wow, dvds have been here only 10 years

[Diamond Cross]

LATE UPDATE - 3/23/07 - 1:30 PM PDT)

No kidding, it's true. Ten years ago tomorrow, the DVD format officially launched here in the States. Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday that Todd was reviewing laserdiscs for TNT's Roughcut, and Jahnke was making movies with Uncle Lloyd at Troma, and I was spending every day on the phone trying to get the studios to tell me what movies they were working on for DVD release so that I could share the information with fellow enthusiasts on E-Town's It's All DVD forum (now long defunct). Anyone remember that? Good times, I'll tell you.

For the record, a little history: March 1997 was the big month here in the States for DVD (though technically it first went public in Japan in November '96). The first DVD players from Panasonic (the DVD-A100 and DVD-A300) became available in the U.S. on 3/1, but there were no movie discs available until a handful of DVD titles from Lumivision arrived in a select few stores on 3/19 (I believe they were Africa the Serengeti: IMAX, Animation Greats, Antarctica: IMAX and Tropical Rainforest: IMAX - all in those horrid Polygram slider cases as I recall). The format's official launch in seven test markets (Chicago, Dallas, L.A./Orange County, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.) kicked off on 3/24 with the release of the first DVD players from Toshiba (the SD-2006 and SD-3006). An initial wave of movie titles from Warner, New Line, MGM and HBO trickled out on 3/24 or shortly thereafter (including such films as Blade Runner: The Director's Cut, The Fugitive, Batman, Eraser, Twister, The Exorcist, Interview with the Vampire, Se7en, GoldenEye and The Wizard of Oz).

I remember standing outside the front door of a local Circuit City that morning to be among the first to get my hands on the SD-3006 and a copy of Blade Runner. I laid a cool grand on the barrel head for that privilege and never looked back. I recall a lot of guys shelling out even more for Pioneer's first player that could play both DVDs and laserdiscs - the DVL-90 was it? Man... that seems like forever ago. The Bits actually began as an e-mail newsletter sent out to a few friends online. The first issue went out on 4/15, and as I recall it started out something like "DVD is here at last!" after which I proceeded to enthusiastically review the 3006 and about six movie discs. Soon the newsletter began including upcoming release information offered by friends at the various Hollywood studios. A few months later, I started posting all the same information on my personal web space at Earthlink, and a couple weeks after that Earthlink called to tell me that I was getting too much traffic and I should change over to a business plan. The Digital Bits.com officially launched as a website on 12/15, just as Circuit City began to unveil their dreaded Divx pay-per-view DVD scheme.

It's funny - I was actually the first to tell people about Divx publicly on the E-Town boards back in December of '97. I'd been calling Buena Vista to see when they were going to start releasing movies on DVD (at the time they were holding out) and the woman I was talking to said, "You know... we're going to start doing these Divx DVDs in a few weeks. There's a phone press conference happening later today. Do you want to participate?" Did I ever. A couple hours later and hopping mad, I posted the log-in codes on It's All DVD so that people could listen to the recording... and soon the recording itself was appearing online so that everyone could hear it. A few months later, I was invited to be among the first to preview Divx and we posted a feature story and editorial about it on The Bits - one of the first big features we ever did on the site. It was the first look the public got at Divx anywhere, online or in print.

Todd joined up with The Bits a few months after that with a review of Sphere on DVD. Adam signed on in Y2K, after we hung out with him on the set of Citizen Toxie. Then Barrie and Robert came on board, and a whole host of other great reviewers and columnists have been part of our ranks over the years. It's been a fun and fascinating decade.

We'll leave you today with some images from the early days, and some of the years since, to bring back a few memories for you long-timers...

The Digital Bits - Celebrating Film in the Digital Age


WOW, only ten years,

[JaJae]

it doesn't seem that long to me.

[thatguyoverthere]

I still think about VCR's and how it's amazing to me that a major technology has come and then become obsolete in my lifetime already. I know it probably happens all the time, but it still kinda blows my mind.

[6SpeedTA95]

When they first came out they were horrendously expensive similar to what blue ray is now.

My hope is that this year sony will drop the price of blueray players significantly because it is IMO the better future technology. The problem is sony has a habbit of screwing themselves over with this type of stuff. They did it with Betamax and unfortunately it looks as if they're doing it again on BR.

[motivez]

I haven't really followed the bluray vs hddvd stuff

What makes one better than the other? I know HD-DVD sounds way less fruity

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by motivez

I haven't really followed the bluray vs hddvd stuff

What makes one better than the other? I know HD-DVD sounds way less fruity

Blue Ray is called Blue Ray because it literally uses a blue laser to read the discs.

I personally like Blue Ray a lot better than HDDVD. It has significantly higher storage capabilities and only does one resolution, 1080p. HDDVD does a host of resolutions, 720p, 1080i, 1080p...it is important to note that 1080p is quickly become the standard in HD media so you will see HDDVD using only 1080p from here on out IMO. However the BR disc's still hold significantly more data than HDDVD which as of right now isn't a huge advantage but I think it will be as more and more movies are filmed in 65 or 75mm (which will become more common since viewers have high def sets). Theres plenty of room for special features and the like on BR.

I'm a blue ray fan but I dunno who's gonna win the war Sony is shafting themselves by being cocky in the market and as a result they might find themselves eating crow

[garbagemanlb]

It seems like Blue Ray has all the DVDs coming out, so it would appear that Sony is winning.

In any event, I am waiting until a winner is decided and prices come down for the players.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by garbagemanlb

It seems like Blue Ray has all the DVDs coming out, so it would appear that Sony is winning.

In any event, I am waiting until a winner is decided and prices come down for the players.

Both formats have major studio support. Sony is killing themselves with the ridiculous price of BR compared with HDDVD.