As long as I'm telling the book publishers how to run their business, the DVD movie industry might as well get some advice too. I know of no industry that illustrates Thoreau's classic words, better:
First off, the "step up" from regular DVDs to Blue-Ray discs is non-value-added if all it gets the consumer is more pixels and higher resolution. A regular DVD and LCD screen are flat-out gorgeous; nothing more needs to be done; the point of diminishing returns has been reached; mission accomplished.
But oh no, they have to give us higher resolution Blue-Ray discs so our computers, TV screens, and players are rendered obsolete and we are forced to buy a menagerie of new toys.
I wonder if higher resolution Blue-Ray discs degrade sooner or easier than lower resolution DVDs. It seems that they would. No doubt, that is exactly what the industry intends.
Meanwhile there is genuine progress that could be made on disks. Making an interesting commentary track needs to become an art, instead of being so ad hoc and unprofessional.
More importantly there is something analogous to the improvements needed for books that I posted on a couple days ago: the viewer should be able to push one button to blank out the talking in the movie so that he can just listen to the soundtrack. Let's face it, the dialogue in most movies is uninteresting drivel. When the soundtrack isn't doing anything interesting, the talking could be allowed to come through. Granted this improvement is aimed towards customers like me who use movies as sleeping pills or as white noise to drown out the roar of diesel pickup trucks a half mile away.
"...so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance...
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate."
First off, the "step up" from regular DVDs to Blue-Ray discs is non-value-added if all it gets the consumer is more pixels and higher resolution. A regular DVD and LCD screen are flat-out gorgeous; nothing more needs to be done; the point of diminishing returns has been reached; mission accomplished.
But oh no, they have to give us higher resolution Blue-Ray discs so our computers, TV screens, and players are rendered obsolete and we are forced to buy a menagerie of new toys.
I wonder if higher resolution Blue-Ray discs degrade sooner or easier than lower resolution DVDs. It seems that they would. No doubt, that is exactly what the industry intends.
Meanwhile there is genuine progress that could be made on disks. Making an interesting commentary track needs to become an art, instead of being so ad hoc and unprofessional.
More importantly there is something analogous to the improvements needed for books that I posted on a couple days ago: the viewer should be able to push one button to blank out the talking in the movie so that he can just listen to the soundtrack. Let's face it, the dialogue in most movies is uninteresting drivel. When the soundtrack isn't doing anything interesting, the talking could be allowed to come through. Granted this improvement is aimed towards customers like me who use movies as sleeping pills or as white noise to drown out the roar of diesel pickup trucks a half mile away.
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