VaBeachGuy

Federation President
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Posts posted by VaBeachGuy

  4. Posted

    If you get an error message that says something like "Can't sent the e-mail Error" when you are posting, just hit your back button to get the site back. The message you were posting was posted successfully so you can just hit the back button another time or 2 to get back to the forums page and continue reading or posting. Don't submit your post again though otherwise it will be posted multiple times. There's a script error and I'm working on correcting it.

  5. Posted

    I'm curious, how many people use the board Calendar?

     

    Also, if there is an event coming up that you would like to share with the board and have it added to the calendar feel free to PM me or one of the other Mods to add it. Just be sure to include a Topic title, the date you would like it to be on the Calendar and a short description of what it is so that when people click on it they will be able to read a little about the date or event.

  7. Posted

    Well, when you download and make your own DVD, will you be able to download menues to play your movie and access extras and such like a DVD?  Also, I see "downloads" being a big thing, but I don't see why they would ever stop producing the physical product.  For me, I make a whole event when I go buy something.  I get together with a friend or family member, go down to the store, browse arround, buy my item, then get lunch on the way home.  We get out and about, have some fun, meet some people, and eat lunch.  You don't experrience any of that via downloading, know what I mean?  Like I said, I'm all for pay-to-download, I just think phyiscal products that you could buy should remain as an alternative.  Maybe DVD's will be replaced by smaller CD's or computer chips or something?

    The way I am envisioning thei working, you would get the exact same product as you would when you buy it.

     

    As for why a company would want to discontinue making a physical product, think about it. How much does it cost a company to pay for the physical DVD's they burn a movie onto. How much more for paper for the inserts? How much more for the DVD cases? How much more for shipping to the stores? And what happens when all of the product doesn't sell?

     

    They make all their money back and then a whole lot more to be sure, but to a company looking at profit margins and stockholder dividends, to be able to save the entire cost of producing a physical product would be a most tempting prospect.

     

    Bill Gates has desired to sell his software this way for several years.

     

    As for having a special day out with family and or friends, that would still likely happen. We're only talking about products like CD's DVD's and TV shows. There will always be physical products you go out to buy, but industrial evolution dictates that things changs, improve and mutate.

     

    Also think about this, there is a reason that the music and movie industries are so up in arms about illegal downloads. That reason is because so many people are doing it. The question is, why are so many people doing it? I see the answer to that question to be that they are doing it because the evolution of these forms of entertainment is flowing in that direction. If there were only 100 people, or 1,000 people or even 100,000 people downloading TPTB wouldn't bat an eye but there are tens of millions of people downloading. It makes no sense to me to declare war on such a vast arena of potential customers. TPTB are just lazy, they thought they would chop the head off the snake when they killed Napster. What did killing Napster do though? Now we have KaZaa, iMesh, eDonkey, emule and countless other forms of downloading. If they kill KaZaa something else will take it's place and it will only multiply.

     

    Ok, I've typed way too much now so I will stop.

  8. Posted

    Kind of like giving everyone a choice between VHS and BetaMax. Or 8 Track or cassette. LP or CD. Analog TV or HDTV. The trend is that the old sticks around for a while but eventually is pushed out by the innovative.

     

    Don't worry though, if my prediction comes true (the way I envision it happening) you will still be able to go to a store for years to come and buy DVD's or whatnot. But the day will come when those stores are fewer and further between. That's how it was with Beta, we had 3 Beta machines and no VHS in the 80's. Beta was the better of the two formats but it was VHS that caught on. By 88 or 89 it was harder to find rental places with Beta or stores with blank Beta tapes. Look in a Blockbuster today and see how many VHS tapes there are now. They are being replaced with DVDs. (I haven't been in a video store for over a year so I'm not sure how it is now).

  10. Posted

    I'd still rather buy the DVD's from the store then download.  However, if the day comes when downloading is the "mainstream" instead of buying a product, then I'd hope they'd make inserts, CD covers, and so forth to do with your download along with DVD menu's and stuff.  Still, I find it much easier to go to the store and buy the DVD then spend all this time downloading, burning, printing, and so forth.

    True some people would rather go and buy it at the store. There is nothing wrong with that at all, I still predict that the day will come that it will be available for download, as far as time is concerned there have already been tests where an entire double sided DVD has been transmitted in a matter of seconds. I read about it several months or more ago.

     

    There were people that would have rather taken a ship to travel across the Atlantic, people that would rather sit in a candle lit room rather then have electricity. People that would rather write a letter then use a phone and people that would rather listen to a radio serial show then watch a TV show. The above things still exist but I think you would agree that TV is better then radio, the telephone is better then writing a letter, a light bulb is better then a candle and a plane is better then a ship when it comes to getting there in a reasonable amount of time.

     

    If society and technology is to advance then industry has to keep pace. In some instances should be ahead of the curve, not lagging behind it.

     

    If we remain complacent with society as it is and technology as it is where will that leave us in the future?

  13. Posted

    True, but like music, the quallity simply cannot equal the DVD's unless you downloaded exact copies of episodes directly from DVD's or cable and had a DVD burner.  Me, I don't mind buying the season sets and I hope that the industry doesn't switch over to downloads.  I'd rather they allow you the "option" of purchasing a download or purchasing the actual product, ya know?

    The DVD's exist so they are already downloadable, though anyone with a DVD burner is likely a member of Netflix and is likely renting all of the season sets 3 by 3 and is likely ripping, then burning them to DVD. These copies are likely to be nearly top notch DVD quality and it's likely that only a very close examination of the screen will show any quality loss in the video.

     

    The industry will conrtinue to offer DVD's, CD's and Broadcast TV for some time to come. The day will come though that they won't. Remember BetaMax? Remember 8 Track? Remember LPs? Remember the days when there was no cable TV and people said "No one will pay for TV when they can get it free".

     

    They (the industries) will change, they will have no choice. They are already doing it. Check out http://www.movieflix.com/, they already have TV and movies many of which are free. It's just a matter of time before the public moves into the 21st century and this kind of thing takes off with most of the major TV programming being distributed this way.

     

    Think of how much money the movie industry would save if they charged $4.95 to download a movie that a person was then authorized to burn to his on blank DVD. The downloaded movie could be encoded with the person's IP address so if unauthorized copies were found they would know where the source was and would know who to go after.

     

    The Movie makers would make money on Download sales, they would save money on DVD's, cases, paper for inserts and so on. They (the movie makers) could then make even more money by investing in the manufacture of blank DVDs and DVD cases that would in turn be sold to the downloader. They could in fact give the downloader the option of buying a custom made DVD case made to look all pretty and official. Man they could make a killing on something like this. They are just too stupid to understand it.

  15. Posted

    In my opinion, we've got a better shot at a DS9 or VOY movie then we do at a 5th TNG movie.

     

    2. Data was killed off.

    Who says Data's dead, did you see android body parts floating in space? I didn't. (I know we did this in another thread... I couldn't resist)

     

    All of these things could be ploys to eventually boost interest. It's been done before. Spocks death was a huge boost for ST III. Everyone wanted to know how he would be brought back. I don't think there was ever a doubt he would come back though.

     

    That said, I think it is likely that TNG is over. More because I think Stewart is tired of the role and in all honesty doesn't need to be Picard anymore.

     

    DS9 - I would love a DS9 movie, I think the way the series ended just begs for a movie. As much as I want it though I think it is unlikely, DS9 never really fit the clean cut mold that TPTB wanted so there will be resistance for a movie.

     

    Voyager - I would be utterly shocked to see a "Voyager" movie. TPTB killed any hope of a successful Voyager movie by bringing them home when the series ended. There are too many variables now that they are back home. The non-Starfleet crewmembers are likely scattered to the winds, Janeway has been promoted and to have her come into a role like Admiral Kirk did would be stale. Of the current completed series, the best bet for a new movie is DS9. I say that as a biased Niner of course but I also see it as logical. :)

  17. Posted

    Yeah, but not that DS9 season sets are out, wouldn't downloading be the equivellant of theft?

    If you are downloading the DVD's maybe. But the quality of the downloads on KaZaa and other sites is lower then T.V. quality. BUt even that would be considered theft by TPTB. THat goes for any download that is not public domain. It also could be considered theft to tape the shows with a VCR and edit the commercials out.

     

    I believe that the TV, Movie and Music industries are going to have to make major changes in their distribution methods. They will have to start to use the internet as a tool and not use it for witch hunts. There is so much potential for studios to put their product right on the internet, with commercials inserted and then they could even charge a small fee to join their service and download their shows. Look at NetFlix, they charde on average $20 a month for rentals of DVDs and you can rent up to 3 at a time and keep them as long as you want.

     

    So much potential.

     

    As for Bit Torrent sites, I will have to do some research. All of the sites (almost) have shut down. They come and go so quickly. You may also try emule. It's similar to KaZaa and the like. I've used it a little and it looks like it has potential, it's a little more complex then KaZaa though.

     

    http://www.emule-project.net/

  18. Posted

    What I could envision them doing is taking care of TCW at least a couple of seasons before the final season. Start the Romulan War and the birth of the Federation and then either make Enterprise movies concerning the Romulan war or possibly a 6th series.

     

    This is all dependant on the ratings going up of course.

  23. Posted

    This board is for the sharing of funny stories and jokes or for funny sites you may have found along the way that relate to Star Trek.

     

    A couple of people have been asking for this kind of board for a couple weeks but I would like to point out that it was DSBS that suggested it to me about a month and a half ago.

     

    So thanks go to DSBS for the idea and helping to name the board. Also thanks go to geranimo for also asking about this kind of forum.