CBC Television here in Canada has a long running no-commercial consumer watchdog type show called Marketplace. This week the show caught my eye because they took a look at higher priced HDMI cables versus generic.
The segment is available for download from their website.
I was watching I Am Legend the other day, and I was very disapointed. I felt like Hollywood made a mega star sci-fi movie, but the storytelling took second place to Will Smith’s popularity as an actor. I think this happens far too often these days.
There was one scene where Smith’s character breaks down in a video store when he faces the hardship of his own loneliness. The audience was treated to some million dollar Will Smith tears, but the scene wasn’t very believable, and I couldn’t help but wonder how it and the rest of the movie would have been if it had the same budget for effects, but starred an actor who was talented but far less popular than Will Smith.
Perhaps this would mean more effort would be put into telling a captivating story. Putting Will Smith in a movie is a pretty safe bet for Hollywood though, and apparently the film grossed $256 million in North America and $583 million worldwide. However, I’m tired of shelling out money for theater tickets or movie rentals if it’s just to pay for a mega star’s salary and not a good story.
I prefer movies where the focus is on the story and character (s) rather than the popularity of the actor(s).
Star Wars is a great example of this, because when it first came out, all of the actors except for Harrison Ford were relatively unknown. Seeing them on the screen for the first time was refreshing and the story is what made the characters interesting. Another good example is the Coen brother’s No Country for Old Men. Tommy Lee Jones is a terrific actor and one who is widely known, but his popularity never outshines the other actors or the story. The movie gives equal balance to all of the characters and the end result is a very captivating film.
I just want Hollywood to stop taking the risk management approach to filmmaking. Indie films have taken big risks all along, and perhaps that is where movie entertainment’s future lies.
Well, I am paying $4.00 a gallon for gas now, and it will go to $6 probably within a year, maybe sooner.
I have a big SUV because I really need one, to carry large speaker shipping boxes (with the speakers still in them). Sometimes I have to meet the 18 wheel truck at the bottom of our hill because they can’t drive on a small road. So, I bring the SUV there, they put the speakers in the trunk area, I sign the paperwork, and off we both go.
I think they are going to have to figure out a way to get the speakers to my office on their own. The next car is going to be a small one. At least a hybrid. I would prefer a 100% electric.
My SUV gets about 10 miles per gallon. Even at $4/gallon, that is almost 50 cents per mile, not including oil, maintenance, and insurance.
But like I said before, I will still have a great stereo in that small car. No compromise with my audio.
The news talked about how some commercial theaters are offering unusual settings to get customers to come to the movies. One offers meals and drinks while you watch. One lets you sit in classic cars. They say they need to offer something you can’t get in your home theater.
It’s going to take more than that.
If you haven’t noticed, TV programming is incredibly good.
Besides terrific weekly series like CSI, Criminal Minds, Numbers, and Cold Case, there are spectacular mini-series like The Tudors and John Adams. Even the special effects in outer space-oriented TV series are as good as first run movies. John Adams, a mini-series on HBO, in particular, was as good as anything I have ever seen at the theater. The screen writer for The Tudors is the same one for the Elizabeth movies.
Because TV is so good, and because the economy is so bad, theaters, with their $10 tickets, $5 popcorn, $4 drinks, and sticky floors, may suffer for ticket sales like they did when TV first came out, and it will take more than Cinemascope, color, and stereo sound to bring us back.
Maybe 3D, but that’s been around since the early 20th century. Maybe we will all just be so depressed about the state of our economy, we will go to the theater anyway, to escape.
Our fearless publisher, JJ, is embarking on a quest to determine whether indeed vinyl sounds better than CD (or SACD, for that matter). Being that this is SECRETS, and JJ being JJ, expect large helpings of objective, verifiable observations backed by solid technical data.
Of course, none of it will make a whit of difference to those who have already reached their own conclusions. This particular debate doesn’t quite rank up there with evolution vs. intelligent design, but I suspect that most folks who have an opinion on the matter would not be classified as having an open mind.
I grew up with vinyl (because there were no other options in those days), and still vividly remember my first A/B comparison between an LP and CD. It was a decidedly unscientific experiment conducted in 1987, shortly after the introduction of CD. I used my Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, purchased when it first came out in 1967 and with 20 years of wear on the grooves, against the brand new (in 1987) CD of the same album on a first generation Aiwa CD player.
I focused on the fade-out at the end of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, followed by several seconds of blank leader, then the jolting guitar intro to “Getting Better All The Time”. Two things struck me. The first was that, after a lifetime of hearing pops, crackles, and rumble in the spaces between LP tracks, on the CD there was an eerie silence. The second thing was how tinny and compressed the CD sounded compared to vinyl. I immediately thought, “that’s an interesting trade-off.” So I am really looking forward to JJ’s saga.
Who knows, I may be in the market for another pressing of Sgt. Peppers.
Most people who’ve never been to Canada, and even some who have, think we live in a perpetual ice age. News flash: with the exception of a minority of the population who live along the same line as Alaska, we do have lovely summers and in my neck of the woods (Atlantic region) its not uncommon to hit 40 degrees C in July.
Having said that though, this past winter was a killer. Snow accumulation in some areas of the province was well above 10 feet.
But its been thawing hard for a few weeks and last weekend we finally got the mountain bikes out for a spin.
I love my movies but this is one time of year that the absolute videophile in me takes a back seat. Its just too darn nice out to sit in a pitch black room for hours on end. Not that I’m giving up movies for the summer or anything, but after a bad case of cabin fever which felt like its been in full force since January, I’m prepared to leave the blinds open just a hair to let some natural light in, and leave the window open for some fresh air, even if that means my perceived picture contrast is down a couple notches and I have to put up with hearing the occasional shout from kids in the neighborhood.
Of course, come July I’ll be singing a different tune: Being in the half-basement, our theater is the coolest place in the house and watching a movie becomes something of a welcome refuge when the heat wave (usually sent our way by the good peoples of Chicago and Toronto) comes in.
I tried to watch a new Blu-ray release on my Sony BDP-S1 player last night.
No sale. It froze at the beginning of the movie.
So, I checked the Sony website, and sure enough, there was an update for the current copyright protection file.
It looks like this sort of thing will be the routine for Blu-ray players, so for those of you who are not familiar with the process, here it is:
(1) Download the update from the player manufacturer. It may be what’s called an ISO file, which is basically something that has to be burned onto a CD or DVD. In my case, it is DVD. You may have to execute the download so that it can extract all the files into a directory. I just use the same directory where I downloaded the file from Sony. Once it is extracted, you will see a file labeled *.iso.
(2) You will need an ISO burner. The one I used is called Magic ISO, which can be found at www.magiciso.com.
(3) Open your ISO burner. For Magic ISO, the menu looks like this:
(4) Go to File, Open, and click on the *.iso file you have extracted.
(5) You will then see the main file listed in the top left box, with the other files listed in the top right box.
(6) Put a DVD in your DVD burner (or CD if that is what is required).
(7) Click on the disc icon that is just underneath the word “About” at the top of the screen. That will open the Burn CD/DVD! menu shown in the screen shot.
(8) In the CD/DVD Image File menu, go to the ISO file and click on it to place it in that menu line.
(9) In the CD/DVD Writing Speed menu, choose a writing speed appropriate for your burner.
(10) Click the Burn it! button.
(11) When the disc is finished writing, follow the instructions for your particular player. For the BDP-S1, I place the DVD in the tray, close it, and the update is automatic. It takes about 15 minutes.
Feel free to post the procedure for your own player if it is different than this one, in the comment section at the bottom of this blog.
We all know that many stars don’t use their real names.
Charlton Heston was actually John Carter.
John Wayne was born Marion Morrison (I can understand why he changed it!)
Cary Grant was originally Archibald Leach (another no-brainer).
My question is how they maintain the concept of self, when they were born with one name, see another name in the phone book, and the character they play in a movie is a third name.
So, John Carter, known as Charlton Heston in life, known as Moses on the set.
Marion Morrison, known as John Wayne in life, known as Tom Doniphon on the set (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962).
It would be interesting to know how many actors see psychiatrists because they don’t know who the &*%$ they really are.
I was listening to the mix-down of a recording session I played in recently. The production was top-notch, but THE MUSIC ALL SOUNDED LIKE THIS!
It was compressed and maximized so that every last ounce of dynamic range was squeezed out of the performances. Of course, this wasn’t by accident, but a desired result. Most popular music is designed to jump out of your radio or CD; as a result it is compressed so that everything sounds really loud.
The bizarre part is that no live music is performed in this fashion. Even rock and roll played in stadiums has its loud and soft parts, although less pronounced than in jazz or classical performances. But the audience recognizes dynamic range is as much a part of the music as hitting the right notes; it conveys emotion, depth, and context to the piece. Singers and musicians intuitively know when to lay back or when to let it rip.
So why does the music industry assume that recorded music has to scream at you constantly in order to get your attention?
In case you missed it last week, Oppo Digital posted the first post-launch firmware update for the exquisite 983 DVD player. It came to my attention only because on the weekend in the middle of two movies the audio started dropping out. Turns out that was happening with certain AVRs when the 983 was in 1080p mode. Fixed!
Also addressed is the much talked about bass management limitation with DVD-A material. Comprehensive BM now works with multi-channel 96kHz DVDA material, though why people continue to cling to analogue multi-channel I/O is beyond me.
Regardless, bravo Oppo for staying on top of things.
