January 2009 Archives
January 27, 2009 8:11 PM
Mean Girls is coming out on Blu-ray
They better not fuck up the video transfer.
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3 commentsJanuary 24, 2009 7:52 PM
Here's some mail that did arrive on time
Well, not really, by "on time" I mean that I forgot about it. What a nice surprise this was:
Mmm, a seal. That's how you know it's somehow important.
In a few weird ways, this actually matters to me more than graduating University. Probably because this was based on actual knowledge and not jumping through academic twaddlehoops.
January 16, 2009 3:24 PM
Behold - Royal Mail Next Day Delivery!
After dropping a couple of hundred pounds on Final Cut Studio 2, I naturally wanted the hefty box of discs and manuals in my hands as soon as possible. Good thing then, that the delivery was being handled by Royal Mail Next Day, at a price of £22.
Here it is - Final Cut Studio 2!
Of course, today is Friday. Assuming the worst (and this is Royal Mail so that seems quite appropriate), that means that this will not be here until the beginning of next week. And can I speak to the people at my nearest sorting office? No I can not, because they don't pick up the phone.
One of the most amusing things about all this, is that Royal Mail actually contacted me lately to ask if I'd received their small business growth pack and if I'd be interested in talking to them more. Guys: you can't even get me a Next Day item to me on the Next Day or tell me where it is. Why the fuck do you think I'd want to rely on you for a living?
January 16, 2009 8:47 AM
Hilarious comedy video posted on the World Wide Web!
Wow! That's some funny stuff! My favourite part is 3 minutes into the clip. Check out the look on that guy's face! This humor is so British - I should forward this to my friends who live there. They'll love it!
January 16, 2009 6:59 AM
Early last year, at around this time, we saw the death knell for HD DVD. This year, we say goodbye to Laserdisc. I didn't know this either, but Pioneer were still manufacturing LD players, presumably for Karaoke and Industrial applications, and have just announced that the next 3,000 units will be the last.
There are people better qualified than me to talk about what LD did for home theater, but we can thank it for original aspect ratio, surround sound in the home, and director's commentaries - as well as USEFUL supplemental features - to say the least.
...under the market environment in which new media such as DVD and Blu-ray discs now dominate, it has become difficult for Pioneer to procure the parts required to produce LD players. Consequently Pioneer has been forced to terminate production of its LD products.
And you know what the final chuckle is? It just managed to outlast VHS. Ha ha fucking ha. Take your tracking errors and butchered movies (or should that be "--hered mov--"?), I'll flip and swap discs thank you very much.
Thanks Pete for the heads up!
January 14, 2009 2:02 AM
Sony (actually their PR people) gave me a Rolly and told me to review it. More politely than that, but that was the assignment. That is a difficult task, because the Rolly is probably one of the most baffling concepts that has somehow emerged from the company (not quite in the same league as Aibo, Sonicstage, or Progressive segmented Frame, but close).
Basically, Rolly is a £250 music player shaped like an American football, which spins around, lights up, and makes sounds. This is meant to be used as a stimulant to, ahem, student parties, right, guys? Do they have those in Japan? The problem is, students (or at least the cool ones who lived away from home, NB I was not one of these) can't afford a £250 music player, especially if they can't plug it into their iPod headphones or their Logitech speaker system.
When I first unboxed the thing and turned it on, I was quite underwhelmed. Rather than spinning around and brimming with personality like I'd expected, Rolly sat quite sadly and started playing some of the preloaded music. Despite the fact that it was playing a Calvin Harris track, the thing still managed to come across as somewhat likeable. After an RTFM moment, I realised that you had to tap the button on the top of the egg-shaped device to make it bust a move. There was no delete option on the device itself, like on the later Walkmans, so I quickly installed the bundled software (on CD), Rolly Choreographer, to remove Mr. Harris and Madame Lavigne and see what I could make the little guy spasm around to.
Rolly Choreographer seems like a descendant of Sonicstage (aka OpenMG Jukebox), which will be familiar to longtime users of Sony audio products. Which means that Sony must be some sort of descendant of the Network Walkman, which is just fine and dandy in my books. Like Sonicstage, the interface isn't perfect, but it's functional enough. Simply importing MP3 tracks isn't enough to make Rolly dance though, you have to tell the software to automatically generate motion to go along with the music. Sheesh... Sony seem to be doing everything they can to stop the little dancing robot from actually dancing! You can also manually assign motion too, which is something I haven't yet tried.
Unless I missed something (which I admit is possible given what else I had to get done during this review period), there was no way to control the colour of the lights on the thing. So, I couldn't have Rolly put its flaps ("arms" in the manual) up, turn red and roar out heavy metal and spin around like some sort of amazing easter egg death monster. But even lighting up all the colours of the rainbow and making various sound effects, the thing still managed to scare the living shit out of my dog.
So, do I recommend Sony's Rolly? Well, I'm not the sort of guy who would listen to music on a device like this to start with, so no, not personally. But I can see how some people could adopt it as a sort of 21st-century ghetto blaster. But still, £250 is a hell of a lot of money for a novelty item, even if it is kinda cute.
January 10, 2009 12:38 PM
Red Scarlet is coming, untalented people please exit to the right
Tyler Ginter has posted an excellent summary of the huge change that's coming this year in the film production world: the Red Scarlet. In summary, the video acquisition market is about to get a huge kick in its sub-standard backside thanks to this little camera, and talented indie filmmakers and producers will no longer have to put up with using consumer or "prosumer" video equipment.
Tyler's post is called "no more excuses", and that really resonates with me living in the UK, where the aesthetic standards demonstrated on some television shows could hardly be any lower. Budget is presumably the excuse used in these cases (if anyone ever brings it up at all). I don't know what part of the budget necessitates removing every second video field and interpolating it from adjacent ones to create a pitiful and revolting looking jagged "film effect", but never mind, because budget won't be a problem, either. Indie filmmakers, TV networks, and the big guys, will be playing on a much, much more level playing field.
I look forward to seeing how these affordable digital cinema cameras are used in projects that would otherwise be shot on ugly video equipment. The end broadcasts will still be pumped out at sub-standard definition with MPEG-2 data rates that resemble compression artefacts as much as (or more than) they do pictures, but at least the bar will be raised. More importantly to me, I look forward to getting my hands on one myself and delivering the results to lovely BDs.
January 7, 2009 12:35 PM
When only the be$t will do...
January 7, 2009 10:19 AM
Chassis intrusion error!!!!1111
Forget what I said about my new PC case working correctly. The front USB ports weren't working. So I decided to open the system and reconnect some things.
Then it wouldn't turn back on. I remembered last night and removed the jumper from under the video card. Now I get this.
Yes, that's right. You know the one GREAT thing about PCs? You can buy off the shelf parts and slot them in and out easily? OK, well, apparently I can't do that any more. In fact, I'm apparently not even allowed to OPEN THE FUCKING CASE.
Oh, and just to add to this morning's comedy: the little jumper that I have to put in some sort of mythical, undocumented location? Well, because of all the wires crawling around in here, I managed to DROP IT inside the machine. Yes, I have dropped what is, essentially, the plastic KEY to my entire computer, inside the case!
Chassis intrusion error? Here's a chassis intrusion error for you to consider. This hassle has soured things to the point where I seriously think this is the last Windows-based PC I'm ever going to own. I simply do not have time for this bullshit. What sort of numskull decided to program this function into the motherboard? And why aren't they dead yet?
January 7, 2009 9:27 AM
You big party animal you.
You big diseased, smelly, bloated party animal.
By the way, after transporting my motherboard drives, power supply etc. into my new computer case last night, I couldn't get the damn thing to start because of a "Chassis Intrustion Error". Yes, the computer was whining that the side of the case was off. Oh no - not that!
After a very pissed off few hours, it turned out that the problem was two incorrectly set jumper switches on the motherboard. One of these was, of course, UNDERNEATH the huge big video card, which had to be unscrewed and removed many times during the night. The other was on the bottom right of the board and needed to have a jumper pulled out of another machine (thanks Mike) before it would even contemplate starting up. Yes, that's right: the entire system wouldn't boot because of a tiny piece of fucking plastic.
Now, I love the customization, price, software choice, and configuration options that a Windows PC brings. But this sort of inane stupidity is an ADVERT for Apple Computer. That's me assuming that Mac Pros (if you can afford one) don't have jumper settings on the mainboard that can screw up, it seems logical that they won't.
Anyway, the thing is up and running now in a nice new case with better airflow (Antec 300), and, it has to be said, competition or no competition, you won't find an Apple machine this flexible for this cheap.
January 5, 2009 1:16 AM
Mondo Vision's long awaited web site went online in the last few hours. For the first time, people can get a sneak peek at my handiwork on Zulawski's L'important c'est d'aimer. The colour correction is not finalised, but the screen shots should give you a good idea of how it compares to the other versions out there right now (which are quite representative of the source I was given to work with).
By the way, things are going to be set in motion soon for me to begin offering DVD authoring and encoding services on a larger scale (what I do for Mondo Vision is by no means exclusive). I'm not sure if anyone involved reads my blog or not, but if you're interested in having any authoring projects seen to, by all means get in touch.
January 5, 2009 1:10 AM
I just spent 90 minutes of my life watching Momentum's UK BD of THE MESSENGERS. This film is so frustratingly numb and wooden that quite frankly, I feel like billing the filmmakers for 90 minutes of projector lamp time. Other than a few well-placed loud noises, there was almost nothing engaging whatsoever, and the actors (even Kristen Stewart, the semi-androgynous looking girl from Panic Room) fitted together in such an unconvincing family that I was convinced we were about to be told that the girl was supposed to be adopted. It was bad.
What was fantastic, though, was the video. This is proof that a BD25 can hold MPEG-2 video and still produce an absolutely fantastic viewing experience if the master is of good quality and is treated with care. OK, a projection setup is good at masking compression issues (if there are any) and I'd rather check this sort of thing on a panel-based monitor or TV before sounding off on it, but forgive me for not wanting to look at the film again.
January 3, 2009 11:59 PM
Tidyout clearabout fun...about
This is a very cramped room so I decided to clear out a load of old crap and free up some space. I am very sentimental so this is going to take a while.
Actually there have been few unexpected surprises so far, but I found some documents dating back to when I started University in late 2004 and some stuff from my last year of high school, including this classic that I drew in Geography class, called "deer jumps in window":
And also this intentionally crude fan art:
There was also an entire notebook filled with drawings that I did with biting social commentary, which was probably very pretentious (I was 17). That is missing, feared lost, so you will have to imagine its majesty.
January 3, 2009 10:08 PM
Unpopped popcorn kernels freak me out
They are like gross little buttery popcorn fetuses.
....Enjoy the film, everyone!
January 3, 2009 4:40 AM
HDMI, it either works correctly or it doesn't
Although I've always informed people that a more expensive HDMI cable won't improve your video equipment's picture quality - the same way a more expensive USB cable won't improve the sound of your MP3 player - the issue has still actually been debated. A certain UK magazine, which I won't mention or lampoon here for purely professional reasons, even reviews cables and grades them out of 5, claiming that some have "deeper blacks" than others, and all sorts of other outlandish claims!
Well, AVForums just posted a fantastic new video (part 1 of 3) where Phil Hinton talks to Jeff Boccaccio from the Digital Performance Level program. And I quote:
"Once it's above the threshold of being good enough for the interface to function, the likelihood of the picture looking a little bit different is null."
January 2, 2009 11:53 PM
I guess the good wireless keyboards cost money
Today me and the family were out for some New Years' shopping. I ended up picking up another PS3 game - yes, from a UK store, something I haven't, for the most part, done in years. I managed to bag Unreal Tournament 2003 at GAME for the bargaintastic price of £15 new, so it sits on my shelf alongside Dead Space as another piece of software for a system I thought I'd only use as a Blu-ray player. I think this is going to be the year of the PS3.
I'm going to be letting go of the last few Xbox 360 games I have left over from the system failure in the next few days, so if anyone here wants first pickings from Eternal Sonata (US systems only), Dead or Alive 4 (US systems only), Burnout Revenge (I think also US systems only), Devil May Cry 4 or Assassin's Creed, all of which are in decent condition, then let me know.
Oh, and on to the subject. On Christmas Eve I bought a Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 700, a wireless keyboard and mouse set, which is so laughably bad that I boxed it up within a few minutes of opening it. Being able to type 103 wpm is unusual, but the response time on this thing was a joke; I sometimes had to hammer keys twice before it would pick up on the input. Today I was foolish enough to look for a replacement, the Logitech Cordless Desktop LX710 Laser, which is much better but still sluggish for a power user like myself. I don't remember my old wireless stuff being this lousy, but it might just be me. Screw it: when I do editing and have to sit far away from my PC, I'm just gonna buy a bunch of really long extension cords.
January 2, 2009 4:57 AM
SURPRISE: excellent DVD alert, compared to a similar 2006 effort
Remember back in 2000 when DVD was shiny and relatively new? Back then, if you had told people that 9 years later, this crispy new format's releases would be routinely and intentionally blurred for seemingly no reason whatsoever, you'd probably have a few eyebrows raised in your direction.
But that didn't stop Pathé releasing this little doozy: Chicken Run, Aardman Animations' stop-motion feature film. The screen shots do the talking, the film appears to be entirely unfiltered and at times resolves single-pixel detail. Granted, it's at its best on the I-frames, because whenever MPEG-2's temporal redundancy kicks in, the light grain gets a tiny bit corrupted (remember that MPEG-2 encoding was still fairly new back in 2000). But on the whole, this disc actually makes use of the entire frequency range and uses each of the 720x576 pixels individually.
The images here are cropped at 1:1. Click the small versions to open full-size 1:1 (720x576) grabs from the disc.
And yet, the film occupies only 4.39gb on the disc, and this is WITH a Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 track, two further Stereo Dolby Digital tracks, and a DTS audio track eating in! The rest of the disc is filled with extra features galore AND DVD-ROM content.
Now let's make an interesting comparison and fast-forward to 2006, to look at another Aardman stop-motion animated feature (the Wallace and Gromit movie), which comes in a two-disc DVD set from Dreamworks. It's six years on, and compression technology will have improved, right?
Well, yes, compression has improved, but the discs have got worse. This is the sort of detail you can expect from DVD-Video 6 years later.
Huge ringing around text and a lack of detail: the biggest signs of MPEG pre-filtering. Almost all of the high frequency video information has been "zeroed out". The cobble-stones on the street occupy the same frequency range as the rest of the image. There is no depth or focus any more.
What the fuck happened? The irony here is that unfiltered discs like the one produced in 2000 really shine on a Progressive display device - like an LCD, Plasma, LCoS projector or computer screen - that more people would be using in the years to come. And a filtered, compromised disc like the one from 2006 wouldn't be so obviously blurry on a CRT display, like the kind in use back in 2000. The display technology reveals more and more flaws, but the discs get worse and worse.
If you think the difference is visible in these 1:1 grabs on your computer screen, then consider what the difference is going to look like on even a modestly sized television display, or heaven forbid, a projection setup. As a standard-def format (or SUB-standard def in most cases now) format, DVD needs all the help it can get to look good. Every pixel needs to be used to its full. And yet studios are using hardware to blur the image under the promise of greater compression efficiency or reduced aliasing (the latter of which being a fairly ridiculous reason given the other problems introduced).
After all, it's not like people don't enjoy an unfiltered DVD, right?
Let's not let them screw up Blu-ray the same way they screwed up DVD.
