Rogue Keeper on 13/2/2008 at 08:47

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Yes, I remember - the Fe2O3 versus FeCr versus CrO2 war was insane.

Rogue Keeper on 13/2/2008 at 10:14

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And there are people who like to hold their favorite artwork in their hands, admire the box, eventual goodies coming in it. Digital distribution is convenient, it shortened the chain, eliminated the greedy publisher from the equation, but there will be always people who like to have PHYSICAL collections. And it's always good to have a backup.

I find it funny though that current DVDs are so sophistically protected against copying, but you can rip them into DivX with little effort.

Matthew on 13/2/2008 at 11:07

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I'm shocked to hear this, as my understanding was that HD-DVD was the format of choice for the porn industry - virtually guaranteeing its survival.

Carini on 13/2/2008 at 14:29

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I just bought a Samsung upconverting DVD player that also plays AVI files, it syncs perfectly to my Samsung flat screen and the upconverted 1080p movies look brilliant. I spent 99 dollars. Why is it I need to run out and spend 399 on a new Blu-Ray player again??

baeuchlein on 13/2/2008 at 16:48

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In the last few years, I've looked onto many of these shiny new "improvements" from quite a distance. Product cycles have become too short for me, and it's the same with new high-end TV and radio things.

Concerning TV, there's much confusion here in Germany about DRM, HD-ready, Full HD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, flat big TV displays and much, much more. When my old color TV passed away with a loud bang (and a horrible stench from burnt plastic and electronic components) almost two years ago, I fetched it's black-and-white predecessor from the attic first, then began thinking of buying a new TV set. In the end, I didn't buy anything. I did not know what to buy because of all the hype about these new and shiny formats and technologies, and because of the incompatibilities between TV sets, DVD players et cetera. And then someone else in the family bought himself a large plasma display, dumping his old TV (20" color, I think) right into my waiting hands. Problem solved, heh-heh. :cheeky: (Oh right, I had to help him haul his new 50-kilogram-monster into his apartment, located on the 3rd or 4th floor, but that's OK for me.)

And after all that large TV screen hype just before the last football world championship, several people here are recognizing as well that they don't want to buy another TV device now, again, just because it's supposed to be better (again?) than the old one.

Concerning radio, there's been much talk about it being switched to digital broadcast until about 2010 - and all this has just been cancelled. Almost no-one wanted to buy a new radio just because some people said it would be digital only in a few years, and certainly better. Politicians and some companies still want all radio to be "digital only" in a few years, but they're apparently baffled: No one else wanted that. And I can understand why.

Not many people want to throw all their radio receivers away just because radio is going digital. The radio stations don't change their program, so it's not a lot of change for many people. If you're one of the few who can hear this improved quality, and if you're listening frequently to a station which sends out broadcasts that really sound better when digital, and if you're willing to pay for that new digital radio thingy, then you'll like that. However, I am certain that the people belonging to that group are a comparatively small minority. And there's already digital "radio" sent by TV satellites, so why change anything? Whoever wants that kind of improved radio might just buy himself a satellite dish and a receiver, and then he/she has digital radio. No need to force many millions in the country to replace all their radio devices. I still have no digital radio, but - surprise, surprise - I'm able to enjoy the old and oh-so inferior analog broadcasting.

With DVD, it's been the same with me. When my old CD player died, I changed to a DVD player. That was in 2003. DVDs and the devices to watch them had been developed and sold for several years, so I got a technology that worked (most of the time, at least), and I got it when I had to buy something new anyway. My computers still used CD drives at that time. When both my CD burners failed almost simultaneously in March 2005 and Thief III was available on DVD only (at least where I live), I replaced one of the dead burners with a DVD burner, the other one with a DVD drive. I have used DVDs instead of CDs for backup and archieval purposes since then, and later on got an old TV grabber card and began to transfer my video tape collection to DVD.

And most of the time, I like it that way.

I don't need most of these new technologies right away, so I prefer older, well-known and fairly well-developed devices, and they're cheaper anyway. And since the differences between DVD and video tape did not matter too much for me, I don't think I will make just a single step into this new technology world with Blu-ray and HD TV unless there's a very good reason to do so.

Finally, I've seen a lot of electronic equipment, and I noticed that quality went down for the last ten years. Since then, there's been almost no device we bought which has not had at least some annoying bugs, and it's still getting worse, I think. So I'll keep my distance, being content with lesser hardware.

If you don't share this attitude, go and select whatever suits you best. You will, without doubt, pay for that somehow - but if it's worth the money for you, buy it and be happy with it. Just make an informed decision, not only a marketing-influenced move towards something that's shiny and new today, but might be old and left behind tomorrow. After all, it's your money you're spending here. Not mine, and not the vendor's either, but yours. You should decide whether it's worth it for you or not, and no one else.