We don't try to keep up with the Joneses. Or, to be more precise, because the Jones family doesn't live nearby, we don't try to keep up with the Garveys. Not even close.
Digitalization is in. Way in. In High-Def, even. But it's not breaking ground at this house. No TiVo for us. No, we still rely on the good old VCR and VHS tapes. I may have to miss the last minute of Private Practice to be able to see the start of CSI:NY because the channels can't synchronize their clocks and be on the same time when they start and end their shows, but it's a small sacrifice to pay. Setting the VCR timer and then having to go back and rewind it isn't so bad. It's still free and I can fast-forward through the commercials.
As for the good old television itself, well they're not in a console like they used to be, but they are not plasma, either. As our channel selection slowly dwindles to make room for more HD through our cable carrier, we can either suck it up and live without them or cave and pay to rent the little box each month that brings those channels back to our 'old-fashioned' TVs. They still work, after all. Just not as efficiently. But if you don't miss the channels that are going to better places, the efficiency of the TV is 100% and it doesn't matter.
A decade ago, we splurged on the latest and greatest video camera. Our oldest child was just shy of a year old and there were many memories to capture and preserve. His brothers would soon follow and we had to get them in on the reels of tape, too.
That's right. Tape. As in VHS. As is the case for many, the camcorder is used less over time and where I once recorded one event on one 25-minute tape, it got to the point where I could record an entire year of events in the same amount of time. Eventually, it became more of a hassle to drag the camcorder along and much easier to just use the digital camera, which had made its debut. But that nagging feeling of guilt would sneak up on me when I would catch Jeffrey doing something outrageously funny and I told myself to go and get the camcorder and get some of it on tape or I'd surely regret it.
But the camcorder doesn't work anymore. I have replaced the battery at least twice and refuse to do it again because it is not worth it when I can now get a compact digital camera for a third of the cost that we paid for the VHS we have now.
I wouldn't chalk it up as a total loss because I still have the countless number of tapes highlighting events in our lives over the past ten years. I have the large VHS contraption where the camcorder tape fits in so it can be watched from a VCR on the TV. But it doesn't work. The calibration is way off or the VCR just doesn't like the contraption.
Which leads us to the present day. All those little tapes surely need to be converted to CDs so we can enjoy watching them on the DVD player or on the computer. That is the reason they are made, after all. And no more memories will be made until we get on board and get a digital camcorder.
So they can improve them even more and it will be nearly obsolete in a decade.
Hey, at least one of us owns a cell phone. We're not completely living in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment