Let's talk DVD's - Enhanced with DisneyFastplay!

[Max Doof]

I used to have quite a large dvd collection, but over time I just started buying external hard drives and torrenting what I wanted. Saves a ton of space

I think the perfect middle ground is having physicals of your absolute favorites and everything else goes on the hdd, namely stuff that ever gets corrupted it wouldn't be the end of the world. Of course you should have back-ups of your back-ups for that reason.


I think @Kari Kamiya will agree with me on this and that's about the insane market that is the godzillla/kaiju/tokusatsu dvd market.
Just because of how fucky licensing is for these films a lot of their runs are super collectible. Ironically the only reliable distributor has been sony since they managed to release (minus 2) the full heisei/millennium series and some of showa with no problems. They even had em on crackle for a while bu that catalogs been gone for a while now.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I think @Kari Kamiya will agree with me on this and that's about the insane market that is the godzillla/kaiju/tokusatsu dvd market.
Just because of how fucky licensing is for these films a lot of their runs are super collectible. Ironically the only reliable distributor has been sony since they managed to release (minus 2) the full heisei/millennium series and some of showa with no problems. They even had em on crackle for a while bu that catalogs been gone for a while now.

I honestly just got super lucky when it came to the DVDs since Dad typically stayed on top of it for years, it's @RumblyTumbly who has that real experience of hunting down physical media.

But it's true, though.

 

[Big Nasty]

Me and my family still uses VHS on a regular basis...

 

[BScCollateral]

I buy DVDs, rip them, store the DVDs and toss the boxes. Unless it comes with a cool booklet I want to keep, or something.

 

[I.B. Niggin]

I was beginning to switch over to blu-ray but I've been extremely disappointed by how lackluster and barebones the majority of them are. Sure, DVD isn't high definition but I certainly enjoy the abundance of extras and commentary far more.

 

[Syaoran Li]

I was beginning to switch over to blu-ray but I've been extremely disappointed by how lackluster and barebones the majority of them are. Sure, DVD isn't high definition but I certainly enjoy the abundance of extras and commentary far more.

Something I've noticed is that DVD's are a lot more likely to have a lot more extras than Blu-Ray but it's mostly older releases that have this while newer DVD releases tend to be somewhat barebones unless it's a specific series or title or some kind of special edition release.

With the DVD's of the early 2000's, I suspect it's because the extras were meant to get people to switch over from VHS.

Yes, DVD was technically invented in 1996 but you didn't start seeing them for sale until around mid-1999 at the absolute earliest.

Still, VHS was still kind of the norm for most people until 2001 or early 2002. I think the PS2's ability to play DVD helped the switch over a lot more and helped cement the PS2 as the best-selling console of all time,

 

[Jason Wynn]

I was beginning to switch over to blu-ray but I've been extremely disappointed by how lackluster and barebones the majority of them are. Sure, DVD isn't high definition but I certainly enjoy the abundance of extras and commentary far more.

This is how I was as well. Bought a blu ray player and just ended up being kind of disappointed by it. The high def really wasn’t that much of an upgrade from DVD and the blu rays themselves lacked so much extra content that I just didn’t care. Couldn’t get more than a trailer on most of them, let alone some good commentaries or docs

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

I've been slowly switching my DVDs over to Blu Rays, not least because many of the early ones now look absolutely awful on a modern large screen tv. It is surprising though just how many films are quite hard to find, or are relatively expensive, due to having no or limited release here. For example, Wayn'es World, Crank or Hot Shots will set you back a good £15 each, whereas the dvds are pretty much sold for the cost of postage.

 

[FAQnews Correspondent]

I go for the 4K releases or HD blu-rays when possible for shows and movies, then DVD typically for shows recorded on SD tape. The Honeymooners was filmed and it's really neat seeing a black and white 1950's TV show in HD. I might get the twilight Zone blu-ray set. Also Star Trek TOS and TNG look great in HD.

 

[sasazuka]

Yes, DVD was technically invented in 1996 but you didn't start seeing them for sale until around mid-1999 at the absolute earliest.

You're about a year off. In Montreal, music and (non-rental) video stores already had a substantial selection of DVDs by mid-1998, and I know I'm not misremembering because I got a Laserdisc player in 1997 and Laserdiscs of recent movies were still easy to come by in the autumn of that year. However, by September 1st, 1998, the local availability of Laserdiscs had been decimated by DVD.

What was so special about September 1st, 1998? That was the day that Titanic was released on home video but only on VHS and Laserdisc (with the DVD not arriving until 52 weeks later, August 31st, 1999, due to James Cameron's reluctance to approve releases on new video formats until after they had proven themselves viable in the marketplace). It being released on Laserdisc was already an anomaly, so it was the only Laserdisc available for sale at a store (Metro Video) that had had dozens of them in stock including new releases just one year earlier.

I think it's more accurate to say that mid-1999 is when DVDs started being stocked by video *rental* stores who were also cautious about new video formats due to the fear that DVD would prove to be another Betamax-level flop.

 

[Screamer]

I'm surprised how most home media being sold is still DVDs. As others have said, not great on modern TVs. We slowly and consistently upgraded the DVDs of films to blu-rays over the years. Still, quite a few that never got released. Although I don't think I have watched a film on DVD for a long time.

Done some upgrading the 4k. Generally don't buy as many as we used to, tend to go 4k. I don't see the point of upgrading everything we can to 4k. Even on big screens, blu-rays still look good.

The DVDs I still watch tend to be TV shows which aren't available anywhere else. At times you can feel a bit silly buying so much over the years. I definitely have stuff I should just sell. Yet when you want to watch something, and the only option available is in your collection. It was worth it. One of my favourites shows ever, is simply not available here. Well, 1 season is on Apple TV to buy according to JustWatch. I rewatch it every year or two. The DVDs were ones I had to go out of my way to get. Thankfully I did.

I should probably get into ripping this stuff, incase they get scratched.

 

[murdered meat bag]

i get dvds of tv shows because the bluray remasters usually crop out shit to fit 16:9 screens. also like others have said, a ton of stuff never got released as blu rays. foriegn stuff is mostly on dvd, bbc, asian films. Tartan UK is dead, some of the titles got bluray releases from others but most of the catalogue is in limbo. BBC stuff almost exclusively dvd. 2ldk and living hell only have oop dvd releases.

 

[A Grey Cat]

i have several streaming services but i also have a noticable dvd collection. mostly for movies. one of my fave companies for dvd/blu rays is shout factory's sister line scream factory. as you can tell by my name they tend to take cult horror movies and give them
HD digital remasters and new special features including making ofs and interviews with actors even years after they were in the movies.

(trailer for motel hell because i can't find a channel trailer on youtube)

oh and they can even restore films to their original versions, things like original endings and deleted scenes, they even restored the original theatrical soundtrack to return of the living dead part 2 which had been changed for copyright reasons and hadn't been available in the us 30 years! 0-0

 

[Pickle Dick]

So how are the menus on DVDs/Blu-Rays/4K discs these days? I remember how cool DVD menus were designed back then, but looking at the menus for newer movies released on home formats, they seem rather standard and cheap.

 

[A Grey Cat]

So how are the menus on DVDs/Blu-Rays/4K discs these days? I remember how cool DVD menus were designed back then, but looking at the menus for newer movies released on home formats, they seem rather standard and cheap.

universal studios blu ray menus are pretty nifty the only example i can find is from inglorious bastards

but they all seem to follow this format, i like the little clips from the film playing on the side and the way they layout the options in a series of "blades" reminds me of the original layout of Xbox live on the 360

 

[Duck Duck TUUURN]

Not sure where this love of animated DVD menus comes from. Though it's kinda rare, there are both VHS and DVDs that instantly start the movie without any ads or bullshit, and I love it when that happens.

DVDs menus are an added layer of bullshit that I have to wait to stop playing before I can play the thing I want to play, because you can never skip them. They usually feature obnoxious, compressed audio, and besides deleted scenes, who the fuck has ever used the chapter select screen on a menu? It's almost worthless. Just jump chapters until you find where you want.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Me and my family still uses VHS on a regular basis...

Last time I watched a movie on VHS was The Shining at a vacation home back in 2011, it actually wasn't that bad, but I was also watching it on a CRT, which I'm sure makes VHS more acceptable than trying to watch it on an HDTV.

Something I've noticed is that DVD's are a lot more likely to have a lot more extras than Blu-Ray but it's mostly older releases that have this while newer DVD releases tend to be somewhat barebones unless it's a specific series or title or some kind of special edition release.

With the DVD's of the early 2000's, I suspect it's because the extras were meant to get people to switch over from VHS.

Yes, DVD was technically invented in 1996 but you didn't start seeing them for sale until around mid-1999 at the absolute earliest.

Still, VHS was still kind of the norm for most people until 2001 or early 2002. I think the PS2's ability to play DVD helped the switch over a lot more and helped cement the PS2 as the best-selling console of all time,

I had never heard of DVD not once all throughout the 90s, I didn't become aware of it's existence until the PS2 came out in 2000.

But what's funny is how fast things changed, by 2002 I had fully transitioned from VHS to DVD, 2002 was the last time I was a regular watcher of movies on VHS and even then it was only a few times, I'm still completely shocked to know movies were still being released on VHS as late as 2006 because to me VHS was history by 2003.

So how are the menus on DVDs/Blu-Rays/4K discs these days? I remember how cool DVD menus were designed back then, but looking at the menus for newer movies released on home formats, they seem rather standard and cheap.

I really liked the menus Geneon did for anime releases, I in fact popped in an old Hellsing disc just to take a gander at the menus recently.

 

[sasazuka]

Not sure where this love of animated DVD menus comes from. Though it's kinda rare, there are both VHS and DVDs that instantly start the movie without any ads or bullshit, and I love it when that happens.

Some Blu-Rays I have such as Batman Returns autoplay the movie after the mandatory FBI/Interpol warning. There is a menu (with plenty of special features, I'm not sure if the special features are the same as on DVD because I never owned Batman Returns on DVD) but you need to press the "Top Menu" button (or whatever your Blu-Ray player menu button is called) to access it.

Most of the movies I have on both DVD and Blu-Ray (not counting DVDs that came with the Blu-Rays) have pretty much identical special features to the earlier DVDs and some, like Airplane!, have new bonus content (compared to the original DVD release which just had a commentary track). I know the Wayne's World Blu-Ray famously was missing the "cable channel directory" menu of the DVD but aside from that the special features are the same.

 

[Big Nasty]

Last time I watched a movie on VHS was The Shining at a vacation home back in 2011, it actually wasn't that bad, but I was also watching it on a CRT, which I'm sure makes VHS more acceptable than trying to watch it on an HDTV.


I had never heard of DVD not once all throughout the 90s, I didn't become aware of it's existence until the PS2 came out in 2000.

But what's funny is how fast things changed, by 2002 I had fully transitioned from VHS to DVD, 2002 was the last time I was a regular watcher of movies on VHS and even then it was only a few times, I'm still completely shocked to know movies were still being released on VHS as late as 2006 because to me VHS was history by 2003.


I really liked the menus Geneon did for anime releases, I in fact popped in an old Hellsing disc just to take a gander at the menus recently.

I dumped my last CRT TV a couple of years ago. It was at least 25 years old and I had worn out 2 remote controls to it.

 

[Duck Duck TUUURN]

Some Blu-Rays I have such as Batman Returns autoplay the movie after the mandatory FBI/Interpol warning. There is a menu (with plenty of special features, I'm not sure if the special features are the same as on DVD because I never owned Batman Returns on DVD) but you need to press the "Top Menu" button (or whatever your Blu-Ray player menu button is called) to access it.

Most of the movies I have on both DVD and Blu-Ray (not counting DVDs that came with the Blu-Rays) have pretty much identical special features to the earlier DVDs and some, like Airplane!, have new bonus content (compared to the original DVD release which just had a commentary track). I know the Wayne's World Blu-Ray famously was missing the "cable channel directory" menu of the DVD but aside from that the special features are the same.

That's how it should be always. The main feature should begin immediately, and I'll press menu if I want to see it.

Some DVD menus really are ridiculous. At the beginning here will be an animation, usually winding down a poorly rendered CGI hallway, that takes you to the main menu. Another animation will take you down another CGI hallway to see a sub-menu, and sometimes you have to watch another one to go back to the main! It's so pointless.