I still have this really cheap DVD player, I've had it since maybe 2000? I forget. I also play my DVDs through my PS2 and I've had that since January of this year. I am definately looking to put some money into a better DVD player soon. maybe that Phillips 727

I've been collecting DVDs since 99' but it has grown tremendously this year, since I've been dating a girl who is really into movies.

I purchased my first DVD player in May of 1998. Actually it was a Pioneer DVL-909 combination laser disc and DVD player. Still have it and use it frequently even though it's competeting with 4 other DVD players now. My first DVDs were Born on the Fourth of July, Cliffhanger, and Cool Hand Luke.

I bought my Pioneer DVL-700 DVD/LaserDisc combo player in September 1997 for $850.

X-mas 1996???

If I recall, DIVX wasn't even officially announced until September 1997, went to test markets in June of 1998, and officially went to market for the Christmas season of 1998.

December 25, 1999. Still works to this day, and I have since added a PS2, Xbox (I use neither for dvd's, but hey, they are players), Panny Prog Scan 5-disc changer (my baby ) and a dvd-rom drive on my pc. I will be going multi-region finally in a few weeks, so that will make it 6 dvd players for me.

december, 1998!

Bought mine March 15th 1998 for $297 on sale at Frys then posted about it the next day on the alt.video.dvd newsgroup. My mom now uses this workhorse till this day.

From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: The Best Dvd for under $500
Date: 1998/03/16
Message-ID: <[email protected]>#1/1
References: <[email protected]>
Organization: Netcom
X-NETCOM-Date: Mon Mar 16 3:04:08 AM PST 1998
Newsgroups: alt.video.dvd



"TylerO" <deleted> wrote:

>What is the best dvd player i can get for under 500 dollars?
fry's electronics has the rca 5200 for $297 on sale in the s.f. bay
area until 3/17. I am very happy with mine.
gary

Same here. JVC XV 501BK, a $500 piece of junk that died just outside the cut-off date to get in on the class action! (not that a few pennies would have made me feel any better, but I think they were repairing or replacing them).

My Dad bought a player in early '97, so husband (then bf) and I started collecting DVDs prior to purchasing a player. We've gone through a lot of players since then (at least 3 are still operating in bedrooms / spare rooms). PAL capable has been a necessity (see username), but not necessarily for the main home theatre. Our main player, Panasonic RP-82s, died recently (I loved that player, still in mourning). Discovered DVDtalk May '99 and have been reading the forums daily ever since (I know, slightly mental that I only registered recently).

Now that I think about it, our collection (~700 + ~200 sold or upgraded along the way) is not too out of control for 6 years of collecting (she says, trying to convince herself!)

I bought my first DVD player in 1999, a Pioneer DV-525. I think it cost me $75. I bought from one of the now out of business internet sites that gave me a dollar for every dollar I spent, or something like that. But before I got the DVD player I had a DVD-ROM that I had in I think 1997. I remember the first DVD I bought was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which I got because it had the deleted scenes.

Sounds like it might have been Value America (?) [$100 free to be used as 50% off all orders or something like that]. I bought most of my original Disney animated DVDs from there (among other things).

xmas 2001 my dad gave me a generic player he got for free in some promotion or another - the only identifier is the "brand" XWave - and the thing still works like a charm. I quickly became hooked on the new format - sold the 60-70 vhs titles i had that were on dvd and the collection took off....found DVDtalk in March, 2002.

Hehe...my first stand alone DVD player was a "Xwave" too. I got it very very cheap because I contacted a company that sold them here in Denmark (I was working in a computer company at the time and was in charge of purchasing) and told them that my company was interested in selling these players, but that I would need to test out a player first...so I got it about 70% of the price

But my first DVD player was the Creative Encore 2x for PC, which I got in late 1997 or maybe eary 1998...I dont remember which movie was my first, but a buddy of mine bought the first Austin Powers which was released in october 1997 ( I think), and I bought in on Laserdisc at that time...but a few months later, I went with DVD´s

Mt current player is the Pioneer DV 737, and I currently have 608 DVD´s

98, dvdtalk came in 99 , that';s all she wrote

December, 1999 a Sony DVP-S530D.

I got the player for X-mas and i remember that "American Pie" was the first movie i watched on DVD. I was blown away by the fact that a movie i had seen in theaters not 6 months earlier was now playing in my living room.

October 1999, birthday present for myself.
An RCA with divx, still have player and it is still going strong.
My wife tolerates my obsession.

got my first player in june of 1998, the first dvds i picked up were spawn, starship troopers, and the fifth element. went region free in december 2001 when i purchased the r2jp dvd of kitano's "brother".

Many, many years

Or, looking at it another way, 4 years 3 months.

First player - JVC in December 1999.

Also bought a PS2 in November 2002 and a laptop with DVD player in December 2002.

It must have been 1999, the first DVD I bought was the Matrix, not because I am such a big fan, but that was the only worthwhile DVD they had at Costco...actually I think Costco was called Price Club then. Now of course, Costco has gotten a lot better about what DVDs they stock.

First player was a small Sharp, I can't remember the model # but it was smaller than most of the players out at the time and that is what attracted me to it.

Now I am just shy of 1000 DVDs and realizing that it has been 5 years makes me feel a lot better about the amount of DVDs I have.

I started out with an RCA around late 97, my first dvd purchase was Scarface and Long Kiss Goodnight. Gone through a bunch of players since then, always upgrading (i even "upgraded" to DIVX at one point....got suckered into it, was working at Circuit at the time!).

I have 4 players right now, including the must have multi-region....probably about 900 or so dvds at this point

Christmas 1999

Found DVDTalk in January, but just used it for the coupons and the reviews. Found the forum much later.

July 1997

I had the same thought. It cracks me up to see how faulty everyone's memory has gotten. Are you guys all getting old or something ?

For the record, the DVD format was not introduced until very late in 1996, and then only in Japan, with very few titles available. It was not released in the US until March of 1997, and even then there were only a few (seven, to be exact) selected cities where you could buy DVDs (a whopping 30 titles!). The national rollout didn't occur until late August of that year. And, as bdhart already said, DIVX didn't even get announced until September of 1997, and the first players and software of that failed format weren't released until 1998.

My first DVD player was purchased on March 8, 1997, almost three weeks before there was a single DVD available to purchase in the US. And, because I didn't live in one of the test market cities (Portland, Oregon), there was only one store in the entire metropolitan area that even carried players. When I bought mine, it was such an event that many of the store's employees came to watch me as I picked up the player from the product pick-up desk. "What's up?" I asked. The reply, "We all just wanted to see the first person in the greater Portland area to buy a DVD player!"

I am glad to see so many people had the same RCA w/Divx i had .... Makes me feel better about my first purchase