Got my first dvd player in 1998.

Any old-timers out there besides me that miss the exclusive feel that the DVD community experienced back prior to Y2K? I long for the days of $20 coupons, $10 coupons, no minimums, buy.com's great sales, reel.com, dvdexpress, screaming about DIVX and what a failure it would become, people defining "anamorphic" and discussing the new HDTV technology, the Warner Bros. "send in those annoying proofs of purchase and we'll ship you a free dvd", people's question "what's dvd?", explaining why widescreen was actually "better" than fullscreen, snapper vs. keeper discussions, "will dvd survive?", "when will Star Wars be released?", "who cares if Ep. 1 *IS* released", why Circuit City was referred to as "Circuit Shitty" discussions.

But I'm an old-school grandpa, I guess, when it comes to DVD - ...why in *my* day...

Just want to say a special "thanks" to all the moderators and of course, of course, gkleinman for a great board that has kept many many lunch hours busy for me over the last 4+ years. My employers *don't* thank you, but I do!

Thanks!
modfather

P.S. Wasn't www.reel.com the best place in the world to buy
DVDs back in 1999?

No, the best place to buy DVDs was 800.com

Other than the 5 DVDs for 1 cent deal, I didn't think so... Maybe my recollection isn't that good...

Christmas 1998, hard to believe I have been a dvd whore for almost 6 years 800.com was one of the greats back in the day, but I do think reel.com was the overall leader for that time period (1999ish).

June 0f 1998 - a Panasonic A110 and Austin Powers! Now, 917 DVDs later I have a Panasonic RP82 and still lovin' it!

I voted for the 1999 option.

1997. I remember either having a player first with no discs or discs first with no player. A Toshiba 2006 that didn't have optical out so it was returned for an RCA 5200. Got my first DVD's on 3/25/97, that I know for sure. Got a Pioneer DVL700 combo LD/DVD player as well a few months later.

I am only 16 years old but I am a huge Movie Buff. I remember saving my money for almost a year when I was finally able to Buy a DVD player the last day of 7th Grade. I went to Costco and bought a 1disc sharp player for $189 which back then was a deal... First DVD I bought was "The World Was Not Enough," but the only reason I bought the player to begin with was "The Nighmare on Elm Street Collection" and the promise of Buffy DVD season releases... DVD has come a LONG Way!

I got a Sony 3000 in April 97. It was mere $700 from Crutchfield. It still works fine.

I got a Toshiba SD2109 DVD Player in the spring of 99. It was a bit flaky when browsing the extras on the DVDs, but works reliable when playing movie. Still have it and it still works.

Those were the days...

I was a latecomer, not joining the club until Fall of 2001. I had an extensive VHS collection, and knew that once I trasitioned to DVD, my world would change (as well as my spending habits), so I held out as long as I could.

Now, two DVD players and 345 DVDs later, it seems like a long time ago.

Got the player and Vegas Vacation at Fry's. $200 for the Sony DVD player and $15 for the DVD.

Sounds just like me except your a season and about 150 dvds ahead.

had a dvdrom player pre-98, but first stand alone player came in 1999 - integra dpc 5.1 for $350. had great experience with it, but now after its fifth year alive, it can not play Saving Private Ryan, Equilibrium and some reg 0 disks. next primary on the list will be a region free five disker, unknown manufacturer.

As I posted in the thread that asked this same question the other day. 1996 was my first DVD player that also has the phenomenon of technology known as DIVX in it. The player is still going strong.

Ah, yes...the five DVDs for 1 cent deal. That, reel.com trivia and the many less-than-ethical offers for Amazon gift certificates. :-)
My first 100 DVDs averaged less than one dollar each.

I think it was either 99' or 00'. My dad got a new DVD player, so he gave me his old one.

My first player was a Sharp bought at Costco (then called Price Club) too.

It was either '98 or '99. I remember that I did a big freelance job and had money to spare so I dropped it on a DVD player.

900+ dics later....

2003 for me. For a long time I thought VHS was good enough. Now I know I'll never buy another VHS again.

I think what made me finally buy a player - my Panasonic S35 - was hearing that the last Trek film, Nemesis, would come out on DVD only. That, combined with name-brand player prices under $100, made me make the buy.

Of course, the catch of DVD, it seems to me, is that now players are so cheap, you quickly spend more on DVDs than you spent on the player.

I try to set the bar very high for DVDs that I buy. I only get movies I know I will want to watch repeatedly. I don't want a massive collection, most of which I'll never watch. With about 40 movies now, plus a few TV show sets, I already find it hard to decide what to watch, so sometimes I don't watch anything.

For a while I avoided buying on DVD what I owned on VHS. But I figure if I want to watch it, I can on the VHS I already have. But exceptions have of course arisen - like the improved director's and special editions of the original Star Trek movies; and to replace badly worn VHS copies of movies like Terminator and Die Hard.

Another reason I came into DVD was I figured it's a great way to watch old TV series. It obviously wouldn't work on VHS - imagine all the fast forwarding and rewinding you'd have to do to get to a particular episode on a tape.

Obvious pleasures of DVD are the picture and sound quality, and seeing movies in their proper widescreen formats. The bonus stuff can be fun and interesting too, although I rarely watch movies with commentaries turned on - no matter how many times I've seen a movie, when I watch a movie, I want to watch the movie.

When I upgraded to a new computer in November 1999, I had it bundled with a DVD-R drive. At the time, I felt it was the only economical way to enjoy the best of both worlds: my heavy usage of computers and my movie watching binges. But fortunately, due to various circumstances that I had to go through in 1999, I also received enough money to buy myself a real player. So in February 2000, I bought a Toshiba 3109 from that auction thingy egghead.com ran. I paid $269 for it, which was a fairly good deal at the time. The player still works just fine.

In the months before that, I perused sites like DVDFile, The Digital Bits, and DVDVerdict daily, so I would know what to look out for in terms of players and movies. I had followed DVD technology since its initial annoucement as well.

I was never a fan of VHS, largely because of the practice stores had of charging a premium for the widescreen editions of movies I wanted. I'd usually just dub movies off my friend's laserdisc player. (I had been an advocate of widescreen since around 1991, so widescreen was never an issue for me the way it still is for some DVD newbies weaned on the P&S world from VHS/cable/etc.!)

My first DVD Player was a DVD-Rom in early 1998. By the end of 98 I bought my first standalone player. A Sony S300 that still works great today.

Got my first and only stand-alone player in December 2001. I decided that it was finally time then when it became apparent that the studios weren't making Widescreen VHS anymore.

I had an extensive VHS collection that I had been collecting on since 1986. My first VHS was Star Trek III.

However I had a DVD-ROM in a Celeron 433 PC I bought in '99, and for some reason, I lost the codec for it and it wouldn't recognize DVDs.

But now I have a modest DVD collection. I probably have acquired more DVDs in just a little over 2 years than I had VHS over 17 years.

1999. Christmas.

June 2000, with about 10 DVDs bought in the previous two months, so I wouldn't have to buy everything all at once.

Went region free in October 2003 - why did I wait so long?

First player: December 1999
Second player: (region-free) February 2002

Rob