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01-06-2003, 02:02 AM
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#1 of 54 
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2002
Local Time: 07:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 711
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Technology is moving *too* fast
Sometimes I feel like technology is moving far too fast these days. HDTV is here, and while I can not say it is ready for prime time, I certainly can't afford a HDTV set, and if I could, could not yet justify it do to the limited programming thus far. So while at this point it is a toy for those with copious ammounts of disposable income, in 5-10 years it will be commonplace. Now it's not that I think that is a bad thing, I think it's great, but I can't help bu be a little bothered by the fact that my collection of DVDs is going to be obsolete so soon. With movies already being broadcast over HDTV that have a better picture than my DVDs do, well, it's a little annoying really. Sure HD-DVD will likely become a reality at about the same time as HDTV becomes common, but what then? Am I going to have to rebuy all of my movies in a new format so soon if I want the best quality available?
I like techonolgy, I really do, but I grow weary of the accelarated upgrade cycle we have these days. It started with computers, and now it's spreading to everything. I can't help but wonder, will HDTV last for the 50+ years that NTSC did, or will we all be upgrading again in 15 years or less?
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01-06-2003, 02:55 AM
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#2 of 54
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Carl III
Member
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Join Date: May 1999
Local Time: 01:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 3,404
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Quote:
| I can't help bu be a little bothered by the fact that my collection of DVDs is going to be obsolete so soon. |
This is nothing new. Whether you're collecting records, CDs, VHS, or DVDs there's always going to be something bigger and better around the corner. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want DVD to be the best available format 20 years from now.
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| I can't help but wonder, will HDTV last for the 50+ years that NTSC did, or will we all be upgrading again in 15 years or less? |
Why would a 15 year lifespan for HDTV be a bad thing? By 2018 television sets will probably be gone anyway, it'll be like Back to the Future II where your 25 favorite channels are projected onto the living room wall.
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01-06-2003, 05:44 AM
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#3 of 54
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2002
Local Time: 04:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 1,883
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Echo that Jonathan! I read a book called SPEED by James Gleick several years ago. All about the disorienting impact of hyper change.
Most upgrading is a racket, with no meaningful increase in productivity or utility. Usually a negative from my point of view, with attendant new bugs, glitches, incompatibilities, and incomprehensibilities.
Anyway, I've had 18 good years with cd, and never got into video cassette, and am looking forward to 15 or so years with my little dvd collection. If necessary, I'll buy a new TV and DVD player when I see a significant decline in sales of todays standard offering sets and players, so as to be able to continue with using my DVD library for 10 or more years.
And I may be buying a new turntable this year as well! Actually my library of books looks better and better every day.
As to home viewing, how much better can it get? Maybe TV with smellorama? Frankly, I don't care. (I successfully ignored quadraphonics 20 years ago.)
BTW, I've been reading about HDTV around the corner for 15 years!  |
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01-06-2003, 10:53 AM
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#4 of 54
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Member
Location: New York
Join Date: Aug 2000
Local Time: 03:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 2,195
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I'm all for technology being updated at the fastest rate possible. I'm a computer programmer and I sure as hell wouldn't want microprocessor staying the same so as not to render computers instantly obsolete.
The fact is, no one forces you to upgrade. I just want the ability to do so if I wish. Also, with the rapid forward movement of technology come radically lower prices. Things that would have cost $100 000+ ten years ago, are now available for $500. The faster HDTV proliferates, the faster prices will drop to the same level that current, low def. TVs go for...
Ted
Hold on tightly, let go lightly.
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01-06-2003, 11:43 AM
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#5 of 54
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Member
Join Date: Aug 2001
Local Time: 02:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 22
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The thing that worries me is compatability between new technologies.
- The fact that my HDTV could be rendered effectively obsolete in just a couple of years because of copy protection issues.
- Some proposed standards for HD-DVD would not be compatable with existing DVD's meaning players would not play both.
We need to encourage equipment manufacurers to develop the new technologies, while maintaining a reasonable amount of backward compatability (IMO).
Richard
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01-06-2003, 11:58 AM
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#6 of 54
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Member
Join Date: Dec 1969
Local Time: 03:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 12,184
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Quote:
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but I can't help bu be a little bothered by the fact that my collection of DVDs is going to be obsolete so soon.
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Well, that depends on your definition of "obsolete". If you mean "something better is readily available", that's one thing; if you mean "is basically unusable for practical reasons", that's another.
For example, I wouldn't necessarily consider Laserdisc obsolete - it still hooks up to your TV/HT without a bunch of adapters and the like, and still works pretty much just as well as it always did. It may have been superceded by DVD, but there's no practical reason not to use it.
OTOH, my beloved Atari 800XL computer - that guy's pretty much obsolete. I can't find the 5.25" floppies, a SIO-compatible printer, or an online service that will put up with the 9600 bps it maxed out at ( if I could scrape up a used PBI connection). Heck, even CX40-type joysticks are getting hard to find.
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Am I going to have to rebuy all of my movies in a new format so soon if I want the best quality available?
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There's the rub, isn't it? If you want to have the best version available, yeah, you're going to "have" to rebuy everything. But if what you have is good enough on certain titles (I'm not replacing my Atari 7800 Ms. Pac-Man just because an Xbox version exists), then, why upgrade just because an upgrade exists?
Jay's Movie Blog - A movie-viewing diary.
Transplanted Life: Sci-fi soap opera about a man placed in a new body, updated two or three times a week.
Trading Post Inn - Another gender-bending soap, with different collaborators writing different points of view.
"What? Since when was this an energy ball movie?" - Overheard during a screening of Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive
"What the hell religion are you people?" - Overheard during the Captain Marvel serial at SF/29
"If I feel even one bullet hit me, I will rip your lungs out through your nostrils!" - Ron Silver as himself, "Heat Vision And Jack"
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01-06-2003, 12:19 PM
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#7 of 54
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Member
Location: New York
Join Date: Aug 2000
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Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 2,195
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Quote:
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The fact that my HDTV could be rendered effectively obsolete in just a couple of years because of copy protection issues.
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This however has nothing to to do with advances in technology, it has to do with vast advances in stupidity. Hollywood, since the days of their frantic efforts to ban the VCR is continually trying to machine gun themselves in both feet at once.
Ted
Hold on tightly, let go lightly.
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01-06-2003, 12:19 PM
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#8 of 54
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Join Date: Dec 1999
Local Time: 02:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 15,037
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Quote:
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- Some proposed standards for HD-DVD would not be compatable with existing DVD's meaning players would not play both.
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No, what they mean is that you wouldn't be able to graft a DVD layer onto them. It will be a trivial matter to make HD-DVD play DVDs. Both technologies are and will be based on MPEG, and worse comes to worse all they'll need is to add another laser on just like they did for CDs |
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01-06-2003, 12:57 PM
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#9 of 54
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Grant H
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Location: Vienna, VA
Join Date: Jul 2002
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Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 2,750
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As far as I'm concerned the technology moves too slowly.
I've got my HDTV (reasonably priced at Circuit City for the size and type I wanted; gotta love discontinued items )
Now I want my HD-DVD!! I have already taught myself to holdback on titles that I view as more collectible than re-watchable (i.e. James Bond movies I'm not especially fond of). Figure I'll round out such "collectibles" whenever they hit HD-DVD and just buy DVD's of movies I really, really like. I confess I'm a sucker for DVD's under $1- though.
My midis bring all the Force to the yard; my midis are better than yours! 
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01-06-2003, 01:05 PM
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#10 of 54
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Member
Location: New York
Join Date: Aug 2000
Local Time: 03:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 2,195
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duplicate
Hold on tightly, let go lightly.
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01-06-2003, 01:12 PM
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#11 of 54
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Member
Location: Austin, Tx
Join Date: Jul 2002
Local Time: 02:42 AM
Local Date: 10-16-2008
Posts: 738
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This is what I love about DVD. For me, the movie is everything. The picture quality of most DVDs is good enough that I would be happy if it was never released again. When HD-DVD rolls around, I will no doubt buy a player and begin buying movies for it. However, I won't be upgrading any of the titles I have on DVD. I am fine wiht the quality of them now. My hope is that HD-DVD players will be compatible with current DVDs. If that happens, I'll be fine.
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