Life-line looking more like a video game console?
on
High Definition DVD
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· Score: 1
Merely owning a DVD player for the sole purpose of watching movies (and not owning a HDTV), I don't know much about the hardware deep down. What I do know though is, even if it happens to be just out of my own ignorance, the DVD format has been both a blessing and something I can't help feeling iffy about. When we first got our player 3-4 years ago, we were extremely happy with it and very satisfied... until The Matrix came to DVD, that is. The problem is that the player that was sold to us *did not* support dual-layer discs... we were very unhappy about this, seeing as we only owned the player for a mere six months. Frustrated, but thankful that Best Buy allowed us to exchange the player for a newer one without much fuss, we were back on track again. But my question is, as a consumer, why couldn't they wait for the dual layer technology to be implemented in all DVD players before they were released to begin with? And being aware of the existance of HDTV (as well as it's higher resolution and sound qualities), why couldn't they have supported that as well from day one? My greatest concern though is once HDTV is supported (along with the newer anti-piracy encryption and such), are the older DVD formats going to be dropped all together, forcing me to get yet another new player for all future DVD releases?
The reason I'm comparing DVD to a video game console is because that's how my DVD experience is looking here. I realize that they are two completely different things, but what it comes down to in my mind is that DVD players don't need to render all the images in real-time 3D graphics like game consoles do (which grow more and more complicated all the time, thus why you seem to have to buy a new one every 3-5 years to play newer games), but merely display... well... pre-recorded movies. If it's going to be a more complicated movie with more special effects and such, it still uses standard video and audio outputs for its presentation to us. Laserdiscs and VHS tapes did this just fine for us (back in the day), and I don't exactly recall having to purchase new players for those medias while they were the standards. I don't exactly like buying new boxes, only to throw the outdated model into my closet never to be touched ever again. I think the time for change is just too soon, and once again very disappointing.
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Merely owning a DVD player for the sole purpose of watching movies (and not owning a HDTV), I don't know much about the hardware deep down. What I do know though is, even if it happens to be just out of my own ignorance, the DVD format has been both a blessing and something I can't help feeling iffy about. When we first got our player 3-4 years ago, we were extremely happy with it and very satisfied... until The Matrix came to DVD, that is. The problem is that the player that was sold to us *did not* support dual-layer discs... we were very unhappy about this, seeing as we only owned the player for a mere six months. Frustrated, but thankful that Best Buy allowed us to exchange the player for a newer one without much fuss, we were back on track again. But my question is, as a consumer, why couldn't they wait for the dual layer technology to be implemented in all DVD players before they were released to begin with? And being aware of the existance of HDTV (as well as it's higher resolution and sound qualities), why couldn't they have supported that as well from day one? My greatest concern though is once HDTV is supported (along with the newer anti-piracy encryption and such), are the older DVD formats going to be dropped all together, forcing me to get yet another new player for all future DVD releases? The reason I'm comparing DVD to a video game console is because that's how my DVD experience is looking here. I realize that they are two completely different things, but what it comes down to in my mind is that DVD players don't need to render all the images in real-time 3D graphics like game consoles do (which grow more and more complicated all the time, thus why you seem to have to buy a new one every 3-5 years to play newer games), but merely display... well... pre-recorded movies. If it's going to be a more complicated movie with more special effects and such, it still uses standard video and audio outputs for its presentation to us. Laserdiscs and VHS tapes did this just fine for us (back in the day), and I don't exactly recall having to purchase new players for those medias while they were the standards. I don't exactly like buying new boxes, only to throw the outdated model into my closet never to be touched ever again. I think the time for change is just too soon, and once again very disappointing.