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: a history |
Here is another personal “blog”. I cannot speak for others, but my guess is that many have had very similar experiences. So I hope the following is taken with the humor in which it was written. This isn’t really just a history of gmDVD but a history of recordings and collecting in general. It’s amazing to think that it doesn’t even cover a very long period of time. To give you an idea what I mean, just a little more than 10 years ago DVDs didn’t exist. For that reason, I won’t speak of years because it does not give proper weight to the drastic changes in technology. In technology years, 10 years was eons ago. That same year, the Pentium (I) was introduced and barely reached speeds of 100Mhz, today we have quad cores - each over 20 times that speed.
VHS Era
It is before the DVD era and all taping and trading was done with VHS tapes. Much more care was required because every copy lost some quality and introduced degradation. There were such things as analog “stabilization”, 2 (or 4 or 8) head VCRs, SP/LP/EP, “track” indexing, audio dubbing, hi-fi, and as always – really thick cables. We tried our best to make the perfect copy, but in retrospect it was a futile effort. Every copy turned out a little different, and each subsequent copy was worse than the next. The effective resolution was just 240x480 for NTSC and 240x576 for PAL. To put this in perspective, this is less than 10% of the resolution of the HD broadcasts that are now commonplace.
It was also a pain to make VHS copies and compilations. Fast forwarding to the right spot, copying it in real-time, stopping, rewinding. The process of collecting and creating copies also degraded the original.
VCDs and SVCDs
Tiding us over before DVDs were more common was the Video CD (VCD) and Super Video CD (SVCD). This added a little more versatility, and this format lasted with collectors much longer than I would have thought. Groups such as the RareVCD group had many enthusiastic members for years. VCDs and SVCDs allowed for copies without degradation, some indexing, instant copies, and decent quality for SVCDs. The resolution of 352x240 for VCDs (253x288 PAL) and 480x480 for SVCDs (480x576 PAL) was about the same or a little better than VHS, but not by much. And the bitrates for VCD and SVCD were 1125 and 2500 kbps respectively, roughly 25% of a typical DVD. And the audio was not great. We still weren’t satisfied.
Finally?
The big breather for the collector came with the DVD standard. DVD offered endless possibilities with excellent audio choices, menus, 720x480 (or 720x576 PAL) resolution, 8000 kbps bitrate, and perfect reproduction of any source…or so we thought at the time. (more on that later) For now the collector was happy. Videos could be copied over and over and have no quality loss. The rush was on to save any/all videos to DVD. But DVD writers and blank DVDRs were still expensive and unperfected. Princo was one of the first companies to make blank media for less than $1, and it wasn’t even that good. (For a comparison, they are less than $0.20 today) DVD writers were hundreds of dollars (about $20 today) So it’s no wonder that it was common to see DVD bootlegs selling on eBay, in Japan, even some record stores for amazingly high prices.
It was around this time that I decided to transfer my VHS collection to DVD. Mostly I was getting tired of trading VHS copies. Instead I could trade the same material without degrading it…on DVD. But I didn’t solve my problem at all, because people were coming out of everywhere asking for multiple DVD copies. Afterall, this technology was fairly new and not many people had DVD writers. I then decided to take my DVDs copies to the masses and create the gmDVD group. I thought I could save time since people could make their own DVD copies…but that didn’t work out either.
The Beginning of gmDVD
I’ll be the first to admit that gmDVD was not well thought out at first. But the group was rushed to try and handle an immediate need. I thought a good (and free) gmDVD01 would be a slightly improved version of what people were otherwise spending money on from Japan. I faced many people who said it was a stupid idea since DVD writers were so uncommon. Even the software to create and author DVDs was in its infancy. But I thought it was only reasonable for people to spend money on equipment for free bootlegs rather than buy them from Japan or eBay or whatever. But we still had a very large “burnerless” group, roughly twice the size of the group with burners. It was not a big problem though, because the “cost” of the free DVD was to weed 3 other copies. Supporting a large group of burnerless was not hard when you keep multiplying each copy by 3.
However, the first nail in the coffin of trading bliss came early. I found out it was possible to make a copy with errors (someone could ignore the error) and then the error would easily transfer to later copies. These copies could introduce another error, and then another. Are we back in the VHS days? We can now have progressively degrading DVD copies? It was unfortunately because something out of our control was ruining the DVDs. There was also a problem with media that was bad for a while, but eventually remedied itself. All DVDRs (especially early on) were not created equal. Princo (the bargain brand) turned out to be one of the worst for longevity. Something that read fine a few months ago cannot fully read anymore? Again we are in the stone age. And it was discovered that not all DVD readers can read every kind of media. Some readers had problems with some brands, or DVD+R but not DVD-R. What does someone do if their only reader can’t read the disc they’ve been sent?
The next nail in the coffin was from those who didn’t care about their fellow trader. This shocked me because after some people took the time to carefully create and offer something for free, someone else who received it would not even take the time to create good copies. They would send a copy with errors, they would send a copy in a weak mailer, they would make an analog copy with no menu, sometimes they would make no copy at all. It wasn’t long before most of the copies that were around had problems. This was devastating. I really thought “why should I take any time to create these DVDs when so many people treat them this way?”
Improving the quality?
I thought it was better to come back with a better solution than to just give up. How can I offer a better product and reduce the sabotage? I tried to enforce an ISO-only rule, so any bad copies would be immediately clear, and analog DVD copiers would not work. Eventually we moved from weeds to vine-only. This greatly reduced the problems. But the other thing I did was abandon the idea of the DVD simply being a copy of a VHS tape. DVDs were capable of so much more. I recorded better sources like satellite (about 480x480 lines) and laserdisc (528x480), I spent time improving the color and reducing noise, I blanked out ticking time codes, I redubbed audio, I improved the artwork and menus…the amount of time spent was amazing. Afterall, you should get something different. If you like it, great. If not, at least it was something different.
Many people think there were just 15 gmDVDs, but there were far more that were unnumbered and each one could have 10 different sources or multiple DVDs. If I could have concentrated on just one source I would have been better off, but I was overly ambitious and wanted to offer anything and everything to everyone. Even the choice to use NTSC (480 lines) reduced the quality from PAL (576 lines) but was done for compatibility, so anyone who received the disc could at least play it. And gmDVD was a great place to send a new collector who wanted to get lots of videos quickly and easily.
Unfortunately, these choices didn’t always pay off in higher quality. New sources come out all the time. In some cases, a new source would be found WHILE a DVD was being made. Sometimes shortly after weeding began. Even groups like Fade “Definitive” editions proved “definitive” simply does not exist. Every recording can be improved with enough time and new technology.
I also tried using Dolby Digital audio for a great full and different sound out of 6 speakers, only to find out that for those without a Dolby Digital processor, recreating the 6 channels in stereo often sounded worse or distorted. For so many DVDs and so many sources it was impossible to get the best quality for each source and every home theater system without a crystal ball and a time machine. But they were a great representation of what was “out there”, everyone with a DVD player could use them, and many thousands enjoyed them. I overheard several times while sitting with fans at concerts “did you see this DVD?” – yeah I know that one…I made it in my basement while in my bathrobe.
But the popularity of gmDVD created another problem. It totally and immediately removed the rarity of a video. I could reach over 2500 members in just a few weeks. gmDVDs were being copied in other forms on eBay and part of bootlegs like ‘6 Hours Live’. I began getting videos that came with a “please don’t weed” string attached. I literally had to offer lower quality versions to the group in order to satisfy those who traded with me. And it was hard to argue because I knew with one weed I could reduce the trade value to zero. Now I was spending tons of time and reducing the quality for the group. gmDVD was the poster group for “share everything”, yet the large size of the group made this impossible.
xxxDVD
It was not long before other DVD trading groups began to pop up. Some didn’t last, others did. Some would say, “iso-only” “trade only” “vine only” “uncompressed audio” “unremastered” “better than gmDVD”. All of these are great. Anything that shares better quality DVDs or offers alternatives is great for fans. But gmDVD paved the road (and ran off the road) for many groups that came later. It is always easier to make a better quality product once you see several ways NOT to make it. “This is good but would be better with more color, or a better menu, or a pinch of salt – we should do it this other way!”. Some people like salt, others don’t. And some are happy to get anything at all. Everyone’s effort helps to improve the trading pool.
A Monster
But it was not long before gmDVD became a monster too big for me to handle. It turned from a hobby to a job. My attempt to save time by having a group that “ran itself” failed miserably. And even with the help of many great moderators like Lidsville Dave Smith, Jim Wiora, Wayne Harvey, and others - the time spent comparing addresses and checking copies was too much for me. We tried to rid the group of the poor copies and bad traders. I made the final “gmDVD” and was happy to let the group burn in…I mean sail off into the sunset. I planned to delete the group soon thereafter.
But so many people still loved the group. Even with (now more common) torrents and the (now less common) problems with copies, people still loved receiving gmDVD01 for the first time. But activity within the group is way down from it's peak of well over 50 messages every day. By this time (eons in technology years) many of the gmDVDs were outdated. But the quality was still great for many people in the group, some videos still remain the best version out there - even after all this time. And some were even used by Genesis in their boxed set. But by that time something was becoming painfully obvious to me.
DVD Quality?
The vast majority of what gmDVD concentrated on was the early years, through 1980. But almost all of those sources trace back to VHS. Even Satellite and Laserdisc resolution does not reach full DVD quality. As the years go on, and we are treated to official DVDs or HD broadcasts, and our TVs get larger…viewing these old VHS sourced DVDs became more and more painful. I became spoiled and the quality was not enough for me…then came film.
I began working on film to DVD transfers because it is extremely rewarding, visually. 8mm film is capable of 800-1000 lines in both directions (greater than DVD) and 16mm film can do twice that. Suddenly my eyes were opened. It was like creating something from nothing. If silent, I could take the film and make it sing. With film I can create DVDs with greater quality than any bootleg, any official DVD. I can finally control the source to squeeze all the color, brightness, and resolution possible.
One problem of film transfers is the time and money required. It is not cheap (especially if multiple transfers are necessary) and can take weeks or months. It’s fun but still a lot of work. I lost count on exactly how many reels I have transferred, somewhere around 55. It took a great deal of time.
The other problem (as we have seen over and over) is that making copies guarantees seeing it later on eBay or youtube or the streets of Israel (really), without a credit. Unless you have worked on something like this the following is hard to explain. But when your work is copied this way without a credit, or sold, or (in several cases) copied before it was complete…it is extremely painful. Maybe it’s like working on a painting, only to find someone holding it up in the wrong frame and the signature missing. “Look what I found!” or worse “Look what I made!”
It’s not so much the lack of credit that’s so disappointing. It’s mostly that when you create something like this (a film, a painting, a website) you have in mind how you want it used. You make choices not on what is necessarily “best” but what you like, the way you envisioned your work. When someone takes your work and uses it in a way you didn’t want, it doesn’t make you want to create anymore. It doesn’t make you want to share again.
The final chapter I believe is taking film to HD. HD is capable of 1920x1080 lines of resolution (15 times VHS – 6 times DVD). Also, the color and compression methods (MPEG-4) are better than DVD’s (MPEG-2). Of course there is a limit to the capability of the film. I have found that for many dark 8mm films, there is little or no difference between DVD and HD. For a bright 8mm film, you can expect 800x800 (maybe 1000x1000) which is only 2 times DVD resolution. But 16mm film can get closer to the capability of HD. Talk about better than a bootleg, better than an official DVD. HD from film is simply like nothing we as fans have seen before.
But HD is still in its infancy, much like DVD was 10 years ago. HDDVD was only recently put out of business by Blue Ray DVD. Burners are over $600. Paying for more expensive transfers, upgrading software and hardware, and spending the extra time that HD requires….it won’t be easy, but somebody has to do it. The band won’t do it. It is up to the fans to uncover what has been hidden for so long.
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