The thought has crossed my mind a few times recently, well mainly when I go to the cinema or put a DVD in to watch, sit back in to relax and watch the movie I have either just rented out, purchased or paid an exorbitant ticket price for. Then you get the movie piracy message. Now personally I am just plain sick and tired of seeing this and I’m sure the rest of the 99% of the population who do the right thing are as well.
It really has become apparent to me that before you even consider illegally downloading a movie or song the Music & Movie industries already have you labeled as a thief and a criminal, otherwise why would they show the same rotten message at the beginning of every movie. In my opinion these industries are petrified of being left behind as new media overtakes them with more modern distribution methods leaving them with no means of income.
It is truly disgusting that after you go to the cinemas and pay anywhere between $15 to $30 dollars for a ticket and some overpriced food you then get accused of being a pirate with this message they continue to press on with. Does this seem a little wrong to anybody else? Shouldn’t these ignorant companies start moving forward with the rest of us in seeing that adding copy protection to absolutely everything isn’t actually helping any cause. Pirates know how to get around copy protection, and copy protection is only a major pain in the proverbial behind to all honest citizens of the world.
I say that its a pain for all honest citizens in that content we have legitimately purchased is so laden with copy protection that it is almost impossible without some level of technical knowledge to actually transfer a movie that you own from a DVD to your iPod to view on the go. These companies are actually game enough to expect us to go and purchase another electronic copy to achieve this same end result.
This plain insanity on the music & movie industries behalf became really apparent to me today when I came across this article Woman arrested for trying to record ‘Twilight’ on digital camera from American newspaper Chicago Sun Times. Essentially the gist of this story is that the Woman was holding a surprise birthday party in a Cinema, and legitimately enough was taking a video recording of the party on her camcorder. The insane theatre manager then decided to go on a rampage after seeing her video recording and call the police who proceeded to search the tape and arrest the woman because there happened to be footage of the Twilight movie ‘New Moon’. Which had been captured accidentally.
This is all a little over the top if you ask me and it might be about time for these industries to wake up to themselves and realise that trying to act like anti-piracy God’s isn’t going to get them anywhere fast. They need to accept that things change and innovate new ways of delivering their content while treating their paying customers like humans rather than assuming off the bat that they are criminals.
It all started with the introduction of the iTunes Music store! Since then there has been an increasing availability of online music stores where you can legally purchase and download your favourite music tracks and albums. It was just the other night I purchased a full album off the iTunes store when I had a little realisation. Wow that was easy, and I didn’t even have to leave my house.
This all made me think a little about what actual purpose the ‘Record’ store actually serves in the current world that we live in. One of the biggest differences between the two and reason that I think that online music stores have been so successful is not so much the ease of purchase but more so the ability to pick and choose exactly what songs you want. No longer do you have to spend $30 for an album where you only get two or three songs that you actually want to listen to. It think this is the major appeal, but what about pricing?
While albums available for online purchase all come in at different prices depending on the number of tracks, when comparing their prices to purchasing a CD from a store there is a significant price saving.
I have a feeling that the preference to purchase music on a form of media like a CD may also be a bit of a generational thing as well. Given the fact that in the past people have always had a very tangible experience when purchasing music and movies, essentially they would walk into a store, hand over their hard earned cash and physically get something for it. From what I can see it seems that those generations of people still want that tangible experience. However for the younger generations that are used to the more intangible experience of handling their media I think we will slowly see the need and want to have a physical copy of a movie or music slowly fade, and with it will the need for bricks and mortar record stores. Just the way I see it anyway. What do you think? Let us know in the poll below!!
Plasma was the original technology when it came to the original big modern & slim flat screens we are familiar with today and while in the beginning it did suffer a few teething problems with failing pixels and the like it has definetely proved itself in the marketplace as a suitable technology. However in recent times it seems like LCD technology has been surpassing plasma in leaps and bounds.
In recent times LCD panel makers have been investing a lot of time in LED backlit displays to help improve contrast which was always one of the downsides of LCD televisions, and we are continuously seeing thinner and thinner displays.
As a personal preference I do prefer the picture that plasma television screens give off, they have deeper blacks and better viewing angles and all up I feel they have a superior picture. Whereas LCD has always battled (although they are almost on par now) problems with contrast, ghosting and the ability to view on wide angles.
Panasonic has just released their next generation of Plasma television panels to be included in certain models, this technology has been named NeoPDP. One of the big selling points of this new technology is that the new panels consume less power than previous plasma’s – another reason for people choosing to purchase LCD instead. However the NeoPDP also boasts full 1080 HD resolution with improved analysis of the picture data to supposedly improve the image quality in fast moving images on the screen.
The contrast on the panels have also been improved and they are now boasting 2,000,000+:1 Dynamic Contrast. This is intended to produce blacker blacks while maintaining the proper balance of darks and lights to help reproduce the picture the way it was intended. This is combined with richer graduation technology to help ensure colours are reproduced and even the delicate shades of colours in an image are reproduced accurately.
I’m happy to see that at least one television manufacturer is putting effort into ensuring there is a future for the plasma television so that we can continue to enjoy the benefits that this type of display provides. Below is Panasonic’s latest commercial advertising the new technology.
Loading ...
