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Today’s the day!
Go on, admit it, you’ve not been able to sleep with anticipation of Sony’s “200″ IFA event. No? Well, you are curious to find out what it is after the electronic riddles they sent journalists and bloggers (and by electronic riddles, I mean a picture with “200″ written on it, promising that all will become clear).
The feeling I get from the Sony people is that this is going to be somewhat news-worthy, so keep checking back today. Also, there’s a live stream of the whole shabbado promised, so if you squint through the compression artefacts, you might see me hammering away at the laptop keyboard furiously.
Oh, the Blu-ray Disc Association Press Conference is at 17:00 German time. So, if you’re in the UK, then check DVD Times (and here, hopefully) to see if I’ve managed to get a Wireless signal to update live from. If not, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Now I am off to pack my bags, because we’re off to another hotel tonight because of logistical issues (how cool is that? Two swanky hotels in one trip!). Plus, this 30 euro-cents per minute web access is going to hurt me later.
IFA!
Since my flight to Berlin is delayed (albeit only by 15 minutes), I’m having to resort to outrageously priced Wireless internet access in the departure lounge. It’s either that or an outrageously priced sandwich or outrageously priced magazine to get my kicks, and I think I made the right choice thank you very much.
Over the next few days, keep checking back to links to all the stuff I’ll be polluting the internet with, including the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) press conference (hopefully I remember to get a press pass and don’t have to beg/sneak my way in this time), Sony’s mysterious conference (they’re paying for it, it’s only fair), and who knows, maybe some surprises.
Can anyone download some podcasts for me?
Pretty pathetic request really, but I’ll explain. I was linked to some podcasts about the filmmaking process over at Apple’s site, but in order to access them, I was told I had to download iTunes.
So I did that, then I get told this:
Oh, I’m sorry, how fucking stupid of me. It’s outlandish that I’d live in the UK and want to watch a podcast about how Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann goes about his work. No, you have to live in America for that, and that item is not currently available in the UK Store (it’s in a Store, despite the fact that the content is FREE).
“Currently”? Could you give me a date so I can mark my calendar? Can any kind people out there access the podcasts for me? Better still, does anyone know how to avoid this crap and spoof a US IP address, since those are more valuable than the one I have? Heaven forbid Apple would just put a damn QuickTime movie on their site.
Awful film receives great Blu-ray Disc release
 I just finished watching Universal’s Blu-ray exclusive debut: Doomsday.
I’ll get this out the way right now: the video is very close to top notch. Detail wise, it can’t be beat, and under almost any conditions, you’re almost guaranteed not to notice any compression niggles. It’s encoded using VC-1 and the disc is of the less spacious BD25 variety (I don’t think the disc is even full), and looks stunning throughout. This is what we’ve come to expect from Universal HD releases sourced from DI (Digital Intermediate). Shame their fully Telecine sourced back catalogue releases are so poor. If you want to look at the eye candy, check out screen grabs.
Doomsday is partly set in and was partly filmed in Glasgow, which is where I live, so I was naturally interested to take a look at it. The film itself begins with a rather bland futuristic fascist Britain tone. Scotland has become infected and the loveable yet evil English have sealed the country off and shoot anyone who tries to cross the border. Sound sort-of familiar? This is the start of the film, though, and slight similarities inevitably occur, so it’s too early to cry “ripoff”. Some truly bad dialogue makes for chuckles and the film is established as one of the 3-star variety, that is, one which won’t rock your world but won’t make you feel like wasted time.
A few decades later, pretty Lara Croft reject Rhona Mitra (looking suspiciously like Kate Beckinsale from Underworld) gets dressed in shiny black plastic and ventures back up to deserted Glasgow with her comrades, who drive a rubbish boxy tank around town. Before the slight whiff of Aeon Fluxiness can develop further, the style of the film completely changes (for the worse). It’s not too gently revealed to us that Glasgow 30 years in the future is in fact ruled by naff wannabe punks, who capture the surviving heroes and trot them around in a bizarre event which can only be described as “wrestling match meets destruction derby meets Highland games with generous use of licensed music” (I simply can’t describe it, you need to see it for yourself, it’s just awful). The naff punks roast and eat one of the heroes and chase the surviving ones, plus some escaped prisoners, back to the railway station.
An old-style steam train mysteriously takes the good guys to a faraway countryside location, where they pass through a strange door. After doing so, the style of the film completely changes again. This time, see if you can guess which popular franchise is flattered through the art of masterful imitation:
It’s not long before we’re due another mix and match change, so before our heroes can make it to Mordor, the film becomes Braveheart, and then Gladiator (I’m not even boldening the titles any more, it’s too embarassing).
Then there’s a Mad Max style car chase sequence at the end, where the naff punks return. And then the film ends. Seriously, what a train wreck! To think this is from the same guy who brought us The Descent! That said though, at least I was laughing for a short while and, while not exactly on the edge of my seat, wasn’t ever bored.
What was honestly so good about The Dark Knight?
 My friend Pete and I went to see the much-hyped The Dark Knight on Tuesday night (OK, it was his third time seeing it, the first was at the Imax and the second on standard 35mm). I’ve not seen a film in real cinema on a real 2.39:1 screen in ages, so it was a pretty fun experience. Apart from the film itself.
Some people are treating this film as if it’s the greatest thing ever made, and to be honest, I was bored for a good duration of it. The only truly gripping scenes were those with the Joker, who’s character was so brilliantly and realistically deranged that you had no idea what was going to happen next. The rest of the film seemed to do very little with an awful lot of screen time, and do so in a sometimes questionable way.
Were we supposed to dislike the politician guy, with his stuffed suit and sneery smile? Was Bruce Wayne, with his po-faced smirk, supposed to be similarly unlikeable, and the spitting image of Christian Bale’s character in American Psycho? Was his deep-throated growly Batman voice supposed to have me holding back giggles?
It’s one of those weird films, where if you asked me to summarise it, I’d find it difficult, because I just didn’t care. I can’t honestly tell you what REALLY happened during the 2.5 hours, other than a series of somewhat related and well-filmed incidents. No part of the whole thing (apart from the excellent opening) made me care about the grander scheme of things, and needless to say, left me quite cold.
It does make me wonder, were Heath Ledger still alive, would people have hyped the film in such a way? Do average Joes and Janes feel the need to see and exclaim their delight for the film because of the tragic incident? Do they feel that it would be disrespectful not to love the film?
Sony’s cryptic IFA invitation
What does 200 mean?
Is Sony releasing a 200-inch BRAVIA LCD? Do they plan on phasing out Blu-ray Disc, releasing movies to the public on HDCAM SR, and charging £200 per set of tapes? Is Sony Pictures releasing a product-placement-laden prequel to “300″, with more fake film grain and scantily clad ladies instead of scantily clad men?
I don’t know, but apparently all becomes clear at the end of the month at the IFA elektronicshow in Berlin, and those lovely PR people are flying me out again. Yay!
Samsung: too much choice is a bad thing
This might shock some people since I’ve been so critical of their HDTVs in the past, but when I next upgrade my LCD TV, I’ll almost certainly be getting a Samsung. I right now have an LE32A656 on my desk, and can say that the quality of their displays has improved in leaps and bounds. Samsung appear to have learned how to match their excellent SPVA LCD panels with decent video processing to do them justice, as well as a now-extensive array of video configuration options.
Buying a Samsung LCD TV though, is not easy. Similarly to how the huge choice of incredibly similar Linux distros puts me off trying even one of them, Samsung have so many TVs with seemingly little difference in specification, and model numbers which are truly a mouthful.
Here’s a screen grab from their UK site. I’ve filtered the results to show only 40 and 46″ 1920×1080p displays.
For someone used to Sony’s V-Series, W-Series, X-Series (etc) naming, this is a little bit of a shock. Of course, I have plenty of time to wait before upgrading. The input lag on my own Sony KDL-40W2000 is truly pissing me off for gaming, but then again, it’s not like I’ll be doing a lot of that until Microsoft repairs my Xbox 360, so I have plenty of time to figure out the differences between these and whatever new models Samsung decides to introduce.
Faster, Quadra, faster!
You can never have enough speed when you’re rendering video, so, it’s time for more upgrades. I just ordered the following cardboard box of goodies from eBuyer, the best online store in the world™.
Yep, it’s another 4gb of RAM, coming to a total of 8 (what say you to that, Vista refuseniks?) and two identical hard disks to set up in a RAID0 configuration, effectively turning them into one fast 160gb disk. Too small for a lot of video stuff, and also there’s the risk of data loss if one of the disks fails, but that’s why I’m only putting Windows and Programs on it, and no irreplacabale data.
Oh, and I just overclocked the bugger some more too. I’m at 3.3ghz, not bad considering that I officially paid for about 2.40ghz.
Oh, and speaking of hardware, my Xbox 360 stopped working, started working again, and now does this:
That’s Halo 3, by the way. Go Microsoft! Amazing how I can pump your operating system way past what I’ve paid for, but your joke of a console can’t stand up for a year without imploding into itself.
3K for $3K
If you haven’t heard of RED before, then know that they’re a company that makes revolutionary digital motion picture cameras at ridiculously fair prices. The 4K resolution RED ONE has been used and loved by various directors and at only around $20K for the body, it’s a hell of a lot less expensive than competing pro products from the likes of Panavision and Sony.
Now RED are teasing us with details of the Scarlet, a 3K camera which is going to cost “under $3000″. Yes, they’re promising us resolution far beyond the best HDTV available at a price that, whilst not pocket change, is actually possible for a mere mortal to afford. Not only that, but all of this is coming from an ambitious company who have proven their quality, and the price includes a lens too. It’s an indie movie maker’s dream.
What else… it shoots RAW, so pretty much all you need to get right at the time of shooting are zoom and focus, with the rest being fixable in post. The better than 1080p resolution video means you can even digitally zoom later without experiencing too much of a visible quality hit. And, it shoots any frame rate you want, from 1 to 120 frames per second, so say hello to REAL slow motion and kiss 60i frame interpolation tricks and frame doubling goodbye!
Did I mention I’m excited?
Of course, details are vague, in typical RED fashion. I’m still not sure what the options for storage are. What I do know is that a fast 8gb CompactFlash memory card (priced at around $200) will reportedly only hold about 4-5 minutes of footage, so whether or not we’ll need a laptop to continually offload footage to, or if there’ll be yet more pricey storage addons we can use for longer shooting, is still up in the air.
And then there’s the release date. I’ll assume that “Early 2009″ means some time around the end of Winter. It almost makes you wish winter would arrive. But not quite.
Tell them it looks amazing, and they’ll agree
I’ve been planning on writing about this phenomenon for years, but only now have I really been tempted to. Have you ever noticed that people will say that something - in my case, video - will look amazing, even when those of us with objectivity can tell that it’s really not?
Consider the uptake of HDTV in recent years. Now consider that your average store display setup will either not really be HDTV at all (I’ve seen BD Players connected via Composite or SCART recently), or will have most of its High Definition picture information degraded by poorly set up equipment (temporal NR processing, edge enhancement). However, people will still spot the letters “HD”, and gather around it to coo accordingly. In the latter case, it’s still partly justified; most messed-up HD still looks better than the mush that goes out over the air.
When I first got an HDTV in 2004, my friends had similar reactions. Near the beginning, I was still playing my Nintendo GameCube on the thing, hooked up using S-Video. (The top of the range Component video cable had to be imported and was still on its way from Japan). The console, as such, was outputting 480i NTSC (and not even very good 480i NTSC, thanks to the console’s flicker filter). Before I explained to them that this wasn’t really HDTV, the people I showed it to expressed their adimiration for the beautiful visuals, using the usual clichéd expressions: “wow, you can see every detail!”, sometimes explaining with words the non-existent picture information that they were seeing.
Similarly, when Universal released “TRAFFIC” on HD DVD, on a disc which looked the same as its NTSC DVD counterpart, certain review sites completely failed to notice that their “HD DVD” did not actually contain video derived from an HD source! Although the likes of High Def Digest are far from knowledgable when it comes to assessing video quality, the fact that their reviewer awarded this disc an 8/10 score for its video transfer goes some way in proving my point.
What’s really pushed me over the edge to write about this now though, is the gradual appearance of videos marked as “High Definition” on YouTube. Now, assuming we take “High Definition” to mean at least 1280×720 pixels, anyone with some tech knowledge will know that even the better YouTube videos fall far short of this status. Well, check this out - it’s the trailer for Pixar’s WALL-E, and it’s in “TRUE-HD”, nonetheless!
Now to be fair, the video quality here, by YouTube standards, is very good indeed, but that’s still no excuse for abusing terminology in this way (we’ll ignore for now that TrueHD is an audio codec). But why do you think there’s so many people praising it? Because they have been pre-empted to by the “TRUE-HD” lie in the video’s title, of course.
It is truly scary that people can be manipulated in this way and don’t trust their own eyes.
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