Nov 30
Looking through the crystal ball at how the movie and music companies (and perhaps to a larger extent the IT and hardware companies) would like the market to evolve we may have few Christmas’s left where people can actually give real physical movies and music. Giving music has been a long tradition since the first days of vinyl and with the advent some thirty years ago of video tape movies have also been a main stay of recent festive gift giving. However with these industries pushing to move to digital downloads where we do not actually own anything but just licence everything what are we all to do? Doo all give each other iTunes or Netflix vouchers? The reason I still buy CD’s and Blu-ray is that I want to own what I spend my money on and I want to be able to consume it whenever I want to. I don’t want to wait for it to download and I don’t want to have watched it several times only to be told that my licence for it has expired and I have to pay more to enjoy it again. A lot of people within the industry say that the time for physical media is nigh. Well I for one intend to keep growing my collection of hundreds of CD’s and movies and perhaps this is a movement we can grow. Blu-ray can keep the fight alive by providing far better audio and video than any download service but I fear music may be lost. We (the 40 something’s – ouch that hurt to type) could be the last generation that appreciated good sound quality, looking at my own children they prefer convenience over sound quality and with the growth of downloads I fear that will only get worse.
Give the gift of high quality audio and video this Christmas, while you can…
Nov 28
The register has a round up of seven Blu-ray players here
Nov 28
The Inquirer reports that Sky will start 3D broadcasting before 2010 in the UK. Wee that means they have a month. Read the full story here
Just a word of caution if your thinking or rushing out to pickup a 3D TV for the football. There are few models available and with no standard yet announced for Blu-ray this may be a little premature. LG have a 42 inch commercial display the M4210D which will display 3D for around £7,000, Philips have the 42-3D6W02 which can be found between £6,000 and £9,000 ish online (looks like it may have been discoutinued). There is a very steep price for being in early but you can expect cheaper consumer displays when Sky start broadcasting.
Nov 24
Warner Home Video is now offering people in the US the chance to upgrade their old DVD titles to Blu-ray. So far a list of 54 titles has been announced with upgrade prices ranging from $7.95 to $9.95 (which I can tell you this is much better than you get at your local Blockbuster store in the UK). Titles include Michael Clayton, Wedding Crashers and 10,000 B.C.
Full details on www.dvd2blu.com
Nov 23
Sunday is usually a catch up day in our house but my wife was out with several of the kids which just left me and our almost eleven year old thinking what to do for the afternoon. We decided to checkout our closest 3D Cinema, Bracknell Berkshire in the UK which is equipped with ReadD 3D. We previously visited Camberley Vue cinema which also uses the ReadD 3D however Bracknell’s Odeon couples this with Disney’s Digital projection system.
First impressions where good the digital system defiantly seemed clearer with better initial contrast. Searching around the net it appears that the Odeon chain use 2K HD (2048×1080) resolution digital projection so only double that I’m used to at home on a screen many times larger. Once the movie got going there are several sweeping flights around the roof tops of the animated London sky line, which drew ooh’s and aah’s from the audience and gave a real sense of depth, creating the odd light stomach sensation (the best way I can describe it). However initially the movie appeared a little washed out and then around two thirds through I guess the cinema staff realized they had not dimmed the lights all the way and the picture gained some extra contrast. Colours where at times slightly lacking in vibrancy and seemed muted but removing the glasses to check did not make a significant difference so I hope this is the style of the movie and not any issues with the projection system, the non 3D adverts looked fine. One nice thing with the Odeon chain was that when we entered we were asked if we had our own glasses which caught me a little by surprise. We where then given our glasses in sealed plastic and where not challenged for them when we left so it appears that they are ok for you to hold onto them and re-use them which I guess saves them having to clean them after every screening. This also gave me the chance to see what impact the glasses made looking at various colours on a normal display and even though colours look OK looking at a pure white display through them turns it to more of a dirty grey. This could account for some of the washed out feeling when we were not in total darkness and helps explain that perhaps the contrast ratio on the projectors used could have been better.
So how was the movie, well it’s not my usual taste but was fun, some scenes seemed quite dark and I have to say that the movie seemed like it could not decide if it was dark or light hearted and flopped between the two. The story was adapted pleasantly enough and my son seemed to enjoy it. However his biggest complaint seemed to be that there was not enough 3D there are a few scenes where objects seem to ‘pop’ out of the screen and the flight sequences go give a real sense of flight but these are far between. Maybe living with me he’s getting fussy in what he expects from technology.
One thing that was shown was the recently released long trailer for Avatar in 3D. While some scenes again had that 3D pop many seemed no different from regular 2D however I’ll wait until I’ve seen the full movie before I comment further but its defiantly one movie we will go to see at this cinema once we have saved up. Which brings me to the cost £21 (around $30) just to get in for one adult and one child which is pretty expensive. Add onto this drinks and popcorn and it’s not a trip most families could do frequently.
Nov 17
If you’re after a new Blu-ray player for Christmas of the New Year and live in the UK then you might take a look at the latest Pioneer range. Purchase before the 31st of January one of the below players and you can claim free BBC Blu-ray titles. If you have not experienced the picture quality on the BBC titles then you’re in for a treat and these disks will really show off your new player.
BDP-120 for Planet Earth box set,
BDP-320 for Planet Earth box set and 1 series from either Nature’s Great Events, Earth: The Power of the Planet, Yellowstone or South Pacific,
BCS-FS500 for Planet Earth box set and 1 series from either Nature’s Great Events, Earth: The Power of the Planet, Yellowstone or South Pacific,
BDP-LX52 for Life and 3 series from either Nature’s Great Events, Earth: The Power of the Planet, Yellowstone or South Pacific,
BDP-LX91 for Planet Earth, Life, Nature’s Great Events, Earth: The Power of the Planet, Yellowstone and South Pacific
Full claim details here
Nov 09
Sony Electronics has announced that owners of BRAVIA HDTV’s and Blu-ray players will be able to rent the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” online up to four weeks before it is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Sony is leveraging is ownership of Sony Pictures by offering this advanced screening free for one off 24 hour period, however from December 8th it will cost owners $24.99 to rent on these networked devices and you have no physical media should you wish to keep it you will then have to buy the DVD or Blu-ray. No details have been given on the video resolution or audio being offered. The DVD and Blu-ray will be available from January 5th in the US so it looks like Sony are also trying to capitalize on the release missing the lucrative holiday season.
Nov 02
Paramount Digital Entertainment and Kingston technology have announced a deal to make full length movies available on Kingston USB memory and SD cards. No mention on what type of security or DRM may be used but these devices must have some kind copy protection. Also remiss from the announcement is what type of devices these with play on other than a PC.
