HD Movie Playback

After purchasing my Pentium based, single core workstation a few years ago, I was finally able to experience full 1080p video playback from Apple's movie trailer site without any problems. A couple of years later however, one newly posted trailer put an end to that practice.

The trailer that instantly turned my computer into a slideshow was Marie Antoinette. I'm not sure why that particular trailer created such havoc (other HD trailers played at that time were fine), but it did have some highly detailed, fast moving scenes so maybe that and the compression settings used in the encoding process were enough to push my system past the brink.

It wasn't until I tested the same 1080p trailer on my newly purchased dual-core iMac that I was able to confirm what was going on. Apparently it was the age of my system rather than an error on Apple's end -the playback on the Mac is butter smooth. I'm still curious to know how it performs on Mark's G5 although I'm sure it will be fine.

The Strangers

Yesterday, Mark mentioned a movie trailer he saw online that featured a hooded man, slightly out of the camera's focus, quietly observing a woman inside her house. I told him that it was the same movie that intrigued me last year after I read an article in the Summer Movie Guide of 2007 of Entertainment Weekly. The movie is called the Strangers.

At the time, I searched for more information but all I could find was this synopsis at the studio's official website:

Writer/director Bryan Bertino explores our most universal fears in The Strangers, a terrifying suspense thriller about a couple whose remote getaway becomes a place of terror when masked strangers invade. The confrontation forces Kristen and James to go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.

Of course the big question for me was why did Universal delay this picture for an entire year? Poor screenings and being forced to reshoot/reedit? Too much competition in the same genre? Who knows, but it's never a good sign when that happens to a film. I guess I'll have to wait for the reviews before I consider watching it.

Pioneer SC-09TX Flagship AV Receiver

While reading the Digital Bits, I noticed this sale of a home theater receiver that's being promoted as the "end all" of all receivers- the Pioneer Flagship SC-09TX. Features include THX Ultra2 Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD Master Audio, 10.2 channel surround and six HDMI 1.3 inputs. The MSRP is $7000.

The last time I owned a receiver it was a Kenwood brand and I believe the maximum number of channels it supported was two. Now there's a 10.2 sound format? Wow. Looking at the pictures I'm somewhat surprised how large in physical size the receivers have become and how many ports there are in the back.

I wonder what kind of choices Mark will have when he decides to upgrade although I don't find anything wrong with his 5.1 setup now.

Microsoft Aquires Caligari

Microsoft acquiring smaller companies for key technologies is nothing new, but last month's purchase of the Caligari Corporation to boost the 3D capabilities of their Virtual Earth platform caught my attention.

Caligari is the developer of trueSpace, which was the first commercial 3D application that I had ever used. Introduced in 1994, trueSpace pioneered a simple and straightforward 3D user interface that helped many people like myself get started in modeling and animation.

Even though I quickly hit roadblocks with trueSpace's rendering engine and thus never upgraded after version 2, I continually kept an interest in the company. While Caligari was never able to elevate trueSpace beyond a certain niche in the industry, I give them credit for still being a player after so many other companies have vanished. Just as impressive was their ability to keep their prices affordable and consistent throughout the years.

Articles have been written on how Microsoft's acquisition will benefit Virtual Earth but I'm more concerned on how it'll affect the future development of trueSpace. The founder of Caligari says nothing will change but Microsoft's acquisition history shows otherwise. Microsoft purchased high-end 3D developer Softimage back in 1994 and soon ported their flagship product, Softimage|3D to the NT platform. But they concurrently canceled future development of the IRIX version and ultimately sold off the technology and brand to Avid just four years later.

M. Night Comparison

While watching the Happening trailer, I thought that a few of the filming locations looked awfully familiar to M. Night's other movie, The Sixth Sense. Grabbing my Two-Disc Vista Series DVD, I skimmed through to the scenes that I thought were duplicates.

As you can see, they are coincidental camera angles and scenery locations but nothing conspiratorial. Nothing to see here folks, move along!


Mark is right though, the writer/director is infatuated with his state!

Central...Dark?

As I was going through my email, mostly deleting old stuff, I saw one of my new ones was from GameStop. Curious about the header saying something to the effect of what's going on in Central Park, I opened it up and there was a newsletter from some Central Park Association or such, with a pretty interesting story on it's front page about strange things in Central Park.

The one link to find out more about the story was called centraldark.com. Well, needless to say, I had to find out more. Wow is all I can say. I vaguely remember the original game, but it was pretty scary for it's time. It was also the first of it's kind, the horror 3d genre. Not quite remembering if Resident Evil was or not, I went of course to Wikipedia to find out. Yup, Dark was actually the first of it's kind, though the sequels to the original took on the Evil style of gameplay as opposed to it's originator.

Now, 16 years later, after several sequels and many copycats in the horror 3d era, not excluding one of my favorites, F.E.A.R., Dark is back and it's website is awesome! Filled with facts that the gamemakers were able to use for their own purposes and storyline for the twisting, it lays out a fabulous erie plot with incredible graphics! It is now on my dream list of games to get this year!

I still don't know if I will get it on the 360 or PS3, but if they happen to improve the game based on the PS3 capabilities by much, that and the online multi or non multi player option will be my deciding factor. Now let's hope it's as frightening as the previews make it out to be!

Army of Two

When I decided to pre-order Army of Two, I couldn't say. I completely forgot that I had even done so, even after I received the phone call from GameStop! As I went to the store after work, I kept wondering when in the world did I pre-order AoT? And why would I pre-order this game as recently when I saw a few commercials, I thought eh, it might be ok, but I can wait to get it, no big rush for this game.

Which brings me to now, after I started playing it. Needless to say, the graphics and sound are top notch. Now that game makers have finally realized what they can do with the 360, and to some degree the PS3, visuals and audio are not gonna be something they skimp on in the future. Or shouldn't be at the least.

As I've just started playing, I can't give a good review of the storyline thus far. The acting seems to be pretty good, though as in all new rated M games, language is a problem. I gave GoW and Halo3 a pass as both those games are way above the cream of the crop in terms of style and gameplay. But I don't think every M rated game needs to have that kind of language. In any case, M means bad words more than violence to me, though obviously AoT is violent.

That being said, this does look to be a great co-op game. The AI is only so good, it is an AI after all. But the teamwork involved in the missions I've played so far, awesome! I'm actually having fun playing the game, and when the price is right for Marcos to play, bring it on! I know we still need to do Halo3 co-op, but this would be a very nice addition to do as well. BTW, I think I said this before, but send a text message when you can play, cousin!

Oh, and while I'm at it, GameStop also let me know that I had pre-ordered Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii! I forgot all about that one as well... o.O"

Planet Earth

In yet another example of me going down with the ship, I purchased my second HD DVD title today, the Emmy award winning Planet Earth. I couldn't resist the closeout price of $29.99 with free shipping from the Discovery Channel Store. The regular price is $99 for the four HD DVD set.

I know what you are thinking, "another nature show?" but it's one of the highest rated programs on Amazon. I've watched some episodes on TV with my girls and we were all facinated with the wildlife scenes. I was amazed by the picture quality and from what I hear the Blu-ray and HD DVD versions are even better and are considered must haves for any HD player owner.

Tooble

Tooble! Had to get the word out on a fun freeware app to get YouTube videos on your iPod. It's Mac only and works flawlessly. Enter the link to your favorite YouTube URL in the app and tooble does the rest. The video is automatically downloaded and converted to iTunes to watch or sync to your iPod. There is some generation loss because it converts from Flash to QuickTime...but what the hey...it does what is needed. I heard this on MacBreak Weekly and used it to get the catchy tunes from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Howl's Moving Castle for my girls. Give it a try!

Next gen Blu-Ray

After complaining that there was no decent standalone Blu-ray player on the market for a reasonable price, Sony responds with a press release announcing two new players that look to fit the bill. Both the BDP-S350 ($400) and the BDP-S550 ($500) will feature the full Profile 2.0 specifications but I'm looking at the higher cost S550 model since it will internally decode DTS-HD Master Audio, which is one of the reasons why I haven't picked up a BD player yet. Sony also states these new units will be physically smaller, unlike their larger predecessors.

The only negative for me is the relatively long wait until the BDP-S550 is out. Sony says fall but hopefully they will push it out sooner like Samsung did with the BD-P1500. There's lots of Disney and Pixar BD titles I want to buy between now and then.

The Happening

After a disappointing last effort, M. Night Shyamalan is getting back on the horse with his upcoming film, The Happening. I watched the trailer several times, it looks good but as we all know, trailers can be so deceiving.

I do hope it does well though, I would hate for Shyamalan to get frustrated and stop making movies as I've personally enjoyed most of his past films. Nonetheless he seems to have a lot of critics. I think part of the reason why he generates so much negative vibes is that almost all his movies have a twist ending and people purposely hunt for that rather then just sit back and enjoy the movie for what it is.

I also like the fact he's remains true to the state where he grew up in and shoots all his films in the Pennsylvania area. Maybe one day he'll film a future project in Dave's neck of the woods.

Cupertino Visit

I'm taking a five day VMware training class next week in San Jose. As I was googling the hotel I'm going to be staying at I noticed its very close to the Apple headquarters in Cupertino. If I can find the time (they maintain bankers hours) I plan to visit the mothership and see the company store. Who knows, maybe I'll see Steve in the parking lot like this guy!