when dvd first came to be...

[Chevypower]

I had Laserdisc also. My LD player didn't even have S-Video out, i know some of them did. Friends admired the quality though on the family Trinitron. If you wanted real quality you would buy the CAV discs which held 30 mins per side, and if you wanted less intervals, CLV with 60 mins was just fine, but you couldnt freeze frame an image, pausing the movie took the image off the screen. In the mid 1990s, you could start buying AC3 encoded Laserdiscs and players which would automatically change sides, then soon there was talk of putting movies on CD sized discs. One idea was a stacker system which would seamlessly change discs for uninterupted viewing. Then in 1997, I read about DVDs. They were to become mainstream, cheaper than LDs with no changing sides. I knew they were going to take off, they got so much attention, I sold my Laserdisc player and movies, and bought my first DVD movie in 1999 (I wasnt in any real hurry). I am kind of the same with Blu Ray... just taking it slow, but getting there... Been down this familiar road before.

[WickyWoo]

As stated above, most people back then assumed that a video format had to record. It's probably why LaserDisc did not take off as a mass market item. DVD was in the same position. People used to give you a funny look if you said it didn't record.

DVRs came about and replaced VHS for the people who cared about timeshifting. No tapes to change, set it and forget it.

LD didn't take off because it was majorly expensive to manufacture ($6-8 a disc), you had to flip the disc at least once an hour (once every half hour if you wanted the best quality)

The quality and the features like random access quickly won people over.

Settop recorder have never taken off in America, and probably for them to ever do so, they need to interface with your DVR for direct burning (that's why there's Tivo-DVD-R combos) that you can rent from the cable company

[jw]

So do you guys remember the first DVD you prurchased?
Mine was A Bug's Life from CC, still have it.(The RCA Divx player has since died though) bought it with one of those discontinued Divx players from CC for 250.00. DVD at that time was a definite improvement over VHS. I think the Divx discs were .99 at that time just so CC could get rid of them. I dont ever recall buying any as they were disposable and with the format dying, I wasnt sure they would work

[Chevypower]

First Laserdisc i bought was Robocop 3 (Lack of choice, i was desperate to get something after getting a player, it was the first one i saw that i didn't mind owning)
First DVD: The Wedding Singer
First Blu Ray: Ratatouille

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

So do you guys remember the first DVD you prurchased?
Mine was A Bug's Life from CC, still have it.(The RCA Divx player has since died though) bought it with one of those discontinued Divx players from CC for 250.00. DVD at that time was a definite improvement over VHS. I think the Divx discs were .99 at that time just so CC could get rid of them. I dont ever recall buying any as they were disposable and with the format dying, I wasnt sure they would work

My first DVD purchase consisted of 'Blade' and 'The Matrix'. I believe that I watched 'The Matrix' first though.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

... I actually think on higher quality DVDs, the Jump from VHS to DVD is even GREATER than that of DVD to Blu...... again, I'll get persecuted for saying that, but a lot of people here probably can't remember the last time they watched a VHS Cassette.

I popped in a VHS or two in recent weeks to copy stuff to dvd. VHS is about half, or a little less, in terms of quality from DVD. And that is simply based on lines of resolution. Compared to a 10Mbit DVD, VHS sucks like a toothless monkey on a frozen bannana.

When I first played a DVD on my TV via coaxial cable, I couldn't believe it was the same TV because the picture was so good.

Blu-ray is not only 6x the picture information we get over SD DVD, the bit rate is 3 to 4 times higher. Anyone who can't see the difference needs a side by side comparison.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

My first DVD purchase consisted of 'Blade' and 'The Matrix'. I believe that I watched 'The Matrix' first though.

I know I got Blade, and Matrix "early" in my transistion to DVD, but I don't know what the "FIRST" was..... I know I got those and thought the Picture was BEAUTIFUL. And the only reason I got them. I still have those original versions as well.... purchased late 1996, early 1997

And I still have the DVD player I bought at that time too.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by tron3

I popped in a VHS or two in recent weeks to copy stuff to dvd. VHS is about half, or a little less, in terms of quality from DVD. And that is simply based on lines of resolution. Campared to a 10Mbit DVD, VHS sucks like a toothless monkey on a frozen bannana.

Blu-ray is not only 6x the picture information we get over SD DVD, the bit rate is 3 to 4 times higher. Anyone who can't see the difference needs a side by side comparison.

I'm not saying DVD-to-Blu isn't a big jump, I'm just saying VHS-DVD is a BIGGER jump. (based on video only.... Audio with Blu is King.)

[TheTenth]

I don't think the PQ/AQ of DVD was that much better than VHS (with a good player, that is). The first images I saw in stores had pixellisation, over the top contrast and dripping colors. The VHS was from the start used for recording TV, it's not common place now for DVD. The big change was ease of use, smaller packaging, no more tape getting stuck inside the player ... and possible longer duration in time (I still have old VHS that work fine).

I've had a Laserdisc player, mostly for Anime, but I have some LDs which already had special features. The PQ/AQ was much better than DVD, I'm happy to say goodbye to DVD.

[Krandor]

I remember when DVDs started to come out and while there was improved picture quality, but ease of use of a disc format was one of the huge innovations with DVD.

You pressed a button and you were back at the beginning of a show. You can easily pull of a menu and go right to where you wanted to be. I remember in the VHS days the rental stores charging you extra if you didn't rewind the tape. I even bought a rewinder so I could just pop a tape in there and start watching something new.

Those ease of use factors - smaller size, quickly jump from place to palce on the disc, ability to add extras were one of the huge things that helped with DVD adoption.

[johnnymech]

When DVD was first introduced, people could see it was a big step away from VHS. DVD is an optical disc where VHS is bulky tape. You don't have to rewind a DVD, and the menus and chapters on DVD are convenient. The quality issue was almost not as important to some people.

It's going to be harder for some people to move from one optical disc to another. I hear a lot of people say that DVD is good enough, but I've never said that.

[SomethingForKate]

I remember reading all about this new-fangled DVD format that was coming to market after it was showcased at CES back in Jan 1996 - it must have done the circuit before that, but that's when I caught on.

I was an electronics student at uni and wrote a paper on consumer electronics and home entertainment, showing off a CD of R.E.M.'s New Adventures In Hi-Fi as that at the time was the closet I was getting to a DVD (It was a shiney silver 12cm disc with nothing printed on either side)

But as an owner of 1000+ VHS cassettes, the jump to DVD was HUGE! I bought my first DVD player in 1999 and haven't looked back. For the first time you could get real 5.1 sound and sharp picture that didn't degrade with each play on an affordable and reasonably-sized format.

Comparing DVD to VHS:
- DVDs aren't affected by magnatism
- You don't have to rewind DVDs
- DVDs take up less shelf space
- DVDs have a longer lifespan than VHS
- DVDs contain bonus features and extended/multiple versions of a movie on 1 disc
- DVDs are cheaper to produce and so can be cheaper in stores

Many of these sorts of technological leaps just are present when comparing DVD to Blu.

Personally, I'm all about the Blu and it's clear just what a significant improvement over DVD it is. But I really think VHS to DVD was a bigger leap than DVD to BD.

SFK

[hardcore_canadian]

Pretty sure this is what everybody is saying, but, I think that the step to DVD is the biggest jump in video history

[jw]

Vhs officially died in 2006, there was another thread about that, yesterday