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The Simpsons no longer coming to DVD

HD is definitely a better experience but it's not crucial for a show like The Simpsons.

You could probably get a decent 32" HD TV for only a couple hundred now. If you can afford to buy up a series on DVD you can afford that. But, last time I checked broadcast HD had trouble even coming in on converter boxes, so I don't know if it's currently possible to get decent HD without cable.

I agree that I like having a permanent physical copy that can't be licensed out from under me. But I'd be happy with being able to buy a digital copy and burn it onto a disc.

True, although you can get a really nice 32" HD TV for less than $200. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a 32" Hisense H3 that I got as a gift, and it was about $158. The colors, contrast, and picture quality are excellent.

As for DVDs, that's why I like to own them, too. It's nice to have physical media in an age where your digital rights can be revoked at any time.
 
Families without a lot of money still don't necessarily have HD though, right?

I suppose they would mostly pay for Netflix.

I have NO real interest in HD tbh. *shrug* It's overrated imo.

And I like having copies of shows I like to watch. Not a fan of streaming them via digital.

I agree. Besides HDTV's being ridiculously expensive (anything over $30-50 for a TV is ridiculous, and unaffordable for my family anyway), I've never seen any difference the few times I've seen HD stuff on someone's HDTV. I'm fine with SD, and there are so many cheap, used SDTVs that they're easily replaceable, and from what I've seen generally more sturdy than HDTVs anyway.

I also love physical media, and will never give it up for something you can only stream, or only have a digital copy (probably non transferable) that could be deleted or taken from you or the device its on if the device is gone.

As for the Simpson's announcement, I'm not surprised. I can't imagine newer DVD seasons of The Simpson's are very popular or selling very well.

Outside of a garage sale, when has a TV *ever* cost $30-$50 short of a tiny one used for monitoring security footage?
 
I don't understand how anyone can buy physical media but won't spend over $50 on a TV. Was that a typo?

I'd like to know what you were watching for the last 60+ years of TV that a TV didn't cost over $50. Was it a 6 inch TV or something?


I meant buying a used SDTV, and in 2015. I probably should have clarified that I wasn't talking about new TVs, but I figured that since I was talking about SDTVs, in 2015, that I wouldn't need to clarify that. Do they even make new SDTV's? I should probably have mentioned that my family has never had a new TV. I think we once had one that was only 7-8 years old, but that was still an SDTV. Since I couldn't afford an HDTV anyway, any TV I got would be a used SDTV.

Outside of a garage sale, when has a TV *ever* cost $30-$50 short of a tiny one used for monitoring security footage?

I can go to the Goodwill a mile away and get a decent sized SDTV for that price. Not to mention other Thrift Stores and garage sales.

2) You cannot tell the difference between SD and HD content - get your eyes tested.

:vulcan: My eyes are just fine. I've just never seen HD as an improvement over SD. Not that it would really matter. I can watch VHS's today and be happy with their quality (although I can see a difference between a lot of VHS and DVDs), so even if I thought there was a huge difference, its not something I'd pay for even if I could.
 
I agree. Besides HDTV's being ridiculously expensive (anything over $30-50 for a TV is ridiculous, and unaffordable for my family anyway), I've never seen any difference the few times I've seen HD stuff on someone's HDTV.

Let's separate a couple of things:

1) You don't see the need for HD - fair enough

2) You cannot tell the difference between SD and HD content - get your eyes tested.

It does come to a point though that the human eye isn't that great and can't tell the difference.

To me SD is fine, but the price of HD is low enough that it doesn't really matter. I remember the 80s where the TV looked like crap. :lol: So I have low standards.
 
Yeah, yeah, DVDs are too old-school to keep putting them out.

Hey, Fox, you know what's older than DVDs?

The Simpsons.
 
I can go to the Goodwill a mile away and get a decent sized SDTV for that price. Not to mention other Thrift Stores and garage sales.

Ah, well then it makes perfect sense, then, that you think TVs shouldn't cost more than $50.

And if you can't see the difference between SD and HD seriously get your eyes checked. HD pictures have nearly twice the resolution (re: picture information) of SD, which means twice the detail. There's a reason why when HD became more and more popular TV shows had to improve their sets, clean up backdrops and more details were added to things where usually nothing would have worked. (Like information on bios and computer screens on Trek.)
 
Higher resolution is needed for larger screens.

Larger the screen, the shittier the relative resolution seems.

SD on a 2 inch screen would have to be more flush than HD on a 40 inch screen.
 
I stopped purchasing the seasons after Year Ten or Eleven for lack of viewing time. Surely they're not ruling out a future complete series boxed set, assuming the show ever actually ends?

Makes sense. Real Simpsons stopped existing around that point anyway.
 
And if you can't see the difference between SD and HD seriously get your eyes checked. HD pictures have nearly twice the resolution (re: picture information) of SD, which means twice the detail. There's a reason why when HD became more and more popular TV shows had to improve their sets, clean up backdrops and more details were added to things where usually nothing would have worked. (Like information on bios and computer screens on Trek.)

Actually it's more like 6-7 times the detail. A 1920x1080 image has 2,073,600 pixels compared to a 640x480 image with only 307,200. So yeah, if you can't see a big difference between that you really should get your eyes checked.
 
I can go to the Goodwill a mile away and get a decent sized SDTV for that price. Not to mention other Thrift Stores and garage sales.

Ah, well then it makes perfect sense, then, that you think TVs shouldn't cost more than $50.

And if you can't see the difference between SD and HD seriously get your eyes checked. HD pictures have nearly twice the resolution (re: picture information) of SD, which means twice the detail. There's a reason why when HD became more and more popular TV shows had to improve their sets, clean up backdrops and more details were added to things where usually nothing would have worked. (Like information on bios and computer screens on Trek.)

I don't think used SDTV's should cost more than $50. If I cared (and could afford) to buy a new HDTV, of course I wouldn't expect it to cost that little. But, for my needs and what I or my family could afford, anything more than $50 is ridiculous. A used SDTV is as good as any new TV for my purposes, I find HD to be as pointless as 3D. I'm fine with SDTV's and DVDs. If more used HDTVs start showing up for cheap, I might end up having one. Same with Bluray discs/players (although I do technically own a Bluray player with my PS3, but I don't own any Blurays for it, not counting games). Until then, I'll keep buying DVDs and watching them on my SDTV.

Also, my eyes are fine. I guess it just doesn't matter to me. I don't need to see the actor's pimples anyway (not that I can when I've seen HD anyway, but you know what I mean).
 
And if you can't see the difference between SD and HD seriously get your eyes checked. HD pictures have nearly twice the resolution (re: picture information) of SD, which means twice the detail. There's a reason why when HD became more and more popular TV shows had to improve their sets, clean up backdrops and more details were added to things where usually nothing would have worked. (Like information on bios and computer screens on Trek.)

Actually it's more like 6-7 times the detail. A 1920x1080 image has 2,073,600 pixels compared to a 640x480 image with only 307,200. So yeah, if you can't see a big difference between that you really should get your eyes checked.

Depends what you watch to some extent. I didn't notice much until I got used to watching HD and then it's taken away. And it's been exacerbated by LED vs LCD lighting, IPS vs TN and so on.

But then when I go visit my family they drive me nuts because they all watch SD cable on their HD sets despite having HD channels but they don't even see the difference. Heck, even my little nephew and niece do that so it doesn't phase them either.
 
But then when I go visit my family they drive me nuts because they all watch SD cable on their HD sets despite having HD channels but they don't even see the difference. Heck, even my little nephew and niece do that so it doesn't phase them either.

Does your family also stretch the SD image because they hate the black bars? Ugh, so painful on the eyes.
 
But then when I go visit my family they drive me nuts because they all watch SD cable on their HD sets despite having HD channels but they don't even see the difference. Heck, even my little nephew and niece do that so it doesn't phase them either.

Does your family also stretch the SD image because they hate the black bars? Ugh, so painful on the eyes.


Okay, I have to admit, I don't understand this "black bar" thing. I have a Vizio 32in flatscreen and play all my DVD's on either a Toshiba recorder, or a Panasonic player, and the ONLY difference is in movies, or the TV shows ENTERPRISE and SMALLVILLE. On the Panasonic, those two shows have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, as they did years ago before I got my flatscreen. On the Toshiba however, both shows cover the entire screen. Now, DVD's of older shows, such as TOS and TNG cover the entire screen no matter which machine I watch them on. No stretching on either.

My best friend as all these same shows on Blue Ray, and he always complains about the black bars on the sides of his picture. He said he tried stretching the picture, but couldn't watch that after two minutes.

Why is this? Is it a brand name thing? The fact that I have DVD and he has Blue Ray? The way we have our machine connected to our TV's? I've tried to get him to explain it to me, and his attempt left me thinking he doesn't get it either.

Any of you guys know?
 
But then when I go visit my family they drive me nuts because they all watch SD cable on their HD sets despite having HD channels but they don't even see the difference. Heck, even my little nephew and niece do that so it doesn't phase them either.

Does your family also stretch the SD image because they hate the black bars? Ugh, so painful on the eyes.


Okay, I have to admit, I don't understand this "black bar" thing. I have a Vizio 32in flatscreen and play all my DVD's on either a Toshiba recorder, or a Panasonic player, and the ONLY difference is in movies, or the TV shows ENTERPRISE and SMALLVILLE. On the Panasonic, those two shows have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, as they did years ago before I got my flatscreen. On the Toshiba however, both shows cover the entire screen. Now, DVD's of older shows, such as TOS and TNG cover the entire screen no matter which machine I watch them on. No stretching on either.

My best friend as all these same shows on Blue Ray, and he always complains about the black bars on the sides of his picture. He said he tried stretching the picture, but couldn't watch that after two minutes.

Why is this? Is it a brand name thing? The fact that I have DVD and he has Blue Ray? The way we have our machine connected to our TV's? I've tried to get him to explain it to me, and his attempt left me thinking he doesn't get it either.

Any of you guys know?

I would gues it's a setting on your TV. A Vizio 32" LCD has to be 16:9(or you could say a rectangle) TOS and most TV shows are 4:3(more or less a square) If you're watching them and there are NOT black bars on the sides there are only 3 options really.
1) You're watching the square image stretched to a rectangle and it doesn't bother you(Shame on you lol).
2) You're watching it zoomed in. Essentially cutting of the top and bottom of the square image to make a rectangle
3) Hybrid-zoom-strectch. Cuts of a tiny bit of the top and bottom then stretches the remaining image to a rectangle(Not as jarring as a full stretch usually)


On topic, boooooo Fox. I wasn't going to buy them anyway but I'm definitely not going to pay to digitally "own" something.
 
But then when I go visit my family they drive me nuts because they all watch SD cable on their HD sets despite having HD channels but they don't even see the difference. Heck, even my little nephew and niece do that so it doesn't phase them either.

Does your family also stretch the SD image because they hate the black bars? Ugh, so painful on the eyes.

Yes, though even the SD channels are now usually letterboxed so it just stretches out the tiny image but it's in the correct ratio.

Of course they think I'm really crazy because I can often tell when even an HD movie has been cropped from a 2:35 source. I've learned to stop mentioning that because it's like alien gibberish to them lol.
 
All Simpsons happened in the same year.

Which means that several episodes occurred during the same day, even though most episodes lasted on screen longer than a day.

Therefore, we have seen every episode horribly out of order.
 
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