Category Archives: General

Common or garden posts.

DVD & Blu-ray, General, Movies & TV

MPAA: The MP Means “Missing the Point”

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BoingBoing are reporting on a new download service that will allow the legal downloading of Hollywood movies. The caveat is that not only can they only be played in Windows, but they cost twice the price of buying a DVD, and burnt copies can only be played on a PC. Somehow they justify calling them DVDs despite this.

I’m not a fan of digital distribution since I like having DVDs/games/CDs on my shelf which I can browse through but I see it as an inevitability, and I sincerely hope that they start to show the consumers some respect if they expect people to buy into this. iTunes has the right idea by making downloading a matter of clicking a button and bundling in fairly permissive DRM (if we must have DRM that’s the kind to have) while making the price reasonable, but nobody will pay double the price of the physical media for such a crippled copy.

The assertion that people will pay that for the convenience is just laughable as well. I hear people saying that they use iTunes to get new albums for the convenience, even though it’s usually cheaper than actually going to the shop and buying it. Double the price isn’t the cost of convenience – it’s extortionate. Not to mention that, like the comment on BoingBoing says, the files are going to be big (you need at least 700MB for a passable quality movie) and it’s never going to be more convenient to sit and download for a couple of hours than it is to go five minutes away and buy the shiny new DVD…for half the price.

General

I Hate April Fool’s

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April 1st has to be the lamest day of the year. For every joke that’s remotely funny (this is where I’d link to one but I can’t find one) you get a thousand that aren’t, and much of the day is spent on your guard about everything you read and doubting the genuine stuff.

The first thing I saw when opening my browser was this from GameFAQs which will no doubt claim a few victims; Blizzard look to have gone as all-out as usual with their cool-if-it-was-true Wisp announcement; GameSpot reveal the ESRB’s new ASS rating (glad I didn’t misspell that); IGN’s isn’t that great (I really hope that one’s a joke); and if I read any more I’m going to scream. I’d bet that somehow someone somewhere is recycling the Lara Croft nude cheat, as well.

And no, this is not an April Fool’s joke. I really do hate it. Bring on April 2nd.

Whether you like this day or not though, check out the list of April Fool’s jokes from around the Internet and elsewhere over on Wikipedia. Seems pretty comprehensive and at least one of them made me chuckle.

DVD & Blu-ray, General, Movies & TV

DVD Rot

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DVD rot in action

This pisses me off…I just lost my second DVD to the little-known phenomenon that is DVD rot. Most people don’t even know it exists but my Terminator Special Edition succumbed a couple of years ago and I just tried to watch Silence of the Lambs only for it to start skipping less than half an hour in. It can’t be coincidence that they’re both MGM special editions released around the same time.

There are varying stories regarding what causes it but from what I can tell the consensus seems to be that it’s to do with the adhesive that holds the disc layers together failing/oxidising/being shit. That doesn’t seem to fit with my experience however, which is that the actual surface of the disc goes foggy as if someone someone had breathed on it (click the image for a bigger version to really see what I mean). It’s only when you notice that it doesn’t wipe off and that it feels slightly rough to touch that you realise that you’re going to be rebuying that movie. Just for the record they’re stored in the same place as the rest of my 350+ DVDs, all of which are perfectly fine.

I managed to blag a free replacement of The Terminator when that happened (bought a new one from HMV, swapped discs over, took the rotted ones back for a refund) but my version of Silence of the Lambs is OOP. Thankfully CD Wow still have it in stock for £6.99 so I’m hardly breaking the bank to replace it.

The moral of the story? Check your MGM DVDs and back those bastards up.

Games, General, Nintendo, Sega

Sega Revolution

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I’ve got a nagging suspicion that in all the furore over who’s going to come out on top between Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo could be the ones who are going to steal the show at E3. GDC has brought plenty of good news like the story that the PS3 will be region free for games, but even that has been overshadowed by the fact that the Revolution will play Mega Drive games.

While Microsoft and Sony are fighting each other to get through the front door Nintendo are silently slipping themselves in through the back with fantastic news after fantastic news. The DS has shown that the unique inputs can power the games, Twilight Princess will be on it, and it’ll launch with a library of thousands from at least five great systems. I remember when I first saw the controller and thought Nintendo had finally lost it, but I’m starting to turn around very quickly. With this and PS3 launching around the same time I may end up having to choose which one to get first, and at the moment it’s not going to be much of a choice.

It’s slightly ironic of course that Sega’s best chance at attaining major console success is to have all their games on a Nintendo machine. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have believed that Sonic would be on a Nintendo console, let alone that all their Mega Drive games would be on one.

General

Podcasts Redux

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I realised something the other day – having started with podcasts around a year ago (I first posted about them when iTunes added support), I now spend more time listening to podcasts than I do watching TV, with well over ten hours of podcasts dropping into iTunes every week and barely four hours of TV holding my attention every week. That’s pretty unbelievable to me, but I guess the fact that I can get cool shows on stuff that really interests me is very appealing.

Anyway, I thought I’d list a selection of my favourites so that people can give them a try and share some of theirs. I need to feed this addiction.

  • Gaming Steve – I had to start with a gaming one, right? This is simply the best video game podcast out there, which is often extremely long (he frequently breaks two hours), but Steve is a great talker who knows his stuff. He also gets really good interviews and exhaustive previews.
  • this WEEK in TECH – Hosted by Leo Laporte and friends as well as guest panellists, TWiT is just a chat about the latest technology developments and is always good fun. One of the most popular podcast on the Internet.
  • Best of Moyles – A weekly half-hour of the best bits from Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles’ show. Usually great if you like Moyles (I know a lot of people who don’t).
  • Hometown Tales – Urban legends, ghost stories, and just general weirdness from around the world. It’s all based on a popular public access show and makes for entertaining listening.
  • MacCast – Probably the best podcast out there for Apple fans. Commentary on news as well as tips and occasional interviews.
  • Mark Kermode’s Film Reviews – The weekly movie reviews from Mark Kermode, taken from Five Live every Friday. Kermode knows his stuff and there’s a lot of amusing banter.
  • The Dawn and Drew Show – Daily random and often crude (in a good way) chat with a married couple from Wisconsin. It’s good fun and episodes 268 and 269 are actually an interview with them done by me.
  • Inside The Magic – The first podcast I ever listened to, and since the one year anniversary is this week it also marks a year since I started listening to podcasts. It’s a weekly show with Disneyworld and general Disney news, and comes with a lot of good behind-the-scenes information, especially about new rides and overhauls.
  • The Onion Radio News – One minute a day with a story taken from the awesomeness that is the satirical “news” paper The Onion. If you’ve never been there you should take a look because they frequently come out with classics such as this.
  • UK DVD Review – Ten minutes a week on the latest UK DVD releases from a guy with an unhealthy Battlestar Galactica obsession. He takes full credit for personally getting me into the show so he deserves a place on here just for that.

So does anyone else listen to any good podcasts? Let’s have some recommendations.

Games, General, PlayStation, Xbox

Quote of the Day

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Ladies and gentlemen, the first shot of the console war has been fired:

“We didn’t want to go out to E3 and show a bunch of rendered videos that wouldn’t necessarily reflect reality. Sony has created that expectation and we’ll have to see if they can deliver on it. We’ll have real content at E3, real games that people can go out and get their hands on.”

Oooh, burn. This is going to get fun.