November 16, 2006

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• Ah-ha! *light candle to Betamax shrine*
• For a media format, 30 years is ancient. If VHS were Chinese, we'd probably have a festive Chinese funeral, fit for those who have lived very long and productive lives.
• And yet Beta lives on.
• I hate DVDs. I can't fast forward them. If I remove them from the player and replace it later I lose my place. Who has time to watch all the craptacular extras? It takes the players like a serious minute to realize there is a DVD present and start reading it. DVD burners are still very expensive in comparison to VHS writers. DVDs are way too expensive. There is not a single positive thing to be said about DVDs.
• There is not a single positive thing to be said about DVDs. Au contraire: multi-angle porn.
• Meh. VHS still works for me for recording shows to watch later. Can't be bothered spending a crapload of money on one of those digital video recorder thingies when I've got two VCRs that work perfectly well. Guess I'll have to pick up a few spare blank tapes while they still sell them. The only good thing about DVDs is that you don't have to rewind them before returning them to the video store.
• . *wrings hands at the thought of an expanded bargain bin*
• I can't fast forward them. If I remove them from the player and replace it later I lose my place. I can do both. My DVD player seems to remember where I stopped watching, even if I've removed the disk. Not bad for a $30 refurb. In the big VCR format wars decades ago, I was always a VHS man. Sure, beta had somewhat better video quality, but longer record times was a more important feature. And from a technical standpoint, I didn't like the fact that beta kept the tape on the heads during FF and RWD. That can't be good for tape life.
• I'll tell you what, I'm sick of renting DVDs and finding them scratched beyond playable. Seems to happen WAY more often than the rare ruined VHS that I'd check out. True, after five years of use, the VHS quality started to look pretty bad, but at least you could watch it through the flickers. Has anyone tried to watch a rental DVD older than say two years?
• Ahh, and a death long-overdue! Just as I embraced the initial demise of vinyl in '86, I shall joyfully destroy any plastic rectangles embellished with the mark of VHS. Die you scoundrels! *cracks open a case* *runs through the office streaming tape to-and-fro*
• Yeah, nothing more irritating the renting a movie, then having it skip beyond watchability half way through.
• I'm saving a few cassettes and VHS tapes for my kid to find. Kinda like when I found my parents' stash of Richard Pryor 8-tracks.
• I'll tell you what, I'm sick of renting DVDs and finding them scratched beyond playable. Single-biggest complaint for DVDs, there. Especially kid films -- you rent anything from the "family" section, you're all but guaranteed some parent let their kid use the damn disc as a frisbee.
• There is not a single positive thing to be said about DVDs. Except that the picture and sound is a million times better, and you can skip chapters instead of fast-forwarding, and sometimes the extras are totally worth it, and and and. It's funny when they're scratched, and suddenly an actors face will melt into a million pixels. Funny for about 10 seconds, then I'm really annoyed. But I'd say that's the only bad thing about DVDs.
• It ain't over 'til it's over. /hugs her thirty year's collection of classic first releases. They may become inheritables if I store them properly. Or garbage, but that's my daughter's problem.
• It's funny when they're scratched, and suddenly an actors face will melt into a million pixels. I've always found that extremely creepy for some reason. Gets me every time.
• I am convinced that the frequency of renting scratched dvds is often directly proportional to how mainstream the rental store is. I used to have to rent from mainstream places like Blockbuster and got a fair number of scratched disks. I've moved and now i rent from a local indie place called Plan 9 Video which specializes in more cult films and I can't remember getting a sratched disk. My theory is that the mainstream rental places have customers who don't care about films while the indie places have customers who are a bit more careful about how they handle their disks. On the dvd related thread... I bought a new dvd player a couple months ago because it has a usb drive and can play divx files. On some dvds when I hit stop, a special screen will come up which is sometimes the poster for the movie I was watching or sometimes the background image for the movie's menu screen. This only happens for some dvds and not all, so it has to be something that the dvd makers are putting in but I've never heard of such a thing. Has anyone else?
• I have a 10+ year old Mistubishi which was manufactured before VCRs became throw-aways. It runs great and still has a good picture. I'll not be getting rid of it soon. I tire of the mega-video companies trying to get us to buy the same old movies again and again on newer and "better" formats. Part of the problem is, like dxlifer, I find that with every new style of video reproduction, the studios begin to leave out more and more titles. I remember in the early nineties I could run down to Tower video and find anything from the latest releases to obscure foreign films. That just doesn't happen now because those big studios don't make enough money on 'em. For now, I'll keep both formats around. It confounds the decor, but it must be done.
• DVDs hand an irritating amount of control to the content producer/copyright holder.
• Oh! The other annoying thing about DVDs is that the menus are never consistent. On some menus it's nearly impossible to tell what you've selected, on others there's a lot of annoying lead-up crap before you even get to the menu. AND WHY IS THE PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGO ALWAYS SO MUCH LOUDER THAN THE MOVIE?? That's it. Just those two things and the scratching. And this paddle ball game. And this ashtray. But that's it.
• I concur with menu lead-in crap. Just list the options and be done with it. Sure, on some DVDs the lead in stuff can be mildly entertaining the first time you see it, but each subsequent viewing increases my desire to use it as a frisbee. Not to mention DVDs that don't want to let you skip the commercials before the menu kicks in. On the other hand, fishing tape out of a VCR that decided to eat your rental and attempting to rewind it so you don't end up paying for it is not something I miss either . . . .
• Hey now, I just recorded some shows on VHS the other day, so I could pass them on to friends. DVD recorders are getting awfully cheap and tempting. But everyone I know already has a VHS machine, and the tapes are cheap, reusable, and easy to find at the store.
• Directors' comments and extras make the DVD format very much worth it. Of course not all films have the wealth of content of, say, the Fight Club, Videodrome, Requiem for a Dream or Brazil ones from Criterion. Tape had that direct control advantage (loved those VCRs with Jog/Shuttle controls) and being a cheap way to timeshift. Tivo and digital recorders seem cheaper, until you want to keep those multi-gig for archival, or your porvider decides not to let you record/keep some shows. And now we're shifting to tape-less; it started already on consumer camcorders. I dread the day my camera's hard/flash drive gets wiped by mishandling at customs and all those hours of HD footage get lost. Instead of today, when one jist pops the tape in a safe pocket.
• It's funny when they're scratched, and suddenly an actors face will melt into a million pixels. Ever stop to wonder if Tom Cruise's face is actually made of pixels?
• It's funny when they're scratched, and suddenly an actors face will melt into a million pixels. Damn, that's impressive... a million pixels is more pixels than my TV has.
• Things I hate about DVD's: 1. Rear view mirror ornaments 2. Poorly placed RSDL breaks 3. Regional coding (easily circumvented, but nonetheless...) 4. Already mentioned scratches 5. FBI warnings that cannot be skipped 6. Easter egg hunters 7. Criterion edition DVDs that cost me an arm and a leg (Sid and Nancy anyone?) 8. 20 minute long episode of X children's show slapped onto a single disc 9. I've run out... 10. And when the heck did the order of comments re-order on preview?
• 10. And when the heck did the order of comments re-order on preview? I noticed that tonight, too. Strange, but probably a good idea, especially with long threads.
• If I remove them from the player and replace it later I lose my place. Like others, my ancient DVD player "resumes from last stop." It's awesome, especially if my roommate decided to borrow my Netflix movie, watch it, and put it back in my DVD player, it starts up right where I left it. But enought about DVDs, as the unplayable rental ones--which clearly we're rented by people without toilet paper and thought round plastic discs were a good substitute. Let's talk about my beloved ancient VCR player. I use it all the time for taping shows in ways that amaze my TiVo-owning (really renting) friends. What amazes them more is that, after recording a show, my VCR goes back and marks the commercials so during playback, they're automatically fast-forwarded through. So like TiVo, so unlike the cost. (-: Love my VHS!
• > 8. 20 minute long episode of X children's show slapped onto a single disc Alongside 18 minutes of advertising for other kids shows, all of which runs before the main menu loads. I've had to copy some DVDs that I purchased just to remove all of this crap.
• Not to mention DVDs that don't want to let you skip the commercials before the menu kicks in. If you really want, you can get chipped dvd players with the UOPs (User Operation Prohibitions) disabled. Or you could use a PC and vlc and watch whatever you want. I'm waiting for DL DVD-/+R's to get cheaper... then I might rip most of my dvds to copies that don't have anything except the movie. Be especially great for dvds with excessively long menu intros, like the Monty Python's Flying Circus set.
• Alongside 18 minutes of advertising for other kids shows, all of which runs before the main menu loads. I've had to copy some DVDs that I purchased just to remove all of this crap. Sigh. Yes, I have gone that route as well! *eyes BearGuy's VHS player*
• Yeah, if skipping the commercials involves finding a hacked player, copying things, whatever, then screw that. I'm basically too lazy and cheap, and it shouldn't be neccessary anyways. The tech is broken out of the box if you have to muck about to make it work acceptably. It irks me that a new technology that is supposed to be superior is made with irritating flaws like that. If I buy something, why should I be forced to watch the bits I don't want to watch? Anyways, commercials are so ephemeral, it is asinine to have them on something like that on DVDs anyways ("coming to a theatre near you in the summer of 2002!")
• I really don't mean this to sound like I long for the days of VHS -- except for recording TV shows and watching obscure movies that you can't rent on DVD, I don't use the damn thing anymore, and I don't miss it.
• Xeny: Be especially great for dvds with excessively long menu intros, like the Monty Python's Flying Circus set. Good idea, I really don't need to see a 5 minute section change scene/animation every time I navigate to a new section. Imagine having to watch a zooming or whooshing flash animation every time you click the mouse. Oh, wait, you don't have to.
• Cheap video tapes, mmmkay? VHS ain't goin' nowhere for awhile. DVR, recordable DVDs, - nah. Some family members can't work it and I my MythTV project is gathering dust. (1) insert tape (2) press "record" et Voilà!
• To continue on my "why do we have to buy it again" thread, I just came across an interesting article today. It explained how the music industry had planned obsolescence in most of their products for so long: vinyl, cassette, all that. But the CD came a long (and, by proxy, DVD) and suddenly consumers no longer needed to replace their worn out copies. Maybe not perfect sound forever, but it sounds better than an old record. So there's the problem. I forgot where I was going with this. Gee, and it's not even Friday night yet.
• I can watch DVDs on my computer, and don't have a reason for owning a TV. I can play any region with VLC, and it automatically skips everything (company logo, fbi thingy, intro) to the menu.