DVD or VHS

[J.Christie]

The DVD is the video of the future. It's compact, and it's players now come cheap. However, VHS became, possibly the only way you could watch a programme or movie when you want. Now, VCRs don't come cheap, and can be rare in some shops.

Of course, they both have good points, and bad points:

DVD: Good Points
- Compact
- Good Quality
- Doesn't wear out
- Cheap Players

DVD: Bad Points
- Scratch Easily
- DVDs can be pricey
- Region Numbers


VHS: Good Points
- Return when you left off
- Easy to record onto

VHS: Bad Points
- Can be rare
- VCRs are pricey
- Can "screw" up easily
- Adquate Quality

What do you prefer to use for recording or watching?

[Ant]

DVD: Bad Points
- Scratch Easily
- DVDs can be pricey
- Region Numbers

- They only scratch if you're careless
- Depends where you get them
- Just buy a region free player/recorder

VHS: Good Points
- Return when you left off
- Easy to record onto

- Most DVD Players/Recorders do that (a menu usually appears)
- So are DVDs if you have a recorder.

VHS is just too hard to find a specific bit and the quality is poor aswell. We still have the VCR in the living room but it's unplugged as it's hardly ever used. Can't wait for Telewest's equivelant to Sky+ though (which is out soon by the way).

[J.Christie]

Can't wait for Telewest's equivelant to Sky+ though (which is out soon by the way).

Never head of that! The only way Sky+ can improve, is having three signals from the dish, so you can record two progammes and watch another, and be able to rewind a programme without having to watch it.

What is Telewest offering with theirs?

[fusionlad]

Surely we already know the answer to the question in this thread.

Now if you'd asked this question 10 years ago.....

[Ant]

Can't wait for Telewest's equivelant to Sky+ though (which is out soon by the way).

Never head of that! The only way Sky+ can improve, is having three signals from the dish, so you can record two progammes and watch another, and be able to rewind a programme without having to watch it.

What is Telewest offering with theirs?

Video on Demand (Teleport) is one of them. I'll try and find the webpage with all the advantages.

[Corin]

The DVD is the video of the future.

I thought blu-ray was the future of video.

<http://www.blu-ray.COM/>

Note item titled "Study Shows Consumers Prefer Blu-ray Disc Over HD-DVD".

[Cheese Head]

slightly off topic... Did anyone else see the Argos DVD recorder for 90 pounds :O:O:O!!!!!

[DJF]

Believe me, if the Goodmans one from Argos for £129.99 is anything to go by then don't bother! I put up with the crappy quality of it until today when the remote gave up and I had to take it back. But then that was a Goodmans, and the £99.99 one is an Alba so there may be some miracle!

Now considering getting the Sagem Freeview/PVR for the same price with my lovely Argos Gift Vouchers I received as a refund :roll:

[Anonymous]

--

[Corin]

I'd say DVD is the video of the current

Correct indeed.

More about the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD at

<http://www.cdrinfo.COM/Sections/News/De ... wsId=14682>

Perhaps there should be another more up-to-date poll/thread, Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, instead of this backwards looking thread.

[cwathen]

The DVD is the video of the future. It's compact, and it's players now come cheap. However, VHS became, possibly the only way you could watch a programme or movie when you want. Now, VCRs don't come cheap, and can be rare in some shops.

As others have said, surely DVD is the video of the now? Certain aspects of the DVD Video spec (such as MPEG2 video) are allready outdated and as a storage technology, their capacity no longer appears so cavernous (when DVDs became available to the consumer market, the capacity of a standard single sided dual layer disk was twice the capacity of the hard drive on a high end PC. Today, the same disk only has 1/20th the capacity of the hard drive on a budget PC).

Of course DVDs will be around for the forseeable future, but their days as a wonderous futuristic technology are over, the technology is becoming more old-hat by the day.

- DVDs can be pricey
- Region Numbers

Pricey? If anything pre-recorded material has got cheaper since DVD took over from VHS as the main distribution format.

- Can be rare

Rare? I don't have any trouble finding either VHS machines or VHS tapes to go in them.

- VCRs are pricey

Pricey? They get cheaper all the time. My VCR cost £129.99 in 1999 (not forgetting, as people often do, that £130 in 1999 is not the same as £130 in 2005 - you don't have to go back to the time of a different monarch to feel the effect of inflation), which at the time was unbelievably cheap (for a mono 2-head VCR from a decent brand), today you can get nicam stereo VCRs with 6 heads and a myriad of additional features for less than that, and the latest Argos book sells a basic VCR for only £40.

- Can "screw" up easily

Rather depends on your machine and the quality of the media you put in it, doesn't it? If you've got an Alba far eastern import and use tapes from Dykquonduko Chemical Co. Ltd. then you don't have much cause for complaint.