatrical release in lew of extras. That's my biggest gripe. And otherwise, if the production companies want to save money on the consistency of production values and content on their DVDs it's up to the consumers to keep them in check by not buying junk.

No shit. Of course I am. It was a rhetorical sarcastic question. Get it?


True, but this usually applies to independent or bootleg DVD producers. The equipment the major studios use is pretty darn impressive and will always beat the transfer of independent studios with lesser quality equipment.


Absolutely wrong. The T2: UE CONTAINS all THREE VERSIONS OF THE MOVIE. Theatrical, Director's, and obscenely long version of the move. You have to play remote gymnastics to get the long version to show up as an option.

I think that's his point - titles like Blade Runner do not include the original version.

In fairness to Blade Runner - it was one of the first DVDs produced, and the use of the technology has come a long way since then.

Also in defense of Blade Runner being a Director's Cut only - the theatrical release was changed against the director's wishes, and so it's one of very few titles where the term "director's cut" actually means something beyond "here's more footage".

Supposedly, a new Blade Runner release is in the works, and it's likely that both versions will be included.