A suggestion for HTGuide moderators

[ModMark]

On the main page (www.HTguide.com), I found this statement..

"Latest News
So, what is the current status of HD-DVD vs Blue Ray? Will it be one of these that win the format war, or will this become old technology first?"

I would assume this is a dead web page after reading that. A little clean up may be in order...

[JonMarsh]

Yeah, we ought to bring that to Lex's attention.

Me, I'm mostly just a DIY and Audio hideout kind of guy- haven't seen that main page in ages!

[impala454]

Yeah my bookmark is set to the forum itself. Nice catch.

What is up with that darned format war anyways??!? :P

[JonMarsh]

Don't pay any attention to all that BD stuff- I've still got two high end Toshiba HD DVD players and bucket loads of disks, most of them still unopened!

[cjd]

What is up with that darned format war anyways??!? :P

It went on long enough that the consumer gave up and we've now lost... most people just do DVD still. And now there's this Streaming thing, which both kills video quality and completely removes decent audio tracks, not to mention removing ANY control over language (where dubbed) or subtitles.

I've never before thought I'd say, "Please give me DivX downloadables" Grab it off-peak, self-killing file format a few days after you've started playback... and fully featured.

Oh well.

[JonMarsh]

On the main page (www.HTguide.com), I found this statement..

"Latest News
So, what is the current status of HD-DVD vs Blue Ray? Will it be one of these that win the format war, or will this become old technology first?"

I would assume this is a dead web page after reading that. A little clean up may be in order...

Thanks for the heads up again- it's updated!

-Jon

[Johnloudb]

It went on long enough that the consumer gave up and we've now lost...

Sure there is streaming, but the bluray titles are out there. You can find almost any new release on bluray to rent from netflix. Actually, I've found streaming has fewer titles.

Even if streaming becomes the method of choice for most people, bluray will still be around for those who care about quality, just like the laser disc was around when about everyone was doing VHS, and they'd say what's laser disc ... never seen that before.

John

[ModMark]

Is the streaming model viable?

I've never before thought I'd say, "Please give me DivX downloadables" Grab it off-peak, self-killing file format a few days after you've started playback... and fully featured.

Oh well.

I agree, almost. Clearly what consumer wants, the able to watch a show on their time schedule ie: DVR and they want at least 720p.

But the streaming model from an engineering point of view is just not viable. Netflix does not own a server farm, they contract out to companies which have regional servers across the world. They do not overwhelm the backbone but your local ISP provider are busy come 8:00pm.

But clearly the downloading model is quite viable, just queue up 40 Gbytes of entertainment and download at off peak hours. I already do this in my household using the scheduling feature in utorrent ie: full speed downloading after 11:00pm.

The content providers need to give up this unbreakable encryption dream and just come up with an "inconvenient" encryption method. Typical consumers do not want google for a key every tie they play a movie.

[ModMark]

You are welcome

Thanks for the heads up again- it's updated!

-Jon

A suggestion to Lex, replace that "latest news" with a hot blond selling t-shirts, a dual woofer model comes to mind. The "hot blond selling t-shirt" marketing strategy seems to be quite popular on many web sites.

:-)

[cjd]

Ok. The US market does pretty well with Blu-Ray. I don't watch many Hollywood films...

[JonMarsh]

A suggestion to Lex, replace that "latest news" with a hot blond selling t-shirts, a dual woofer model comes to mind. The "hot blond selling t-shirt" marketing strategy seems to be quite popular on many web sites.

:-)

Yeah, universal marketing tool. Even we have done it!



Infineon Girls! Sheesh!

[JonMarsh]

Ok. The US market does pretty well with Blu-Ray. I don't watch many Hollywood films...

Hey Chris,

I love my Blu-Ray collection, especially with most of it sitting on a video server in my bedroom- and there's lots of good foreign films on it, too. I've still got to process my HD-DVD collection- most of which are still unopened. When I say I'm short on spare time, I mean SHORT on spare TIME!

[impala454]

Totally off topic but I googled "hot chick with a speaker" looking for an appropriate photo for the home page, and this was the second result and I felt the need to share :T

[ModMark]

Totally off topic but I googled "hot chick with a speaker" looking for an appropriate photo for the home page, and this was the second result and I felt the need to share :T

Boy, that is better than finding a woman who owns a boat!

Well I am off to Gander Mountain.....

[looneybomber]

Get that picture out on during a superbowl commercial, and the amount of deer hunters will double.

[Face]

While we have the admin's attention, is this place painfully slow for anyone else?

[Hdale85]

Lately it's been a bit slow, but I wouldn't say painfully.

[JonMarsh]

It varies for me, I just assume it's AT&T. My problem.

[Hank]

Jon, if you'll just send those Infineon girls to CES next Monday, I can put them to work in our booth. (I may have to paint a red 3M on their tank tops) :B

[JonMarsh]

Short notice, but I'll see what I can do! But they may be busy- I think our security/chip card/ASIC guys are going to be there!

[---k---]

Slow for me too recently. Painfully so today.

[CraigJ]

Wow, that "Infineon Girl" on the right looks just like my wife.

Site is very slow to load for me as well.

[Alaric]

Site is zipping along for me. Off-hours here , so everything works like it's computerized. After dinner my connection will be wading hip deep in wireless mud....

[JonMarsh]

Loaded VERY fast for me at Starbucks just now on my MBP 17. Much faster than normal. Must be AT&T messing it up at home on DSL.

[Lex]

Totally off topic but I googled "hot chick with a speaker" looking for an appropriate photo for the home page, and this was the second result and I felt the need to share

Chuck, I totally question whether all her arrows are pointing in the right direction of target...

Yes, I fixed the home page for now, busted links still on a few things, but at least we are a little more "timely". thanks for the heads up guys...