Little Interest In D-VHS D-Theater?
Dear Gary: Thank you for the update information. I really enjoy Widescreen Review and look forward to it each month. Between then I rely on your online Web sites. I am a bit concerned about your www.D-VHSMovieGuide. com site. With all the great articles on D-VHS and D-Theater, virtually no one is responding to the community feedback area as I would expect. I am sold on D-VHS and D-Theater and have purchased many of the “decent” family releases. I do worry that with the lack of existing WSR subscribers who follow the D-Theater format, is the format in trouble? Nowhere do I find any new JVC D-VHS players, or others, with fixes us users want, mentioned. Local stores (Good Guys) say there is little interest by customers. Other magazines seldom mention D-VHS D-Theater, yet JVC ads appear in them. Someone at WSR should address these issues immediately.
Bill Freeman, Bellevue, Washington
Editor-In-Chief Gary Reber Comments:
I think this is a classic example of thought-to-be enthusiasts not really understanding or perceiving the importance of supporting the first prerecorded HD packaged media format. Some enthusiasts and ALL the magazines in the home theatre interest category I read are not enamored of a tape-based format. I can’t speak for them, but having roots in professional multi-camera video production and multichannel audio recording, I have always appreciated “tape” as an excellent media to master on, and I do not share the negative view of “tape” that other writers for magazines do. I have spelled out all of my passion and reasoning for the support of the D-VHS D-Theater platform in back issues starting with Issue 59, April 2002, and the new HDVideo Special Edition, just released at the CEDIA EXPO in September. I love movies and I love HD. I feel strongly that the D-VHS D-Theater format should be supported because it offers “the best that it can be” in picture and sound performance and dramatically enhances the movie experience in the home theatre. I recognize that it is an interim format and a precursor to the eventual development of a HD version of DVD, whose standardization and implementation, I estimate, is two to four years away. The D-VHS D-Theater format already is having a positive impact on the development of HD-DVD, in that, it is serving to set the benchmark for superior performance that a HD version of DVD must deliver to be embraced by serious home theatre enthusiasts. I can’t wait to see a “HD-plus”-performance quality HD-DVD introduced. I have already begun a series of articles in WSR which addresses the development of such an optical-disc HD format, and I intend WSR to continue to be at the forefront of coverage on the subject. In the meantime, our readers’ forums on our Web sites are picking up more activity on this subject, and there is the AVS Forum and Home Theater Forum, both of which boast several threads pertaining to this subject. I often contribute to these forums as well, and Widescreen Review is often referenced as a resource with threads resulting from our coverage of the subject in the magazine and on our Web sites.
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