About 11 months ago I got my first DVD and quickly realized how cool digital technology is. At the time I didn’t have a DVD player and had to be content simply sitting in front of my DVD-equipped PC. But I still realized the potential.

Aside from all the obvious advantages like the discs not wearing out like VHS tapes and being able to jump into any point on the DVD and all the extra stuff and how much you can cram into a DVD — aside from all that stuff there are some really cool advantages to DVD. The best thing is being able to take something you really like and translate it into a different medium. With a DVD’s crystal clear sound and near-perfect picture, you can export those niceties to other areas. It’s a stupid example, but you can grab an awesome screen shot from a DVD and use it for your desktop. It’s the lamest example, but it illustrates how much cooler DVD is over VHS.

Tonight I took the advantages of DVD one step further: I made an audio CD from a DVD. It doesn’t sound that exciting, but when you put it in the right context, it’s awesome. The best DVDs you can get are live concerts. They sound awesome. The only problem is that you’re limited to a DVD player. I don’t have one of those in my car. However, the DVD is digital. Why not pull the audio off the DVD and burn it on an audio CD? My friends, it’s not easy, but it’s possible. Welcome to the future.

Of course there are some legal concerns, but as long as you’re doing this kind of thing for personal use only (which I am), you’re good to go. I now have half of U2‘s Elevation 2001: Live from Boston DVD on an audio CD. And it sounds great. Mmm… technology.