The World Isn't Slowing Down

Do you know why they stopped making VHS cassettes? Because somebody at the company found out that I liked them that’s why. It was the same thing with audiocassettes. One day I walked into the music store and saw that I could have Metallica in two options: one was the beautiful way I have already been aquatinted with for years: a tiny rectangular case, or another then-unheard of way: a perfect flat square. I didn’t even know what the hell I was even looking at. It reminded me of a miniature version of the records my brother once had. I image that my feelings at the time were similar to ones my brother felt whenever he realized he would have to replace all his records with cassettes.
I stayed with my commitment of refusal when it came to the compact disc takeover until the day I had to concede. Eventually all of the cassettes were gone (with the exception of out-of-date country classics like Roger Miller’s King of the Road or expired collections of the best of Red Skeleton). It was suitable at first until I wanted to upgrade my listening pleasure to a larger stereo I was unable to listen to any of my existing cassettes due to the fact that it would not support tapes. So what I had to do was go out and purchase my entire collection again if I ever planned to listen to anything I liked.
This same problem would arise years later with the introduction of DVDs. I had to re-purchase all my VHS titles once again. After awhile, I began to accept the fact that CDs and DVDs were significantly better than VHS and audiocassettes. It seems almost laughable today with what we once considered acceptable quality. With old VHS tapes the threat of the tape being consumed, manually adjusting the tracking, and not being able to listen to the Terminator in anything less than golden THX surround is a bit of a laugh.
The reason any of this is relevant is with the oncoming battle between Blu-Ray and Hi-Def DVDs. This brings into consideration that I will once again have to purchase everything one more time. What I’m hoping for in this battle is for the technology to just go away, or be reduced to a lower standard. Does anybody remember SACD? I barely do. People were just so happy with Cds, they refused to pay five hundred dollars for a player that would heighten the experience by just a hair. Could this possibly be the new trend with Hi-Def, or are we going to have to empty our pockets to buy the same things again? I’m pulling for the latter, but then again I’ve purchased almost everything I own twice already, and some of them I’ve purchased more than once on DVD after the studios decide to release a special edition after I already bought it once.
So the progression of technology is a great thing that is if it’s adequate technology and is not filled with asinine ideas geared at money spending collectors by money collection big wigs. So companies I’m begging please: if it doesn’t revolutionize my life I probably don’t need it, and I’m sure nobody else does either.