Oh, priceguy, what you’re missing is that a DVD pressing machine is a lot cheaper than a VHS pressing machine, and the blanks are cheaper as well. That’s why you’re seeing all that quantity.
Seriously, the best way to explore the difference is to find a good one. I happen to like Lilo and Stitch’s feature on how they chose the style of animation, the hula, and a bunch of other things. A whole second DVD of documentary goodness. That’s like four tapes all together.
Got tired of reading, so I’m just gonna post:
IIRC, the DVD format was designed as a next-generation CD-ROM – more data capacity, similar lifespan, same size, etc. DVD doesn’t mean digital video disc, you know-- not as a replacement for VHS.
HOWEVER, in order for the new medium to be accepted by the mainstream, it was necessary to market it correctly – ergo, movies. Yet, there was resistance. For example, in the original release, Titanic, the highest-grossing movie ever at the time (is it still?), was NOT released in DVD format.
Of course, now things have changed. I don’t know of any software apart from next-gen console games that have been released in the DVD-ROM format.
I’m not missing, I missed it.
I know. But what it was designed for is irrelevant compared to what it’s used for. My original post made it pretty clear that I was talking about movies on DVD, nothing else.
That was in 1997. DVD hadn’t taken off back then, so this is hardly strange. Besides, what’s your point?
Sort of. Check out Netflix or Numberslate.com. They have different packages (and the cheapest one is not always the most prominently featured, so dig).
Basically, it goes like this. For a flat, monthly fee, you can hold in your hand a maximum number of discs at any one time (3 for the $20 fee, 2 for the $14 fee is typical). You can keep them as long as you like or watch 'em and return 'em the same day. As soon as the vendor receives one back in the pre-paid mailing envelope, he sends you the next one in your list. No late fees and no trips to the video store!
You prioritize the list and can add, delete or rearrange the list yourself thru the magic of the Internet.
How fast is the turnaround? Depends on where you live. If you are lucky enough to be near one of the vendor’s distribution centers, I’ve heard the turnaround time is pretty quick, maybe 2-3 days; you are at the mercy of the mails if you live farther away.
And if you are REALLY a video nut, I believe you can sign up for more powerful packages or multiple accounts. Could be just thing to change your mind about DVDs. 
Looks like I’d have to move to the US first, though.
Superior picture and sound. Maybe you can’t tell the difference, but others can, and many consider it a definite advantage.
Longevity. I’ve had VCRs eat several tapes. I’ve also had ones deteriorate.
Portablilty. Going on a plane trip? Slap a DVD in your laptop. Or watch it in the park on your lunch hour.
Extra features. Granted, some of these just suck. But I’ll offer these four words: This Is Spinal Tap. First you have the movie, which is the same as the VHS (except it looks and sounds better, but you don’t care about that). However, next you have a feature-length commentary that is funny enough to be a damned sequel. Then you have a whole hour of hilarious deleted scenes. Plus interviews and bizarre trailers and ads and fake ads and music videos. All on a $20-$25 disc.
I’d bet that many restorations of old classic films are being done today specifically because of the DVD format, though I don’t have a cite for that.
Spinal Tap was an awesome DVD, no doubt about it.
This is another U.S./ Europe difference. Whole seasons of TV shows on DVD is a relatively recent phenomenon in the U.S. that was popular in Europe years before. Case in point - whole seasons of “Buffy” were available in the UK on DVD before they were released for the US market in that format. But it is catching on.
And season box sets for TV shows are slimmer and trimmer spacewise on DVD than on VHS. A whole season of “Buffy” (over 20 hours of programming) fits into a space on my shelf that used to be occupied by two VHS videotapes. Notch another advantage for the DVD. So now we have:
I know you’re not going to convince anyone, Priceguy, but to say that we’re all in a cult or are suckers for finding these things valuable, desirable, and worth spending money on is, to put it mildly, insulting, so don’t be surprised if we take offense. I’m sorry that you’re facing the eventual obsolescence of your movie collection, but those of us who have bought and driven the demand for the DVD are not in a cult and are not suckers.
I didn’t say you were in a cult and didn’t call you suckers. The “cult” I referred to is the strange fanboy network that’s sprung up around DVDs. Clubs, magazines, saying “on DVD” every other sentence, stuff like that.
I apologize for using the word “fall” in the original post, if that’s what’s offending you.
Hmmm. I like DVD. I like widescreen availability, better picture quality, space, features all the items mentioned.
I worked for a little while at a video store, and I can tell you that from a business perspective DVDs make more sense than VHS. Each box we got on shipping day could easily hold 2-3 times more DVDs than tape cassettes, which means lower shipping costs for more stock, which means we’re less likely to run out of that Limited Edition of Pocahontas II you wanted (bleargh, joking, really).
Seriously though, in the US, the financial advantage is more extreme than it would first appear. Also, one of my big hopes for DVD is that the proliferation of titles being put on DVD and sold for low prices will eventually kick Disney in the nuts hard enough for them to stop their evil sales and printing scheme (Disney will print, say, 100,000 copies of the Lion King; when it sells out, it’s out of print for 5-7 years or so, at which point they do it again, thus allowing these bastards to keep selling Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which is approaching 70 years old, for $30). When working at a video store you get a lot of dirt on the home entertainment industry…
My main fear for both DVDs and CDs is that these are transition media, at best. This definitely more pronounced with CDs, which for all their advantages cannot hold as much audio as a tape cassette, but DVDs could become rapidly obsolete as well, depending upon how new media like D-VHS and Blu-Ray pan out. I’m not expecting much from D-VHS, but Blu-Ray is a threat… however, if it cannot offer truly significant advantages at the same or lower prices, it will not supercede DVD.