Another reason for falling blue ray sales is that discerning viewers can see that lcd tvs (even with blue ray) is not an all around upgrade over a CRT with DVD. LCD tvs are incapable of producing smooth cinematic movement because the liquid crystals and plasma cells physically can't change fast enough. So panning shots in a city will show light poles jumping across your screens. This isn't a problem on a tube TV with DVD. Also CRTs produce many times the light output of the best LCD on the market. And worst of all, LCDs fail to produce texture in shadowy or dark areas. Seeing the texture of a black tweed jacket was no problem on a CRT but on an lcd it's a washout of black.
The market has traded a technology that was superior to LCD and plasma in almost every way except pixel density. A lot of people when they watch a blue ray on any given lcd or plasma think, "but wait. As the camera moves, people are skipping across the screen and I loose the subtle textures of dark scenes". And so they just don't see the value of paying so much more for a TV and player that is cinematicly inferior and will not last half as long as their trusty CRT. Excluding definition, shot for shot CRTs deliver a superior viewing experience over lcd/plasma/blue ray. And a lot of people realize that. They need to fix this with the two technologies before hordes rush out to by new tech. Marketing bull will only go so far in convincing the masses to buy.
Honestly, how people's bullshit detectors didn't go off with this show from day one I'll never understand. Now this show has ascended the ranks of the virtueless as a scripted pile of deceitful posers, to their official seat among the evil people. Falsifying the failures of the Tesla Roadster!? For dramatic effect or politics? Who cares! It’s equally depraved and boring TV. What's clear is that the show's vehicular criticism is unreliable - because it is a STAGED FICTION that fools people into believing they're getting honest discourse. Yes. It makes people into fools!
Why have I chosen to rail against Top-Gear and not The Bachelor? But I haven't! My points and opinions are actually baseless musings, merely presented to you in an informative journalistic style for entertainment value.
Obama's advice is good advice to anyone who really cares about the world. To anyone that REALLY cares about the world, as so many of the good folk on here seem to say they do, two notions are likely important – civic engagement and democratic participation. Obama’s editorial speaks to the fact that these devices do nothing to facilitate these values (nor any other values of this kind it seems to me).
Ipads and Xboxs are value neutral. What is not neutral, however, is the content on them. If the content on these devices is largely comprised of fingertip entertainment and viral social novelties, like facebook, then the devices, by extension, will inevitably distract from the theory and practice of values like civic engagement and democratic participation – the values we like to think we care about. Moreover, when media of this kind is made more accessible it makes it harder to convince the increasingly apathetic people that investment in initial civic education should be valued to begin with. In short, devices like the Ipad produce a compounding circle of eroding social goods, and there is a perfect historical example of this at work.
In the early days of TV it was heralded as a revolutionary educational device and “a tool of democracy”. Yet what is the net result of TV 50 years later? The NET result seems be couch potatoes, social disenfranchisement and political apathy. It wasn’t TV itself that did this, but the content on it. To be fair, the stuff on TV is not all bad and the people that value the actually educational and democratically participatory content are often very vocal and active. But it does not change the fact that TV has made the majority of us care less about the kind of values that Obama’s editorial was concerned with. TV has, on the whole, made people lazy and distracted.
It matters not the nature of the media device, save for degrees of accessibility. But if the device makes content more accessible that ultimately distracts us from the theory and practice of our highest civic duties and social concerns, then we might say the device is evil – or at least contrary to the good.
It’s nice to have toys, and I say let our toys be as frivolous and novel as ever. But when frivolous play and flippant novelty take the place of substantive context rich information, civic engagement, and participation in our democracy, than anyone with a social conscience has reason to be weary of Ipads and xboxs and the distractions they bring.
Slashdot Mirror
Another reason for falling blue ray sales is that discerning viewers can see that lcd tvs (even with blue ray) is not an all around upgrade over a CRT with DVD. LCD tvs are incapable of producing smooth cinematic movement because the liquid crystals and plasma cells physically can't change fast enough. So panning shots in a city will show light poles jumping across your screens. This isn't a problem on a tube TV with DVD. Also CRTs produce many times the light output of the best LCD on the market. And worst of all, LCDs fail to produce texture in shadowy or dark areas. Seeing the texture of a black tweed jacket was no problem on a CRT but on an lcd it's a washout of black. The market has traded a technology that was superior to LCD and plasma in almost every way except pixel density. A lot of people when they watch a blue ray on any given lcd or plasma think, "but wait. As the camera moves, people are skipping across the screen and I loose the subtle textures of dark scenes". And so they just don't see the value of paying so much more for a TV and player that is cinematicly inferior and will not last half as long as their trusty CRT. Excluding definition, shot for shot CRTs deliver a superior viewing experience over lcd/plasma/blue ray. And a lot of people realize that. They need to fix this with the two technologies before hordes rush out to by new tech. Marketing bull will only go so far in convincing the masses to buy.
Honestly, how people's bullshit detectors didn't go off with this show from day one I'll never understand. Now this show has ascended the ranks of the virtueless as a scripted pile of deceitful posers, to their official seat among the evil people. Falsifying the failures of the Tesla Roadster!? For dramatic effect or politics? Who cares! It’s equally depraved and boring TV. What's clear is that the show's vehicular criticism is unreliable - because it is a STAGED FICTION that fools people into believing they're getting honest discourse. Yes. It makes people into fools! Why have I chosen to rail against Top-Gear and not The Bachelor? But I haven't! My points and opinions are actually baseless musings, merely presented to you in an informative journalistic style for entertainment value.
Obama's advice is good advice to anyone who really cares about the world. To anyone that REALLY cares about the world, as so many of the good folk on here seem to say they do, two notions are likely important – civic engagement and democratic participation. Obama’s editorial speaks to the fact that these devices do nothing to facilitate these values (nor any other values of this kind it seems to me). Ipads and Xboxs are value neutral. What is not neutral, however, is the content on them. If the content on these devices is largely comprised of fingertip entertainment and viral social novelties, like facebook, then the devices, by extension, will inevitably distract from the theory and practice of values like civic engagement and democratic participation – the values we like to think we care about. Moreover, when media of this kind is made more accessible it makes it harder to convince the increasingly apathetic people that investment in initial civic education should be valued to begin with. In short, devices like the Ipad produce a compounding circle of eroding social goods, and there is a perfect historical example of this at work. In the early days of TV it was heralded as a revolutionary educational device and “a tool of democracy”. Yet what is the net result of TV 50 years later? The NET result seems be couch potatoes, social disenfranchisement and political apathy. It wasn’t TV itself that did this, but the content on it. To be fair, the stuff on TV is not all bad and the people that value the actually educational and democratically participatory content are often very vocal and active. But it does not change the fact that TV has made the majority of us care less about the kind of values that Obama’s editorial was concerned with. TV has, on the whole, made people lazy and distracted. It matters not the nature of the media device, save for degrees of accessibility. But if the device makes content more accessible that ultimately distracts us from the theory and practice of our highest civic duties and social concerns, then we might say the device is evil – or at least contrary to the good. It’s nice to have toys, and I say let our toys be as frivolous and novel as ever. But when frivolous play and flippant novelty take the place of substantive context rich information, civic engagement, and participation in our democracy, than anyone with a social conscience has reason to be weary of Ipads and xboxs and the distractions they bring.