My First DVD Player: My Best Christmas Present to Date

I remember hearing about laserdiscs all the time, and Siskel & Ebert were always highlighting the special features of them on their show. But it wasn't until I went to my friend Lyle's house where he showed off his own laserdisc player that I seriously started to think about getting my own. With his surround system set up, he demonstrated how much more powerful the sound is by showing the nuclear nightmare from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," the Klingon planet exploding at the start of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," and terrorists turning their equipment on in "Die Hard 2." Lyle even showed how they can make horror movies even scarier, and he proved that with a short clip from "Halloween 5."

From then on, I desperately wanted to get my own laserdisc player and watch all my favorite movies through it. Audio commentaries, documentaries, picture stills, isolated music tracks, laserdiscs represented a treasure trove of information from the world of movies I couldn't find anywhere else. But this all happened back when I was in high school when my weekly allowance was pathetically small, so getting one became less and less likely. Each Christmas had me asking if not begging for my parents to get me one, but they didn't see the point of it.

Laserdiscs soon gave way though to a new format known as the DVD. Basically it was the same thing but in the size of a CD. No longer would we have to deal with discs the size of vinyl records or have to get up and turn them over. All those same special features were available like before, so it got to where if my parents weren't going to get me one, then I was going to buy a player myself.

Skip to Christmas of 1998 when I gave my parents an ultimatum of either a DVD player or a Porsche. We opened all the presents though, and I still didn't get it (or a Porsche for that matter). Next thing I know, my parents then brought out another present for me, one larger than the rest. Ripping through the Christmas wrapping paper with Santa Claus smiling all over it, I found it was an RCA DVD player that could also play Divx discs, a format that has long since gone the way of Betamax. Politely excusing myself from the family living room, I went out the front door and yelled out:

"YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!! FINALLY!! WOO-HOO!!!! LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!"

I went straight to Tower Records and Video (it was still around then) and bought my first ever DVD of "Good Will Hunting," and I rented "Star Trek: First Contact." Even my parents were astonished at the visual clarity and the dimension of the picture compared to VHS. This got my mom to quickly plan one for the family home, and it of course would be a better one than mine. But ever since then, I have collected an enormous library of DVD's which I am continually running out of space to store. Movies and all the behind the scenes info about them have long since been at my disposal, and it's like having a film education without ever going to a university.

Of all the Christmas presents I have received over the years, none has had more of an effect on me than getting that DVD player. I still can't get enough of it.