Alan Smithee

This one is about a year later- someone else uploaded this, sound is obviously downmixed but the actual disc this came from is 5.1:

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The Valeyard

I was chomping at the bit to buy a DVD player in 1997. The second I first saw the format in action, I loved it! A few of my friends said not to jump in too early and wait out a year or two to see if the format survived. I waited about a year and half before buying my first player. Then I was hooked.

Alan Smithee

Some waited it out to see whether DIVX would take off or not. Remember Circuit City CEO Dick Sharp saying, in answer to the question "What about the people who already bought DVD players without DIVX capability?"- "Early adopters do take some risk, it's regrettable."

The real problem with the first generation of DVD players was they can't output DTS sound, thanks to the DVD Forum forcing the standard to be changed. (It was originally to have worked the same way it did on laserdiscs and audio CDs, but that would have produced noise on systems without DTS decoding.)

mrcellophane

My parents bought me a DVD player for Christmas in 2001. I was beside myself with happiness. It was at the top of my list that year after I went to a friend's house and watched a movie. I was blown away by the quality. My friend also explained the difference between widescreen and the limited pan-and-scan of my VHS tapes. Since I did not go to the movies for religious reasons, I had no real idea that "modified to fit your television" blurb really meant anything.

They also got a selection of DVDs that included Evita, My Fair Lady and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. (And they were still surprised when they found out I was gay.) Soon afterward, I joined ColumbiaHouse and really built up my collection.

That'sAllFolks

My first DVD player, I think, was a Sony 100 disc changer I got at Best buy for ... $800 . I do remember using a 10% coupon and actually asking the cashier to buy the protection plan (which I normally never do).

I had already bought several DVDs by the time I got my player. My first one was either Phenomenon that I bought at Computer City for 21.99 on 7/1/1999 or Doc Hollywood at Best Buy for 9.99 on 5/16/1999. (For the longest time I swore it was Phenomenon, but my DVD Profiler says otherwise --- if the dates are accurate). I still have a region free Apex that I have never opened, that must be over 10 years old by now.

I can't believe some of the prices I paid back then. The first wave of Disney releases cost me 21.99 each at Reel. I paid 18 bucks for some of the Star Trek films. There used to be a site called moviebargains or something like that that I discovered using Google. Someone on there mentioned DVD Talk and the rest is history. I quit collecting at the end of 2002 and when I came back I rejoined DVD Talk under a different name. That's why my "join" date is 2004.

I remember when Deep Discount DVD first started. I put in around a $500 order using their 10% coupons. When their 20% off sales started, I remember those threads being over 100 pages long. That is one thing I have noticed --- there is not near as much posting as there used to be. Even Blu-ray.com seems to get more enthusiastic responses than DVD Talk threads. For example their "Amazon GC" thread is 18 pages long. the DVD Talk thread is only 9 posts long in the Bargains section and 8 posts long in the Blu-ray Bargains. There's just a lot more action / enthusiasm at Blu-ray.com. Maybe we've just been around too damn long

The Bus

I got a DVD-ROM drive in 1998, and promptly bought The Usual Suspects (Polygram!). It was a flipper and I never replaced it.

Close to 700 DVDs later, and I never actually got around to buying a DVD player. I always used my PC, then a roommate's, then my console, then an HD-DVD player.

matome

I believe I actually had the first release discs before I could get my hands on a player. On 3/25/97 (New York was one of the test release markets of course) I picked up Glimmer Man, A Time To Kill and Space Jam from the now defunct The Wiz chain. I think a couple of weeks later I picked up the RCA 5200 player for like $600 and I was off!

Randy Miller III

First time I saw DVD was at a friend's house circa 1998, he was showing off The Matrix. I didn't actually buy my own player until a year or two later. It was a used Cambridge Soundworks model off of eBay, which set me back about $100. First movies I bought were Three Kings and Criterion's release of Rushmore.

rw2516

Bought my first player December 1997. Sony for $350(on sale). No DTS, no 5.1, no component, no progressive scan, does not play DVD-R or CD-R either.
Keeping it in original box, like new. Maybe be collector's item someday.

Indy24LA

I bought a RCA DVD player and Sleepy Hollow back in 2000 when I was still in LA.

ivelostr2

I was in college and taking film classes, so I talked my, then girlfriend, now wife into lending me the money to buy a PS2 to make writing papers easier...then I bought Stigmata and the 1992 Dracula...

Darkgod

I bought a Funai Model for $119 in 2002... first dvd was Phantasm for $9.99

Albert71292

My first player was a Fisher model from Sears that was $249 in 1999. Out of all the discs I've purchased over the years, can't remember what the first ones were. Still have them though, whichever ones they are!

milo bloom

Same thing. I used Christmas money to buy it even before I had a DVD player because I thought it would be a collectible (still have it!). Our next three discs were the South Park single disc volumes. Once we got a DVD player in early 1999, we played the hell out of those four discs.

I think my first player was the Toshiba SD 2109, and I've had a handful of different players over the years.

We waited a bit to get into DVD because I was waiting for either Star Wars or Star Trek to be released. When they started releasing the Star Trek TOS 2 episode discs, I just knew Star Wars would be soon behind ( ) so we dove in. (I still have all 40 of those old TOS discs).

joltman

My first DVD was Mallrats, which I got when it came out, and I believe I just had a DVD-Rom in a PC at the time.

majorjoe23

I bought my first player (A $90 something Orbitron) in the fall of 2000 at Walmart. Fight Club and Being John Malcovich were my first two discs.

ytrez

I used to scavenge SunCoast Videos' tiny widescreen section for properly formatted movies on VHS so I was a proponent of the DVD format from the get go. I was vehemently opposed to Circuit City's competing DIVX format and did everything I could to help it die. Got my first player in October 1997 and then jumped at the various coupons and offers from new sites like Reel.com and 800.com and ended up with tons of heavily discounted and free DVDs.

I've since moved almost exclusively to Blu-ray but I'll always love DVD for the cinematic exposure it has provided over the years.

Happy birthday, DVD!!!

Josh Z

My first player was a Toshiba. Don't remember the model number (may have been SD-2109?), but I know it was a second-generation unit because it supported DTS.

First DVD was Blade Runner.

I still have that silver-cover edition of Tomorrow Never Dies that Chad posted earlier in the thread. That worth anything?

orangerunner

I remember looking forward to DVD when it came out although I didn't actually get a player until 2003. The first DVD I got was The Rock in 1998 for a birthday gift.

DVD was, relatively speaking, not considered to be outrageously priced. I purchased a used Laserdisc player in 1995 for $300 and a VCR in 1997 was still about $200-$250. $350-$400 for a DVD player was resonable. Discs were $30 compared to Laserdisc which was usually $34.95 and up.

I still think that's where Blu-ray had an uphill battle. A Blu-ray player was $300 but a DVD player could be had for $20. Too wide a gap for too long.

Shannon Nutt

I was an early adopter...got a COMPAQ computer in 1997 with a DVD-ROM drive, and my first purchase (other than a sample skiing DVD that came with the computer) was AUSTIN POWERS. Bought my first stand-alone player in early 1998.

milo bloom

Ebay says between $9 and $37, but I think that's because all of the Bond movies are out of print, I believe.

dvdshonna

Was not thrilled with my first two DVD players. They were both around
$200 and they were junk. Constant freeze ups. Wouldn't play some rentals.
Neither of them lasted more than 6 months.

I think the format (atleast the players) were rushed to market before they
were ready.

Now I buy $40 dvd players and usually get 1 to 2 years before they die.
Everything seems like a bargain now. $40 players and used DVDs for $2

My only current complaint is with the new LCD TVs. Do any of these TVs
last more than 1 to 2 years?

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http://buzzhonna.tumblr.com

critterdvd

I purchased my first DVD player after a summer of doing yard work my my parents, family and neighbors to save up enough money. I'm pretty sure it was August of 2001 (could have been 2000) when I bought my first player a Sharp for $230 from costco. The first discs I bought were "End of Days," "The World Is Not Enough" and "Heavy Metal".

Regulus

I've had mine for a little over five years now.

dvdshonna

This is the one thing I've always been proud about. I remember standing in
front of the DVD display racks at Target (1998?) and every title was
$19.98 & up. I realized it would cost me well over $1,000 just to buy 50 DVDs.

So I refused to buy any DVDs until I could get them used for less than $10
The only exception, I bought "Apocalypto" for $15. It was an impulse buy
which I never repeated.

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http://buzzhonna.tumblr.com