D-VHS?
Dear Gary: After reading the articles and review of D-VHS in Issue 59, I got a bit sick. Although I could read between the lines that, in the light of DVD, we are going back in time (meaning tape), still the enthusiasm you guys expressed was something I felt very difficult to cope with. Although blue laser is around the corner, I sincerely hope that you and the production industry do not want us, the consumers, to be taken for a ride. Why do I write this? Well, I have been collecting CDs and DVDs for a mighty long time. If we are now, as the studios already do by bringing out newer versions of DVDs released in the past, repeating this with D-VHS and whatever new format we end up with, I feel cheated. It is different when you as an editor get all this stuff for free or on loan, but many of us made a decision to invest in DVD. If the industry thinks it can rerelease every so many years a new format, I think they are wrong. I would rather see investments made in improving the DVD standard than releasing new format(s), like the Superbit. A confused and worried reader.
Sven Bokkel Huinink
Editor-In-Chief Gary Reber Comments:
While I appreciate your sentiments, I am a proponent for “the best that it can be,” regardless of format. D-VHS D-Theater far surpasses the performance of DVD. I do not fully agree that blue laser HD DVD is “around the corner.” A blue laser technology may be around the corner, but has no wardrobe suitable for public viewing and consumption. The time table for its splash as a proven and standardized HD optical disc format is three to five years away. In the meantime, the DVD format, as we know it, will continue to develop as a mass-market replacement for prerecorded standard VHS. D-VHS D-Theater is no threat to DVD’s continued development and growth. In fact, D-VHS D-Theater will put pressure on the DVD Forum to develop a HD DVD format that is at least the equal if not superior to D-VHS performance. For those of us who have invested thousands of dollars in HDTV displays and home theatre systems, D-VHS D-Theater is a gift, and at last delivers all the performance HDTV technology has promised for years. I am jazzed and can’t wait for the movies to be released. I am looking forward to re-experiencing many high-profile action adventure and science fiction titles, knowing that the performance and experience is “the best there is.” And when true HD DVD becomes a reality, I will embrace that format as well, and thrill at its performance and features. It’s all about progress and people’s passion to strive for constant improvement.
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