Is anyone else just not impressed with DVDs?

[Greaseball]

We finally broke down and bought a combination DVD/VCR because I had this fear that they would stop making videos forever.

I just don't see what the big deal is about DVDs - why do people like them so much? Because they're small? No tape to get all jumbled up?

Here is why I don't like them:

When I stop the disc in the middle of a movie, I never know where it is going to start. Sometimes it starts up right where I stopped it, and sometimes it starts at the very beginning.

Sometimes the subtitles come on for no reason.

Sometimes the picture stops and turns into this cubic pattern, and I have to take the DVD out and clean it.

Rewinding and fast-forwarding is lame. It does it in big chunks, rather than letting you see exactly where it is like on a tape.

OK, those are my reasons.

[*Erin*]

i like that i can skip around, that they're small and cool looking, and that they look a whole lot crisper than a vhs tape. on the other hand, they're more expensive (which i don't get, since they're way cheaper to manufacture), they scratch easily, and i don't see em putting all the great old indy classics out on dvd any time soon. i felt like i had to have a dvd player, it was all blockbuster's fault-i went to rent "capturing the friedmans" and they didnt have it on vhs at all, and wouldnt get it. turds.

[cathe]

I don't like DVD's either - mainly for the difficulty to rewind, ff and when you stop in the middle, it's hard to find where you left off. Also, They are so delicate and scratch easily and my kids have a heard time working them - videos are much better for kids to handle.

[khrisday]

I think you just ned to experiment with your DVD player a bit and become more familiar with it. Most of what you listed not liking, it shoudln't be doing, and my guess is that you are doing or not doing somethign to cause it.
I love my DVD player because I can skip or watch previews easily, choose which chapter I want to start at, and get lots of extras.

[EFmom]

We were given one as a Christmas gift, mostly so my BIL could also give us a DVD he "produced" about his place of employment!

It was a generous gift, and we did have a handful of DVDs that dh bought in China that previously we could only watch on the computer. So, in that regard it was nice.

But I wouldn't have bought one until you really couldn't buy videos any more. I don't especially like the DVD, or see the point in paying more for a movie based on this format. Mine does some of the stupid things yours does--turns on subtitles, etc.

[Arduinna]

I agree with Khris, this sounds like the frustration of someone still adusting to new (for them) technology. Sounds like you need some time to get used to it and learn it's functions better. My dvd player has a built in memory so that when I stop a movie in the middle and even if we watch a different movie when I put it back in it starts where we left off. Also there are different ways to use rewind/FF.

anyway I love dvd wayyyyyy more than tape. The picture is 100 times better and so is the sound (love the 6.1 on the home theatre) and chapter selection makes it so much easier to go right to where you want in the movie.

[srain]

Yep. We get DVDs at the library, and they're always a mess- skipping, stopping mid-movie, whatever- they apparently don't hold up as well to many users as VHS tapes do. (And we've tried cleaning them, too, to no avail.) But the library is only getting new stuff on DVD for the most part now.

[puddingpop]

I love DVDs and even though we have a VCR, I think we've used it maybe three times in the 2 years we've had it -- almost all of our movies are on DVD now. Also, we've never had any weird issues with stopping and starting or captions (and ours is a fairly cheap player: under $100 Canadian).

DH loves DVDs because of all the "special features" -- to him, that's what helps make the movie.

[SabrinaJL]

We use our XBox as a DVD player and I love it. It doesn't ff or rewind in chunks (well if you are going by chapter it does). It does it like a vcr except much better because you can choose how fast or slow you want to ff or rewind. It's cool. I also like the special features. Never had any problems with subtitles or the picture either.

The most recent thing we had a problem with dvd/vcr wise was my daughters vcr ate one of her tapes. She now prefers DVD's too.

[Greaseball]

I don't notice a difference in the picture.

I got one because there were things we wanted to watch that were not available on video. (The first season of "24"!) Also, I guess you can fit more stuff on a DVD - if I want to rent old tv shows, a dvd holds a lot more episodes than a tape, and it's the same price to rent them, so it's a better deal.

I just bought my first Sony discman a few months ago! I got really tired of walkmans and cassette tapes, although I still use cassettes because I haven't figured out that cd burner yet, and because I hear that they are going to start making cd burners that don't copy material that is copyrighted.

[momto l&a]

Dh and I arent all that impressed with DVDs. Like we can't stop the movie for the night and turn off the machine and come back to our spot the next day. We have to leave the machine on in order to have our spot saved.

They scratch so easily, like renting you never know. So easy for kids to scratch them just trying to put them in.

There are other reasons which escape my brain at the moment. :LOL

[KaraBoo]

I agree. Perhaps a little more familiarity with your machine is in order. (God, that sounds sordid! LOL)

I LOVE DVDs. I love being able to skip right to where I want, even if I've turned off my machine. I just use the remote and skip to the scene. My remote also has two speeds of fast forward and rewind. You can find exactly the spot you want easily! (I love the extra stuff. That's my fave thing about DVDs)

One thing to consider is what sort of machine you have. I've read that the combo machines are more apt to break down than the single DVD players. I don't know if that's true...just something I read online.

The older DVD players, with front loaders especially, are very tetchy and sometimes do funky things. We have an older model that sometimes skips and burps with movies that the newer model will play with no problems. (We have two players, blush)

And hey, you don't have to like DVDs if you don't wanna

[stayinghome]

I am much to sloppy and don't take care of cd's and dvd's. so they tend to skip a lot if we have it for more then say, 2 months... but i like the picture better and do like that you don't need to rewind or fast forward, and can skip over stuff...

[Arduinna]

We have a new computor with a cd burner and haven't had any issues copying my vast cd collection or burning cds due to copywrite issues. In fact the windows media player in XP can be automatically set up to retrieve liscensing for any copywrited cds so you can burn them. I make my own mix cds and I never hav eto worry about skipping becuase I can just burn a new one. I rarely listen to the original cd anymore so that I can save it in pristine condition. And it's great to make extra copies for the car and for my dd to have her own. She was the one that tended to scratch them.

now I just need a dvd burner.

[Soontobe3]

I do like our DVD player - now that I have learned how to use it! I used to have a lot of the problems you all listed - and it was b'c I didn't know how to use it all properly!

they take up so much less space than VHS!!


The only things I do not like is the price (obviously) and the fact that a lot of the older movies (mainly Disney stuff) that my kids love aren't available on DVD yet... so we have a VCR in our bedroom for the kids to watch those movies.

[Viola]

My husband bought our first dvd player in 1997, so we've pretty much been buying dvds since then and I don't even think about it anymore. I think there are positives to both, and part of it is that I have had tapes mess up on me, get wrinkled or otherwise damaged. They are also susceptible to problems from magnets and such, which was a worry for us when we had those strong magnets to unlock our cabinet locks.

But, yeah, there are things I like better about vhs tapes, and one of the things is it is easy to stop where you were, take the tape out even, and it will start up right where you left off. I never seem to be able to locate exactly where I stopped on my dvd player, but maybe I'm not trying hard enough. And if you are watching a movie in a moving vehicle, dvds are susceptible to skipping.

When we first got our dvd player, I thought it was horrible. It kept darkening and lightening which was really annoying, but that was a copy protection function because the dvd player was connected to the vcr to play on the tv. We don't have that problem anymore since we have a different set up.

[Lucysmama]

Here is why I don't like them:

When I stop the disc in the middle of a movie, I never know where it is going to start. Sometimes it starts up right where I stopped it, and sometimes it starts at the very beginning.

Sometimes the subtitles come on for no reason.

Sometimes the picture stops and turns into this cubic pattern, and I have to take the DVD out and clean it.

Rewinding and fast-forwarding is lame. It does it in big chunks, rather than letting you see exactly where it is like on a tape.

Greaseball -

It sounds like you just need to familiarize yourself with it a bit more....

-Subtitles should not come on for no reason.
-If the picture stops and gets all cubic, it usually means there is something on the DVD or it is scratched. Think of it this way: it's like when your CD skips. You just have to handle them correctly and they won't do that.
-It sounds like instead of rewinding or fastforwarding, you are skipping chapters. There should also be a fast forward button, and you should be able to see the movie moving fast, just like when you fast forward a tape, only clearer. Play around with your remote, I'm sure it's there.
-Usually, if you press STOP once, the film will just stop and you can press START again later and it will start again where you left off. If you press STOP twice, it will go back to the main menu.
-The picture quality difference is huge. I have a lot of the same films on VHS and DVD now. If you watch some of a film on DVD, and then put the VHS in, you will notice a huge difference. I can't even watch mine on VHS anymore, they just sound and look so crappy. Also, VHS tapes deteriorate the more you watch them, while DVDs do not. (Unless you aren't careful and you scratch it.)

I hope that helps!!! Just play around and get more familiar with it.

We love our DVDs. It's so cool to get Special Editions of your favorite movies, and watch making-of featurettes, see filmographies, and hear voice-over commentaries by the actors or directors during the film.

[KaraBoo]

slightly OT....Arduinna-we have a DVD burner and we've saved so much money on DVDs that way! We have a serious movie addiction LOL

[indie]

Originally Posted by srain

Yep. We get DVDs at the library, and they're always a mess- skipping, stopping mid-movie, whatever- they apparently don't hold up as well to many users as VHS tapes do. (And we've tried cleaning them, too, to no avail.) But the library is only getting new stuff on DVD for the most part now.

Same problem here.

[pilesoflaundry]

I love dvds for the most part, the only thing I don't like is they are more delicate. Many of mine are really scratched because the kids think they can put them on themselves. And a few we have 'worn' out from repeat playing.

But I love not having to rewind them it's nice when a toddler wants to rewatch something and doesn't understand they have to wait until it rewinds.

I did buy a skip doctor to fix skipped/scatched ones and that helps some but I've noticed if I repair a dvd that we watch a ton that the quick skip dr. fix doesn't last and I have to run it through the thing again.