Toshiba fights back......well kind of

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Yeah, if only that were true. Don't even try to come off as the nice guy in this because the post is littered with insults. Here's a sampling:

Well cry me a river. Do you want me to get you mommy to change your pampers. If you cannot take it, do not dish it out. Its just that simple.

And I'm not even going to address the way you stereotype computer geeks (which, by the way, I am not). But What is most galling is the condescending tone you take in everyone of your posts. It's insulting and speaks volumes of your inferiority complex. I mean, not only do you call yourself "Sir Terrence The Terrible, The Cavalier" but what's with the one-upsmanship? e.g:

Your online psychology sucks bones. You have a huge problem with going personal when you cannot debate the issue. When you get stuck, you turn on the person and begin psycho-analysis. You are as lousy at this as you are predicting trends in the video market. How one can take a moniker and turn it into all this is weird, stupid, and always inaccurate. Much like your predictions.

And once again(because you are so gruesa cabeza). The Cavaliers are a Drum and Bugle corps that I marched in and support. Not what I call myself. Is this clear to you? Do you have the brain capacity to seperate the two?

Are you going to follow that up with how much bigger your {daddy, car, member, whatever} is as well? A psychologist could write volumes about your insecurities. So before you go stereotyping everyone into evil computer geeks and good video collectors, you should really take a hard look in the mirror. I mean, do you wave your authentic Isildur sword up in the air when you type this stuff, or is it your Sith lightsaber? This isn't a crusade against the downloading hordes, lil't....

And what does this have to do with the topic at hand. I do not care about downloading or downloaders. I care about keeping people informed about movies on disc, because that is where we currently are. This site is about hometheater related stuff, not about computers or computer downloading. This topic is about Toshiba HD DVD fight, not about the downloading habit or equipment. Stay with the topic, or stay out of it.

At least, the one thing we now know is that I never lied about anything. Yes, you tried to come up with insinuations, suppositions, and conjectures, but really, lil't, nothing has stuck. Just drop it already. It only further convinces me how insecure you are.

You have lied. And when its pointed out, you go into denial. Just like a pathological liar does. Pathological liars do not know a lie from the truth, and that describes you perfectly.

OK, so now that we have that out of the way....

So now that we have finally heard your crying and moaning, we can finally talk about audio? Whew, I thought I was debating a woman for a second there.

What you are basically saying is that there are two types of people in the world: downloaders and collectors, right? Now w/o going into all the silly adjectives you used to describe these into good & evil, your basic assertion is that the video collectors will somehow, by some miraculous coup of mind-boggling economic reversal, save the movie industry from having to distribute video digitally? You assert that the downloaders are the minority and the collectors the majority of the folks out there, right?

According to all economic indicators, the downloaders are the minority and the collectors are the majority. In America $18 billion dollars versus $212 million. Now to most folks, this would seem apparent. To the dyslexic maybe not.

Nobody is trying to SAVE anyone. I am simply stating that folks who have purchased disc for the last 10 years are not going to magically or suddenly want to purchase a movie file. Renters and gamers may want to, but that does not discribe the general public at this point clear and simple. The links I posted support this, so now you just need to get to the realization that your analysis of where folks are is just wrong.

Getting to this good versus evil. I did not frame my arguement that way, you may interpret it that way(and you say I have an inferiority complex), but that is not how it is framed. This is a priority issue and nothing more. What a downloader is comfortable doing and accepting is far different than those who enjoy film and want to collect it to build a library. At this point people want to own disc, not files. All of the economic data points to this very clearly. Now if you cannot understand this, then clearly you need your processor checked.

Now you go on by saying that because the studios haven't figured out how to make money from downloading, but because they know how to make money off of disks, they will keep doing just that and maintain the huge margins they enjoyed during the glorious DVD years?

Once again because of you lack of understanding you are turning this on the studios. What you can seem to get in your thick head is the consumers are not clamoring for downloaded movies. Whether we are talking for rent or for purchase. All one has to do is look at the fact that in the same time that bluray has gone from zero to a $4 billion dollar market, the VOD and downloading of movies has remained stagnant in terms of dollars. The studio are looking at dollars, and dollars only. That is the bottom line. Now you may talk about traffic to free stuff, and free stuff via VOD, but that is not on the radar for a studio looking for alternative forms of income. What they want to see is the studio making more and more dollars on downloads. They want to see a healthy demand for downloaded movies. At this time they are seeing neither. The public chooses, and the studios follow the money. That is how Bluray beat HD DVD, and that is how downloaders will have to convince the studios to support downloading.

Well, I'll stop there, because unlike you, I don't feel it serves anyone but you to keep arguing point-for-point. Let me just finish with a few details:

- Slingboxes are hugely popular

Not selling at 35,000 units in three years of sales its not. Considering there have been 650,000 HD DVD players, 3.2 million bluray enabled PS3(in american only), and over 500,000 standalone bluray players sold in the same time frame(in america only), its a pimple on the a$$ of a poodle. I have yet to see a slimbox in anyones home, but I have seen bluray players though.

- Tivos are hugely popular

Tivo has had all kinds of problems financially. They sold their DVR at a loss for years, almost shut down operation in europe(they are greatly scaled back) and are losing ground to DVR's that are given away with set top satellite receivers. They are having all kinds of problems with marketing(this lifetime replacement thing is becoming a disaster), and even on hometheater websites it is not talk about at all. Somewhat popular, I can get with. Hugely popular, no way.

- External drives are plug & play (ahem, that's geek-talk for "simple to install")

Tell this to someone who doesn't know this. I have a external drive hooked to my PS3, and my computer. I do not see videophiles or collectors clamoring for these anywhere in their hometheaters.

- Your lack of understanding about hard drive technology is telling (and quite surprising really considering your line of work)

Your assumption about my lack of understanding is telling as well. This is a hometheater site, so do not expect me to go into my understanding of COMPUTERS here. When I visit sites that talk about computers, it will surprise you at what I know.

- Music on hard drives sans cd, is the norm nowadays (that right, people don't fear owning music digitally)

Movies on hard drives ARE NOT the norm. Since we are talking about movies and not music, you are off topic, and your assertions do not apply.

- The music studios fought downloads tooth & nail and lost

Pure ignorance. The music industry was fighting against music piracy, not legal and legit downloading. Considering that revenue from downloads does not come close to CD sales even in decline, makes it clear they have not lost yet. Can anyone say cart before horse? When the public stops buying CD(might be tough since you cannot propogate a DRM infested music file) demand more music available for downloading, and stop going to amazon or best buy to purchase disc, the record companies will follow the money. Right now they are following the money, and it is clear they are keeping their emphasis on the CD.

- Pirated content created the online music boom (yes, there are lost of differing opinions on this, but it's pretty much the white elephant in the room)

Yes there is a difference of opinion. You have the RIAA saying one thing to control content, and you have the analysts who say the RIAA is blowing smoke up everyones bum. However close scrutiny leans much more towards the analyst than the RIAA. Music is different from movies. Horses are different from cows, and computer geeks(and you are one) are different than videophiles and movie and film lovers and collectors.

- Computer-knowledgeable people far outnumber audio/videophiles

Irrelevant to the topic at hand. The two are so different they cannot even be compared. Unfortunately computer geeks don't buy music as much as audiophiles, and don't buy as many movies as videophiles. So they are basically irrelevant to the topic at hand.

- It is possible to be and audio-enthusiast and computer-enthusiast (just look at the other people on this forum)

I can look at myself, I do not need to look at others. However what I do with my computer, and with my hometheater are two different things. You cannot seem to understand this because there is no balance for you. Based on what you have posted, you know FAR more about computers than hometheater. And that isn't saying much because you know next to nothing about hometheater. Can anyone imagine using acoustical treatment to balance the output of each speaker? Nightliar can.

And I can go on with the fallacies in your theories, but I think this is enough to keep you ruminating for a while, and you'll probably add another ten pages of text to debate it - we all hope you'll restrain yourself. To quote John Stewart on Cross-fire: "just stop it."

When you stop lying(which will probably be never), when you stop mixing two different technologies into one bowl( I do not think you have the thinking capacity), and when you finally understand that you know far less about the film and video business than you are trying to portray, I will stop. However if you keep expousing FUD and foolishness over and over again, I will go 20 pages to beat you down through the core of this earth. Is that pretty clear to you?