IT PRO: Blogs: Dave Adamson: 2007 March

Home

Dave Adamson's Blog

Ten Years of DVD (for me, that is)

Posted in Uncategorized on March 8, 2007 at 8:28 pm

Let’s see, I’m pretty sure that in 1997 (though it was probably around June or July) I bought my first DVD-ROM drive. I know that it was the Creative Labs Encore DXR2 complete with hardware MPEG2 decoder card so that I could attach it (via my video recorder) to a TV and thanks to a nifty piece of software whose name I forget I was able to change region codes to whatever I fancied (or whatever the disk required to play).

That was, I seem to recall, how my interest in DVD started.

I remember the jeers from friends (some of whom I knew from BBS-land (wow, remember those)) saying that the format wouldn’t survive, that it’d be a niche format a la Laserdisc, that there’s no point in watching a widescreen movie as nobody watches anything in widescreen, etc. I remember the lack of DVDs on the market in the UK at the time (I think it was 12 a quarter from Warner Brothers). I also remember my first DVD purchases - Maverick and Mars Attacks on R2, Gattaca and Starship Troopers on R1. I remember picking up films just because they weren’t on release in the UK yet (though I can’t remember what they were right now - being 30 has seen old age rob me of my faculties, you see.) I remember being obsessed with buying DVDs aplenty and being outraged at the fact that DVDs in the UK cost so much and had no extras at all. I remember Armageddon being one of the best selling DVDs, even though you had to flip it over in middle of the film. I remember reading newsgroup postings from so called “experts” (who blast “Joe Public” for their lack of knowledge) lambasting Blair Witch Project on R1 saying it was a travesty that they’d released in in pan and scan (for the record, it’s 4:3 Academy Ratio), complaining the Hannibal had some gore missing from the brain eating scene (was that Hannibal, or was it another film) only to have a Fox representative state that the gore was absent in all versions because it never existed (kind of an urban legend, I guess, a la the Director’s Version of Alien 3) and I remember being hugely annoyed with one newsgrouper who had post the subject line “Regarding Sixth Sense” and, when you clicked on the post, it read “Is it just me or did anyone else figure that Bruce Willis’ character was…” spoiling the film before I’d had the chance to see it.

Okay, lots of memories there, do I have a point? Probably not, but please persist.

I now have over 1,000 DVDs, having slowed down in recent years somewhat. I like all my DVDs and they are all, despite what some folk may presume, originals. I don’t detest those who buy pirate DVDs (actually, my response when questions is “I don’t care.” (”But, you must care, they’re pirated.” “No, really, I don’t. Now go to the bar.”) Okay, when I say I like them _all_, I’m telling a tiny fib; there are some films I think to myself “Why did I bother?” but the majority are fine.

Having amassed this quantity of films, I’ve moved, years ago, from a PC based player to a standalone player a few years back, having overworked the drives and had them stop working. I’m now on my second (or is it third) player!

I remember being slightly worried that DVD would loose out to DIVX (the format, not the codec), but that soon passed as I read more and more on the internet (accessed with my 56k modem, through Demon, causing me to have phone bills that reached worrying proportions!) I’m in the same boat with the new HD formats. Okay, I don’t have a TV that would benefit from HD, but even if I did, I doubt I would leap onto HD and forsake DVD. I’ll wait and see what happens there (perhaps someone will send me an XBox 360 and HD player, feel free too.)

I guess that is where I am going with this. I imagine that, somewhere out there, someone is saying that HD (be it HD-DVD or Blu-Ray) is going to signal the death of DVD, in the same way that DVD was going to signal the death of VHS. Okay, it’s more difficult to get hold of VHS these days (charity shops are deluged with them), but it took years to die out. It’ll probably be the same with DVD what with the sheer volume of players that are out there and the familiarity we all have with the format. I can’t see the charity shops being flooded with DVD films yet, for some reason. I’ll wait for, firstly a HD TV, secondly a definite winner and, thirdly (and finally), a film that really really really benefits from the HD format that I want to see and isn’t available on regular DVD.

I’ll be interested to see how the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD thing plays out. Early indications seem to show “people” supporting HD-DVD over Blu Ray, but you never know. We’ve all got access to more information now thanks to the Internet so we can all claim to be wiser customers. Having said that, strangers things… I’m told that a certain industry has added it’s weight to HD-DVD, I think it was and this industry was responsible for the DVD format that was finally ratified. It’s good to see that that industry is good for something other than “that.” Don’t I sound like a prude!

I’ll finish now (if you’ve read this far you win a prize (the prize is the right to send me an XBox 360)) and see you all again next time.

Not yet rated

Loading ...

Highest Rated Blog Posts

Should Sony fear the Asus Eee? (90%)
iPlayer and 4oD (90%)
Walking on (Macbook) Air (80%)
Google Docs and a paperless office ... I know, I'm late the party (80%)
Do people challenge your purchasing decisions? (80%)
Let's have CEX (80%)
I love reading, but not e-reading! (60%)
Stupid Filter - What a wonderful idea! - (and watch how I move onto the Eee PC 701 in the blog!) (60%)
Who won the sales war? (60%)
Bad Phorm (60%)

Ten Years of DVD (for me, that is)

Tag cloud

Archives

Most commented posts

Highest Rated Blog Posts

Advertisement