Recent Comments:
DISH Network's DTVPal converter box goes retail at Sears {Engadget HD}
Jul 22nd 2008 8:17PM Have we gotten any word on why this device is retailing for $60 instead of the $40 target price they announced months ago?
Also: I think this device uses an external power brick, which I find really obnoxious. The zenith/insignia unit I picked up just has a regular-old power plug...don't know why they would have pulled the AC-DC electronics into an external brick for this one.
Jaman lands online deal with Paramount {Engadget HD}
Jul 21st 2008 4:57PM well, your use of copy-paste has convinced me!
Personally, I'd call an AppleTV or a 360 a computer anyway though...just let me know when those exist in 40% of homes and everybody in the family uses them.
...There might be a huge install base of 360's, but in most families, the parents don't go near them....
Blu-ray releases on July 22nd, 2008 {Engadget HD}
Jul 21st 2008 4:54PM At my local BlockBuster, you can buy "pre-viewed" DVD's -- basically, scratched up disks that they used to rent out.
Funny thing is, those used disks cost more there than a new copy would cost down the street at Fry's. Who is buying them?
Blu-ray releases on July 22nd, 2008 {Engadget HD}
Jul 21st 2008 12:50PM Anybody know if/when Succubus (from Evil Motion Pictures) is due on Blu-ray? The online trailer is in HD...
Jaman lands online deal with Paramount {Engadget HD}
Jul 20th 2008 10:15PM Digital downloads will have a chance to take over only after:
1) "Average Joe", my parents and maybe my grandparents figure out how to hook a computer up to a TV. Yes, it's fairly simple...especially on an HDTV with a VGA or DVI port...but it's way over many people's heads.
2) Most people have a computer in their living room near the TV -- nobody wants to trot out to another room to start a movie, pause the movie, replay a scene in a movie, etc.
3) Most people have remote controls for their computers -- again, so they can start/stop, pause, rewind, etc. with the usual ease.
4) There is some sort of 1-stop-shop for digital downloads: nobody wants to deal with 37 different websites depending on what network's TV show or studio's movie they want to watch.
5) Making the video appear full-screen is a simple task...movies were not meant to be watched as a small frame inside a browser window.
Until the above are satisfied, "Digital Download" movies for Average Joe will essentially mean sitting alone at the house computer desk, in an office chair, watching a movie that doesn't even occupy the full space of their 19" monitor.
Fix all the above problems, and there are still issues with quality, obnoxious DRM, unique media player software to install for many of these sites, possible bandwidth caps to worry about, and prices that seem to be on-par with physical media prices even though the downloaded product offers less.
(Of course, I should mention that I will soon be moving to an area with bad OTA reception, and I don't want to pay for cable just to get my local network stations...so I'll probably be watching most of my TV on the ABC/NBC/Fox/Hulu/Daily Show sites...but I do have a remote control for the computer, and I've already got the TV connected too.)
Best Buy offering DTV converter box refunds for sales tax oversight {Engadget HD}
Jul 20th 2008 3:48PM Yes, I expect businesses to be responsible enough to inform local stores when they've been overcharging consumers and a rebate policy is supposed to be in effect. That expectation is probably pretty hopeless, though, if most consumers don't care about being ripped off...
$3 isn't much money...but sometimes the principle of the issue is worth something too. Anyway, the 18-year old car we took gets 30+ mpg, and the store's only a couple miles away anyway -- the gas probably about 75 cents. Further, my wife was interested in a movie that was on sale, and I saw this as a way to save an additional $3 on it. (Of course, when their customer service failed to provide my money, we didn't reward them by making a purchase).
If I had just gone there to *spend* $15 though, would you question the profitability of that action? Is driving someplace to collect money somehow stupider than driving someplace to spend money?
Also, with gas being more expensive, shouldn't that be additional motivation to collect all the money that's rightfully mine? If I can spend 75 cents in gas to get $3.30 from Best Buy, they're giving me the money to travel 20 miles.
(I'll also note that I'm a frugally-living graduate student...$3 easily covers a day's worth of food for me, and as a student, my time isn't really worth much.)
Best Buy offering DTV converter box refunds for sales tax oversight {Engadget HD}
Jul 19th 2008 12:51PM Can anybody verify if this applies in California?
I went down to my local best buy to get my $3.30 (8.25% tax in my city), but they had no idea what I was talking about. I brought a print-out of the linked story...they spent about an hour on the phone talking to various corporate offices and eventually told me that this doesn't apply in California, just a few other states.
Japanese outfits to collaborate on power-saving OLED panels {Engadget HD}
Jul 18th 2008 3:47AM hey! I just noticed that my comments were actually linked in this engadgetHD post.
For that I say: thanks much...and I hope my repeated whining about OLED's failings isn't too obnoxious. I'm just so tired of waiting!
Japanese outfits to collaborate on power-saving OLED panels {Engadget HD}
Jul 18th 2008 1:40AM "...mass-produce 40-inch or larger OLED displays in the late 2010s..."
ummm...well, dammit.
I've been hearing about OLED's as the great replacement for LCD since at least 2002. Better colors, less power, true blacks, etc. etc.
It took Sony 5 years after that to come out with a $2000 11-inch screen that uses more power than a $200, 20" LCD. Oh, and the colors on Sony's OLED fade out at different rates, with a faster than expected decay, so you really only get the better color for a few years before the balance is likely to be out of whack.
And just NOW these companies are getting together to actually try to achieve the theoretical benefits of OLED? And their goal is the "late 2010's!!??!" So...2016 at the earliest, maybe 2019, for an OLED panel 40" in size that finally achieves the benefits that will, by that time, have been touted for over 15 years?
Cripes...in 8 years, LCD's and plasmas will probably have improved beyond what OLED can offer. We'll probably have $1000 80" LCD panels with IMLED backlights, providing super low power, 48-bit color or better, and a huge dynamic range. Then OLED will come plopping out with a $2000 40" set, and look just as pricey-niche-market as Sony's 11" set does today.
If they aren't going to be on top of this stuff for another 8-10 years, why were they getting my hopes up 6 years ago? All they did was make me believe super OLED TV's were a couple years away and prevented me from buying into the current, seemingly near-obsolete, market.
Chinese Blu-ray players revealed at SinoCES {Engadget HD}
Jul 16th 2008 6:35PM Hi NFinity:
I'll agree with you that BR players are way overpriced...especially at around $400 for Sony's new 2.0-capable player.
I think the first DVD player I got was around $180...but a year or so later they were all down around $50-$60. I don't plan to make that mistake again.
But I wouldn't go so far as to say a profile 1.1 player is obsolete -- you still get true picture-in-picture, and significant on-board storage. Profile 2.0 only adds a little more on-board storage and internet interactivity. Personally, for a movie-watching machine, I couldn't care less about interactivity...it just seems like such a gimmick with no real benefit (oooo, movie-related ringtones, and Disney castles that match my local weather...big whoop).
So, while I'm glad that new profile 1.0 players haven't been allowed to hit the market for 8 months or so, I think I'll be perfectly happy with a cheap profile 1.1 player sometime in the future. If that means saving big money compared to the gimmick of 2.0, I'm all for it!
I know you think BR is stuck in the niche market (and it might well be...), but if 1.1 prices drop fast enough, maybe it'll just be the profile 2.0 gimmick that stays stuck in the niche, and the rest of us can start to enjoy cheap 1.1 players for some decent HD movies.
