My week:
Tuesday – catching up on artwork and writing
Wednesday – Playing D&D and catching up on writing
Thursday – catching up on writing and artwork and playing Call of Cthulhu
Friday – unknown at this time. Probably writing and art.
Saturday – help Shawn move!
No swimming this week. I cry.
On ebay I won a copy of Dark Crystal on VHS. Paid about a dollar more than I would like. It’s okay, because I sold a copy of Necronomicon Files on ebay this week too. So I’m ahead by 7 bucks.
One of these days I’ll write up my VHS vs DVD tally. Maybe I’ll start right now.
Myths
DVDs have a better picture quality than VHS. – Not always true. A lot of the time when I am watching Buffy or some other film, you’ll get what I believe is called ‘artefacting’ and it’s kind of annoying.
DVDs Last Forever. They say that with each viewing, VHS tape deteriorates, while DVD will last for generations. This, again, is not necessarily so. I have VHS tapes that I’ve had for years and they still play fine, whereas DVDs can get scratched and often that’s that: one scratch and your movie is hooped.
PRO DVD/CON VHS
1. Some DVDs have audio commentaries & other bonus features you wouldn’t find on a VHS tape.
2. Chapter Links. I put this as a pro, but for some DVDs, it’s actually a con.
3. Zoom functions. This is pretty neat.
4. DVDs take up less space.
5. DVDs are instantly rewound.
PRO VHS/CON DVD
1. If you don’t like what’s on a VHS, you can tape over it.
2. VHS is much cheaper than DVD, especially on ebay.
3. There is no standardization issues with VHS like there are with DVDs. Sometimes DVDs simply won’t work in our DVD players (take for example Terminator 2). The more fancy the functions they program into DVDs, the more likely it will crap out while you’re watching.
4. Some DVDs won’t let you fast forward through the trailers and the FBI warnings.
5. If a VHS breaks, you can fix it yourself. If a DVD stops working, there’s not much you can do.
6. Many DVDs have menus that are confusing, take forever to get to, and are generally annoying.
And on a personal note: I don’t like Easter Eggs. I didn’t pay for a DVD to have to spend my valuable time hunting for all of the features. I would like an easy, simple to use menu, preferably with all the options on 1 menu page.