Smiley_18 wrote:

DVD came out in 1977??? YEA right..... April Fools!

I thought beta was still out back then? I can't really be sure myself. Maybe they meant 1987?

KouSeiya315 wrote:

I thought beta was still out back then? I can't really be sure myself. Maybe they meant 1987?

My dad bought our very first VHS VCR (a Quasar model) in 1976. He bought it so that he could record the episode of Hawaii Five-O that he appeared in. I think it was something like $1500.00 back then.

--- groink

groink wrote:

My dad bought our very first VHS VCR (a Quasar model) in 1976. He bought it so that he could record the episode of Hawaii Five-O that he appeared in. I think it was something like $1500.00 back then. --- groink

Holy crap. To think, VCR's are now around $80. Even DVD players are pretty cheap now. My last one was $90 and plays everything but AVI. Your family was way ahead of mine! I remember we didn't have a VCR until I was around 6 (1987) and it was about $200 maybe. We got a microwave when I was about 7 (1988). Soon after we never understood how we lived without them.

My Jdorama collection ..just click on my profile..As for DVD, I have the list that on DVD things that bmwracer has..forgot my ID.. All I know is that I got a lot.

Smiley_18 wrote:

DVD came out in 1977??? YEA right..... April Fools!

I meant 1997.

KouSeiya315 wrote:

I thought beta was still out back then? I can't really be sure myself. Maybe they meant 1987?

I meant dvds came out in 1997 in selected cities.

But talking about beta vcrs I always thought they were better vcr's. I also had about 400 beta tapes. I was still using beta vcr's well into the 1990's. Depending where you lived beta machies were just as popular as vhs vcrs.

groink wrote:

My dad bought our very first VHS VCR (a Quasar model) in 1976. He bought it so that he could record the episode of Hawaii Five-O that he appeared in. I think it was something like $1500.00 back then. --- groink

I heard from others about how much vcrs cost back when they first came out.

I still have the first JVC SVHS consumer vcr ever produced. At least I think it was the first one.

KouSeiya315 wrote:

Holy crap. To think, VCR's are now around $80.

The problem with vcrs made today they don't last as long as they did 10 or 20 years ago. For me they usually last about one year. This is why I have given up on recording to vhs tape.

Scorpion wrote:

The problem with vcrs made today they don't last as long as they did 10 or 20 years ago. For me they usually last about one year. This is why I have given up on recording to vhs tape.

They definitely do not, I'm totally with ya on that. My first VCR back in the 80's lasted about 8 years. That was with heavy daily use, recording soap operas to EP mode 5 days a week, LOL.

groink wrote:

My dad bought our very first VHS VCR (a Quasar model) in 1976. He bought it so that he could record the episode of Hawaii Five-O that he appeared in. I think it was something like $1500.00 back then.

My brother bought his first VCR back in 1979... A VHS RCA machine. He paid like $1200 for it... It had 2 and 4 hour speeds, a one-day timer, top loading, and a wired remote... And tapes cost around $20... Amazing...

Funny thing was that the Sony Betmax had the better picture quality, but somehow the Matsushita-led VHS won the public over... Go figure.

bmwracer wrote:

Funny thing was that the Sony Betmax had the better picture quality, but somehow the Matsushita-led VHS won the public over... Go figure.

The basic reason is the same as why Microsoft Windows leads every other OS... It's not how good it is, but rather how many different machines it runs on. For Windows, it runs on over 90-percent of computers made today.

Same thing with Betamax versus VHS... The VHS standard in the 1970's was considered, using today's lingo, as "open source". Therefore, everyone and their grandmothers could build a video recorder device using the VHS technology. SONY, on the otherhand, would only allow the Betamax technology to be used by their licensees. I think a couple of other companies did license Betamax for a period of time. However, because the license fees were so high and restrictive, it affected both the price of the Betamax units, as well as the number of different make/models available.

Consumers use the general rationale where if there's a lot of different ones out there, and more manufacturers makes them, that's the technology that will survive. You have to keep reminding yourselves that your typical American is not concerned about quality. They're concerned about obselence and cheap-cheap prices! And, throughout the 1980's, the SONY executives in Japan could never understand the mentality of these Americans. That's why the Betamax format, a much better format than VHS, died a slow death.

A funny side story to Japanese understanding American marketing... When Bandai unsuccessfully marketed the Bandai/Apple Pippin game unit in the United States, they came to this conclusion:

Eighth, (and most importantly) Bandai has not studied the extent to which Americans are functionally illiterate. According to a 1993 study by the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 46-51% of the adults resident in the U.S. are considered functionally illiterate. Astounding but true. What this all means is that while a Pippin could be used as an ultra-expensive (in relative terms) game console device by these folks, they aren't about to do any serious Internet surfing. When I brought this up to a Japanese executive with Bandai, he just could not understand that Americans might not be able to read. Talk about a cultural gap.

--- groink

I dont have any dvd boxsets of jdramas and have no plans to buy in the future since the originals are usually unsubbed. I do buy anime box sets though.
_________________

groink wrote:

The basic reason is the same as why Microsoft Windows leads every other OS... It's not how good it is, but rather how many different machines it runs on. For Windows, it runs on over 90-percent of computers made today. Same thing with Betamax versus VHS... The VHS standard in the 1970's was considered, using today's lingo, as "open source". Therefore, everyone and their grandmothers could build a video recorder device using the VHS technology. SONY, on the otherhand, would only allow the Betamax technology to be used by their licensees. I think a couple of other companies did license Betamax for a period of time. However, because the license fees were so high and restrictive, it affected both the price of the Betamax units, as well as the number of different make/models available. Consumers use the general rationale where if there's a lot of different ones out there, and more manufacturers makes them, that's the technology that will survive. You have to keep reminding yourselves that your typical American is not concerned about quality. They're concerned about obselence and cheap-cheap prices! And, throughout the 1980's, the SONY executives in Japan could never understand the mentality of these Americans. That's why the Betamax format, a much better format than VHS, died a slow death.

Basically, quantity over quality, neh?

Any1 here buys unsubbed DVDs of Jdramas? If yes may I know where you got it from? I usually get mine from Yesasia.. But cdjapan looks good too. Seems to me that all the DVD Japanese dramas on Yesasia are unsubbed.. only VCDs from Taiwan or HK are subbed. Of course I'll prefer to get the DVDs for the quality if I like the drama very much.. just for collection purpose. BTW, the Japanese DVDs are really expensive!!! Almost 300++ SGD for the boxset.

Maranello wrote:

Any1 here buys unsubbed DVDs of Jdramas? If yes may I know where you got it from? I usually get mine from Yesasia.. But cdjapan looks good too. Seems to me that all the DVD Japanese dramas on Yesasia are unsubbed.. only VCDs from Taiwan or HK are subbed. Of course I'll prefer to get the DVDs for the quality if I like the drama very much.. just for collection purpose. BTW, the Japanese DVDs are really expensive!!! Almost 300++ SGD for the boxset.

I think those are the only 2 places that are in english, unless you want to try ebay and look for something factory sealed.

Maranello wrote:

Any1 here buys unsubbed DVDs of Jdramas? If yes may I know where you got it from? I usually get mine from Yesasia.. But cdjapan looks good too. Seems to me that all the DVD Japanese dramas on Yesasia are unsubbed.. only VCDs from Taiwan or HK are subbed. Of course I'll prefer to get the DVDs for the quality if I like the drama very much.. just for collection purpose. BTW, the Japanese DVDs are really expensive!!! Almost 300++ SGD for the boxset.

I haven't bought any Jdramas on DVD yet, 'cause the sets from Japan are outrageously expensive (the shipping is expensive, too), but I have bought a couple of unsubbed DVDs: Gun Crazy, Episode 1 and Digi+Kishin ... I basically shopped for the best price between Yesasia, CDjapan, and Amazon Japan...

bmwracer wrote:

I haven't bought any Jdramas on DVD yet, 'cause the sets from Japan are outrageously expensive (the shipping is expensive, too), but I have bought a couple of unsubbed DVDs: Gun Crazy, Episode 1 and Digi+Kishin ... I basically shopped for the best price between Yesasia, CDjapan, and Amazon Japan...

I wonder why they don't produce english subbed DVDs.. I'm sure it wld sell well in other parts of the world. Anyway for dramas are the DVD quality any good? Are they as clear as HDTV or movies?

Maranello wrote:

I wonder why they don't produce english subbed DVDs.. I'm sure it wld sell well in other parts of the world.

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. You'd think they would want to expand their market...

Quote:

Anyway for dramas are the DVD quality any good? Are they as clear as HDTV or movies?

I would think the quality of the DVDs would be excellent. At least the originals from Japan.

Y'know, I think just because you don't see the Japanese companies putting bounties on the bootleggers' heads, that doesn't mean they're not clued into the bootlegging of their licensed merchandise. They HAVE to know that there are people bootlegging their stuff.

I've spoken about this matter at least 1/2 dozen times on jdorama.com, so I'll just say it in a few sentences. The Japanese companies know there's bootlegging of their dramas around the World, it's just that they don't see the fans giving anything back in return. The difference between drama fans and anime fans is that the anime fans knew how to give back -- drama fans haven't. That's why Japanese anime is a profitable business and Japanese dramas aren't.

The Japanese drama companies don't have to prosecute against bootleggers. But at the same time, that doesn't make it okay to bootleg just because you know you can get away with it. What you as a bootlegger are doing instead is pushing possible legally licensed English subbed Japanese drama DVDs back. In otherwords, you as the bootlegger could give a flying sh*t what happens just as long as you get what you want, right? You only think about yourself and not of your other fellow Japanese drama fans. So the longer you bootleg stuff, the longer you can keep asking those same lame questions... "Why don't they sell English-subbed drama?????"

--- groink

groink wrote:

Y'know, I think just because you don't see the Japanese companies putting bounties on the bootleggers' heads, that doesn't mean they're not clued into the bootlegging of their licensed merchandise. They HAVE to know that there are people bootlegging their stuff. I've spoken about this matter at least 1/2 dozen times on jdorama.com, so I'll just say it in a few sentences. The Japanese companies know there's bootlegging of their dramas around the World, it's just that they don't see the fans giving anything back in return. The difference between drama fans and anime fans is that the anime fans knew how to give back -- drama fans haven't. That's why Japanese anime is a profitable business and Japanese dramas aren't. The Japanese drama companies don't have to prosecute against bootleggers. But at the same time, that doesn't make it okay to bootleg just because you know you can get away with it. What you as a bootlegger are doing instead is pushing possible legally licensed English subbed Japanese drama DVDs back. In otherwords, you as the bootlegger could give a flying sh*t what happens just as long as you get what you want, right? You only think about yourself and not of your other fellow Japanese drama fans. So the longer you bootleg stuff, the longer you can keep asking those same lame questions... "Why don't they sell English-subbed drama?????" --- groink

If they release english subbed dramas, I'm sure some fans will prefer to buy originals instead of bootlegged stuffs. But then the Japanese original DVDs are really too expensive for some people. Working adults may be able to afford them, but eg. students who are fans of Jdrama can't afford out of their pocket money for sure. If they are so highly priced, then obviously they can only capture a minority of the market share. And people who buy them must be really fans of the drama, since they are mainly for collection purpose. If one just wants to watch the drama, I'm sure they can easily find it somewhere off the net.

Anyway I should have searched for similar posts before asking. Sorry if this was asked before.