Are You DVD Crazy?

Time was we - avid consumers of video products and technology - would spend hours and hours collecting and taping VHS versions of movies and television shows - which was the state-of-the-art technology at the time. But times have changed, and now DVDs have swept the marketplace clean, and forced us to re-evaluate our movie collections and home theatre equipment. Now were dissatisfied with the quality of our existing collections, and we just cant wait to convert all those VHS tapes to DVDs. How did this happen to us? And so quickly!

Its no surprise that we all want to keep up with the latest gadgets and technology, but the growth of the DVD market has been truly amazing. During the 1980s and 1990s, VHS tapes had a clear superiority in the marketplace, but it still took about fifteen years - from their introduction in 1976 - to achieve that top spot in the market. By 1991 three out of four homes in the U.S. would own a VCR.

But their success was relatively short-lived in the marketplace - DVD players were introduced in 1997 - and the sales of DVDs had overtaken the VHS market by 2003 - a mere six years by comparison. So whats the attraction? DVDs have noticeably sharper picture quality and superior sound quality - not to mention the fact that VHS tapes can - and do - deteriorate over time and can get shredded in your VCR heads.

DVDs are also smaller to store - an important consideration if your storage space is limited - and are way more convenient. By that I mean you can jump from chapter to chapter or segment to segment with the click of your remote, eliminating all that fast forwarding and rewinding thats necessary with a VHS tape. The amount of data you can cram onto a DVD is vastly superior to what can be included on a VHS tape - which is one reason you can see a movie, plus all those cool special features like cast interviews and how they made the movie and how they did the stunts - all of that can be included on a single DVD.

The format war between VHS tapes and DVDs is all but over - with DVDs the clear winner. Not only is the DVD technology cooler than VHS - it now has the unquestioning support of the movie industry. Many studios arent releasing new movies in VHS format - theyre skipping that format entirely and sending out new releases in DVD format only. And many movie rental companies are slowly dispersing their inventory of movies in VHS format - and stocking only DVD format movies for rental. So even the movie studios and rental places appear to be DVD crazy. Cant say that we blame them!

As consumers - and videophiles (is that even a word?) - were usually the first one on the block to come home from the store with the latest technology and coolest gadgets, so in all respects we have to add ourselves to that DVD crazy category. We ran right out and experimented, then purchased, the latest in DVD technology - DVD players and recorders, even an integrated VCR that interfaced with the DVD recorder so we could convert all those VHS tapes to that great new DVD technology. We just couldnt wait to update our collections.

Now a new format war appears to be brewing - between the Blu Ray technology and the HD-DVD technology for High-Def DVDs. We talk about this in greater detail in one of the other articles on our website, but essentially DVDs of today are read and written by a red laser - the new technology uses a violet-blue laser that can be focused more tightly, thus more information can be packed onto a single DVD. Blu Ray technology is backed by several hundred movie studios, consumer electronics manufacturers, music studios, etc., so it enjoys widespread industry support.

The other side of this argument is HD-DVD technology - backed by Microsoft and Intel - which are some pretty formidable opponents. The differences stem in large part due to what technology will be available when - the HD-DVD people say the storage capacity of the Blu Ray discs arent anywhere close to a release date - the Blu Ray people say thats hogwash.

Whatever the outcome of this latest format war - we as consumers will be caught right in the middle, as we usually are - which I guess is what we deserve for being DVD crazy.

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For a more detailed version of this article in html & pdf format go to: http://www.mx123.com/cms/2006/10/03/are-you-dvd-crazy/ we are always adding new content to the site so come check us out!

Robert Barnard is the Co-Founder & CTO of http://MX123.com. Hes been involved with computers since the early 80s. He holds / has held many international industry certifications in the computer industry from CompTIA A+ to Microsoft Certified Professional & Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.Alysia Blog68302
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