Last One Out Turn Off the Lights

June 11, 2009

antennaThis Friday marks the end of analog television (knock on wood) yet according to CNET news some 2.8 million people aren’t ready. This would be the same analog cut-off date that was delayed more times than I can remember, the one with reminders scrolled across the bottom of thousands of hours of programming and the same one first announced in 1996.

If anyone can honestly claim they didn’t know abut the transition I’m not sure all the time in the world would have made a difference, much less a few more months.

Here’s the kicker though, after all the hubbub, delays and talk of the final shut off date, many of those who would presumably be hardest hit by the shutoff; (read those in rural areas) likely won’t see the end of analog TV for months if not years longer.

There’s a little known clause in the transition legislation that waives so called LPTV (low-power television) stations from the June 12th cut off date. The LPTV stations are often re-broadcasters and or local programming providers outside of major metropolitan areas. But again, in all honesty if the transition does catch someone by surprise I cant imagine another few months or even a few more years making a difference.

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Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HDTV Programming | Comments 

Blu-ray Review: Pinocchio

June 9, 2009

pinocchio-blu-ray“A lie keeps growing and growing, until it’s as plain as the nose on your face,” -Evelyn Venable as the Blue Fairy. It was my intention to buy all the Disney classics on Blu-ray based solely on how good  ‘Sleeping Beauty’ turned out. Although I have to admit to being a little skeptical that another animated film could be as impressive as beauty, but of course I’m more than willing to give it a go.

I honestly can’t remember the first time I saw Pinocchio but I’m assuming Carter was in office and gas was about 60 cents a gallon. I remembered so little of the film; it was as if I’d never seen it, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a review. If you’re a classic Disney fan, I really shouldn’t have to go into great detail about what makes these films so special. In their simplest form, the early Disney films are life lessons disguised as entertainment. Some may prefer to leave to the lessons to parents but in my estimation the values taught here are about as universal as they come and certainly tame by today’s standards. (Song of the South being a notable exception)

Plot: On the off chance that you’re among the handful unfamiliar with Pinocchio, or just get it confused with all the other animated Disney tales, it is the story of a puppet carved from wood who dreams of becoming a real boy, (Ok bad pun time, I considered typing “a wood be boy”. Ah never mind, it wasn’t nearly as funny the second time around) and of course he has a rather unique physical reaction to lying. By now, Pinocchio is so ingrained in pop culture that some of the scenes may feel a bit surreal. Luckily I found the pristine new transfer and crystal clear soundtrack were more enough to offer a fresh, new look at the film.

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Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments 


Knocked out by Natal

June 3, 2009

natalIf you’ve already seen the Natal demonstration from E3 you may be wondering what it has to do with home theater. If you haven’t seen it, run (do not walk) to this video and watch it from start to finish; be sure to see Peter Molyneux’s “Milo” demonstration as well.  I’ll wait right here, I promise.  Ok, what did you think, were you blown away like I was?

If you weren’t intrigued by the time the Kung-Fu demonstration was over in the first video, I honestly don’t know what to say, but of course it doesn’t end there. The demonstration goes on to full motion capture and control, real-time image scanning/importing, and even facial recognition. Remember we’re talking about a Xbox360 add-on that’s expected in a matter of months, not a early mock-up (there are multiple accounts of non-insiders using the product from E3) or something planned for a few years down the road.

So again, what does Natal have to do with home theater? A better question might be, what doesn’t it have to do with home theater? Look past the gaming applications and think about the core technologies, voice recognition, this ones simple, “start movie”, “dim lights”, “next video”, so on and so on.

The motion capture/recognition could again be used to trigger shuttle-commands and launch different files but it could also be used for something as simple as dimming the lights 30 minutes after the last motion was detected in the room.

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Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Commentary, Home Theater | Comments 

Blu-ray Review: Doubt

May 28, 2009

doubt-blu-rayDoubt might just be the biggest surprise of the year for me, not for what it depicts but for what it doesn’t. I’d love to go into more detail and explain exactly what I mean by that, but I’d almost surely (see how I didn’t say undoubtedly) spoil it in the process. No matter what opinion you’ve derived from the trailer, chances are this is not that film. Couple of points, Doubt is not explicit and considering the subject matter (molestation) that was quite a relief, it doesn’t have a definitive point of view, at least not as far as I’m concerned and in the end it wasn’t nearly as controversial as it might have appeared; again in my estimation at least this was all somewhat of a surprise.

Plot: Set in the sixties, Doubt takes place in a catholic parish in Bronx, New York. The lead role is played  Philip Seymore Hoffman who is compelling as always. From the first time “Donald” and “Father Flynn” (Hoffman) met on-screen I felt myself cringing at what might be depicted, a strong indicator of how well the groundwork had been laid for the events to come.  Meryl Streep delivers a strong performance as usual but perhaps above and beyond her typical work of late, this was classic Streep if not, in a strange way even better. Streep’s character “Sister Aloysius Beauvier” is a hard nosed, no nonsense disciplinarian who’d as soon knock you senseless as suffer indignation from you, the casting certainly wasn’t where Doubt fell down.

The slow build up of events was a welcome change, all too often and especially lately I’ve seen a rush to hurry plot lines along. That said… roughly 40 minutes into the film I found myself almost ready, strike that anxious to get to the point. Without giving too much away I’ll just say the title of the film is no accident and in my estimation illustrates a disconnect between the trailer and what actually unfolds on-screen. Again, make no mistake the cast is superb but its akin to gathering up the worlds finest race horses to fill a petting zoo.

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Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments 

Movie Posters with a Twist

May 24, 2009

You know I’m sure there are examples of oh why didn’t I think of that moments for just about every idea, I mean Starbucks $3.50 for a cup of coffee? yeah sure why didn’t I think of that, how about band-aids, white out, or even Velcro. Ok while I wouldn’t put movie posters into the same category as any of those ideas/inventions, I’m kicking myself just the same here. Come to think of it, in all honesty it’s probably best that I never attempted anything like what you see below.

jaws1

The 3D movie posters are manufactured by Todd McFarlane’s SPAWN toys, but before you start eyeing those old flat, two dimensional movie posters on your wall I should warn you; these “posters” aren’t posters as much as table-top decorations. The dimensions are 8 ½ by 12 ¾ by 2-inch on most. If they could be reproduced at full size the posters would have to be just about the coolest home theater accessory ever, even at half-pint size I reckon they’re pretty darn cool.

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Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Movies & Television | Comments 

Dude, Where’s My Netflix Tab Inside Vista Media Center?

May 21, 2009

MCE 2005Like many of you who heard about Netflix support coming to Vista Media Center I too was anxious to give it a whirl. The only problem is unlike most of the accounts I was reading, my tab wasn’t “just there when I opened media center”.

I’m not sure if it was due to having turned automatic updates off back sometime before Obama was elected, my overly strict firewall settings or just bad ju ju in general but that lil’ sucker was nowhere to be found. Ultimately I had to go and get my Netflix tab the old fashioned way, er rather though a link I found on the The Green Button.

I can only assume my Silverlight install wasn’t up to date as when I installed the Netflix in Windows Media Center app, I got what appeared to be a few Silverlight updates to boot. Once the download was finished, bam Netflix from the media center menu.  So what did I get for all my effort? I can browse my queue, add new discs to it and watch some really low quality standard definition if I’m in a pinch, thankfully I’m not pinched that bad… yet.

Oh one last thing, to the folks that went ballistic over media center extenders getting left out of all the reindeer games, someone over at the The Green Button summed it up best. Before Microsoft added Netflix support to media center your extender didn’t have that functionality, it still doesn’t.

I don’t mean to sound harsh but this is nature of consumer electronics, some products get updated, others don’t. It seems like media center extenders weren’t the cats meow like Linksys (and everyone else) wanted us to beleive.

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Blockbuster & Netflix, HTPC, Media Servers | Comments 

Blu-ray Review: Dragons Lair II

May 19, 2009

Dragons Lair IIWithout rehashing my entire Space Ace review from last March I’ll just say that Don Bluth’s animated games (Dragons Lair, Space Ace and Dragons Lair 2) left a pretty big impression on me, that is to say once I saw Dragons Lair in an arcade my idea of “graphics” were changed forever. Now looking back that obviously wasn’t the best comparison as these aren’t games as much as animated shorts with brief shots of interactivity. I think more than anything else Don Bluth’s art style all but ruined me from ever thinking another game could be as beautiful.

My gaming preferences aside the good folks over at Digital Leisure were kind enough to send over a copy of ‘Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp‘ on Blu-ray the sequel to 2007’s ‘Dragons Lair’ in high definition. This time around Dirk is once again out to rescue Daphne but the game play is more linear and the storytelling even more engaging than its predecessor.

Plot: The game opens with Daphne kidnapped by Mordrok once again and Dirk right behind them. Dragon’s Lair II Time Warp moves beyond the straight dungeons and dragons theme of the first installment and into themes as varied as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the Garden of Eden, a performance by Ludwig van Beethoven and a tomb sequence in ancient Egypt.

A note about the game play, Dragon’s Lair (any iteration) can prove to be frustrating for gamers who enjoy puzzle solving versus quick, random button twitching. One thing to keep in mind however is that in a pinch you can “watch” the game but I don’t recommend jumping too far ahead, at least not until you finish then the playback is a nice reward for your hard work. Remember, we’re talking about a short from a former Disney animator, an important piece of “film” history even if it was for a video game.

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Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments 

Preview: Windows 7 Media Center

May 16, 2009

windows_7If you’ve resisted the temptation to “upgrade” your windows based HTPC to Vista this long, hopefully what follows will reinforce that decision. Windows 7 could be as little as 5-6 months away and given the fact that Microsoft didn’t release a QAM/ATSC tuner update to the public (its technically only available with new OEM builds), the wait may very well be worth it.

I decided Microsoft’s recent Windows 7 RC1 was a good time to check out the sights and sounds and specifically what might be new or different with media center in Windows 7. Before we get into the specifics of Win7 MCE I should bring you up to date on my systems specs, I’m running a AMD 64 5600+, 3 GB’s of ram, a NVIDIA 9400GT video card, a 250GB SATA drive and a LG Blu-ray/HD DVD drive.

I started out by formatting the SATA drive, then I popped in the disc and quickly noticed the installer was a near clone of Vista installation process sans a few colorful swatches here and there. The installation process was quick and smooth; after the final process was complete the desktop was instantly recognizable, intuitive and familiar to anyone who’s used Vista.  That’s not to say the interface was unimproved over Vista, it’s a lot more polished and yet at the same time, softer, almost organic and certainly more pleasing to the eye.

One nice surprise was the fact my motherboards SPDIF output was detected and ready to go, no muss, no fuss. This was not the case with my Vista install. Futzing around with sound drivers proved to be a somewhat frustrating and time consuming experience, if this early look at driver handling is what can be expected with Windows 7 I’m all for it. The actual MCE setup was a breeze, I chose the express setup and punched in the usual TV data, region carrier, etc. This portion of the setup allows you to distinguish your QAM settings from your regular analog cable carrier settings. Read more

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under HTPC, Media Servers, Previews | Comments 

New Surround Features from Dolby and THX

May 13, 2009

surround speakerIf you’re in the market for a new surround receiver you’ll no doubt find a bevy of new bells and whistles awaiting you, especially if its been a few years since your last upgrade. Aside from things like HDMI switching, iPod docks, satellite radio integration and automatic calibration there are new speaker configurations and volume balancing technologies available.

Starting off with Dolby, as any discussion of surround sound should we have Dolby Pro Logic IIz, which builds on the venerable Pro Logic IIx by adding two “front height” channels. The additional front channels are intended to give a more realistic sense of height in the sound stage. For example rain would sound as if it was falling from high to low as opposed to just reverberating in a horizontal plane.

Moving on to THX’s Loudness Plus we get into the volume balancing part of the equation.  Loudness Plus is designed to make reference level (0 db) a little more practical in real-world listening environments. Or to quote THX directly: “THX Loudness Plus automatically adjusts the front-to-back speaker level relationship as you turn the volume level down”. In that same vein Audyssey’s new “Dynamic Volume” and “Dynamic EQ” are designed to make sure subtle details aren’t missed at low volume levels.

That was super quick gloss-over version of these new features and formats and if you’re in the market for a new AVR definitely research each of these features in more detail as they offer the potential for significant sound improvement over previous generation AVR’s.

Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Surround Sound | Comments 

Physical Media is (Nearly) Dead, Long Live Physical Media

May 11, 2009

dvdBack during the HD DVD/Blu-ray catfight, a common call among HD DVD supporters was that Blu-ray may win the battle but ultimately digital downloads would win the war. This was often countered with “I’ll never move to digital downloads, I want a physical copy of my purchase”.

As with many arguments the truth is often somewhere in the middle, in the time since Toshiba pulled the plug on HD DVD it’s become clear that Blu-ray may never achieve the total marketplace saturation of DVD. While Blu-Ray’s sales have indeed trended up recently, the steep mountain ahead is no less daunting, especially in the face of a recession.

Think of it this way, Blu-ray was launched in November (ostensibly) 2006, the “format war” ended over a year ago and it’s almost impossible to even find a standard definition television on many store shelves, and Blu-ray hovers around a 10% market share against DVD. Significant ground has been covered but the race is far from over.

That doesn’t mean that Blu-ray won’t go on to eventually become the disc du jour, however I’m seeing a coexistence between Blu-ray and non-traditional formats (in the short term) becoming more likely; with non-traditional formats (read digital downloads) eventually leaving physical media a moot point with greater convenience, selection and portability.

Take a step back and remove yourself from the argument for a second and it’s pretty clear that convenience is king, MP3’s have all but relegated the CD to yesterday’s tech from a convenience standpoint. Any argument that other forms of physical media won’t take the same route as CD aren’t based in historical evidence. The cassette eventually trumped the 8-track, the CD eventually replaced the cassette and MP3’s eventually outgrew CD’s in overall popularity and portability.
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Posted by B.Greenway | Filed Under Blu-ray, HTPC, IPTV, Media Servers | Comments 

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