vhs Tagged Articles at Cinematical
What Movies Died with VHS?
Filed under: Classics », Fandom », Home Entertainment »
New technologies often lead directly to the death of old technologies, and that's what happened with VHS. It changed home viewing habits forever, and then itself was killed off by DVD. It was a slow death that finally ended last fall, when the last major supplier of VHS tapes quit the business.
That might be that -- out with the old, in with the new, and all that rubbish -- except when VHS died, it might have taken an untold number of innocent victims along with it to the grave. "Hundreds of important and critically acclaimed films [are] no longer readily accessible for home viewing," reports Anthony Kaufman at Moving Image Source. "In the wake of video-store shutdowns across the country, and a move toward DVD-only subscription services modeled after Netflix and digital download initiatives, the non-digitized movie is becoming an endangered species. The death of VHS has long been foretold ... But the industry appears to have overlooked the films themselves."
If the only movies you watch are recent blockbusters, then this is a non-issue. But if your tastes extend to the margins, to the lesser-known, less-heralded titles by noted filmmakers like David Cronenberg, Samuel Fuller, Jacques Tourneur, and Robert Bresson, or if you've ever been curious about discovering "important little-known American auteurs" like Lew Landers and André De Toth -- cited by Dave Kehr of the New York Times in the article -- it's sobering to think that so many films are "vanishing into the ether," as Kehr says. "They're just gone from the conversation and that's unfortunate. The younger critics haven't seen this stuff, but how could they?"
Call it the "VHS Dead List," the flip side of the DVD wish list, where movie buffs express their yearning to see what they've rarely or never seen.
VHS to DVD to... EVD?
Filed under: New Releases », Tech Stuff »
It wasn't long ago that DVDs were the new IT item with high-price discs and expensive players. Just like CDs, the movie counterparts caught on like wildfire. It wasn't long before we were arguing over the inevitable decline of the VHS and just how long they would stick around as video stores bought more DVDs and less tapes. Now, we've reported the death of the VHS, and the same video stores that have been decreasing videotape options for years are now cleaning the shelves and selling off the used, video dinosaurs.Yet technology never stops, and just as we get secure with DVD and HDVD, China's bringing out EVD, or Enhanced Versatile Disc. I can only hope that this latest VD version is backwards compatible, as Chinese electronics manufacturers plan to switch completely to EVD in one year -- by 2008. Their enhancement is said to come in the form of a crisper picture and larger capacity, but even more tempting to studios -- improved piracy features. Although plans are in the works to export EVD players overseas next year as well, US studios haven't jumped on board, yet. Right now, films already have the regular, the high-def and the PSP formats, so will the studios really be interested in another? I think it might come down to just how well the new format fares against piracy. It might never catch on here, but it if they do switch over in one year, I imagine it will be a wrench in the goodie-filled, alternate-version releases that we order from overseas.
"Clean" DVDs of Movies Ruled Illegal
Filed under: Home Entertainment »
You've probably heard about companies like CleanFlicks, which edit popular movies on DVD to remove language and scenes that they find offensive, then rent or sell the "scrubbed" versions of the movies to customers and even to some video stores. Various Hollywood groups, including Mel Gibson, filed suit against these companies for violation of copyright laws. On Thursday, a federal appeals court judge ruled against CleanFlicks and similar companies, on the grounds that they cause "irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies." The companies are ordered to turn over their inventory to movie studios within five days ... what do you think Hollywood will do with the sanitized DVDs? Unfortunately, DVDs don't burn well, so a celebratory bonfire is out.The article on the ruling does not mention whether it will affect DVD players like ClearPlay that contain filters you can use to block certain types of content from specific movies. Since the actual DVD remains intact, this type of filtering might not be prohibited under the ruling. I believe the Family Movie Act that became law last year protects home technology like ClearPlay, as well.
Follow-Up: Cablevision Counter-Sues Hollywood
Filed under: Disney », Paramount », Universal », Tech Stuff », 20th Century Fox », Home Entertainment »
Last week, I reported that four movie studios are suing Cablevision over copyright issues regarding the cable company's planned DVR service. Now Cablevision has filed a counter-suit to defend itself, claiming that the service is protected by the ruling in the Sony Betamax video case. In case you don't remember, or are too young to have heard, Sony was sued by Universal and Walt Disney 30 years ago over their Betamax machines. The case went for many years and Sony eventually won in 1984, although by that time it had lost the video format war to VHS. Anyway, Cablevision is claiming their service is no different than a home video recorder, or VCR. The studios original suit claims the difference is that Cablevision's customers will not be storing the video data in their homes. Imagine if Sony hadn't won their case and not only were we never able to rent videos, but Hollywood never built the billion-dollar business they now depend on. I think that looking back, the studios should reconsider further attempts to hinder the advances of entertainment technology. Video-on-Demand and Digital Video Recorders are the future, whether Hollywood likes it initially or not.
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