Display and Accessibility Info
Display Problems
If you have come to this page after being directed here by a message on another page, and/or are experiencing abnormal display of the various text sections on our pages (including possible overlapping text), then the Web browser you are using is an older version which unfortunately does not support the modern formatting control features which most all newer browsers support, or you are using WebTV or a later variant (see our main Help & Information page for more info on WebTV). Alternately, author "style sheets" may be either disabled or overridden in the preferences of your browser.
Consequently, the intended visual formatting of this site, including layout & alignments, text and background colors, etc., is not appearing as designed, and how it appears in most modern browsers. The content, however, should still be accessible, albeit without the visual presentation elements which would normally accompany it. That is, of course, unless you are experiencing the "overlapping text" quirk that some older browsers display when rendering our pages. In this case, it's probably too annoying a problem to deal with.
If you are experiencing any such display problems with our site, and are using a standard desktop or laptop computer-based Web browser, then the only thing we can do to help is to suggest that it's time to download and upgrade to the most recent version of your browser, or a different browser which does support current standards. This will allow you to better utilize this and other Websites - more and more of which have been moving to an up-to-date, standards-compliant design method. These newer methods of Webpage design provide many benefits including faster loading pages, and which are also more accessible to the wide variety of users and latest equipment now being used to access the Internet.
Additionally, many Websites, including this one, have incorporated a number of standards-compliant accessibility features to aid those who my have difficulty accessing traditional, old fashioned Webpages.
Compatibility (or rather lack of compatibility) problems between all the various browsers and their different versions, and on different operating system platforms i.e. Windows, MAC, Unix, Linux, etc., is a long-standing and frustrating problem for Website developers (not to mention Web surfers). What works and looks great in one browser, looks like crap or fails to work altogether in another. In case you're not aware, your browser decides how to interpret and display the page it's loading, regardless of how the designer my have intended. This problem arose out of a complete lack of standards for browser manufactures to follow. Each one developing their own browser technology, often incorporating proprietary features which only worked with Web pages created specifically for their browsers.
The common approach to this problem has traditionally been for Website developers to create separate versions of their pages for each of the major browsers which act differently. (Netscape 4 is the most notorious browser to have to deal with and often requires creating a completely separate Website just for that browser.) Complex "browser detection" code (which is far from full-proof) must be incorporated in to all of the pages on the site so that the correct type of page can automatically be served depending on the browser (and version) being used to view the site.
To say the least, this approach has been very costly for Websites. Requiring countless man-hours to create and maintain such sites. For a site such as this, which is being created and maintained by a single individual, that approach is simply not feasible.
Over the past several years, there's been a strong push in the industry to establish sets of standards which all browsers would (hopefully) comply with. In theory, ending the compatibility problems and the patchwork approach to dealing with them. A site that was designed following these standards would appear and function the same in all browsers which similarly supported these standards.
This site is currently being rebuilt from the ground up to completely conform with one of the latest Web standards, XHTML 1.0 Transitional, which incorporates CSS for presentational elements on the page. (All new pages on this site have been officially validated to this standard with the W3C Validator.) Among other things, there are no longer any tables being used on any of the new pages to section and position text and other elements. Just one of the results of these newer design techniques is that our pages are now much smaller in file size and load much faster. The difference being most notable for those using slower dial-up connections. We've also incorporated some newer standards-based accessibility elements into the design of our pages, allowing users with various physical impairments, and those using newer Internet-ready devices such as PDAs and cell phones, to be able to access our pages more easily.
Unfortunately, many older browsers do not support these newer standards and won't display our pages properly, or even display them at all. (In which case you wouldn't even be able to read this message!)
As a Website developer I am faced with making certain choices in terms of what approach to take in designing this site.
- Do I stick with my old, clunky style page design which most all browsers can see in similar ways?
Do I create newer standards-compliant Web pages, but with separate "older" versions as well so that users with older browsers can view my site?
Do I convert my site to conform to modern Web standards and in turn shut my site off to those using older browsers...and hope that sooner than later most people will upgrade their browsers to newer, standards-compliant versions?
For me, the choice was a logical one, though perhaps not a completely satisfying one. The 1st two options just don't make sense for this site, and for a number of reasons which I won't bore you with. I've decided to bring this site into the current century, and follow some of the most modern and widely adapted and agreed upon standards for Website design. More accurately, settling on a step or two behind the most strict and newest standards, in favor of "transitional" standards which most modern browsers do support...well, for the most part anyway. Yet at the same time, leaping way forward from where this site was. Indeed, way ahead of 95% of the sites on the Internet, most of which are still written using the antiquated techniques.
Does this mean that some, perhaps many, people who are still using older browsers won't be able to view this site properly, or at all? Unfortunately the answer is yes. However, the good news is that as I closely follow the statistics for this site, which track the various browsers people are using to come to any page on this site, I see that only a relatively small "percentage-wise" are still using older browsers. Yes, it's a numbers game and as a business, no matter how hard you try, you can't please all of the people all of the time. You have to make decisions sometimes and not everyone will be happy with them. You may loose a few customers here and there, but hopefully in the long run the choices one makes are beneficial to the majority of them, and in turn to the survivability of the business.
The reality is that most of the browsers being used today do, for the most part, support the standards that this site is now adhering to. Most people can view this site without any display problems. And as each day passes, more and more people are upgrading their older browsers so fewer and fewer people will have problems accessing this site.
If you're experiencing any problems with the display of this site, then simply upgrading your browser version will usually solve this, and allow you to utilize this site as it's designed. As well as many other newer sites which similarly are incorporating up-to-date Web standards design!
At the time of this writing, I have successfully tested, and found to display properly, the new page design of this Website on the following versions of the four most popular and widely used browsers for the Windows operating system:
- Internet Explorer 6
Netscape 7
Opera 7
AOL 7
I have not yet been able to test these pages on any MAC or other operating system as I don't own one. If you're using one, I sure would appreciate you dropping me a note to let me know what's working and what isn't on your particular configuration!
Hyperlink Colors
Unless your browser is using custom settings for link-state colors, or it is using it's own default settings (due to it being an older browser which does not support the formatting standards which we adhere to) the following color scheme is part of the intentional design for this site:
- Blue: indicates links which have not yet been visited. (according to your browsers' current history)
Red: links temporarily turn red while you are actively selecting or clicking on them
Yellow: menu items / links turn yellow and the underline goes away to indicate that this is the current page you are on
White: indicates that you have already visited this link (according to your browsers' current history)
The DVD Store has some slight variations to this which are due to the 3rd-party software module which the store is built with.