do you really prefer dvds instead of tapes.?

DVDs are made the same way than CDs. I much prefer DVDs because you control how long they will last you. If you don't put your fingers on them and put them back in their box when you take it out of the player... they should never have any scratches on them. Leaving DVDs or CDs directly in the sun is also a big no-no. Leaving them in the heat... like in a car... is not a good idea either. Music cassettes were a nightmare as the player would often eat the tape. And the tape would also get warn after being played too many times. Video tapes are no different to music cassettes. I have an hundred video tapes which are between 25 and 10 years old. After 10 years those tapes start deteriorating... even if you don't watch them. The video tapes were only supposed to have a life time of ten years. And I am really surprised that some of my 25 year old tapes still work... even so... they are pretty bad to watch. On the other hand... I have some 15 year old CDs and they are still brand new. There is nothing physical touching a CD or DVD as it is read by a laser light. The only scratch you will ever get on it will not be made by the player... but by you. Did you know that your CDs and DVDs are made of plastic? All the data is on a piece of aluminium paper stuck to the plastic on the side of the DVD title. Your player read the data through the plastic. So when you scratch your DVD... you don't scratch the data... but only the plastic. Problem is that the laser light cannot read the data through the scratch. That is why sometimes you can make your DVD work again by polishing the scratch out of the plastic. But you must be careful not to use anything which will create more scratches when you try to get the scratch out. If you ever bought a box of blank DVDs... you will have a clear DVD on top. That is what a DVD without the data paper looks like.

I like to have DVD better for storage reasons. But I agree with you about the scratches on DVD. Tapes are fine for small children to have because it's safer for them to handle. However, if I put in a tape to watch now a day, the color quality, sounding, and overall picture are just not as clear as DVD. It's much less enjoyable to see poor quality movie.

I don't like Dvds or Cds for that reason...they get scratched and then they can be easily broken. If you touch them and don't realize that you had something on your hands it can ruin them. It is nice that they are smaller to store and that they are better quality to watch however so many things go wrong with them. That's why I back up all my dvds. My mother's dvd player ate one of my dvds once that was brand new and $25 and since then I use a program to back up my dvds, and only watch the back ups. That way if something happens I still have the originals in mint condition.

Personally I prefer the video tapes, they were more hard wearing. They used to swear that dvds were unscratchable and less likely to be damaged. LIES! I have so many cds and dvds which jump or are scratched, it's a right pain! Especially as they are not cheap. It was just a ploy to make everyone upgrade their videos to dvds. No I much prefer the tapes.

i used to work in a video shop for many many years and i used to think videos were better because of the scratches we would get on the dvds after only a couple of rentals because people werent caring about them....but at the same time ive looked at some of my old videos and the tapes start stretching and crinkling or rentals did that too....i do appreciate the better quality picture now that dvds have...and they can be resurfaced for a small charge at some video stores or some specialist places.

I prefer DVD's to tapes hands down. The image quality is so much better on dvd and navigation is so much easier. I tend to do a lot of backing up and pausing when I'm watching something and that can seriously affect a tape, causing stretching of the tape etc.. not so with dvds. I also prefer dvds to tapes when it comes to storage as well. I have a notebook with some of my lesser watched movies in it that literally takes up about 3 or 4 inches of shelf space and holds 60 movies. On video tapes, that would take up so much space. And now that I've bought a dvd burner, I can fit two movies on a disk and it takes that much less space.

Rentals can be a problem sometimes but not too often. I do prefer DVD's to tapes. It's so much more convenient to hit the menu button and go to a specific spot on the DVD rather than a tape where you have to fast forward or rewind to find a spot. Plus the picture is so much better. So many of the tapes I used to get were not so compatible with my player and I would always get lines or crinkles on the screen. I really hated that. I just got a new VCR last year and about half of my tapes look terrible in this machine so matter how much adjusting I do. It gets really frustrating sometimes. As far as the lasers, I don't know how long they're supposed to last. I would imagine as long as you keep it clean it should last quite a while. Ours is about 2 yrs old and no problems so far.