Lyris Lite :: News Archive

I held off getting an Xbox 360 for a while, largely based on my perception of Microsoft's last console. Although I did wrack up an insane amount of hours playing Halo 2, and although I did get to play the best console version of Psychonauts - two gifts that I don't for a minute regret being on the receiving end of - I do think that the system was lacking overall in really great feeling titles.

Like everyone told me, this isn't the case with the 360. (I actually don't regret waiting before picking one up, because it means I've been able to get the HDMI-enabled version from the outset, though). Yes, today's 360 game that I've been playing - along with the Halo 3 beta, that is - is Eternal Sonata, an RPG from Namco (they're called Namco Bandai now though, right? Or Bandai Namco?) The free download can be yours if you simply register a Japanese Hotmail account - instructions here - and register it to a fictitious Japanese address (I used the address of the US embassy in Japan, just to take the piss a little), then create a free Xbox Live account using it.

It's a Japanese RPG on a system that seems under-represented in this genre, but not only that, it's a damn good one as well. It looks utterly frickin' gorgeous (see badly taken off-screen picture) and plays wonderfully as well, with really, really involving battles (not just the usual "Select attacks from a menu" fare). I guess since my system language is set to English, I get dubbed English voices, which vary in quality. One good side of the English voices though, is that I'm get the sneaky suspicion also that Cam Clarke is dubbing the lead character. (Cam Clarke is the guy who played Ryudo in the dubbed version of Grandia II on the Sega Dreamcast, and he's done a ton of other voice and even some musical work).

This'll be yet another first-day 360 purchase for me. In the weeks that follow, Halo 3 is also coming as well. Man, this is better than the Wii already. I know it's been out for longer but seriously, get your act together Nintendo. This "core gamers" that you've neglected has just discovered what the competition has to offer and he is enjoying it!

My friend Dan, who's been telling me to get an Xbox 360 for the last year or so, told me I should download the demo of "Condemned" from the Xbox Live Marketplace. I remembered that Condemned was a 360 launch title and, wrongly, I assumed this meant it'd be clunky and/or rushed and I wouldn't be too impressed. Wrong!

Condemned is produced by Sega of America in association with Warner Brothers. It shows. The game has a sort of Max Payne-like cinematic quality that I can't quite put my finger on, and although I'd have loosened up the controls a little bit if I'd been in charge, it plays really well as a result. You play a forensic investigator (right?) and in the demo, you have to investigate a murder scene inside an apartment block. Eventually you have to navigate through the place in the dark, and use pipes from walls, boards with nails in 'em and so on, to fend off psychos that run at you from the dark.

Speaking of dark... normally I complain that video games have gotten too dark and depressing looking and that this needs to change. Games like Condemned are the exception, because it creeps you out and makes a bigger deal of what you DON'T see than what you do. Magnifique! I just bought it for £12.99 from Gameplay (UK release, region free). Hoozah!

As if having John Kricfalusi animate the intro sequence to his Tenacious D movie didn't already qualify him entry into Club Du Awesome, Jack Black has shown his taste in video games by appearing on American Idol (what was that about taste?...) wearing not one, but TWO Psychonauts t-shirts (on separate occasions, obviously).

Psychonauts is a game that I hold the most sacred opinions of, and when I heard the sales figures for it, a little part of me actually died inside. Psychonauts was never very popular, despite having some of the best characterisation and friendly-feeling story ever in a game, so seeing a reference to it like this is a very nice feeling. You can read a frothy-mouthed review that I did of it in 2005, if you so desire.

This is my first night of owning an Xbox 360. This sucker was supposed to arrive at the start of this month, but for various reasons, the retirement of my original Xbox was delayed by that little bit longer. Yep, believe it or not, I've held out and stopped myself from buying Microsoft's noisy, curvy box until now. I've had oodles of fun playing the Halo 3 beta, cackled at how laughably bad the DVD playback is, been surprised at how enjoyable some of the preloaded demos are, and am just about to have a look at Psychonauts in upscaled 1080p. (Speaking of video, get this - the HDMI cable actually has a Microsoft official hologram stuck on one end of it! Seriously, even if there was a Chinese black market trade in counterfeit Xbox-grey HDMI cables, who would even care?)

I really like it. My hands are still getting used to the controller, and I've spent a lot of today downloading updates and demos, but the Halo 3 multiplayer beta is so, so satisfying (my gamer tag is Lyr1s, by the way). I actually can't believe that some people said this game was nothing more than "Halo 2 in HD" - when was the last time these people played Halo 2? The graphics are one hell of an improvement.

Not only that, but one improvement I wasn't expecting was with the audio. Everything seems to have been tweaked to perfection, with those little touches that make you say "Wow, this feels neat!" - the noise the rocket launcher makes when you're reloading it, for example. This is the first game that's really made me think, "Wow, I'm SO glad I own a sub-woofer".

One thing that that surprises me is the presentation of some of the games. It seems to be of a lower standard than on other systems. This reads like a petty complaint, but seriously, the menus and HUD in Crackdown look more like placeholders with their basic appearance and Arial font. I strongly believe in final polish going a long way in games. I've also seen some nasty visual tearing in games, which sort of dampens the claims of High Def visual splendor.

Ditto for the frame rate on a lot of the games I've played. It's a shame that 30fps is the standard for next-gen gaming, because I'd actually rather see degraded visual quality with a faster frame rate some of the time. Don't get me wrong from these two paragraphs of complaints, I'm just objective by nature - the good far outweighs the bad.

Back to the good: Eternal Sonata (demo) looks stunning, again it's only 30 frames per second but that's not too huge a deal. It has a really nice visual style and proves that there are still modern games out there that aren't afraid to be colourful. The fight scenes also feel really good. A demo of Burnout Revenge also came pre-loaded on the Elite's 120gb hard drive, and I have to say I liked it a hell of a lot more than I was expecting. I don't care for the licensed music, but that won't be a problem with the 360's Custom Soundtracks. I've also downloaded a demo of Phantasy Star Universe but haven't been able to play yet because of server maintenance. Ah, it's like owning a Dreamcast all over again.

Well, back to re-downloading the rest of those Halo 2 maps. Someone add me on Xbox Live so we can kick buttocks at Halo 3.

It looks blacker, and therefore better, in real life, trust me. I'm going to eat nachos and wait for Halo 3 Beta to finish downloading. Viva la Canada and it's wonderful video game export stores!

I was browsing a blog called the Dreamcast Junkyard lately, where a contributor to the site posted about having received a pseudo-professionally printed copy of a leaked Dreamcast game that was never officially released: Half-Life.

Back in 2003, my online buddy Mike - who owns every single Dreamcast game ever released in Europe (sometimes in several variations) asked if I could mock up a back cover for the copy of the game he owned. So, I set to work and we came up with a back cover design that'd make his copy feel a little more professional.

Now, years on, I find a post on The Dreamcast Junkyard site contains a link to a Yahoo photo gallery that shows pictures of various unreleased games that have been mocked-up to look official. One of the examples of a Half-Life cover features back cover art that I designed.

I'm in two minds about this. First of all, Half-Life for Dreamcast isn't legally available as it was never officially released. This is why I don't offer up this back cover to download any more, and haven't since 2005, so I suppose in a sense this is cover art that I've "disowned". (It goes without saying that these people would have bought the game had it been officially available, though). And I think it's neat that someone's liked my attempt at "creating something that never was", enough to print it to such a high standard and actually use it. It's the selling part that makes me a little uneasy, I guess. All the same, I think it's really cool that Dreamcast fans are going to these extents to celebrate the system - I just hope the guy printing this stuff isn't taking all the credit, either.

Normally, I don't really have many gripes with Nintendo of America. They do a good job of getting games out in reasonably quick time for me to enjoy on my US Wii. Today has seen a slight dent to that track record, because Andrew just showed me something so arrogant that it makes my eyes bleed. It's an interview with Perrin Kaplan of Nintendo of America, and doesn't read very well at all in parts. I'm sure that the tone of voice that went alongside statements like these means that they probably appear a lot harsher in text form than they actually were. Nevertheless, the underlying tone is clear: Nintendo don't agree with us that there aren't enough good games announced for the Wii.

I'd have to agree with GameInformer. Quite honestly, the last seriously excellent Wii release was in late November, and was an enhanced port of a GameCube title. Kaplan's point that hardcore gamers are going to be begging for more faster isn't totally without merit (however she chooses to express it), but seriously, you can't ignore those people the way Nintendo are doing right now. These are the people that supported them in the GameCube days: you need to do a better job of accommodating them.

It's not all bad, though. Kaplan gives some fairly good information and does tell us that there are "some additional surprises" in store at the newly revamped E3 in six weeks, and does end by mentioning that she'd love to see if "core gamers" are still feeling grumpy come December-time. That's an awfully long way away.

By the way Perrin, my Xbox 360 is arriving on Monday. If you read my site then tell me your Xbox Live gamertags!

Cast your mind back to over a year ago, when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced they'd be using MPEG-2 video compression on their Blu-ray Movies instead of newer and more advanced formats. It was claimed that they were doing this because MPEG-2 was, apparently, superior to newer formats for their intents and purposes.

Most people (myself included) now concur that from a technical standpoint, this was and still is questionable. There are still some people who claim that MPEG-2 is every bit as good as the newer MPEG-4 AVC or VC1 systems, and those people are right when they say it's what you feed into one of those video compression systems that makes or breaks the end result - not the compression itself. Nevertheless, anyone trying to claim that the now aged MPEG-2 codec can match the likes of VC1 needs to wake up and smell the recurring pictorial examples, like the ones that are being posted by the guys 'n' gals on the AVS Forum.

Hmm, yes, just as good... The results are even more valid still when you consider that, going by appearances, it seems that both discs were made from the same master tape. Fortunately though, Sony seem to be using MPEG-4 AVC for their new releases, which is, in the right hands, seemingly as capable as Microsoft's VC1. Some comparisons between that, if any chances present themselves, should be interesting.

...although there's still no way to remove the region lockout from the DVD player component, meaning that many of us still won't be able to take the PS3 seriously as a standalone DVD player. Nevertheless, tomorrow's System Update will indeed add the long-awaited scaling capability to the machine.

Some sites like to parrot 1080p upscaling as a way of improving your existing 480-line (or 576-line for Europe) DVDs to 1080p quality. These people have the wrong idea and are only setting themselves up for disappointment. A better way to look at it is that upscaling standard-def DVDs (or any type of video source) to 1080p is a good way to stop your TV making the video look worse before its video processors get their filthy silicon hands on it. It's a somewhat more pessimistic, but also more realistic view. And, to those sites' credit, it's true that upscaling algorithms can help smooth jagged edges and make the video that little bit nicer to look at. No idea how well the PS3 will manage this, though.

The 1080p upscaling can also be applied to PS1 and PS2 games as well, not just DVDs. Remember, that's UPSCALING to 1080p, the games are still rendered with 480i (for NTSC, that is) in mind for technical reasons, and are then worked upon by the PS3 hardware, rather than them being altered to actually output in real 1080p to start with. Although the machine is fast becoming even more of an internet joke, it's good to see that Sony are improving the already capable hardware as promised. I'll post impressions on how well the DVD upscaling performs tomorrow (with the few DVDs that our R2 Japanese PS3 will actually accept, that is).

I'd originally hoped to have a 360 Elite at the beginning of this month. The original plan was to source one through a "friend of a friend" arrangement, which unfortunately, hasn't yet happened. Apparently the local store in Florida was all sold out.

The "friend of a friend" thing has become a bit problematic because it's amounted to me being down about £300 and still having no 360. Being one of the most patient people I know helps here, but, with the Halo 3 beta currently taking place, this is beginning to grate. So, I've gone and ordered a SECOND Elite - on a credit card - from a supplier that I never thought would be stocking them in the first place. Hopefully I can either get my cash for the first one back (minus currency conversion fees), or end up with the second one to re-sell soon.

You see, I thought the Elite 360 would be a total sell-out and would be almost impossible to find online anywhere (for shipping to the UK, at least), which is why I made steps to get one way ahead of time. How ironic that it's worked totally backwards and I'm only now getting my hands on one. Arrrgh. Wish me luck in sorting out this little problem, people. At least I'll finally be able to play the games I've amassed over the last few months now. See you on Xbox Live next week! It'll be about damn time!

Don't you love how Nintendo are giving us such solid release dates for Wii games? It would be nice to build my collection a little more, but the sad truth is I haven't found another must-have title since launch (and that must-have title was also available on the GameCube). However, the new Smash Bros. web site at least indicates that gamers who use products from the NTSC territories should be playing the game sometime this year.

Selecting either "Japan" or "English - USA" on SmashBros.com reveals that the game is planned for release in.... 2007. Very specific. That's at least one better than what PAL Wii owners will get, because selecting "English - UK/Ireland" removes the Release Date estimate completely, meaning that Nintendo of Europe either plan to ship the game in 2008, or hopefully, just haven't decided yet.

I know that part of Nintendo's strategy involves staggered releases to keep the hardware in constant demand, but seriously, this is more like torture. Give us a solid date, Nintendo. There seems to be little actually worth playing on the Wii right now.

And now, a brief detour from all the AV and gaming-centric posts that I'm normally known for, and for something that's sure to bring in the "CHEAP VIAGRA HERE $$$" spam-bots: a rare one-off post about medicine.

Since January, I've been on a drug called Roaccutane (Accutane if you live in the US and/or Canada). Roaccutane is a drug that has an astonishing success rate in wiping out annoying skin blemishes (read: spots). Although I was never very spotty to start with, there is a huge difference between "spot-free" (which I now am, I kid you not) and "almost spot-free", especially when you're as visually hyper-observant as I am. Fortunately, I was one of the ever-increasing amounts of people without severe spottyness to be given the drug.

Roaccutane is controversial because it has a fairly long list of side effects that everyone is made aware of before they take the stuff. If women take it and get pregnant, then the resulting baby will almost certainly have severe physical defects (solution: don't get pregnant). It also tends to makes your skin dry while you're on it so you need a good supply of moisturising cream to stop looking too flaky. My joints also hurt a little bit for the first week of being on the stuff.

Some people try and claim that the drug makes you depressed, and there's a whole group of people trying to get the stuff banned, despite the fact that no solid link between taking the stuff and feeling down has ever been proven! It's like all the goons that thought the world was going to explode at the stroke of midnight when we reached the year 2000, or that internet shopping is unsafe.

Roaccutane is heavy duty stuff. I've heard that if you live in the US, the stuff costs $900 a month. It cost me absolutely nothing thanks to the National Health Service we have in the UK (although it took a 4-5 month wait to get prescribed the stuff, but that's OK). So, for 16 weeks it was detox, no drinking alcohol at all, avoiding strong sunlight (not very hard during wintertime in Scotland), and having needles stuck in your arm every so often for blood tests. It was definitely worth it, because the quality of my skin has been improved to an almost ridiculous extent; in fact, taking this drug has been one of the smartest decisions I ever made, right up there with selling my Xbox and buying a GameCube instead (yeah, that good). And after about a week of no longer being on the drug, I think it seems safe to say that the problem has not returned and the stuff has worked.

Was I depressed whilst on the stuff? Nope, never, the worst I got was a little bit irritable because itchy (you'd a bit irritable as well if your arms were itchy as well, trust me). It's a cliché, but it needs to be said, the only thing I regret is not taking the stuff sooner and even beginning to take idiots like the ones I'm about to talk about seriously.

Yes, now with my own overwhelmingly positive experience out of the way, we can concentrate on the Ambulance-chasing promises I made in this post's title. The goons at accutane-injuries.com, a web site set up either by or on behalf of "Levin Law" want to squeeze as much money as possible by basically re-iterating and exaggerating the list of potential side effects you are GIVEN and made aware of when you take the drug. Basically, they seem to be a money-leeching service for people who can't RTFM. Here's a quote from their page:

What sort of country's legal system actually allows an individual to sue a pharmaceutical company for giving them a nosebleed? (Don't answer that question). I just find it astonishing that there are people as shameless as this who'll try to squeeze money out of a company doing so much good.

So, if your skin is annoying you and you're browsing the web and wondering whether or not to take this stuff (like I was almost a year ago), then here's my advice: do, and ignore the likes of "Levin Law". As I said at the start, this is the first time I've ever talked about medicine on my web site, but how could I not given the improvement it made?

We all love Sonicstage, Sony's music transfer program. No, not really, in fact, I've heard of people who adore Sony's Digital Audio Player hardware but refuse to buy one of their players for fear of this dreaded music transfer program. Sony realise that this is holding them back, and have in fact tried to ditch Sonicstage in the past (by coming up with "Connect Player", which was EVEN WORSE!). Luckily, the tides are changing and while SonicStage no longer crashes every few minutes, it still has some annoying problems.

Oh well. At least the sound quality and usability of Sony's players normally makes it worth the annoyance. Better yet, it seems that in future players, Sony are set to allow us to simply drag and drop tracks onto the device without using its silly program. Will anyone miss SonicStage once it's dead and buried? Not I.

Nutshell report: great video processing attached to an average panel, which is OK, because this is a budget TV.

Well done to Blizzard Entertainment for introducing Starcraft 2, and actually managing to make it look MORE colourful, sci-fi-like and enticing than the original 1998 game.

Proof that not all companies are hell-bent on the evil and largely unwritten-about plot to kill colour in games. In fact, with the Xbox 360's Eternal Sonata also around the corner (in some territories at least), it looks like all of us at the Dark Green, Grey and Brown Resistance Group have plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Toshiba sent me their budget 32" LCD HDTV to review. This thing is performing well above my expectations. The LCD panel's black level and viewing angle aren't QUITE as nice as the Samsung/Sony S-PVA ones (like you get in the better BRAVIA TVs), but the Deinterlacing absolutely smokes my Sony KDL-40W2000 (which cost about three times the price).

I'd like to know what video processing chipset Toshiba are using in these, because this one is a winner. It performs better than a lot of Progressive Scan DVD players, for crying out loud!

Review sites are sure to score this a 10/10 for video, because, well, it's The Matrix, but in reality, the HD DVD release of this neat film isn't a total stunner. Make no mistake though, it's a really nice looking disc. It looks like a little bit of filtering has gone on, because the film grain particles take on a slightly taller appearance instead of being pixel-sized, and there's a slight glow visible at the top and bottom of the active picture area.

Weirder still is the fact that the sound lags noticeably behind the picture, which is odd given the fact that this film has its fair share of breaking windows and action scenes. It's not enough to be seriously annoying, though.

But enough about the faults, it's still a good looking disc of an enjoyable film. And, it's an HD DVD exclusive for the time being, thanks to the Blu-ray Disc Association's apparent lack of organisation in getting their format's interactive capabilities up and running.

Unfortunately though, unless you go on eBay, there's no way of buying THE MATRIX on its own and avoiding the crap-tacular sequel and the (apparently) crap-tacular sequel to the sequel.

Last night, BBC One aired a documentary that reminded me of last month's "The Most Hated Family in America". Unfortunately this show didn't feature the charmingly polite commentary of Louis Theroux, but the presenter, John Sweeney, still did a great job. Aired as part of the channel's "Panorama" block, this programme, instead of focusing on Christians, focused on the warped world of Scientologists. It's already available on YouTube.

In case you don't know who Scientologists are, they're a weird group of people that take money from you and make you feel that they are making your life better (kinda like the BBC, in fact). In other words, they're basically a Subscription-based Religion. According to the documentary, they viciously follow anyone that crosses their path (well hello, boys!) and dig up the dirt on them. Not only this, but the Scientologists in the show actually started stalking the film-maker, following him everywhere, trying to keep tabs on them for saying bad things about their cult.

"Cult", apparently, is the word that scientologists do not want to hear. Apparently, it's really offensive to them. Normally when a minority group makes as a statement like that, I'd immediately apologise, but not in this case, because the Scientologists in the show came across as just that: leaders of a cult. Throughout the film, John Sweeney was stalked by a particularly loathsome little pratt in a black suit and shades, who did his best to come across as menacing and intimidating. A fellow Scientologist goon was always hovering nearby with a video camera, documenting each and every word. When he arrived at filming locations, he found that the dirt had already been spread about him.

The celebrity interviews from the show are actually mostly cut out, replaced with a still image whereby John Sweeney gives a summary of what was said. Apparently, because he used the word "cult", the interviews had to be removed completely, and the BBC was threatened with a barrage of messages from the scientologist celebrities' lawyers. It's scary that they can have that sort of power.

Near the end of the programme, John Sweeney loses it and starts screaming at the goon in shades. Who wouldn't! This annoying little twerp has been following the film-maker around for the whole show, talking over him, stalking him, spreading crap about him, and acting as if the guy has no right to question his sacred nonsense. Sweeney even apologises for his outburst, but there was no need. The guy in shades was so annoying that had John Sweeney socked him in the jaw, I'd still have thought no less of him.

The thing that I don't understand - and I hope I don't offend any people reading this that happen to be religious too much - is that there were plenty of people ready to scoff at the Scientologists but wouldn't do the same thing for Christianity. The differences are clear: I've not heard of any other church that stalks people and spreads dirt about them, but aren't the fundamental concepts of putting faith in an incredible story the same? If Christianity had been invented yesterday, everyone would be laughing at it in the same way. Christianity's stories of resurrections and other implausible acts, however, are built upon and are given a new dose of ridiculousness by Scientology's sci-fi roots: Holy Ghosts are replaced with Galactic Lords, which are definitely much funnier.

What was also interesting, was that some of the celebrities that appeared clearly found the concept ridiculous as well. When fed the story of the alien war-lords, they either said it was nonsense, or started laughing! How phony can you get? This builds upon my theory that only the most devout followers of a religion truly believe in the nonsense that is fed to them. The rest keep quiet and treat it as some sort of activity club for adults.

The whole show confirmed what I was already suspicious of: that a lot of human beings are fundamentally quite silly and require any sort of organised faith system - however ridiculous - to feel whole. I think that's sad. Watch the show and tell me if you agree.

Europe's biggest televisual joke (no, not the SCART connector) is celebrated tonight: the Eurovision Song Contest, where each European country (as well as a few non-European ones, I think) selects some budding hopefuls and puts them forward to perform a rubbish song and dance routine. Votes are collected and the winner gets... something. I don't know what, because I can't remember the last time Britain actually won the contest. If you don't live in Europe, you probably won't have heard of it, which is a pity, because it's a laugh riot.

Part of the reason for that is because that, for once in a European-wide context, Britain has the right attitude and doesn't take the contest seriously at all. Year after year, it sends cheap bubblegum pop acts up for the massacre. Apparently other European countries try and do well, but fortunately for me, Eurovision is seen as something of a joke here in the UK. Seriously, the clue's in the name! Just from hearing it, you get the feeling of "cheap crap". That's what makes the contest so funny!

Remember the clip of the chubby boy singing badly on "American Idol" that got sent around the web? Well, just imagine that, add glitter and a pinch of camp, and a good dose of cultural diversity, and you have the Eurovision contest: the one night of the year where we, as one Europe, can celebrate our rubbishness together, through the power of music.

I can't wait to see Britain screw up tonight. I've heard the song being put forward (on the news, honest) and it made me want to scoop my ears out! Just so you know who to giggle at, these are the hopefuls that are representing the country in the Crap Olympics:

A few days ago, I posted about the Scratch removal (DVNR) artefacting on the "Droopy: Complete Theatrical Collection" box set. Since then, a reader asked me to provide screen grabs of the shorts in unmangled form, so people could compare the differences for themselves. Good idea! Luckily, I have unmangled copies to hand:

1993 US Laser Disc (colour corrected pour moi, originally had extreme blue tint):

Isn't restoration great? Well, yes, yes it is - when the video transfer technicians know what they're doing.

I seem to be a little late to the party, but apparently the internet is awash with information from credible sources that The Simpsons Movie will feature, and I quote, "a full frontal nudity shot". Apparently, Bart Simpson himself will be shown "exposing his part" for a brief second.

Wow, you know, that's pretty funny in a twisted way, and I only say twisted because, well - Bart Simpson is 8 years old. Yikes! And reportedly, the film is still going to be released with a PG-13 rating. If there's a shred of truth in this, then it's going to more or less prove that big corporations talking in dollars easily sways the MPAA. More interestingly, what's going to happen in other territories around the world?

Most likely, this is just a great publicity stunt on Fox's part, and the so called "exposed" genitalia is nothing more than the shot we've seen from the trailer already (you know the one, it has Bart slammed against a window with Ned Flanders holding a french fry over it). It wouldn't matter either way though, as good the older episodes of the show were, the drawings in The Simpsons have always been basic enough for the two to be virtually indistinguishable.

This short post will end with a choice quote from a particularly offended punter, based in, of course, the United States:

Boycotts over a supposed cartoon penis. Now I've seen it all! If there was any justice i in the world, people would have boycotted the show long ago when it became a walk-on showcase for celebrities to try their hand at cartoon voice acting.

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I have it on good authority that a "Compleat Tex Avery" DVD set is in the works, and will have these DVNR errors corrected. However, its release depends on the sales of this first set.

So my advice is to buy it, tolerate the 4 DVNR'd cartoons (which I'm going to explain below), and have fun watching all of the others, which look either good or excellent.

Before I discuss the video transfer on this set, I need to first of all say that it's great to see that Warner Bros have taken the mature, responsible approach to the less politically correct caricatures in these old theatrical cartoons. The back of the package, in-box insert, and DVD menu, all remind the viewer that these cartoons were made for adults, are products of their time, and might not be suitable for kids. So, don't let the glossy airbrushed cover art fool you - WB have got this part right. "Droopy's Good Deed", which had one part cut by accident on the LaserDisc, is totally intact. That's great! And the other often-edited cartoon is also on here intact.

Not only that, but the video transfer on "Dixieland Droopy" (what a classic!) is so, so much better than any other version I've seen. The others were either tinted brown or blue, but this one looks great. Additionally, if you owned the LaserDisc set - "The Compleat Tex Avery" - then you'll have remembered the curious Cinemascope remakes of some of the cartoons that were included, and how murky they looked. They look a lot better on this DVD, and they're a lot funnier than I used to give them credit for. And the 16-minute documentary on the set is pretty good as well - nothing revolutionary, but a nice retrospective.

Other cartoons on the set look pretty good as well, given their age. (Go and check out Andrea's site, ClassicCartoons.blogspot.com, where I sent pictures of some really great looking moments from the set). Unfortunately, 4 out of the 24 cartoons on the set are DVNR disasters and contain some of the worst examples of DVNR artefacts I've ever seen (and that's not just an angry exaggeration). It's a small number, but it's still four too many, and two of them are shorts that are rarities, as they're presented in uncut form, which is a little ironic. Missing scenes or missing lines - what'll it be?

The affected shorts (termed "episodes" on the DVD, for some reason) are so badly eroded that the mangled lines are almost constant, not just in selected areas like on the Looney Tunes discs. Basically, if a character starts running, or the camera pans, you'll see the artefacts. It's pretty severe, severe enough to be spotted while fast forwarding. Here's some samples.

Before you say "What's wrong with this one", there's meant to be strings on the top part of the frame, but the DVNR hardware has mistaken them for scratches and erased them.

The 1993 LaserDisc didn't have these problems. Sure, the video transfers were products of their time and not always as good overall, but at least the people in charge of making them hadn't abused film restoration hardware in the process. Please WB, if you're going to use Dirt and Scratch Removal systems on your classic cartoons, be more careful, and get video perfectionists to scrutinize the end results BEFORE you press a few hundred thousand copies of the thing and send it to stores! Get me to sign a non-disclosure agreement and send me screeners and I'll check over them for you for free - serious offer, I know people from WB have read this site before!

Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection is out in the USA and Canada on May 15 (in one week). I think the bottom line here is that the set is good, and WB's attempt to please collectors by releasing the shorts uncut is commendable to say the least, but they need to be more careful if they're going to "restore" cartoons. Its inclusion of some previously cut scenes and excellent quality Cinemascope cartoons, as well as some other Avery classics, means that it's still a must-have. But still, let's hope that in the future, WB will be more careful. Restoration, after all, is pointless if it ends up making the shorts look worse instead.

Eurogamer is reporting that Sony are to redesign the Playstation 3, being based from the same chipset design. Eurogamer mentions that "According to the source, it will also include a software suite for managing streaming of content to TVs and hi-fis, and feature improved output" and that the new machine may "only" be 18 months away.

If this is actually true, then colour me gobsmacked. The general consensus seems to be that the Playstation 3 is overambitious as it is, with the Blu-ray drive that a lot of people have told me they "don't need" often being the subject of much criticism. For Sony to add even more to the the thing by bolting video streaming capabilities on, and for a redesign to be rumoured this soon, leaves me very confused indeed. Something about this rumour, if true, seems to shout 32X to me: a newly dethroned market leader thinking that more and more technology will solve their problems, and drowning in what appears to be disorganisation.

I'm not sure where to even start, so forgive me if this post is just unstructured verbal vomiting. The problems started last night when I finally found a video capture driver that would let me use my ATI Graphics Card to capture video with Windows Vista. I fire up VirtualVCR (a video capture program) and sure enough, video! Hoozah!

Oh, but wait - there's one problem. The video is darkening and lightening. Whenever there's too much white on the screen, the Contrast raises, blowing out all the detail in white areas. If the screen isn't white, the video returns to normal brightness. Sometimes it randomly dips even lower, making things look all dark.

You might be thinking, "aha, that's Macrovision copy protection", but it's not. The symptoms are the exact same - darkening and lightening picture, but the source I'm capturing from is not Macrovision'd - it's a Laser Disc. After a few hours of exasperation, I grab my brother's video card, which also has Video In functionality, and cram it into my computer instead. The cooling fan on the card is pretty big, so it means that I have to temporarily run my small PC with the casing off. No big deal, I'm just trying it out for a while, after all.

Oh. My brothers' card does NOT have the fluctuating brightness/contrast problem, despite using the same video capture chipset. So then, it is fairly safe to assume that the graphics card manufacturer (in this case, Connect3D), have manufactured a card that has faulty video capture functionality (I'm not the only one getting this problem). You know, I'm actually not that surprised, because most of the retailers and manufacturers don't even seem to know what their own products can and can't do as regards to Video In functionality. It's entirely possible to find out that you've accidentally been sent the non-VIVO (Video In Video Out) version of a card, or in my brother's instance, realise that you've got the functionality without even knowing about it!

After experimenting with that, I put my own card in (the one with the darkening and lightening problem), and boot up the PC. OK, the screen resolution is wrong, so everything is stretched on my widescreen monitor, so I'll install the ATI Catalyst drivers. I do so and reset. Except... uh oh. Windows Vista doesn't want to know and tells me:

Don't have permission? Guys!!! NO! This is MY computer! I am GIVING you permission to let me use my computer! I am the master and you are my bitch! You will listen to ME and stop holding my hand through every single meaningless computer-related task with stupid, over-the-top safeguards against myself! Windows Vista? More like Windows straitjacket and padded fucking cell! As for "Contact the Administrator", this is simply the computer equivalent of "Call back later and talk to someone else". I *AM* the Administrator and am logged in as such!

OK, so I can't use Catalyst Control Center to change my resolution. Can I use Windows' own system properties box? No, no I cannot, because that isn't a listed option. After mangling around for a while, I somehow manage to get my widescreen monitor's native resolution working. OK, problem one fixed, no more squashy graphics.

And before anyone suggests I try NVidia, they are apparently even more useless when it comes to video bungling. Oh well. I'll get there in the end, right?

Update (10:01pm): all of the advanced glassy "Aero" video effects in Windows Vista have somehow disabled themselves. Enabling them in the performance tab does not actually enable them, nor does re-benchmarking my system.

I need to write a University dissertation that's due in in about 10-11 months. That sounds like plenty of time, but I can't leave it until the last minute, or it will be crap. I'm doing the dissertation with the Film & TV Studies department, so obviously the theme needs to relate to Film and/or TV.

It needs to be about 6,500-7,500 words and I need to make up my mind by May 17th about what I'm writing about. I have three ideas, in order of how likely they are to happen:

I'm gonna need to decide soon, but I think the first animation one is most likely because there seems to be a ton of written material on the subject. On the other hand, the HDTV one would be easy, provided I could find references (you know what University is like... you might as well not write something unless you can reference it).

I don't normally gush over PCs. A/V equipment is more my thing. And I know they're not perfect, because you're more limited in what you can put inside them - but I have to say, I'm baffled as to why Small Form Factor PCs haven't become the norm.

This thought came to me today when I was cleaning out my old computer tower (that I used from 2003-2006). Since I'd just been swapping the graphics card out of my new PC, I had both beside each other. The size difference is not subtle.

Since I'm into A/V stuff, I'm used to downsized electronics. Just look at the iPod Nano. I don't especially like the thing, but you can't deny that it's an impressive accomplishment. Japanese electronics in particular, are crammed tight full of boards and chips. I heard stories that Sony engineers in Japan actually take their product prototypes and throw them into buckets of water to make sure there's as little wasted space inside as possible - the more bubbles that float to the surface, the more unused space is inside.

Because of this, I've always said that PCs are ridiculously oversized. I mean, I'm not saying that Towers shouldn't be available, I know that some people will need that much space inside - I'm just amazed that small PCs aren't the norm. There's so much wasted space inside computers - how many people do you know that even need more than 2 or 3 expansion slots on the back? 2 at most for a video card, and one for a sound card - assuming they're not using their motherboard's on-board sound (I don't, because on-board sound is often crap-tastic).

Moreover, why has a Japanese company not lunged in and seized this opportunity? Surely it'd be a natural fit. Imagine if one of Shuttle's good-looking PCs had "SONY" written on the front - everyone would be going crazy over it and paying a premium.

Ah well, I'm just delighted with my new tiny PC, and I could never go back to a huge noisy tower. Is there something I'm missing?

I thought having my Playstation 3 review ripped off was annoying, but how do you think these cartoon artists feel?

Some no-talent called Todd Goldman (aka "Goliath") has ripped off the work of several artists, and used the plagiarised designs to sell lousy T-Shirts. Want to know what makes it even funnier? Goldman has threatened to sue the sites that originally uncovered the theft! You literally couldn't make this up - what an ass!

Let's have a look at some of Todd Goldman's greatest original intellectual properties! The first one is curious, it seems to suggest that Goldman's idea of intellectual property is "colouring in". I especially like how he's added his name to it, presumably out of guilt!

Roman Dirge (author of the comic "Lenore" and writer on "Invader ZIM") is the next artist to get ripped off. Goldman's company couldn't even come up with a new pose, let alone a new character design! Dirge talks about the theft on his LiveJournal page and includes some more insight.

And here's a character created for an Intel commercial by Chip Wass. I guess the mouse-strokes required to draw eyeliner under both of the "new" character's eyes was just too much hard work for Todd and co.

This kind of stuff makes me seriously pissed, and profiting from it is just outright twisted. It's not just these three images either, other artists have also been ripped off. See the post at CartoonBrew.com for more on this... interesting man.

His lawyer goons claim that "the hosting of such statements and/or URL links about Mr. Goldman is actionable defamation and libel that has caused irreversible damage to his character". Um, guys, Mr. Goldman has done quite enough damage to himself without you making it amusing, don't you think? Why don't I go and rob and old folk's home tomorrow? I'll still be liked, so long as nobody posts about it on the internet!

It's not due for release in the USA until May 15th, but that hasn't stopped DVD Pacific dispatching my copy 12 minutes ago, almost two full weeks ahead of schedule! Air mail means that it'll probably reach me in about 6-8 days, which is good since this is something I'm definitely looking forward to.

Tex Avery's classic MGM cartoons haven't ever been released properly on DVD until now. There's an expensive LaserDisc set from the early 90s (which I own) which is mostly uncut, and also an incompetently mastered mess of a French DVD set, but this will be the first time that these golden age theatrical shorts hopefully receive the attention they deserve.

Jerry Beck, cartoon historian, is on record as saying that it's Warner's intention to release these uncut, with all of the cartoon violence and 1950s racial jokes left in intact, unlike some other releases. The 90s LaserDisc set was also intended as an uncut release, but two edits still made their way on by accident. If these shorts are included on here uncut, it'll probably be the first time they've been seen intact since the 1950s.

Thank hell. It's amazing how bad a glossy screen and High Backlight setting on an LCD monitor can be for your eyes. When night time came and my new screen was pumping out full-brightness output, I think my retinas were slowly burning out. Fortunately though I can correct what I said before: it DOES have a Backlight adjustment (thank hell). It's simply disabled if you choose the sRGB colour preset. Choosing "Warm", "Cool", or, wouldn'tchaknowit, "User", will let you adjust a setting called "Brightness".

Thanks to the low, low US$, I was able to acquire a ton of cheap computer bits, meaning that my new PC came in waaaay "under budget". This, coupled with selling bits from the old one... as well as some other stuff... meant that I had some extra money to spend. So, to celebrate my last exam today, and since the weather is ridiculously good here (by UK standards), I went into town and bought me a nice new PC monitor.

It's nothing outrageous, just an 19" widescreen HP w19b, which has a native resolution of1440x900 - a nice compromise between nice big text and high-ish resolution. And although the controls are limited (there's no backlight control, tsk tsk), it suits me just fine for what I use my computer for. I thought that at £180, the price was right, too.

Anyway, I really like this thing - it's surprising how much it's rounded off the "new computer" feel. It has a nice gloss black appearance (which is surprisingly non-reflective), and no longer do I have to look at my old screen, which was, uh, showing its age a little. Yep, my old screen was a Philips model from 2003, which must be an eternity in LCD-land, and it had some seriously funky colour reproduction. Better yet, it also had a collection of battle scars it had acquired over the years (a gash out of the panel surface and a gigantic brighter patch that appeared after the poor thing smacked face-first into my keyboard).

It's amazing how a new screen makes the whole set-up seem even shinier and newer than it is!

Scottish Election Special: more people to NOT vote for: The Scottish Christian Party

A few days ago I posted about the British National Party, and why they are ass-hats. Now I'm going to post about another group of people who, while not obviously mean-spirited, also need to take classes in rational thinking (rational thinking for THEMSELVES, I might add). Yes, today, while I was sitting around getting ready for my last exam, I got a phone call from good old Craig, who had received a mail shot from one of several loopy political parties who want our vote: the Scottish Christian Party, who, in their own words, are "Scotland's only Christian Bible-based political party", but actually in reality are better described as "Scotland's only Bible-based advert AGAINST Christianity".

"Bible-based political party" should set off a warning light or two. I'm aware that, apparently especially so in the United States, it's fashionable to pretend that you enjoy reading that particular book, but it has all sorts of scary suggestions for how to live your life in it (as well as how to try and live other people's lives for them), as well as other things which are admittedly nice, which is a point worth considering if you believe that people aren't already nice anyway.

They're not REALLY bible-based in the strict sense, though. For example, none of the Scottish Christian Party's points relate to the good old examples of gluttony or eating shellfish, or avoiding women who are menstruating. It seems that "Bible-based" in this case means that, unsurprisingly, "we will back up our existing gripes against people or thing we don't like, using our special book". Rather than basing their party's manifesto on the nice things in life, the Scottish Christian Party seem to have concentrated on the murkier aspects of their religious history.

I'm not going to include all of the mail-shot here, but the general gist of it is thus:

What a load of complete shite. You can assume by visiting their web site (it's a laugh riot, take a look at the clip art they use on it, seriously) that these people might not be the sharpest tools in the box, but this mail-shot confirmed it. Seeing as Christianity is losing enough support in the United Kingdom as it is, you would expect that a party based on it would try to say some nice things rather than basing their operations around denying people equal rights. I decided to pen an open letter to the goons, informing them of the facts of modern-day life.

Most religious-based arguments against the existence of gay people (I'm laughing just typing this, it's that ridiculous) seem to be based around the argument that "it" is "unnatural". "Unnatural" is a trendy buzz-word for "different", and I believe "it" is a term that can mean any one or more of the following: people who both have the same type of sexual organs holding hands, people who both have the same type of sexual organs getting hot and steamy with one another, people who both have the same type of sexual organs. Wow, guys, seriously, who cares?

When you hear of the bloody, sticky mess that is child-birth, and heterosexual couples arguing over what brand of pump will best transfer milk out of the breast to enable time-shifted baby-feeding, people who preach against homosexual men because their most convenient sexual method involves the derrière, start to look more than just a little bit silly. As someone who barely has a sex drive worth mentioning, all I can do is look on in puzzled disbelief at the things that motivate people to stand in elections.

PS: other people who're reading in Scotland, when are the elections again? It's May 3rd, right?

I frickin' love these guys. It's sunny out, is my last day of University before tomorrows final exam, and I've just been given £25, thanks to Bucks4Banners.

Yes, TheAdNetwork, is Bucks4Banners, who I posted about before. By signing up to these guys and including adverts on three pages of your site, you're given £5 a month, £10 just for signing up, and also £10 for every new member you get onto the network (that's what the £20 I've been given this month is from, so whoever signed up to the service by clicking through this site, thanks a lot, seriously - this has paid for this year's hosting fees). In about two months I've made £40 just from being on it.

At the risk of turning this site into one big Bucks4Banners advertisement, seriously consider signing up to this program if you have a web site.

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