Originally Posted by Chas'88

Because we all need a laugh, the culture wars thread needs to be buried, and I know a good number of you did have early exposure...



~Chas'88

Implying that D&D is incomparable with a relationship? I think Kiff would object!

Kind of awhile back, but this is an interesting Carlin rant on the world.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsFpm4yAoMQ

Here's one: Who on here remembers segregated video stores? By the mid-1970s most racial segregation was forbidden, but another form of "separate but (not actually) equal" began that would last for a little over a decade. You could not watch videos from the other side because they wouldn't play at all. Can anyone guess what I'm referring to?

Originally Posted by Kelly85

Here's one: Who on here remembers segregated video stores? By the mid-1970s most racial segregation was forbidden, but another form of "separate but (not actually) equal" began that would last for a little over a decade. You could not watch videos from the other side because they wouldn't play at all. Can anyone guess what I'm referring to?

Beta Max versus VHS?

Originally Posted by Kelly85

Here's one: Who on here remembers segregated video stores? By the mid-1970s most racial segregation was forbidden, but another form of "separate but (not actually) equal" began that would last for a little over a decade. You could not watch videos from the other side because they wouldn't play at all. Can anyone guess what I'm referring to?

To be technically accurate, it still exists as an issue, but it's less of one now. Here's the DVD and Bluray Region Code breakout. DVDs had 8 region codes, including 2 reserved for the travel and recording industries ...



... and Bluray only has 3.



I'm not sure why Europe and the Easy Asia were one region for DVDs, with the Americas and East Asia are one region for Bluray. BTW, I always buy an all-region player, given the option. It doesn't do much for you unless you just have to have that French film that never made it out of France, but the price difference is small.

Originally Posted by Marx & Lennon

To be technically accurate, it still exists as an issue, but it's less of one now. Here's the DVD and Bluray Region Code breakout. DVDs had 8 region codes, including 2 reserved for the travel and recording industries ...



... and Bluray only has 3.



I'm not sure why Europe and the Easy Asia were one region for DVDs, with the Americas and East Asia are one region for Bluray. BTW, I always buy an all-region player, given the option. It doesn't do much for you unless you just have to have that French film that never made it out of France, but the price difference is small.

A difference is that regional coding is an artificial barrier put in to supposedly allow the industry to control when movies are released in each region*, while the differences between VHS and Betamax are at the technical level with how the video information is encoded (same thing with how different regions of the world use different broadcast formats, although in the digital era it's now easier to make a device that can play "international" formats than in the analog era).

*I like your idea of getting an all-region player, especially if as you mentioned you're a fan of foreign movies that aren't "mainstream" in the USA. Speaking of French (the language), that is one of the items I plan on touching in a blog post I have cooking up (which I'll share here since it's generations-related).

Originally Posted by Kelly85

Speaking of French (the language), that is one of the items I plan on touching in a blog post I have cooking up (which I'll share here since it's generations-related).

Here it is, the second part of the series. (While on the subject of French, since this is a thread about humor, here is someone trying to learn the language and failing miserably.)