Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"I've found myself using my PC for a lot of conversations lately, and I'm also considering recording a podcast to share with anyone who will listen. There are tons of USB headset / microphones out there, and I'm hoping someone has some solid recommendations based on experience. I'll consider both headsets and standalone mics, by the way, but I'd like to keep the bill under $100 if possible. Help!"
I would say Bitter is a light term for your statements. You should be bitter at Toshiba who said you were going to spend your hard-earned money on a good format (which it was) and then turned their backs on you by doing nothing in working to get other studios to release on their format, not only that but even the hd-dvd exclusive studios released nothing but mainly junk since January when they had catalogs full of big hits to try and save the format. Toshiba is partly to blame for not seeing their schedule of releases were horrible.
If you hate Sony and blu-ray then so be it. I never hated hd-dvd, not sure why people "hate" a format, but had hd-dvd won I would have gladly gone out and purchased it because when it comes down to it, I am a movie lover, and I don't care what format it is, as long as I can view movies in beautiful 1080p and lossless sound I will be very happy.
And 150.00 for a blu-ray player will come, and so will the lower priced discs. The same period in dvd's history after introduction is very much the same price range as blu-ray is now....so I have trouble identifying with those that are so blown away by $299 and $349 blu-ray players, it';s not that expensive. Samsung's 1500 player is $349 at Walmart and will be updated via firmware for BD Live 2.0. The player will probably hit $249 for the holidays. When you spend thousands on a hdtv, I think that's just a steal as it is.
I think Toshiba fundamentally mishandled the marketing of HD DVD; it should never have been a whole new format, but rather an extension of the existing DVD format. So yes, I am somewhat bitter at Toshiba for not doing enough to ensure its success.
But at least Toshiba gave us a format that delivered movies in high-def while being as consumer-friendly as possible, with no region coding, low prices, combo discs and (sadly unused) TL-Twin discs, no mandatory encryption and online connectivity with every player.
Sony et al. killed that format in order to give us one with slightly better quality... and raping consumers at every turn in the process.
Call it whatever you like, but I hate it when a great product is forcibly killed and replaced by a shitty competitor, and when that happens, the competitor has to work double time to win my business back.
I love watching movies in high-def too, but at the end of the day, I don't care if the movie is in 2160p with 14.2 master audio on a 105" screen or in 480i over RF on a cheap, mono 14" kitchen TV. As long as the movie is enjoyable, I'll enjoy it, and I'd rather enjoy it on my terms on a format that actually has some respect for me as a consumer.
"But at least Toshiba gave us a format that delivered movies in high-def while being as consumer-friendly as possible"
Consumer friendly? Toshiba presented us with a format that started off with buggy, slow loading players that were pretty much guaranteed to have problems with at least 1 disc in your collection, requiring you to boil discs at some point in time. Many firmware updates later, and a move to the 2nd generation of hardware made things better but hardly perfect. This is "consumer friendly" to you?
"with no region coding,"
I am anti region coding. Studios wanted it, and the lack of region coding forced studios like New Line to delay HD-DVD releases whereas region coding allowed blu-rays to be released day/date with DVD. Given that region coding matters very little to consumers in the US, and not at all to any consumer who would never import a title, I would call this a wash at best.
"low prices,"
On low end hardware because quite frankly nobody bought the players. Software prices were even more expensive than blu-ray. For all the hand wringing that anti-blu-ray zealots complain about $40 MSRP on blurays, they had no qualms with HD-DVDs retailing for $30-35.
On 1080p hardware, the price advantage of HD-DVD dried up. $200 HD-A2s meant that A20s were running $300 or so... not that much cheaper than a $400 blu-ray standalone.
"combo discs"
Combo discs were a travesty. At the very least every movie shouldve been released on a combo/non combo format.
"and (sadly unused) TL-Twin discs,"
Vaporware for all intents and purposes. There was no certainty it would work on 1st or even 2nd gen hardware. It probably would have but we'll never know for sure.
"no mandatory encryption"
Which is an issue that matters to nobody except for small studios who don't want to license AACS.
"and online connectivity with every player.
but with a very limited amount of persistent memory, and the tradeoff was a notable lack of 1080p playback support in most players.
UnnDunn, there were certainly things in HD DVD that are desirable from a consumer perspective (e.g. region free encoding), but don't fool yourself that if HD DVD had won that we'd be any better off.
In fact we'd probably far worse off, considering HD DVD was a format monopolized by a single hardware manufacturer and a single software vendor. A format so heavily subsidized that no other CE would touch it with a 10ft pole.
As for being a "great product forcibly killed and replaced by a shitty competitor, that just sounds like sour grapes. Toshiba did more than their fair share of bribery so the doctrine of unclean hands comes into play. Besides, Blu Ray isn't inferior to HD DVD unless you grossly exaggerate out of all recognition the importance of minor features like PIP or internet connectivity, both of which various Blu Ray models offer if you must have them. Playback wise, a consumer would be extremely hard pushed to tell the difference between either format even on a 1.0 player, and such arguments aren't even valid any more.
@UnnDunn
"then I think your stance makes you a good, compliant little sheep who will buy whatever you're told and tolerate all sorts of hassles just to be entertained for 90 minutes."
(eyeroll)
hassles? What hassles are there in watching a blu-ray movie?
@h0mi
Hassles? How about "Surprise! you need a firmware update to watch this movie and you'll have to download it off the internet and burn it to media, so I hope you weren't planning on watching this movie in the next 30 minutes." Yes HD DVD had similar issues, but was less painful because you didn't have to download and burn on a different machine.
Depending on the studio, menu behavior can still be a huge pain. HDi might not have had the sky is the limit possibilities that exist in BD-J, but menus work the same way no matter which studio published the disc.
There is no doubt that studios are committed to the format, but still have a lot of work to do on BD before it will measure up to the interactivity and user friendliness as the vanquished was nearly 2 1/2 years ago. I WANT them to get there. I know they will get there, but am frustrated that they can't get it done as efficiently as we've seen it done on the other format.