Recent Comments:
Funai aims to bring LCD HDTV / Blu-ray combo units to North America {Engadget HD}
Aug 14th 2008 3:14AM I hope the Blu-ray-equipped TVhas a 4:3 ratio like the one pictured. That'd be hilarious.
Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 3rd, 2008 {Engadget HD}
Aug 13th 2008 12:07AM Didn't Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo feature a lot of naked ladies? Full frontal even? Visually intense indeed!
Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 3rd, 2008 {Engadget HD}
Aug 13th 2008 12:06AM I'm no economist, but I suspect this recession is just starting to turn around.
I think the housing market will still be tanked for a while, but:
- Gas prices have been falling (slowly, but surely) for a few weeks now. A barrel of crude peaked at $147 mid-July, and now it's down to about $113. Still a high price, to be sure...but down almost 25%! Where I live in California, i was seeing gas as high as $4.71 a month or so ago...down below $4.30 today. I suspect we'll be below $4 soon. I really hope we get below $3 not too long after that.
- Cheaper gas would mean that food prices might settle down too (food has to be shipped, etc.). Although the whole "lets use our corn to make ethanol" problem will still exist, keeping food prices a bit higher than they should be.
- There've been a few reports lately of the US dollar gaining ground with respect to the Canadian dollar, the Euro, and the Yen...this has more to do with those other economies weakening a bit, but imported goods (like electronics) should start to look a bit cheaper as a result.
DIYer builds his own drive-in theater, brings back the retro {Engadget HD}
Aug 12th 2008 2:17AM If that is a 6-foot screen (diagonal), then that guy is about 2 feet tall.
If that screen is 6-feet from top to bottom, then the guy is about 4.5 feet tall.
If you follow the chain of linked articles, you'll find that the same guy has a 60" TV in the basement, and a 6' retractable screen in his bedroom...that's probably where the quoted dimension came from.
There doesn't appear to be any mention of the dimensions of his outdoor screen...
Blu-ray releases on August 12th, 2008 {Engadget HD}
Aug 11th 2008 9:13PM Hey thanks...is Engadget just slow to post it up this week, or are they not going to do it anymore?
The 13 Netflix DVDs still featuring ARccOS copy protection {Engadget HD}
Aug 11th 2008 9:02PM My thoughts:
put all the DRM you want on CD's/DVD's/whatever.
But: the nature of the DRM, what it prevents you from doing, and the possible side effects MUST be listed in very large type on the front of the packaging. That way consumers will be informed. If a CD is altered so that you can't rip MP3's from it, plenty of people will avoid buying it (if they know in advance). If a DVD won't play in a computer or certain DVD players, and people know in advance, many won't buy.
A "standard" DVD or CD will work in a computer, in every DVD player, etc. etc. If it has been altered (via extra DRM) to limit its usability, then it should not be legal to just sell it as though it were a standard DVD or CD. Where are our lawmakers to ensure that consumers know what they're buying? Why should it be the consumers job to spend hours online figuring out what DVD's and CD's aren't really normal DVD's and CD's?
As it stands now, the typical story line might go:
- Grandma buys Sony's DRM'ed DVD
- Takes it home, tries it out...it doesn't work on her DVD player
- She takes it back to the store to return it
- Clerk says "sure, you can exchange it for the same movie if this copy is broken"
- Grandma finds that the new copy is broken too. Takes it back to the store.
- Clerk says "well, we can't give you your money back or exchange for a different title, that's the rules with DVD's and CD's."
- Grandma says "Why?"
- Clerk says: "Because of piracy! If we allowed returns, people would buy movies and copy them and then return them for money!"
- Long story short, movie studio gets $$profit$$ and grandma still doesn't have a movie.
...Way to go Hollywood...you got everybody scared about piracy and took away return policies. Then you put non-standard DRM all over your crap to prevent piracy. But the "no returns" policy still stands, and your broken DRM'ed non-DVD's don't work like they should. Thanks for the effort!
The 13 Netflix DVDs still featuring ARccOS copy protection {Engadget HD}
Aug 11th 2008 8:49PM Personally, I'm just offended that he used the common meaning of myriad and not it's original definition. My other personality (from ancient Greece) is disappointed that there aren't literally 10,000 players on which these movies won't play.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad
Blu-ray releases on August 12th, 2008 {Engadget HD}
Aug 11th 2008 3:28PM where's the latest VideoScan numbers? The newest I can find relates to the week ending July 27.
QPC lands $12 million Laser TV contract with Asia Optical {Engadget HD}
Aug 7th 2008 10:29PM When are Mitsubishi's laser TV's set to hit the market?
Last I heard was Q3 2008...anybody have a more precise date?
The Dark Knight Blu-ray to kick off social BD-Live features for Warner? {Engadget HD}
Aug 7th 2008 1:56AM I've got to wonder:
Do movie studio executives ever read boards like this? Is there some other comment post somewhere where people have been saying "I'd buy way more movies if I could talk to strangers while I watched"?
Why are they pushing this like it's a feature? Who thinks this kind of thing is worth extra money?
Just make the movie look and sound as good as possible, give me some deleted/extended scenes, and be done with it. If you really want to go overboard, throw in some documentaries, interviews, or commentaries...those aren't a big seller for many of us either, but they're cheap to add. And that sort of thing is a much better idea than adding this "social" crap to everything.
Cough...social Zune...cough...learn a lesson.
