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I love special features and if I love a movie I want the biggest and best Special edition I can find I just wish they would release that from the start instead of every 2 years another edition. However look at the flip side there is no such thing as a special edition on Blu Ray which is part of the reason I don’t actually own a Blu Ray despite having a Blu Ray player.

Have to say, instant premiere does sound appealing.

Oh, HDTV started to gain some steam back then but it didn’t explode I think until late last year and this year. I don’t recall exactly but heck, didn’t they even end up pushing back the all-digital TV thing a couple of years due to relatively low sales of HDTVs?

Vic

Yeah, that is mildly annoying, unless you actually care about the special features then it’s undoubtedly significantly so. I tend not to bother with those most of the time, seeing as I buy the disks for the movies/episodes, so it’s not as big an issue for me. Only a couple of times have I gotten more than one version of a movie on DVD, theatrical and director’s cuts, and both times they were very different movies despite being made from, mostly, the same footage.

The one thing I will say that dvd has done that is possibly bad, but certainly annoying, is the way they keep making new ones for us to buy. You buy the dvd for the movie, and a couple of months later there’s the two-disc dvd, and then later there will be a special edition, and then a director’s cut, and then the final edition, and so on.
I don’t blame dvds, the industry has just taken advantage, but it is really annoying.
At the same time, I now buy movies on dvd cheaper than when they were on vhs, much better for it.

Driving to the video store to rent a movie has many more factors than downloading a video.

Rev

Regarding the straight to DVD movies, yeah, like anything they’re going to be a mixed bag, and it will come down to what you’re looking for. I’ve rented movies that never made it to theaters in my city, thus qualifying for my definition of straight to DVD, that were far, far better than almost anything I’ve seen in theaters in recent years. I’ve also seen movie, like the American Pie series, that I avoided in theaters because they looked utterly awful, much like their direct to DVD sequels.

Truth be told, there’s very little I’m unwilling to check out when I’m renting a movie, but I’ve consistently found that a number of the big name movies I’ve rented have been outclassed by movies that premiered on DVD. It’s just a matter of knowing what you’re looking for, and what you’re not looking for.

I will agree with you, though, that most would never have made it on the big screen, if for no other reason than they aren’t what most people seem to want to watch.

I can see where you are coming from on the quality of the streaming video, but I think that the tech is just around the corner that will allow you to D/L hi-def quality movies in a short time. The Netflix player (that I think Vic reviewed on here) is a good option right now because all you need is a $9/month Netflix account and you can download as many movies as you want. Where I don’t think the dvd can be replaced is for the bonus features and the easter eggs. Well, that and the fact that the d/l doesn’t look impressive on your shelf.

As for the straight-to-dvd movies, some are utterly awful (like the American Pie sequels) and most would never have seen the light of day if they had to be on the big screen. Granted, there have been some good flicks (like the Stargate movies), but for the most part those dvd’s are for when you are browsing Blockbuster and there is no new releases left.

True, but HDTV has only begun to make serious inroads into people’s homes this year.

Vic

As for downloading from the internet, that will never, at least for me, be a viable option. The quality/resolution has a long way to go the even catch up to even VHS, and connection failures or a dead computer anywhere along the route, can prevent you from getting a complete download, resulting in the possibility of you having to pay more than once to watch something just once. The fact that I can’t put the download on my shelf or watch it again anytime, or anywhere, I want adds to the issues I have. In order for me to overcome those issues, the story would have to be extremely compelling and freely available for me to stream it, or purchasable and viewable without restrictions for me to find a way to pay for it.

So far, I have yet to find anything that will replace DVDs as my format of choice.

I have waaay tooo maaaany dvds. Its a bad habit. I sure don’t see BluRay ever catching up to Dvds.
By the time they do, convienant downloading services will make BluRay too expensive.
There’s also the Dvd computer program discs. Those arnt changing into BluRay.
BluRay won’t ever catch up !!!! You suck BluRay.

I don’t miss those damn VHS tapes. Blah! ;+p

Dvds have changed things, and for the better!!

this is OT. But my most hated thing: Fox Studios is at it again! Why are the executives at that company so out of touch with the industry and consumer-base.

http://chud.com/articles/articles/16113/1/NOT-EVEN-THE-DIRECTOR-OF-BABYLON-AD-LIKES-IT/Page1.html

that article talks about how the director of Babylon A.D. doesn’t like his own film and that Fox screwed him. Here we go again, its happening to Wolverine as we speak, and it happened to Joss Whedon’s Firefly

The Backwoods – the two actors on that cover alone make me want to get it.

It’s totally true, I’m seeing sequels to everything out there, scorpian king 2, behind enemy lines 2…all that feature different casts then their predecessors but are still fun to watch.

I think the DVD Genre is a great thing because independents can easily get into the game, nowadays anyone can make a DVD and its great that there are so many option available.

Now with Blu-Ray out, I wonder if that will succeed… or will the industry move more to the online way of things instead…I mean, these discs are hugely expensive and I know for myself, I will never buy one. I’d much rather see my TV hooked up to the internet, and get things for much less expense. Adding more to the point is more and more people making their computer into a home entertainment system hooked up to an HDTV, etc.