> It's like saying .WAV is better than .MP3. Well > yeah, but MP3 takes 1/10th the space and sounds the same. Well, it depends on many things, it could sound good, but many people compresses to 128kbps where the distortion is too huge to not to notice. Also some compression tool cuts off the original song at 16kHz - to radio quality. I am still not convinced about divx and xvid formats too. Most divx has something like 720x200 resolution (similar to VHS), a Super Video CD AFAIK has twice as much and still occupies less space than DVD. Anyway, personally I still prefer analogue stuff, but it is a bit harder to buy or even copy one of those nowadays. Tamas On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Tony Smith wrote: > > >> I can't agree with that. Since when did the quality of the > > >> engineering have anything to do with sales ? Just look at the old > > >> Betamax vs. VHS story. > > > > >> These days it's marketing that drives sales. Good > > engineering just > > >> puts the price up. > > > > > Bad example, Beta sucked. > > > > That's moot - as you will possibly be widely informed by > > others any time now :-). > > > > BUT if it's true it just means that VHS sucked worse as it's > > (almost) universally accepted that Beta was/is superior to VHS. > > > > > > Russell > > > Pffft. 'Universally accepted'. Right. 'Universally accepted' by those > who > never ever had one, or don't have one any more, or can't find it even if > they do. I wonder what the proportion of Beta losers* on PicList is. > Above > that of the general population, I'd wager. Funny that. > > Anyhoo, dust off that old Beta player (which no-one actually has), and set > it up to record episodes of 'Top Gear', 'Mythbusters', and 'Lifestyles of > the Rich & Famous' for the week. > > Oh, how happy you'll be on the weekend when you sit down to watch them. > > Oh, right, you're trying to record three hours onto a two hour tape. "Ha > Ha!" You should have brought a VHS instead. There ya go, that's why Beta > sucks, it's because it doesn't do what the customer wants. (The customer > really wants 100 hour tapes, but never mind.) You'll just have to put up > with VHS 3/4/5 hour tapes + slow play + extra slow play then. (5 hour > tapes > may be a figment of my imagination and/or dodgy memory) > > Every 'Beta was better' proponent I've encountered has come up with the > same > answer when asked "Just why was that anyway?". "Errr, mumble mumble > mumble > the wotsit in Beta had 0.2% more grommet oil than VHS, so the diagonal > stabilisers had better damping blah blah". All bollocks, technically, > there > wasn't much difference. It's like saying .WAV is better than .MP3. Well > yeah, but MP3 takes 1/10th the space and sounds the same. > > Bluntly, Beta had shorter tapes, and didn't really do slow play to get > more > recording time. Lose. > > VHS sucked too, which is why we have DVD players to watch pre-recorded > stuff, and PVRs to tape stuff off the telly. (There's your 100 hour tape, > btw.) Still, at least you could watch 'Lord of the rings' and other 'geez > I > need a pee now' epics on VHS without changing tapes. > > For the record, I haven't played a vinyl record for about 20 years, > cassettes for a bit less, CDs for a few years (bar ripping to MP3), and > VHS > for about 4. I had a Super-VHS player for a short while, that got sold to > some sucker once I realised it was a dud (not backwards compatible). I'll > toss in 'radio sucks' as well. > > A friend's grandfather once said "The best thing about the good old days > is > the good old days are gone". > > Tony > > * To move out of Beta status, you need to hook up the audio to your tube > amp, thus maximising that Beta warmth. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- Rudonix DoubleSaver Did You Know that DoubleSaver is Smaller and More Powerful FailSafe Device than Any Other You can Get? http://www.rudonix.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist