Re: A neo-Luddite (me) gets a DVD player.....

Straydog wrote:


It was _her_ idea. Of course, _I_ get the job of getting these things to work.

Observations:

1. Since I (we) have not bought anything new in the last seven years (except one car), I was exposed to a new generation in "packaging."

2. We got to first base ahead of the game: At the local WM stores, they would not demo anything. You could see behind glass whatever was available, then pick the box and "it's yours, baby." Radio Shack at least let us play with the buttons, open the lids, play the DVD. look under the box, look at the sides, etc. She didn't like any of them.

3. Next stop: look for any stores that let you demo the stuff to yourself. Best Buy: great. Played for 45 minutes about ten different units. We used the stumble, guess, try-it-and-see, random press methods to get the units to play. We saw differences in picture quality (no correlation with size or price). The one we wanted: out of stock (boo, hiss).

4. Circuit City: accross the street: had our unit. We bought it.

When I was shopping around for a DVD machine, I looked around for something that was compatible with all my other AV machinery and waited until I could get them at reasonable prices. I'm quite satisfied with what I've got.

When I started my search, I found an ad from a nearby store that had a set of low-cost units on sale. I called ahead to see if there were any still available as I wanted to look at them. Unfortunately, my call was misdirected and I ended up on hold.

After about twenty minutes, I hung up and walked over. Big mistake. The sales staff ignored me for about ten minutes and when I finally cornered someone and asked about the player I was interested in, I was told that the last one that store had in stock was sold about the same time as I walked through the door. Rather than call another store to see if one was available, the salesman wanted to sell me a DVD player that had all sorts of bells and whistles on it and wasn't at all what I was interested in.

I said no and left. That company hasn't received a penny's worth of my business ever since. About a year and a half later, I got what I have now, at a price I was satisfied with and without any hard sell.


BTW, you might have been offered an extended warranty for your player. Many stores offer them automatically on appliances. When I bought the demonstrator computer and LCD last week, I needed to add some power cords for them. The cords were only a few $$$. Would you believe the store offered me extended warranties on those? My reaction was "Huh?"


5. At home: plastic-vinyl(?) cover: how do you get into these boxes? Scissors and lots of work? Then padding, boxes inside of boxes, and more junk than we could imagine inside. 50 page manual (ugh).

Unfortunately, the directions aren't always clear for those.


6. Manuals: here comes the disclaimers. for contains lead, watch out (w/o), contains perchlorate (w/o), contains X,Y,Z, (w/o)..you get the picture?

7. Technical specs: Lists 8 categories of disk that it is supposed to play, then the footnotes about "glitches" that mean even if you have the right disk cat, it still might not work.

What can play on one machine might not work on another due to incompatible formats. Ah, the joys of technology!


8. Battery life: not guaranteed.

9. Seven other things: not guaranteed.

10. Twelve more things: no disclaimer.

11. Li-ion battery: at least its replaceable (but probably costs $75+). I wonder how long this thing will last? Seems pretty flimsy.

12. A remote control? Good for up to 3 feet from the thing? Why do we need a remote control if the thing is going to be no further than arm's reach? And, it has its own battery, too.

All my AV machinery is at the other end of my living room 3 - 4 metres away from my desk. The lens on the remote gives the beam a large footprint so it doesn't have to be aimed exactly at the DVD player in order to work.


13. Has a password option. I guess that's for keeping kids from learning about all those dirty things in life that they already know, eh? I wonder if the still have censored books at the library? I wonder how many kids know what books are?

If it ain't interactive and blasts out music in stereo, they won't touch it.


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14. I like things like beer in long-neck bottles, kegs, even cans with the little looped opener. Simple, easy, quick, safe, cheap...always works.

I've enjoyed beer a lot more ever since I started brewing it. Now that I make it from scratch, it's even better. I've got a batch of Bohemian pilsner that's in the process of clearing and should be ready for bottling in a few weeks.


Watching birds and squirrels at the bird feeder is also the same and doesn't require reading a 50 page technical manual, or battery charging, or passwords.

On the other hand, you can't switch them off or adjust their volume. Some of the magpies land on the grass in the courtyard here make enough noise that I can hear them in my apartment, even while sitting at my desk.




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