THE official Videokarma NICAM DIGITAL VCR tread

[ARC Tech-109]

No one is perfect. My solution is to drink more coffee and that way I don't spend as much time on the screen running to the bushes.

But to set the record straight I'm not completely anti-digital, I'm anti-compromise. There are places where digital is appropriate and advantageous, I have both a mix of analog and digital Betacam/HDCAM along with Digital Audio Tape, CD and non-linear mass storage mediums like SSD. The compromise is dumbing things down for the lowest cost or stuffing it thru the smallest pipe be it network of over-air then making it "look" all pretty using DSP to fool the end user. I know I don't have to explain how the common DVD/BlueRay 8-bit video looks like crud when under a microscope or CRT or how the low bitrate compression artifacts are riddled with mosquito noise. I also understand there has to be a balance between cost and quality but more often than not in the consumer world this scale is tipped towards compromise and obsolescence. They want to sell you the latest & greatest for the highest return on their investments so things do get compromised, I understand that. I've also been around long enough to have experienced the earlier days when quality was of importance and seen the erosion for profits, even NICAM is a form of lossy compression just like an mp3 so while it has a distinct advantage over the analog MTS in those old multi-standard VHS machines it's still compromised.