Gone Digital for Good

We recently moved both residence and office and were floored to realize how many CDs, DVDs, video games and books we had amassed in a span of five years. As I desperately heaved and hurdled box upon box of media I came to the realization that I was, finally, good and ready to go digital.

Music CDs, I really have a weakness for. I'll spend a good amount of time hunting down used discs or even duplicates of favourites that have been worn and scratched. After all, one can't have enough copies of Pearl Jam's One or Bob Marley's Legend. I can't visit Sonic Boom or Vortex Records without a small haul of CDs, its pathological and that's not going to change anytime soon, although I think I'll do a better job ripping and cataloguing them in iTunes.

I'm done with DVDs for movies and there's a good chance that Blu-Ray player I got last Christmas is going to end up on Craigslist. I used that player a total of eight times and never again- Blu-Ray disc prices are just exorbitant and I personally don't think the quality is all that nor are the features and potential of Blu-Ray discs really put to good use.

The Apple TV has become a really good way to push video to our TV. Movies are available for rent or purchase and the experience is dead easy. I bought the Star Trek movie on iTunes, it was cheaper than a DVD and I got the special features as well, the best thing is I can watch it anytime, no shelf space is taken and the quality is more than acceptable. Using Handbrake, I can digitize my existing videos and throw them on Apple TV. Handbrake is free and is simply the best way to get video into digital format on a Mac.

I'm done with books and magazines too. There are easily 300 that I haven't looked at, read or even thought of in years and they are all there, taking up space and yellowing. The offerings from Amazon's Kindle Store and the new and improved Sony Reader are compelling, affordable and take up nothing in terms of space. So e-versions of books are where I am going from now on, as much as possible.

Games, well there's nothing much we can do about that. The moment the geniuses at Sony and Microsoft figure out how to sell us games over the Internet, I'm there. I'm not talking about the dinky puzzle games or older titles lifted from pre-millenium consoles either. We need the good stuff, the GTA and the God of War or Forza Motorsport - type games pushed online but until that happens we're stuck with the physical media, which is good for those of us who like buying games 2nd hand. 

Everything is going digital and the transition is happening quickly. For 2010, keep your eyes open on the electronic reader market, not just the devices but the services and companies offering their content electronically. Until then, we need to continue to find creative but affordable ways to move the  all the content to we can to a more readily accessible and inventive format.

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SourceCode is Gadjo C. Sevilla's weekly column on CR. He can be reached at gadjo@me.com