Idle Weekend September 10, 2016: 4K's Gone By

[Chris]

Idle Weekend September 10, 2016:



4K's Gone By
The Weekenders take a brief moment to marvel at the PS4 Pro, a system that promises 4k graphics, but only to those who possess the K power of EIGHT MILLION PIXELS. Then it's on to a robust mailbag, a pair of gritty movies, and a weekend well-deserved.

Discussed: PS4 Pro, No Man's Sky, Read Only Memories, Iain Banks 'culture' novels, Mass Effect, Total War (series), '71 (film), Bringing Out the Dead

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[feelthedarkness]

I had a very good August, so I finally upgraded my 10 year old LCD to an LG OLED, and it is quite nuts. The new XBOX One S comes with a 4k Blu Ray player that by most accounts is good, or at the very least like 100 less that comparable stand alone players.

I agree were going to be in a weird middle ground for a long time, because the cost of 4k gaming will be far beyond what the console market will bear, which I think will be the same for VR.

[Dragonfliet]

It was pretty weird listening to Rob talk about how disappointed he was that the PS4 didn't have a UHD Blu-Ray player while simultaneously telling us that 4k and HDR don't really matter to him, really. Whaaaaaa?

 

Edit: and him describing HDMI 2.0a (or b? whatever, the difference is very minute, but probably a) cables as having "built in DRM." Whaaaat? Rob, HDMI has ALWAYS had DRM built in, way since 1.3. 2.0a allows for 4k HDR @60hz (verses 2.0 which allowed for 4k, but only at 24hz). Hearing Rob talk about himself as an audiophile/videophile and then having no idea what is happening with the tech is a little grating. Look, not everyone needs to know the ins and outs of tech specifications (it's boring), but please know what they are doing if you identify yourself as being someone who cares about these things, instead of rattling off some silly the DRM is in the connection! malarky.

[Foggy Cornslakes]

R.O.M. is such a weird game...

It has all the surface type things people talk about in regards to diverse casting, but the plot itself is of the white savior fantasy sort of narratives, although taking place in a setting where neither gender nor race have a clear effect on quality of life.
It does handle diversity really well, both in-fiction and in the development philosophy. Hopefully the upcoming update (featuring Erin Yvette) will help draw more attention to it, and maybe cause other studios to take notice.

[Cbirdsong]

Look, not everyone needs to know the ins and outs of tech specifications (it's boring), but please know what they are doing if you identify yourself as being someone who cares about these things, instead of rattling off some silly the DRM is in the connection! malarky.

 

Yeah, there's also not really any technical logic to the idea that the iPhone losing a headphone jack is because Apple wants to control the output methods on the iPhone for sinister DRM reasons. Bluetooth is an open standard that you could easily record from using cheap stuff available on Amazon right now, and ultimately all audio will be decoded to analog sound for human ears that someone could tap into and pirate.

 

Realistically, the music is the digital media market least encumbered by DRM, as all the major sellers don't use it and haven't for years, but purchased music is still on the wane in favor of streaming services where you don't own anything anyway. 

[malkav11]

I don't think Rob was snarking about the Apple decision because of some purported tie to DRM, but rather Apple's attempt to sell "now you can't use traditional headphones" as a benefit to the consumer. Which it surely is not. I mean, I'm not going to be invested in that particular decision unless the big Android manufacturers (particularly Samsung) follow suit (though they are apparently itching to do just that), and even then not super invested because I play my music (and, more importantly, podcasts) on my 160 GB iPod Classic like God intended...but I have occasionally enjoyed using Spotify on my phone, and on one or two occasions where I've forgotten my iPod, being able to substitute my phone was handy.

 

PS: Super mad at whoever at Apple ditched the Classic, though. The Touch may do things I don't need it to, like, y'know...anything other than playing audio... but it's more expensive, has inferior capacity, and having to wake the device to use touch controls is not at all helpful when you need to rapidly pause stuff at work because a coworker needs your attention.