Is It Time For You To Get That DVD? Here's What To Consider

To DVD Or Not To DVD?

16-Aug-01

Readers see a movie in the DVD format at a friend's house and are duly impressed. Or they catch one of those flashy demonstrations on a big screen in an electronics store and wonder whether it's just another gimmicky come-on to separate them from their hard-earned dollars or absolute proof that it really is time to take the plunge. They will be joining a stampede if they do. In the three years or so since DVD hit the market, it has become the fastest-growing home technology ever introduced. Not even microwave ovens sold faster. By the end of this year, there are expected to be 25 million players whirring away in homes across the country, with DVDs selling faster than VHS recorders for the first time. Should your home be next? The first thing to weigh is the plummeting price of the players. You can now buy a brand-name machine for between $150 and $200. And unless you are a completist, an all-the-bells-and-whistles type, the basic player from a manufacturer you recognize is all you really need. The advantages? James Rocchi -- the DVD guru at Netflix.com, a DVD rental Web site -- lists the main ones: ""Twice as many lines of resolution than you get from a VCR, digital sound, better color and discs that don't wear out."" His advice is to buy a no-frills player. ""Everything about your home movie-watching experience (will change) tremendously for the better,"" he says. ""Then if you want to go with the big screen and the sound system, you can. But to my mind, the movie is the thing. Just because you can feel a meteorite whizzing by your head when you're watching `Armageddon' doesn't make it a better movie."" If you want a qualitative comparison of the two technologies, it's roughly equivalent to the difference between an audio cassette and a compact disc. And unlike videotape, DVD will give you the same sound and image quality over hundreds of playings. Parents whose kids have gone through several tapes of ""The Lion King"" will come to appreciate the difference. While programming availability is no longer a problem, recordability may be an issue for some. We are, by the estimate of industry experts, at least three or four years away from a home DVD player that can record. And when they do arrive they will be more expensive than the basic playback machine. You'll want to hold onto your VCR for taping favorite TV programs, though you won't be taping many movies off the air once you get used to the eye- and ear-opening quality of DVD technology. Once you've decided to join the DVD generation, the next question is how to approach the 11,000-and-counting titles now available on DVD. ""The temptation once you get the player is to go hog wild and go out and buy every movie you like,"" Rocchi says. ""But what you should stop and ask yourself is whether it's a movie you're going to revisit many times. If it's not an all-timer for you, something you watch over and over again without disappointment, then don't buy it. This may seem obvious, but it's a sensible suggestion, especially since you will often already have a favorite movie on videotape. For example, ""The Godfather"" trilogy will be coming out in October, and Paramount is pulling out all the stops. I find ""The Godfather"" and ""The Godfather Part II"" inexhaustibly rewarding so it's a no-brainer for me to have all the extras that DVD will have. But you might well be content with the tapes. The best approach is to try before you buy. If it's ""The Godfather"" movies or ""The French Connection"" or the restored ""Snow White"" (both of which are also due in the fall), take a look and then decide. You can go to your local movie-rental outlet (you've no doubt noticed how the percentage of space occupied by DVDs has grown) or sign up with one of the Web sites, such as Netflix.com or rentmydvd.com. One selling factor, and it's a persuasive tool in convincing fans to trade in a favorite tape for the DVD version, is the number of extras that can be accommodated within the format. Again, this is a personal choice that depends on how much the bonus material matters to you. ""Citizen Kane"" arrives later this year, and I'll take anything extra the studio wants to toss in. Director commentary and ""making of"" footage is redundant, unless you happen to love the movie and really care what lens the auteur of ""Road Trip"" used for a particular shot.

Read More:
http://www.Netflix.com
http://www.rentmydvd.com