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Explain? Why do we have HDMI,DVI,RCA,BNC,Optical,Composite,Component,S-Video etc. in home theater setups? Why not one simple unified cable? Why don't we have

by smlacy 17y ago

Explain? Why do we have HDMI,DVI,RCA,BNC,Optical,Composite,Component,S-Video etc. in home theater setups? Why not one simple unified cable? Why don't we have good wireless home entry systems? Does physics explain this? Why haven't displays followed Moore's law like everything else has?

nickpp 17y ago
> Why haven't displays followed Moore's law like everything else has? They have: they shrunk. In depth.
- smlacy 17y ago
  So, they're 2^13 (13 * 18mos = 20yrs) times thinner than they were in 1990?
mattmaroon 17y ago
That particular one is more an economics issue. Long story short, it's because there are many types of components, each of which is made by a hodgepodge of OEMs and has to interoperate with other components made by any OEM at any time in the last 20 years. Your TV has to be able to accept your DVD player, Tivo, VCR, and maybe gaming console, all of which have to also be able to feed audio out to your receiver. If all of your devices were made by one company this year, they probably would (and definitely could) have a universal connector. It would probably be HDMI. That's untenable because of price. Most people already have most of those things, and replace them piecemeal over time. I've actually thought about a startup to make all in ones, but TVs with integrated VCRs and DVD players have historically been so poorly manufactured that they leave a bad image in people's minds. It would be like selling a microbrew in aluminum cans. It;s a superior vessel to what's out there in every way, but because every other beer in a tin can is swill, serious beer drinkers would assume yours was too. And, by the way, if you buy a Palm Pre you don't have to plug it in. That's actually one of my favorite features of it.
- cschneid 17y ago
  Irrelevant to the larger conversation: old chub comes in cans: http://www.oskarblues.com/the-brews/old-chub http://www.oskarblues.com/the-brews/old-chub As does Fat Tire now. It's the cool thing to do, since it doesn't take as much energy to move cans (they're lighter). So it's "Green" beer.

by smlacy 17y ago

nickpp 17y ago

> Why haven't displays followed Moore's law like everything else has? They have: they shrunk. In depth.

smlacy 17y ago
So, they're 2^13 (13 * 18mos = 20yrs) times thinner than they were in 1990?

mattmaroon 17y ago

That particular one is more an economics issue. Long story short, it's because there are many types of components, each of which is made by a hodgepodge of OEMs and has to interoperate with other components made by any OEM at any time in the last 20 years. Your TV has to be able to accept your DVD player, Tivo, VCR, and maybe gaming console, all of which have to also be able to feed audio out to your receiver. If all of your devices were made by one company this year, they probably would (and definitely could) have a universal connector. It would probably be HDMI. That's untenable because of price. Most people already have most of those things, and replace them piecemeal over time. I've actually thought about a startup to make all in ones, but TVs with integrated VCRs and DVD players have historically been so poorly manufactured that they leave a bad image in people's minds. It would be like selling a microbrew in aluminum cans. It;s a superior vessel to what's out there in every way, but because every other beer in a tin can is swill, serious beer drinkers would assume yours was too. And, by the way, if you buy a Palm Pre you don't have to plug it in. That's actually one of my favorite features of it.

cschneid 17y ago
Irrelevant to the larger conversation: old chub comes in cans: http://www.oskarblues.com/the-brews/old-chub http://www.oskarblues.com/the-brews/old-chub As does Fat Tire now. It's the cool thing to do, since it doesn't take as much energy to move cans (they're lighter). So it's "Green" beer.