I remember it like it was yesterday. Talk of a new format for watching movies. This concept would be a marriage of the compact disc, the CD-ROM, and movie storage. It was called DVD. Or sometimes known as Digital Video Disc. Some preferred Digital Versatile Disc, as it worked as a storage device that has many other uses than movie viewing.
I had been hearing murmurings about DVD, but I was, as always, skeptical. An article in the indispensable Video Watchdog Magazine changed my mind. Clearly, DVD was the future of home movie viewing. And even more importantly, movie collecting.
I took the plunge in the Winter of 1998. Earlier than many, but not as soon as some did. I took my Christmas bonus that year and bought myself a Sony DVD player. I don't remember the model number now, but it was the best player I ever owned. It, and my entire collection were stolen around three years later.
I took to the new format with enthusiasm. The first DVDs I bought were Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Starship Troopers. Those were the first, but they were far from the last. I went berserk, as I have been known to do. I bought DVDs nearly every week. Multiple purchases. I began shopping at Circuit City, but I quickly grew disgusted by that place because of their attempt to monopolize the industry with their inferior DIVX technology. The Circuit City salespeople assured innocent customers that DIVX was the future and it wasn't going away. It was War, and we fought it with passion. DIVX did go away, and before long Circuit City followed suit. Good riddance, thought I and most other collectors.
Anybody remember DVD Express? It was the mail order outlet for purchasing DVDs for a while. I made many orders. Got many DVDs. Then the company expanded and started carrying games and other items. They changed their name to simply Express.com and the service went to crap.
Many began buying from Amazon, and WalMart became a major source for DVD purchases. Best Buy trumped Circuit City, beating them at their own game, and for a number of years were my preferred place to browse and buy DVDs.
We take it for granted now. Pristine prints of movies, in uncut form. Back in the fun, but gloomy years of VHS , we suffered through dim, truncated copies of the films we craved. Then, thanks to companies like Anchor Bay, we could easily get uncut movies by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci and all the rest of the foreign product we wanted.
Then there were the extras! My God, movie fans were in heaven. Behind the scenes features, audio commentaries, short subjects, trailers galore. It was paradise.
People were buying everything. Collecting became affordable and who wanted to return a movie to a rental outlet when there were often hours of content on a disc?
It was routine for me to check online for the movie releases of the week. It was rare that a week went by when there wasn't at least one movie I wanted. Usually it was more than one. I would go to WalMart or Best Buy on release day, Tuesday, to get them. DVDs were sold at a reduced price in the initial week of release. And the obscure stuff I'd get online. I went with some independent places, but most often I would go with Amazon or Deep Discount.
Time passed. The newness of the DVD began to wear off. People that obsessively collected and watched movie began to spend more time and money on gaming. I used to prowl game stores for used DVDs and I constantly saw people bringing in piles of DVDs to trade for the latest games. Who wanted to sit and watch a movie when you can put yourself in to the action of an interactive game? Me, that's who.
But even I grew jaded. Special Edition DVDs no longer held the attraction that they once did. The behind the scenes stuff all started to look routine. Now I often do not even watch any of the extras. I almost never listen to commentaries any more. In a way it makes me sad.
God, all of the DVDs I've bought and then turned around and sold in desperate times. Sometimes I'd buy the same movie again. Just like in those old days when I'd obsessively rent and tape movies on blank tapes.
And now, like then, I have a collection of bootleg DVDs. Friends trade back and forth. It's wrong, yes, but I'm guilty of it. I don't think it's as bad as 'sharing' movie files with countless people over the internet, but it's essentially the same thing.
Now, years after I jumped on the DVD revolution early on, it seems to be dying. I'm sad about it, but I can't seem to care a whole lot. I still haven't jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon and I probably never will. Now there's Blu-Hi Def, which makes movies look like computer games to me. Home 3D is the next wave, and I'll intentionally be left behind.
The DVD looks to be obsolete soon. Too much better competition out there. Blu-Ray, as I mentioned, movies on demand, cable TV continues to get more sophisticated and alluring to people. Me, I hate it. It's all too complicated for someone like me. I miss just turning a knob on a cable and being done with it.
Netflix and Redbox are having a big effect on the industry, too. Why spend the big bucks when you can get a movie for a dollar a night right around the corner? That's cheaper than when I was renting tapes back in the mid-1980's. I just did it last night with The Runaways. And Netflix makes nearly every DVD available at an extremely low price. I was a subscriber, but I felt like I had to watch all of the movies that were constantly coming in. It was stealing from my reading time.
DVD sales are way down. The resale value of them has become almost nonexistent. I've had some financial difficulties lately, and I checked online for some prices and most of my collection is essentially worthless. And thrift stores are having increasing numbers of DVDs on their shelves for giveaway prices. That would have been unthinkable even a year ago.
Today I went into a Best Buy for the first time in a long time. I was half-hoping I'd find something I really wanted to watch. I was disappointed. The DVD selection was greatly depleted. There used to be so many more to choose from. And all of the obscure stuff is gone. Just releases from the major distributors were on the shelves.
I'm not jumping on any new technologies. I don't have the heart, or the finances to do so. These days I see what they have at the library. There are dozens to choose from there. I watch my old favorites. Mostly the beloved movies from the 80's. And if new extra-packed editions of John Hughes DVDs come out, I will be buying them. Other than that, I'm just about done with it. If I had all the money I blew on home video in my life...
There's no sense in dwelling on that. Nowadays I mostly prefer reading. I find it more rewarding. And I like going out and watching films at the theater. Even if most of them are pretty lame.
I look back on my love affair with DVD with affection and a pang of sorrow. I was so enthusiastic about it. Now I'm mostly apathetic.
I had been hearing murmurings about DVD, but I was, as always, skeptical. An article in the indispensable Video Watchdog Magazine changed my mind. Clearly, DVD was the future of home movie viewing. And even more importantly, movie collecting.I took the plunge in the Winter of 1998. Earlier than many, but not as soon as some did. I took my Christmas bonus that year and bought myself a Sony DVD player. I don't remember the model number now, but it was the best player I ever owned. It, and my entire collection were stolen around three years later.
I took to the new format with enthusiasm. The first DVDs I bought were Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Starship Troopers. Those were the first, but they were far from the last. I went berserk, as I have been known to do. I bought DVDs nearly every week. Multiple purchases. I began shopping at Circuit City, but I quickly grew disgusted by that place because of their attempt to monopolize the industry with their inferior DIVX technology. The Circuit City salespeople assured innocent customers that DIVX was the future and it wasn't going away. It was War, and we fought it with passion. DIVX did go away, and before long Circuit City followed suit. Good riddance, thought I and most other collectors.
Anybody remember DVD Express? It was the mail order outlet for purchasing DVDs for a while. I made many orders. Got many DVDs. Then the company expanded and started carrying games and other items. They changed their name to simply Express.com and the service went to crap.Many began buying from Amazon, and WalMart became a major source for DVD purchases. Best Buy trumped Circuit City, beating them at their own game, and for a number of years were my preferred place to browse and buy DVDs.
We take it for granted now. Pristine prints of movies, in uncut form. Back in the fun, but gloomy years of VHS , we suffered through dim, truncated copies of the films we craved. Then, thanks to companies like Anchor Bay, we could easily get uncut movies by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci and all the rest of the foreign product we wanted.
Then there were the extras! My God, movie fans were in heaven. Behind the scenes features, audio commentaries, short subjects, trailers galore. It was paradise.
People were buying everything. Collecting became affordable and who wanted to return a movie to a rental outlet when there were often hours of content on a disc?
It was routine for me to check online for the movie releases of the week. It was rare that a week went by when there wasn't at least one movie I wanted. Usually it was more than one. I would go to WalMart or Best Buy on release day, Tuesday, to get them. DVDs were sold at a reduced price in the initial week of release. And the obscure stuff I'd get online. I went with some independent places, but most often I would go with Amazon or Deep Discount.
Time passed. The newness of the DVD began to wear off. People that obsessively collected and watched movie began to spend more time and money on gaming. I used to prowl game stores for used DVDs and I constantly saw people bringing in piles of DVDs to trade for the latest games. Who wanted to sit and watch a movie when you can put yourself in to the action of an interactive game? Me, that's who.
But even I grew jaded. Special Edition DVDs no longer held the attraction that they once did. The behind the scenes stuff all started to look routine. Now I often do not even watch any of the extras. I almost never listen to commentaries any more. In a way it makes me sad.
God, all of the DVDs I've bought and then turned around and sold in desperate times. Sometimes I'd buy the same movie again. Just like in those old days when I'd obsessively rent and tape movies on blank tapes.
And now, like then, I have a collection of bootleg DVDs. Friends trade back and forth. It's wrong, yes, but I'm guilty of it. I don't think it's as bad as 'sharing' movie files with countless people over the internet, but it's essentially the same thing.
Now, years after I jumped on the DVD revolution early on, it seems to be dying. I'm sad about it, but I can't seem to care a whole lot. I still haven't jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon and I probably never will. Now there's Blu-Hi Def, which makes movies look like computer games to me. Home 3D is the next wave, and I'll intentionally be left behind.
The DVD looks to be obsolete soon. Too much better competition out there. Blu-Ray, as I mentioned, movies on demand, cable TV continues to get more sophisticated and alluring to people. Me, I hate it. It's all too complicated for someone like me. I miss just turning a knob on a cable and being done with it.
Netflix and Redbox are having a big effect on the industry, too. Why spend the big bucks when you can get a movie for a dollar a night right around the corner? That's cheaper than when I was renting tapes back in the mid-1980's. I just did it last night with The Runaways. And Netflix makes nearly every DVD available at an extremely low price. I was a subscriber, but I felt like I had to watch all of the movies that were constantly coming in. It was stealing from my reading time.
DVD sales are way down. The resale value of them has become almost nonexistent. I've had some financial difficulties lately, and I checked online for some prices and most of my collection is essentially worthless. And thrift stores are having increasing numbers of DVDs on their shelves for giveaway prices. That would have been unthinkable even a year ago.
Today I went into a Best Buy for the first time in a long time. I was half-hoping I'd find something I really wanted to watch. I was disappointed. The DVD selection was greatly depleted. There used to be so many more to choose from. And all of the obscure stuff is gone. Just releases from the major distributors were on the shelves.
I'm not jumping on any new technologies. I don't have the heart, or the finances to do so. These days I see what they have at the library. There are dozens to choose from there. I watch my old favorites. Mostly the beloved movies from the 80's. And if new extra-packed editions of John Hughes DVDs come out, I will be buying them. Other than that, I'm just about done with it. If I had all the money I blew on home video in my life...
There's no sense in dwelling on that. Nowadays I mostly prefer reading. I find it more rewarding. And I like going out and watching films at the theater. Even if most of them are pretty lame.
I look back on my love affair with DVD with affection and a pang of sorrow. I was so enthusiastic about it. Now I'm mostly apathetic.
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