Are DVD players a huge SCAM??

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Ok old people, think back to when VCR's first came out, what were they missing?? Thats right, a record feature! What are DVD players missing today? That very same thing, a record feature!! Sure you can buy recordable DVD players for 800euro but noone is buying them, people are forking out huge amounts of cash for their SONY's and JVC's at the moment but do they realize that in about 2 years time for the same price they can buy a recordable DVD player??! I bought a basic DVD player for 150euro because I know that i will be wanting a nice recordable DVD player when they come out so why should i fleece myself?

I think we should stick with our PS2's, X-Box's and cheap nasty DVD players for the time being...

longword

After 20 years there still seems to be a fairly sizeable market for non-recording CD players.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

well that's different really isn't it?

people don't listen to the radio and record music, as much as they watch tv and record that..

plus, the tech. for recording cds and such wasn't always as cheap as it is, so it may have been prohibitively (bleh, sp?) high?..

or maybe not i'm just guessing here

marauder

Its a conspiracy to keep the distributors rich. look at the whole region encoding thing for dvds.

Back to the point. its OK to buy a nice dvd player to plug into your tv with surrond sound blah blah because you will want the burner on your PC so you can burn masses of data, photos from your camera and video from your camcorder too.
(BTW I paid US$79.99 for a DVD player with component outs)

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

After 20 years there still seems to be a fairly sizeable market for non-recording CD players.

Well i know i havn't had a CD player for the last 20 years! The first CD player I ever had came with my Amiga CD 32 just before the days of the origional Playstation, and in all fairness the most you could have owned a CD player for is about 10 years, we were all happy with our casettes. Besides you couldn't walk into LIDL in 1993 and buy a ten pack of blank CD's for 6 euro could we?? Now its just a natural thing we do, buy CD's in their 100's which is a thing we didn't even do with the humble casette!! Soon we will be able to buy DVDRW's on the cheap and where will your 500euro SONY DVD player be then, in the attic!

Technology is moving fast but we all dont have to follow each other like sheep, we can be satisfyed with what we have today and hang on a little while and get the REAL DEAL!

MagicBusDriver

CD came out in 1983. http://www.oneoffcd.com/info/historycd.cfm

Tapes suck , Audio or video. If you dont want a dvd player dont buy one. But people who want a decent video format need it.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

CD came out in 1983.

Well done...?! I think you missed the point though, did YOU have one in 1983 or did you have one in 1993, 10 years later?

I hate people who dont read the entire thread but pick up on one line and post something like that.

daveg

I agree to a certain extent. I put of my DVD player upgrade this year because I know I'll be buying a recoder next year (as soon as they sort out the formats).

Rolo Tomasi

This is an absolutely pointless thread. The originator makes some vague sweeping statement, throws out some lame conspiracy theory and then proceeds to attack anyone who disagree's or is trying to add to the post....

Well done...?! I think you missed the point though, did YOU have one in 1983 or did you have one in 1993, 10 years later?

I hate people who dont read the entire thread but pick up on one line and post something like that.

Its a discussion,make your point, and try to avoid antagonising people.

RicardoSmith

Actually I think that the DVD market is quite like the CD one. The problem with both of them is that they are not easily rerecordable. Sure you can do it but its a complex process and you really need a PC to have some control over the process.

Video and audio cassettes however are a simple one button click and record or re-record. Which makes them much easier to use. Thats the reason why I never really switched to audio CD's myself. Too much hassle. Actually mini disc's are very convenient to record and rerecord on to. Pity the players are all so expensive and the capacity is too small.

I think CDRW is the way to go for Audio. But I doubt that the DVD recorders will burn re-recordable DVD's though.

The_Conductor

Recordable DVD players (DVD-R) 349 Euro in Richer Sounds, Wellington Quay, Dublin.
Manufacturer Cyberhome DVD (part of Argos Electronics- the German crowd). Reduced by over 200 Euro in the last two months.

The reason for a lack of DVD recorders is the same reason that there were not VCR recorders at the start- lack of a common standard. There are currently 2 major standards (and a plethora of minor standards) fighting it out. DVD-R, DVD-RW etc.
Remember the Betamax fight in the early '80s?

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

smccarrick I hadnt realised that recordable DVD players had gone down that much! Valid point about the Betamax V's VCR battle, we got stuck with an inferior standard - power of the people. Hopefully DVD's will be around as long as the VCR and they can settle on a standard of players. Unfortunately the region thing isint doing it any good

RicardoSmith

The whole region free thing is a joke and they should be sued for such a protection racket. Using the consoles as a player until the standards are cleared up isn't a bad idea. Or a cheapo dvd player isn't bad either. You can always stick in on the portable when you get another one!

Lemming

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
The whole region free thing is a joke and they should be sued for such a protection racket.

[cough, wheeze, ahem]
NTSC, PAL
[/cough, wheeze, ahem]

The whole reason for region encoding is to control what films/variations of films get released in which regions and when.

it's used for distribution control. The same way that NTSC and PAL ARE being used and always have been for the VHS format.

daveg

Recordable DVD players (DVD-R) 349 Euro in Richer Sounds, Wellington Quay, Dublin.

what, where, are you sure ?? I see the Phillips DVDR880 for €799.99 (which is very good value) but I dont see any for €349.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

The region thing p****s me off because other region DVD's are so cheap to buy if you know what i mean, i know you can get an All Regions DVD player but im still gonna hang on, me and my cheap nasty DVD player from argos can survive another year or so. You'd think Microsoft invented DVD players theres so much protection on them!!

daveg

The region thing p****s me off because other region DVD's are so cheap

Not for long... your going to have to pay duty soon... Bye Bye play.com.

I wonder will the DVD recorders ever have a digital i/p so you can copy DVD's and the digital sound ?

Lemming

Originally posted by Bananas
The region thing p****s me off because other region DVD's are so cheap to buy if you know what i mean, i know you can get an All Regions DVD player but im still gonna hang on, me and my cheap nasty DVD player from argos can survive another year or so. You'd think Microsoft invented DVD players theres so much protection on them!!

if its pricing that's pissing you off, that's somethign to take up with the retailers in country 'X'. I can go over to the UK and pick up the exact same DVD region-wise, and it'll be cheaper. Pricing has NOTHING to do with the region encoding

And Micro$oft don't set the DVD encoding standards, nor do they implement the firmware security on players

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

What i meant about getting cheaper DVD's from other regions was getting them from sites where they offer DVD's for less than 5yoyo's each. Pricing has EVERYTHING to do with region encoding when you buy off such websites.

And Micro$oft don't set the DVD encoding standards, nor do they implement the firmware security on players

?
Origionally what i said.

You'd think Microsoft invented DVD players theres so much protection on them!!

Im not an idiot, i know Micros... oh never mind.

Altheus

Quite simply, we are behind the times when it comes to time shifted recording, dvds, and hdtv. hdtv is a standard we've not even had a peek of, and time shifted recording is a luxury that only Sky digital plus customers have. End of story, we'll always be behind and no amount of sweeping statements on how stupid people are for spending money are going to fix that. I was called stupid for getting ISDN two years ago, when ADSL was "just around the corner". It's how things are going to work, we've just got to gain patience and let the market make their money, and wait to spend even more on the next big thing. It's the unfortunate state of affairs, but frankly I'm glad, because otherwise I'd be out of pocket a lot sooner than later.

Frankly since getting my dvd player, *which was €350 with a 5.1 digital surround system* I havent touched my video player. in honesty imagine the difficulty and expense of having to buy new DVD-Medias everytime you want to record something, or having to format it every job. TiVo boxes are the way forward. DVD-R+ and - and RW is going to take two years to level out, at which point higher-density and more powerful CD-Rs will be available. Frankly I'm dissapointed that there are no CD-R recorders yet, or am I wrong. 700MB is plenty enough for 1 hours MPEG recording (VCD Quality), but it's looking like DivX is going to be standardised too, so we wont be to far off using DivX as a recording method either. Also as for regions, I think it's nesscessary, sure the movie companies make more money, but I dont want to be sold a Chinese version of GoodFellas in HMV, of a substandard quality, which could happen if the standards werent there. Also, if you want region-free players, they are available.

Tazz T

€350 in Richer Sounds you say. I've been holding off getting one. Think I will now.

KdjaCL

My 1st Generation DVD player is dying slowly.
5 years old never had a probelm with till now doing funky things.
Now i am in the market for a new DVD player and this is my needs.

Region Free (215 region 1 dvds)
5.1
DTS

Thats it personally i dont watch TV unless its football so i have no use for a DVD recorder and doubt most people do in regards to recording off TV.

Why record a crappy signal onto a DVD that may not work right as DVDs are mainly 1x they need a very large data bank to record real time.

Maybe that has something to do with the pricing.
DVD recording is mainly for PCs and buying one for TV is a waste better off getting TIVO with a massive HD for it as it would suit TV recorders needs better.

KdjaC

Lemming

Originally posted by Bananas
What i meant about getting cheaper DVD's from other regions was getting them from sites where they offer DVD's for less than 5yoyo's each. Pricing has EVERYTHING to do with region encoding when you buy off such websites.

No, it doesn't. If you order something from play.com and its a region 1 dvd, it has to be shipped from the US, hence it gets shipping costs added to it (well, at least that happened for me).

Region-encoding means precisely DICK for actually deteremining the price of something. It's cheaper because that country has better competition/more savvy customers, NOT because its region x,y,z

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Lemming
[cough, wheeze, ahem]
NTSC, PAL
[/cough, wheeze, ahem]

The whole reason for region encoding is to control what films/variations of films get released in which regions and when.

it's used for distribution control. The same way that NTSC and PAL ARE being used and always have been for the VHS format.

I thought the NTSC and PAL exist because the US put in their colour TV systems in first and that PAL was an inprovement so thats some counties went with that? I didn't think the reason was to control the market. Well I mean there wasn't VHS or any kind of Video when NTSC and PAL where created was there? I also though that the whole 50/60hz thing was a part of the reason too.

Lemming

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
I thought the NTSC and PAL exist because the US put in their colour TV systems in first and that PAL was an inprovement so thats some counties went with that? I didn't think the reason was to control the market. Well I mean there wasn't VHS or any kind of Video when NTSC and PAL where created was there? I also though that the whole 50/60hz thing was a part of the reason too.

True, but it ended up being used for VHS formats too and thus becoming the VCR equivalent of region-encoding.

NTSC wont play in PAL vcrs (unless they're capable of reading other formats), etc etc.

Kali

err DVDs are in PAL & NTSC too.

The_Conductor

Correct.
In addition to the different frequencies, PAL is 24 frames a second, NTSC is 18. So- our European standard is actually of a much higher quality than the US one.

Hmmmm- sounds like what the Yanks did with mobile phones......

Stephen

Um, afaik NTSC runs at a higher framerate (30fps, actually) than PAL (25fps), but with a lower resolution image (525 lines), thus PAL has higher quality (625 lines), as the framerate isn't so low as to be noticeable.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Lemming:

Region-encoding means precisely DICK for actually deteremining the price of something. It's cheaper because that country has better competition/more savvy customers, NOT because its region x,y,z

I never claimed they were cheaper because of the region setting being different!! I know they are cheaper because of the current market in that country eg. Thailand, under 5yoyo's for a DVD, Roughly 7yoyo's to ship. Its cheaper for everything cd's, hardware etc.

GOD!

thegills

NTSC and PAL are totally different formats whereas Region 1 and 2 aren't. The reason why there is region protection is because films are released at different times throughout the world. What would be the point of releasing say LOTR 2 on DVD in Ireland at the same time as it appears in the cinema.

The whole DVD recorder thing will remain a toy as the Sky's of this world don't want people to record programmes. They would rather you watch the 'delayed' program on a dedicated digital channel.

I did see a Sony advert last week that was effectively a PC with huge specs that would record TV programs onto a DVD-R disc (It had a 120Gb hard disk.

The Apprentice

LOTR 2 on DVD in Ireland at the same time as it appears in the cinema.

na.. dont think thats the idea... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to pull in as much snots in cinema before its generally released on dvd etc in all the regions...
Im always watching the us releases on dvd so i can get on dvdr a few weeks... not much (2-5) but thats only so they can generally release merchandise etc... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$


"did see a Sony advert last week that was effectively a PC with huge specs that would record TV programs onto a DVD-R disc (It had a 120Gb hard disk"

Couldnt u effectively hook ure tv up to ure pc and record to a normal dvd writer.. i know some peeps that are doing it with sky for big matches etc... arsenal and man United and putting it on dvdr !!! Didnt really ask the know how put wouldnt it be much cheaper than recorder wise !!!


Dunno also that richer sounds 349 euro isnt real i,d say.. Maybe a dvd player only... Lowest ive seen is a refurbished for £400 sterlin on most sites in england.. Could have been a mislabled price ????
For that cash i,ll take a few and flog em over there !!!


Interesting Thread by the way .... Appy
dvdr- will whoop dvdr+ ass !!