Well, I've finally finished a big project: digitizing a box-full of Blu-Ray disks. A couple weeks ago my picture and sound-maker died. (aka, monitor, TV screen) It took the signal from a Blu Ray player. Typically I used these less for entertainment than for a sleeping pill at night, or for the last hour of the evening when my eyes don't feel like reading.
It was quite a shock to learn how badly I had gotten out-of-date. The kid at Best Buy told me, "Nobody sells DVD players anymore!" Just imagine what the kid was thinking! His Yuma customers were so old and, like, out-of-it. He would be so stoked if he had, like, younger customers, bro.
Well, nobody seems to sell small monitors (with speakers) that are compatible with Dolby Digital sound coming from most Blu Ray players, either.
Everything is supposed to be "streamed" these days, and paid for with a monthly fee, tied to your credit card. That makes it easy for the bastards to renew your subscription automatically annually and sneak up the "rent." (Think Amazon Prime.) I am the kind of consumer who prefers deliberate and occasional purchases of something that he will own. And its job is to function for quite a few years. (I can just see that kid at Best Buy rolling his eyes over that one!)
Besides, it isn't practical for a traveler and camper to depend on good internet connections everywhere. Offline entertainment is important.
Actually I haven't rejected the Blu Ray disk so much as I've bowed to the reality of dust and vibration's effect on plastic. Look at this disk box:
This is what bumpy roads and dust can do to a storage box. The disks themselves are not the problem -- but they are typically housed in poorly designed plastic boxes. And a box of disks takes up quite a bit of space!
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