What Was the Best Consumerist Video Media Format Ever Produced?

Surprising as the answer may be, I'll stick with saying the trusty old DVD.

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I was one of those people that went mental when first introduced to the awesomeness contained on that compact, shiny, sparkling disc. The closet I had been to experiencing films anywhere near that level of film quality was LaserDisc, however this new storage medium had revolutionary advantages over anything prior to its release. The mountains of movies I bought or imported from abroad, almost makes my head spin when thinking about it. After all, the leaps and bounds in improvement over the then "goto" medium of choice of the time (being VHS), was unfathomable. And, I believe, that right there was waht made DVD the golden pinnacle of the industry standard at the time. No more degradation in sound and picture, a convenience storage solutions as well as incredible visuals and theatrical audio. Including multiple soundtracks (that was up until then, only exclusive to LaserDisc)and extras besides the main feature. It was everything the retail movie market ever wanted.

So, fast forward to a few years down the line and we finally got hi-def DVD's thanks to Sony, going by the name of Blu-Ray. And I remember the buzz back then, especially the war between its competing rival format, HD-DVD. I recall how experts in the field stated that the days of the traditional DVD were now limited to, at most, a year and this new and improved format would eventually take it's throne. But something unexpected happened. Online video streaming or, to brand it by it's more popular definition, VOD (Video-On-Demand). Hence, the age of the Blu-Ray came around a little too late, only to be ousted by these services, such as NetFlix, which offers up a level of convenience any other previous format could only ever dream of.

However, of all the mediums beforehand and to answer the above question, I'd still say DVD was the "de facto" benchmark standard back then, that literally revolutionised the consumer retail entertainment market and allowed your everyday Joe Bloggs to realistically replicate, to an impressive degree, a real movie theatre experience at home.

What would you say was the best movie media format of yesteryear?

Hope you enjoyed this post, please look out for more on the way... (author: @ezzy)

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