Dominik’s Radio Times

Show

TechTalk: Digital Media And Hardware

Programme
TechTalk
Date
8 October 2007
Length
28 min

About this show

Introduction

In this episode of TechTalk, Dominik and interviewers Tim and Tom discuss various technological shifts. The conversation covers digital music distribution and the restrictive nature of DRM, a comparison between LCD and Plasma TV hardware, and the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD.

In a series of discussions, Dominik and interviewers Tim and Tom cover various technological shifts. The conversation begins with digital music distribution, touching on Amazon's beta service, the Russian company All of MP3, and the restrictive nature of DRM. Dominik also discusses copyright litigation involving a US single mother. The dialogue then shifts to hardware, comparing LCD and Plasma TVs—noting the latter's potential ten-year lifespan and cost advantages for larger screens—and the resolution differences between DVDs and HD TVs. Finally, the group examines the Blu-ray and HD DVD format war and the audio artifacts associated with digital radio reception.

Topics

  • Digital music distribution and copyright litigation
  • Online security and credit card safety
  • HD TV technology and signal upconversion
  • Comparison between Plasma and LCD television technology
  • The format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD
  • Digital vs Analog radio quality

Participants

  • Dominik
  • Tim
  • Tom

Names are taken from the archive as written and may include spelling variants.

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Basically, you're no long. If you buy a DRM DRM'd song, that means you're limited to what you can do it with it. You can only play it on MP3 players that support the technology, and often you have to log in online and validate that you're still own the own the rights. It's a very sort of a consumer unfriendly technology.

And you know, so you sort of need to be aware of that. If you're buying a plasma TV today, I don't think you are really buying it for to last you more than ten years. If the screen breaks or you put a little cut in the plasma screen, does it ooze out or?

And I'm out just just in Windham in an area. I'm supposed to be able to pick up the commentary, and it just starts burbling and getting very, very yeah. And that's digital artifacts that you get if you don't have a good signal because you're literally just losing whole bits of it. And that's why on low reception, analog is better than digital.

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