I like low resolution TV, movies, and video games better. - Page 2

Originally Posted by Superbass

(interestingly, the longer the playback medium has gotten - 45 to lp to tape to CD to 80 gig iPod, the shittier the artistic quality of "new" music's gotten, because you don't have to pay as much attention to it. Really, you can set up your computer to play music forever without having to choose anything or decide whether to hear it again...)

Originally Posted by CosmoNut

VERY interesting point! Music has become more "disposable" now, hasn't it? It's so much easier to make and so much easier to mash together with everything else that less and less stands out as "quality" anymore.

Originally Posted by addabox

Now, it's starting to look like, say, 256KB AAC encoded music is the gold standard and for the first time in the history of recorded media a reduced fidelity medium will replace it's higher resolution predecessor, because it's "good enough".

Originally Posted by addabox

There's another aspect to folks having a negative impression of digital: the first wave of CDs (and somewhat beyond) often sounded terrible, as labels rushed to put stuff out and reap the profits of reselling back catalogue.

In some cases they didn't even bother to change the eq curve that had been set up for vinyl, specifically to overcome some of vinyls shortcomings but which was taken into account by the design of phono preamps. Or they used second or third generation dupes, or at best gave things a cursory going over.

The result? Strident, harsh, and almost unlistenable. Hence the wave of "remastered" CDs years later, wherein you were expected to buy the same material again, once engineers had gotten better with working with the new distribution format.

Remember, when CDs arrived on the scene the recording industry had had many, many years to refine their techniques for extracting the best, most pleasing sound possible from vinyl. Just because digital took away some of the limitations they had been working with (and added others) didn't magically make everything just "sound better"-- recording, mixing and mastering are musical art forms akin to playing the instruments themselves, and require familiarity and practice with the materials at hand to acquire the skills to make it sing.

Originally Posted by addabox

Plus there's the extremely weird phenomena that just as digital recordings were poised to fully take advantage of mature technology, what with 24bit and improved mastering and better AD chips and DVD-A and whatnot, along comes the MP3/dl/iPod revolution and abruptly we trade fidelity for convenience and quality for quantity.

It sort of happened with the original walkman, when people were willing to tolerate the mediocre sound of cassette tape in order to get portability, but cassettes never threatened to supplant LPs, because people liked the better sound and had an investment. Cassettes were in addition to, because they added convenience.

Now, it's starting to look like, say, 256KB AAC encoded music is the gold standard and for the first time in the history of recorded media a reduced fidelity medium will replace it's higher resolution predecessor, because it's "good enough".

Originally Posted by SDW2001

With a good system, I think it may well BE good enough. I hate to keep tooting my horn here, and I'm no audiofile...but I know I'm critical of sound quality and I think that the latest downloads from iTunes I've purchased sound terrific. Most of it is classical too, which is far harder to reproduce well in my opinion.

What are your thoughts on the quality of AAC and it being "good enough?"

Originally Posted by spindler

Nowadays there is this craze where everything has to be in high definition or people are unsatisfied. I grew up with the Atari 2600 and 70s and early 80s movies and I really don't like how things look in high resolution, unless there is a specific reason for it.

Let's start with movies. Movies from 1975-1985 have that film look that I like. Take the movie Halloween for instance. When you see less detail, you think more abstractly. The movie Halloween would be less mysterious in high definition. The movie has the feel of horny teenagers, a neighborhood, and a killer on the loose. I don't want to see it in high definition. I don't need to see every little detail of the jeans they are wearing or what every piece of furniture looks like or every little detail of their face. I like the way you see Jamie Lee Curtis's face and the kids faces only a little bit. If it was so detailed as if they were in front of you, you see too much.

The key is that with less detail things become more abstract. I just want to see the personality of people's faces or the neighborhood or surroundings.

I hate today's movies that give so much detail that they all feel like watching a football game on a big screen TV. Film gives me a timeless quality and seeing every detail just takes that away. On the other hand, movies like Jeepers Creepers and the American Pie series do use that level of detail to give themselves a certain feel. The high quality of filming adds something to these movies, but I think that is the exception to the rule.

The same is true for video games. I never played games past the Colecovision until recently but I like NES games and don't see much need to go past that in detail, unless there is a reason. Most of the time they just add colors in the background or textures for no artistic reason. I like the feel of Super Mario Brothers and Megaman. All the colors they add on SNES games are a distraction unless they create a certain personality. They do on the best games, but some of them I can do without the extra graphics. A game like Bionic Commando, Batman, or Adventure Island on the NES has enough detail to give me a whole feel of the little world it creates. Similarly, for 3-D graphics, the N64 is enough for me. I like things cartoonish. Things lose their magic when they are so detailed.

Anyone else agree or am I just stuck in the past?

Originally Posted by fisha

....I'm no audiophile by a long way, but i can discern a great deal of difference in how 2 setups can playback the same CD in 2 completely different manners. Its a shame that i think this area is often overlooked when it comes to buying playback systems and expecially sound units. I'd much rather have clear, clean quality sound at half the power than poor quality at power large enough to blow the windows out....