Is it just me or do some parts of the consumer electronics industry seem to be losing the plot.
About 6 months ago we got a Pioneer DVD Recorder from Radio Rentals. It was great, we got crystal clear images and crisp digital sound through our system. We could set it to record our favourite shows and watch them later, with the convenience of a FF button that can fast forward so fast it can zoom through a half hour show in about 10 seconds. Yay! No more annoying TV ads.
We got a couple of re-writable discs also, with the unit itself, which was immediately handy.
Until a few weeks ago this bliss has began to turn into a bit of a disappointment. We were in Dick Smith Electronics, and walk past a shelf full of recordable DVDs. I ask my parents whether we should get some more — we seem to record shows, and don't push stop when they're finished, thereby filling up a 4 hour disc with a half hour show and 3 hours of crud after it.
So, I look at the shelf and see the following:
And then I, knowing that our recorder takes DVD-R and DVD-RW, (those supposedly recognised as a standard by some worldwide DVD standards forum — much like the IEEE I suppose), grabbed a 5-pack of DVD-RW discs. Whilst looking at the four options on the shelf, I thought to myself:
What the heck is going on with all of these different formats? The average consumer isn't going to know the difference at first glance — I didn't, as I had to Google it to find out what the difference is, the ± that is — I knew what the W means.
I thought of the VHS cassette — a brilliant example. It was black, made from plastic, had a magnetic strip inside it. Simple. You stick one in a VCR and you knew it would work. (Let's ignore the Betamax argument, and the hassles of chewed up tapes).
So there I was at the shelf, thinking that the consumer electronics industry has gone mad.
We got home and stuck one in the machine, and it spit it out straight at us. So I tried again, and it was spat at us again.
I picked our new disc up, and compared it with one we already had, that worked. Wow! One was a 1-2x speed disc, and the new one was a 4x speed disc. WTF?!? How was I supposed to know what speed discs it was supposed to take - it's not written anywhere on the unit? So the shelf had not only lots of +s and -s, but you have to be very careful to choose the discs that can be burnt at the right speed.
What happened to standardisation? To me it's starting to sound like a joke. In hindsight, I don't actually remember even seeing 1-2x speed DVDs in there...
So, with the DSE receipt for these 5 discs long gone, we have a pile of 5 discs with no home.
Now, only tonight, I thought I'd tape, err record, a show on the ABC. Great! stopped recording when it finished, and sat down and started watching. Half way through the machine stalled — much like a PC circa 1995. I pressed "stop" and it took a few seconds to realise I pressed stop, and then I pressed "play" again. Same deal — it froze. So I took the disc out and looked at the disc's surface, noticing a large fingerprint near the edge. I wiped it off and stuck it back in, thinking that it stalled because it couldn't read the disc through looking through a fingerprint. Well, it stalled again, so I gave up and came to the conclusion that when it was recording my show, it simply blindly tried to record to the disc, even through a fingerprint, (which obviously didn't work). I did notice that after removing the fingerprint, the disc was a slightly different shade of colour under where the print was, probably meaning that the laser didn't reach the recording surface there, but it did elsewhere.
Well, that was it. I chucked the disc in the bin, (bad temper), and let it go. I'm thinking a DVD recorder with a large HD in it is the go — no more flimsy discs.
So, what do you think about the whole consumer electronics thing? DO you think it is becoming overly complicated, i.e. DVD±R/W, different recording speeds, TVs that can be LCD, Plasma, CRT, LCD rear projection, etc...?
Has the industry lost the plot?
What would you like to see as improvements?
Thanks.
About 6 months ago we got a Pioneer DVD Recorder from Radio Rentals. It was great, we got crystal clear images and crisp digital sound through our system. We could set it to record our favourite shows and watch them later, with the convenience of a FF button that can fast forward so fast it can zoom through a half hour show in about 10 seconds. Yay! No more annoying TV ads.
We got a couple of re-writable discs also, with the unit itself, which was immediately handy.
Until a few weeks ago this bliss has began to turn into a bit of a disappointment. We were in Dick Smith Electronics, and walk past a shelf full of recordable DVDs. I ask my parents whether we should get some more — we seem to record shows, and don't push stop when they're finished, thereby filling up a 4 hour disc with a half hour show and 3 hours of crud after it.
So, I look at the shelf and see the following:
- DVD-R
- DVD+R
- DVD-RW
- DVD+RW
And then I, knowing that our recorder takes DVD-R and DVD-RW, (those supposedly recognised as a standard by some worldwide DVD standards forum — much like the IEEE I suppose), grabbed a 5-pack of DVD-RW discs. Whilst looking at the four options on the shelf, I thought to myself:
What the heck is going on with all of these different formats? The average consumer isn't going to know the difference at first glance — I didn't, as I had to Google it to find out what the difference is, the ± that is — I knew what the W means.
I thought of the VHS cassette — a brilliant example. It was black, made from plastic, had a magnetic strip inside it. Simple. You stick one in a VCR and you knew it would work. (Let's ignore the Betamax argument, and the hassles of chewed up tapes).
So there I was at the shelf, thinking that the consumer electronics industry has gone mad.
We got home and stuck one in the machine, and it spit it out straight at us. So I tried again, and it was spat at us again.
I picked our new disc up, and compared it with one we already had, that worked. Wow! One was a 1-2x speed disc, and the new one was a 4x speed disc. WTF?!? How was I supposed to know what speed discs it was supposed to take - it's not written anywhere on the unit? So the shelf had not only lots of +s and -s, but you have to be very careful to choose the discs that can be burnt at the right speed.
What happened to standardisation? To me it's starting to sound like a joke. In hindsight, I don't actually remember even seeing 1-2x speed DVDs in there...
So, with the DSE receipt for these 5 discs long gone, we have a pile of 5 discs with no home.
Now, only tonight, I thought I'd tape, err record, a show on the ABC. Great! stopped recording when it finished, and sat down and started watching. Half way through the machine stalled — much like a PC circa 1995. I pressed "stop" and it took a few seconds to realise I pressed stop, and then I pressed "play" again. Same deal — it froze. So I took the disc out and looked at the disc's surface, noticing a large fingerprint near the edge. I wiped it off and stuck it back in, thinking that it stalled because it couldn't read the disc through looking through a fingerprint. Well, it stalled again, so I gave up and came to the conclusion that when it was recording my show, it simply blindly tried to record to the disc, even through a fingerprint, (which obviously didn't work). I did notice that after removing the fingerprint, the disc was a slightly different shade of colour under where the print was, probably meaning that the laser didn't reach the recording surface there, but it did elsewhere.
Well, that was it. I chucked the disc in the bin, (bad temper), and let it go. I'm thinking a DVD recorder with a large HD in it is the go — no more flimsy discs.
So, what do you think about the whole consumer electronics thing? DO you think it is becoming overly complicated, i.e. DVD±R/W, different recording speeds, TVs that can be LCD, Plasma, CRT, LCD rear projection, etc...?
Has the industry lost the plot?
What would you like to see as improvements?
Thanks.
