From Beta to Blu-rayPOSTED MAY 18, 2011

With all the progress I've made on the Audio/Video Component Archive in the last few months (thanks to the use of my lunch hours to enter data for it), I've decided to make a few refinements to its plan.

The original 2000 plan was pretty open-ended: aside from TV monitors, speakers, and anything before 1970, virtually any equipment could get a listing. The result, as late as 2008, was a sparsely populated database that mostly featured 1994-1997 Kenwood stuff (my brand of choice at the time). The info-per-listing was increased in 2006 (when Pinocchio became a real database), but the result was still pretty inconsistent and the listings over a decade old.

Digging out the old data four months ago, I decided to impose some new limits: dates between 1978 and 2009, fewer brands, no portables, etc. I set about increasing the listings within the new limits and improving consistency between the listings. I even started doing something considered long ago: looking for vintage Crutchfield catalogs on eBay. So far I've bought four, and you can see the effect just one has had on the 1987 listings .

Now I've refined the AVCA coverage goal to span "From Beta to Blu-ray", or 1975 to 2008 (when Blu-ray won the HD format war). Home Audio will keep the current 1978 starting date, and Car Audio will move later to 1982, both ending in 2008 along with the Video listings. I've also removed Denon video equipment and Technics (Panasonic) audio equipment. All the effected listings are old ones I haven't gotten to yet and don't mind deleting, except for one 2009 listing , which I'll grandfather in. Finally, minor categories ("Home Radio Tuners" for instance) will be greatly diminished, since the major ones ("Home Receivers", which have tuners built-in) represent tech trends pretty well on their own. I don't need to spend time being redundant.

I won't say the AVCA will stay within these boundaries forever, of course, but it'll be a while (even at Crutchfield-assisted speed) before I reach them. For the moment, I have little interest in going beyond 2008 to the modern world of 3D/HDMI/Dolby Pro Logic-number-letter everything, where its hard to tell the line between computer and home theater equipment. Not that these trends are bad in my eyes, it's just that the A/V world seems to be losing some distinction... and my interest fading with it. Meh, we'll see.

The Features/Specs info has been made more consistent these past few months (to enhance searching), and I'll be revising their layout again in the near future. I may also be creating a "Catalog View" and finding new ways to make the display the data and interact with it, cause, you know, I'm a geek.

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