It's also a lot easier to collect DVDs, just on storage grounds. This might encourage more people to shop for them, even at (act-ptui!) Wal-Mart. And I think that Netflix wouldn't have been possible with VHS due to mailing issues. So people have access to a lot more movies nowadays.

VHS tapes are generally released for rental (priced around $100 per tape) before they're released for sale (priced closer to $15-20). DVDs (I believe) are generally released for both rental and sale at the same time, and priced accordingly.

I don't think that's true of VHS anymore. At least a lot of VHS tapes now come with the lower proce right off the bat.

I'm sure video stores are paying some kind of fee for rentals, even if they are paying the same retail price for the tape.

A per-rental fee sounds like it would work out better all around though - more money to the studios on high traffic rentals, and it encourages stores to stock riskier independent fare because they're not getting soaked for as much if people turn out to not be interested in that particular movie.

Plus, with DVDs, you can just say to yourself, "I want to see that scene in The Mask where they do the big dance number in the street," without having to fast forward through everything

I know it's a minority opinion round here, but I really love Y Tu Mama Tambien. It just works for me.

I also really liked it. Like Robin, I appreciated the contrast between what we were seeing and what the voiceovers were telling us -- it was the factor that made the movie more than "Threesome in Mexico" for me.

I have examined this statement in depth and the market as a whole and I can only come to one conclusion:

Oliver Stone is a dick.

And again Robin speaks for me. Maybe he didn't like VHS either, and the shift to DVD has given him an opportunity to spout off? He might believe movies only count if you see them In the Theatre.

Which is nice if you can find a theater that will show me Ginger Snaps II (or Citizen Kane, for that matter) at 11 a.m. on a Sunday while I recline in my jammies.

I still see movies I'm interested in at the theater. All DVD does is make foreign films and indies that don't run in my area available to me after the fact.

DVDs have opened up way more media viewing for me, both in movies and tv (the last few episodes of Firefly come immediately to mind). I'm really looking forward to getting Netflix (it's my "finally out of debt" reward).

ita - where did you pull that quote regarding Oliver Stone from? I have to do a thing on logic fallacies and that would be a good one to use, but I need the source.

I'm a fan of the DVD format because I love the extras, especially the commentaries, at least when they're well-done. My favorite commentaries (outside the LotR movies) are on the Ultimate Toy Box set (the Toy Story 2 one is especially hilarious). Some of the more boring ones where the first Matrix film and 1776 (I hate it when the commentator does little more than say, "And this is where this character says, 'Such-and-such'" just as the character says just that. Tell me something I don't already know from watching the film!