[mythtv-users] Analog and Digital Cable Confusion (HDHR, etc)

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Wed May 9 19:42:11 UTC 2007


On 05/09/2007 03:04 PM, Lan Barnes wrote:
> On Wed, May 9, 2007 8:34 am, Brian Wood wrote:
>   
>> Brad DerManouelian wrote:
>>> Movie and TV studios feel that if you're able to record high-quality
>>> video, there would be no more reason to buy their DVD's, BluRay and
>>> HD-DVD discs.
>> I couldn't have put it better myself. They said the same thing about
>> VCRs 30 years ago, and I notice that people still buy movies, on
>> whatever format.
> Actually, they said the same thing about TV 50+ years ago. That's why guys
> my age grew up watching Johnny Mack Brown westerns and "Monday Night at
> the Movies" was a BFD.
>
> In my parents time, baseball team owners vigorously opposed radio
> broadcasts of the games.
>
> Greed trumps brains every time.

Isn't that also a big part of the evolution of screen formats?  
Originally, most movies were about 4:3 (actually 1.37:1 due to film 
sizes), but then when 4:3 TV's appeared, studios wanted to give people a 
reason to go to the theaters instead of sitting at home and watching TV, 
so they went to 16:9-ish (1.85:1 or 1.66:1) formats.  Then, when 16:9 
TV's started to become more common, they went to 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 formats...

Of course, this completely ignores the "artistic" evolution of screen 
formats (i.e. 4:1 Polyvision used once on Abel Gance's Napoleon in 1927) 
and other similarly uncommon aspects.

I guess, anymore, it's easier to spend billions on DRM*** than it is to 
come up with a value-added to promote your product.

Mike

*** lobbying various regulatory bodies, forcing DRM on technologies 
through standards bodies, and actually winning the DRM war by getting 
the true standard (Windows, in the form of Vista) so thoroughly DRM'ed 
that eventually the "whole" world will use it regardless of regulations 
and standards


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