Being an Audio/Visual Early Adoptor is getting cheaper
Since the late 90s I have been something of an early adoptor for AV gear. With the imminent [I hope] arrival of my HD DVD player, along with the discovery of an old receipt I started calculating exactly how much early adoption has cost me, and how quickly (or otherwise) my gear fell in value (and rose in mainstream popularity).
Summary
| Item |
Year |
Price |
Value Now |
Loss/yr |
Loss/yr % |
| DVD |
1999 |
$1,000 |
$30 |
$139 |
14 |
| TiVo |
1999 |
$1,500 |
$25 |
$211 |
14 |
| HDTV |
2000 |
$7,500 |
$900 |
$1,100 |
15 |
| HDTiVo |
2004 |
$1,000 |
$600 |
$200 |
20 |
| HD DVD |
2006 |
$500 |
$500 |
n/a |
n/a |
Details
I'll admit I was slow to move to DVD: I was a Laserdisc fan, and held off getting a DVD player until I felt there was sufficient content. I got the Sony DVP S7700 which remained a reference quality player for a number of years (until progressive scan became the norm really). The player is solid, and still in use today: the only downer was the lack of region-free capability.
I bought a ReplayTV within two months of the first ads, but due to audio issues changed it for a TiVo. Hard to believe that a 10hr model cost that much. Of course I soon became addicted and subsequently bought two more.
My HDTV was a gorgeous Pioneer Elite Pro-610HD, a 56" CRT RPTV. DVDs looked great and HDTV (via antenna and DirectTV) was outstanding. The CRT is dead now for RPTVs, and I consider myself lucky to sell it recently for as much as I did. This remains the most expensive thing I have ever bought that did not have windows.
I got the 4th HDTivo that Magnolia HiFi ever had, and still loving it. The price has come down a bit now, and its future remains murky due to the slow switch to MPEG4 for HD at DirecTV.
Which brings us to this week: I consider $500 for the very first ever HD DVD player a positive bargain, and look forward to many happy years with it. It will likely fall in value probably 15% a year if history is anything to go by, but I'll be smiling all the way.
