Marketingspeak

Some thoughts about video. Video is outrageously complex and technical, even when you’re doing it correctly and you have no commercial interest in confusing your customers. On my desk is a plain old DVD that I rented from the local video store over the weekend; it proudly proclaims to be “MASTERED IN HIGH DEFINITION!” Whatever that means, it does not mean that it’s anything but a plain old DVD. The marketing of “high definition” content that actually is high definition (at least, higher than plain old DVDs) is even worse. Will you get high definition video out of your Blu-ray disc? That depends on your player, your TV, the cables in between, and the phase of the moon. Is your cable TV high definition? That depends on what the meaning of the word “is”? is. And so on. Mark Pilgrim