Posted by nobody special on 08/07/07 19:44

It is not germane that the Umatic signal was "better" than a dub from
Umatic to DVD, if YOU CAN'T FIND A WORKING UMATIC MACHINE!!!

(ahem)(straightens tie)

These things are never a decision based entirely on one metric, but a
consensus decision about which compromises are acceptable and which
are not, and these are differnent for every situation and user.
Absolutism is useless in this context. In the same way that many folks
panning Windows operating system used to say it was not as good as
(any other brand you want to put here)... but that was not the point,
maybe it's apocryphal that Gates himself said it, but it boils down to
the truth which is it doesn't have to be the best, as long as it's
"good enough" in the eyes of the user.

Saving the old programming as data is obvious. The exact format has
to take into consideration ease of use for the owner as well as
expense and complexity and the availability of playback technology in
the future. Stop navel-gazing and burn these things to a DVD-R and be
done with it, I say.

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