Fri, 15 August 2008 Episode 039 (8/15/2008): Click to Download (31 MB mp3) Episode Length 55:33
Onkyo to partner with Universal Electronics to make Universal Remotes Blockbuster says "Me too", offers digital downloads Update: Word has it, there is a Netflix-style free download section. I'm not a subscriber, can anyone out there confirm this?
New Popcorn Hour review units are in!
Product Showcase: Sony Bravia RHT G500
Jason Has a Question... Review of the Full Aperion Audio Speaker Line
Movie Review: Vantage Point Pixies: Doolittle
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Sun, 27 July 2008 Episode 038 (7/27/2008): Click to Download (31 MB mp3) Episode Length 1:06:28
Netflix comes to the Xbox 360 w/ Live Gold Membership Ovei Home Theater pod is the ultimate viewing/gaming experience?
Product Showcase: Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema System 720p and 1080p, the ultimate HTIB <--I think this is the projector included with the 1080p verion, could be wrong.
Interview with CEO and VP Marketing of Aperion Audio
Movie Review: The Bank Job
<--Very 70s Ani DiFranco: Knuckle Down
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Mon, 14 July 2008  While not surprising, welcome news all the same. Netflix Instant Watching Movies will be coming to the Micorsoft XBox 360 this fall. Couple this with the recent price drop on Xbox 360 Pro (which also makes a decent media extender) and you're looking at a pretty solid deal. Here's the catch, you have to have an XBox Live Gold membership which will run you $50 a year or $8/month. For non-gamers, the Roku Box is still looking pretty attractive at $99 w/ no fees. (picture via Engadget) Category: Home Theater -- posted at: 3:51 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 7 July 2008 Episode 037 (7/7/2008): Click to Download ( 18 MB mp3) Episode Length 38:32
Netflix Saves Profiles, all thanks to you. Next step: Netflix opens up to non-payng members?
More Netflix news: Roku Box to stream Hulu, You Tube, or ABC?
More DRM, this time on streaming video
Product Showcase: New Speakers and Subs from Aperion Movie Review: Street Kings Weezer: Weezer (The Red Album)
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Mon, 30 June 2008  ...and, I think, proves why they are the best in the game. This kind of customer support is what build loyalty.Here's the email I, and assumedly every other Netflix subscriber, received just moments ago: Subject: We are keeping Netflix Profiles Dear Marshall, You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are. We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you. -Your friends at Netflix No explanations, just a great big "Sorry, we messed up." So, what this means is that those who currently have profiles already setup will get to keep their profiles, and most importantly, their queues and ratings (more on why this is important later). It is still uncertain if new subscribers, or those without profiles already setup, will be able to create new profiles. ---- Update: This from the Netflix Community Blog, "Non-users of the feature and new members will be able to access Profiles in 2-3 weeks." ---- Here's what I think Netflix should do. They already have a tremendous web presence and the HANDS-DOWN BEST tool for finding, tracking, commenting on, and rating movies. Open the whole system up to everyone, subscribers and non-subscribers a like (right now, if you are not a paid subscriber, you can't search, rate, queue movies). What it would cost: -A couple servers -A couple full-time web-coders What Netflix gains: -People start using Netflix to discover movies, rate them, leave comments. They make Netflix where the store their movie list (everyone has one). Let's call it 1 million new eyeballs, each visiting Netflix an average of once per day, 365 million hits a year. Those are conservative numbers. -Netflix can implement advertising on the pages of non-subscribers. At the low-end of web advertising, you can expect $12 per 1000, so Netflix is looking at $4.4 Million per year. -Occasionally, one of those folks will subscribe for a month, buy a used movies, or Netflix could even develop a pay as you go plan, say $3 per movie, per week. That's $12 per month, more than their lowest subscription plan and less than Blockbuster charges for 2-5days. -More ratings means a more accurate rating system for everyone. And once again, rating are personalized. Unlike IMDB, or rotten tomatoes, a movie rated 3 stars for me may be rated 5 stars for someone else based upon Netflix's individualized weighted system. -Netflix becomes the de facto name associated with movie rentals. Blockbuster is gone. IMDB becomes the second stop, rather than the first, for finding out more about your favorite movies. How about it Netflix? Opening up your system makes a lot of sense to me. If you take my advice, feel free to buy some advertising on The Real HT Info Podcast. Category: Movie -- posted at: 9:27 PM Comments[0] |
Fri, 27 June 2008 As long as you're posting me correcting myself, might as well have another go...
The "Skull" confusion re: anamorphic vs spherical lenses: More research reveals my misunderstanding of Panavision lenses. Panavision's Primo series are available in both anamorphic and spherical, and are "prime" lenses, meaning non-zooming lenses. "The Crystal Skull" was shot entirely anamorphic, no flat material at all. It was shot entirely on film, then a digital intermediate was created for digital post production/editing. An effort was made to soften the image on occasion with filters to create "an idyllic Americana look." The film stock was Kodak Vision2 250D 5205, and 500T 5218. The production was primarily a single-camera shoot, with a few exceptions. Sorry for the confusion. As much as I try to keep up with film technology, I don't work with Panavision equipment, and so I'm not the authority on their extensive equipment line. Jim Addie jaddie@platinumhometheaters.com ------------------------------------- ...I'm not going to fault you one bit Jim. -mg Category: Movie -- posted at: 1:44 PM Comments[0] |
Tue, 24 June 2008 
From Jim @ www.platinumhometheaters.com ... Fight Club was shot in a wide screen format called "Super 35", a flat, wide screen process that uses standard spherical lenses to fill a 35mm Academy frame, then is cropped down to 2.35. Release prints were probably anamorphic to avoid confusion, but the original was flat, which made the re-cropping for HBO possible. Super 35 isn't used all that much, as there is a resolution/grain penalty. Update: Did some more digging. Everything I said before was right except that "it isn't used much". Boy, am I wrong there! James Cameron likes it, for example. Top Gun used it to get cockpit shots. Thousands of features. Also, it's not as big a rez hit as I thought, as it uses the optical soundtrack area for picture on the neg. Like I said, nothing is released in Super 35, it's always turned into something "standard" a booth can handle, like 2.35 'scope, or 1.85 flat. Still a rez hit, but not so much. Can also be shot 3 perf and printed to 4 perf, which they do when the cost of negative stock is an issue.
2.35 anamorphic fills the Academy frame, so there's nothing much above and below what is projected, assuming nobody's fiddled with the aperture plate in the projector (not always a fair assumption!). But you couldn't re-crop, say, a Panavision film, because of the frame being filled with anamorphic. Crystal Skull, which was shot principally with Panavision anamorphic lenses (albeit the C and E series, which is why I probably didn't see the oval specular highlights) on a Panavision Millennium XL camera had virtually no extra material above and below frame, other than the usual "safe" margin. Update: My comment on "Skull" was sort of wrong too, they did shoot Panavision Anamorphic, but they also shot some stuff with Panavision "Primo" lenses, which are spherical, resulting in non-anamorphic film. Not too sure why, except spherical lenses are smaller, faster, cheaper, etc. Primarily shot anamorphic, though. Part of the driving force behind Super 35, in fact, is the lenses. That's why many budget films are shot Super 35...cheap cheap cheap. No special lenses. Your DP might even own a Cooke or two, and anybody's Arri will work just fine. I've spoken with cinematographers about this kind of thing. Studios sometimes dictate the wide screen process, not as much now, but a decade or more ago for sure. One film I know of, and I know the DP too, was shot full frame 1.33, cropped to 1.85 for theatrical release, and the cropping was done with a 1.85 aperture plate in the projector. The film contained a full aperture image (we own a 35mm print). But it was composed for 1.85. However, early video transfers printed the full frame. It was a way around letterboxing, but the DP was livid, as he never composed that way, and ran the risk of mic booms and lights in the shot. As it happened, none were visible, but he was mightily P.O.'d none the less. Later video transfers were letterbox 1.85, but were cropped inside the theatrical 1.85 slightly. That Wide Screen web site covers transfer anomalies quite thoroughly. Jim Category: Movie -- posted at: 9:42 AM Comments[0] |
Mon, 23 June 2008 Episode 036 (6/23/2008): Click to Download ( 21 MB mp3) Episode Length 43:46
Netflix removes profiles, will delete user ratings and other features Sept 1
XBMC not just for XBox; Now Windows, Apple, and Linux Manipulating Aspect Ratios: Adding Info to go from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1? Visual Effects Wizard Stan Winston Passes at the Age of 62
Product Showcase: JVC SXXSW6000 5.1 Surround System (Only $53 shipped)
The Troubleshooting answer: HDCP (aka DRM)
Movie Review: Alpha Dog Chris Smither: Leave the Light On
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Sun, 22 June 2008  A follow-up to last weeks Aspect Ratio segment with Jim...The picture associated with this post (let me know at realhtinfo@gmail.com if you can't see it) shows two captured frames from Fight Club side-by-side. The top one is 1.78:1 and from an HBO-HD Broadcast (the only HD version, I believe). The bottom one is from the Special Edition DVD at 2.35:1. Typically, to format a 2.35 image to a 1.78 screen, you'd "cut off" the left and right sides. In this case, the 1.78 is actually reframed, contains the full 2:35 image plus extra info on the top and bottom, and in the first scene I looked at, is actually framed further right than the Original DVD. Check out business cards on desk, and space between right border and the ashtray to see what I mean. While I suppose this is still taking away from the Director's vision of the movie (I don't know if Fincher approved this reframing or not), I prefer it to losing parts of the image to cropping. Does anyone out there have more info or examples of this practice? Category: Movie -- posted at: 4:34 PM Comments[0] |
Sun, 15 June 2008 Episode 035 (6/15/2008): Click to Download ( 31 MB mp3) Episode Length 1:06:40 We're joined this week by Jim from Platinum Home Theaters
Product Showcase: Samsung SP-A800B
Top-of-the-Heap projector designed by the man behind Digital Video Essentials, Joe Kane.
How to Troubleshoot and Save Money in doing so. Don't pay the Geek Squad, your 10-year old can trouble shoot. Are you as smart as a 10-year old? And now that you have the facts, do you know what the problem with my TV is? If so, email me or post at the Home Theater Shack. And if you're curious about the DIY PC video, here it is.
Jim and I talk Aspect Ratios Chart of film formats...re-sort by clicking on column headers
Movie Review: Rambo
The Weepies: Hideaway
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