DVD collecting has become the preferred hobby of millions of film lovers replacing the VHS format that has rapidly become outdated. Here's a short history of the Video and DVD collecting hobby and some reasons why collectors love the DVD format.
Growing up in the 1960's and 1970's I loved movies and televison shows very much. There were only a few major television networks and everyone who grew up in those decades can remember how certain movies were replayed at only certain times of the year. For example "The Ten Commandments" seemed to only be played around the Easter holiday. It became a family treat to gather together to watch programs like the Charlie Brown Halloween Special or "The Wizard Of Oz" on the one and only time it played during the year. Sure, we would have watched our favorite programs more than once a year if we'd had a way to do so. It wasn't until the invention of the video cassette recorder or VCR that we were able to do so.
Consumers took to the VCR like a duck takes to water. They began taping all of their favorites programs for repeated viewing whenever they liked. They purchased their favorite films and episodes of their favorite television programs on pre-recorded videotapes and watched them at their convenience. Film studios, knowing a good thing when they see it, began mass producing videotapes of anything and everything in their product catalogs that they thought might sell. Consumers could purchase products that were high in quality and designed for repeated playing or products that were thrown together on low quality tape and sold inexpensively. Many early films and televisions shows had fallen into the public domain. For whatever reason the copyrights were not properly recorded or renewed as required by law. As a result any company could release a videotape containing one of these public domain programs. These types of programs were usually only released on the cheaply produced videos. Videotapes were sold in such massive quantities that soon prices began to fall. Videos that once had retailed for fifty dollars or more when the format was new were now selling for ten dollars or less. Changes had to be made.
The music industry had experienced great success by slowly replacing the fairly inexpensive vinyl record album with the compact disc. Although many audiophiles said that the compact disc format was not superior to a high quality vinyl disc recording, the majority of consumers did not agree with them. The compact disc became the new standard for buying pre-recorded music. The movie studios have followed the example of the music industry with the introduction of the DVD. The DVD, much like the compact disc, is less expensive to produce so the movie studios can make a greater profit on each sale. In many cases they were able to sell the same product once again to the same consumer just as the music industry had done when consumers had replaced their aging vinyl record albums with shiny new compact discs. People began to replace their videotapes with newly manufactured DVDs. The fact that you could fit two DVDs in the same amount of shelf space as one videotape was an extra incentive to add more DVDs to your collection.
The DVD format enabled the studios to add much more than the movie onto a disc. Thus special features was born. Now consumers often had choices of buying DVDs that were "bare bones" containing just the movie and perhaps a film trailer or buying a more expensive version that contained the film plus several special features. The special features were things like making of the movie documentaries, cast interviews, deleted scenes or bloopers, interactive games or just about anything you could think of. One of the most interesting special features some DVDs contained were commentaries by the film's director or cast members. This was a special version of the film where the film's director or cast members would give a running commentary on the film while it was being shown. The soundtrack of the film was lowered so that the discussion of the commentary was easily heard. It was very much like watching the film with the director or cast members in your own home and listening to them describe the making of the film.
Consumers of pre-recorded movies and televison programs seem to fall into two camps. One camp really just wants to watch the program and cares very little for the special features I've mentioned above. They enjoy watching a good movie but in most cases don't really care to own it. The folks in this camp are the ones who have made stores like Blockbuster and Movie Gallery such a great success. They can go in and rent the film for a night or two, watch it and return it for someone else to rent.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the videophiles who love films with such a passion that they want to build a library of their favorite films. These folks love the special features and look for DVDs that contain them. They may only watch a certain film once or twice over several years time but they like the convenience of having it easily available when they want to watch it. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule where the videophile may not want to own certain films or a person who seldom buys films will purchase a favorite film on DVD because they believe they will rewatch it often.
