When it comes to home video mediums, I’m not a fan of changing formats.
For the first half of my life, VHS was the end all be all home video format.
If you wanted to buy a movie, you did so in the form of purchasing a fuzzy, artifact ridden VHS cassette.
Well, that is unless you were one of those hipster-douchebags that had a Beta player, or worse yet; a fuckin’ Laserdisc…
Anyway, the point is; for most of my life, there was one way to watch a movie.
All of that changed around the time I was just getting into high school, with the advent of DVD.
While DVD had been already been around for some time, from my perspective, it really hadn’t “caught on” with the general public until the early 2000’s.
Kind of like how CD’s have been around forever, but it wasn’t until sometime in the early 90’s that it truly became mainstream.
Being as I was a very young badger of 13, with no income of my own; DVD failed to capture my interest in any way.
Everyone knew the image quality was superior.
Everyone knew the sound quality was clearer.
Everyone knew that DVD was, on paper; better than VHS.
Only thing was, no one I knew, myself included, ever actually watched a movie on DVD.
While many of my friend’s families would go on to hop on the bandwagon and purchase DVD players, my household would remain without digital video for little longer than most.
That all changed in 2001, when my mother surprised my brother and I with a Playstation 2 that Christmas, despite preemptively outright telling us that we weren’t going to get one.
Mothers:Â You can grow up all you want, but they still fuckin’ own your ass…
I’ll never forget that Christmas, as it was a particular emotional time for our household, and I suppose the PS2 helped a little too.
Anyway, as you probably know, one of the pluses of owning a Playstation product, is the fact that it doubles as a media player.
The original Playstation served as my CD player, (not that I had any CD’s…) and the Playstation 2 would go on to serve as my first DVD player.
True, it was a shitty DVD player with some of the muddiest and darkest fuckin’ image quality imaginable, but it was a DVD player nonetheless.
Despite having never really given much thought to the idea of owning a DVD player, my Playstation 2 took my thoughts and considerations on the matter and basically shouted in my ear:
“LET ME TELL YAH’ SOMETHIN’ BROTHER! YOU’VE GOT A DVD PLAYER WHETHER YAH’ LIKE OR NOT NOW, BROTHER! SO GET OUT THERE AND BUY SOME DVD’S DUDE! SHOW ‘EM WHAT HULKAMANIA’S ALL ABOUT, BROTHER!”
Okay, so maybe my PS2 wasn’t possessed by the wayward spirit of the still-living Hulk Hogan, but you get my meaning.
With the tools to explore the medium now at my command, I set out into the world to grab a DVD, and finally see what the big fuckin’ deal was.
I’ll give you one guess as to what my very first DVD purchase was.
If you guess Rocky, Godzilla, or some form of kung fu movie, *BUZZ!* you’d be wrong!
The Azn Badger’s very first DVD, was in fact:
Transformers: The Movie.
Haha! I know, awesome, right?
Watching Transformers The Movie on DVD for the first time was like seeing it for the first time.
For one thing, my original VHS copy of the movie was in fact just that, a ratty-ass copy recorded from an original rented from Blockbuster.
The difference in image and sound quality was like night and day.
Despite the perks of the enhanced audio and video, by far my favorite innovation that DVD brought to home video, was the chapter select function.
Being able to skip to your favorite parts, without fear of stretching and ruining the tape, was a godsend.
Seriously, do you know how many movies I have in my DVD library that are good for only 1 or 2 scenes?
Let me put it this way:
Without chapter select, I probably wouldn’t own half the movies I do.
Anyway, the point of this post, is to point out that, for maybe the 3rd time in a row, a Sony Playstation has served as my “ambassador” to a new medium of digital entertainment.
I’m of course referring to the new standard HD video disc medium: Blu-Ray.
As was the case with DVD, I wasn’t all that thrilled at the prospect of switching to Blu-Ray.
I loved my big-ass DVD collection, and the idea of turning my back on the medium I had grown so comfortable with, just felt wrong.
Then something inside me changed.
As I sat watching my very first Blu-Ray, Iron Man 2; on my Playstation 3, I came to realize that my reservations were unfounded.
Just as was the case with DVD, I was blown away by a format that, on paper; was regarded as “better.”
From a visual standpoint, Blu-Ray really was something to behold.
Like with VHS and DVD, it really was; night and day.
While Blu-Ray has yet to bring a major innovation like chapter select to the table, it still needs to be said; the visual one-up is downright spellbinding.
Now, don’t write me off as some videophile fanboy for Blu-Ray, as that’s hardly the truth.
As of now, I’ve only seen 1 Blu-Ray movie, and it was a brand new and intensely visual film, perfect to test the strengths of the medium with.
I’m sure Blu-Rays of older, less visual films are far less impressive.
At present, I’m thinking of maintaining my purchases of DVDs for films that aren’t deserving of the extra graphical fidelity I.E. dramas or comedies, while reserving Blu-Ray purchases for “louder” shit like Avatar or Iron Man.
While I’m not ready to go all-in on Blu-Ray as of yet, my reasoning behind this post, is that I want to point out that this is a road I’ve been down before.
I switched from cassettes to CDs.
I switched fromVHS to DVD, and willingly at that.
While I’m not sure I’ll be switching from DVD to Blu-Ray wholeheartedly any time soon, the point is; I’m no longer afraid to.
Change is not always a bad thing.
It may be uncomfortable, or worse yet; inconvenient, but the point is, we’ve all done it before and the world kept turning regardless.
Filed under: Comics, Games, Kung Fu, Movies, Uncategorized, 1, 2, 3, Avatar, Beta, Blu-Ray, cassette, CD, change, Comics, console, DVD, fornat, Godzilla, HD, hipster, home, Hulk Hogan, Iron Man, kung fu, Laser Disc, Marvel, nerd, Playstation, PS3, Rocky, SD, Sony, Transforners The Movie, VHS, video, videophile
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