Went to Wal-Mart over lunch to score birthday presents for Mom and John (figured I’d save some shipping since I was going to Omaha anyway). Unsure whether Mom had a DVD player (did we buy her one last year or not?), I checked out the prices just in case…

Wow. A 5-disc DVD changer for $60. A compact DVD player for $40. And the real surprise - a DVD RECORDER for $150. (It can record TV, video, or firewire input.) These aren’t exactly top-quality, of course; they all looked plasticky and had subpar components (and the recorder was from some company call ILO, who I’ve never heard of). But they’re obviously exerting downward pressure on prices from major manufacturers - Sony had a player on the shelves for $90.

Oh, did I mention the $350 digital camcorder we bought? Yeah, they’re finally cheap enough for us to join the crowd. Diana’s camera work definitely needs editing for length, though. :) Sometime next year I’m gonna get a firewire card so we can clean it up and distribute DVDs.