AVRant #38: Imeem vs Pandora
Blind testing at T.H.E Show?! Who let those people in there? Tom dissects the article. Does he think that it is possible to hear the difference between high-end speaker cables and zip cord? Yep! Surprised? You’ll have to listen in for the explanation. Want to know what gauge speaker cable to use? Tom runs through Gene’s cable article. Imeem vs. Pandora. Tom and Dina weigh in. Feel free to friend Tom and hear the entire version of the AVRant theme song plus other Nerdcore classics. Clint shouldn’t be allowed to make playlists. Dina doesn’t know who Stephen Hawking is and Tom’s brain almost exploded. Is paper a bad material for a speaker cone? Chris wants to know. Does Dina prefer Blu-ray or HD DVD? Robert wants to know. How long will HD DVD hang on? Tom makes a prediction… sort of. Did the porn industry kill Betamax? XStreamHD… is it the future? Who knows. But it looks hella cool! Thanks for listening.
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I read a post on a different site a few days ago that compared the HD-DVD vs Bluray format war to game consoles. Do people go around talking about the impending death of PS3 because you can’t play Wii Sports on it? Are Xbox 360 owners sounding the death knell of PS3 because it lacks the capability to play Halo 3? Is Xbox 360 destined to fail because it will never have Nintendo exclusive titles like Metroid, Mario and Zelda? There is no ‘war’ between these consoles. They coexist and their competition leads to better and cheaper products for the consumer. There has been competition between game consoles for years and although it has many times been very spirited, has it ever really been touted as a dual to the death the way people rant about HD-DVD and Bluray? If consumers want certain movies they will choose one player, if they want other movies that can choose the other player and price will be a factor, just as it is now with game consoles.
David, you make good points but as you must know, the fanboys of each of the consoles would love to see the others fail (as Dreamcast and others have). It’s part of the “I’m better than you because my console is better than yours” mentality. The high def “war” has much of the same flavor (at least in my mind). Is it stupid? Yes. But remember that people are used to having any movie they cared to buy available on DVDs. Now they have to choose a format or buy a Universal or two different players?! It just doesn’t make sense to them.
What doesn’t make sense to me is that this format war started at all. It isn’t like people trying to put out the best/cheapest/whatever DVD player. DVDs are an established format. High def is trying to convince people that it is worthwhile. So while people are trying to understand what high def is, you have two camps shouting, “But my high def is the BEST!” Confusing? Oh yeah.
The fact is that I don’t think people will accept two different high def formats as they do different game consoles. They just won’t. Heck, most of them are still arguing with me whether there is a difference between HDTV and standard def! This would be analogous to someone arguing that the graphics for the Wii and the XBox are basically the same. No they aren’t and you’re an idiot for thinking so.
In short – while the two formats could possibly coexist, I don’t think they should. At this point, people need to be convinced that high def is worth re-buying their movies. If you put two formats out at the same time, they will just turn away. Sure, that’d be great for the next big technological innovation, but for those of us that would like to experience better picture and (most important to me) increased audio fidelity, that’s a long time to wait.
I have to say I was appauled when Dina didn’t know who Steve Hawkings was. But, then I asked a visiting cousin today if she knew who he was and she didn’t! I guess he just doens’t have the sex appeal of Einstein 🙂
I was a tad surprised by that as well, if only because of how often he’s been parodied (Futurama, etc)
Steve who?
Do you guys know who Wes Welker is?
Dude, don’t lie just to cover for your wife you PW POS. You know who he is.
Meow-fichowww!!!
Now, Wes Welker I know!
I can safely say in 50 years nobody will know who Wes Welker was but people will remember Steve Hawkings.
Gene: “I have to say I was appauled when Dina didn’t know who Steve Hawkings was.”
Well, I don’t know who “Steve Hawkings” is, but Stephen Hawking is an incredibly bright theoretical physicist. 😛
That’s right… No one is safe on this site! 🙂
And I would argue that it depends on who you talk to – now or in 50 years – as to who knows Hawking or Welker…..
Go ahead and argue… you’ll still be wrong…
Unless you’re only asking sports historians.
Format wars you didn’t mention: SACD vs. DVD Audio. That stalemate is turning out to be the death of both formats thanks to confused (and probably indifferent) consumers. And let’s not forget about DVD vs. DIVX, which could have turned out completely differently if DIVXs backers hadn’t caved as early as they did. Let’s hope the HD disc format war ends soon so that we can one day look at the losing format as a footnote like DIVX.
Good point about SACD/DVD-A. Though public consciousness of that “war” isn’t nearly to the same level of the HD one. I do agree that the competition completely killed any chance for either of them to exist.
That and the concurrent dawn of the iPod.
The music industry is one of the biggest slow thinkers/changers ever. Years from now they will use the RIAA and music studios in the classrooms as examples of a massive industry that imploded due to lack of innovation. Them and AOL.
OMG :O
Stephen Hawking even made it on Weebl and Bob.
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/balance/
That was so wrong it was right 🙂