--- gemmes@offratel.nc wrote:
> > The country code crap is why the DVD format was 2
> > years late in the United States, and because of
> that
> > we lost half a dozen excellent features that
> should
> > have been included with the electronics, BUT NO!
> 
> What are these features that should have been
> implemented ?

I don't remember at what stage these were dropped in
the ballgame, I just remember being more and more
pissed as the months drew on, and more responsed from
the consortium/coalition/coatl <grin> or whatever the
hell they call themselves, became not, "we've dropped
that idea," but "what feature?"

Two things that I remember vividly were internal
software control of pan and zoom, with an option for
user memory of said control.  In other words, instead
of having a disc with Letterbox on one side, and
Pan&Scan on the other, you used the same MPEG data
stream, but had the electronics determine what part of
the digital image to display.  This would have either
required a selectable scan rate (was that the right
term?) or hardware averaging of the image.  I think
this was dropped early on, maybe first.
The other was a consistent and immediately usable
music format, and there were a lot of benefits to
this, more than just the ability to put more than 6
hours of music on a DVD.  I don't know what state this
is in (I ceased to care 4 years ago), but I keep
hearing rumors about the DVD "Music" format, but have
seen no hardware or DVDs appear in retail.

Some of the info above may be slightly inaccurate due
to my disgust and quickly degrading memory.  It has
been 3-4 years after all.


Gregory Himes