Why oh why do the multimedia people continually lie to their users and consumers? The latest example is the Maven Media System, which is currently being touted as providing ‘full screen, DVD quality’ video to ordinary broadband users.

I registered and tried out the Virgin music video demo on my 2.8GHz, Nvidia powered test rig and found out that it’s sub VHS quality at best, and at worst Video CD. And it took 10 minutes to download, plus another ten to upgrade to Media Player 9. Sheesh!