Posted by Bill Vermillion on 01/08/00 11:32

In article <1132328610.515116.258540@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
Goro <evilninjax@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>elrous0@pop.uky.edu wrote:
>> http://tinyurl.com/bwgty
>>
>> It's funny to think this was all-too-typical of laserdisc fans'
>> predictions for DVD at the time. I still remember arguing in 1997 with
>> alt.video.laserdisc denizens who would claim "DVD's are too fragile to
>> rent" and "No way they'll stay this cheap" (this was when DVD's
>> *AVERAGED* $25 a disc and $15 discs were unheard of).
>>
>> Of course, I've been wrong myself sometimes. I never expected HDTV's to
>> catch on as fast as they have. And even I was surprised how quickly and
>> thoroughly DVD's caught on with the general public.
>>
>> -Eric

>Of course many of those that proclaimed that they digital artifacts
>were awful and prefered the look of LDs to them and who proclaim that
>audio on LD is better likely STILL collect and watch LDs. I know I
>unloaded a whole hell of a lot of them.

>To be fair, many early DVDs that I saw DIDN'T look that good. Even
>worse was seeing it in a poorly calibrated tv at (say) Best Buy.

I was suprised at how bad these were in the running demos you'd see
in outlets. I saw one in Costco and the blocking was worse than
a DBS reception in a bad rainstorm.

It seemed to be about a year before they settled down to decent
quality. And those first ones were high-priced besided looking bad.

And if you look at DVD's from that era and turn on the zoom you can
see encoding wasn't too swift then either. But it didn't take too
long for things to get better - much better.

>Of course now with HDTVs, LDs are even more obsolete as (i don't think)
>there's no such thing as an anamorphic LD.

I think there were some HD type LDs in Japan. And to LD's being
obsolete? I've bought a couple in the last year or so. Things
that look like they'll never make it to DVD.

One I got from England so it was a bit pricey for a used LD - but
the projected DVD release two years ago was canceled.

And then there was one that was a limited pressing and I missed it
when it came out - and I mamaged to get that this last year.

But DVD's are far more convenient. And I have TPM on both LD and
DVD and the LD looks better on a good set as the DVD has so much
enhancment to look good on cheap TV sets it's distracting. But
that is a rare exception.

Bill

--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

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