Spontaneous Monotony

When Warner Bros. (makers of the Harry Potter film series, among others) announced that it was going Blu-ray exclusive the other day many people predicted that this was the beginning of the end for HD-DVD. Now it seems that Paramount is about to activate a get-out clause in its HD-DVD exclusivity deal and switch to Bluray. Now of course this could just be dismissed as internet rumour-mongering (remember those ‘Xbox 360 with builtin HDDVD drive’ rumours? Wherefore art thou Romeo :P) if it wasn’t for a slight detail. This story comes from the Financial Times. It now seems that HD-DVD will not face a long, lingering fight against inevitable death, but instead has a date with a firing squad in the very near future. Time to start buying those Sony S300s folks!

Just wishing everyone a Happy New Year, via my Asus Eee.

It seems that self-styled ‘anti-fascist’ protestors have delayed the exercise of the right to freedom of speech by forcing their way into a building, and threatening members of the audience.  Nick Griffin and David Irving hold contemptible, even illogical, views. Stopping them from speaking, however, is much closer to the definition of fascism than anything the BNP have done. The right to freedom of speech is one of the most fundamental principles of democracy - it is easy to support freedom of speech for those you agree with, but EVERYONE has the right to freedom of speech, including those who hold hugely unpopular views. I would greatly appreciate if those who are intent on trampling democratic rights would sod off to a country that is more in step with their view of freedom of speech - perhaps Pakistan, China, or Iran?

I have recently replaced a TV-DVD combi with a shiny LG high-def flat panel. The result of this is that I need a new DVD player - the 360 is far too noisy for watching films (or doing anything that doesn’t involve BOOM! DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA or a loud engine :P) and the PS2 (while not in the same noise league as El Boxo) still has some fan noise which is noticeable during the quieter moments of films.

My current thinking is the Phillips DVP-5980 (even though I bought its little brother from Asda this morning which refused to output over component), so I started looking at various sites to get an idea of price.

John Lewis (who I usually ignore, but who seem to have a decent reputation on AVForums) wanted £69.50 (which was in itself excessive in comparison to Amazon et al). After noticing how the page title (and the search system) falsely advertises it as an ‘HD DVD‘ player, I then spotted much they wanted for a three year ripoff extended warranty: ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE POUNDS. Extended warranties are dodgy ripoffs at the best of times, but more than twice the cost of the item covered? Why would anyone, even the criminally insane/technologically illiterate who buy their electronics from John Lewis shops instead of online, pay such a ludicrous sum instead of just buying a new player (for £129.50 less than the warranty) if it died within that period?

Oh and, to guard against future price reductions (or the very real possibility that many of you will refuse to go near John Lewis’ website in case you catch coffindodgeritis from the clientele), I’ve stuck a screenshot on my Photobucket account:


(warning: the full file is a 150k-ish 1280×1024 JPEG, for those on mobiles or dunce-slow LAN proxies)

I’ve just read that John Reid is to be appointed as the next Chairman of Celtic - despite the controversy surrounding his political career. Celtic was founded to help immigrants and the working class. John Reid based his political career on patronising the working class, brutalising immigrants, and attacking human rights safeguards - in other words, his actions in government go against everything the club is supposed to stand for.

It is difficult to imagine someone less suitable for such an important post. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t stay as long as the excellent Brian Quinn - having Reid as Chairman for seven years would be a travesty.