Re: will dvds murder the videos?

monsieurblob wrote:

> troddled into a store the other day, odd of moneyless me to do such a
> thing, and found, to my utmost horror shelves and shelves of dvds and
> none of vhs. if any vhs, they were usually last sales...
> 
> dvds are ridiculous. whenever they get a tiny scratch, you ruin from 5
> seconds to a whole minute of the film. the image at sale is the same.
> the video image wears off a tiddle with time, but thats one of the
> things i like about it, that grainy image. though, of course, not too
> grainy, and indeed, vhs does have a limited life, but i was scavenging
> in me garage the other day and found a copy of a ford movie 20 years
> old. it was in fine condition.

I have a digital projector.  2.35:1 anamorphic DVDs at 70" diagonal are
spectacular.  At 4:3 51.5" (smallest my zoom will allow in it's current
placement) broadcast television is acceptable in quality, but VHS is
unwatchable.  I have far more tapes than DVDs, but they are now relegated
to an old 20" tv.

I've never had a problem with scratches, but my oldest DVD is 4 or 5 years
old.  Then again, I've rarely had a problem with scratched rentals either.


> course, 20 years havent passed since the invention of dvds, but i
> never did see the point and blame it on loony consumerism, free will
> defeated in the face of decadent suburbanisation (?)

At cinematic proportions the image quality speaks for itself.


> and the prices are ridiculous., coming out at 24 euros, stabilising at
> 18, with 'offers' at 12. the options are stupid, allowing to change
> languages (so???), to see the players' filmographies (howaboutimdb?)
> and to see the trailers of other movies (of for gewd's sake...)

I agree that the prices are ridiculous.  While most of the 'value added
content' is pointless, some special features are quite interesting.  The
running director's commentary on a good picture, for example.


> kodak announced it would make no more photographic film with the
> invention of the digital camera. is the same thing happening to
> videos. are we being told whats good for us? are we just before yet
> another case of commercial speculation?

VHS sales are steadily declining, hence less shelf space (yes, the decline
came first).  The format is dying for commercial film.