27. Drowning In Technology

HD DVD, Blu Ray, HD TV, HD DVR, HD Antenna, HD Satellite, XBOX 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii.

This is what we talk about these days. Between the studio and home we have actually purchased, returned, re-purchased and wished to purchase many of these items.

The Work
You see, Dave has to help make product that will play on these technologies. So a lot of it is a business expense required to move forward.

At home, we bought the Tivo3(HD DVR) the minute it came out. HA! Will not work with our local cable. Will only work with antenna or cable card (which will not work in the Tivo). We spent 4 months repurchasing all the elements that applied to see if one thing or the other was faulty. The cable guy practically had a room in our house. Ok, so we ended up with the Direct TV HD DVR just when that came out. It is no Tivo but as we understand it, the system had greatly improved just at that time. That was our Christmas miracle. From Dave’s birthday in September to Christmas in December, that is what we did with our lives.

The Struggle
Somewhere in the middle of that, we bought a mid-level Sharp Aquos Flat screen tv. HA! We got it home and the technology could not handle all our old Nintendo systems. And all those crappy non-HD dvds we had purchased over the last few years came out as small as our old 12 inch black and white. We put our tube tv back up and took that flat screen back to the store.

In the meantime, I did not find a single record to like. I feel insane that I can’t like any records out there. Am I just too old? Do I no longer love music? Are there things in my life that have finally just killed music for me?...

The new year came and it was time to gear up for the new projects we had to do at the studio. ProTools needed to work with Intel Mac and we needed to figure out the new HD DVD projects. We needed play back. After much studying and shopping, it turned out that technology for the playing of the new HDDVD and Blu Ray disks had not even caught up with itself. There were no high-end stereo players yet at the good stereo shop. This is rapidly evolving but the best cheapest thing we could find at that time when we needed the play back machines was the Xbox 360 player for HD DVD. And the PS3 for Blu Ray. The stereo components available just were not technically up to date at all.

The Future
At home, our tube tv died. Just like that. So at the prompting of a friend, we got a Sony Bravia Flat Screen. We got the best 1080p one we could in the size we wanted. This was great! No more glare from sunlight. The old Nintendo systems all play and the dvds fit in the screen nicely. It looks great. This tv upsamples all the old technologies for you. Alas, Dave is sad as we do not get our local channels in HD. We are too near HD local broadcasting so our petitions that we must send to try and get HD programming are denied. It’s like the future on Blade Runner, if you really care to see your locals all beautiful in HD on your brand new HD TV, you need to use the HD rabbit ear antenna. You need to push it all around and find where it comes in best. Wonder if a coat hanger will work? Course you have to find an old metal one. (There is much more metal in the future on Blade Runner. They also had rabbit ear antennas in the future on Blade Runner).

The Cost
Of course, we are not talking about how much any of this costs. The satellite tv that doesn’t do what it said it would, the tv that does more than we had hoped but costs more than 5 times as much as our last tv. The game system prices are out of this world but cheaper than any Blu Ray or HD DVD player out there (bonus gaming as they point out in the geek magazines).

So what about the records?. I just wonder who really has time to make up a good song or album? Or if you do you often have to make it in various formats. The tedium of making an HD quality product quadruples the work. Video is involved. There are often 2 or 3 versions of the record available. As a consumer, I personally would prefer one copy. I don’t like owning everything in triplicate. I am drowning in my many music libraries. Cassettes here. Vinyl here. The cd wall. Then there is the dvd wall. The surround sound things with 2 competing formats. Now they are adding all this in HD? Also, with two competing formats? And how does this apply to my ipod? The extreme dichotomy between mp3s (that are unlistenable to my cassette-loving ears) and these new HD quality things is insane! Why can’t there be a nice middle? The record companies shouldn’t wonder why sales are down. We are confused, artists and consumers. We are drowning in technology.

3/9/07