The digital age is well and truly upon us now - every day
something new comes along that alters the way in which we live our lives. Some
people love it and others hate it. Much like the industrial revolution changed
the way we work, the digital revolution is doing the same today. Personally I
view it as exciting times as new technology created today will eventually
become the standard which we will live our lives by. However, whether we look
back at these times with fondness or regret, only time will tell. Rose tinted
spectacles on standby!
I’ve been doing video, camcorder and cine transfers for around
fifteen years now which is something I never imagined I would still be doing
today. I mean surely at some point you have to run out of a finite amount of
media to transfer - right? And yet, every day more work comes in and more work
goes out. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining! I’m just stunned that the
demand is still there and I have often wondered just when will it drop off?
Perhaps, maybe not in my life time - who knows, and does it really matter? Probably
not.
What I find interesting is the way in which people react to
all these changes. There are some that don’t want to move with the times and
resist every effort to modernise. I don’t know if this is out of fear of the
unknown or whether they just like “old stuff” as my ten year old would say!
Then there are some that are in a race with the bank to have the newest, latest
and greatest, and throw out anything that is older than a couple of years. Lastly
there is a sort of in between crowd that realise if they wait a bit the prices
will come down and they can still have the newest gadget but at half the price
of what the neighbours paid - “who’s got the last laugh now” they think just as
the neighbours are about to upgrade again! Makes me laugh.
Then there’s “retro status”. I’m not quite sure what their definition of retro is. It seems
to be either diehards that never upgraded any of their technology and after a
long period of looking old fashioned, nostalgia kicks in with the general
populace and suddenly they find themselves cool again. Vinyl records are kind
of like that and seem to be making a come back for some reason - I don’t know,
cool album art maybe? Or, everyone who threw everything out for all the new
tech has suddenly realised that so has the rest of the neighbourhood and they
are no longer special, and wouldn’t it be cool to have some “old stuff” lying
around. And so they run out and buy some CD’s, DVD’s, records and videos from
the tat shop that they dumped there five years earlier to use as pseudo art
pieces. Kind of like having books on the Starship Enterprise - totally
pointless in a digital age, but hey, you don’t have them do you?
Then there’s the way in which everyone upgrades - modern
televisions are a perfect example. In ye olde days it was a gold fish bowl box
/ furniture. I mean where else were you supposed to put the photos of the grand
children? Then they got flatter tubes, wide screens, Dolby this, 3D that,
larger screens, satellite and digital broadcasts…. Fair milked you over the
years, didn’t they? In each case though, it was the TV that was replaced and
everything else more or less stayed the same. Video players became DVD players
which then became Blu-ray players etc. etc.
Then they became thin - really thin and everything changed. Now
you could hang it on the wall! Yeah, well cool. Except this had an unexpected
twist. Suddenly having this behemoth slab of liquid crystal arrays screwed to
your wall looked really odd with a DVD player perched below it. I mean there’s
the Ikea TV stand with no TV on it with all your DVD’s scattered next to the
DVD player perched in the middle looking rather out of place. (Okay I know some
TV’s have DVD players built in, but just like the old hifi / separates analogy,
if the DVD player breaks then you have to throw away an otherwise perfectly
working TV).
So what to do with all this “clutter”? The simple answer is
don’t bother - get rid of the DVD player and all that “old stuff”. Gumtree on
standby for the TV stand. The only problem with this is now you can’t play
DVD’s! Oh well not to bother as I can always stream the video using Netflix /
iPlayer. Thus thinner televisions and wall brackets killed the DVD player. Well
at least until they become “retro” and pseudo art pieces in the future. Whether
they will still work is another matter…. What’s a scart lead?
Conversely, the “wait until the price drops brigade” haven’t
wall mounted their TV’s and still have the DVD / Bluray player perched below on
the Ikea stand. Why is this you ask, well either they’re waiting for the price
to drop low enough to replace their current television or perhaps maybe they
might have looked just that little bit further ahead and realised that
televisions are going to become thinner still. Oooohhh!
There are now experimental paper thin OLED TV’s being
developed - as thin as paper. Wow, now that’s impressive! I don’t know if it
will be as simple as unrolling your TV from a tube and sticking it to the wall
with Velcro but let’s just say you won’t need industrial scaffolding to hold it
up. Wall bracket removal guides and Polyfilla Youtube videos are going to
become popular…. Oh look, the “must have it now’s” have just taken out another
credit card to one up the neighbours! Oh dear (no pun intended).
As for DVD’s, well, who can tell? It’s probably best to copy
your precious memories onto USB or the cloud and hope they don’t become
obsolete. Luckily we can also supply your “old stuff” on USB.
Can't wait for holographic TV!
Can't wait for holographic TV!
