May 2008 Archives
May 24, 2008 12:12 AM
I can't play Halo 3 online anymore
Here's why.
In case you're not following, the above picture is an input lag test. I am going to assume that the PC monitor (on the right) has no input lag at all because if it did, it'd be very difficult to use. The Sony KDL-40W2000 on the left, however, is lagging by a good 45ms, according to this test. If this sounds like no big deal, I'll put it simply: it's enough to completely scupper your chances of ever winning in a Team SWAT game.
Well, that explains a hell of a lot and gives me a good insight into just why online games have felt so "off" and bizarrely unfair. Display lag + web connection lag = frustrating gaming. What's actually scary is that I wasn't even aware of this happening before I received another TV (a brand new Panasonic, as it happens) to review earlier last week. The Panasonic isn't totally lagless either and apparently has a delay of 30ms, but the fact that it felt amazingly responsive compared to my own HDTV, despite only being 15ms better, goes to show just how much these small numbers can make all the difference.
I knew all the video processing crap manufacturers like to throw in could cause lag, but I didn't truly care because I thought it wasn't a problem for me. By the way, the Sony is lagging this much despite the fact that it's receiving a 1:1 mapped signal (1920x1080p to fit the panel exactly). Presumably, the gamma adjustments, colour gamut gacking, and all the other BRAVIA ENGINE tweaks are creating this delay, because there's no scaling or deinterlacing to do it.
The biggest problem of all is, now I'm aware of it happening so, on a psychological level, I no longer have any desire to power the game up.
Fuck. Needless to say, input lag tests will be a standard feature of any HDTV reviews I do now on any site.
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9 commentsMay 23, 2008 10:56 AM
I bought a new el cheapo phone
I don't really get phones, I don't understand why some people are so excited by them. I need to have one around me because I'm paranoid that I miss a text, and I like to check my Gmail on the crappy WAP browser while I sit around the bus station. But I don't really get why some of them are so expensive when they fulfill such basic functions.
Anyway, about a year ago I was foolish enough to buy an LG Chocolate phone which has been a pain in the ass since the early days. Not only did the number 9 key come loose and eventually fall out (meaning I had to mush the pink rubbery thing underneath it if I ever wanted to send a message with w, x, y or z in it), but the thing started randomly turning itself off, making the awkward interface and difficult to use buttons even more infuriating. Not only that, but the damn thing of course had to have the trendy and stupidly impractical touch sensitive navigation (thanks a lot, Apple Computer). It speaks wonders that the most important functions - the number buttons - were still BUTTONS (even if they are hard to press and annoying for fast texting). Why do you think buttons are everywhere? Because they work no matter how wet or sweaty your phone/hands are and provide feedback.
So, after wrangling with Empire Direct's customer services department (who told me to call LG), I was eventually told by LG's customer services number that I could send the phone back to them for repair, the only caveats being that if the phone was physically damaged, I'd be charged £30 for an inspection of the damage, more on top of that for repair charges, and I think also some extra amounts of cash too, I guess to punish me for being foolish enough to buy an LG phone. A call to Trading Standards later and I was told to take the phone back to a Carphone Warehouse store, which I did, and the little piece of black crap is off for repair.
Anyway, not wanting to be without a phone for a few weeks, I paid £19.99 for a new phone while I was in the store and bought a Sony T250i which works how you'd expect it to. It's basic as hell, has a crappy screen, and guess what, it's super-fast and doesn't FREEZE UP OR GO OFF IN THE MIDDLE OF WRITING A LONG MESSAGE like the much more expensive LG thing. Not only that, but it doesn't look like you'd expect a cheap phone to. It's great.
It can check email. It can send SMS messages. It can even telephone people. And it has a crappy camera as well, for some reason. These features (bar the crappy camera) are all I need.
May 17, 2008 6:48 PM
So, is the Oppo 983 really the ultimate Progressive Scan/Upscaling DVD player?
You don't think I'd tell you on the front page, do you? I am such a tease!
May 16, 2008 2:34 PM
Graduation fun plus, I made a "film"
Guess what, as of some time at the end of next month, I'll have an MA Degree. I actually wasn't sure this was what I was getting; I mean, I've gone to University for the last four years but nobody ever explicitly told me that's what the end result would be. All the academic jargon has gone over my head in this time but, especially in the last two years, I managed to dodge most of the more obscure stuff and concentrate on things I really like doing.
Case in point, TV production! In the October-January time frame, we had to produce a "short production" of our own choosing. It could be anything so long as it wasn't over ten minutes long (in fact they encouraged us to keep them under that, but said that "it can be longer if it's good"). For some reason, we ended up producing a short film version of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart". I found out afterwards that this is apparently a really common choice for student films, and I'm not sure why. The reasons we (me and the 3 others in my group) chose to do it were simple: it was a short story that didn't involve any special effects and could be narrated, meaning we could minimise audio woes by fabricating the sound later and concentrating on interesting visuals.
Anyway, you can watch a YouTube'd version of our "film" here*. I say "film" in inverted commas because I'm a technical purist and we recorded the damn thing on video (mini-fucking-DV, it's not exactly HDCAM SR), which actually leads me to my next point. One of the biggest fears I had was that, as a student film, the thing would come out looking and sounding like a home video. There's a few technical errors I'd like to see the back of, but I like to think I did a good job at disguising its electrical roots during the editing stages.
I demanded we film it for some sort of wide aspect ratio, because there's just no way I could personally get pleasing framing from 4:3 and having a square ratio on a new film really cheapens the result, in my opinion. Problem was, the cameras we were using had a really dodgy 16:9 crop mode (it wasn't true 16:9), so instead I decided to record in 4:3 with black masking tape over the viewfinder and deinterlace and do aspect ratio conversion later. That was a lifesaver because it meant we could shift each shot up and down and re-frame things during editing. It was a real plus for "framing out" electrical sockets and lights and such.
Well, I'm off now because I'm at University and, in 30 minutes, all the student films are being screened, including this one. I'm really curious to see what the other groups came up with. The University Film and TV screening room has an LCD projector and a high gain screen, so I'll probably have a headache by the end, but this should be fun...
* Actually, you can't watch it on YouTube anymore, because I just learned a few hours ago that the film is being submitted for a student BAFTA award. So uh... yeah. You'll have to wait. Sorry!
May 16, 2008 5:51 AM
So, after buying a projector in December, my projection setup nears completion! A few nights ago, I mounted my 123" Da-lite Perm-wall screen to the wall. OK, that's a total lie, my dad did it and I watched and passed screwdrivers on request (he is experienced with the DIY tasks, whereas I am a big girly boy who'd rather hammer movies onto beautiful discs than rusty nails into walls).
So, there's two things wrong with this picture. One, the wallpaper is not the most tasteful around so will be getting covered with black fabric to complete the experience. Second, the radiator at the bottom, which has actually been permanently disabled so as not to ruin the screen.
Da-lite (it's pronounced "day light", in case you're wondering, not like "delight") state in their install instructions that you should actually drill the frame onto the wall, then snap the buttoned surface fabric onto the screen after that. The problem there is that you only have so many attempts at drilling the holes in the exact same place on both the top and bottom frame parts, and if you get them too out-of-place, the screen won't fit tightly on to the frame and will have bulges and ripples in it. So, my dad had the idea of putting... screwy type things... at the top of the wall, then hanging the screen from them. And putting some other supports around it too for safety, of course.
That sort-of worked at first, but because the frame was being hung instead of drilled, it didn't have the required tightness, so the bottom of the screen curved upwards in the middle (very distracting during letterboxed movies or any other type of obviously geometrical picture). So, the fix was to cut three planks of wood and use them to support the frame. Voila, nice and rectangular.
There is simply no other way to watch films than this (well OK, except on a 2.35:1 constant height setup, but I'm generalizing here). Long before a projection setup was a possibility for me, I've always thought that the idea of "home theater" involving a television (even at the larger sizes) was, well, absurd, and I apologize if that sounds elitist. It's hardly the worst way to watch films, after all. The only way to get close to the experience of seeing films in a cinema is to black your room out and get some sort of large screen. And I guess if you can find some way of emulating that bizarre sweet popcorn and hot dog combination smell too, then that's a bonus.
Next up: calibrate it, black out the wall, and get better sound...
May 14, 2008 1:06 AM
Indy coming to Blu-ray! (or not)
Update: Don't you just love getting your hopes up... 1080b have updated their original post claiming that Paramount Spain have informed them that there is no official release date any time soon. Booooo.
Those spiffingly enjoyable films known as the Indiana Jones trilogy (quadrology?) are finally coming to everyone's favourite optical disc format (or if you're still bitter, then we'll say favourite surviving optical disc format). That's right, 1080b.com reports that all four films are coming to BD in Spain on October 29. Which means that Paramount Home Entertainment USA should soon be confirming this news Stateside for our Region A shiny disc spinners.
"Transformers" HD DVD eat yer heart out.
Link: 1080b.com
May 7, 2008 11:24 PM
So, after... 16 months (16 MONTHS!) of secrecy, I've been given the go-ahead from upstairs to reveal the DVD I've been working on over the last while. It's called La Femme Publique (The Public Woman) and is a 1984 French film from director Andrzej Zulawski (who some Americans might know from "Possession").
I was originally brought in to supervise the standards conversion (the master tape was in 625/50 and the final DVD needs to be sold in America) but ultimately ended up authoring the entire disc, doing the entire restoration, video encode, timing the subtitles, helping with the packaging, and some other odd jobs. Here is what the final disc looks like (yes, the final disc that you will be able to buy, not the master tape - I've been asked a few times). This is what unfiltered NTSC DVD looks like.
No dirty brickwall filter or filthy grain reduction were allowed near Francis Huster's manly stubble! Although, that said, I did paint out some dirt and scratches by hand.
Anyway, I'm so sleep deprived right now and need to get back to figuring out this damn subtitle format (for the next film - you didn't think we'd resort to dubtitles, do you?), so I'm just going to blatantly copy and paste the same screen grabs that my brother posted earlier. Click them! In fact, just go and read his entire post, I need to go and make toast and he's summed it up more succinctly.
I don't know of a release date just yet, but should do soon. There's going to be a standard release and a limited edition. Details to follow.
Oh, by the way, this is a public service announcement to let you know that if you buy the film, you get to see Valerie Kaprisky's boobies, and more besides. Those lovable French!
May 2, 2008 1:57 PM
New John Kricfalusi cartoons coming!
The creator of Ren & Stimpy has announced on his blog that 40 minutes worth of new cartoons featuring everyone's favourite republican, George Liquor, are on the way. John announced 3 summers ago that his old studio, Spumco, was no more, so whether or not this still stands, or whether these will be released under some new name, isn't yet known.
Either way, it sounds like these are full-length cartoons rather than 2-3 minute spots (like the ones John did for Raketu and Comcast) so will be the first lengthy (lengthy by animated standards) productions from Mr K since the ill-fated Adult Party Cartoon in 2003.
John's looking for young talent to help produce the new shorts, and promises that there will be "No dirty hippie ladies this time" to hinder production (a reference to the censorial hassle of producing cartoons for kids TV).
