Stupid Technology Tricks
Every once in awhile, I have an experience that illustrates why some people shouldn’t be involved in designing technology. One of the latest involved a camcorder. My son has taken an interest in creating videos of his online videogame exploits to share with his friends. Being the techie sort of guy that I am, I knew how to hook up the digital camcorder to accept analog video and audio, and how to navigate down into the obscure menus to enable the camera to actually receive the analog input. After a couple of minutes of cabling and camera tweaking, my son and I can see and hear Halo 2 on the camcorder screen. Success!
Oops, not quite. The camera will display the signal, but it won’t record. Hmm. Maybe it’s because we’re in “VCR” mode. So we flip the switch to “Camera” mode, and yes indeed, recording works. But the analog signal won’t display. No problem, I think, and again visit the obscure menus to enable the analog input. The menus are identical to the VCR mode with one single exception - the option to turn on the analog input.
I spent a good ten minutes switching back and forth between the two modes, exploring every menu option and pressing every conceivable button on the camera. No matter what I do, I can’t record the analog signal. This is particularly maddening because I’ve done it before. What am I missing?
Finally, I resort to the most unthinkable of options. I get out the manual. And there it is, on page 89 - to enable recording of an analog signal, I have to use the remote. The little, stinking credit-card size remote which I have no other use for and (of course) can’t find. Finally, after much hunting, we find that my daughter has it in her camera bag at school. The next day she comes home for a visit, and brings the remote.
So what do we need the remote for? To push the “pause” button. Once the “pause” button is pressed on the remote, then you press the “play” button on the camcorder to start recording. That’s it - you only need the stupid remote to press one button to enable a function that has every other control built into the camera itself.
I have to believe that some engineer somewhere had an actual reason to do this. Maybe it’s to prevent accidentally recording onto a tape while playing back in VCR mode. Still, it reminds me of many frustrating experiences trying to help teachers hook up VGA converters to VCRs or televisions, only to find that to enable the video-in function on the TV or VCR required the use of the remote, which either a) was lost long ago, or b) is locked away somewhere for safekeeping, or c) has dead batteries and there are no batteries to be found in the school.
So, when you’re shopping for video-related equipment , add one more thing to your list of criteria. Whether it’s a television, VCR, DVD-player or videocamera, make certain that there are no important functions that can’t be controlled from the device itself without using a remote. Believe me, you’ll be glad you did.