Amazon and DRM changes

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Apple has been proven to throttle down older phone's CPUs and batteries to force the consumers to upgrade.

Was that not an attempt to hide the lower battery life of the older devices by reducing the load on the battery?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If they did that, sales would tank.

Judging by the lack of outcry about the Kindle changes outside of MR, I don't think people really care.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Was that not an attempt to hide the lower battery life of the older devices by reducing the load on the battery?

So said Apple. It would have been nice if Apple had done what laptops do these days - give the user the choice to decrease performance to save battery life. Users can also choose max performance at the expense of battery life. The fact that Apple gave the users no choice, and did it without notifying users, is what makes their claim suspicious.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Yeah, I agree. If I wanted to watch movies on an old dumb TV with a DVD player, a streaming service probably isn't right for me.

The DVDs & BD are pretty good on a 55" 4K HDR set. Unless you watch a lot and want the content on streaming it's a waste of money. Also there are good quality S/H in CEX from €1 and charity shops from 50c. Even box set BD from €2.

We have 3 smart TVs and none are used on the Internet.

Also I'd rather read books than most of the "flagship" stuff Netflix, Amazon, Sky & Disney promote.

I use the local library ebooks or buy Amazon ebooks rather than KU, though bulk of my ebooks are PD. Sometimes I buy books on paper. Or given fancy ones no use as ebooks. Like Pre-Raphaelite Art.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Yeah, I agree. If I wanted to watch movies on an old dumb TV with a DVD player, a streaming service probably isn't right for me.

I do both. I have a nice 75" 4K HDR TV with more "smart" bells and whistles on it than you can shake a stick at. I stream some stunning content to that. But I also watch 480P DVDs on it as well - using a 20 year old DVD player. The two uses of the TV are not mutually exclusive.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Was that not an attempt to hide the lower battery life of the older devices by reducing the load on the battery?

According to Apple.

But they didn't give their users a choice and it's extremely shady. Apple wants their users to use their devices as Apple sees fit.

Most people know battery life of older devices aren't as good as when they were new. Apple didn't need to do any of that.

[Lys]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

Prime Reading is just a subset of Kindle Unlimited. So books borrowed either way have no "download & transfer" option any more.

Yeah, I just reported it because I didn't know if it was a new development or not (since people here kept speaking only for Kindle Unlimited)

(I don't use KU and the selection for Prime is so abysmal here that I very rarely check if they have added something new worth checking out. Spoilers, they never do )

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by haertig

I do both. I have a nice 75" 4K HDR TV with more "smart" bells and whistles on it than you can shake a stick at. I stream some stunning content to that. But I also watch 480P DVDs on it as well - using a 20 year old DVD player. The two uses of the TV are not mutually exclusive.

In fact the newer TVs upscale VHS, DVD and BD better than HD screens a few years ago.

It's far easier to search for Youtube content on laptop in lounge (several here do 4K on the 4K TV) than on ANY smart TV GUI, but the library has a 23" 4K screen for PC anyway.

[ownedbycats]

I wonder if any newer TVs have fixed the issue of the Nintendo Entertainment System Zapper/lightgun failing due to the refresh rate.

[Patitapetit]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I wonder if any newer TVs have fixed the issue of the Nintendo Entertainment System Zapper/lightgun failing due to the refresh rate.

Probably and we will be in Fahrenheit 451

[haertig]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I wonder if any newer TVs have fixed the issue of the Nintendo Entertainment System Zapper/lightgun failing due to the refresh rate.

That's like looking at the carburetor and distributor on the spare parts shelf in your garage and asking when they're going to "fix" the new cars so these parts will work again. Those parts were designed for a technology that is not used any more. Same thing for the Zapper. It was designed to work with CRT-based TVs. Specifically, sequential, albeit it interlaced, line-by-line screen refresh at a known rate. That technology does not exist anymore. Find yourself one of those old CRT TVs, and your Zapper will still work with it. Just like the replacement carburetor for my previously owned '72 Chevy Nova would still work ... if I could find another Nova (or compatible old Chevy product) to install it in.

[ownedbycats]

I actually went ahead and did a bit of googling. Two options seem to be either getting a replica lightgun designed for LCDs and/or modifying the Duck Hunt ROM to add a delay to the flash.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I actually went ahead and did a bit of googling. Two options seem to be either getting a replica lightgun designed for LCDs and/or modifying the Duck Hunt ROM to add a delay to the flash.

"Life finds a way."

[Unseen Entities]

Originally Posted by Quoth

KU / KDP Select Operation and suggested changes:
Amazon gets terms that no library gets.
(A) They get their "library" books free (other libraries buy at price set by publisher and in some countries pay a per loan royalty.).
(B) Amazon decides on a pot to share out to authors/publishers on KU and pays per page read (requiring abuse of privacy and WiFi/Mobile).
(C) They also demand smaller publishers or authors on KDP be exclusive for KDP Select (KU to customer). This only benefits Amazon. Both authors and consumers would benefit from non-exclusive.
(D) They also sign up authors outside of KDP and publish ebooks and paper via their own publishing company. They won't supply these to libraries because libraries compete (often free) with Kindle Unlimited subscription loans. The ebooks on KU via KDP Select also are never in libraries, only bigger publishers.

RE: The Amazon overcentralization pipeline seems quite strong. Not new information for many of those here I'd imagine but hearing the numbers was surprising for me.

Vertical integration is a hell of a drug. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gld-uHAIRlE&t=419s

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I wonder if any newer TVs have fixed the issue of the Nintendo Entertainment System Zapper/lightgun failing due to the refresh rate.

As explained with a beautiful analogy by haertig, it's unfixable. Only a CRT will work. Same with a PC light pen.

My current 4K computer monitor seems to run on magic. Unlike a CRT (where you need a specific still shutter or synchronised video camera to avoid banding), you can use any camera shutter speed to take a still, and the PAL digital-8 camcorder and HD Video camera (at any frame rate) both make perfect videos from it.

Old camera based standards converters for 50Hz or 60 Hz (25 fps interlace and 30 fps interlace), and 405, 525, 625 or 819 lines used slow phosphors on CRT, so rapid movement ghosted a bit.
Telecine for PAL, 405 line or secam simply ran the film at 25 fps rather than 24 fps. USA used a 3:2 pull down scheme to convert 24 fps (progressive) to 30 fps interlace. When DVDs of films came, the PAL ones had sound corrected by 24/25ths (earlier ones didn't, so golden eared people for pitch will notice music is out of key and slightly wrong) and played the 24 fps 576 line progressive frames at 25 fps, thus run time is 24/25ths! The USA DVDs from films ideally stored at 24 fps and the player did the 3:2 pull down to 30fps interlace. This is why progressivee DVD players with component caught on in USA (avoids 3:2 comb artefacts on horizontal movement or pans) but were rare in Europe and other PAL regions, because there was no advantage. It needed a basic HD TV. It's also why outside NTSC regions component input was almost unknown on HDTVs and absolutely unknown on regular TVs, the early HD TVs having composite, S-Video (Y-C), RGB SCART and HDMI. Mostly now only HDMI.