gioarmani Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 HD-DVD is the new BetaMax. http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/19/technology...sion=2008021904 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee1 Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 The writing was on the wall a while ago...now it's official. Blu-Ray ftw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiker01 Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Boy, Am I glad I didn't jump on that wagon!!! Long live OPPO! Now, if they start selling BLU RAY priced like the OPPO, then I'll feel sorry for OPPO.......but then again, they might just license and produce BLU RAY! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 LOL! I only write that when I truly did ell-oh-ell in real life. There was an article in the NYT only this Sunday about this. Seems that most people don't care, even WHEN Best Buy or Circuit City staff tell buyers that Blu-Ray "has won". They keep on buying Toshiba players, and a few of them rationalise that discs will be cheaper. Well, duh, in the beginning -- but after a while there will be no new discs to buy! I was too little to remember this, but my parents tell me all they could get for their Betamax player at the rental place, after a while, were I Love Lucy reruns... In happier news, since Sony won the battle (for a change), they have slashed Blu-Ray disc prices by $10 on average. You can get first-run movies on BR now for $24.99 at Best Buy. And next year, analogue televisions will be obsolete. Times, they are a-changing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 In happier news, since Sony won the battle (for a change), they have slashed Blu-Ray disc prices by $10 on average. You can get first-run movies on BR now for $24.99 at Best Buy. And next year, analogue televisions will be obsolete. Times, they are a-changing. Analogue TVs won't be obsolete as long as there are digital tuners and while Blu-ray disks cost $25. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Analogue TVs won't be obsolete as long as there are digital tuners I'm almost positive you know, but analogue transmission will be obsolete in the US by next year (2009). This only affects people who have rabbit ears antennae, and not cable television, etc. Cable is nearly universal in the US, except for older people and intellectuals. So no worries. (Ahh, the memories of evading my BBC licence fee, and putting some coathangers to get reception instead. That little white van never caught me) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 (Ahh, the memories of evading my BBC licence fee, and putting some coathangers to get reception instead. That little white van never caught me) Actually, I can't really talk. I never paid my TV licence when I was living in my flat, for the simple reason that, because the reception was [censored], I just unplugged the aerial and just used the TV as a 'screen' for my PS2. (I wouldn't've even applied for a licence, but buying the TV was enough that the snitches at Argos informed the licencing board that another TV had been sold ) When I received a letter from them asking for their licence fee, I explained that I didn't have the TV plugged into an aerial, had no reception, and only used it for DVD playback/gaming use, and was then told that all the time the TV wasn't connected to an aerial, I didn't actually have to pay. A month or so later, I got another letter asking for the licence fee (pretty obviously automatically generated) so I phoned up, explained the situation, and said what the first person had said. The operative put me on hold to confer with their supervisor, but promptly came back on, and confirmed that, indeed, I did not need a licence Do any of the Brits remember the Hale & Pace sketch with the 'TV Detector' van? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 I'm almost positive you know, but analogue transmission will be obsolete in the US by next year (2009). This only affects people who have rabbit ears antennae, and not cable television, etc. Did you spot the bit I mentioned digital tuners? An old TV isn't obsolete if you can watch TV on it. There are a lot of people in the UK practically giving away (watch Freecycle one day) 28" and 32" widescreen TVs because they don't realise that they'll work exactly the same as a new digital TV if you plug it into a Digibox or cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Teehee. Another loophole is that when you purchase a set in a pawn shop, you don't need to apply for a licence fee directly. I suppose deep down inside, this ex-Guide loves cheating "the system". Do any of the Brits remember the Hale & Pace sketch with the 'TV Detector' van? And that's the van I meant! The one with the "radar" which went around street to street, supposedly scoping who was running their set illicitly. That has got to be the number one British urban legend. Other than Keith Richards, obviously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 That has got to be the number one British urban legend. TV detector vans aren't urban legends ... they work very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressrele...ctor_vans.shtml "For the first time the detector vans will use GPS satellite technology to track down targeted addresses. This will enable TV Licensing to precisely target individual evader homes using up-to-the-minute information from its database of 28 million addresses." A 50s detector van: ps. They may only have 25 vans, however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 TV detector vans aren't urban legends ... they work very well. Blimey. And how would you know, hmmmmmmm? @Pug reply: "http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressrele...ctor_vans.shtml" Puggy, I'm talking about when I was growing up -- around the same time as you. 80s-1990s! The Beeb didn't have GPS then, surely! @Pug photo: Yes, I've seen a similar photo, but as you say, 25 for the whole albeit small island. Come now! Good job the British are an honest lot, overall, because if that were in South America, they'd have folded years ago. Licence fees are uninintelligible to Americans. They even get downright stroppy when PBS have their donation telethons. Ironically, PBS show almost wall-to-wall BBC programming -- especially "Britcoms". Oh, there is a God. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Teehee. Another loophole is that when you purchase a set in a pawn shop, you don't need to apply for a licence fee directly. I suppose deep down inside, this ex-Guide loves cheating "the system". And that's the van I meant! The one with the "radar" which went around street to street, supposedly scoping who was running their set illicitly. That has got to be the number one British urban legend. Other than Keith Richards, obviously. For me, it wasn't so much a case of 'cheating the system', just that I wasn't prepared to pay for a service which I simply couldn't receive, especially when it was 'the system', which had notified them, rather than me going in and asking for a licence application form. I don't mind Big Brother watching me, but that doesn't mean I'm prepared to just 'hand over my lunch money' at the first approach of a bully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Puggy, I'm talking about when I was growing up -- around the same time as you. 80s-1990s! The Beeb didn't have GPS then, surely! Look up. See the 50s one? I will mention the BBC does have some dummy vans. In the 70s and 80s, most of the vans were dummies. Only about 25 are real, or at least that was the case before they moved to these GPS-powered ones. I've seen several TV Detector vans in my time and I can tell you some were dummies. It was effective enough to just drive a crappy van around and rely on the database of people without licenses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin25 Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 I have orderd my 52 inc HD-ready LCD-TV... it will arrive in about 2 weeks.. i cant wait !!!! E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Thank God these accents are obsolete. Yes, I remember, but again, it's the THREAT of them rather than the actuality of them that worked. Did anyone actually ever see one (other than you)? I never did. And if I had, I likely would've gone up and asked for a doner kebab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takashi Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Just don't open your door when an unknown person is knocking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Yes, I remember, but again, it's the THREAT of them rather than the actuality of them that worked. Did anyone actually ever see one (other than you)? I never did. Your socio-economic class wasn't the kind they targeted. I'm not surprised you've never seen one, to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Your socio-economic class wasn't the kind they targeted. I'm not surprised you've never seen one, to be honest. Oh pish posh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HauteHippie Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 In happier news, since Sony won the battle (for a change), they have slashed Blu-Ray disc prices by $10 on average. You can get first-run movies on BR now for $24.99 at Best Buy. That's not slashed. I had been buying first run BluRay for $14.99 to $19.99. And, I'm expecting BluRay titles to go up in price now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takashi Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 Anyway, why don't we consider alternative such as downloading from newsgroup? I have seen and enjoyed full HD rip for quite some time. The downside is you need a computer/MacTv/extra gadgets to playback this content. Not mentioning a large storage space. PS: As of now, sound with DTS HD or Dolby HD on these rips are pretty rare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 PS: As of now, sound with DTS HD or Dolby HD on these rips are pretty rare. Guys, I'm desperate enough to hijack a thread to post this. Please forgive me. I just received my Dell back with a minty HD and Windows XP Pro installed by techies. I have tried for the past two days to get my uTorrent to download torrents, without luck. I have McAfee and Windows Firewall. I have tried EVERYTHING. I've forwarded ports, I've changed ports, I've made "exceptions" in TCP/UDP. I've tried uninstalling McAfee and disabling Windows Firewall. I have used and disabled PeerGuardian2, both. Nothing works. It still gives me the dread "red" button next to the torrent. And "connection closed by peer/host machine", no matter the tracker. My bf says if my ISP were throttling my connectivity, or I had reached my limit, I couldn't download or view anything. What is weird, is that the laptop I used during this time, now has the same red button next to the torrent (I am leeching someone else's Wifi -- I told you I like to beat the system!), since I don't have a router. Just a cable modem from the cable company. Can some techie please help? The only thing I haven't tried is to use Bitcomet or Azureus instead. I'll do that now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 The only thing I haven't tried is to use Bitcomet or Azureus instead. I'll do that now. When you install Azureus, get it to run the tests. That'll tell you the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 When you install Azureus, get it to run the tests. That'll tell you the problem. Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't see your reply before removing it. I installed BitComet immediately, and though it gives me the green light, it launches a BitCome tip bubble. "Bitcomet detect that your current setting of Half-Open TCP connection limitation is too small. Click here to patch it." It suggested 10. That didn't work after a while. Then I patched it to 20, rebooted, and it still won't allow the torrents to download. On the plus side, one of the trackers is now connected. This is for sure some kind of throttling from my ISP -- not only does PeerGuardian not update, but the d/ls reverse (they go from 3k of info, back to 0k). I've disabled the Firewalls (temporarily, I'm not insane...). Sucks. I might have to go back to Blockbuster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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