I just want to add that "blu-ray" doesn't mean crap when their competitor offers "HD DVD" for $200 less.
By competitor I assume you mean the Xbox-2 ("360" or whatever). Microsoft does not include HD-DVD, and has only alluded to a (vaporware) HD-DVD drive you can connect via the USB ports for extra cost. An extra-cost peripheral, which in this case only plays movies -- not games -- will be doomed in the marketplace.
OTOH, seeing Sony struggling to generate interest in thier latest white elephant product is now making Microsoft's decision to stay with regular DVD look genius.
[3]...I try to sue the living crap out of them but find that I'm screwed, and I deserve to be ; my competition will reap the rewards of their hard work and I'll be punished for being a "patent troll."
As the patent holder, you wouldn't be screwed but at the same time you'd no longer be able to threaten shutting down the competitor's assembly lines (i.e. extortion). Since you yourself (as [3]) don't actually produce anything, the lawsuit simply degenerates into a smaller fight about how much you'd get to charge for licensing fees.
All in all, this is much more fair all the way around and I'm actually a bit shocked that this Supreme Court actually came to this fair decision.
Have you seen the new M:HD? Its their new high def channel, and actually has lots of music, mainly entire concerts. Their programming is a bit limited right now, but they have some pretty good acts on there.
Don't worry, I'm sure as soon as their studios get more HD cameras they'll buff out that limited programming schedule with plenty of HD:Real World, HD: True Life, and whole varieties of HD college-age bimbo game shows.
Their tax laws are much friendlier than Pennsylvania's, which is why so many financial mega-corporations are headquartered in DE.
By 'financial mega-corporations' you mean Banks. Specifically lending centers of those banks. It's actually because of South Dakota, where all the credit card branches in the West set up shop in the early 80's to get around consumer rate-limits on loans. Delaware took notice, and also changed their bank laws resulting in most of the east-coast banks (specifically New York) setting up shop in Delaware instead of S.D.
One of the reasons I use Qwest DSL instead of Cable, actually--my connection is slower on paper, but I always have all of the bandwidth I'm paying for.
Yeah, the bandwidth you pay for (which drops the further you get from the C.O.) from your house/office to the telco premise is dedicated. But I'll bet'cha you are still oversubscribed at the DSLAM. Just like AOL dial-up modem vendors/leasors oversubscribe the edge routers. Cable only *really* differs in that it is like a LAN where you fight with your neighbors immediately for that bandwidth, instead of fighting them upstream like you're doing now.
Every time a new artificial sweetener enters the market there are outcries about public safety. Sucralose ("Splenda") is still much better than others. Yeah, ok so they use Chlorine in making it -- so what? Your basic table salt has chlorine. I use chlorine in my pool. That in and of itself doesn't make me run screaming in terror.
I'd certainly much rather have Splenda than Aspartame in my products. I think the biggest problem facing Splenda is the (warranted) public distrust of the chemicals industry and any new products associated with "chemicals" face that wall. Sort of like anything attached to the word "nuclear".
I've talked to people who drank diet drinks regularly and almost all of them told me that they didn't like the taste of aspartame, but put up with it to get a reduced calorie beverage.
Those of us old enough to remember saccharine as the 'main' non-sugar sweetener can tell you how much of an improvement aspartame ("NutriSweet") really is. Perhaps I'm more sensitive to it, but I've always found saccharine to be horrendously bitter (not sweet). Aspartame is definitely a sweet taste, but does have a bit of heavy-metal flavor (think iron, or well-water) which I think some folks object to.
In my area Coca Cola had been introducing sucralose ("Splenda") in some of their diet drinks, which I find to be the best. Tastes like a 'real' Coke, but still has a bit of a wierd aftertaste -- which is really strange when you consider sucralose is just a backwards sugar molecule. I'm not sure why Splenda doesn't seem to be catching on, since to me it is definitely the best diet sweetener so far.
Being a developer myself, I am intrigued about building applications and solutions that will open my doors, unlock my car, log me on to my computer and control home automation. I'm seriously considering jumping into this head first, being on the bleeding edge, and going with an implant. [...] I was wondering what the Slashdot community think about this.
I'll let you know when I'm done cloning your tag, opening your doors, unlocking your car, logging into your computer and controlling your home automation.
The basic problem with the homemade 'Play Doh' type modeling dough is that the food coloring tends to bleed into your hands, clothes, and usually anything it touches.
Despite its tendency to dry into a hard, nearly impossible to remove mass in your carpet (or your kid's hair), the 'real' Play-Doh product seems to hang onto its color very well.
S, you're associating somthing that people do naturally from childhood years on up, sharing what they like, with "starting a war"? If somebody has a song I like, and I share it with some friends to listen how is that an attack? It's actually spreading the culture. That's what happens with people.
I would argue completely the opposite: The recording/movie industries have gotten so accustomed to gaming the copyright system and controlling disribution and payments that any un-charged listening/viewing is seen as an affront by them. When they start going after taxicabs because somebody in the backseat might accidentally hear a song on the radio, that my friend is the attack. That is the war. Those of use old enough to remember can recall the ill-fated attempts to eliminate cassette recordings off radio broadcasts. Today, they continue to steer ligislation to tilt copyright balance completely in their favor, and they will never be completely happy even while extracing per-view/per-listen payments from every citizen. They want to sell you the content, but not allow you to have it. The __AA groups began this war against the masses.
Fiber does not corrode, does not conduct lighting, and is even cheaper to produce with a lower cost per foot to buy than copper... FIber is just glass! Cheap to produce and cheap to maintain... all splices to fiber lines are perfect every time. A splice to a copper line is a future failure point due to the corrosion that can then occur at that point or break in the line.
I've also talked with telco techs who do line repair. Fiber doesn't corrode, but it does break. And repairing a Fiber break is 100 times harder to fix. You need a specialized truck with special plasma cutter to shear the ends perfectly flat and then bond the patch perfectly into place. Often it doesn't take perfectly on the first try. It is a long, involved process which usually leaves long coils of patch near the break. For underground feeds this is okay, but for overhead lines or lines into homes/businesses you don't want loops of optical cable hanging dangling around. The good news is that fiber repair is not the crappy slaptastic re-coupling type repair they often do on copper lines.
The plastic cable jackets can potentially dry out too or more probably the end boots, especially as cost-cutting gets involved, but it may be too early in the life of fiber for this to be a problem. Any crack or break in the sheathing can allow exterior light into the cable, which will be bad for transmissions. Perhaps not as prominently as copper, but there will still be jobs for at least some guys in line maintenance work.
Whenever TiVo decides to release their cable compatible HD set, I'm taking this 6412 and inserting it into a Comcast Employee's ass.
Don't hold your breath, but Comcast is supposedly working with TiVo to bring the Tivo software to the Comcast (Motorola) boxes. I'm not sure if the model 6412 is the same box as the PR releases but that's the story.
I'm sure Comcast will use this agreement to try to stay out of the patent lawsuit fire, now that TiVo has won against EchoStar (DiSH).
I've never heard of Marshmallow Peeps. Are they our secret masters?
It's the result of a very limited world view.
What's even more amazing than a U.S.-limited view is when such a large portion of The F'ing Article itself is dedicated to explaining what- and where- Peeps came from, but you'd rather polemicize.
If they could have delayed the shutdown of commercial systems by a few days or weeks, they might have gotten congress to pass special legislation putting a stop to it.
Except that congress cannot (or at least is supposed to not be able to) pass laws which benefit a specific party.
But I agree, the best solution would've been to shut down all the Gub'ment balckberries and maybe, just maybe we'd get some progressive movement toward patent reform.
I've bought Alienwares for a couple years now. Never had any problems with performance or service.
You forget "...yet!" You haven't had any problems with service...yet!
Seriously, I'm glad you've had good luck. But have you actually tested the customer service lines, and do you realize that warranty service under Alienware can take literally months to return your machine? That's why I hope Dell will be an improvement in service.
At work I by almost exclusively Dell PCs. They're no game machines, for sure, but the service crappy as its gotten is still worlds better than other vendors. On-site next-day, no waiting for weeks in the mail for my machines to come back while the desk has an empty dusty footprint where a computer should be. Yeah, I've had to use my Dell service a few times, but at least they're responsive.
With Apple Macs now able to run Windows and their (relatively) good service, I'm seriously thinking about getting one or two for home and testing them out.
As far as your airplane analogy goes, FAA or not, planes still crash. The deregulators aren't worried about passenger settlements and what not, they figure that people won't fly on crappy airlines.
This is the biggest flaw in the 'deregulate' free market thinking which I see happening in conservative parties and often here on slashdot. The fact that some people in that market need to be victimized so that others can somehow avoid the 'bad' companies. It also ignores some of the sneakiest ways con artists and companies hide the truth about their snake oil.
Using your airline example, have you heard much about ValuJet lately? No, you say because they went out of business after that flight 592 Everglades crash in 1996? Actually, ValuJet is still alive but to avoid being labelled a 'bad' company they repainted the planes and changed the name to AirTran. I'm surprised at how many people I talk to who would never fly on ValuJet simply don't realize that AirTran is the same company! The shell monte game certainly worked in this example.
I'm certainly against over-regulation, but regulation exists to help protect people (er, "consumers" a more ugly word) before they get victimized.
In any event, gamers are a crowd where looks matter. A Mac can be sexy, but an Alienware box is somehow simultaneously sexy and badass
From the few people I've ever known unfortunate enough to own an Alienware computer, corroborated with other tales of customer service woes I've seen posted around the 'Net makes me feel pity for anyone who wasted their money on an Alienware rig. Last's week's story about Dell buying Alienware made me think customers might actually have a chance of getting after the sale service.
Apple doesn't necessarily have the greatest machines, but compared to the other manufacturers their service is stellar. A few Apple machines might have recurring issues, but at least you can get ahold of customer service. Warranties and actual "customer care" is what I'd be looking at with an Apple rig, especialy now that they can run Windows XP.
A Hummer will fit anywhere. Just drive over the other cars parked there.
I think you're confusing the highly durable military grade Humvees against the vastly inferior (and overpriced) consumer edition. My sister-in-law was an army sgt. and says you could literally drive a mil-spec Humvee down a hill into a tree and the car would be fine. Attach a snorkel and the damn thing can go thru deep water. And up on top, you can mount a friggin' machine gun.
None of the above applies to the horrendously fragile H2 or smaller H3. Especially not the gun mount.:(
Listen, all you genius admins, I don't tell you what firewall software to use, you don't tell me what file conversion software I need to get the Windows line breaks out of text files, Ok? I don't what you're using for an anti-virus tool, and I don't expect you to know about my use of FrameScript to automate FrameMaker.
Listen you selfish malcontent, letting you put whatever the hell you want on the company computers potentionally puts the company and its directors at risk. When your P2P music crap, or cracked shareware linefeed-corrector gets noticed by the suppliers it can cause huge problems and expenses for the company just to satiate your little cubicle fiefdom. IT admins and directors need to worry about far more than just your "getting the job done" easier. The reality is there is a lot of damage and liability these days which can come out of users free-reign over the office computers.
Don't like it? Fine, resign and start your own consulting business. Then you can put whatever crap you want on your own equipment.
Samsung was recently fined $300 million for price fixing. This is evil on Microsoft and Ma Bell levels.
Hardly.
You're referring to the memory chip issue. The basic problem is that in Korea ALL RAM chips are price-fixed forcibly by the government. However, in another market (the U.S.) it is suddenly called anti-competitive. I can easily see how they could get snarled up in this issue. Besides, price-fixing is far less of an 'evil' than, say, dumping.
I don't know the status of "backwards somewhat-compatibility" of these on the Xbox360, but it sure seems the per-title cost on Live Arcade is pretty hefty given how cheap you can get authorized copies elsewhere.
Nintendo doing well??? Um...if you are taling about their consoles, then you may be living on another planet.
Nintendo is doing well, although I suspect you are trolling and the reason why you were modded down as flaimbait.
Nintendo makes a profit on their console as well as games. They're in the black. Now, they may not have the numbers of a Sony Playstation, but they're also neck and neck with Microsoft's Xbox (actually GameCube is #2 in global numbers, since Xbox has been DOA for 4 years in Japan). Sony is hemmoraging money everywhere on crappy movies and poorly-made electronics tarnishing their name. Why do you think they had to announce they were jettisoning 10,000 jobs! Playstation is the only thing which has a chance to hold Sony together. Microsoft still hasn't turned a profit on Xbox. They're over $2-billion in the hole even 4 years later, and with lacking sales and slow Xbox 360 production there's no sign of improvement. Microsoft has a history of getting plastered in non-software markets where they are actually forced to compete. Even buying out complete studios like Bungie and Rare hasn't saved them.
So, while Microsoft and Sony are in the midst of a giant pissing contest about how many twiddlebops and thingermaboops are stuffed into their next expensive, overheating consoles, Nintendo is simply taking the smaller is better route and coming up with truly unique ways to interact with entertainment. And they're staying family-friendly, which is something sorely missing from the recent offerings of either the other two companies.
New standards dont have to BE adopted, they can MAKE us adopt them. Just by selling media content in one format only (no DVDs anymore)
None of the studios outside of Sony, which of course is pushing their own Blu-ray format, has much vested interest in HD. So, while Sony may restrict all their movies to Blu-ray, I just can't imagine Warner or Universal or anyone else dropping DVD as long as it sells. Since HD seems to be DOA because of all the DRM cruft and high prices, I think DVD will be around for awhile.
Historically "the public" has shown time and again that convenience and cheapness win over quality. The real benficiaries of a move to HD would be patent-license holders (i.e. Sony) and electronics companies who want to move back to high profit margins (instead of razor thin margins against all those $40 DVD players and standard-definition TVs out now) on the new tech. I don't think it will happen. Not enough people care about "HD".
Folks here on Slashdot have pointed out that the real movement in the industry is towards cable On-Demand programming and iTunes-type video downloads. Expensive and user-unfriendly Hi-Def discs just won't pick up momentum. Just look at the heavily encumbered DVD-Audio.
And besides, who on earth would set up a computer for a child with administrative privileges?
Ummm, perhaps the 99% of parents who have no idea what "administrative privileges" actually means. Just a thought...
Anyone who has recently bought those edu-tainment titles on CD, you know the ones which used to run directly from the disc, knows that they require access to the registry (WHY?!?) and many now have installers which ultimately run the program from the disc anyway. Some of the system specs are out of this world -- I found a Hot Wheels game which requires a DirectX v9.0 video card. And vanishingly few seem to support Macs anymore.
It's completely retarded and I suspect it is due to cheap programming, lack of QA and plain laziness. But the fact remains, many of the titles which you would allow your kids to run require admin privileges.
I'm gonna have to start hitting the yard sales, looking for the gool ol' copies of Reader Rabbit and the like which simply ran from disc on substandard hardware - no muss, no fuss.
Slashdot Mirror
By competitor I assume you mean the Xbox-2 ("360" or whatever). Microsoft does not include HD-DVD, and has only alluded to a (vaporware) HD-DVD drive you can connect via the USB ports for extra cost. An extra-cost peripheral, which in this case only plays movies -- not games -- will be doomed in the marketplace.
OTOH, seeing Sony struggling to generate interest in thier latest white elephant product is now making Microsoft's decision to stay with regular DVD look genius.
As the patent holder, you wouldn't be screwed but at the same time you'd no longer be able to threaten shutting down the competitor's assembly lines (i.e. extortion). Since you yourself (as [3]) don't actually produce anything, the lawsuit simply degenerates into a smaller fight about how much you'd get to charge for licensing fees.
All in all, this is much more fair all the way around and I'm actually a bit shocked that this Supreme Court actually came to this fair decision.
Don't worry, I'm sure as soon as their studios get more HD cameras they'll buff out that limited programming schedule with plenty of HD:Real World, HD: True Life, and whole varieties of HD college-age bimbo game shows.
By 'financial mega-corporations' you mean Banks. Specifically lending centers of those banks. It's actually because of South Dakota, where all the credit card branches in the West set up shop in the early 80's to get around consumer rate-limits on loans. Delaware took notice, and also changed their bank laws resulting in most of the east-coast banks (specifically New York) setting up shop in Delaware instead of S.D.
Yeah, the bandwidth you pay for (which drops the further you get from the C.O.) from your house/office to the telco premise is dedicated. But I'll bet'cha you are still oversubscribed at the DSLAM. Just like AOL dial-up modem vendors/leasors oversubscribe the edge routers. Cable only *really* differs in that it is like a LAN where you fight with your neighbors immediately for that bandwidth, instead of fighting them upstream like you're doing now.
Every time a new artificial sweetener enters the market there are outcries about public safety. Sucralose ("Splenda") is still much better than others. Yeah, ok so they use Chlorine in making it -- so what? Your basic table salt has chlorine. I use chlorine in my pool. That in and of itself doesn't make me run screaming in terror.
I'd certainly much rather have Splenda than Aspartame in my products. I think the biggest problem facing Splenda is the (warranted) public distrust of the chemicals industry and any new products associated with "chemicals" face that wall. Sort of like anything attached to the word "nuclear".
Those of us old enough to remember saccharine as the 'main' non-sugar sweetener can tell you how much of an improvement aspartame ("NutriSweet") really is. Perhaps I'm more sensitive to it, but I've always found saccharine to be horrendously bitter (not sweet). Aspartame is definitely a sweet taste, but does have a bit of heavy-metal flavor (think iron, or well-water) which I think some folks object to.
In my area Coca Cola had been introducing sucralose ("Splenda") in some of their diet drinks, which I find to be the best. Tastes like a 'real' Coke, but still has a bit of a wierd aftertaste -- which is really strange when you consider sucralose is just a backwards sugar molecule. I'm not sure why Splenda doesn't seem to be catching on, since to me it is definitely the best diet sweetener so far.
I'll let you know when I'm done cloning your tag, opening your doors, unlocking your car, logging into your computer and controlling your home automation.
The basic problem with the homemade 'Play Doh' type modeling dough is that the food coloring tends to bleed into your hands, clothes, and usually anything it touches.
Despite its tendency to dry into a hard, nearly impossible to remove mass in your carpet (or your kid's hair), the 'real' Play-Doh product seems to hang onto its color very well.
S, you're associating somthing that people do naturally from childhood years on up, sharing what they like, with "starting a war"? If somebody has a song I like, and I share it with some friends to listen how is that an attack? It's actually spreading the culture. That's what happens with people.
I would argue completely the opposite: The recording/movie industries have gotten so accustomed to gaming the copyright system and controlling disribution and payments that any un-charged listening/viewing is seen as an affront by them. When they start going after taxicabs because somebody in the backseat might accidentally hear a song on the radio, that my friend is the attack. That is the war. Those of use old enough to remember can recall the ill-fated attempts to eliminate cassette recordings off radio broadcasts. Today, they continue to steer ligislation to tilt copyright balance completely in their favor, and they will never be completely happy even while extracing per-view/per-listen payments from every citizen. They want to sell you the content, but not allow you to have it. The __AA groups began this war against the masses.
At one million per month, it sounds like they're going from terrible undersupply to terrible oversupply.
Don't hold your breath, but Comcast is supposedly working with TiVo to bring the Tivo software to the Comcast (Motorola) boxes. I'm not sure if the model 6412 is the same box as the PR releases but that's the story.
I'm sure Comcast will use this agreement to try to stay out of the patent lawsuit fire, now that TiVo has won against EchoStar (DiSH).
What's even more amazing than a U.S.-limited view is when such a large portion of The F'ing Article itself is dedicated to explaining what- and where- Peeps came from, but you'd rather polemicize.
Except that congress cannot (or at least is supposed to not be able to) pass laws which benefit a specific party.
But I agree, the best solution would've been to shut down all the Gub'ment balckberries and maybe, just maybe we'd get some progressive movement toward patent reform.
You forget "...yet!" You haven't had any problems with service ...yet!
Seriously, I'm glad you've had good luck. But have you actually tested the customer service lines, and do you realize that warranty service under Alienware can take literally months to return your machine? That's why I hope Dell will be an improvement in service.
At work I by almost exclusively Dell PCs. They're no game machines, for sure, but the service crappy as its gotten is still worlds better than other vendors. On-site next-day, no waiting for weeks in the mail for my machines to come back while the desk has an empty dusty footprint where a computer should be. Yeah, I've had to use my Dell service a few times, but at least they're responsive.
With Apple Macs now able to run Windows and their (relatively) good service, I'm seriously thinking about getting one or two for home and testing them out.
This is the biggest flaw in the 'deregulate' free market thinking which I see happening in conservative parties and often here on slashdot. The fact that some people in that market need to be victimized so that others can somehow avoid the 'bad' companies. It also ignores some of the sneakiest ways con artists and companies hide the truth about their snake oil.
Using your airline example, have you heard much about ValuJet lately? No, you say because they went out of business after that flight 592 Everglades crash in 1996? Actually, ValuJet is still alive but to avoid being labelled a 'bad' company they repainted the planes and changed the name to AirTran. I'm surprised at how many people I talk to who would never fly on ValuJet simply don't realize that AirTran is the same company! The shell monte game certainly worked in this example.
I'm certainly against over-regulation, but regulation exists to help protect people (er, "consumers" a more ugly word) before they get victimized.
From the few people I've ever known unfortunate enough to own an Alienware computer, corroborated with other tales of customer service woes I've seen posted around the 'Net makes me feel pity for anyone who wasted their money on an Alienware rig. Last's week's story about Dell buying Alienware made me think customers might actually have a chance of getting after the sale service.
Apple doesn't necessarily have the greatest machines, but compared to the other manufacturers their service is stellar. A few Apple machines might have recurring issues, but at least you can get ahold of customer service. Warranties and actual "customer care" is what I'd be looking at with an Apple rig, especialy now that they can run Windows XP.
I think you're confusing the highly durable military grade Humvees against the vastly inferior (and overpriced) consumer edition. My sister-in-law was an army sgt. and says you could literally drive a mil-spec Humvee down a hill into a tree and the car would be fine. Attach a snorkel and the damn thing can go thru deep water. And up on top, you can mount a friggin' machine gun.
None of the above applies to the horrendously fragile H2 or smaller H3. Especially not the gun mount. :(
Listen you selfish malcontent, letting you put whatever the hell you want on the company computers potentionally puts the company and its directors at risk. When your P2P music crap, or cracked shareware linefeed-corrector gets noticed by the suppliers it can cause huge problems and expenses for the company just to satiate your little cubicle fiefdom. IT admins and directors need to worry about far more than just your "getting the job done" easier. The reality is there is a lot of damage and liability these days which can come out of users free-reign over the office computers.
Don't like it? Fine, resign and start your own consulting business. Then you can put whatever crap you want on your own equipment.
Hardly.
You're referring to the memory chip issue. The basic problem is that in Korea ALL RAM chips are price-fixed forcibly by the government. However, in another market (the U.S.) it is suddenly called anti-competitive. I can easily see how they could get snarled up in this issue. Besides, price-fixing is far less of an 'evil' than, say, dumping.
These are the same titles you can get on their Treasures collection for under $20 ($12 used). http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product_id=950 453/
I don't know the status of "backwards somewhat-compatibility" of these on the Xbox360, but it sure seems the per-title cost on Live Arcade is pretty hefty given how cheap you can get authorized copies elsewhere.
Nintendo is doing well, although I suspect you are trolling and the reason why you were modded down as flaimbait.
Nintendo makes a profit on their console as well as games. They're in the black. Now, they may not have the numbers of a Sony Playstation, but they're also neck and neck with Microsoft's Xbox (actually GameCube is #2 in global numbers, since Xbox has been DOA for 4 years in Japan).
Sony is hemmoraging money everywhere on crappy movies and poorly-made electronics tarnishing their name. Why do you think they had to announce they were jettisoning 10,000 jobs! Playstation is the only thing which has a chance to hold Sony together.
Microsoft still hasn't turned a profit on Xbox. They're over $2-billion in the hole even 4 years later, and with lacking sales and slow Xbox 360 production there's no sign of improvement. Microsoft has a history of getting plastered in non-software markets where they are actually forced to compete. Even buying out complete studios like Bungie and Rare hasn't saved them.
So, while Microsoft and Sony are in the midst of a giant pissing contest about how many twiddlebops and thingermaboops are stuffed into their next expensive, overheating consoles, Nintendo is simply taking the smaller is better route and coming up with truly unique ways to interact with entertainment. And they're staying family-friendly, which is something sorely missing from the recent offerings of either the other two companies.
None of the studios outside of Sony, which of course is pushing their own Blu-ray format, has much vested interest in HD. So, while Sony may restrict all their movies to Blu-ray, I just can't imagine Warner or Universal or anyone else dropping DVD as long as it sells. Since HD seems to be DOA because of all the DRM cruft and high prices, I think DVD will be around for awhile.
Historically "the public" has shown time and again that convenience and cheapness win over quality. The real benficiaries of a move to HD would be patent-license holders (i.e. Sony) and electronics companies who want to move back to high profit margins (instead of razor thin margins against all those $40 DVD players and standard-definition TVs out now) on the new tech. I don't think it will happen. Not enough people care about "HD".
Folks here on Slashdot have pointed out that the real movement in the industry is towards cable On-Demand programming and iTunes-type video downloads. Expensive and user-unfriendly Hi-Def discs just won't pick up momentum. Just look at the heavily encumbered DVD-Audio.
Anyone who has recently bought those edu-tainment titles on CD, you know the ones which used to run directly from the disc, knows that they require access to the registry (WHY?!?) and many now have installers which ultimately run the program from the disc anyway. Some of the system specs are out of this world -- I found a Hot Wheels game which requires a DirectX v9.0 video card. And vanishingly few seem to support Macs anymore.
It's completely retarded and I suspect it is due to cheap programming, lack of QA and plain laziness. But the fact remains, many of the titles which you would allow your kids to run require admin privileges.
I'm gonna have to start hitting the yard sales, looking for the gool ol' copies of Reader Rabbit and the like which simply ran from disc on substandard hardware - no muss, no fuss.