DVD: Wasted?

[daltysmilth]

Is it just me, or does anyone else see DVD as a wasted opportunity?  Now, don't get me wrong, I love DVD's.  I think it's probably the best format for watching movies other than on the big screen.  And I guess that's the problem.  They've got this great format, one in which there's all kinds of room for experimentation, and they're wasting it!  The term "Direct-to-DVD" has the same negative stigma attached to it as "Direct-to-Video". 

Okay, stay with me here.  Imagine a new DVD release of, say, the Ring.  At first glance, it appears to be a normal, unremarkable DVD.  You put it in and play the movie, maybe watch some of the special features, whatever.  But as you watch it, strange things start to happen.  Say, occasionally when you play the movie, it skips to a different chapter for apparent no reason.  Or while you're trying to play the "making of" featurette, it suddenly takes you to the screen for the production still galleries.  You start to think maybe there's some sort of defect in your copy of the DVD or something.  Over time, these little quirks start to become more and more frequent, only instead of randomly taking you to a different part of the movie or a different special feature, it starts taking you to stuff you can't find on the DVD through any of the menus, no matter what you click on.  Strange, perhaps somewhat disturbing footage starts playing on your screen when you try to select English in Dolby 5.1 as the language.  Eventually somehow you notice on the case for the disc that there's a number to call if you experience anything strange about the DVD's, and you call the number and find out that it was all an elaborate hoax.  This edition of the DVD was specially made to completely creep people out when they play it.

I'm not saying it would be totally feasable, but it sounds like a nifty idea, no?

[Pak-Man]

Sounds like the insanity effects in Etermal Darkness (Gamecube.) Only thing: What if you just want to watch the movie? You'd have to be able to turn it on and off, and then you know about it. :^)

[J-Proof]

Sounds like the insanity effects in Etermal Darkness (Gamecube.) Only thing: What if you just want to watch the movie? You'd have to be able to turn it on and off, and then you know about it. :^)

Eternal Darkness was good times when the insanity meter went up all crazy =)

[Blueguy]

I'd be pissed that I bought a movie I want to watch, but couldn't enjoy because the movie is trying to screw with me.

[AmandaGal]

I remember back when DVD first came out there were a few DVDs where you could "choose your adventure" so to speak.  They had different options you could choose to view which would end up with different stories.

Those DVDs were, in fact, lame and much like the choose your own adventure books (very one dimensional, very flat plots, boring characters, etc.) however I always thought DVD would go more into that interactive direction and it never did.  I think they could have done more with it.

I LOVE Eternal Darkness.  Probably one of my favorite cube games.

[J-Proof]

Blu Ray tech is stil lreally new tho - it'l ltake a little bit longer for blu ray to become universal.

(You know you're a movie geek when you look forward to the bonus materials mroe than the actual movie )

[Pak-Man]

My money's on HD DVD. I think Sony's getting greedy

[mrbasehart]

I think there's a player that's been developed that can play both formats. 

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I don't think that either format will win out. There's not only the empty promise of it being "better," when, in fact, the quality is no better than what can be achieved with a regular DVD release (the only reason some HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray releases may seem "better" is because the studios put the films through better transfers so they could con us into thinking that it's the technology itself is better), but also the fact that these releases won't play on current systems, nor will you be able to play regular DVDs on the new systems. It's a waste of time and money for everyone involved. The DVD format's still new, let's give it some time before we replace it with all this other shit.

[gbeenie]

I don't think that either format will win out. There's not only the empty promise of it being "better," when, in fact, the quality is no better than what can be achieved with a regular DVD release (the only reason some HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray releases may seem "better" is because the studios put the films through better transfers so they could con us into thinking that it's the technology itself is better)

This is absolutely 100% NOT TRUE. The size of current DVD prohibits being able to put material of more than a certain resolution on it. Based on MPEG-2 encoding (which is what DVD uses), this is a mathematical fact. The much larger storage capacity of the high definition formats allows for a FAR greater picture resolution. You've clearly never done an A/B comparison, because it's not even close.

You know who you sound like? My freakin' boss, complaining about how he doesn't like Spybot and Ad-Aware because they "put the junk on your computer they claim to be removing."

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

[Petey Wheatstraw]

This is absolutely 100% NOT TRUE.

I'm afraid that you're in denial.

[gbeenie]

This is absolutely 100% NOT TRUE.

I'm afraid that you're in denial.

Your lame attempt at psychoanalysis fails to camouflage the fact that you don't know what you're talking about.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

the way i see it, is sony has now a blu ray dvd player on the market that can play video games connect to the internet and do a whole slew of stuff,

If only their marketing dept hadnt gone insane they would have already crushed hd

[Minnesota]

dvd is good for me right now, HD movies are going to have to show a vast difference for me to want to convert... also, I dont have a HD tv set and wont for at least a couple more years

[MrTorso]

I'm more worried about HD-DVD and Blu-ray being wasted.

I'm super annoyed at these companies for taking this massive amount of space and not using it for extra content.  An entire season could fit on like 2 Blu-Ray discs, instead of 7 or 8 DVDs.  They should be doing this.

And they aren't.

A movie with 1080p playback is going to require a lot more space than standard def content.  Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are not marketed (nor should they be) as "look how much we can fit on a disc" they are marketed as "look how good this movie looks". 

There is also the "perceived value" aspect that has been in place from all the studios for year and years. A tv box set is always going to cost a lot more than a single film. Depending on the popularity and cost, sets for standard dvds cost anywhere from $40 - $150.  They will always have to pay for song rights and artist royalties and what not. There is no way they could release a $60 set with only 1 disc. Regardless of how many hours are on that disc. Joe six-pack (the ultimate demographic) would flip out and accuse them of being a rip off. It is all about the perceived value. If that set is going to be $60 joe six-pack is going to want multiple discs for his hard earned money.