Just curious. I think it's about the same, but before DVD's only costed about $3 more than VHS. But now, Blu-Rays are sometimes $10 more than the DVD equivalents.
In your opinion, which was a bigger jump in terms of wow factor and quality?
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Muadib
Lifer
- May 30, 2000
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YES!!!!
Your last statement would depend on when you first got into buying DVD's. When the first person I knew to get a DVD player took me shopping with him, he was paying more like $15 more than the cost of a VHS tape, and the choices were few. That was in 1998, I think.
When I got my PS2 in November of 2000, prices for DVD's weren't much better. GoodFellas was one of first DVD's I bought, and I remember being shocked at the
price when I bought it. It was $30+!!! I haven't paid more than $23 for a Blu-ray disk yet. That's what I paid for DK.
- Oct 28, 1999
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With a DVD I didn't have to any tracking adjustments to tweak the picture and I didn't have to rewind the freaking thing when I was done.
I could skip chapters at the press of a button. I got fully discrete 5.1(or more) digital channels. Much more crisp PQ and eventual upconversion. Bonus features and at a current price that VHS was almost never able to compete at.
It was instant convenience and performance that just about anyone on any hardware setup could appreciate. It was like trading in a rusted out '88 Corolla wagon for a brand new decked out Camry.
Blu Ray has more difficult to appreciate set of features and requires some really high end equipment to extract it's potential. It's like trading in that completely decked out Camry for an entry level Lexus ES. Yeh it's nicer, but it's only nicer to a person who is able to appreciate the extra features.
I could skip chapters at the press of a button. I got fully discrete 5.1(or more) digital channels. Much more crisp PQ and eventual upconversion. Bonus features and at a current price that VHS was almost never able to compete at.
It was instant convenience and performance that just about anyone on any hardware setup could appreciate. It was like trading in a rusted out '88 Corolla wagon for a brand new decked out Camry.
Blu Ray has more difficult to appreciate set of features and requires some really high end equipment to extract it's potential. It's like trading in that completely decked out Camry for an entry level Lexus ES. Yeh it's nicer, but it's only nicer to a person who is able to appreciate the extra features.
gorcorps
aka Brandon
- Jul 18, 2004
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VHS to DVD was a huge jump in quality and usability. No more rewinding BS or having your tape get tangled in the VCR. No more being forced to sit through previews before getting to the main movie. Then the quality was crystal clear on the DVD in comparison. Any dirty part of your tape would have noticeable artifacts when you're watching it which is no longer a problem.
Blu-ray didn't change usability at all and changed the quality a small step in comparison, which you can only really see if you have a 1080p TV.
Blu-ray didn't change usability at all and changed the quality a small step in comparison, which you can only really see if you have a 1080p TV.
sivart
Golden Member
- Oct 20, 2000
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There are usability changes in the Blu-ray versus DVD. (In movie menu being the big one...makes changing audio possible without stopping the movie).
Come over to my house and let me show you the DVD version of say, Poltergeist, and then the Blu-ray version and see if you notice a difference on my lowly 720p 100" screen. Or I'll even put in a HD DVD which has DVD on one side and the HD DVD on the other so you can't gripe about different sources
I would find it hard to debate that DVD->Blu-Ray is even in the same league as VHS->DVD was (and yes, I have a Blu-Ray player, and had an HD-DVD before that). DVD changed everything, both from a standpoint of no rewinding, to greatly expanding the home theater experience from both a visual and audio standpoint, to going from a predominantly rental market towards an aggressively priced sell-through market.
Blu-Ray is, more or less, just an enhanced DVD experience. The picture quality is better, the sound quality is better, but it doesn't really do anything substantially differently than DVD did it (other than adding some online features and whatnot, but those aren't revolutionary).
Blu-Ray is, more or less, just an enhanced DVD experience. The picture quality is better, the sound quality is better, but it doesn't really do anything substantially differently than DVD did it (other than adding some online features and whatnot, but those aren't revolutionary).
Seriously, people who can't tell the difference REALLY need to get their eyes and hardware checked.
By "wow factor and quality", I took that to mean picture/sound quality. Relatively (available hardware, TVs, etc), I remember thinking DVDs were noticeably cleaner/clearer than VHS. However, jumping from DVD to Blu-Ray was incredible...it felt so much sharper and more detailed jumping from DVD to Blu-Ray than VHS to DVD.
LOL! Threads like these are always funny - "you can't tell a difference between blue-ray or HDTV or any of that"
First off the color should be the first thing you recognize with blue-ray or HD. If this doesn't scream "WOW!" something is wrong.
2nd - DVD was always progressive scan it just depended on if your TV could display it properly
3rd - how the hell can you not be WOWed by blue-ray or HDTV?
4th - the year is almost 2009, 1080p is here and it is wonderful
For biggest jumps in wow factor DVD has it. I still think it holds the record for consumer adoption.
First off the color should be the first thing you recognize with blue-ray or HD. If this doesn't scream "WOW!" something is wrong.
2nd - DVD was always progressive scan it just depended on if your TV could display it properly
3rd - how the hell can you not be WOWed by blue-ray or HDTV?
4th - the year is almost 2009, 1080p is here and it is wonderful
For biggest jumps in wow factor DVD has it. I still think it holds the record for consumer adoption.
VHS to DVD. Mainly because VHS tapes slowly degraded over time and with DVD its all-or-nothing for its quality.
I made the mistake of buying an older movie on HD DVD, specifically Apollo 13 which wasn't that old. The improvement in picture quality was so slight that I had to pause the movie and compare frame by frame to pick out the improvements. and even then it was hard. I made yet another mistake and bought So I Married An Axe Murderer on Blu-Ray, also not that old. Again, very slight picture quality improvement. Obviously, newer movies look far superior. Picture quality improvements are not universal with all movies.
Not so with DVD over VHS. DVD always had a better picture quality. Plus menus and chapters. The first DVD's didn't have the annoying "WARNING! Don't copy our movie!" or "Coming soon!" or "The opinions of these guys aren't our own". Plus, my older VHS tapes, even in high quality mode, faded and developed jaggies after many times playing it. And when you were done, you had to rewind.
I made the mistake of buying an older movie on HD DVD, specifically Apollo 13 which wasn't that old. The improvement in picture quality was so slight that I had to pause the movie and compare frame by frame to pick out the improvements. and even then it was hard. I made yet another mistake and bought So I Married An Axe Murderer on Blu-Ray, also not that old. Again, very slight picture quality improvement. Obviously, newer movies look far superior. Picture quality improvements are not universal with all movies.
Not so with DVD over VHS. DVD always had a better picture quality. Plus menus and chapters. The first DVD's didn't have the annoying "WARNING! Don't copy our movie!" or "Coming soon!" or "The opinions of these guys aren't our own". Plus, my older VHS tapes, even in high quality mode, faded and developed jaggies after many times playing it. And when you were done, you had to rewind.
Probably has more to do with the remastering and transfer process on that particular movie than it does with the difference between DVD and and HD DVD.
This is the case for all the HD format discs....how much care is taken during the process makes a huge difference in PQ.
Personally, I don't think there's all that much difference with the newer CG-heavy movies.
CG-intensive flicks, like LOTR or any of the Batman flicks, tend to use a lot of grays and off-whites...darker colors, and to me, they all look kind of washed-out.
So you don't get the "Wow" effect when watching them on an HD format. Oh, there's a definite difference in the PQ, but certainly not as much as there was from VHS to DVD.
I'm completely blown away by the jump in quality between DVD and BluRay.
Sure, all the advantages that come with a digital disc versus an analog tape make the VHS -> DVD jump more compelling, but I was vastly more "blown away" by BluRay (actually HD-DVD first) then I was by DVD when it first came out.
And that's all on a 1920x1200 24" LCD, to say nothing of a giant HDTV that really shows the difference.
That being said, upscaled DVDs do look surprisingly good in some cases!
The wow factor that comes with BluRay just wasn't there with DVD.
Of course, I'm a biased guy because I work in the video compression field and stare at video all day.
~MiSfit
Sure, all the advantages that come with a digital disc versus an analog tape make the VHS -> DVD jump more compelling, but I was vastly more "blown away" by BluRay (actually HD-DVD first) then I was by DVD when it first came out.
And that's all on a 1920x1200 24" LCD, to say nothing of a giant HDTV that really shows the difference.
That being said, upscaled DVDs do look surprisingly good in some cases!
The wow factor that comes with BluRay just wasn't there with DVD.
Of course, I'm a biased guy because I work in the video compression field and stare at video all day.
~MiSfit
- Oct 28, 1999
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Another way to look at this is - which one would hurt worse if you had it taken away?
Going from DVD back to VHS or going from Blu Ray back to DVD?
Having to go back to VHS would be brutal. Losing Blu Ray and only having DVD would sort of suck, but nothing to the magnitude of being stuck with a VHS tape.
Going from DVD back to VHS or going from Blu Ray back to DVD?
Having to go back to VHS would be brutal. Losing Blu Ray and only having DVD would sort of suck, but nothing to the magnitude of being stuck with a VHS tape.
AnitaPeterson
Diamond Member
- Apr 24, 2001
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