As far as I can ascertain the historical basis for the idea of Friday the 13th being unlucky is somewhat uncertain. Nonetheless we are all aware of it. I spend most of the day blissfully unaware that it was the 13th. So knowing my DVD player had been a little unpredictable of late today would clearly be the time to play with it. Typical; the intermittent disc loading issue had progressed to a full blown player won’t play anything problem. The ubiquitous canned air didn’t do the trick. So escalation in the war on player functionality was inevitable. That escalation came in the form of screwdrivers and isopropyl alcohol. Or it would have done if I could have found any alcohol. With that weapon having exploded harmlessly many miles away from my media-munching foe there was nothing else left I had to deploy the nuclear option : Replacement.
Now normally the act of replacement is a joyous time in a geeks life; a time to relish the new functionality and celebrate the extraneous LED’s. But this geek was sad, because I couldn’t really upgrade. The obvious solution was to buy a shiny new Blu-ray player but I couldn’t. Largely because the media controlling morons decided that as regional coding was so easily defeated they’d include an even more odious form in Blu-ray. Until the market establishes the better players and a pre-eminent multi-region solution has emerged I’m not investing in Blu-ray. That may mean I never invest in Blu-ray; only time will tell.
So I bought a new DVD player worth more than many Blu-ray players. I guess them’s just the breaks when you’re a non-early adopter!