As happens all to often on display items, the monitor you saw probably wasn't configured correctly. It kills me when I go to the Wiz and see a beautiful 60" 16:9 HDTV hooked up to a DVD player configured for a 4:3 set.
I'm using two 18" flat panels (Eizo L661) in a 2560x1024 DualHead display, and each character of text is pixel-perfect. It can take some time get an LCD configured correctly, but if the phase and clock are correct, even an analog connection shouldn't have any blurring.
Now to try out the DVI out with my new 42" NEC PlasmaSync.:-)
The machines initially failed to read ballots on which voters chose to vote a straight party ticket, but also chose at least one candidate from another party, election officials said.
Note that it says that the voters chose a candidate from another party, not the machine. I could see how you might read it as Jamie did, but let's avoid spreading any more misinformation!
Sharky's review was a great editorial that really pinpointed the intended market for PS2, but I think they (and everyone else) make too big a deal about the lack of an IR remote.
I've got a moderately high-end home theatre setup with a standalone DVD player and kickass programmable universal remote. Thing is, after you press PLAY there's not much need for the remote until the movie is over. If you've got to pause it when you hit the bathroom, would it be so hard to make a stop at the wired controller on the way?
---
Re:This is similar to VCR tapes.
on
Can I Lend DVDs?
·
· Score: 2
The bottom line is, you can loan it to your friends and family, but you can't rent it for a fee. You would have to contract with the distributor and pay the higher for rent cost if you had the intention of renting them out.
You're right about the two-tiered pricing scheme, regarding "sell through" versus "rental" pricing. However, the price a rental outlet pays for a DVD or video tape has nothing to do with their ability to rent it to a customer.
Currently, DVD is primarily priced at sell-through prices--MSRP goes from $14.99 to about $34.99 at most. When Blockbuster or your local video chain buys dozens of copies in bulk and rents them to consumers, the studios are losing out on getting a cut of that profit. This is why we can expect rental pricing for DVDs to come into effect some time in the future.
As far as what does make it legal for you to buy a title and then rent it out, I am not sure. However, it is more than just the initial pricing from the studio. You can buy a copy of The Sixth Sense on VHS from 800.com, but it's going to cost you $89.95. And while that's the same price Blockbuster pays for the same tape, paying the premium price still won't give you the right to rent it out for a fee. It doesn't matter whether you're paying the rental price or the $21.95 sell-through for the DVD.
Does anyone have an idea of what makes it legal for a rental outlet to charge you for the right to borrow a tape?
Though my Outlook inbox on my Win98 machine did receive a few of these messages, lots of other things remained unscathed, including my:
Linux box
HP-UX 9000
Palm IIIc
1988 Toyota Tercel
Etch-a-sketch
Motorola Startac 7760 cell phone
home theater system
Basically, I'm repeating what many others have said--yeah it was primarily a Microsoft bug, but get over it already. If you're not using MS stuff, no reason to rub it in anyone's face.
SightSound.com CEO Scott Sander said, "An average feature-length film might take 15 to 20 minutes to download on a DSL or Cable Modem connection. The same film would take eight to 10 hours to download over a 56k dial-up modem connection."
Let's talk about the dial-up modem scenario first:
On a good day, a 56k modem will download about 5k/second. That translates to 300k/minute and about 17.5MB/hour. At that rate, one could download 140MB in eight hours or 175MB in 10 hours.
If we use 175MB as the expected file size, their "20 minute" download translates to 300k/s. That means a full T-1 or anything slower (including most cable modems) will take 40 minutes or longer, in the best of conditions. Real world numbers will probably be much higher.
Ignoring the long download times, their 175MB estimate for a movie size seems laughable, at best. I've seen an ASF of The Matrix that looked decent compressed to 600MB. Any 90-minute film crunched to 175MB, would, IMHO, be rather unwatchable.
this region code stuff is never going to be effective. I say just forget about it and start releasing films in theaters at the same time all over the world.
There are reasons why films are released at different times throughout the world. Subtitles need to be created and incorporated, voice talent has to be hired and recorded for dubbing, and additional editing may need to be done. These things take time and are often the reason for later release dates outside of the USA.
This one is just too classic not to point out. Recalling the days of breakdancing on pieces of cardboard on the sidewalk--that's just a hallmark of American history that we can't afford to miss.
However, Boudreau said that the Apple Macintosh was more important today because it is used for "relevant content creation", and he confirmed that Media Player for the Mac would have digital rights management (DRM) software built-in.
Microsoft has never really acknowleged any competition from Apple--after all, there isn't much of a server market for Macs. Therefore, it doesn't seem too surprising that they might port a software product over to the Mac platform.
However, Microsoft has admitted Linux to be a major competitor and cause of concern. Can we really expect them to begin porting softare to run under *nix?
This is beginning to look similar to AT&T before they were split up. As Bell Labs was making lots of money selling circuits to MCI and Sprint, the long distance division was struggling to come up with new ways to squash those other companies. It shouldn't be long before Microsoft is doing the same--developing software for Linux, while simultaneously trying to keep the OS from taking over their precious NT Server market.
Personally, I am very interested to see where this leads.
With Napster blocked by many University networks because of bandwidth concerns, and now Dialpad, who can tell what will come next?
It seems that universities will have to seriously look into current policies for network access as more and more high-bandwidth services become available. I guarantee this is far from the end of disagreements between students and IT departments, and I fear where the next big block will be.
Once Linux gets to be more and more mainstream, can we expect to see a block on.iso files as the traffic just gets to be too huge? How about a block on freshmeat or/.?
After reading the thread, I jetted out to Circuit City on my lunch hour to try and track down the player. After teaching the CC employee how to enter stock codes into his terminal, I discovered that Apex DVD player is listed as:
APX AD600A
My local Circuit City didn't have any in stock, but they had over 400 units in the warehouse, some scheduled for delivery within a day or two.
I'm sure plenty of/. readers remember the Hitachi Superscan monitor fiasco at buy.com. A weekend error on the retailer's web site listed a near-$600 19" monitor for something like $154.
Hundreds of excited shoppers and capitalists flooded buy.com with orders in an attempt to cash in on the store's mistake. A few days went by and the price was fixed, but the damage had already been done to the tune of several thousand orders.
After much confusion, buy.com announced they would fulfill the orders for the 150-some monitors they had in stock, and cancel the rest. Message boards, newsgroups, and web sites all over lit up with complaints about being "ripped off" or being caught as the victim of a bait and switch. More honest and understanding consumers (like me, of course) realized that we would be lucky to get such a great bargain, but if it fell through, we had no right to complain.
I personally placed an order for a monitor, but when I finally got a cancellation notice two weeks later, I shook it off and went on with my life. What about the people who ordered a dozen monitors and set up auctions on eBay before they even had them in their possession? Those were the guys screaming class action suit, crying that they got ripped off, and demanding justice at the hands (and pocketbook) of buy.com.
Well folks, no one got ripped off in that case. I admit in trying to get a bargain because of the error of someone else. When it fell through, I moved on with my life and kept my eyes peeled for the next poor fool to accidentally list something at one-fourth of the expected price. Best Buy and their phantom $400 rebate from Microsoft--it's the same situation.
A few lucky people took advantage early and walked out with DVD players and stereos for $400 cheaper then they should have. And thousands more were turned away before they could take advantage of a slip-up by the legal department at MS. Yeah, it would have been nice to get away with a nice bonus, however morally questionable--but when you get headed off before you can take advantage, there is no right to complain.
Microsoft and Best Buy responded in the only way we could really expect them to. If you didn't get your free money, let it go and move on. Given the continuing trend for slashed prices and instant rebates, we can expect something like this to happen again soon enough. Just be sure to take the deal before the unfortunate victim catches on!
Slashdot Mirror
As happens all to often on display items, the monitor you saw probably wasn't configured correctly. It kills me when I go to the Wiz and see a beautiful 60" 16:9 HDTV hooked up to a DVD player configured for a 4:3 set.
:-)
I'm using two 18" flat panels (Eizo L661) in a 2560x1024 DualHead display, and each character of text is pixel-perfect. It can take some time get an LCD configured correctly, but if the phase and clock are correct, even an analog connection shouldn't have any blurring.
Now to try out the DVI out with my new 42" NEC PlasmaSync.
---
Note that it says that the voters chose a candidate from another party, not the machine. I could see how you might read it as Jamie did, but let's avoid spreading any more misinformation!
---
Sharky's review was a great editorial that really pinpointed the intended market for PS2, but I think they (and everyone else) make too big a deal about the lack of an IR remote.
I've got a moderately high-end home theatre setup with a standalone DVD player and kickass programmable universal remote. Thing is, after you press PLAY there's not much need for the remote until the movie is over. If you've got to pause it when you hit the bathroom, would it be so hard to make a stop at the wired controller on the way?
---
Currently, DVD is primarily priced at sell-through prices--MSRP goes from $14.99 to about $34.99 at most. When Blockbuster or your local video chain buys dozens of copies in bulk and rents them to consumers, the studios are losing out on getting a cut of that profit. This is why we can expect rental pricing for DVDs to come into effect some time in the future.
As far as what does make it legal for you to buy a title and then rent it out, I am not sure. However, it is more than just the initial pricing from the studio. You can buy a copy of The Sixth Sense on VHS from 800.com, but it's going to cost you $89.95. And while that's the same price Blockbuster pays for the same tape, paying the premium price still won't give you the right to rent it out for a fee. It doesn't matter whether you're paying the rental price or the $21.95 sell-through for the DVD.
Does anyone have an idea of what makes it legal for a rental outlet to charge you for the right to borrow a tape?
---
Basically, I'm repeating what many others have said--yeah it was primarily a Microsoft bug, but get over it already. If you're not using MS stuff, no reason to rub it in anyone's face.
---
SightSound.com CEO Scott Sander said, "An average feature-length film might take 15 to 20 minutes to download on a DSL or Cable Modem connection. The same film would take eight to 10 hours to download over a 56k dial-up modem connection."
Let's talk about the dial-up modem scenario first:
On a good day, a 56k modem will download about 5k/second. That translates to 300k/minute and about 17.5MB/hour. At that rate, one could download 140MB in eight hours or 175MB in 10 hours.
If we use 175MB as the expected file size, their "20 minute" download translates to 300k/s. That means a full T-1 or anything slower (including most cable modems) will take 40 minutes or longer, in the best of conditions. Real world numbers will probably be much higher.
Ignoring the long download times, their 175MB estimate for a movie size seems laughable, at best. I've seen an ASF of The Matrix that looked decent compressed to 600MB. Any 90-minute film crunched to 175MB, would, IMHO, be rather unwatchable.
---
A good page detailing Ron Jones and The Wave phenomenon.
Hip Hop Culture
This one is just too classic not to point out.
Recalling the days of breakdancing on pieces
of cardboard on the sidewalk--that's just a
hallmark of American history that we can't afford
to miss.
Bravo, USPS!
To quote the article:
However, Boudreau said that the Apple Macintosh was more important today because it is used for "relevant content creation", and he confirmed that Media Player for the Mac would have digital rights management (DRM) software built-in.
Microsoft has never really acknowleged any competition from Apple--after all, there isn't much of a server market for Macs. Therefore, it doesn't seem too surprising that they might port a software product over to the Mac platform.
However, Microsoft has admitted Linux to be a major competitor and cause of concern. Can we really expect them to begin porting softare to run under *nix?
This is beginning to look similar to AT&T before they were split up. As Bell Labs was making lots of money selling circuits to MCI and Sprint, the long distance division was struggling to come up with new ways to squash those other companies. It shouldn't be long before Microsoft is doing the same--developing software for Linux, while simultaneously trying to keep the OS from taking over their precious NT Server market.
Personally, I am very interested to see where this leads.
With Napster blocked by many University networks because of bandwidth concerns, and now Dialpad, who can tell what will come next?
.iso files as the traffic just gets to be too huge? How about a block on freshmeat or /.?
It seems that universities will have to seriously look into current policies for network access as more and more high-bandwidth services become available. I guarantee this is far from the end of disagreements between students and IT departments, and I fear where the next big block will be.
Once Linux gets to be more and more mainstream, can we expect to see a block on
After reading the thread, I jetted out to Circuit City on my lunch hour to try and track down the player. After teaching the CC employee how to enter stock codes into his terminal, I discovered that Apex DVD player is listed as:
APX AD600A
My local Circuit City didn't have any in stock, but they had over 400 units in the warehouse, some scheduled for delivery within a day or two.
Retail price was $169.99.
After reading the thread, I jetted out to Circuit City on my lunch hour to try and track down the player.
After teaching the CC employee how to enter stock code into his terminal, I discovered that Apex DVD player is listed as:
APX AD600A
My local Circuit City didn't have any in stock, but they had over 400 had the warehouse, some scheduled for delivery within a day or two.
Retail price was $169.99.
I'm sure plenty of /. readers remember the Hitachi Superscan monitor fiasco at buy.com. A weekend error on the retailer's web site listed a near-$600 19" monitor for something like $154.
Hundreds of excited shoppers and capitalists flooded buy.com with orders in an attempt to cash in on the store's mistake. A few days went by and the price was fixed, but the damage had already been done to the tune of several thousand orders.
After much confusion, buy.com announced they would fulfill the orders for the 150-some monitors they had in stock, and cancel the rest. Message boards, newsgroups, and web sites all over lit up with complaints about being "ripped off" or being caught as the victim of a bait and switch. More honest and understanding consumers (like me, of course) realized that we would be lucky to get such a great bargain, but if it fell through, we had no right to complain.
I personally placed an order for a monitor, but when I finally got a cancellation notice two weeks later, I shook it off and went on with my life. What about the people who ordered a dozen monitors and set up auctions on eBay before they even had them in their possession? Those were the guys screaming class action suit, crying that they got ripped off, and demanding justice at the hands (and pocketbook) of buy.com.
Well folks, no one got ripped off in that case. I admit in trying to get a bargain because of the error of someone else. When it fell through, I moved on with my life and kept my eyes peeled for the next poor fool to accidentally list something at one-fourth of the expected price. Best Buy and their phantom $400 rebate from Microsoft--it's the same situation.
A few lucky people took advantage early and walked out with DVD players and stereos for $400 cheaper then they should have. And thousands more were turned away before they could take advantage of a slip-up by the legal department at MS. Yeah, it would have been nice to get away with a nice bonus, however morally questionable--but when you get headed off before you can take advantage, there is no right to complain.
Microsoft and Best Buy responded in the only way we could really expect them to. If you didn't get your free money, let it go and move on. Given the continuing trend for slashed prices and instant rebates, we can expect something like this to happen again soon enough. Just be sure to take the deal before the unfortunate victim catches on!