Well, I’m done. My love affair with the DVD has cooled, and nationwide sales show that I’m not the only one. This little disc changed the way that Hollywood operates, fueled a meteoric rise in sales of new technologies, and even affected how we watch television. Just a few years later, with high-definition DVD’s on the horizon, we seem to have had enough. What happened?
After I graduated college a decade ago, I briefly took a job at a Record Town and helped sell movies on VHS cassettes. When a customer was looking for a movie on DVD, we had to special-order it from a catalog. Within a year, DVD’s migrated to the store shelves. VHS cassettes soon went the way of their audio cousins before them, pushed into increasingly smaller and lonelier corners of stores as these new discs took over.
Along with many others, I purchased a DVD player and was impressed by the sharp increase in quality from VHS tapes. I browsed stores to see the latest releases and perused the bargain bins in case there was an older movie I might want. I bought movies that I loved and movies that I kind of liked. I price-checked and kept a mental list of movies that I wanted to pick up when they were released. I upgraded my small VHS collection to DVD.
I researched the lists of special features and checked the “New Releases” list every Tuesday to see which movies I could add to my budding collection.
DVD sales exploded to the point where Hollywood altered its business plans. Films regularly come out on DVD now seemingly the moment they leave the theater. How often have you seen a commercial for a DVD release of a movie that you swore had just come out in the first place? People wondered if the end of the vaunted movie theater was at hand, now that people could watch movies at home on their increasingly large TV’s and progressively more complex surround-sound systems. Why pay $10 to see a movie in a theater when you could wait a month or so and watch the same movie at home?
As my array of cable networks increased, I found myself watching DVD’s less often. With on-demand options, I could simply get a movie right through my cable box, paying $4 to rent instead of $20 to own. Even as I continued to buy my favorite movies, I found myself watching them mainly when I was home sick. Movies sat on the shelf in their shrink wrap. Yes, the DVD’s had “special features,” but how often did I go through them after the first time, if at all?
My father was thrilled to find some DVD’s of his favorite movies on sale a few years ago. At this moment, they are still on the shelf in their shrink wrap. However, any time those movies are broadcast in edited versions on a random TV network, he will watch them. I am willing to bet he is not the only one.
In time, Hollywood realized that DVD’s also were a great vehicle for releasing TV shows. People could now “own” entire seasons of their favorite TV shows. How many of you know people who no longer watch live television, but prefer to wait for the DVD release so they can watch the whole season on their own time later on? When “Friends “and “Seinfeld” are available on DVD and people still watch the syndicated reruns, you know Hollywood has found a winning formula. When shows like “My Big Fat Greek Life” come out on DVD, you know Hollywood has found an extremely winning formula.
Even the TV DVD’s, which came to outsell the movie discs, have started to hit a wall. “Cheers” was a terrific show, but does anyone really need all ten seasons? I just saw two commercials for Season Six DVD’s of “The Dukes of Hazard.” By that point, the Duke Boys weren’t really “boys” anymore. If you’re dying to own Season 8 of “Charmed,” it might be time to reassess things. So the love affair has abated. The novelty of “owning” a movie has worn off. I no longer hit “Going out of Business” sales to sift through picked-over copies of “Superman IV” and “Another Stakeout.” High-definition DVD’s are on the way, and a format war is coming. Some companies favor one format, some favor another. There are blue lasers, red lasers, more storage capacity, and various other enhancements on the way. My question is whether it really matters. – Eric Kabakoff Eric Kabakoff is a frequent contributor. Comments on this piece can be sent to: current@hudsonreporter.com.