I'd say about 2001/2002. What do you all think?

agree

I was still playing tapes in the later 1990's

I wasn't able to play DVD's until I got a Playstation 2 back in 2001, and didn't get an actual DVD player until 2004, but overall I would say by 2002 or so it was weird to not have some way to play DVD's

They probably became something that wasn't super high tech and a part of the mainstream in 1999. If we're talking about when's the latest time you could ONLY own a VCR and have people not give you strange looks, probably 2003.

Speaking of this, even though I love having perfect copies of movies, along with the extras (especially on box sets), I'm still much more comfortable with VHS. Aside from easy recording quality, it feels "simpler" - plus, if you stop the movie at any spot, it's actually much easier to come back to it as opposed to finding your place on a DVD!

Around 2001 or 02. I first got one around 99, at that time it was a newer thing that not every average person quite had yet...by 02 everybody was getting them because they got so cheap.

I'm guessing about 2002 or 2003. I got my first one in 2001. I still hanging on to my VCR, though!

They probably became something that wasn't super high tech and a part of the mainstream in 1999. If we're talking about when's the latest time you could ONLY own a VCR and have people not give you strange looks, probably 2003.

Speaking of this, even though I love having perfect copies of movies, along with the extras (especially on box sets), I'm still much more comfortable with VHS. Aside from easy recording quality, it feels "simpler" - plus, if you stop the movie at any spot, it's actually much easier to come back to it as opposed to finding your place on a DVD!



Yeah, I still use my VCR often, in fact I still have more tapes than DVD's.

Do you think that were at a point now where it would be considered unusual to still have a VCR in your room or living room along with a DVD player? I don't think VHS is that outdated yet. Like, someone might think it was strange if you still had one of those big record players in your living room along with a CD player, but I don't think anyone would give a second thought if they saw someone with a DVD player and VCR still hooked up in there house.

I didn't get a DVD player up until just a few years ago....but that's fine with me.

my landlord STILL doesn't have a dvd player! I don't get it. Although, people look at me weird when I say I watched something on VHS.  It seems too much of a hassle to transfer old VHs to dvd so I'm holding on to my VCR until all the obscure stuff makes it to DVD.

my landlord STILL doesn't have a dvd player! I don't get it. Although, people look at me weird when I say I watched something on VHS.  It seems too much of a hassle to transfer old VHs to dvd so I'm holding on to my VCR until all the obscure stuff makes it to DVD.


I don't think I'll ever give up my VCR or my VHS collection. Aside from being easier in alot of ways, the biggest thing to me is being able to watch old stuff I recorded from some years before.

As far as it being considered weird to have a VCR in your living room next to a DVD player...I wouldn't think so. Even though it's clearly not as big as it used to be, I think they had a long enough life to always be "sorta around". Just because people built up huge collections, not to mention it's the easiest way to record off TV and watch older things you taped.

It became weird as soon as the local big box or mom & pop video store stop stocking new releases of movies on VHS, and the majority of studios stop releasing movies on VHS, about two to three years ago. Fact is, though a few VHS tapes are there, its not much, and if you want to see a recent release, you have to get it on DVD.

Now I, like others still have a lot of movies on VHS (I've still have something like 80 hrs of the Twilight Zone on tape), but the reality is, that VHS players stretch, break, tangle and mangle the tape effecting the playback. Not to mention the bulk and unwieldiness of the bricky things. DVD players are a lot more reliable and if you keep your DVD's clean the playback will not be effected over time.

DVD players can be had for as little as $25 from Target, we're not talking big bucks here. A DVD recorder for another $10. Blank discs are cheap, and though it might be time consuming you'll be able to get most of what you have on tape transferred over to DVD a lot easier than you think.

I didn't get a DVD player unill 2001. Because before that most DVD players were like $200 or more. And I think it became weird not to have one in 2003 I guess because by then they became pretty affordable.

I got my first DVD player as a birthday gift in November of 1999. I'd say the popularity really got to where it is now around 2002.

^I didn't get mine until sometime in 2003 when I found it in a dumpster in my townhouse complex (I guess I really lucked out). That's probably a sign that even then it was becoming established. I mean, who would've thrown out even a lousy DVD player in, like 1999? ;D

Tuesday

I got my first DVD player as a birthday gift in November of 1999. I'd say the popularity really got to where it is now around 2002.



Yeah, it seems like around the end of '99 alot of people started to upgrade from VHS. I was still using tapes then, but it was around that time that alot of people I knew started getting DVD players.

The funny thing is, even though DVD has been out for a decade now and there's a new format out, I still see it as a "new technology". I guess because I was pretty old when I first heard about it I'll always sort of see it as "new" even if it's not anymore.

Well, I would agree with some of the others here when new releases were DVD only, 2004 or so. I still do use my VCR, though not as much as my SVHS recorder, Laserdisc, Dvd Player and DVD recorder. I always have liked the tape format for recording things, and with SVHS I can get decent recordings of longer length than with my dvd recorder.

--
Dave

Yeah, 2001 seems to be the year the DVD player brokeout. I actually bought a VCR that year, because I had given my brother mine (which was a Christmas gift given to me in 1996). My mom and her now ex boyfriend bought a DVD player in 2001 when we moved in with him. That was the first time I ever owned one.

I remember renting some DVD's around that time, in particular, Field of Dreams and Sense & Sensibility.