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Am I too demanding, or are they all cheating?

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yksyks:
I have to revive this thread and add another case to this topic. This time I managed to avoid buying the product, though.

So be warned anyone tempted to purchase Panasonic VDR-D50 digital camcorder. On the manufacturer's pages you can read:
Records to 8cm DVD and SD Card

--- End quote ---
After my experiences described above I became suspicious, because the camera was not labeled as "hybrid" and only after downloading the full User's manual and browsing through it I realized that you can record on the SD card still pictures only! I couldn't believe my eyes. In 2008, anyone really cares about taking 640x480 resolution pictures and storing them on 8 GB SD card? Every cell phone has a better resolution, and who would buy a movie camera for taking poor still pictures? So what's the point of the SD slot? Maybe the specifications just look better. They simply follow the same pattern as those cases above.

Along the same lines goes the information about the recording time: 36 minutes on double-sided DVD. Only after reading the manual (or in worse case after purchasing the camera), you'll discover that after 18 minutes you have to stop the recording, open the camera, turn the media over, close the compartment and continue. Why not to say that you have 3 hours of recording--and in some small footnote the additional info reading "on 10 DVDs"?

Well, this could not be called directly cheating, but anyway, I wouldn't call such a behavior decent. A big disappointment from Panasonic.

Renegade:
...
Well, this could not be called directly cheating, but anyway, I wouldn't call such a behavior decent. A big disappointment from Panasonic.
-yksyks (August 06, 2008, 11:44 AM)
--- End quote ---

Ahem... Panasonic Sucks!

This is all pretty standard now. The major manufacturers no longer make money on selling decent products to people and gaining repeat business.

They all now make money by being so large and dominating the distribution channels so well that no other players can reasonably get into distribution. Coupled with their economies of scale, even if someone could get in, they couldn't offer anything reasonably equivalent without setting a massive price tag.

As such, there is no motivation to improve products. However, they can still make more money by skimping on things and overselling underpowered/underfeatured products to consumers that by now are used to taking it in the @$$ pretty darn hard.

Other ways to skimp on products include having documentation of 10 pages to explain a that complex product is a product, but not tell you much more.

Banks, insurance companies, financial companies, securities companies, hardware manufacturers, software houses, etc. etc. etc. They all deliver short of what one would think is reasonable.

Insurance companies make money by sneaking in clauses that allow them to never pay out any money. They then hire people to investigate claims and make sure that the people don't get paid.

Why should the hardware manufacturers be any different?

Technical support is manned by talking monkeys that have a set list of 3 answers to 3 questions:

Q 1: My computer isn't working.
A 1: Plug it in.

Q 2: My MP3 player isn't working.
A 2: Charge the battery.

Q 3: My audio card drivers cause a kernel panic.
A 3: Reinstall the OS.

Support no longer answers questions. They just give some crap answers that mean nothing. Why? Because hiring intelligent people that can solve problems costs money. It's easier to hire a talking monkey for cheap.

Nothing lasts anymore as it's all made with the cheapest plastics that can be bought. High-density, durable materials cost money. Besides, when it breaks, consumers need to buy another. Self-sabotage.

You're not being unreasonable in the least. You're merely implicitly pointing out the current environment that companies are working in, and the ways in which they are cheating and deceiving consumers.

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