DVDs

The other day (last Tuesday, September 8, 2009) I happened to be watching a cab-ride train video on our DVD player.
In other words, the video was a DVD.
All of a sudden, it stopped, but at the beginning of a “chapter” segment.
It also went darkish.
Now what?
This never happened with my VHS tapes!
Eject disc.
Start over.
Select chapter.
Nothing!
Nothing but a red “will not compute” icon. (Not to mention my player often spits out the disc as “disc error.”)
Okay; try again.
Eject disc.
Start over.
Select chapter.
Played this time!
Um, this is progress?
As I understand it, all the digital information on a DVD is read into a small computer in your player, and that plays it back.
A pain.
A VHS tape didn’t do that.
Stop a VHS tape while playing, extract for later, then reinsert and restart where ya left off.
Not with a DVD, or usually not.
Extract and restart and it starts over, making you view footage ya already viewed.
Okay; don’t extract the DVD, which means I can’t insert a blank DVD to record on.
Plus, its starting where it left off is intermittent.
Often it just starts over.
Of course, a VHS tape ain’t digital, although I’ve yet to feel any observable difference was worth the so-called “progress.”
My DVD player is actually a combination DVR/VCR.
It can play both DVDs and tapes.
The intent was to dub a VHS tape onto a DVD.
I haven’t yet. Not worth it, although I probably will for when I can no longer get a VHS player.
Another advantage is that stored DVDs take up way less space than stored tapes.
Ho-hum; still not worth it compared to all the acrimony.
So I suppose my badmouthing DVDs makes me an old fart.

• I’ve been a railfan all my life. A “cab-ride train video” is one where the recording video-camera was placed in the locomotive cab, or the front of the locomotive. All you see is approaching track, and the surrounding scenery — what the train-engineer sees.