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How is this going to affect Microsofts' current retail channels, like Dixons or PC World ..

the Ferguson CR150D. It's meant to be a bedroom alarm but has a bright blue display light that cannot be dimmed and is bright to enough read by in the dark. In fact it's probably bright enough to be seen from space. The alarm is also spectacularily unfriendly: the volume can be set to quiet at night but in the morning it comes on and then automatically gets louder and LOUDER to a point just above comfortable. This too cannot be turned off. It got replaced by a £30 DAB/FM alarm that does what it's told. I just couldn't believe that a piece of electronics that is designed to do a specific job was so badly designed.

For those not familiar with the parent company of PC World, the former Dixons group, this is the third time that they've pulled this stunt. That is, with great ceremony, announcing that they are to stop selling a technology that is (supposedly) becoming long-in-the-tooth and obsolete, and getting lots of attention from the press, who use it as an excuse to describe the (supposed) passing of a particular technology:-

(1) Death of video recorder (i.e. VCR) in sight

(2) Dixons to end 35mm camera sales.

In the case of the VCR, their announcement was misleading at best, and more likely just a pack of lies. Dixons.co.uk (and the large-format Currys stores) *still* each sell a wide range of standalone VCRs, over 2 years later. (Visit dixons.co.uk and search for "video recorder").

IIRC the high-street Dixons stores (now called "Currys.Digital", ugh) still sold them long after the supposed phase-out date. I don't know about the 35mm cameras, but even if they were telling the truth in that case, it was a nice publicity stunt for them. Even more so for the floppy discs; you're stopping selling floppy discs and you felt the need to make a big announcement about it?!

Of course, the intention behind these announcements- besides the straight publicity- is to give the impression of Dixons and PC World as hi-tech, cutting-edge type places. When in fact they're mediocre at best; sometimes competitive, but just as often overpriced- particularly for more humble items such as USB and Ethernet cables, staffed by salespeople who like to pretend they know more than they do, flogging overpriced warranties and with a poor reputation. Online shopping is much cheaper, and with a better selection.

The last shop I looked at (and the first)
didn't have instore notices telling you what format the various players would play, let alone something telling their customers what DRM was.

First of all, Toshiba isn't exactly a, how shall we say, 'household name' in the U.S./Western market.

There, fixed that for ya !

I could go on and on. In fact I would be surprised if anybody in the UK hadn't heard of Toshiba.

Bollox.

I was 6 when my dad bought me a BBC model B in 1982 from the local Dixons for £399. I was 6. I played games for a while, and was subjected to Logo and the floor turtle at school, but then one day in 1984 I started thumbing through the BBC BASIC user guide and tried the double height text program. It gave me the programming bug and the rest is history.

While infinitely more powerful than the 6502 1Mhz Beeb, I don't think PCs give quite the same experience from a hands on learning point of view.

High Street retailer Dixons, which started by selling 35mm cameras...

I think that's a quote from the Dixons marketing manager, who's at odds with their website which says Dixons started as a photographic studio in 1937 and only diversified into selling assorted camera equipment 11 years later.

Methinks they've ramped up the press release for a little rose-tinted, nostaglia induced, free publicity.

Yes, this is the same press release as the "we're no longer stocking VHS" one.

Except, of course that they still do:
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp ?BV_SessionID=@@@@0184077931.1123587161@@@@&BV_Eng ineID=ccekaddfgghmmhjcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Produ ctList&category_oid=-24719&fm=15&sm=4&tm=1&use_cat egory=true

When I read it yesterday I was surprised that the BBC didn't appear to do any fact checking or analysis but just ran DSG's PR intact. Maybe journalism is on holiday in Tuscany at the moment with the rest of the meeja.

I was thinking of building myself some kind of PVR too. I suppose I could have got myself a Sky Plus box, only this would have meant getting a dish -- and I happen to think they're ugly, compared to a cable buried discreetly under the pavement. I had the specs in my mind, and went out looking for parts.

Then in Dixons, I found the Philips DVDR-70 DVD+RW recorder. At 279.99, I snapped it up. This machine needs the more expensive DVD+RW discs. It can also use DVD+Rs, but the functionality is a bit more limited with one-time media. There are only two SCARTs, and you'll need both of them for the TV and the satellite/cable decoder; but it does have audio/video/SV ins on the front {meant for a camcorder so designated CAM1} which you can use in an emergency, and audio/video/SV outs around the back. As you would expect on any DVD player, the TV SCART has RGB out; but unlike a VCR the auxiliary SCART has RGB in.

Chapter points are added automatically during recording, or you can add them by hand - and the ability to block certain chapters allows you to implement a form of ad-skipping, which is vital for most cable/satellite recordings. The picure is rock-solid even at six-hour compression. It will play MP3 audio CDs through your TV or hi-fi, but not multisession discs - you'll have to burn them in one go. This should mean those annoying copy-protected discs will play fine, though, and there's no mention of disabling the digital audio out during certain kinds of playback {but I haven't been able to test this}.

Downsides? No HDD so you can't record and play back at the same time, and the picture blanks out while the machine is busy. No RF modulator, so you have to use the A/V connections; but you'd be throwing away the advantages of DVD anyway. And I didn't build it myself.

Conclusion: Worth the price, and you'll soon get to live with the quirks. Expect newer models to answer them anyway.

****

Secondly, the world is bigger than just the US; in the UK, everyone and their brother still sells them like hotcakes.

In the UK most players are openly advertised as multi-region. Even Dixons (a big, dumb, high street electronics company - think Circuit City but 100% less technically inclined) put the multi-region 'hacks' on their web site. Given that most people now own TVs that can display NTSC as well as PAL, even people like my mum watch imported DVDs without giving it a second thought.

If they are, then yes they are. I'm in the UK, and all the ads I see include VAT these days (this used to be a real problem, hence the new law). Like I said, some places will claim the "business" exemption, but they're treading a fine line. I haven't got any dead tree ads to hand, but looking online:

Dabs, Dell and Dixons all give the tax inclusive price as the headline. In my random sample of 3 sites, that gives me a 100% hit rate.

If you find sites advertising to consumers with non-tax-inclusive prices as the headline, report them to trading standards.

Apologies. Dixons in the UK (at least, their high-street stores) were selling the Multimedia model for 329, complete with CF adaptor and USB2 interface. I was under the impression it was supplied "everywhere". Duh!

Though "more expensive" is debatable,

Though "more expensive" is debatable,

In UK at least, it's Wega.