Spinoff: Spinoff: Your family's first DVD player

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Since we are in the spirit of technology with home entertainment, why not go the next step. When was your first DVD player?

I remember getting one of those that came with the 5 free movies back in the late 90's. I remember one of the movies was Stepmom (how depressing), along with something else that had like Harrison Ford and some other stuff I don't remember. I think it was about 99 or 2K when we got one. It was a GE and I think it was under $150.

Those were the days, getting excited about finding cheap used DVDs on sale at BlockBuster and doing the rental thing

 

[barkley]

I got our first one free (just like I got our first blu-ray player free). whenever we needed (wanted) to buy electronics dh and I would plan ahead what we wanted to spend then at the end of a month go to circuit city or best buy and he would go off to the appropriate section and oooh and aah while I killed some time elsewhere. he would be all buddy budding with the sales guy and I would enter the scene as 'mean wife', asking why are you looking at this stuff, we said we were going to wait, it's too expensive...then the sales guy (always targeted a guy, never a sales woman) would start dropping the price and wheeling and dealing to get my buy-in. when we got them to as low as we knew we likely could dh made a comment about how 'this TV probably makes DVDs look AWSOME'-and then I would say 'oh no, there you go-it's more costs down the line, that's it, we can't afford it, let's leave now'. with the DVD player it was tossed in free and I think they also gave me The Abyss, with the blu ray player I think they let me pick out 3 of my choice (also free).

(I worked for a year in an electronics store that sold nothing but TVs and surround sound systems and the then 'cutting edge VHS technology'-i know what the markup is like and that deals can be made esp. if you wait until the end of the month and those commissions are looking bleak ).

 

[hardcorestitch]

It was a Sony. Ding!

 

[tvguy]

Samsung. Used it yesterday to watch White Christmas. Had to buy a $10 adapter when we got a new TV to get it to work. We also have a VHS/DVD Player Burner that we got 10 years ago.

 

[E&Cmom]

No clue what brand it was . When DH and I started dating in 1999 , the first time I went to his condo he showed me the new DVD player . He had the DVD to Sarah McLachlan concert “ Mirrorball”. We use to watch DVDs at his place and am guessing it was the same DVD player when I moved in.

 

[fla4fun]

Probably the late 1990s. It was part of a surround sound home theater system with a VCR and a DVD/CD player. I still have it set up in the family room, but it doesn’t get a lot of use these days since I have the Blu-Ray set up in the living room (I keep it for listening to music on CD, which it is fabulous for). I’m old school and still prefer DVDs to streaming.

I might have had a DVD player in my desktop computer prior to the home theater system, but I didn’t use it to watch DVDs specifically.

 

[BrianL]

The first one I had was technically a new PC with a DVD-ROM drive, but it could play movies. I messed around with that a little, and found it quite cool, so I got a standalone Panasonic player.

 

[barkley]

I miss physically going to blockbuster or the local video store and choosing what movie to rent. I remember allot of trips with dh when we were first married (in particular being VERY pregnant when the oj simpson car chase was the ONLY thing on tv and insisting we go rent something b/c it was the only thing on every channel). moreso I remember taking the kids and them wanting to rent the same movies over and over and over*. those trips served as money management lessons for my kids-they would ask for this snack and that snack, more than 1 movie...so we initiated an 'entertainment allowance' for each that they could spend as they chose (and that's when they stopped asking for so much b/c it was coming out of their own pockets ).


*we own allot of old VHS and DVDs that the local stores sold off when they went out of business and ultimately when blockbuster closed-many of which are cartoons that have never been released for home video purchases (I lost count of how many times my kids watched 'the many adventures of Winnie the Pooh series but we still have it b/c I grabbed it along with the care bears and a few other full series when those sales started).

 

[barkley]

I’m old school and still prefer DVDs to streaming.

me too-as evidenced by over 3000 titles in our home video library.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Ours was in an iMac. Couldn't believe the picture clarity. Then we got a Sony clam shell player. Played VCDs as well, but couldn't handle SVCDs, of which I had a few.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

I'm OLD. My first techno movie purchase was a BETA video player. First movie rented: FLASHDANCE. Early 1980's