Re: Question re "The Great Courses: Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind"

mike weber <fairportfan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This weekend, I took my "Atomic Shorts" DVD to a weekend-long
fannish party, as I had promised the host I would. Several people
gathered in the video room to watch it. Unfortunately, it was
somehow incompatible with their DVD player. I notice that sort
of thing more and more often. Some DVDs just won't work in some
players, even when everything is Region 1. Others work, but will
only display an image on the middle third of the screen, as the
player thinks the disc is *doubly* letterboxed, both vertically
and horizontally.

Is the disk mass-produced, or burned on a computer or Digital Video
Recorder?

Quite possibly the latter. Virgil Visions (http://www.virgil.com/)
sells various DVDs at cons containing various apparently public domain
material from the 1930s through 1960s. Civil Defense films about
protecting oneself from atomic attack, films touting various worlds'
fairs, old TV ads, old newsreels, et cetera. Interesting stuff, but
I no longer buy their discs, as they are flaky. On some players some
parts of the discs play, often with extensive skipping. On others,
the discs won't play at all.

Also, their discs are pretty expensive considering that they don't
have to pay anyone any royalties. I can buy a $100 million dollar
movie used -- sometimes new -- for less.

As for the double letterboxing, I've gotten that from standard
big-budget DVDs. It's very annoying. My portable player's small
screen is already lower than standard resolution. Having the top
and bottom thirds *and* the left and right thirds of the screen
stay black, so I'm only watching one ninth of the screen, is not
acceptable. And yes, I've tried all possible combinations of
controls. Nothing helps.

Does anyone make a small-screen portable DVD player with full (500
line) resolution? Or have the makers of those things never heard
of nearsighted people? Why would I want to find room for a
four-foot-wide screen, when I can just take off my glasses and
watch a four-inch-wide screen and get the exact same effect?

And then there was that Sony DRM software that installed itself
on your computer using a rootkit and got them sued by a number
of individuals and vendors - and more than one state's Attorney
Generals.

After I heard about that, I stopped buying any Sony products. I
encourage everyone to "vote with their feet." If you find a company's
behavior unacceptable, don't buy from them, work for them, or invest
in them.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
.

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