Last week, among other hot promotions for the official start to the holiday shopping crush, Wal-Mart flaunted a $48 DVD player while Best Buy Co. Inc. -- the No. 1 U.S. specialty consumer electronics merchant -- said it had an even cheaper DVD player at $39. The first electronic device to fall victim to the unceasing DVD rage was the video cassette player. Analysts and retailers say consumers are also increasingly losing interest on stand-alone home CD players since the equipment makers are now opting to build all-in-one DVD machines to cut costs. Some video gaming machines such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2, can play DVDs as well as compact discs. But with the music industry in the doldrums and Internet piracy seemingly unstoppable, consumers have little reason to continue spending on stand-alone CD players, analysts said. Even though CD-player prices have been falling just as fast as Hollywood has been churning out its blockbuster movies on DVDs, very little is seen saving the CD player from biting the dust. |
Source: Reuters


DVD-players are getting cheaper and can function as both a movie and a music disc playerExcept when you have been buying copy-protected cd's from e.g. Sony or BMG of course, which will simply refuse to work on your DVD-player. But hey, don't worry, the solution is right there! You can simply buy the same album another time on DVD-audio later on. That way you are even helping those poor record companies-executives' children from having to starve to death!

At present, with the exception of beginner/novice users, the PC can do just about anything with TV such as record, playback DVDs, display TV, tune in Radio, play CDs, etc. (assuming you have the right hardware).
All one would need some day is just the PC, a monitor/projector/HDTV, Speaker system and some portable media player for traveling with. ;9