[PRCo] Re: Steel and Snow

[Edward H. Lybarger]

I'm sure that it entertains a lot more than the entertainment industry does.
It probably also doesn't assume that the viewer has a 8th (or less) grade
education, or that he/she needs someone else to do his/her thinking for
him/her, or that he or she is interested in someone else's misery (fire,
blood, etc.).

I have no gripe with "entertainment," provided it does!  I'm just a tough
market.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
W. Schneider III
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 4:33 PM
To: carl schultz; Russell E Jackson; Russ & Mary Jackson;
pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org; RICHARD KOTULAK
Subject: [PRCo] Steel and Snow



Just bought a new VCR so that I could look at Carl Schult'z new VCR
"snow"
tape.  Now I'm not sure if any VCR tape is worth $105 for a new VCR, but
this one comes really close!

Dick Kotulak was frothing about how great the tape was ... after I saw
all the Washington DC scenes on routes 20 and 82 in the snow, and the
fleet of snow sweepers marching around the capital, I understand Dick.
The
Pittsburgh types will like the interurbans in the snow and the sweepers
in the East End.  And if that isn't enough, there's Ottawa, QRL&P's
interurban, New York elevated lines, PTC, PST, SEPTA, the North Shore in
the closing day blizzard.  Really nice stuff.  And most of it comes from
Russ Jackson, who was lucky enough to live next to the BMT or PTC and
could get out in the snow when the rest of us didn't have that
opportunity.
At the risk of bringing Ed Lybarger down on me, it "entertains."

Nice camera work Russ.  You were the one who got the cold, wet feet.
You deserve Thanks.

And Carl ... the usual nice assembly job.  The picture of the Bullet
dashing over the Ardmore car did make a nice transition from the PST to
P&W scenes!

NOW, SOME QUESTIONS CARL:

I decided to squint a little longer at my smaller TV screen because of
the future of HDTV.

The dealer from whom I bought the VCR agreed that my logic was not
overtly flawed when I bought simply a VCR instead of a VCR/TV
combination because HDTV is so close.  He explained that there isn't
much being broadcast in high definition right now but that most if not
all shows will be high definition in about seven more years and that
duplicate analog and digital signals will be phased out in about ten
years.  He said that conversion boxes will be sold ten years from now
to enable people with old TV sets to convert the HDTV signals, but he
thought, as I did, that the cost of the converters will be very high
to force you to buy a high priced television set.

Now with all this in mind, and with the idea that my VCR table library
is going to soon be out of date and possibly not even usable,

     1.  What are you doing to convert your output to digital disc
         format?  Will the digital discs last longer than VCR tapes
         and is the quality really any higher when made from 8mm
         home movies?  What do you view as the reasons for and
         against?

     2.  Do you plan to go the high definition route, or is it simply
         not worth it with all the unsharp 8 mm film out there?

Thanks for your time Carl.