Digital Convergance

I am still amazed that I how much digital media has progressed…

• Nine years ago I was making mixed cassette tapes on a dual cassette system (I guess that shows my age); Now I make smart play lists in iTunes and play them through my Honda’s stock head unit via an Ice>Link Plus…


• I purchased my first (A Ricoh MP6200A 2x/2x/8x) CD-RW drive in February 1998; I now have a (16x/8x/16x DVD+RW, 16x/6x/16x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 4x DVD-R DL, 48x/24x/48x CD-RW) Lite-On SHM-165H6S Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer


• All of my music is in MP3 format, (and stored on two MP3 Players); Most of my DVDs have been converted to DivX (playable from my xBox running XBMC).   I buy CDs and immediately rip them with CDex (at 224kps) and put the CDs on a shelf.  My DVDs are ripped with DVD Decrypter (don’t try this at home kids) and later encoded with Auto Gordian Knot.


• I have two PVRs running (one MCE2005, one Comcast HD DVR cable box) recording my TV shows.  I used to use a ReplayTV (Panasonic PV-HS2000) to do this, but media was limited to one TV.


• In 2001 I was amazed that I could run an s-video cable to my TV and watch the video output of a WinAMP plugin in full screen (albeit in 640x480 res); now I run everything over component video in 720p (1080i capable, but text looks like crap).

It has been a long road to digital (near) convergence…