Yesterday I went to my local Hastings to check out the DVD when I heard this guy, who appeared to be in his early 30s, ask one of the employees if they had
"Racing Stripes" to buy (That's not the funny part) After The employee looked it up on the computer and went searching around for the one copy it said they had, he brought the DVD back to the guy who then told him "I wanted it on VHS!" the employee said "Never got I dvd player huh?" and the guy told him "I don't like DVD, it's too complicated" and had him look up the vhs edition. The computer said they had no copies in stock or on order, and he told the guy they rarely get new VHS's for sale anymore. They guy they said angrily "Well Wal Marts gets them!" and walked away. No "thanks anyway" or anything.

That is funny. DVD players seem about as complicated as a can of soda to me. I know two year old who can run them....

Speaking of children, I remember I once saw a DVD player designed for children that had a feature on it where it would automatically skip the menu and everything and go straight into playing the film when the disc was loaded. I remember thinking, "actually, I'd quite rather like that feature."

As for older people, since I work in electronics retail, I've had a few conversations that go quite literally like this:

CUSTOMER: I'd like to buy a DVD player.
ME: Okay, are there any specific features you're interested in?
CUSTOMER: I don't know. I don't even know what DVD is. All I know is that I can't get the films I want on VHS anymore.

I think the reluctance is along the lines of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." VHS has been good enough for them up to this point, so they really don't see the advantages of changing to something else, even if it's better. I still get people asking for prerecorded audio cassettes, even though CDs have been around for decades and has been the dominant audio format for quite a while now.

But that's the thing, I would have expected that from an elderly person, not someone in their early 30s.

How much you wanna bet his VCR is flashing "12:00"

Depending on how old it is, it might automatically set itself like mine does.

And when I wrote "older people," I meant older than children. There have been people in I'm guessing their 40s that have expressed aversion to the DVD format as well. It's not really age specific, although it is true in gross generalities that the older one is the less accepting of new technology one would be.

Let's not muddle the story with facts.

The truth makes far more bizzare stories.

For example, I had one customer coming complaining that he wasn't getting video on his new HT setup. He already owned a DVD/VCR combo, but then bought a HT combo with a built-in DVD player. He could use his DVD/VCR combo fine, but when he tried to use the HT's DVD player, he'd get sound, but no video. I had him walk me through his cable setup: A/V cables from DVD/VCR to HT, A/V cables from HT to TV. I was stumped, since it seemed he had everything hooked up alright. Then it hit me. "What do you have the TV tuned to when trying to watch the HT DVD player?" I asked. "Channel 3, the same as for the DVD/VCR setup." I then had to explain to him how to change the input on his TV, and basically had to sketch out the difference between A/V input and RF broadcast. That took about 5 minutes.

I'm not sure which is worse.Him asking for "Racing Stripes",Or saying dvd's are too complicated.

To be fair, DVDs are more complicated than VHS, and even more complicated than CDs. The menus and special features are nice, but some can be overly complicated when all you want to do is watch the film. And while the technology can offer some advantages ("Hey, I can skip past the trailers!"), it also has it's disavantages ("Hey, this DVD won't let me skip past the trailers!").

Still, it's a hard arument to make that they're too complicated. Anyone who's played Pong could handle most DVD menus.

That is too funny. I was talking about dvds and movies in general with a guy that my mama knows (he's in his early 50s - to give age criteria - not 30s range); he had a VCR and he did not know how to program the time. He said he couldn't stand the goddamn thing flashing 12:00 all the time so he covered it up with duct tape. Suffice it to say he doesn't have a VCR anymore and has never invested in a dvd player.

Get with the times grandpa.

He reminds me of my mother. I always said that if she had been around when fire was first being marketed, MacDonald's would be serving steak tartar today.

I thought you were going to say the combo was plugged in through the RF connector and the new DVD player was plugged into the video in of the DVD/VCR combo.

Honestly, who still buys audio cassettes though?

I did, for the most part, until about three years ago. I usually only listen to music in the car, and until three years ago, all I had in my car was a cassette deck. So I bought cassettes.

My VCRs will never flash 12:00, though, mostly because they don't have a visible time display on them at all (if they did, I would set them, but since I don't use them for time recording or anything, I haven't set the clock on them since the last time I moved). I know how to set the time, though, if I wanted to.

I was going to say pretty much the same thing. I can see people buying casettes if the have an older/cheaper car, but that is not because CDs are "too Complicated"
On a side note, My in-laws are technology challenged. They used to call us up everytime they wanted to watch a DVD so i can tell them to hit enter to start the movie or that they need to press power on their receiver to get sound. The only reason they have a dvdplayer/reciever is because they have a "keeping up with the Jonses" mentallity and get jealous when other people have nicer things than them.

My VCRs don't flash 12:00 unless there had been a power failure, then some of them will flash whatever time it was when the power went off.