Sometimes I enjoy the commentary track more than the actual movie!
And Sam Stone, you’ve gotta try Netflix.com!
Just getting back to the OP for a moment here…vinyl’s been dead (or anyway in a coma) for over ten years now, but the electronics stores around where I live (not a big city) still have turntables. So take heart Ivylass, I’m sure you’ll be able to play your old tapes as long as they last, and listen to your old vinyl records too.
Speaking for myself, I really like my VCR, but I’ve wanted a DVD player since I first heard about them and intend to get one quite soon. You can tell I really mean that because I am posting DVD player-related questions to this board. Not that I would shamelessly take advantage of this opportunity to plug it…whups, too late, already did :p.
Nonsense, DVD put on the market so as to suck dollars into corporate coffers from every single consumer they can convince into contributing - there is nothing artsy, noble, or profound about it. It’s a techno-toy for techno(and/or movie) geeks (No offense, I am a movie geek myself). The industry is ‘going digital’ because the industry wants to go digital.
As yet I don’t own a DVD, I don’t have anything against them per se, but like the OP I have too many tapes to bother trying to switch now - and probably not until I’m forced to.
My suggestion for those of us who are slower to jump on band wagons is the next time there is a sale in the electronics department, stockpile 3 or 4 VCRs, probably won’t cost much more than $100, and stick 'em in the closet for replacements.
We can go on watching and recording tapes for years yet 
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Actually, DVD as it was originally envisioned was very much designed with the consumer in mind. Ever see the betaDVD version of Batman that was show back when DVD was being originally being shown as a new tech? Amongst its neater tricks, is on the same disk, PG/13 and R versions of the film. The attempt was made to actually have the film seamlessly cut out the scenes to make it PG/13, and if set to PG, change some of the words. DVD has a lot of features that are aimed at the average consumer, problem is, the studios don’t want to use them.
Many may not realize the main reason Hollywood fought off the VCR was that it would cut revenue. In other words people would FAST FORWARD thru the commercials.
The courts ruled this wasn’t likely.
A recordable DVD takes away this. Not only can you zip thru commercials you can program it to skip them to start with.
The court reasoning to allow the VCR (many people don’t realize what a battle it was to make the VCR legal)
will make Hollywood fight the recordable DVD on a large scale. In fact according to Business 2.0 magazine they already have started lawsuits.
I only use a VCR to record. I rarely rent. Most of the hostility is having to shell out bucks for the same product. I mean a record, an eight track, a cassette, then a CD now a DVD…How many times am I gonna have to buy that “Meet the Beatles” record. 
I want to get a DVD player, and plan on getting one soon. I will sometimes buy pre-recorded tapes, and I want to stop doing that. I want to start buying pre-recorded DVDs. No use in fighting the inevitable. If I stick with buying VHS movies, I’ll just end up “re-buying” the same movies in DVD later on. I’ve already got too many movies (already owned on VHS) that I know I’ll be getting on DVD. No need to make this whole transition more expensive than it is already destined to be.
But regarding VHS tapes in general—they’ll have to pry my VCR out of my cold, dead hands. (No, I know, no one wants to do that!) I have SO many VHS tapes, it’s beyond comprehension. Hundreds and hundreds. And I’ve been especially enjoying them lately. I recently moved, and we haven’t got the satellite dish hooked up downstairs (where my “office/cubbyhole” is). I MUST have a TV down here, but with no satellite dish, I am watching tapes. And it’s been great. I’m pulling out old tapes and re-discovering all sorts of old shows that are NOT shown anywhere (that I know of).
I just hit upon a rich vein of tapes from the '93/'94 era. I just let 'em run all the way through, as I do my work. I had taped a short-lived show with Valerie Bertinelli called “Cafe American”. Not the best show of all time, but cute, and I have enjoyed seeing it again. As far as I know, no network is showing reruns of it. And, there are old reruns that the Sci-Fi Channel showed back then, like “The Invaders”. (I have decided that Roy Thinnes is so fabulous! Sigh.) And anyone remember the really rather bad '70s show “Fantastic Journey” with Roddy McDowel and Jared Martin? Or the bad '70s “Gemini Man” (an Invisible Man premise) with Ben Murphy? Or the '80s show “Otherworld”? I’ve seen 'em all in the last week, on these old tapes. And it’s been a blast. So, I will not be giving up my VCR anytime soon. There are so many forgotten treasures in my VHS collection! I will plan on gradually transferring them to DVD, when the technology becomes affordable. But with so many tapes, it will be quite an undertaking. It will take years and years.
Except the price is a rippoff, & it won’t ever come down.
CDs never got cheaper. :mad:
Don’t talk to me about the “extra quality”. The pricetag per film is what I care about.
The whole DVD/TVio thing is just another way to rip off the public.
F*cking corporate cheats.
YES! Thanks for this, I’ve been trying to remember the name of that series for years. I got myself convinced I imagined the whole thing!
Wasn’t there a kid in it too, who later went on to star in something else? (sorry I can’t remember any more)
Why should they?
:smack: :rolleyes:
Maybe because I can count, add & subtract, unlike others.
If a VHS costs $18, & a DVD costs $30; & if the “added value” features are things I don’t give a damn about, then…
I, and incidently you, are being ripped off!
Do I have to spell out everything?
Most of the electronics in your home will be largely useless in 5 years or less , and will have to be replaced by much more expensive gear that does not perform any better in a meaningful sense, and in some cases loses one or more capabilities ==like the “no archive” problem with TiVo. Or whatever the stupid thing is called.
This is not trading up. This is called “losing your ass”. :mad:
Who on Earth pays $30 for a DVD? Most DVDs at mass market retailers go for 14.99-24.99 per unit. Prices do come down; witness how cheap VHS tapes became.
If you don’t want to buy DVDs, then rent them.
Again, sez who? VCRs have been on the market since the late 70s, and laserdiscs have been around for almost as long. DVD, because of its sharpness, storage capacity, and ease of use, will be around for much longer, especially once DVD recorders become cheap.
All I ask of the Luddites out there is not to buy pan and scan butcheries of films. Letterboxing preserves a movie’s orginal exhibition ratio, and some of us want to see movies as their directors intended.
Wow, someone’s being a luddite today… 
Most of the DVDs I buy are $15 or less. The only notable exceptions are multi-disc “special editions,” for which I expect to pay more – my latest purchase was the SE of A Bug’s Life, and between the widescreen and remastered versions, the director’s commentary, the isolated audio tracks, both sets of bloopers, and oodles of behind-the-scene and preproduction stuff, I definitely got my $30 worth.
A little comparison shopping goes a long way.
Ike Isenmann played the kid. He was also in the “Witch Mountain” Disney movies. I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything recently, though I do believe I saw his name on some credits, as a AD or something. So I think he’s working behind the scenes now.
On the IMDb page for Fantastic Journey, someone wrote this commentary:
I always liked McDowell’s character, Willoway. In fact, my dad never could identify McDowell in anything else after that without me saying “He played ‘Willoway’”. And my dad would say, “Oh yes! Willoway!” (As if that role was the most notable of McDowall’s career!) The show had some interesting premises, even if it did suffer from hokey costumes and special effects. And I always was amused by the L.A. landmarks that doubled in as “exotic” alien locations (Bonaventure Hotel, Planetarium, etc.).
Nice to know that someone else remembers the show!
Right now I’m watching a tape with “Dr. Finlay” from Masterpiece Theatre (also from the '93/94 era). So many treasures, so many treasures I have on tape!
There’s hope here, unlike the early days of tape’s growth. Original aspect-ratio appreciation has a much higher market now, and the net, bless it, can more easily focus a huge number of people who won’t tolerate pan&scan releases only (or bad releases in general–it’s one of the great triumphs of the internet age that Disney–Disney, of all corporate entities!–was stunned into delaying thier dvd release of “Princess Mononoke” to actually put the original language track on it).
It ges the other way, too. Willy Wonka ended up getting a widescreen release, due largely to similar protest (albeit protests that were a bit confused over the difference between pan&scan–the devil’s work–and full-frame.)
I want the VCR to remain the movie-watching thing of choice for the majority for at least a few more years, to give widescreen TV’s better market penetration (they need to drop in price more. More, or rather, less! Less, damn you!) so that Joe and Jane Sixpack will start bitching about “confusing” and “stupid” black bars on the sides of their screen when they watch their vhs tapes. That should settle things once and for all.
The only exception to this is Alfred Hitchcock movies: I’ve yet to find Rear Window for less than $25.00
Also, where the hell is the lettebox DVD of Singing in the Rain, dammit?
Steve
It’s coming out later this year, Ste…er, Fenris, according to the DVD preview sites I frequent, but no street date has been announced yet.
In addition to that, a newly restored copy of All That Jazz would be wonderful.
What does any of this have to do with CD prices?
Thank god you’re here to look after us.
Errrr…you may be, but I do give a damn about the added value features. For me it’s well worth the extra money (which isn’t nearly as large as you make it out to be).
Actually, it won’t.
You know, I tend to think it’s up to each individual to decide how meaningful the upgrade will be. I find the DVD features to be well worth the modest expense. If I find that the next tech upgrade to not be worth the extra price, I won’t find it difficult to pass on (and I’m sure I’ll be able to avoid ranting about it to everyone).
I just did a quick check at DVDPriceSearch.com, and they say PlayCentric has *Rear Window: Special Edition[/I[ for $20.59. There’s also a coupon code to give you $1 off and free shipping, but it expires at the end of June…
I can’t believe I am reading this! Maybe I’ve spent to long sheltered in my techno-utopian film school world, but shudder.
You can actually stand watching movies on VHS? Every once in a while I’ll have to watch a movie on VHS and it is always a bit painful. It’s like watching something while wearing dirty glasses. Muddy, dark, bad sounding…completely unacceptable, really. Watching a movie on VHS is just barely watching it- watching a ghost or approximation of it maybe- and don’t get me started on pan and scan!!
Special features are awesome. When I rent a movie, I usually end up watching it twice in the same night- once without commentary, and once with. You can learn all you need to know about making movies from commentary. And knowledge is power. The more we understand how movies are made and how to look at them critically, the more movies are going to be complex and…good…If the masses had a bit of a film education, maybe Hollywood wouldn’t be able to slough off quite so much drivel on them.
You don’t appreciate the “skip to scene” features? Okay, I admit that as a film major I probably use it more than most people (it’s a life saver when analyzing specific scenes) but you can’t tell me that you’ve never gone back in a movie to clarify something. Maybe not, I guess…apparently you don’t think much when you watch movies. sigh.
This is all really really wierd to me. I couldn’t ever have imagined that there are people out there that are opposed to DVDs. Strange world.
even sven, we may be worlds apart politically, but you and me are right there on movies. I watch them twice in a row, with and without the commentaries, too.
The great thing is, there’s such a wide range. There’s the back-slapping, “look what a great job we did” commentaries, there’s the highly technical commentaries with SFX guys or the DP or whomever, there’s the scholarly commentaries (one of the more interesting ones I’ve heard being on Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein) and so forth.
The only thing you need to work on is getting in touch with your inner love for drivel. 