DVDs: love/hate relationship

R

racketboy

Established Member
I hate VHS. I hate the medium and I hate the quality.

I pretty much fell in love with DVDs back in the day.

No rewinding, skipping chapters, great picture/sound, special features etc, small form factor... the list goes on.

But!!! Over the last few months I've been very frustrated with some.

Not only do I get a small, but noticeable skip on random discs (I have a pretty decent player too), but now at least two of my personal DVDs are unwatchable.

And they just happen to be two of my wife's absolute favorites.

Case #1: Ever After (girl movie)

It plays fine for about the first 1/2 hour but then it skips BAD!!!! like really bad. At times it freezes the whole machine. If you try to skip tracks to somewhere later in the movie it freezes as well. There a just a few small scratches on the disc, but nothing too bad. We usually take care of our DVDs.

Case #2: Emperor's New Groove (funny cartoon -- to the point you forget it's Disney)

No scratches on the disc at all. Looks like there is a small imperfection on outer rim of disc (manufacturing defect?). My player tries reading it for about 10secs and then spits it out saying "disc error".

There's also a problem (which may be related to these) that is known as DVD Rot

(more links)

I'm not really looking forward to having to buy the same movies all over again -- again and again.

Anybody else have this problem?
 
Just think... in about ten to twenty years:

"I hate DVD! I hate the medium, and hate the quality!" 😉

I personally am a VHS guy myself. You can't exactly record TV onto a DVD-R unless you shell out $3000+ for a damn DVD Recorder. That's why I'm a VHS guy. Now... when it comes to movies, I like DVDs, the special features and such. When it comes to Anime, it great for individual movies, but for Anime series it's a nightmare. $30 for a damn DVD with only 3 - 5 episodes?!?!?!?!?! Let me see... Blank VHS = $2 or $3, 14 Anime episodes when recorded in EP Format. 😀

I'm a VHS guy for that simple fact

Although I'm afraid that when I get a job (whenever the hell that'll be) I'm just gonna go insane and buy every DVD I see.... that and DC and Saturn games 🙂 😎 😉 :lol: 😀 😛 :cheers :hehehe: :smokin: :drool:

Saturn = :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow :bow
 
yeah VHS is good for cheap

as for recording, there's also PVRs and HTPCs.

I'd rather store recorded stuff on a large HD instead of removable media.

Unless it's something I KNOW I'm gonna want to keep for a while.

I wish I could have a movies on a HD or something and still maintain the chapters/menus/special features of the DVD (but without the FBI warnings and all that crap)
 
i hate multiple version of one movie dvds(i got an idea how about we hold back on a lot of extra stuff that sucks then come out with another version with it in it)
 
Unless it's a manufacturing defect, DVD's can last just as long as VHS's - with proper care, of course. I'm not a 'real' fusspot over quality between DVD's and VHS's, though when it comes to rips for computer use/storage, I will only bother with the highest quality available. As far as discs go - CD is most durable, followed by DVD (rather delicate), and then GD (extremely delicate).
 
Have you tried playing these 2 DVD's on your computer's DVD drive?

You might have a slight problem with your regular DVD player or it may sometimes be upgraded with BIOS download from Manufacturer.
 
I have both of those dvd's, Ever After being one of my wife's favorites 😉 (frisky). We havent had Emperors New Groove very long but it plays great and we've never had trouble with Ever After. One of my old dvd players skips, but I think it over heats. Four of my dvd players appear to play everything I throw at them perfectly (2 normal dvd players, a pc dvd-rom and my xbox) and the PS2 does it ok. The pauses in middle of movies are when some crappy dvd players are switching layers on certain movies (my $60 and $100 dollar dvd players dont have this problem). But anyway, have fun...and I love anime on dvd, but boxsets are the way to go usually, but not always. 😀
 
But when your copy dies, you go and get (the hopefully) still perfect original from its case and make another copy.
 
They may, but at least you can take physical damage out of the equation by using copies.
 
I like dvds for the most part, but what I HATE is the menus.. I think you should be able to hold down a button when the thing boots up to get into the menus, otherwise it just plays..

example..

I like to work with the tv in the background... I have a bunch of tapes filles with CHiPs, sienfeld, and get a life that can just be background noise while I work.. I bought a simpsons dvd that stops every twenty minutes asking you to select the next episode.. I WANT THE NEXT ONE!! dont ask me, if i want you to stop, i'll push the stop button for crying out loud!

So i bought a dvdr to redo my simpsons investment, but i havent gotten around to doing that yet.... but anyways, dvds are great till people go crazy with the blasted menus!
 
The only time I had problems with DVDs, was after I had my PS2 for awhile. I went and bought a new Panasonic with Progressive scan. No problems anymore. I did have problems getting Emperors New Groove to play on my PS2.
 
Have you considered that it might be the player? One of mine (Sony) had skipped on a few movies and then it simply died. Went out and got a Panasonic. It's worked great ever since.
 
I love my DVD palyer!!!....i found a crack for it on the net.....Now it's a multi region DVD player! :cheers 😀 :lol: :hehehe:

hay!....Resident_Lurker......ROFLOL at your yellow thngys in your sig!
 
Originally posted by Jaded God@Aug 30, 2003 @ 10:58 AM

one word...

B-U-R-N-E-R.

Stop and go get a DVDRW Burner and back your stuff up man. :slap

nuff' said.
Click to expand...

do you not notice artifacts on copies?

Hell, I even noticed imperfections in the compression on the original DVDs!

DVDs=compressed video

VHS=analog . . . but not compressed

Every DVD I've watch I've noticed the "MPEG-yness" of it. It's not High-Definition, and it's not the best quality as it could be.

I think it will be a short lived medium. Hi-def is coming and people want to record in hi-def, and VIEW in hi-def.

However, there ARE Hi-Def VHS recorders? Ha! 😀

The whole disc concept just sucks! They aren't durable, easily break, scratch, and are difficult to handle for most people. Really? How many people do you see hold a CD/DVD properly. AND You practically have to break the thing just to remove it from some cases.

Someone mentioned "progressive scan" and it may be true that it reads the disc well. However, most saleman will never tell you that the feature is useless unless you have a progressive scan television. I believe it has something to do with how it draws the picture on the screen, and not how it reads the disc.
 
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