The DVD Format Celebrates Its 20th Birthday

[Megalith]

I could have sworn it was older than that, but DVD supposedly turned two decades old this month. While this article suggests that the format is dying (and he is probably right), it just doesn’t feel that way—successors that include Blu-ray have been out for years, but people still seem to be buying titles on disc mastered in trashy 480p. Par for the course, it is also pointed out here that most people are good with streaming despite the advent of better and better disc formats. I never thought this would happen, but I have been cutting down on media myself—although it has nothing to do with streaming quality being good enough, but lack of shelf space.

I had held out hope that the rise of 4K resolution would spark a revival of the DVD format because as it is, HD video streaming is compromised compared to a Blu-ray DVD. Netflix and the cable companies have to compress the daylights out of the video to send it down the old copper wires that make up so much of our infrastructure. As it is, feasible 4K streaming is years off. But it seems people just don't want to go out and get a disc only to return it a few days later.

 

[SticKx911]

I don't usually watch the same title more than once unless its for the kids. So buying physical media for me is a waste. Kids could not care less about 720p streaming vs 4k (as they look the same on my 720p plasma ) so streaming works fine for me.

 

[RogueTadhg]

I still buy BluRays for something that I really want in the best quality - sci-fi movies, generally. Aliens, Pacific Rim, Avatar, Interstellar, Wolf of Wallstreet.

 

[NeoNemesis]

Haven't bought physical media in years. The only DVDs I have around now are my wedding videos.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Heh, I still have DVD Decrypter installed (and regularly use it!) on all my systems

 

[Makeroflostsouls]

I have over 400 full quilty Blu rays on my server setup for my theater , also have Plex so I can stream it any where with decent internet. If the new 4k dlp projectors throw a good picture I'll end up picking one up, since they are sub 3k dollar range. They can take a true 4k signal. I'll use it more for PC gaming then 4k movies though lol. Gaming in 2.35:1 on a 138inch screen is so nice let me tell ya. For me it has to be Blu ray or better for movie night. I didn't spend a stupid amount of money on my room to watch crapy streaming or DVDs . Stars app does at least stream in DTS and 1080p and looks and sounds damn good. I still don't understand why on steaming they still use the crapy sound quality they do. They should be able to send at least DTS like stars does. I would at least be OK with that. Most use DD or just some other low quality standard. Give me some 7.1 from some where lol. New system is 7.1.4 Atmos and dtsx.

 

[ZLoth]

I was one of the early adopters of DVD in 1999, having purchased a nice Toshiba 3108 player. The visual improvement of DVD over VHS was significant, plus DVD was the way to go if you wanted to watch movies in their original aspect ratio. Bonus points because for foreign-language films and anime, you could easily watch it in dubbed English or in the original language with subtitles. The cost of manufacturing a DVD was significantly cheaper than a VHS tape also. Plus, there were all the extras. Listening to some of the actor's and director's commentaries was like being at a mini-film school.

The "killer app" for DVDs at the time had to be 1999's release of the The Matrix. Now, to put things into proper context, when you watched a video in 1990s, you often went to the video store to "rent" a VHS tape. Initial video releases of movies were at $100 per pop, and then, several months later, it would have been at a purchasable as a much more reasonable title. Only a few blockbusters hit would be released at a retail price, usually around the Christmas season. The big gorilla was Blockbuster video who insisted on certain "revenue sharing" agreements which the studios didn't like (see American Beauty). When Warner Bros. decided to bypass the video rental store and make it's DVDs available directly at retail price, that shook things up. Then, when you could purchase an entire season of you favorite TV show and not take up much space on your shelf (compared to a season of VHS tapes), that got people's attention.

If you ask me, the DVD heyday ran from 2000 to the end of 2008 when the great recession hit, and the disposable income was drastically reduced. Features such as director's commentary, behind the scenes footage, and such were reduced. BluRay never has achieved the same level of success that DVD had. And, at the rate that we are going, DVD and BluRay is going to become a niche format because of the streaming services because the cheap price is a nice compromise for a "good enough" picture. But, there is a ton of non-mainstream "obscure" titles to keep things running.

 

[xrror]

DVD kinda was the last hurrah before the DRM became so blatant that even Jane/Joe Smoe were getting inconvenienced that their Blu-Ray player and (more critically) their new flat screen TV needed firmware updates to play the movies they had just brought home.

There's also the point that only now are 4K TV's becoming affordable enough to consider, and that the vast majority of people in the US anyway .... need to get prescription glasses/contacts but are too vain/don't give a f* - so a large 1080p screen really is just fine for them. I mean that in the nicest way possible too, my eyes suck and I'd hate that I'm missing so much detail in the world at large, but most people I know who I'm pretty sure need corrective lenses (who then won't get despite having insurance, or have ancient/worthless script) are straight up like "whatever" which.... I digress. Anyway Blu-Ray's promise of higher res is moot to them.

And basically, if you have to be connected all the time to the Internet anyway for your Blu-ray discs to keep working, and artifact free 4K doesn't mean anything to you, then Netflix/Hulu it is.

(lastly, to show how irrelevant my option is, I stopped caring when HD-DVD died

 

[steakman1971]

I was one of the early adopters of DVD in 1999, having purchased a nice Toshiba 3108 player. The visual improvement of DVD over VHS was significant, plus DVD was the way to go if you wanted to watch movies in their original aspect ratio. Bonus points because for foreign-language films and anime, you could easily watch it in dubbed English or in the original language with subtitles. The cost of manufacturing a DVD was significantly cheaper than a VHS tape also. Plus, there were all the extras. Listening to some of the actor's and director's commentaries was like being at a mini-film school.

The "killer app" for DVDs at the time had to be 1999's release of the The Matrix. Now, to put things into proper context, when you watched a video in 1990s, you often went to the video store to "rent" a VHS tape. Initial video releases of movies were at $100 per pop, and then, several months later, it would have been at a purchasable as a much more reasonable title. Only a few blockbusters hit would be released at a retail price, usually around the Christmas season. The big gorilla was Blockbuster video who insisted on certain "revenue sharing" agreements which the studios didn't like (see American Beauty). When Warner Bros. decided to bypass the video rental store and make it's DVDs available directly at retail price, that shook things up. Then, when you could purchase an entire season of you favorite TV show and not take up much space on your shelf (compared to a season of VHS tapes), that got people's attention.

If you ask me, the DVD heyday ran from 2000 to the end of 2008 when the great recession hit, and the disposable income was drastically reduced. Features such as director's commentary, behind the scenes footage, and such were reduced. BluRay never has achieved the same level of success that DVD had. And, at the rate that we are going, DVD and BluRay is going to become a niche format because of the streaming services because the cheap price is a nice compromise for a "good enough" picture. But, there is a ton of non-mainstream "obscure" titles to keep things running.

Man, I remember watching the Matrix on DVD. I had it hooked up to my 5.1 receiver - it was bad ass!
Sad, I'm using my crappy TV speakers right now. When I moved to the house I live in now, the wife decided she didn't like the receiver/speakers/sub woofer. My man-cave in the basement will rise again someday. I just have to evict my kids Barbie dolls

 

[ZLoth]

Man, I remember watching the Matrix on DVD. I had it hooked up to my 5.1 receiver - it was bad ass!
Sad, I'm using my crappy TV speakers right now. When I moved to the house I live in now, the wife decided she didn't like the receiver/speakers/sub woofer. My man-cave in the basement will rise again someday. I just have to evict my kids Barbie dolls

I have hopes to one day have a home theater setup. Sadly, my time is so limited that I can't even watch the movies I currently have.

 

[westrock2000]

The "killer app" for DVDs at the time had to be 1999's release of the The Matrix.

I have The Matrix on Laserdisc (one of the last big movies on Laserdisc) and it is exactly what was in theater, which means it has LESS green tint then what everyone sees now. Even the first issue DVD had increased green tint.

Saving Private Ryan was my tour de force disc. Had a "budget" Panasonic A120 DVD player that I got on sale for $300.

 

[nilepez]

I've been out of the disk business (mostly) for a few years, but that's mostly because 4k is coming and it just made more sense to wait till I upgrade and buy 4k Disks. What probably won't come back is Disk based TV shows. So many shows end up on Netflix, that there's no point and netflix is good enough for most TV shows (especially if you're watching on a computer). For movies I generally prefer disks. Some day we may have quality streaming, but for now, there's a lot of artifacts. The only reason I don't htink TV shows will come back on disk is they tend to be expensive. That said, if they ever made an HD version of Star Trek DS9, I'd pay full price for 7 seasons. Best trek ever. Are you listening Les? Kick Start that MOFO!