Shorted HOT's in newer TV's

[Jeffhs]

TVs and everything else nowadays are designed to be thrown out for the trash when they fail, a trend that shows no signs of reversing itself any time soon.

Technology evolves and changes so quickly these days that equipment which was top of the line last year is obsolete this year or even sooner. I don't like that one bit, but unfortunately, as Walter Cronkite used to end the old CBS Evening News, that's the way it is. I found an example of this planned obsolescence business just this morning as I was looking for DVDs to rent from Netflix. I found a few of my favorite classic TV shows still on physical discs, but more and more, Netflix is streaming video to Roku boxes, Nintendo Wii gaming consoles, etc. -- and I can't use the streaming option yet because I don't have such equipment; all I have at the moment is a 19" analog color TV, VCR and a DVD player, and a stereo system with a 3-CD changer (but I haven't used the changer more than a handful of times, since I've ripped most of my audio CDs onto my computer's hard drive).

Thank goodness I still have my DVD and VHS collection, as from what I have read on the Web (on websites such as ZDNet.com, et al.) physical DVDs are on the way to becoming obsolete, as VHS did when DVDs came in, and as vinyl phonograph records did when CDs arrived (although I have read and even have seen on a recent TV program on PBS that vinyl is making a comeback).

How much longer will physical DVDs be around? Since streaming video and audio is the wave of the future, I don't hold out much hope for these discs, either DVDs or audio CDs. Even computer software is moving away from boxed physical discs to downloads directly from websites such as ZDNet.com, PCWorld.com, et al. I do not think audio CDs aren't long for this world either, as many if not most listeners are downloading songs and even entire albums from sites such as Napster, et al. I give audio CDs another five years before they are declared obsolete -- and they probably have one foot in the grave already, given the speed at which technology is evolving. Sony, for example, has shuttered at least one of its CD manufacturing plants, leaving only about two still actively producing these discs. How much longer these remaining plants will continue to make these is anyone's guess, although personally I don't think they will be around very long anymore -- I give them perhaps five years at most, although most such plants will probably be gone long before then if streaming video and audio continue to change the media landscape.