Interesting, but probably too hard to implement seriously (especially considering the possibilities of legal battles moving to that arena if a share holder shares his/her copy with an unlicensed person).
Another aspect is that it would probably hurt sales, if the large companies buy all albums their shareholders are interested in (and take some form of payment from the people, naturally, for the service), then when an artist makes a new album they will know exactly how many copies it will sell, because there are only 4350 companies with shareholders interested in their music...
Did you read the article? This has nothing to do with what you talk about, but the fact that the MPEG-group feels it unfair that MS sells their stuff cheaper.
"posing unfair competition and threatening consumer choice" - Of course... Don't you think Intel would have said something like that when AMD started selling cheaper CPUs? (Not nessecarily better, just cheaper). And what about Star Office? Cheap or even for free at times. It's just plain ridiculous to start complaining about the opponents' pricing points, instead of pushing your own advantages.
But, of course, as far as "consumer choice" is regarded, a free alternative would probably make both of the others go bonkers.
In all my years I have rarely noticed any hardware manufacturer (among the recognized brands, that is, a Mark stereo is never as good as one from Philips e.g.) as having a higher rate of failure, but I still like to know that my investments won't break down and cry after a few months. That is why, on the systems I use and trust the most, I use WD drives and Intel chipsets (compared to SIS or VIA or something else), because not only do I know that they work, and work, but they do it very well at that. And as a closing note, if one thing is cheaper than another, it is most likely to not work as well, or for as long.
You know what? People can edit their own videotapes with a pair of scissors. They can also be used as a lethal weapon. Better close down all hardware stores immediately!
If you have a little patience you can modify your SNES to be regionfree and 50/60hz-switchable with cheap electronic parts. Better file a lawsuit against Radio Shack and all other vendors of electrical appliances.
This was a fairly good guide, but not as comprehensive as one could wish.
As one reader noted it would have been interesting if they actually wrote about something other than cables, eg how to set up your TV/HDTV/projector to make things look as good as possible, how VGA-boxes compare and so forth. And as far as I am concerned, Monster Cable are not by far the only manufacturer of high-end cables. Interact make some good stuff too, and about a million Hong Kong-manufacturers have different budget variants that will improve your results, if not by as much.
More specifically, a note that while MC do produce S-Video cables for all recent consoles, the PAL GameCubes do not support this kind of output, and thus a little test of RGB-Scarts wouldn't have been such a bad idea, eh? Especially considering that more people have Scart/Euro-connectors than S-video on their TVs, and that an RGB-Scart is easily on par with S-video output.
Since most people also only have one "good" Scart input on their TV set, a little write-up on different Scart-splitters and how they affect the quality would have been nice too.
Well, well, just a few thoughts. I guess we'll have to test these things ourselves, seeing as they who wrote the article are sponsored by MC and not interested in alternatives, which the consumer always is...
You obviously haven't played, or enjoyed, Mario Golf for the N64 - that is the single best golf game I have ever played, and it had me hooked for months. Me and my friends still bring it out every now and then, since it is so amazingly fun.
Mind you, I'm not especially into sports games, or golf in particular, but this game just pure rocks. It is not exactly a simulation, since it is more of an action-golf-variant, but with great physics and correct rules and all nevertheless. Don't judge out a game category beforehand just because it doesn't sound fun...
I don't see a "third" console as a problem...
I currently own:
Gameboy, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance
Nintendo 64
Nintendo 8-bit (NES)
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Megadrive/Genesis
Sony Playstation (PS)
Sony Playstation 2 (PS2)
Super Nintendo (SNES)
This is not counting the C64, and a bunch of other more or less modern computers.
I'm definitely going for a GameCube, most likely a US import one before christmas, and probably an Xbox too at a later date, if the games are good enough (not like the PS1, where 90% of the games are below par), and the price drops to a reasonable level. Remeber - it's all about having fun!
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting, but probably too hard to implement seriously (especially considering the possibilities of legal battles moving to that arena if a share holder shares his/her copy with an unlicensed person). Another aspect is that it would probably hurt sales, if the large companies buy all albums their shareholders are interested in (and take some form of payment from the people, naturally, for the service), then when an artist makes a new album they will know exactly how many copies it will sell, because there are only 4350 companies with shareholders interested in their music...
How about reading the article before committing yet another lame post? I find that eyes work well for that sort of thing...
Did you read the article? This has nothing to do with what you talk about, but the fact that the MPEG-group feels it unfair that MS sells their stuff cheaper.
"posing unfair competition and threatening consumer choice" - Of course... Don't you think Intel would have said something like that when AMD started selling cheaper CPUs? (Not nessecarily better, just cheaper). And what about Star Office? Cheap or even for free at times. It's just plain ridiculous to start complaining about the opponents' pricing points, instead of pushing your own advantages. But, of course, as far as "consumer choice" is regarded, a free alternative would probably make both of the others go bonkers.
In all my years I have rarely noticed any hardware manufacturer (among the recognized brands, that is, a Mark stereo is never as good as one from Philips e.g.) as having a higher rate of failure, but I still like to know that my investments won't break down and cry after a few months. That is why, on the systems I use and trust the most, I use WD drives and Intel chipsets (compared to SIS or VIA or something else), because not only do I know that they work, and work, but they do it very well at that. And as a closing note, if one thing is cheaper than another, it is most likely to not work as well, or for as long.
If you have a little patience you can modify your SNES to be regionfree and 50/60hz-switchable with cheap electronic parts. Better file a lawsuit against Radio Shack and all other vendors of electrical appliances.
Paranoia is a beautiful thing...
As one reader noted it would have been interesting if they actually wrote about something other than cables, eg how to set up your TV/HDTV/projector to make things look as good as possible, how VGA-boxes compare and so forth. And as far as I am concerned, Monster Cable are not by far the only manufacturer of high-end cables. Interact make some good stuff too, and about a million Hong Kong-manufacturers have different budget variants that will improve your results, if not by as much.
More specifically, a note that while MC do produce S-Video cables for all recent consoles, the PAL GameCubes do not support this kind of output, and thus a little test of RGB-Scarts wouldn't have been such a bad idea, eh? Especially considering that more people have Scart/Euro-connectors than S-video on their TVs, and that an RGB-Scart is easily on par with S-video output.
Since most people also only have one "good" Scart input on their TV set, a little write-up on different Scart-splitters and how they affect the quality would have been nice too.
Well, well, just a few thoughts. I guess we'll have to test these things ourselves, seeing as they who wrote the article are sponsored by MC and not interested in alternatives, which the consumer always is...
And there is no proof that DOS wouldn't say the same thing, just for the heck of it...
"Keyboard error, press F1 to resume."
You obviously haven't played, or enjoyed, Mario Golf for the N64 - that is the single best golf game I have ever played, and it had me hooked for months. Me and my friends still bring it out every now and then, since it is so amazingly fun.
Mind you, I'm not especially into sports games, or golf in particular, but this game just pure rocks. It is not exactly a simulation, since it is more of an action-golf-variant, but with great physics and correct rules and all nevertheless. Don't judge out a game category beforehand just because it doesn't sound fun...
I currently own:
This is not counting the C64, and a bunch of other more or less modern computers.
I'm definitely going for a GameCube, most likely a US import one before christmas, and probably an Xbox too at a later date, if the games are good enough (not like the PS1, where 90% of the games are below par), and the price drops to a reasonable level. Remeber - it's all about having fun!