-
22 votes
-
The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming
24 votes -
How TV went from bad to great
9 votes -
The DVD biz has circled the drain for years. In 2024, it goes down the tubes.
22 votes -
Why books donʼt work
22 votes -
‘It was a way to share your musical experiences’: Two new books explore the cassette tape's contribution to music
7 votes -
Is cinema dying? And if so, who is responsible? – A murder mystery
23 votes -
Anyone have recommendations for a CD player I can charge via USB and play via BT (or USB) in my car?
A recent post here made me realize how much I really wish I just could pop in a CD while driving (you can skip those, and I can make mix CDs, so no need for cassettes haha). I commute a decent...
A recent post here made me realize how much I really wish I just could pop in a CD while driving (you can skip those, and I can make mix CDs, so no need for cassettes haha). I commute a decent amount and I'm using a Pixel with GrapheneOS. Adding a streaming service would just be one more piece of Google I'd have to add to my "work" profile. I'm listening to some great podcasts, but I'd rather go full nostalgia without ripping all my CDs.
That being said, I'd like any recommendations. USB would be nice for the constant power option, but blutooth is doable as well. TIA!
9 votes -
Best Buy is discontinuing physical media in Q1 2024
36 votes -
Listening to music with intent
What do you guys do to really listen to music in a mindful manner? I don't do streaming, but I have a really big collection of albums in digital format, but the way I listen to music is to just...
What do you guys do to really listen to music in a mindful manner?
I don't do streaming, but I have a really big collection of albums in digital format, but the way I listen to music is to just shuffle everything and listen while doing other things.
I was contemplating entering the vinyl hobby, but living in Brazil this gets extremely expensive just to start. This would allow me to bring back the "ritualistic" aspect of listening to music and have good equipment to focus on what's being played.
I guess I could just force myself to not pirate music and buy an album a month on bandcamp. That would at least assure that I have good quality flac files instead of trusting random people on soulseek, but in the end it would probably end up in the shuffle pile.
Do you guys do something to try to be mindful of the music you are listening?
19 votes -
Discogs’ vibrant vinyl community is shattering
12 votes -
The death of Netflix DVD marks the loss of something even bigger
17 votes -
‘The love for music is still there’: saving the sounds of Afghanistan one cassette at a time
10 votes -
Two men exonerated thirty years after wrongful conviction thanks to retrocomputing enthusiasts and The Bloop Museum extracting data from a damaged floppy disc
60 votes -
Record it yourself (1987)
4 votes -
What is a good website to buy legitimate MP3s?
I have a large music collection and I buy some vinyl, some CDs, but mostly MP3s. I've been using 7digital lately but I don't like how they have enlisted Paypal as their payment service. Is there...
I have a large music collection and I buy some vinyl, some CDs, but mostly MP3s. I've been using 7digital lately but I don't like how they have enlisted Paypal as their payment service. Is there any other sites out there to buy MP3s legitimately?
47 votes -
Why Oppenheimer 70mm is breaking IMAX projectors
33 votes -
‘They found ways to do the impossible’: Hipgnosis, the designers who changed the record sleeve for ever
8 votes -
Why the floppy disk just won't die
61 votes -
Mike Flanagan on Netflix not releasing originals as physical media
26 votes -
KNOWER successfully funds new album vinyl pressing on Bandcamp at 1344% funded
12 votes -
Vinyl: Maybe it's time we had an intervention
24 votes -
Criterion and other premium blu-ray and 4k releases
Recently, I began revisiting some older films and purchased a few Criterion discs. My first one was Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988) but I’ve since purchased a few...
Recently, I began revisiting some older films and purchased a few Criterion discs. My first one was Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988) but I’ve since purchased a few more and am slowly working my way through my small stack. The amount of special features is sometimes overwhelming! I’ve enjoyed some of the interviews (Carmen Maura from Women, Sheryl Lee from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me) but have a lot more to get through. Many include a booklet, too.
I also recently got my hands on two of Peter Greenaway’s films - The Draughtsman’s Contract through Kino-Lorber, and Drowning by Numbers in 4K through Severin. I’m a bit spoilt for choice at the moment but there are still films that I’d like to get the “premium treatment.”
Do you enjoy premium/upgraded versions of movies?
Which special features do you look for?
Is there a film that you’d want to get the “premium treatment” or a 4K remaster?
15 votes -
Can anyone tell what's wrong with my tape deck?
8 votes -
Any MiniDisc fans here?
Minidisc has to be one of my all time favourite music formats! I believe it has all the benefits of CD and cassette. Such a shame it never reached it's full potential. Anyone here who enjoys the...
Minidisc has to be one of my all time favourite music formats! I believe it has all the benefits of CD and cassette. Such a shame it never reached it's full potential.
Anyone here who enjoys the format? Feel free to share what player(s) you have too!
15 votes -
Sex, cyborgs and videotape: An introduction to Japanese V-cinema
5 votes -
There's a growing trend in VHS collecting which has created a new market for professional VHS grading. We dig deeper into this trend, and examine what makes something valuable and collectible, or not.
10 votes -
The VHS-Decode project is an effort to improve the archiving of old analog video tapes
4 votes -
We bought HD movies on cassette tape and they're amazing!
7 votes -
The search for the perfect sound
5 votes -
How a Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
11 votes -
Manufacturers struggle to keep pace with vinyl record demand
5 votes -
You should listen to CDs
10 votes -
Floppinux - An embedded Linux on a single floppy
7 votes -
High-speed laser writing method could pack 500 terabytes of data into CD-sized glass disc
11 votes -
The inside story of how the lowly PDF played the longest game in tech
15 votes -
Computer Graphics Special (1986 High Quality 60FPS Laserdisc CG Demo Reel)
12 votes -
On the record: An audio professional’s take on vinyl
9 votes -
Black-owned record stores are disappearing while vinyl sales are skyrocketing. Some shop owners say it's a sign of a 'whitewashed' industry.
10 votes -
Cassette history/trivia: A series of fortunate events
4 votes -
The former Netflix DVD library is a lost treasure we’ll never see again
18 votes -
Time for next-gen codecs to dethrone JPEG [Comparison with newer image formats by co-creator of JPEG XL]
12 votes -
The last cassette player standing
2 votes -
HD laserdisc: HD in 1993
3 votes -
Mystery Tapes Galore: The Cassette Archive
8 votes -
The uneasy afterlife of our dazzling trash: Where do CDs go to die?
5 votes -
One resolution to rule them all: Lord of the Rings trilogy coming to 4K Blu-ray
13 votes -
Film: The reason some of the past was in HD
9 votes -
Is high-fidelity audio a genuine product or unnecessary overkill?
Note: if this topic is better served in ~music than ~tech feel free to move it! If I wanted to buy Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns, I have the following options: From Amazon 256 kbps VBR MP3...
Note: if this topic is better served in ~music than ~tech feel free to move it!
If I wanted to buy Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns, I have the following options:
From Amazon
- 256 kbps VBR MP3 ($11.49)
From 7digital
- 320 kbps MP3 + 256 kbps MP3 ($12.99) (I'm assuming it's 320 CBR/256 VBR)
- 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC ($16.49)
From HDTracks
- 24-bit/48kHz FLAC ($19.98)
From Qobuz, which appears to be a different mastering of the album:
- "CD Quality" FLAC ($14.49)
- 24-bit/48kHz FLAC ($16.49)
- 24-bit/48kHz FLAC ($10.99 with subscription to their $250/year service)
Does paying more for the higher fidelity actually matter? I suspect that this is just a form of price discrimination preying on my want to have an "objectively" better product, because I'm assuming there's a ceiling for audio quality that I can actually notice and the lowest encoding available here probably hits that. I also don't have any special listening hardware.
I understand the value of FLAC as a lossless archival encoding (I used to rip all my CDs to FLAC for this purpose, and I've been downloading my Bandcamp purchases in FLAC all the same), but for albums I can't get through that service it appears that the format has a high premium put on it. Bandcamp lets me pay the same price no matter the format, but every other store seems to stratify out their offerings based on encoding alone. A Thousand Suns costs nearly double on HDTracks what it does on Amazon's MP3 store, for example, despite the fact that I'm getting the exact same music, just compressed in a different way.
As such, is paying more for FLAC unnecessary? Is high-fidelity FLAC in particular (the 24-bit/48kHz options) snake oil?
Furthermore, Qobuz seems to offer a different mastering of the album, which seems like it actually could be significant, but it's hard to know. Is this (and the various other "remasters" out there) a valid thing, or is it just a way to try to get me to pay more unnecessarily?
(Note: I'm using this specific album simply because it was a good example I could find with lots of different stratified options -- I'm not interested in the particulars of this album specifically but more in the general idea of audio compression across all music).
21 votes -
VHSVault - A large VHSRip archive has been posted to the Internet Archive
9 votes