Film buffs and technophiles consigned HD-DVDs to the same sad fate as the failed MiniDisc in their fervor to coronate Blu-ray as the next-generation movie format. I took no sides in the format war; my choice for home entertainment has long been destined for obsolescence.
I grew up with the humble, hardy videocassette and grumbled when DVDs charged ahead in sales. I’ll grudgingly buy the discs now only when the movie I want isn’t available on video, but my collection of tapes dwarfs the four-dozen or so DVDs on the shelf.
Remember these? What's so great about those fragile, finicky DVDs, anyway?
Sure, DVDs offer a sharper picture and an impressive menu of cue points for easy scene selection, but they’re as fragile as they are flashy. Try playing that disc after it’s been within a quarter-mile of dust, human fingerprints or pet hair.
Videos are a paragon of rectangular resilience. I’ve tossed tapes across the room, dropped them, even stepped on them or tripped over them a time or two, and they remain picture-perfect. Drop a DVD on a hardwood floor or handle it carelessly, and you’ve lost your new movie and bought yourself a $20 beverage coaster.
The video store in my central Florida hometown always had a sun-warped VHS tape or two on the counter as a caution against leaving rented videos in the windshield of a hot car, but I’ve never neglected a tape to the extent of letting it melt.
Videos made it much easier to record TV broadcasts and — with the aid of a dual-deck VCR — copy a tape to share with friends. Most new DVDs are copy-protected, and blank discs are useless if your computer doesn’t have a DVD burner.
The image quality on a DVD is supposedly superior, but can you really tell? Do our primitive pupils and retinas notice the difference of a few hundred pixels?
It’s a moot point now, as all new movies and TV show collections are sold exclusively on DVD. Most department stores and electronics shops don’t sell videos anymore, and many that do are selling off their entire collections.
Hollywood Video had a table of pre-viewed VHS tapes it was selling for 99 cents each recently. I bought four movies for a song, and that’s when I realized the bright side of the videotape’s unceremonious fadeout.
With supply and demand tilted in my favor, I can catch up on decades of the best films and build a megalibrary of videos for less money than it takes to rent a handful of new releases on DVD.
This time, taking quantity over quality’s a good thing.
Someday, the overlooked, abandoned black plastic boxes could become high camp in much the same way modern hipsters collect vinyl records. If this happens, I’ll be well-positioned to resell some of those tapes I couldn’t give away now.
Of course, the ultimate fantasy for any VHS holdout is for movie distributors to resume selling new releases on video. Toymakers can phase out and bring back fads, and Detroit can execute and resurrect the Thunderbird and Camaro, so why not a second season for the lowly videotape?
Come on, Hollywood: Be kind. Rewind.
Note: This essay was adapted from the author’s column in the Havelock News.
1 Comment
August 16, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Here is the best part, all this urgency for fantastic sound and imaging for nothing because what you watch today is literally gone tomorrow. ‘Entertainment’ is the way people avoid the fact that the world is a lonely place and people just don’t want to get caught in the psychosis of it. Turns out both sides have its psychological issues. TV is a waste of money, time and intelligence.