Old technology you DON’T like

[Cobra!]

So I was thinking about how I seem to sometimes like something just because it’s old, which made me think about any old tech I don’t like, and figured it’d make a good topic here. I guess I’ll list what I thought up here.

MiniDV - I hate those things! Cameras that use them from my experience are temperamental, and have all just died on me, and the way they are built makes them next to impossible to repair.
When I try to “digitise” tapes, every program I can find does a bad job deinterlacing the video, so the end result is choppier. DVD extractors can keep the interlacing, why can’t MiniDV?
On top of that, it’s just a digital tape, the quality of which is barely better as DVD. You have the (relative) unreliability that comes with tape, and the (In my opinion) boring nature of digital media. It’s kind if the worst of both worlds.

When an analogue video goes bad, you just see static, and maybe the sound gets quiet and crackly, not great, but at least it doesn’t halt the video. A digital video going bad pauses the video entirely, followed by a very loud crackle sound and the video resuming at a later point. It’s frustrating to see and it makes me wonder why everyone had been so eager to go digital.

I’m kind of glad the attempt to make it the next bit pre-recorded format failed.

DVDs - speaking of DVDs, I’m not a fan of this format either. The quality is the same as Laserdisc (a then 20 year old format). Sure, you didn’t need to rewind like a VHS, or flip the disc over like a Laserdisc (though I heard very early DVDs did this before they discovered dual layering, but I digress) but as a trade off, you felt like you had to watch it in one go, as most DVD players don’t keep track of your progress.

Nowadays, there’s no reason to get anything on DVD when Blu-Rays have surpassed them in pretty much every way. It was a stepping stone, sure, but there isn’t anything to keep me using them today because it basically standardised digital home video.

That said, there are some aspects of DVD I do find fascinating, like how it handles widescreen, and how Interactive DVD games tried to make use of the limited capabilities of the format. (Some authoring tools even offer limited 2D spritework and coding!)

People will probably point to DVD menus being way more creative than Blu-Ray menus today, and that’s a very valid point and although I don’t care for them myself, I can see some people feeling nostalgic for them. Other than that, they don’t hold much value, at least to me.

Flash Cards - Speaks for itself, I think. They were so many formats back then fighting to be the standard, and they all did the exact same thing (Which wasn’t much from the operator end. You just slot them in, and copy files. No fanfare or anything!), but all required very different slots and ports. I’m glad these are standardised to (Micro)SD now.

LCD - Not much to say here. I kind of find them boring. They’re crisper than CRTs, but sacrificed colour. It also renders black at all times, whereas CRTs and OLEDs don’t, which feels very inefficient to me.

So that’s my list. I really hope I didn’t piss anyone off with these opinions, and I’m curious to see any counter arguments to the points I made and any old tech you yourselves aren’t fans of.

[kandeez]

i think i might have to agree with you on dvds. i mean do i know the difference between the two? not at all. but what i do know is there was that awful point in time in which everyone upgraded to a blueray player and the only thing it read was blueray and suddenly all the dvds you had were completely useless so you had to rebuy everything on blueray. i don't think we're counting blueray as old tech, but i also don't like it. now that i mainly live off vhs movies and my player happens to have a dvd slot it really sucks when i can't watch something because ooooh its blueray and fancy or something.
honestly i think i just dislike how there will be this change, which to someone who doesn't really understand how it all works, seems miniscule but this change then makes everything else useless. like they're both disks why can't they both run?

[/home/user/]

I never liked the world before the USB standard became ubiquitous and usable. Putting a new operating system on a computer? Better burn a non-rewriteable disk and hope it works, or use a floppy for good measure. Want to attach this cool new peripheral? Bummer, that slot already has something attached. External card reader? Where the hell is the PCMCIA slot!

I think USB is actually really cool and older technology is cumbersome in that regard.

[TheFrugalGamer]

I have to say I'm kind of fond of the DVD format, sort of in a nostalgic way, but also because now that everyone has been upgrading to BluRay, DVD is now much more affordable. I was looking into getting several seasons of South Park a while back, and between the BluRay and DVD versions was like a $60 difference in price! Of course, when people start doing the same with 4K, BluRay will probably be the more affordable one, and then I can start all over again.

I really hate re-buying everything when new formats come out, and I think it's partially a scam, so I always tend to hold on to my older tech to keep playing the things I have.

[Frost Sheridan]

an interesting thread! usually i spend all my time ranting about how much i hate new technology, so this is something a bit different to think about.

i gotta say that i really don't like vinyl records. they're super unwieldy due to how huge and fragile they are (which also means that they're totally un-portable). if you happen to accidentally touch the disc anywhere but right along the edge or take it out of its sleeve in a place that isn't 100% perfectly clean, it'll immediately collect dust/fingerprints/scratches, and even the tiniest little speck of dust or imperfection on the surface of the record will impact sound quality. unless you're extremely meticulous and constantly clean your records, they'll click and pop and crackle after just a couple of plays. i'd much rather listen to a CD or MD - they're easily portable and can play through some pretty nasty scratches and dust with zero impact to sound quality, due to their robust error correction. they don't need to be babied constantly in order to sound good.

while the recent resurgence of vinyl is cool because it means more people are getting (back) into physical media, it also means that musicians are more likely to release albums on only vinyl instead of CD. whenever i come across an album like that, i'll just download a digital copy and record it to MD myself instead.

MiniDV - I hate those things!

i'm one of those weirdos who actually really loves miniDV! i love how i can perfectly copy the digital video data straight off of the camera over firewire and edit the video right on my computer. it's much more convenient than capturing analog video from VHS or converting whatever weird formats DVD camcorders use into something editable.

LCD - Not much to say here. I kind of find them boring. They’re crisper than CRTs, but sacrificed colour. It also renders black at all times, whereas CRTs and OLEDs don’t, which feels very inefficient to me.

this i completely agree with! i don't like LCDs at all and will always prefer CRTs - i still use a 23-year-old trinitron as my main TV and have never had the desire to swap it out for an LCD or OLED. other than the occasional setting tweak in the service menu, it's been working completely fine and hasn't needed any repairs done on it at all. game consoles - especially early 3D ones like the PS1 and N64 - look so much better on a CRT than on any other kind of TV, so why would i ever want to "upgrade"?

[Cobra!]

i think i might have to agree with you on dvds. i mean do i know the difference between the two? not at all. but what i do know is there was that awful point in time in which everyone upgraded to a blueray player and the only thing it read was blueray and suddenly all the dvds you had were completely useless so you had to rebuy everything on blueray. i don't think we're counting blueray as old tech, but i also don't like it. now that i mainly live off vhs movies and my player happens to have a dvd slot it really sucks when i can't watch something because ooooh its blueray and fancy or something.

Really? Those players exist? At least where I live, literally every Blu-Ray player can also play DVDs, and UHD players can play both.

As for if it sounds as old tech, I think it technically does. The format is 15 years old now. It's almost as old as the PSP or the Xbox 360!

One thing about Blu-Rays I prefer over DVDs is that they're scratch and bend resistant. It's not impossible, but you would need to put much more effort to destroy a Blu-Ray. You can't even snap them by bending them, they just bend in place. xD (If you have a Blu-Ray gone bad, try it!)

I have to say I'm kind of fond of the DVD format, sort of in a nostalgic way, but also because now that everyone has been upgrading to BluRay, DVD is now much more affordable. I was looking into getting several seasons of South Park a while back, and between the BluRay and DVD versions was like a $60 difference in price! Of course, when people start doing the same with 4K, BluRay will probably be the more affordable one, and then I can start all over again.

I really hate re-buying everything when new formats come out, and I think it's partially a scam, so I always tend to hold on to my older tech to keep playing the things I have.

That's a fair point, I never thought about that. I personally have the attitude of "If I'm going to dedicate space in my house for a digital copy of a film or show, it might as well be the best version possible", but for those who don't care for quality, and just want to watch the thing, then DVDs would be good enough.

an interesting thread! usually i spend all my time ranting about how much i hate new technology, so this is something a bit different to think about.

i gotta say that i really don't like vinyl records. they're super unwieldy due to how huge and fragile they are (which also means that they're totally un-portable). if you happen to accidentally touch the disc anywhere but right along the edge or take it out of its sleeve in a place that isn't 100% perfectly clean, it'll immediately collect dust/fingerprints/scratches, and even the tiniest little speck of dust or imperfection on the surface of the record will impact sound quality. unless you're extremely meticulous and constantly clean your records, they'll click and pop and crackle after just a couple of plays. i'd much rather listen to a CD or MD - they're easily portable and can play through some pretty nasty scratches and dust with zero impact to sound quality, due to their robust error correction. they don't need to be babied constantly in order to sound good.

while the recent resurgence of vinyl is cool because it means more people are getting (back) into physical media, it also means that musicians are more likely to release albums on only vinyl instead of CD. whenever i come across an album like that, i'll just download a digital copy and record it to MD myself instead.

I'm neutral on records. If there's an album I really love, I'll get it on vinyl, but otherwise, I don't bother with it. I wouldn't be too upset if they ended up being the last remaining physical format for new music, though it's great it's revival has caused people to go back to other formats like CD, Cassette and Minidisc! All of which have started to trend upward in sales for the first time in over 20 years!

this i completely agree with! i don't like LCDs at all and will always prefer CRTs - i still use a 23-year-old trinitron as my main TV and have never had the desire to swap it out for an LCD or OLED. other than the occasional setting tweak in the service menu, it's been working completely fine and hasn't needed any repairs done on it at all. game consoles - especially early 3D ones like the PS1 and N64 - look so much better on a CRT than on any other kind of TV, so why would i ever want to "upgrade"?

I was thinking about this when I was out today. If your average joe watches a VHS tape, they'll watch it on their widescreen LCD, and don't adjust anything, so the colours will be washed out and the video will be stretched (as the format was made for 4:3), and then conclude VHS quality is terrible.

If you watch a VHS tape on a proper 4:3 CRT, they look fine. Fair enough many tapes are Pan & Scan, which is awful and shouldn't exist outside of serving as an exercise in directing, but talking about the quality itself, no complaints, it serves it's purpose. (Laserdisc did it better, sure, but those were expensive.)

That's a wee rant in of itself. How consumers were adamant that they wanted everything fullscreen back then. They didn't care if they were missing vital information in a film, they just didn't want black bars. Open Matte is fine (Great even!) but give me black borders over P&S any day of the week if it means I can watch the movie properly!

[Wobblegong]

DVD games are very strange honestly, I kind of hate them

There's something about the way the music loops around that just feels unsettling. Scene-It used to freak me out and I don't know why.

DVD menus sometimes have the same vibe to them. You'll have like four thirty second clips going at once and then they suddenly black out and everything is silent for a second...