DVD's

I was the same way when I bought my DVD player in my PC. I went out and bought like 5 in the first week. However, funding dried up and I've only bought like 5 since then, but don't think I am not walking through the DVD section, picking out titles I'll buy when I actually get a job and get some cash.

They are addictive -- I LOVE the surround sound

 

Once you start laughing at "animated menus" being called a special feature, you know your in too deep. With no regrets I am one of the former.

 

anyone know if the new special edition DVD of Dogma is worth getting to replace my old one? it says it has over an hour of outtakes and deleted scenes but it only has widescreen and i prefer standard version.

 

I bought a DVD player(Toshiba SD-3006) and new DD 5.1 receiver(Pioneer VSX-D606s) back when players just came out and 5.1 receivers became affordable at around $800 . I still have both today and they work as good as ever. In the beginning, you couldn't rent DVDs.....so I bought maybe 50 to build up a collection of something I could watch. One of the first DVDs was "Blade Runner" but it's only Dolby Pro-Logic and not 5.1 . There weren't maybe more than 30 DVDs or so available when I started.

Now, however, I never buy DVDs. The DVD is superior quality and sound but it still is just what it is....a movie. You see it once, maybe twice, and then what? You test out the DVDs to see if they will suffer the wrath of DVD rot(which some early DVDs had this problem) while they collect dust somewhere close by. Sure, it's okay to watch one at some point later but one could just as easily rent. So, I rent from Netflix over the web. Since I pay $20 a month, I could buy a DVD every month instead but then I would just be stuck with it. Granted, some titles we just like to have around but I can't justify buying DVDs that collect dust and are rarely played after first viewing again. I should dump my current collection as I can never watch any of them again as it stands now. It's sad....each maybe got one or two viewings only.

And, what's going to happen is HDTV will take off in a few years and HD-DVD will begin appearing with far superior viewing quality probably at 1080i resolution. Of course, the damn movie studios will probably do everything they can to prevent this from happening. It will be like starting all over again with just a few titles until support builds. At the rate HDTV is being adopted due to still high prices(sort of) and slow rollout, I don't fear this happening in the next 5 years. But, at some point, you may have to replace your older copy of a movie title with that HD DVD superior equivalent...thus, buying the movie twice. Of course, that is what the studios want you to do.

To think, I probably bought one of the first 1,000 DVD players ever sold(okay, so that number may be low...who knows? it wasn't many).

What is great about DVD now is you can buy/rent for a good price upon release(which I have heard they are trying to change to match the VHS rental/sell-through model) whereas VHS...you cannot buy a cheap, normally priced VHS new release. It's like if you lose a new release rental of something rented from Blockbuster and it ends up costing you $85 to pay for it when it's really no more than $20. It has to go through that rental period before the price is lowered to buy the movie. Buy the movies at normal pricing while you can because they are pushing to change it to match the VHS rip-off model and it will probably happen.

Surf

 

I bought my PS2 at the beginning of JUne and I already have 22 DVD's. I joined Columbia House. Since my truck is in the shop, I haven't been able to buy any.

You're right, it is addictive. I never owned a vhs tape, but I also don't regret buying a dvd.

Oh, I only have one video game for my PS2, LOL.

 

FYI - If you check out "Technology Review" (MIT's magazine) for August, they publish the descramble code on page 26 which allows DVD's to be copied. Of course you need a DVD writer on your PC. I am sure there are a few sites where you can simply download.

 

DVD is actually a buyer's medium and not a renters one, Surfguy. One reason is the cheap initial cost (no rental windows as you mentioned, although some studios are definitely trying to push those).

Another reason is the suppliments available on the DVD's. The DVD's are not just the movie, they are the movie, the deleted scenes, the commentary, the making of, the... Many DVD's simply can not be digested fully in the abbreviated rental time frame.

Additionally, the quality of the presentation (which can exceed some movie theaters) combined with the cost and supposed long life of the medium makes it very feasible to buy instead of rent. You can usually purchase the film for less than it costs to take two people to the theater for one showing.

Just my .02

Anyway, Outlaw, the new Dogma is a definite step up from the old. Tons of suppliments and the cast commentary, while not quite up the great standards of some other Smith films, is brilliant.

The fact it only comes in the widescreen version shouldn't deter you. I'm not going to go in full preach mode, but you should try and embrace the film the way it was shot (widescreen) and not the way it is chopped up and destroyed (standard/pan and scan) so you can get the full movie the way it was intended.

 

well the original Dogma has both widescreen and pan-and-scan, as most of the first set of DVDs did. I like to have the choice.

Widescreen is fine on my 36 inch TV in the living room but it looks crappy on my 20 inch TV in the bedroom. I wish the studios would go back to the double-sided discs with both presentations.

Regardless, thanks for your input on the new edition.

 

I got the PS2 when it came out, rented some DVD's. There is no way I can look at VHS anymore but I have yet to buy a DVD, renting satisfies me. I can't imagine watching the same movie more than twice. Now a Seinfeld/Simpsons/Frasier box set or best of Conan O'Brien is something I would buy. Not many good music DVD's either, where is Nirvana or Soundgarden?

 

On a slightly different tack...

I am just about to get a laptopupgrade at work and the new one has, you guessed it, a DVD player. This is particularly nice for me because I spend a LOT of time overseas in remote, isolated locations - perfect for curling up in a bunk to watch a DVD.

I don't really want to buy heaps of DVDs, I'd rather be able to rent them medium term - like for 2 weeks. Anyone know anywhere you can do that, where a 2 week rental is less than purchase price? Maybe even a DVD library or swap?

 

davo, look into netflix (I think it's netflix.com). You pay a monthly fee and there are no "due dates". You keep the film until you're done with it and then can return it for another film (I think you can have 2-3 out at one time, but not sure what the actual limit is).

 

Showgirls is $8.99 at Best Buy. I had to leave the DVD section to avoid the embarassment of bringing the worst film ever made up to the counter to buy it.

Some good cheap DVD's I've bought recently are Replacement Killers, The Big Hit, Basic Instinct, and Can't Hardly Wait- all $9.99. Check your local blockbuster video- they sell previously viewed DVD's for like $10-15. Must haves on DVD are Crouching Tiger, Braveheart, and Gladiator.

 

Are HD-DVDs really on their way? HD is so ridiculously superior to DVDs; I was stunned. I thought that DVDs were much higher quality until I saw HD. I will be sad if I have to re-purchase my collection, but for HD I probably will (Gladiator in HD would be awesome). We have an HD TV but only get 1 HD channel (HBO). What a waste.

I started building my DVD collection a few years ago and probably have 2 or 3 hundred. I like classic guy movies and get new movies that we did not see in the theater. My wife does not like to watch movies over and over (but I can), so we don't get too many girlie movies. I also do not care to re-watch many of the new movies that we get, so I exchange them for other movies.

Some new additions: Gladiator, Birdge on the River Kwai, Paint Your Wagon (the only known guy musical ), Ronin, Bridge Too Far, Patton, Jurassic Park. I admit that I also purchased Waking Ned Devine. Not a guy movie, but very good. I guess I am partial to it because we really enjoyed our trip to Scotland (WND was filmed on the Isle of Man...close enough).

Jumanji,

I think that the DVD decoder is now available on Cnet. I always thought that it would be fun to create a video of the funniest moments from different movies (for personal, private, in-home use, of course).

 

Waking Ned Devine was a great movie.