Love affair with dvd's what started it all for you?

[EM3]

I first saw a dvd about 1yr after they came out but waited to see if they would catch on. The big draw for me was the sound quality. The picture is fantastic and prices now can't be beat but the deciding factor was the sound.

[Notoriousaurus]

They take up less space then Laserdiscs.

[DVDAddict20]

What STARTED my love for DVDs, well let's see, the fact that I could see scenes that weren't in the theatrical release and that I could FINALLY see a movie in the OAR instead of that damn P&S. That and I like getting music videos as extras on DVDs sometimes.

[viceroy]

I remember when I had my buddy copy laserdiscs to vhs tapes for me (because I didn't have a laserdisc player) since I desperately wanted to have all the extras. Bust most importantly, dvd's give us WIDESCREEN! That too me, is the most important feature these little discs have given us. Well, of course superiour quality both audio and visual as well.

1) widescreen
2) extras
3) quality

Peace,
Steve

[brinkoftime]

It was definitely the picture quality for me.

[Phreak]

The picture & sound quality and the durability/longevity of the discs.

[Sigma B]

I no longer have to rewind

[bembol]

It just hit me back in 97...

Overall it was just the technology behind it...

[SilentBob]

Well had a brand new PS2 and wanted to join the new age of gaming. Turns out i hated the games for the system and started to buy some DVD's. The extras and picture quality is what won me over then. But now it would have to be Picture(crisp and WS) and Sound. Plus the great BlockBuster previewed section.

[Oscar Antonio M]

I gotta say that the reason why I got them firsthand was because I noticed DVD's took less time to release than VHS tapes but also because the advantages: Widescreen, 5.1 sound and extras.

I got a DVD player back in September of 2000 and since then my collection has grown.

[kimfair]

My love affair with DVD began in my youth (before most of you were born). THen my love was just movies. Especially those old Universal horror, and 50's cheesy sci-fi. As tapes came out I bought a few, but it never interested me to collect VHS.

Then I heard about laserdiscs. I was hooked! Movies in OAR, great picture and sound, copius extras and like a favorite love of albums as well, their size. Big 12 inch squares that allowed for great cover art (on both LD and LP).

But laserdiscs had a downside, a hidden evil, that finally drove me over into the DVD realm. The price! A barebones movie was $30 list, and since hardly anyone sold them, lots of places sold them at or near list. The late, great Sight and Sound in Waltham, MA was the best, though. Pre-orders were 30% off list, so if I really wanted something, I could get it at the best possible price. They also had an extensive used section where I found many gems over the years.

DVD, however is almost never about price for me. I generally balk at big sets (unless it's something I really need, like Alien Quad and Indy), but most movies can be had for $20 or less on release week, and most of these are 1 or 2 disc special editions. Discs like this with loads of supplementary material, no matter how bad, had list prices of $50 - 120. No contest. I do miss the big of LD though, just like vinyl.

[Niki]

I had heard that I could watch movies on my computer if I got a DVD player put in. I knew nothing about them and was a bit skeptical, but we bought one anyway. (Sometime between '99 and '01. I don't remember exactly when.) I was amazed by the picture quality and loved the extras that most DVD's come with.

Unfortunately, our computer DVD player (it was by Creative) didn't last more than a year. So, several months later we bought a stand-alone DVD player for our TV. It too didn't last very long (a year, maybe a bit longer) and we bought a new one not long after that one died. (We watched our DVDs on the PS2 in the meantime.) Hopefully the one we have now will last longer.

I love the following about DVDs pretty equally:

Picture quality
Extras
Widescreen
Sound quality

[Riedenschneider]

I haven't started a love affair with any of my DVDs yet. With Laser Discs I could just about fit through, but the DVD holes are just too damn tiny!

[superwombat]

Cleanup is easy. (Post #30)

[videoworx]

The DVD release of "Pecker" did it for me.

But let's rewind...for a few months, my friend would bring over his Sony 300, and show off this DVD thing, a technology I was fully versed in, yet was very skeptical about. After all, I'd invested a fortune in Laserdiscs, and they looked MUCH cooler. Movie after movie looked horrible on DVD - compared to my LD's. Goldeneye, especially, left such a bad taste in my mouth that I told myself the DVD format was a joke. Dark colours would cause banding, and static images spawned pixel dancing sessions. The New Line logo in front of Lost In Space was terrible looking. The sound was no improvement over my 5.1 LD's, so that was no winner either. The original menu's on early DVD's were so tacky looking, I rather preferred simple chapter skipping a la LD's. Actually, I still do.

But then...I rented Pecker on DVD, and my friend brought over his DVD player. I figured, I'd rather watch it on DVD than VHS, and I wasn't going to splurge $40 on a John Waters laserdisc.

I was floored. The colours were incredibly vibrant, the image was so crisp. And this was a John Waters movie!! It was the best looking film I had ever seen on my television. I was sold. All this time it had been crappy software. The hardware WAS capable of a better picture.

The next day I did some research, and bought a Sony 550D at etronics.com (at $399, it was $100 cheaper than Best Buy's price). I bought a stack of DVD's and went to town. Here was a format that was capable of surpassing LD image quality - and the movies were half the price! $20 for a movie WITH commentary, AND a documentary. What a STEAL!!! The movie companies were practically giving these away. And then there was dvdexpress.com, which was selling DVD's at 40 percent off, and would ship them to me almost a week prior to a release date. These were good times.

So if I were to arrange my DVD's autobiographically, Pecker would be numero uno...

and yes, dammit, the holes are way too small...

[AlbanyMovieFan]

Boogie Nights..... I was curious about audio commentary and i was really interested in what paul thomas anderson had to say about the film. After i viewed the movie with commentary i was hooked on dvds and i havent stop collecting since.

[Marq]

essentially... this

more on topic,
The moment I heard that an affordable technology (I couldn't afford laserdiscs) was catching on that presented film with a much nicer video/audio appearance, and most importantly usually presented them in their original theatrical ratio, I started saving money for a player and subsequent movies. Reading about "extras" and "commentaries" came from laserdiscs, so that was a nice incentive too!

[ChrisV784]

I've always loved movies and I had a crappy VCR. One day in late '99 I was looking around online and was seeing these things called DVD players. I told my dad about them and he went out and bought me a DVD player along with the Matrix DVD. I wanted it for the clearer picture. Then I read about surround sound and went out a bought an AIWA () surround system and at the I thought it sounded great. I was watching DVDs on a older model RCA 35" TV. It sucked. In August of this year I bought a nice little Panasonic surround sound system with DTS and I fell in love with DVDs. At that time I had roughly 150 DVDs...not too many. Then I made a big decision. I took out a loan for $2100 and bought a 51" Hitachi widescreen TV in late August. Then 2 months ago, my dad blew out the Panasonic surround sound system because he threw a hissy fit while hooking up the DirecTV. (That high pitched beeping got the best of him from the roof.) He ended up giving me his credit card and telling me I could get a whole new surround sound system. I ended up getting the Home Theater In a Box Onkyo 6.1 system along with a brand new Toshiba ProgScan/DVD Audio player. (The Panasonic reciever had a built in 5-Disc changer.) My love for DVDs now is enormous. I average about 5 or 6 movies a week (Usually more). My collection now numbers about 300 and I couldn't be happier. Sprry for rambling, but you people are the only ones who understand me.

[tomdkat]

My feelings about this are expressed here.

Peace...

[BADBRAD]

Bought my first DVD in 1997 with my tax refund check. Had the player before the DVD's actually came out. The day they did I picked up from the first WB / MGM batch GOODFELLAS, WIZARD OF OZ, ROAD WARRIOR, GET SHORTY and THE EXORCIST. Was a Laserdisc fanatic before that and since have replaced my LD's with DVD's. Loved every moment so far of the format.

[ceeece]

Back when DVD players were first released I knew it was going to be the next big thing. I waited though until the prices came down somewhat. My first player was a Sony DVP560D (have given to my brother since and upgraded to Pioneer progressive scan). It was $300 at the time. I bought my first movies before I even bought my player because I visited my parents who had a player. I bought Braveheart and Green Mile. Not too bad for first two DVDs. I asked for Toy Story Toy Box for Christmas. And then I finally broke down and bought the Sony. My collection started small until I got my own place and a widescreen TV with 5.1 surround. I still have a small collection compared to most people (110). Movies just look and sound great now with my set up. It is hard not to buy DVD!

[limacharliewhiskey]

Trying to save a few bucks. Little did I know how much I would ultimately spend on this DVD hobby.

I had started my laserdisc collection back in 1994 and was slowly building it up. In 1998, one title that I wanted was Starship Troopers. The laserdisc was $40 MSRP, while the DVD was $30 MSRP. The DVD was on 1 disc (although on 2 sides), while the LD was on 2 discs (3 sides or 4 sides).

Cheaper and smaller and don't have to switch discs, and save $10? That was what started me down the path of DVDs.

[Dirty]

Extras, theatrical trailers, director/cast commentary, widescreen presentations, etc.

[MEJHarrison]

When you hold them just right, you can see rainbows. VHS never did that.

[kamlesh]

Five Point One Man. Five Point One. Now Six Point One!

[phpotato]

I started with VideoCD. Now VCD quality looks so bad.

[xhondax]

fight club.
thats what started it for me.
the only way i could own fight club when it came out was dvd so i bought a dvd player and then went crazy and bought a bunch more.

[aedavela]

I was given my first DVD player just before X-Mas 2000 as a bowl game gift. Went out and picked up a few discs and fell in love forever. Two words: Extras Whore.

[rtcpenguin]

The reasons why I like them are obvious, but the first DVD I ever saw that made me want to have a DVD player was Gladiator, at a friends house about 3 or 4 years ago.

[Shoegaze99]

I don’t recall the first DVD I ever saw.

Wait, no. It was The Matrix, at my father’s house. I was pretty blown away by the sound and picture, quite impressed indeed, but was not yet ready to invest in a player. Historically, you see, I’ve never been a big movie guy. (My, how times have changed). I had a box or two full of VHS tapes that I barely ever looked at, but aside from some seminal favorites, I rarely watched movies. Sure, I’d seen a bunch of flicks, but I was never fully immersed in the world of film. I’d always preferred a book or video game.

But I said to myself that when The Fellowship of the Ring was released on DVD, I would buy a DVD player that same day. And I did. Watched it a lot, but between that version’s release and the extended version I bought next to nothing when it came to DVD.

That extended edition taught me that DVDs can really pack an entertainment punch.

In the year that followed I went from about four discs to a few hundred, and now have a pretty extensive collection of personal favorites, family fare, and a nice roster of classics, both mainstream and cult. Since buying that extended Fellowship I have become not just a DVD lover, but a genuine lover of film, exploring its history (Birth of a Nation, Citizen Kane), its classic moments (“Play it again, Sam,” “No prisoners!”), its great directors and performers (David Lean, Ian McKellen), buying books (Lumet’s “Making Movies,” Houghton’s “What A Producer Does”), and seeing all I can see (Casablanca; The Good, The Bad & The Ugly; The Great Escape).

It has been an utter joy.

[JimboQ]

The Original Theatrical Trailer.

[sukr_4_dbldips]

To be honest, I didn't even really have a clue of what DVD was until my brother-in-law got me a player and The Matrix for Christmas...I was expecting to open it up and see the movie spread over 3 or 4 discs.

I've been hooked ever since.