I first craved a DVD player in 1999 after my flatmate moved out with his. From memory, back then a decent one was $1,200AU. This seemed just a bit too expensive, so I waited and made do with videos and a new flatmate’s good Sony 68cm TV.
Then, in late 2002 the flatmate & TV moved out again. Bianca and I just ended up using her little old 34cm TV with videos.
By early 2004 it was getting harder to hire videos so we decided to spend $60 on a cheap DVD player. Unfortunately her TV was so old that it didn’t support the input cables and it would cost another $75 in adapters to make it work (since Macrovision prevented us routing the signal through the video).
Of course, at this point a new TV was justified, but we just couldn’t help wanting a flat panel, which were way too expensive. So, just like the DVD player decision above, we waited.
Suddenly it’s 2005, and I can’t believe that we still don’t have a DVD player!
This was a classic case of technology paralysis. I decided the only cure was to jump the DVD cycle completely and starting building a HTPC.
