Remember when DVD first came out?

[g.k.]

Originally Posted by Jeff®

Cool. That must have been the A310. My 2nd gen Panasonic (Panasonic A110 - about $360) died after approximately one year. ;p

My first DVD player was the Panny A300, during the seven city DVD launch, but I returned it because it was terrible at scaling 16:9 DVDs for a 4:3 screen. I got the Sony DVP-S7000 when that came out, it was a great player, except it couldn't do DTS.

I sold that several years later for $500 or so, it was still in demand because it had region and macrovision defeat switches.

[Weez_Dawg]

I got my frist DVD player for $289 at walmart and that was the least expensive one out.

[Blu-Raider]

I paid $699 for my first (Toshiba) DVD player.

[mr2bob]

My first DVD player was a first gen Toshiba, about $500. OMG I can't believe I admitted to that. It was a piece of junk and keep freezing up all the time. Took a hammer to it long ago.

[Weez_Dawg]

Originally Posted by Weez_Dawg

I got my frist DVD player for $289 at walmart and that was the least expensive one out.

Oh yeah and my first DVD is the same as the first Blu-ray I got, Blazing Saddles!!

[GreenFlash06]

All I remember is being angry that we just dropped a whole lot of cash on a LaserDisc player and a few LDs. Then we bought a LD/DVD player. Which wasnt cheap either. Hey thanks for the memories.

[U4K61]

Got my first $599 Toshiba DVD player in Jan of 98, same price as my PS3. Its amazing what you get now over what was offered 10 years ago.

[Blu-Raider]

...and at $699 my dual-disc Toshiba was a good deal.

http://www.virtualmags.com.au/sofa/r...shiba_5200.htm

[Sport]

Purchased my Panasonic, with Dolby decoder, in 1996 for $500+. Back then the war was being fought between the DVD and the Circuit City/Disney backed DIVX formats. There were about 8 DVD movies out then. I got Eraser and Seven to start my 800+ DVD collection. Now have 51 BD. The kids get my DVDs that I am slowly replacing with their DB flavor.

[Blu_Ray_UK2007]

My first DVD player was a PS2 in 2001.
First DVDs were Pearl Harbour and Little Nicky.. there wasn't alot else avalible in local shops then, as with BD now. (Here anyways)

Didnt get a stand alone till 2003.. and that was region free a sony I think.
I must have had 10 or so players since.

I now use my PS3.

[Knight-Errant]

My first player was the Samsung 709 which later needed modding to play The Matrix
My first two discs were Armageddon, non flipper (first DVD I watched) and Blade.

Had a weird problem with colors where there'd be a kind of halo of blue around orange objects and an orange one around blue objects!

[Cordre69]

My first DVD Player was an RCA I got for $300. I gave it to my grandma when I got my PS2 so she wouldn't buy anymore VHS tapes. It still works too!
People forget about the price of new technology because it's typically so long between major upgrades. The debut of DVDs was so long ago that people have started to disbelieve VHS was ever around. Like dinosaurs. Anyone know what was out BEFORE VHS? I didn't think so. /sarcasm
Remember the price of SNES games? $60-80 was NORMAL. Games are just now getting back up to where they were in the 16-bit era, yet $60 then was actually a lot more than $60 is nowadays. I think people are just so used to bargain hunting, the internet, and commercials only showing the lowest prices available that they forget what MSRP even means.

[WickyWoo]

It seems like the DVD format changed the way we rent and buy movies. Back then, you wouldn't be able to buy just any movies on VHS. Only some movies, usually "blockbusters" like Jurassic Park, Ace Ventura, Star Wars and such. I always had to wait for used VHS tapes to go onto sale. But when DVD came out, you could buy pretty much any movies. I remember if you really wanted to get a copy of a movie on VHS but isn't available for sale, it would cost you upward of $90 or more. At least that's how it was in Canada.

During the rental window, they paid $80+ per tape, and would usually rent at $3 per day. Blockbuster pioneered the "buy in", where they paid basically studio cost for the tape, and split revenue. Independents use the RentTrak system to buy en masse like this.

Purchased my Panasonic, with Dolby decoder, in 1996 for $500+.

That would be a trick since DVD didn't launch until mid 97

[sj001]

My first was the PS2, I remember ordering it when it first came out and it was almost impossible to find. That was when people were selling it for upwards of $1000 on eBay. I ordered it from EBGames I think, it was in November of the year the PS2 launched. I remember I got a note that it wouldn't be coming until January, but then in mid-December, lo and behold, it was sitting on my doorstop.

I bought my first DVD a couple days later, after I got my JVC Dolby Digital receiver, and a Sony TV with S-Video connectors. I'm pretty sure it was Blade Runnerirector's Cut. I was just blown away by the quality, the picture was amazing, and to have precise surround sound at home was something I had never experienced before.

I remember DVDs were confined to single endcaps or little displays, and I touted this to all my friends and family, they all doubted me... but were proved wrong.

It looks like a repeat with Blu-ray...

[Kayne314]

Hell, My first VCR was about 500 bucks It was a Quasar. My first DVD Player was a JVC and it cost a cool $800.00

I still have the JVC, and it works fine. I haven't used it in years. I have a samsung 5 disc player I bought for $399. I haven't used it since I went High Def.

I also have a Samsung upscaler I bought for $150, just before I bought HD DVD. For the Dud I paid $300.

All told my VHS/DVD/DUD players cost me $2149.00, All of which still work and I barely, if ever, use.

$499 for my PS3 and $499 for my Panasonic BD30 seem pretty fair compared to that.

[kenichicorp]

First DVD = PS2 - AUD$799 on day of release!

First Blu-ray = PS3 60GB - AUD$999 on day of release!

I remember when my dad first bought a LD player, it was a Pioneer (can't remember the model) and it was AUD$1400.

At the same time DVD was just announced and was the next big thing! Not long after the LD was no longer used and sat around collating dust!

[Zaphod]

I remember my parents getting their first generation mainstream CE CD player for like $1200 US.

I also remember getting my first laserdisc player and DVD player and also remember the fight at the time with Divix as well.

I remember when I was a senior in high school I had a HT set up in my room with a 32" Sony Trinitron TV, Pioneer LD player, Onkyo's first THX certified receiver the TX-SV828THX with the ED-901 AC-3 decoder (which I waited years for since Onkyo kept delaying it after they promised it shortly after the launch of the receiver), with Infinity fronts and center channel, velodyne sub and Celestion rears, all this in a 12 foot by 10 foot room.

The Onkyo receiver cost $2499 new from Circuit City, the ED-901 was $699 from Circuit City and I don't remember the prices on the rest.

Ahhh...those were the days...

[jdub905]

i know my first dvd player was a used PS2 and i think my first dvd was Austin Powers Spy Who shagged me and Sleepy Hollow

[JackStraw]

This might be a stretch: When the DVD vs. LD wars first started up, did anyone here ever frequent alt.binaries.laserdisc and alt.binaries.dvd newsgroups? I used to post on both and while the posts never reached the level of immaturity that AVS did, there were still some pretty fierce battles on those groups. I was even able to bring up my old posts from the 90's on google.

It was around that time, too, that I lost complete respect for Widescreen Review. In the issue with the Mars Attacks cover, they did a huge section on DVD. WR was still huge in backing laserdisc and I still hadn't made the switch from LD to DVD at the time. I kept the issue. I'd have to see how many pages it was but it was pretty huge and it was page after page after page of FUD. Some of the claims that they made were beyond insane, right down to DVD's being made where they were going to be "timed" to oxidize. They lent more credence to why DIVX would be more of a successor. I don't think much of what they said came true. That entire article kept me away from DVD until a little research showed that the benefits of DVD outweight LD, not to mention the writing was on the wall that LD was going to go away before long.

I'll have to dig it out and post some of the points they made.

[WickyWoo]

Rob Burnett, who is now a respected DVD producer made a film called "Free Enterprise", possibly the only film in history where the main characters go LD shopping. In an interview with Widescreen Review he said that with how he felt at the time, they purposely framed out the DVD signs in LaserBlazer's window

It was around that time, too, that I lost complete respect for Widescreen Review. In the issue with the Mars Attacks cover, they did a huge section on DVD. WR was still huge in backing laserdisc and I still hadn't made the switch from LD to DVD at the time. I kept the issue. I'd have to see how many pages it was but it was pretty huge and it was page after page after page of FUD.

I think it's worthwhile to note that while his calibration discs are excellent, Joe Kane was quite the red ant as well.