WEBVTT - TechStuff Tidbits: Format Wars 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.680 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.000 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:20.479 And how the tech are you? Well, it's time for 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.200 a tech stuff tidbits. This one will probably be a 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.360 long one, like a lot of mine. I get it. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.960 I'm bad at being brief, but I thought I would 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.640 talk a little bit about format wars, which I've talked 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.400 about before, but uh, it was one of those that 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:37.400 I really wanted to kind of talk about to explain 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.000 what we mean when we say format war and what 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:45.600 that can imply. And the older you are, the more 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.319 format wars you have likely witnessed firsthand. Like I can 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.800 think of a handful that I've seen, but of course 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.600 there are plenty that we're way before my time. So 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.240 what is a format war? Why can they be really bad, 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.360 particular for consumers? And what are a few examples. That's 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.960 what we're gonna look at today, But first let's define it. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.360 So a format war essentially is when you've got two 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:16.600 similar technologies, so they each accomplish the same thing, or 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.520 at least a very similar outcome. They're both meant to 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.040 provide for the same purpose, they might do it in 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:28.000 very different ways. In fact, frequently they do approach this 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:33.000 in extremely different ways. And typically these two different or more. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.920 Sometimes it's more than just two. But these different technologies 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.560 are incompatible with one another. So they're each meant to 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.880 achieve a certain goal, but they can't work together because 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.920 they're doing it in a fundamentally different way or sometimes 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.440 a subtly different way, but a way that's different enough 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.080 that they can't work together. So, in other words, if 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.640 you buy technology A, then you aren't really able to 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:59.560 use the stuff for technology B on it. Like we 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.480 see this very easily and stuff like consoles, right, we 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:06.160 think of the console wars where you have an Xbox 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.160 or a PlayStation or a Nintendo. Well, you can't play 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.680 PlayStation games on an Xbox, you can't play Xbox games 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.639 on a Nintendo, and so forth right, you can get 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.080 the titles for those particular consoles, but you can't put 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:25.800 an Xbox you know, disk in a PlayStation console. It 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:27.280 won't work. I mean you could do it, it just 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.960 wouldn't work. Now. One way you could get around that 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.639 is if you buy all the consoles. Right, So if 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:35.680 you have a Tech A and a Tech B. The 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:38.240 one way you could get around being limited is you 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.919 could also buy tech B. But then you're spending way 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:43.680 more cash. And ain't all of us got that kind 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:45.760 of cheddar? You know what I'm saying. I am not 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.240 the kind of person who can buy every format just 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.920 so that way I have access to everything. And you know, 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.200 we really do see this today played out in other ways, 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.920 like the different streaming services I would argue are kind 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.919 of a format war. Um, it's more of a streaming 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.440 war because the format is pretty much the same. It's 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.440 not like, you know, if you have uh one type 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:14.359 of streaming device versus another, that you're limited to specific 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.800 types of streaming content. But otherwise it's very similar in 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.920 that if you want access to everything, you gotta subscribe 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.240 to everything, which is pretty frustrating as a consumer. So 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.760 the reason format wars tend to be bad for consumers 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.800 is that we're faced with really tough choices. If we 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:38.680 want whatever the technology actually does, then we then have 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:40.720 to decide which option do we go with. Do we 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:42.960 go with tech A or do we go with tech B. 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.120 We do that knowing that our choice is going to 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.240 lock us in from that point forward into that technologies 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:56.240 ecosystem again unless we go crazy and buy all of them. 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:58.800 So if we do that, if we're buying a specific one, 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.960 we say, all right, I've looked at both tech A 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.360 and tech B really for a long time. I have 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:06.760 ultimately decided that Tech A is the one that I 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.520 like more, so I'm gonna go with that. Um. But 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.920 we do that knowing that we're gonna miss out on 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.600 anything that was made explicitly and exclusively for Tech B. 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.080 And likewise, if we had made the other choice, we'd 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.520 be facing the same situation, just in reverse. So you 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.680 can go with a road less traveled and it will 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.359 make all the difference. But different does not mean better. 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.840 It doesn't mean worse either. It means different, and you 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.679 might feel reluctant to get on board in the first 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:39.160 place early on in a format war, because sometimes formats 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.479 go obsolete. In several of the examples that will talk 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.599 about in this episode, one or more formats would ultimately 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.600 fall to a different one that would survive, and obviously 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.840 that means that anyone who has backed a failed format 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.039 is left with a piece of technology that becomes increasingly 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:03.080 irrelevant and ultimately obsolete. Meanwhile, if you want to stay 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.200 up to speed, you have to bite the bullet and 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.080 buy the other format. Either that or you just you know, 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:09.840 wash your hands the whole thing and walk away from 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.560 technology and live out in the woods, which, trust me, 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:17.039 I have been tempted to do on numerous occasions. Now, 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.560 if this happens to you once or twice, where you 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.800 back a format and the format ultimately fails, you might 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.080 end up being a little gun shy around emerging formats. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:32.080 You might then have a philosophy of this looks really cool. 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.360 There are two different versions of this thing, and they're 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.679 fighting each other. I'm just gonna wait and see how 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.080 this shakes out before I jump on board. Right you, 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.240 you've been bitten too many times. There are early adopters 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:46.040 who who just live for this stuff and they go 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.080 out and they'll buy every new thing as it comes out. Um, 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:51.520 I don't know where they're getting their money from. It 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.520 is not the same place where I get my money from, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.080 because they don't let me get that kind of money. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.000 So in that case, you might feel like a wait 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.440 and see approach is better. And honestly, this is sort 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.560 of what I typically do, although I do occasionally fall 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.480 victim to getting hyped because you have to suppress the 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.160 evil feeling of fomo, you know, the fear of missing out, 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:16.560 particularly as you see other folks really enjoying their technology 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:18.600 while you just sort of sit and wait. I'm kind 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.600 of imagining now people playing video games while writing jet 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:26.159 skis and flying over waves or something. Now, one thing 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.159 that can happen with format wars is that the industry 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:34.120 as a whole sometimes will coalesce around a unified standard. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.720 And it is best for the consumer anyway when this 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:42.320 happens before products ever come to market, because at that point, 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:45.039 customers have the option to buy whichever brand of the 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.840 technology they like, and they know it should work with 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.640 pretty much anything else made for that specific use case. So, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.440 in other words, like there are times where companies will 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.799 all be developing a technology that's meant to do something similar, 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.279 and the companies, well, then behind closed doors essentially meet 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.280 with one another, hash it out, make compromises, and create 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.080 a more unified technology before they come to market. So 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.520 then when you go to the store, you're like, all right, well, 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.480 there's brand A version of this, there's Brand B version 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.080 of this, there's Brand C, version of this, but they 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.680 all do the same thing, and the stuff that's made 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.600 for them will work on the other ones. That's ideal 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.880 for customers. Doesn't always happen that way, but we have 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:31.880 seen that happen a few times. UH, Like the Compact Disc. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.560 While it did have competitive competing formats, the Compact disc 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.320 was not like by itself, but the Compact Disc benefited 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.840 because that was it was the product of that kind 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.920 of compromise before it came to market, and that ultimately 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:53.680 meant that consumers had fewer incompatible formats in front of 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.840 them in order to uh to enjoy that technology. So 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:02.280 it does happen, but um often we won't see agreement 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.920 in an industry on a particular standard until after different 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.280 formats have already hit the marketing. But then, of course 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:11.080 it's too late. At least some portion of the consumer 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.520 public will be left behind if ultimately everyone then agrees 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:18.800 upon a standard. All right, Well, let's talk about a 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.920 few famous format wars. And there's quite a few of them. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.880 There have been dozens of them. I'm gonna stick with 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.960 some that aren't very obscure, Like I'm gonna stick with 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.760 some well known ones just for the purposes of kind 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.600 of explaining what was going on, and a lot of 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.600 them will relate to technology and various forms of media, 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:43.199 because that's one realm. Whereas consumers, we have seen format wars, 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:45.800 you know, front and center, like those tend to be 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:50.959 the most uh published or publicized format wars in our 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.000 era and uh And when I'm talking about media, I'm 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.200 really talking about any content that plays upon technology. It 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.640 could be media in the form of music, it could 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.840 be shows and movies or or whatever, or it could 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.719 be software. So that's kind of what I mean when 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.000 I say media. But one format that I've talked about 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.160 a format war that I covered in past episodes. I 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:15.920 also talked about this when I I appeared as the 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.280 Quizster on Ridiculous History. If you've never listened to Ridiculous History, 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.319 you should check it out. It's a very fun show 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.520 and once in a rare while I'll pop on as 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.960 a ridiculous, over the top villain called the Quister. But 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.360 there was one episode where I showed up and talked 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.160 about rail gauges, as in railroad tracks, you know what 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:40.439 trains travel upon. In the very early days of railroads, 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:44.319 you had different engineers and different companies that were building 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:49.720 train engines and cars or rather like bogeis or trucks 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.600 as they're sometimes called. These are the wheeled frames that 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.120 sit on the rails and then you essentially bolt cars 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.760 onto these frames. Well, the were a lot of people 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.800 making these, and they were making them at different sizes, 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:07.720 Like they had designed the tracks and the the trains 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.959 uh to run on a specific width of rails, and 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.760 they weren't all the same everywhere. So this is just 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.720 a random, like hypothetical example. You could have a region 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.920 within a country where one part of the region there's, uh, 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.480 there's a company that's laying down tracks that are a 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.360 hundred centimeters apart because the wheels on their vehicles are 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.960 a hundred centimeters apart. But elsewhere in that same region, 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.400 you might have folks building other trains where they've settled 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:43.400 on a width that's a hundred twenty centimeters apart. And 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.440 so you can't have a train that was built for 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.280 one run on the tracks of the other, right, because 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:53.400 you know, if a train were to encounter a section 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.800 of track where suddenly there was a twenty centimeter difference 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.720 in the width apart from the rails, the train's gonna 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.319 go flying off the track it you know, the wheels 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.600 can't expand with it. So this obviously was a limiting factor. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.760 So as people were building train tracks, they eventually arrived 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.960 at locations where other tracks were also being built at 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.760 a different width, and that meant there was no way 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.320 for a train to pass from one set to another, 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.079 and if you really wanted to travel long distance, chances 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.720 are you would have to change trains, perhaps a few 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.360 times in different towns. In fact, there was one town 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:36.080 in Pennsylvania where this became a cornerstone of their local economy. 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.400 They counted on the fact that you had different rail 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.640 gauges all terminating at this one town because it would 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:45.840 mean that trains would have to stop in that town, 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.480 and then the locals often found employment by doing stuff 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.160 that was related to the fact people were stopped in 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.840 the town in order to change trains. So there were 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.920 people who made money as as porters who were unlow 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.839 trains or loading other trains. You had a lot of 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.560 people who are making money because they were providing food 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.480 or lodging or both two travelers. So when you had 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.160 government saying, you know, it would make way more sense 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.800 for us to settle on a standard rail gage so 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.360 that you could travel seamlessly from point A to point 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.600 B without having these issues. Towns like this one in 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.160 Pennsylvania really objected to that, and by objected, I mean 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.600 like they were. They got a little rowdy, they started 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.640 tearing up train tracks. That's how bad this format war 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:37.240 was going. Because they saw it as their livelihood and 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.640 if you were too streamline things, it might be better 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.160 for the passengers, but it wouldn't be better for this town. 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:47.200 So this was a format war where depending upon what 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.160 side you were on, like what where you were coming from, 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.320 if you were coming from the perspective of a traveler 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.520 or you were coming from the perspective of a townsperson 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:59.040 who is dependent upon this for their living, you had 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.280 a very different view on what was important. Now. Ultimately, 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.360 at least in most cases, UH standards were arrived at 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:13.840 and the train gauge was set to a specific width. UH. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.760 There are still trains in countries even like the United 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.680 States that have a different rail gauge, but they tend 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.840 to be curiosities now. They're like tourist attractions UM and 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.160 typically are not really used that much in industry these days. 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.840 So you can. You can sometimes find these in interesting 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.839 places where you know people have maintained the tracks and 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.960 the systems so that you can experience it. But if 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.360 you're traveling coast to coast, then you're on standardized rail gauge. 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.400 So that was a format work that was long in 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.800 the making and took a long time to resolve and 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.839 didn't go easily. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break here, 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:58.360 but when we come back, we'll talk about some more 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:09.120 format wars. Okay, let's get back to it. So another 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.640 really big and important format war, particularly here in the 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.840 United States back in the day, like like late eighteen 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:21.760 hundreds into the nineteen hundreds, was alternating current versus direct current. 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:26.040 So here in the US, that war was really personified 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:30.640 as Thomas Edison on the direct current side versus George 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.240 Westinghouse on the alternating current side. Though some people will 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:38.560 substitute George Westinghouse. They'll they'll put in Nicola Tesla instead, 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:43.920 and it becomes Tesla versus Edison. That's not really an 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:48.720 accurate description because Edison was really more of a business 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:55.880 owner as was Westinghouse, and Tesla was more of an engineer. Um. 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.960 But we often see it Edison versus Tesla's really Edison 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:03.560 versus Westinghouse. And anyway, Westinghouson and Tesla were on the 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.720 alternating current side. There were numerous promotional stunts that both 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.480 sides held in an effort to have their own standard 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:15.400 adopted for the purposes of building out infrastructure throughout the 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.680 United States. I mean this was like, this was representing 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:24.000 a true fortune in investments right in order to build 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:29.280 out power plants and all the wiring and everything that 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:33.600 would be needed in order to transmit power to the 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:39.040 average American citizen. It is hard to put a figure 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:43.600 on how big a a fortune that was a potential fortune. 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.200 So clearly the stakes were very high between d C 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:52.120 and a C, and they each had their own uh 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.240 benefits and drawbacks, but ultimately a C would win out 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.680 like they were. And again there were some huge promotional battles. 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.440 A big one was when Westinghouse managed to to land 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.760 the contract for the World's Fair to light the World's Fair. 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.720 But and of course there's there's stories that have grown 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:15.440 with the retelling, such as the the electrocution of an 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:23.120 elephant named Topsy using alternating current um, which was frequently 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.200 attributed to Edison in recent years, but really it was 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.280 more like Edison's company that did this. And the story 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.400 gets really complex. It's still not a good story, like 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.240 you know, hearing about doing a public execution of an 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:41.280 animal in part to show how a type of electricity 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.280 is quote unquote more dangerous than another type. You know, 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.520 it's that's indefensible, really, but the story is more complicated. 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:53.800 We'll leave it at that. However, ultimately a C one out, 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:58.600 at least for the purposes of long distance electricity transmission. 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.200 And and honestly, the reason for that was largely practical 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.920 because it was way easier to use transformers, which work 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.360 with a C current but not d C current. And uh, 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.800 it was easy to use transformers in order to step 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.399 up voltage for the purposes of long distance transmission, step 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.320 down voltage when it gets to its destination and make 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:21.560 use of it, whereas d C you would have to 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:25.920 build way more electric plants closer to the point where 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:30.160 it's providing the electricity. So, just from a practical standpoint, 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:34.320 a C ultimately one out at least back then now 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.320 right now, as I record this episode, I'm also on 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.080 at work on another really big episode about the music industry, 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:46.680 both the technology and the business side of the music industry, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:51.000 because the two are extremely closely tied together, Like you 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:55.960 can't really I would argue extract one without the other 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.840 because they inform each other. So the that I am 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.080 hard at work, it's probably actually gonna be more than 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:07.680 one episode about the music industry and technology. So this 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.119 next format war I want to talk about, plays into that. 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.960 In the early days of recorded media, like just when 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:18.280 people were learning how they could take sound and record 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.919 that onto a physical object and then play it back, 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.439 essentially reversing the process. UH, you had companies like Thomas 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.800 Edison's that were rushing to dominate the space, and there 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:35.160 were a few different formats even in the early days. Now, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:39.280 one very early one was wax cylinders, and essentially recording 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:44.800 audio meant that you had a cylinder of wax mounted 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.760 on a spindle. The spindle would rotate, UH, and you 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.479 would put down a stylus or needle that would carve 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.919 a groove into the cylinder, and if you were to 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:01.119 speak into a device would either be like a horn 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:06.760 or a microphone, then it could transmit the vibrations from 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.879 the sound ultimately to the stylus. That's carving into the 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:16.119 wax cylinder, and you're carving a physical representation of the 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:20.600 sound that's being presented to this recording device. And to 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.439 play it back, you would take the cylinder, you'd put 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.399 it in a player, and you would have a different 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.520 kind of stylus that would travel through the groove that 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.240 had already been cut through the recording process. And essentially, 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.119 again you were just having the same recording process but 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.359 in reverse, and that's where you would get the sound 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.119 playing back. But different companies would have different ways of 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.760 doing this, even as they switched from cylinders, you know, 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.959 to flat disks like the traditional format we think of 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.000 if you think of like a vinyl record. Uh, they 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.639 weren't vinyl back in those days, but it was that 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.960 same shape, right, the flat disc shape. Well, even then 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.679 there were still major ways to cut the grooves that 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:07.000 were fundamentally different. So one was that you could do 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.920 sort of a vertical cut grooves. So that meant that 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:15.040 as the the disc rotated and you're recording to it, 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.440 the needle you're using, the stylus you're using is varying 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:24.040 in degrees of depth, so it's recording vibrations. Um Essentially 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.800 up and down along the groove, and when you're playing 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.520 it back, it would mean that the playback needle would 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:36.840 be sloping up or sloping away from the surface, and uh, 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.879 that's where the vibration would be and would be replicated 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:43.720 to create the sound that you would hear. The other 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:49.040 way was lateral grooves or lateral cuts, where the groove 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:54.119 would vary in width. Right, the needle was vibrating, not 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.439 up and down, but left and right, and as it 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:00.440 was recording, and thus when you're playing it back, same 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:02.840 sort of thing. But these two things were not necessarily 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.960 compatible with one another, which meant that if you bought 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.920 a player that was dependent upon the vertical cut versus 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:13.920 the lateral cut, then you were limited to just those records. 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.280 So this was another early format war um that was 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:23.560 tricky for consumers. Um. Another format that was around the 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:27.280 same time and of the same thing, same media, was 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.800 on all about rotational speed when you were recording and 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:35.000 playing back sound. So again, in order again accurate sound 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.600 out of a player, you need to play the record 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.560 back at the correct speed. If you have ever tried 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.239 to play a forty five album, forty five refers to 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.200 the number of revolutions per minute, so forty five revolutions 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.320 per minute. In this case, if you were to put 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.080 a forty five album on a record player, but you 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.639 set the record player to its thirty three and a 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.879 third setting, meaning it's rotating thirty three and one third 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:03.600 times per minute, then when you listen, everything sounds rue 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:08.040 slow because the playback is slower than the recording speed, 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.440 so it sounds much slower. By by the way, as 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:15.359 a kid, I found this endlessly entertaining, either playing forty 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.399 five on thirty three or finding thirty three albums and 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:21.040 playing them at forty five, so everyone sounds like, you know, 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.760 the chipmunks or whatever. I was easily entertained as a child, 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:28.119 and honestly, I'd still have a ready record player this today, 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:34.879 and uh it requires some careful uh resistance for me 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.600 to not just indulge in that silliness even to this day. 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:43.000 But you know, there were so many different speed playback 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:46.040 formats in the early days. Like, it wasn't just forty 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:48.960 five and thirty three or even seventy eight, which would 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.600 become an early standard. There were tons of different ones, 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:55.520 typically ranging between sixty all the way up to like 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:59.719 a hundred eighty Now, that could have caused an enormous 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:02.240 problem them. Right, Like, if all record players could were 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.200 limited to playing back at a specific speed, that would 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:07.159 be a nightmare because it would mean that if you 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:11.480 were shopping for a record, you'd have to make absolutely 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:15.040 sure that the record was recorded at the same speed 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:18.560 that your turntable could play back at. Otherwise it would 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:22.440 just not sound right, it would sound very wrong. However, 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:26.880 most turntables, most record players that we didn't really call 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:28.920 them that at the time, but that's what they were. 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:31.879 Most of them at the time were actually capable of 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.120 playing back at very different speeds, Like you could set 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:37.840 it to whichever speed you need to. Sometimes you have 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:40.000 to do it manually and kind of dial it in 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:41.960 so that you know, it might mean that you're taking 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:44.600 a little time to get it to sound just right. 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:47.679 But you had that kind of, uh, that kind of 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:51.600 flexibility for a lot of those tables. So because of that, 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:56.680 the format wars weren't spilling over into a negative consumer 0:23:56.880 --> 0:24:00.960 experience too much. It would actually take several decades for 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:05.040 the music industry to gravitate toward three and then really 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:08.760 to RPM standards. So the first one, as I mentioned, 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.199 earlier was seventy eight RPM. That was pretty close to 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:15.600 what a lot of the old traditional records used. You know, 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:19.359 a lot of them were somewhere between the seventy and 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:22.720 eighty RPM, So seventy eight was kind of a well 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:26.400 for multiple reasons, it was set upon as a standard. 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:29.879