Leviathan Posted September 24, 2005 Share Posted September 24, 2005 In the same time as SWBF II, so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 Ive only been to Thailand and Singapore, but have heard the same thing from friends in HK and Japan. Couldnt see a VHS tape or tape player in any store I went into. With the advent of DVD, theres a glut of VCDs at the moment, where you can get alot of titles very cheap. I found a VCD set of an old chinese TV series I really love. It hasnt been released on DVD yet so I was glad to pick up a 10 disc set for the equivalent of $10(Australian) mtfbwya Interesting assesment. LD also seemed to have a longer lifespan in Asia, despite its failure in the states (then again it lasted a long time, but it appealed only to hardcore movie buffs due to its high cost and being so cumbersome). VCD's are actually lower quality than commercially produced tapes and don't typically feature extras or even widescreen, the real perk is their cheapness and the ability to play them on computers. VCD's were never popular over here in the states, and you usually only see them produced by fans or obtained from pirates. "Lower quality cheap convenience" does have its place though, look at the PSP's UMD movies. Those things are crap compared to DVD and yet they're selling (I guess... but who knows for how long). But it all depends. I mean if a crap format like VCD can survive next to LD and DVD then perhaps DVD can survive next to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray (once they decide on a standard after a costly format war). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guybroom Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 i can kinda work out what HD-TV is, but can someone explain to me what Blu-ray is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 It's one of the two competing formats for "High Definition" for the home market. The other is HD-DVD. They're both high capacity discs capable of storing High Definition movies (the same quality of HD TV). IIRC Blu-Ray is stored in a kind of cartridge so you never have to touch the disc itself (unless you want to for some reason). For the official specs, google it, I don't have them memorized off hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChAiNz.2da Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=8451 http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000623059130/ ^^^^ 2 decent links without aot of "jargon" mixed in to make it incomprehensible Simpler put.. it's all about storage space, but more importantly 'self-serving' better encryption methods since that wasn't taken into account during the initial DVD manufacturing technology (at least not as serious as the problems that have been arriving lately with warez and rips). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 Wait, encryption methods weren't taken into account with DVD? What about all that fuss over "deCSS"? Granted, they got defeated and instead of inventing a better method, they tried to shut the person(s) up who figured it out, but still. Anyway, water under the bridge I guess. I don't see the new formats being immune from warez forever, but maybe that is a dream of the higher ups. Even if they latch onto (which I'm sure they have) the "Digital Rights Management" revolution of palladium and the new Windows versions, what about the millions who watch them on set top players? What about third party players (equivalent to the "region free" dvd players we have now) and fan-made "firmware hacks"? It'll be hell stopping all that from happening. At one time I remember some articles naively touting the large file sizes as being prohibitive from pirates (which of course ignores the enterprising bootleggers of Asia completely). What with the speed and availability of broadband, large hard drives and fast burning capabilities of cheap blank media (their consumer base would never stand for a lack of a recordable version of HD media), etc. Anyway, sorry to get off topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChAiNz.2da Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 Wait, encryption methods weren't taken into account with DVD? What about all that fuss over "deCSS"? Granted, they got defeated and instead of inventing a better method, they tried to shut the person(s) up who figured it out, but still. Oh yeah.. they (encryptions) were, but it wasn't a big 'concern' for them at the time. It was mostly compatibility, writing methods, blah blah. The basic stuff just to get the darned format to work was on the minds moreso than anything. Since DVD's were "revolutionary" I suppose they didn't see a mass swarming of copyright violations. Since the technology was new (on the consumer end) my guess is they thought that deCSS was a new enough method to prevent tampering since it was relatively an unknown method to the general Joe's & Jane's that would be using it... After the deCSS was figured out.. then the proverbial "sh** sandwich" was served Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 I figure copyprotection is always a concern. Look at the "macrovision" junk on VHS. Sure it hasn't worked in the long run, but they're always thinking about it, even if they don't do it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MachineCult Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 Sorry to revive an old thread but I thought i'd tell everyone that I saw ROTS on VHS in Tesco (UK) the other day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthAve Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 Well, this really freakin' sucks. We have a dvd player, but it's never used. HOW AM I GONNA COMPLETE MY VHS COLLECTION?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 I just bought a Panasonic DVD/VHS recorder for my family over Thanksgiving. Perhaps over the Christmas break I'll see if I can convert my new DVD to tape, just to see if it's possible. Note: No, I won't send anyone a copy, but I will let you know if I succeed! Sorry to revive an old thread but I thought i'd tell everyone that I saw ROTS on VHS in Tesco (UK) the other day. Perhaps we spoke too soon! I could easily see the movie cropping up in certain markets (legally) in the format, again, based on the market... sort of like LD's and VCD's prospering in Asia while they dried up in other markets. So was it a PAL bootleg, or the real deal, out of curiosity? Amazon.com has an entry for the VHS version of ROTS, but it appears to be merely a placeholder (they're notorious for putting those in after all). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guybroom Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 So was it a PAL bootleg, or the real deal, out of curiosity? I havnt seen it, but if machinecult saw it in Tescos, then its gonna be real. Tescos doesnt sell bootleg stuff! I dont know if Tescos is anywhere else other than in the UK, but its the biggest supermarket chain in the UK and its very unlikely that they would sell bootlegs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan Posted November 28, 2005 Share Posted November 28, 2005 Okay, well then it sounds like we've got a PAL tape. I noticed some people are selling them online, but information about them is rather sparse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted November 28, 2005 Share Posted November 28, 2005 It could easily be independent production, much like the old Scooby Doo VHS prints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guybroom Posted November 29, 2005 Share Posted November 29, 2005 PAL tapes? What are they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan Posted December 1, 2005 Share Posted December 1, 2005 It could easily be independent production, much like the old Scooby Doo VHS prints. I'm not familiar with that... care to explain? I remember Scooby Doo, but I never collected the tapes. PAL is the video format commonly used in the UK. I'll let somebody else post the boring technical specs and more info. There's also SECAM and NTSC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted December 1, 2005 Share Posted December 1, 2005 I'm not familiar with that... care to explain? I remember Scooby Doo, but I never collected the tapes. There were independent companies that bought the rights to print VHS' of Scooby Doo since neither Warner or Hannah-Barbera did. All they had though were the rights to the VHS, nothing more. I'm assuming that's what happened here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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