Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Tubesock Holocaust posted:

Remember these things?

My parents had a Sharp back in the early 1990s, except it didn't come with the CD changer.

I used to work at a pawn shop in the early 90s and people would bring these damned things in all the time. Usually purchased from a rent-to-own place. Utter garbage.

As for the console stereo, I grew up with one that just had a record changer and radio. The record changer had a 16rpm setting. Listening to a 45 at that setting was creepy.

# ? Jul 23, 2015 22:37

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 16:37

Der Luftwaffle: Dec 29, 2008

That reminds me, are the guys selling giant stereo speakers filled with rocks out of vans in grocery store parking lots obsolete yet?

# ? Jul 23, 2015 23:05

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

RabbitWizard posted:

Anyone had this thing for the Dreamcast?

Some games had (some) textures with higher resolution when you used the VGA box. And even without better textures, games looked soooooo much better on my 24" monitor at the time. If you are still using a Dreamcast and don't have this box, get it!

That's an aftermarket Dreamcast VGA box. Some are good, some not so good. The official VGA box is good, but currently they'll run you roughly three times as much as a Dreamcast itself.

Which actually looks pretty reasonable compared the official Nintendo Gamecube component cable, which runs about ten times as much as a Gamecube.

:retrogames:

# ? Jul 23, 2015 23:24

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

SubG posted:

That's an aftermarket Dreamcast VGA box. Some are good, some not so good. The official VGA box is good, but currently they'll run you roughly three times as much as a Dreamcast itself.

Which actually looks pretty reasonable compared the official Nintendo Gamecube component cable, which runs about ten times as much as a Gamecube.

If I remember properly that has to do with the NTSC version having an incredibly short production run, this happened with a lot of the GameCube's accessories from my recollection

# ? Jul 23, 2015 23:44

DoctorWhat: Nov 18, 2011; A little privacy, please?

It's also because the GCN component cables had the encoding chipset built into the cable itself rather than the console and no one's reverse engineered them yet.

# ? Jul 23, 2015 23:50

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

DoctorWhat posted:

It's also because the GCN component cables had the encoding chipset built into the cable itself rather than the console and no one's reverse engineered them yet.

The cable has been reverse engineered but yeah, the fact that it's a signal transcoder instead of just a couple connectors and some wire is probably why someone isn't making bank selling repros.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 01:04

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Why not just buy a used Wii, though? They play Gamecube games in "progressive scan" just fine.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 01:10

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

Last Chance posted:

Why not just buy a used Wii, though? They play Gamecube games in "progressive scan" just fine.

Some people care about using the original hardware.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 01:23

Karasu Tengu: Feb 16, 2011; Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter

The Gamecube IS original hardware, unless you're playing one of three things that don't work on the Wii because of missing expansion ports.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 01:34

AwwJeah: Jul 3, 2006; I like you!

SubG posted:

That's an aftermarket Dreamcast VGA box. Some are good, some not so good. The official VGA box is good, but currently they'll run you roughly three times as much as a Dreamcast itself.

Which actually looks pretty reasonable compared the official Nintendo Gamecube component cable, which runs about ten times as much as a Gamecube.

When I bought a Wii it (frustratingly) didn't come with component cables. So I swiped a friend's official Nintendo Gamecube component cable. I had no idea I swiped a goldmine out from underneath him. I'm hittin up eBay ASAP. This is kind of unbelievable.

AwwJeah has a new favorite as of 01:51 on Jul 24, 2015

# ? Jul 24, 2015 01:49

SubG: Aug 19, 2004; It's a hard world for little things.

Elliotw2 posted:

The Gamecube IS original hardware, unless you're playing one of three things that don't work on the Wii because of missing expansion ports.

Well, same internals. I mean I'm not a purist and I honestly don't give a poo poo. But a lot of people do. And if they get a special something out of putting a little disc into a wee purple cube instead of a...whatever you call the Wii shape...then more power to 'em.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 01:55

DoctorWhat: Nov 18, 2011; A little privacy, please?

Some people attest that GCN Component produces a better picture than Wii Component. I don't know about that.

What I DO know is that the Game Boy Player doesn't work on the Wii, so if you want the best real-hardware TV/capture ready feed possible from GB(C/A) games then you gotta pony up.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 02:41

Zonekeeper: Oct 27, 2007

SubG posted:

Well, same internals. I mean I'm not a purist and I honestly don't give a poo poo. But a lot of people do. And if they get a special something out of putting a little disc into a wee purple cube instead of a...whatever you call the Wii shape...then more power to 'em.

Honestly, the only reason I'd use an original Gamecube over a Wii is for the Gameboy Player. And you're not going to get much mileage out of component video when playing a game designed for a handheld, so I have no need for the cable.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 02:41

RC and Moon Pie: May 5, 2011

While looking for an image of the particular Sylvania TV my grandparents had (and left in their sitting room once it died), I came across this ad:

# ? Jul 24, 2015 03:08

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

I'm still looking for a Dreamcast ethernet adapter that will not cost the GNP of Bolivia.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 03:15

pienipple: Mar 20, 2009; That's wrong!

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

I'm still looking for a Dreamcast ethernet adapter that will not cost the GNP of Bolivia.

None of the game servers exist anymore, so I'd feel safe tabling that horrendously expensive bit.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 03:19

Arrath: Apr 14, 2011

Humbug Scoolbus posted:

I'm still looking for a Dreamcast ethernet adapter that will not cost the GNP of Bolivia.

I've got one plugged into my dreamcast :smuggo:

..I think I played a little bit of PSO and some Alien Front Online with it.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 04:23

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Can you still use the Dreamcast web browser? My friend managed to set his connection up somehow in the early 2000s and I remember it being horrifically bad.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 05:12

Karasu Tengu: Feb 16, 2011; Humble Tengu Newspaper Reporter

Probably, in the same sense that you can still use Netscape 4.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 05:32

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFBENFwxM0s

I can't find the video now, but someone tried using it like a year or two ago and pieces of it still worked.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 05:33

Humbug Scoolbus: Apr 25, 2008; The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.; Clapping Larry

Last Chance posted:

Can you still use the Dreamcast web browser? My friend managed to set his connection up somehow in the early 2000s and I remember it being horrifically bad.

Just tried it on my landline and a work dial up access number I had. It still functions!

# ? Jul 24, 2015 05:36

Antifreeze Head: Jun 6, 2005; It begins; Pillbug

Pham Nuwen posted:

I'm gonna try and find one of these, it would be absolutely perfect in my new place.

Estate Auctions. I used to buy them for two dollars.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 06:59

Slanderer: May 6, 2007

Woolie Wool posted:

A better reason is that most modern CDs are mastered for low fidelity equipment (iThings, etc.) and undiscerning listeners and sound horrible by design. Even the CD rips of my Stratovarius and Dream Theater records sound amazing compared to the official CD releases despite being CD rips and subject to both the limitations of CDs and the limitations of vinyl and suffering inevitable degradation along the chain from the cartridge to the preamp to the ADC.

There are some drat good CDs from the '80s out there, though. I have a few albums where the CD beats the vinyl hands down.

As for vinyl records being direct transfers of brickwalled CDs, I guess I've been lucky because most of the modern vinyl I've bought was mastered for vinyl and sounds pretty great. The new Queensryche album is definitely a CD transfer though and so is Blind Guardian's big 4LP compilation--both sound terrible.

lol, calling this out for being dumb audiophile garbage. iPhones (and most modern smartphones) are actually pretty good audio-wise, because with modern electronics it's harder to make something lovely at this point.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 07:12

Tiberius Thyben: Feb 7, 2013; Gone Phishing

Slanderer posted:

lol, calling this out for being dumb audiophile garbage. iPhones (and most modern smartphones) are actually pretty good audio-wise, because with modern electronics it's harder to make something lovely at this point.

I bet you don't even own perfect fidelity audio cables for your Linux FLAC library made from purestrain gold.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 07:24

Wasabi the J: Jan 23, 2008; MOM WAS RIGHT

Last Chance posted:

Can you still use the Dreamcast web browser? My friend managed to set his connection up somehow in the early 2000s and I remember it being horrifically bad.

Just don't browse SA on it or they'll ban you.

Oh that was WEB TV.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 08:22

Ultimate Mango: Jan 18, 2005

Wasabi the J posted:

Just don't browse SA on it or they'll ban you.

Oh that was WEB TV.

Man that belongs in a PYF Ban thread.

I wonder with 4k TVs coming out if we will see more web browsing on the TV instead of a phone, tablet, or traditional computer.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 08:52

El Estrago Bonito: Dec 17, 2010; Scout Finch Bitch

Wasabi the J posted:

Just don't browse SA on it or they'll ban you.

Oh that was WEB TV.

It was Dreamcast too. In one of the 10th anniversary threads it was stated that they would ban anyone who posted from the DC browser.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 10:15

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Ultimate Mango posted:

Man that belongs in a PYF Ban thread.

I wonder with 4k TVs coming out if we will see more web browsing on the TV instead of a phone, tablet, or traditional computer.

My mother in law browses news sites on a smart tv. She used to use the tv's remote, but recently upgraded to a combined keyboard/trackpad. It makes entering URLs even clunkier.

As for obsolete tech, my father in law doesn't bother with the tv's browser at all - he prefers to use teletext which somehow still exists.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 11:03

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

Slanderer posted:

lol, calling this out for being dumb audiophile garbage.

Nah, modern CDs suck:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

# ? Jul 24, 2015 11:17

Computer viking: May 30, 2011; Now with less breakage.

Phanatic posted:

Nah, modern CDs suck:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Sure - though I think it has tapered off a bit now - but that doesn't mean there's anything inherently bad about the sound of FLAC. If the source was good and the bitrate is sufficient, it should arguably be one of the best audio storage formats possible.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 11:28

Raygereio: Nov 12, 2012

Creature posted:

As for obsolete tech, my father in law doesn't bother with the tv's browser at all - he prefers to use teletext which somehow still exists.

I don't think teletext is that obsolete. The Internet is certainly better at providing information such as news. But teletext is still useful for providing subtitles for deaf people.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 11:57

big parcheesi player: Apr 1, 2014; Also, I can kill you with my brain.

El Estrago Bonito posted:

It was Dreamcast too. In one of the 10th anniversary threads it was stated that they would ban anyone who posted from the DC browser.

I wonder if they still will

# ? Jul 24, 2015 12:05

Humphreys: Jan 26, 2013; We conceived a way to use my mother as a porn mule

Dick Trauma posted:

If you wanted to display your wealth and power in the mid 1970s one of these monolithic console TVs (with onscreen channel display!) would do the trick. I can see John Houseman watching one of these in his swanky Rollerball office.

And this is why they are still called 'Brown Goods' opposed to 'white goods' in stores.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 12:38

Flipperwaldt: Nov 11, 2011; Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?

Phanatic posted:

Nah, modern CDs suck:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

This article could stand being updated with more recent developments.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/loudness-war.htm

The tl;dr is that the largest broadcasting and streaming services have adopted smarter replay gain standards that make the whole mastering for loudness pointless. We just need the artists and mixing and mastering engineers to catch on.

drgnwr1 posted:

a vinyl record is uncompressed audio meaning for sound design work it is much better to work with then mp3 or FLAC.

You are probably fundamentally confusing these two unrelated concepts. There are some lovely audiophile articles out there that do the same, which is like the dumbest thing ever.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 13:05

Basticle: Sep 12, 2011

My best friend's grandmother's console tv finally bit the dust about 6 or 7 years ago and her kids bought her a plasma unit. She made them take the CRT out and put the plasma inside the console unit. I've seen pictures of it and its as stupid as it sounds.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 13:07

big parcheesi player: Apr 1, 2014; Also, I can kill you with my brain.

Flipperwaldt posted:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/loudness-war.htm
You are probably fundamentally confusing these two unrelated concepts. There are some lovely audiophile articles out there that do the same, which is like the dumbest thing ever.

Most likely, I'm not at all an expert on the topic, a friend of mine does a lot of sound design work and told me about it a few years ago.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 13:50

SatansOnion: Dec 12, 2011

Basticle posted:

My best friend's grandmother's console tv finally bit the dust about 6 or 7 years ago and her kids bought her a plasma unit. She made them take the CRT out and put the plasma inside the console unit. I've seen pictures of it and its as stupid as it sounds.

It's conceptually kind of charming, at any rate--like, if there were flatscreen televisions whose frames incorporated some of the paneled wooden console look, I'd want to buy one :shobon:

# ? Jul 24, 2015 13:52

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

Flipperwaldt posted:

We just need the artists and mixing and mastering engineers to catch on.

Yeah, let's see if that happens. You can't restore lost dynamic range just by turning down the gain at the playback stage, so unless the producers learn new habits, things will still sound pretty bad. People like Butch Vig might actually need to die first.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 13:54

Zonekeeper: Oct 27, 2007

SatansOnion posted:

It's conceptually kind of charming, at any rate--like, if there were flatscreen televisions whose frames incorporated some of the paneled wooden console look, I'd want to buy one

Nah, forget the console look, those belong on the ground. a TV hanging on the wall needs a nice picture frame around it.

# ? Jul 24, 2015 14:27

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 16:37

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

SatansOnion posted:

It's conceptually kind of charming, at any rate--like, if there were flatscreen televisions whose frames incorporated some of the paneled wooden console look, I'd want to buy one

I know a master woodworker and I've been trying for ages to convince him that there is a market for 'genuine Edwardian' flat-screen TV cabinets

# ? Jul 24, 2015 14:33

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