Random Thoughts Thread

[Markies]

One of my Pandemic essentials became Board Game Arena.

https://boardgamearena.com/welcome

If you are stuck at home and are looking for something fun to do, it is freaking awesome. It has helped me throughout many days and nights.
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which board games are fun? There are so many and in my experience the lesser known ones have lots of wierd rules, accessories, and complicated setup. I once tried a Game of Thrones board game with friends that there were so many units, cards, card rules, and general rules we just got fed up and never played it again.

I always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons but I heard its over complicated and takes obscene amount of time.

I mean, it really all depends on what you like in a Board Game. There are so many out there that anybody can find a Board Game they will like.

The best Board Game encyclopedia is Board Game Geek:
https://boardgamegeek.com/

If you click Browse and then all Board Games, it will give you a list of the most highly ranked Board Games ever released. These are the games that the users on the site have voted for the best Board Game.

Game of Thrones is a rather deep, heavy and large game. It's also a War Game, so if you don't like conflict or attacking other people, you won't like that game. It also would be a terrible game to introduce new people to the Hobby. It would be like your first ever video game being "Rome: Total War".

On Board Game Arena, if you click on Games at the top, you can search for all the games on the site. Games by Complexity would be a good way to start as you can play smaller and lighter games. 7 Wonders is a classic, but it might be a bit too big. Can't Stop is a push your luck dice game, very little strategy and really intense. Sushi Go is a simple drafting game.

For Dungeons & Dragons, that all depends on your Group and Dungeon Master. Its a game that requires the right group of people because its less of a "game" and more of a social interaction. If you know somebody who has been a DM before and is willing to play with a new person, it can be really fun. If you have a group at the same skill level, then it can be really fun. If you have a bad group who are experts at the game or a DM who cannot help a new person, then you won't have a good time. You also need a group of at least 4 or 5 to play, especially the more the merrier.

[SamuraiMegas]

You can play DVDs on most Blu ray players though?

yes they can which is a blessing imo , imagine having a separate for each

I feel like there’s a significant amount of things out there that are still being produced that can play a DVD. The newer consoles with a disc tray, every Blu-ray and ultra Blu-ray player. Hell, you can even buy either a disc drive for a full sized pc tower (which I have two from my last build in 2018-19), or a usb powered one (the one I got last year was like $20 — no Blu-ray support though).

And the used market is a whole other ballgame.

The fact that we are talking about PC add-ons and consoles having the ability to play DVD's just shows that the standard player is in a dangerous situation of being extinct. Its not going to happen tomorrow but in 5 years I can see most retailers not having any at the stores.

Generally speaking I do not hear any one looking to buy a dvd/bluray player and I hear of no competition or innovation on the BD models which shows its withering down, you can't say the same for consoles, TVs, smartphones, and laptops.

I am scared of the used market because I believe mechanical products are made to fail. I do not think people who built VCRs in 1995 imagined they would still be in use in 2022 and did not build it live that long. Plus used products means it has been used and abused, although you can find nice and well maintained ones if you look around.

What? The disc drive being in a console or something doesn't mean the image quality is worse than a regular DVD player or anything. If anything being a standalone DVD player is a disadvantage because it can't do very much. Tons of people bought PS2s to use as a DVD player, PS3 as a Blu-ray player. There's really not much you can do to innovate on the idea of a disc player.

[marurun]

What? The disc drive being in a console or something doesn't mean the image quality is worse than a regular DVD player or anything. If anything being a standalone DVD player is a disadvantage because it can't do very much. Tons of people bought PS2s to use as a DVD player, PS3 as a Blu-ray player. There's really not much you can do to innovate on the idea of a disc player.

I think it depends. These days a console or PC is just as effective a player as a standalone for either DVD or Blu-Ray (given you have the appropriate software on the PC), but the PS2 was, for example, a rather poor DVD player. It was cheap and it worked, but it wasn't actually all that good. It succeeded in that space because cheap players had JUST dropped to the $100-$150 range around the time of the US launch of the PS2, and a half-decent player would probably still be at least $200. And if you could get a cutting edge game machine for just another $150-$200, one that even played all your old PS1 games, why not? I can think of several DVDs that the PS2 just glitched out on during key scenes, or high-activity scenes where PS2 decompression went almost Minecraft-level blockiness. My 1.5 year older DVD player, the Pioneer DV-414, would display those same discs perfectly (though admittedly it was a $400 player in early 1999, the first of the new "affordable" high-end players). I can't speak to the quality of playback of the PS3/360 or PS4/XB1, but I know Microsoft was lauded for having a very good player/OS interface.

[RCBH928]

What? The disc drive being in a console or something doesn't mean the image quality is worse than a regular DVD player or anything. If anything being a standalone DVD player is a disadvantage because it can't do very much. Tons of people bought PS2s to use as a DVD player, PS3 as a Blu-ray player. There's really not much you can do to innovate on the idea of a disc player.

There are other features not just image quality, like the player GUI, speed of scrubbing, noise level (fans), remote control, reliability, size of the player, and a lot of other things like upscaling SD images from DVD discs. As for image quality I heard many players have problem playing 3-layer BD discs (100GB ones).

I can see your POV , but in reality if you dive into the world of physical media players like LaserDiscs and VCRs and even DVDs you will see a whole lot of difference in players especially between the cheap ones and the higher end ones. Currently on the market the range of prices on BD players is as low as $50 all the way to $1K+ . Something must be different.

I can't speak to the quality of playback of the PS3/360 or PS4/XB1, but I know Microsoft was lauded for having a very good player/OS interface.

I can speak for PS3 and its playback is superb. Combined with a samsung tv I have, I can't even tell if the disc is DVD or BD. Maybe I have poor eye-sight.

[Anapan]

I am also kind of confused about the limited availability of players topic. In my experience, the new drives can support mostly all the functions of the old ones - certainly CD and DVD reading and writing are standard functions that all new drives adhere to. Lightscribe image etching isn't widely supported but still available. My last purchased USB3 external drive is about 1/2" thick and can read and write all previous medias in the CD/DVD form factor. All my old consoles can read what it writes at max speed for the media I burn it to. Upscaling is a software function. I integrate madVR into my image processing. The old AIO IC realtime Mpeg decryptors are still viable, but functionally obsolete.

[RCBH928]

I am not saying its rare, I am just saying the players are probably being displayed a little back further in the stores and are no longer a hot item. I can just see in few year's time how it will be less and less available. Some people already are making jokes that DVDs are archaic and physical media is not the norm any more, every one streams.

And yes, upscaling can be done via software but I heard the dedicated chips are better, I heard this info so don't quote me on it, for example they say Sony tv's excel at upscaling because of the chip they ship in their tv.s .

@Markies

thanks!

[RCBH928]

ssd and wifi are probably the best advancement in modern computers , I say better user improvement than faster cpu or gpu

[marurun]

CPUs have been fast enough for most tasks for years upon years now. Only the constant bloat of software and games keep pushing power forward for the average user.

[RCBH928]

CPUs have been fast enough for most tasks for years upon years now. Only the constant bloat of software and games keep pushing power forward for the average user.

I agree , I am sometimes amazed when I remember that most tasks we do today (internet browsing, forums, emails, printing, search, microsoft office..etc) we were doing these tasks back in 1998 or earlier when cpu speed was merely 200Mhz or so. Albeit I have to say that I lived in an era where you had to wait for the photoshop filter to apply and now its instant.

[RCBH928]

Researching tvs ruined my tv for me. I finally noticed that my tv from 2013 has complete black blotches/washed out black areas in dark scenes. I guess its time to upgrade, I am going for OLED. I hope its not bad calibration from my part, I once tried those slides to caliberate my tv and the end result was completely horrible. I just kind of eye balled it to my liking. Any one has comments on OLED tvs especially with retro consoles? I only have N64 and Dreamcast. I also have retrotink.