28 years ago the First DVD players were released in the US

PS2 pays its homages and says thanks.

The first DVD player we had was in a new laptop my dad bought around, probably 1999 or 2000. But yeah, the first player we had that could be connected to a TV was the PS2. We later bought a stand-alone player because the PS2 was noisy and cumbersome as a DVD player.

I think the first DVD I bought myself could have been Blade Runner.

DVD looked like the best image quality ever. Then, more than a decade later, I bought a PS3 and did an A/B comparison between the DVD and the BRD of Aliens.
My first reaction when watching the DVD after the BRD was literally, "OMG, what is this shit? How did we put up with this for so long??"
Even more shocking, as I was watching them on a 480p plasma. Night and day difference, even if output in SD.
 
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I only got into DVDs in the early 2000s, with one of those cheap players that also played DivX videos.
It was a gigantic step up for someone that had been using VHS for a decade.
 
PS2.
My first DVDs were Shrek and Metallica S@M.

I still remember being mind blown at being able to zoom in. A feature that I never ever used again.
 
I didn't get that many DVDs back in the day but my first was The Matrix I think.
Blu-ray was when I went all in on collecting physical media to go along my PS3. Unfortunately I sold most of my Blu-rays in preparation for the future....
I thought I could skip 4k and wait for 8k, but now I am not so sure, so I just recently started collecting 4k.

Blockbuster video, those were the days.
 
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PS2 was my dvd player in college and I may have bought gladiator as my first dvd. But I really have no idea.
 
I had something like this around 1997.

naMdNbC.jpeg
 
PS2 was the Netflix and chill of that time. Even if you didn't game on it much, having films available allowed for an excuse to have a fun time.
 
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The bane of my existence:

dvd-region-code-map.jpg



I have a lot of dvds. Looking back it was obviously not a smart decision but i really don't regret it. I loved collecting them so much and it showcased the potential of the internet to transact anywhere.
 
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I had a multi region (chipped, no remote hack) Sony NS300 - I think.

Bought it from a company called Multiregion Magic here in the UK.
 
thefool said:
The bane of my existence:

dvd-region-code-map.jpg



I have a lot of dvds. Looking back it was obviously not a smart decision but i really don't regret it. I loved collecting them so much and it showcased the potential of the internet to transact anywhere.
Click to expand...
I remember when several companies sold DVD players which ignored region locking and could play any region's discs

The other popular thing to do was to rip the DVD to a PC to remove the region lock and then burn it back to a DVD-R for playback. You had to download a hacked firmware of the DVD burner on the PC to remove the region locking to do this

The early 2000's were a magical time

Also fuck I'm old
 
Laser Disc for life!!!!



DVD was just.more compact, cheaper, better quality, and much more available. Who needs that kind if convenience? :p
 
I was super into high quality audio back then. 24 bit DA converters were super expensive.

So when I saw DVD players started to come with them even on the "cheaper" models I quickly bought a Pioneer DVD player with a 24 bit DA converter for 400 bucks so I can play CDs on it.
 
Turned 13 October 2000 so my first DVD player was the launch PS2.

Gotta be honest around 2000 to 2002 VCD's were WAY more interesting to me
converting REAL MEDIA and DivX clips of DBZ episodes to MPEG2 and burning them to CD's was my jam

The first DVD movie I bought a few months later was
51YTVCW209L.jpg
 
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I remember getting my dad a new big screen tv and one of those rca players for Christmas one year. I don't recall what movie we gave him with it but probably a western
 
1st player for me was the creative labs pc-dvd with the dxr2 PCI add in card which had composite and s-video out along with stereo audio so I could connect it to a scart cable and watch the films on my TV. My first DVD was either the matrix or maybe enemy of the state.
 
Zoomers can't even begin to imagine what kind of game changer that was. Massive upgrade in picture quality, no more re-winding, chapter selection and the option to choose different languages. It was a different world compared to VHS. Still remember how in awe we were.
 
I spent so much money on DVD's at MVC

Must have about 1000 DVD's

Then when Blu-ray arrived I did the same. Traded them all them in at CEX had enough to get a Wii-U plus a few games

An aside I remember finding out how to set my DVD player to different regions. Great times.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF said:
DVD looked like the best image quality ever. Then, more than a decade later, I bought a PS3 and did an A/B comparison between the DVD and the BRD of Aliens.
My first reaction when watching the DVD after the BRD was literally, "OMG, what is this shit? How did we put up with this for so long??"
Even more shocking, as I was watching them on a 480p plasma. Night and day difference, even if output in SD.
Click to expand...
By the very end of DVD's lifetime I watched some DVD movies on a very good DVD player and was surprised by how excellent the format was still in that time. It also helped that I hated how fake some Bluray movies looked with their higher framerates. DVD was the last major disc format for me as I never invested in blurays.
 
Didnt buy dvds till I owned a PS2/Xbox around 2004 I think. My parents couldnt be bothered and still rocked a VHS player.
 
JimmyRustler said:
Zoomers can't even begin to imagine what kind of game changer that was. Massive upgrade in picture quality, no more re-winding, chapter selection and the option to choose different languages. It was a different world compared to VHS. Still remember how in awe we were.
Click to expand...
It always amazed me that, prior to DVD, movies on OTA TV or cable looked better than home video (VHS). Actually owning a movie was a downgrade from just watching it on TV picture quality-wise.
 
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First DVD I saw was Blade running on a PC in 1999, first DVD Player I owned was the PS2 and the first DVD I bought was Shrek, which at the time amazed me because back then they really packed those DVDs with features and good menus, but I was impressed with it having all EFIGS language tracks and being able to swap them on the fly, such a simple thing now.
 
My first DVD player was my computer back then, in 2003.

And my first DVD was Titanic, released at like 2€ in a collection called "unforgotten love stories" which were very popular back then, the first one of the collection being super cheap
 
I think I got mine in 1998, and definitely The Matrix.

Edit: just realized matrix didn't come out until 1999 so had to be then.
 
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One of the unfortunate consequences of the decline of DVDs is that special features, like commentary tracks, have become much less common these days.
 
DKehoe said:
One of the unfortunate consequences of the decline of DVDs is that special features, like commentary tracks, have become much less common these days.
Click to expand...

DVDs had a cool feature called multi-angle shots which made it possible to watch a live concert video from multiple camera angles with a flick of the button. If you wanted to look at the drummer or guitarist during the entirety of a song or show you could. The downside was of course that if a producer wanted to include five different camera angles on a DVD, you'd need five times more disk space which severely limited its use.
 
I think I bought my first DVD player in 2000-ish. Think it cost $300 CDN for a base Panasonic model. The first DVD I bought was from Future Shop. Saving private Ryan.

Crazy cool at the time. Better visuals, chapter select and some movies had bonus features or scenes. One of my other early DVDs was Matrix. Lent it to someone at work and she lost it! Paid me $25 for it, which cost more than I paid for it!
 
JimmyRustler said:
Zoomers can't even begin to imagine what kind of game changer that was. Massive upgrade in picture quality, no more re-winding, chapter selection and the option to choose different languages. It was a different world compared to VHS. Still remember how in awe we were.
Click to expand...
Not to mention a lot of DVDs where letterboxed, "pan and scan" was waaaay less common compared to VHS. So it really drove the adoption of 16:9 TVs over the 4:3 standard.

I still remember the selling point of "All the James Bond films will only take up a foot of shelf space!".

Not to mention no need for those dedicated VHS rewind machines and no more "forgot to rewind" fees from blockbuster :P
 
Trilobit said:
By the very end of DVD's lifetime I watched some DVD movies on a very good DVD player and was surprised by how excellent the format was still in that time. It also helped that I hated how fake some Bluray movies looked with their higher framerates. DVD was the last major disc format for me as I never invested in blurays.
Click to expand...

My blu ray player upscalling made dvd of Unforgiven look gorgeous. I honestly couldn't believe my eyes.
 
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Windle Poons said:
I had a multi region (chipped, no remote hack) Sony NS300 - I think.

Bought it from a company called Multiregion Magic here in the UK.
Click to expand...

Snap. My friend bought a Samsung and I bought a pioneer (still have it in a box somewhere). Paid the extra to have multi region on the remote. Pretty sure it was the same company 👍😎

Going from VHS to DVD was a mind blowing step up (I had a laser disc player, so it was just good to have the smaller discs 😂)

And went with the thing and the uncut robocop as my first two DVDs 😁
 
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