Posts tagged “DVD”

Projective Techniques for Projection Technologies

Projective Techniques for Projection Technologies, my paper for the dux05 conference, has just been posted online. Check it out here!

To facilitate the development of a new home-entertainment device (a portable projector with built-in speakers and a DVD player) we conducted in-home interviews that explored home entertainment activities, presented a demo of a rough prototype, and brainstormed with participants about future refinements.

I don’t often get to talk about my consulting work, so it’s great to have a fairly detailed case study published and available.

Attack of the $1 DVDs

The New York Times writes about $1 DVDs, which are not bootlegs but simply films which have lapsed into the public domain for one reason or another.

Digiview actually paid for the rights to ‘American Vampire,’ a kind of ‘Beach Blanket Beowulf’ starring Carmen Electra of ‘Baywatch.’ Whether anyone will pay for the DVD is unclear. ‘Just because it’s a dollar doesn’t mean people want it,’ said Mr. Rosenberg, of Home Media Retailing. Indeed, a nickel might be too much for a DVD of Raymond Burr in ‘Bride of the Gorilla.’

Mr. Rosenberg said the novelty of dollar DVD’s would soon fade. ‘There’s a great danger of overdistribution,’ he said. ‘This is a business without much room for profit – either in the making or the selling. A year from now, most cheap DVD’s will be gone from stores.’ One ‘Killer Shrew’ alumnus hopes to cash in while the cheapness lasts. ‘This craze could build an audience for the sequel I’m writing,’ said Mr. Best, who played the stuttering Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on ‘The Dukes of Hazzard.’

He has nearly finished a first draft of ‘Killer Shrews II.’ The plot is fiendishly simple. ‘I return to Shrew Island to rescue a bunch of teenagers,’ he reported. ‘A new mad scientist has turned herself into a human shrew that not only chews, but swims.'”

New DVD Player

Well, I took the leap today and ordered a DVD player. Yep, I’m Mr. Early-Adopter, eh?

I chose the Panasonic DVD-CV51. It is a 5-disc changer, which means it will replace my CD player in the stack of black boxes currently taking over my living room.

It has all my usual 5 disc CD functions, plus a DVD function. And it’ll play my CD-Rs (of which I have many – but I guess many DVD players won’t play ’em) and it will also play MP3 CDRs – not sure how that will work, but it’s worth a shot.

800.com had a very good deal which I found through MySimon. I learned from doing just a little reading that there are a lot of places that are playing bait and switch with availability, shipping costs, etc. Lots of horrific customer experiences on the web. And I guess a phone call 2 days later to sell you more accessories is standard for the lowest priced places. Although with free shipping and a special discount they were offering, I did better than the “unapproved” places.

I paid less, and I have peace of mind. Isn’t life grand? I can’t wait til it arrives!

Series

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