We Need The D-VHS Format
Dear Gary: I’m just taking a moment to make a comment about the D-VHS format. Awhile back, when D-VHS first appeared and you were touting its merits and urging people to take a look at the format, I sent you an e-mail. I still to this day, have not seen the format with my own eyes. My earlier e-mail was to tell you that not only would the format NEVER take off, but to also pretty much blast you for endorsing an expensive interim at best format. Since that time, after reading a lot about the format, (mostly in Widescreen Review! I might ad!) I have at least partly changed my opinion about it. First, let me say, I never liked the tape format to begin with, I was so glad when DVDs with their superior picture and sound emerged onto the scene! They take up less shelf space, offer superior picture, and allow for easy navigation! Could one ask for anymore I thought! So I embraced it heartily! When your magazine showed the “new” tape format I groaned out loud! Oh my God! Not back to tape I screamed! But something happened to at least partly change my mind about the format and here’s what it is! I’ve seen HDTV! My cable company now offers HBO and Showtime in HDTV. I’ve seen the picture quality and now my DVDs look terrible to me! I watched The X-Men on HDTV, popped my DVD in and switched back and forth between the two. I was SO shocked! The detail! The pores in the skin, individual blades of grass, grains of sand, material patterns in cloth! In short I was stunned! Now I don’t know what to do! I want MORE HDTV! Once you’ve seen it, regular TV and anything short of HDTV no longer comes up to snuff! I rub my eyes thinking they are blurry! Normal TV looks out of focus and boring. My DVDs sit lonely on the shelf, they just are not good enough any more! I want my HDTV!!! And I want a format to view it on, a playable one! I no longer have the desire to buy DVDs! So here’s where I’m at. I still think D-VHS may be an interim machine, I still hope for HD-DVD and SOON! Please God!!! But I now see your point. We need something until then, We need a format that shows HDTV as it should be! I’d like to see some better options for hooking the things up and recording the HDTV format, but beyond that, it’s not a terrible idea, after all, I still have my old VHS player/recorder and even use it every so often! And right now as you’ve been saying, tape is all we have. I could actually see myself buying the “darn thing!” and soon. I don’t want to build a huge library as I have with DVD, but I think prices on movies are at least half-way reasonable. Why not support it? At least until HD-DVD comes along! Widescreen Review has been a great magazine for me, a terrific source of enlightenment, and I want to thank you for all your efforts in driving the industry towards newer and BETTER formats! So until they roll those HD-DVDs off the trucks, I guess we need D-VHS! Peace,
Mike Dillon
Editor-In-Chief Gary Reber Comments:
t’s personally gratifying to read your letter. I share your sentiments about the desirability of an HD-DVD format, but long ago recognized the significance of the D-VHS D-Theater format as a standard setting format and precursor to HD-DVD. I too am impatient and want my HDTV now. Others can choose to wait another two to four years, or longer depending on the ensuing technology and patient battles surrounding the standardization of an HD-DVD format, but not me. And I think a lot of our readers and forum visitors are agreeing, and supporting the D-VHS D-Theater format. We’ll continue to thoroughly evaluate and present the HD formats as they are proposed and introduced so that our readers can stay full informed to make their own decisions as to what to support.
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