Daily Giz Wiz 775: The VIP Hybrid 8
Episode 775 of the podcast

Subject: | Review of The VIP Hybrid 8 |
Released: | Friday 27 February 2009 |
Length: | about 26 minutes |
Download file: | dgw0775.mp3 (11.8 MB) |
Listen to the episode
Detailed information
Link: biocomp
The Hybrid 8 SEG (Special Effects Generator) Video Duplicator from VIP (Video Interface Products) allowed the user to hook up 2 video cassette players as the inputs, to output to a 3rd video cassette recorder. You could edit your videos, and add special effects such as split screens and cross-fades. It even had a joystick-style wired remote control. You would end up with wires and cables all over the place. Not even Leo, who's always quick to click the BUY button online, wants to get it.Long Term Investment
Dick spent thousands of dollars paying rent each month for the Gadget Warehouse and it's payback time. His warehouse contents are now worth hundreds of dollars ! Had Dick not made this long term investment, as Leo observes, we would all be much poorer in spirit now.
The Problem with Dick's Imagination
Dick's creative talent comes at a price. He can always imagine a need for a gadget which turns out to be another surplus to requirement. Hence the VIP Hybrid 8 and the accumulation at the Gadget Warehouse, which is in the process of downsizing.
Early Adopters
Gadget manufacturers count on the estimated 10,000 early adopters who want to be the first to try things out. They used to make an outlet such as Sharper Image or Hammacher Schlemmer the exclusive seller, say for the first 3 months, to maintain the price to allow manufacturers to recoup their costs, before releasing the products on wider distribution later (and when the price would start getting cut).
The GigaPan EPIC
Anthony Devito Junior, usually just Tony Devito, writes in to tell Dick and Leo about the Gigapan, and the GigaPan EPIC, a robotic camera mount for rotating and swivelling the camera sideways and up and down to take multiple pictures of a scene, to be stitched up in due course for making gigapixel panoramas, which you can then upload to the Gigapan website. The EPIC works with most point-and-shoot cameras (see list), and the EPIC 100 is coming soon which will fit larger point-and-shoots.
The GoldenPan
Dick doesn't have the Gigapan, but he has the George Foreman Gigapan frying pan with built-in memory. Leo is tempted by the GigaPan EPIC. He might use it for the Great Wall of China when he visits it in July this year. If Dick had the GigaPan, he would take a panorama of a railroad yard. However, Dick wouldn't be getting it, as he has something better - Dane Golden on a swivelling chair.
It's Just Another Name
Dick has been making up names for Petaluma's Butter and Eggs Day, such as Butter and Margarine, Wine and Swill, Food And Drug Parade. The latest is Rum and Coca Cola Festival.
(source: insidedgw.vox.com)