Netflix became the past year's best performer on the S&P 500.

Quote: Face

Believe it or not, people still have the dvd's mailed to their house as if it were still 1992.

The DVD format was released in 1996, and Twister was the first commercial movie. You probably don't remember it, but there was laser videos before then. In the 1980's my roomate would watch porn on the video disc in the living room.

Quote: Face

They probably also still read the paper and listen to their programs on the hi-fi =p

My parents (age 80) won't give up the newspaper, but they are complaining about the $10 a week cost for a small town paper.

Hi-fi is associated with the 50's and 60's, but since it has no hard definition, one could use the term today.

Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) renamed itself the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2002. So the term hi-fi still had enough meaning that it could be copied by the new standard.

You may not remember this, but before 2007 when Netflix introduced streaming, the company stock was very undervalued. Most analysts assumed that other companies were going to be more adept at the new media, and Netflix was going to be left in the dirt (saddled with it's mail order system).

Quote: Pacomartin

You may not remember this, but before 2007 when Netflix introduced streaming, the company stock was very undervalued. Most analysts assumed that other companies were going to be more adept at the new media, and Netflix was going to be left in the dirt (saddled with it's mail order system).

I never liked their mail-order model. I love the online model. Hard to say if they were more lucky or more good.

I love Nflix, but every time I want a specific
movie, it's only available by mail.

I am one of those who still gets DVDs in the mail. I currently have 234 items in my queue. Of those, 43 are available for streaming. Also, for movies that are available on BluRay, the picture quality is vastly superior to the "HD" streaming provided by Netflix.

Quote: Pacomartin

You probably don't remember it, but there was laser videos before then.

As I recall, they were expensive and people complained you couldn't record on them.

Film enthusiasts liked the picture and sound quality (look at the TV in the ad!!!), and a few firms released artsy films on laser disc well into the DVD era.

Quote:

Hi-fi is associated with the 50's and 60's, but since it has no hard definition, one could use the term today.

I thought it means "High-Fidelity," implying a good quality, high-end sound system, vs the "consoles" which did better job as furniture, or the "stereos" which were cheap but lacked many features.

These days all everyone needs is a phone, tablet or MP3 player and a speaker. Purists complain about MP3, but truly I can't tell the difference.

I recall an ad late in the 80s for a projection TV with a better image, using the slogan EYE-FI. It didn't go over well.

Quote: Face

Believe it or not, people still have the dvd's mailed to their house as if it were still 1992. They probably also still read the paper and listen to their programs on the hi-fi =p

Things I miss from the UK: the paper and the radio ;) Neither is done as well (to my mind) in my corner of Canada. I thus assume the whole of North America fails at it :)

Quote: Nareed

I thought it means "High-Fidelity," implying a good quality, high-end sound system, vs the "consoles" which did better job as furniture, or the "stereos" which were cheap but lacked many features.

Probably does. I was using "hi-fi" as a noun, as that's what my grandparents had and always referred to it as when I was growing up.

Quote: TheCesspit

Things I miss from the UK: the paper and the radio ;) Neither is done as well (to my mind) in my corner of Canada. I thus assume the whole of North America fails at it :)

Pretty much. Radio is god awful. Every station is the same - no matter the genre (country, rock, pop, whatever) it's always the newest song just released along with the number ones. This means only about 30 different songs play in a loop all day, every day. Get a crossover hit and I'll hear the same song on three different stations simultaneously. Then there's the special segments. "Get the Led Out" on the classic rock station, "Mandatory Metallica" on the rock station, every station has one. Toss in a morning talk show to play simple trivia for mundane prizes, and you have 98% of all NA radio stations. Garbage, the lot of it.

The paper gets better (imo) the smaller you get. National papers are as bad as national news on TV. Regional are OK, but still a lot of fluff. I rather like my local paper. If that day is rather dull, at least I know the people involved, and it's a good way (sometimes the only way) to keep up with goings on and what's happening in my town. Plus the full page police report is just good entertainment. Yes, full page. Not bad for a town of 2,900 =p

Quote: Nareed

I thought it means "High-Fidelity," implying a good quality, high-end sound system, vs the "consoles" which did better job as furniture, or the "stereos" which were cheap but lacked many features.

Yes it does, but it doesn't have a specific meaning. In the 1950s, audio manufacturers employed the phrase high fidelity as a marketing term. So it could just mean FM radio and 33 rpm records instead of 78. But we don't know if hi-fi is complete.

"High Definition" for televisions is generally an ill defined term. The European PAL television system of Europe 625-line/50 Hz (576i) is hgiher definition than the North American standard 525-line/60 Hz (480i) system generally used with NTSC.

But High Definition has come to mean 720p or 1080i, while "Full High Definition" usually means 1080p. The term Ultra High Definition means 2160p or even 4320p.

Guess what era this console came from.
Wish I had it today.

Quote: AZDuffman

I never liked their mail-order model.

Slow, yes. But their mail order catalogue of titles is huge. We're talking well over 100,000 movies. As rentals go, no one else has that.

And up until 2015, Netflix was the only (legal) way to watch HBO programs without paying for cable + HBO.