The last movie you saw...

[maxpayne2409]

watched a documentary from 2006 about arnies run for the governors seat and eventual win in california, called Running With Arnold. It wasn't so bad actually, a lot better then most boring stuffy politics docus. The best comedy (whether intentional or not) moment was when he said "we have to close off our borders" and then when people got outraged about it and how he was/is an immigrant he comes back with "sorry, as you know english isn't my first language and sometimes the words i use are wrong"..... erm yeah ok arn

[dinky]

speaking of docus, I often channel surf to discovery hd, history hd, or animal planet hd, and then get hooked but don't bother reporting. often, this is stuff like ancient weapons, archaeology or walking with dinosaurs stuff, but the other day, I stumbled into this docu on "supervolcanos." and how all of yellowstone national park is a supervolcano. and then there's the fact that the place got so hot (the ground because of lava flow/pressure) that they had to close off the park. this is basically the thing that probably killed the dinosaurs. so it could blow tomorrow or twenty thousand years from now, but it's definitely going to blow. so the docu explains this and then (cuz it's america) gives us an out: it will kill millions and billions and make the earth quite cold (blocking out the sun, etc.), but they still give you this little hope...like the rest of the world can find a way or something. so I come into work the next day and casually mention it to a co-worker who happens to have her M.S. in geology (hydro-geology or something technically). so as soon as I say supervolcano she takes over and says if it goes off, we're all dead. and I'm sitting here thinking "aww, c'mmon. I don't even have a chance way over here on the other side of the continent?" and she's like, "no. you could survive the actual blast and the immediate impact of debris, but the sulphur would kill us all." so now I'm thinking..."fuck." we're fucked. I wonder what it will be like? will there be astronauts up in a space station taking it all in and dying slowly in earth's orbit? I mean...all the other cosmic phenomena I can rationalize not caring about. but this isn't a possibility. it's an inevitability, and it's a lot more imminent than the sun burning out or going supernova. maybe the republicans can use it as an excuse not to give a fuck about global warming?

[maxpayne2409]

yeah usually most of the docus i watch are about things like space, history, and the paranormal etc, but there was a 3 part (i think) docu-movie on bbc here a few years back about the supervolcano under yellowstone, which basically said the same thing

With regards to a space station slowly dying in space, i guess it all depends on when it happens, if it's tomorrow then a space station isn't really anything to think about, but if it's say 2000 years from now we may have space stations orbitting, which can resupply their own food, along with a possible moonbase (by 2010 if bush is to be believed )

[dinky]

TUDORS s2 eps 1 and 2. hockey playoffs start this week. will be into that mostly. new smallville april 17. bsg is new and sitting on the hdd till I have a couple eps to watch. seems to be new eps of BIG CAT DIARIES airing again. watched one. programmed dvr to cap them all. can't get enough of that show.

don't really care about anything else. hoping iron man will be decent. looks like it, but could go either way. I like downey jr.'s tongue-in-cheek stuff, but if the rest of the movie is like that, I'll scream bloody catwoman!

[maxpayne2409]

still watching justice league eps, oh and read Marvel Zombies 2 (sequel mini series comic), frankly i don't think i'll bother with iron man, maybe grab the dvdrip when it comes out, but don't really give too much of a shit about anything Marvel at all, especially as all the recent marvel movies have been steamers, apart from the old x-men cartoon i think i hate marvel for being shit... cough *dc fanboy* cough

I realise superman returns was shit, but thats 1 film to spidey 1...2...3... f4 1 and 2 and the xmen movies

[Jynks]

Hulk 2 looks good max... go see that.

[dinky]

new BSG. was decent, but parts of it annoyed the hell out of me (all things that were largely inevitable given the previous season's finale).

most of T2 on BD. I need to adjust the speaker levels again (new receiver), but otherwise enjoyable. also watched SIMPSONS on BD earlier in the week. that picture was amazing (T2 transfer was superior to DVD, of course, but not as jaw-dropping as SIMPSONS).

[spudthedestroyer]

@bsg, did they up the sfx/cgi budget this season quite a bit or was it because i cleaned my glasses?

@dinky,
I'm still not sure what projector to buy... decide for me dinky!

[Jynks]

I am totaly sick of BSG.. it used ot be so cool but then went off the rails. More space battles less cylons trying to find god.

[dinky]

I think they upped the budget in the sense that they spent more money to produce more action per minute (on the first ep). we'll see if the pattern holds, but I didn't think the quality of everything was better/worse.

although I did notice that the command center/command deck/whatever had been overhauled. it almost looked like the cc of the pegasus. I do not care for that change. it's too clean, bright, and new looking. I liked the claustraphic feeling and submarine/battleship feel of the old set. also, the bsg is supposed to be an oldschool version of a battlestar. it shouldn't look that "open" imo.

RE Projectors: I don't trust optoma projectors, but I have no rational/experiential reason not to trust them. I just don't know anything about them. the mitsubishi hc 4900 is the best picture I've ever seen anywhere on any display, and they're supposed to be a quality manufacturer (this is my first mitsu). but it's also the only 1080p display I've seen in action at 72" or more. I do notice that hdtv noticeably worse than HD/BD movies. that could be just the interlacing on the HDTV feed, but I think it's the quality of the cable signal. likewise, there are hiccups watching hbo hd movies sometimes where the picture pixelates (blocky?) for a second. I also think that's a product of signal degradation before it even gets to my house, but I don't know that.

the projector, btw, is also my best computer display. I use a 1680x1050 acer display on my desktop. the projector is crystal clear at 1920. You really can't go wrong for the price. I paid $1899 and then got a $500 manufacturer's rebate. That's $1400! expect to spend another $100-$200 on mounting hw and $50-$100 on hdmi/dvi cabling. you can throw it on a white wall, but a screen is recommended (we're not digital savages! ), so that's another $100-$200 as well. HC 4900 also has a nice selection of inputs 1 x hdmi, 1 x dvi, and the usual analog suspects. kestone adjustment is done via lens shift and zoom. there is also an overscan adjustment should you like to fiddle (none of my other projectors had this, and it was sorely missed). this thing is also whisper quiet in comparison to anything I've used before. all my PCs are louder. ok. that doesn't really tell you anything. how's this: the xbox 360 is noticeably louder.

all of that said, I have not seen 1080p projection with 24p native (i.e., w/o 3:2 pulldown). I can say that HOT FUZZ looked flawless on HD-DVD.

[maxpayne2409]

right just so i know, what is the difference between 1080i and p and so on? as i've seen it around and while i know it refers in some way to a better enhanced HD pic (bigger res) i don't really know the difference between i and p

back on topic, still watching justice league

[maxpayne2409]

oh and @ jynks never been a big hulk fan

[spudthedestroyer]

right just so i know, what is the difference between 1080i and p and so on? as i've seen it around and while i know it refers in some way to a better enhanced HD pic (bigger res) i don't really know the difference between i and p

back on topic, still watching justice league

Do you know what interlacing is?

The i stands for interlaced, which is two frames sent at once and your tv's refresh rate handles how quickly it is displayed (it renders half a frame at once so you don't see interlacing artifacts on a tv).

When you deinterlace you take the frame, seperate it into two and throw half away or blend. Interlaced pictures are inherantly inferior to progressive. Ideally we want progressive sources, that is like anamorphic DVDs, etc.

LCDs, TFTs, Plasmas, Projectors, all display progressively (that's a p). All cinema cameras record progressively, usually at 24fps which is neither NTSC nor PAL.

1080p @ 24fps is the best standard we have, its a huge wwwwx1080 image which shows at 24 whole, non-interlaced frames per second.

Both HD-DVD and Bluray display natively at 1080p@24fps

[maxpayne2409]

ah cool, yeah i know interlacing, basic description is those fuzzy lines you get on dvds (most notably on cheap/american tv) right?, that a lot of rushed latest episode scene caps have too especially things like american dad/family guy.

[spudthedestroyer]

yup, well if you know that, that post should have made sense

That's the difference between i and p

[maxpayne2409]

yeah it made sense, cheers

finished watching season 1 of Justice League

[dinky]

THE BIG LEBOWSKI hd dvd. awesome and...awesome. I wasn't kidding when I said the best movies were hd dvd. and they're all $10-$15 now that the format is toast! heh.

(shaun, aod, lebowski, hot fuzz, kiss kiss bang bang, mallrats, serenity - I've already recouped the price of my player!).

gonna grab eternal sunshine and the first mummy and maybe i am legend if the price drops (still $18 ). also expecting HEROES s1 price to fall into my lap.

had to get EVIL DEAD 2 on BD though. otherwise not bothering cuz why buy BD while it's still so expensive when I can gut the hd dvd library for a quarter of the price?

[maxpayne2409]

frankly i don't really think i'm gonna buy any rereleased dvds on the new formats as i don't envisage them being round long enough to warrant the prices, the next media wont be optical media anyway, most likely be something different, something that's for instance, doesn't matter if it somehow gets ever so slightly scratched

[dinky]

most likely be something different, something that's for instance, doesn't matter if it somehow gets ever so slightly scratched

yeah. that's a major league peeve.

[maxpayne2409]

yeah it's something that proper pisses me off, it's one of the major reasons also why i stopped lending things out to people, as i only know 1 other person who looks after stuff and keeps it in good condition like i do