Tag Archives: DVD
More Freeware Options
Every geek that I know has a favorite media player. Mac geeks swear by iTunes because they’ve been brainwashed by Steve Jobs. Some Windows geeks love Windows Media Player because it has Windows in the name. And let’s not forget about Real, WinAmp, or the numerous other “standards” that people use. Despite these options, some people have and have discovered new and better ways to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special or listen to their vast MP3 collection.
I’ve mentioned before how I am able to watch various movies and TV shows at my desk while I’m working. Because these files come from an assortment of locations, I have to deal with a large number of codecs and other hoop jumping in order to watch everything that I want.
I hate Apple so I’ll never get caught using iTunes if there’s an alternative. I used to be a total WMP guy. Note that I say “used to”. About a year ago I discovered VLC Media Player. I started using it because it handled DVD playback much better than WMP. A side effect of my switch was that I no longer had to try and determine which codec pack I needed to watch the latest episode of a particular show; VLC handled every file that I threw at it flawlessly. Because of this amazing efficiency, I was able to watch what I wanted when I wanted. Not an hour later after trying an assortment of codecs.
For a long time, VLC was my media player of choice. The only drawback is that I wasn’t able to use the keyboard controls on my Logiech MX5500. Since I have this keyboard at home and at the office, this was a huge drawback but the pros far outweighed the cons so I kept using VLC.
A few months ago, I discovered a new media player: GOM. This is another free media player that handles DVDs as well as just about any video format you throw at it including Real Media, Quicktime, DivX, Xvid and FLV. The nice thing about this program though is that it uses internal codecs so, in most cases, no codecs are installed on your system. To date, I haven’t run into anything that GOM couldn’t handle which makes me very, very happy. My keyboard buttons also work with it so I don’t need to try and hit that pause button with my cursor.
While I still primarily use WMP to listen to my MP3 collection, when it comes to video files, I always run to GOM. If you’re looking for a new way to enjoy the video files on your computer, I’d suggest giving GOM a try. Of course VLC isn’t too shabby either.
Peg Meet Hole
For those who follow my misadventures over on my personal blog, you may be familiar with the fact that I recently finished construction on my basement. While it’s nice having a third bathroom, fourth bedroom, and laundry room, the best part about it is the family room. I wired the room to accommodate a 7.1 home theater. I even built a shelf over my fireplace that will be home to a 52″ LCD television. The whole setup is very sweet and I take great pride in knowing that it was my hands that built it all.
Despite construction having been mostly completed for weeks, it has only been within the past few days that I’ve had the time to begin moving my electronics into place. Unfortunately, I haven’t upgraded my components yet so I’m using a 12-year-old Pioneer four-channel receiver with a seven-year-old 27″ television.
In addition to the speaker and sub-woofer lines, I also ran coax for cable television and HDMI and component cables for the new HD television and receiver that I’m hoping will be mine next spring. We’re all familiar with the old adage concerning fitting a square peg into a round hole; that’s basically what I’m trying to do here. The problem is that my receiver doesn’t have television RCA inputs, coax inputs, or even auxiliary RCA inputs so running my television through the speakers poses a problem. It does have a video out connection though so it’s not totally obsolete.
I also have a problem with getting video from my DVD player to the television. Fortunately, my receiver does have connections for a DVD/Laser Disc (yeah, it’s that old) so I can connect the DVD player to the receiver; however, because of how the room is set up, I can’t run cables directly from my various devices to the television so the receiver and accompanying wall ports are all that I have to work with.
With my current setup I can listen to a DVD, but what good is it if there’s no video? I got to thinking about component cables, and since they’re basically just standard RCA cables on steroids (how’s that for a basic comparison?), I decided to try hooking the television up to the receiver using these via my wall ports. It worked beautifully. I can now see and hear a DVD but the problem of having sound piping through the speakers when just watching TV still posed a problem. To fix this, I finally decided to unhook the VCR from the back of the receiver and use those ports for the TV which worked well.
It’s been almost a week since I started hooking up wires and praying to the gods of outdated electronics but things are finally working. Granted, I still have two speakers and a sub-woofer that can’t be hooked up to the receiver but at least what can be working actually is.
You may be wondering why I’m sharing this little story. I mostly just wanted to post something but there is a moral. If you plan on building anything that could be considered “cutting edge” or “state of the art”, make sure that all of your parts are up to date. Jury-rigging old stuff will only get you so far but, if you’re good, it can get you pretty close to where you want to be. Unless you’re playing with rockets in Blood Gulch though, close may not be good enough.
Who Won The Battle Of Summer Blockbusters?
I love comic books and I love movies so naturally, I’m a big fan of movies based on comic books. There is no doubt that this summer was enough to make many a geek wet themselves with delight.
Talk to the hand
The summer started off with a giant crimson and gold bang as Iron Man dominated theaters to the tune of $318,219,154. Not too bad for a movie about a dysfunctional millionaire with a really cool suit. Despite the fact that I think that Tony Stark is a giant douche bag in the comics, especially after Marvel’s Civil War, there’s no doubt that Robert Downey Jr. was flat out amazing. Throw in a nice cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury that set up the upcoming Avengers project, and this provided much geek glee.
Next up we had Speed Racer, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Indiana Jones and the Something About Aliens. I didn’t see Speed Racer because I fear having epileptic seizures. I don’t have epilepsy but the trailers were enough to keep me away. Plus, I’m not a big Speed Racer fan. Narnia was good, albeit a bit long and Indy was further proof that George Lucas is going insane. It should be noted though that I will be buying both Narnia and Indy because I am a geek and really enjoyed both movies.
Hulk contemplate the complexities of life.
Once the pre-summer blockbusters were out of the way, we were treated to Edward Norton getting all green and smashy in The Incredible Hulk which, surprisingly, did not suck. It even made a respectable $134,518,390 at the box office. I didn’t expect much from this film given the fact that Ang Lee’s The Hulk made me want to jump off of a bridge. That was a bad movie. The sequel, not so much. I may even end up buying it on DVD. Plus, there was a cameo by Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as Tony Stark. In case you forgot, it set up the previously mentioned upcoming Avengers project. There is also some alleged footage that was cut at the last minute that showed Captain America. It’s purpose? To set up the upcoming Captain America movie.
Between The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight, which let’s face it, is probably one of the best movies in the history of movies, we saw the release of Wanted, Hancock, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I didn’t see Hancock but the other two were good movies. To be honest though, at this point in the summer, I was just waiting for Batman to beat the crap out of some bad guys.
"I've never felt this way towards a psychopath before"
July 18 will go down as the day that the best superhero movie of all time opened. Yes, I’m talking about The Dark Knight. I’ve already reviewed this so I won’t do it again here but this movie is two hours and thirty two minutes of pure awesome. When all was said and done, it brought in $521,890,027 making it one of the most successful movies in history. With a re-release planned for Oscar season, who knows how much this movie will end up making.
We were also treated to The X-Files 2: I Want to Believe and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I didn’t see X-Files. Not because I don’t want to, but because I was too busy. I’m sure I’ll eventually watch it though. For my thoughts on The Clone Wars, read my review. Needless to say, with a box office take of only $34,477,361, I don’t think I was the only one mildly disappointed by it.
This all got me to thinking, who came out on top this summer? Obviously DC Comics did well with The Dark Knight but Marvel had two offerings that were really good. OK, one that was really good, one that was awesome. However, Marvel set up future projects and actually did what the comics do in showing that these characters don’t live in a vacuum. With Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, an Iron Man sequel, and two Spiderman sequels all in the works, I think that Marvel is going to prove to be the big winner in this summer’s box office battles. With the cameos and the upcoming movies that they were able to set up, every geek should be jumping for joy. Now if only DC could pull of the same thing with the much rumored Justice League movie…
A Geek And His Money Are Soon Parted
You knew this was going to happen. If you say that you didn’t, then you’re either a fool or a liar. I just found this on StarWars.com:
Returning to store shelves on November 4th are the six episodes of the Star Wars saga on DVD bundled in convenient trilogy sets. Perfect for gift-giving as the holidays approach, the Prequel Trilogy set includes Episodes I-III, while the Star Wars Trilogy includes Episodes IV-VI.
Fans who already own the prequel trilogy double-disc releases (released from 2001-2005) and the Star Wars trilogy double-disc releases (released in 2006) already have all the content that’s available in this set. There’s nothing new in this set you don’t already have. But for friends and family still looking to fill in these gaps in their DVD collections, these sets make it easy and affordable to complete the saga.
Own the saga on DVD November 4th.
Thankfully, there is no new content. I know that there’s no way that my wife would let me try to justify buying the saga again because of a new 45 minute documentary on how Jar Jar Binks is the best character in any movie throughout history or why I should be happy that we got Ewoks in Return of the Jedi instead of Wookiees.
Where Have All The Special Features Gone?
Next Tuesday, the biggest blockbuster of the year will make it’s triumphant DVD debut. This film also happens to be a geek-friendly movie based on one of the coolest super heroes in history. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m talking about The Dark Knight. This is one DVD that will be making it’s way into my collection.
I have a major gripe over the way that movie studios have been screwing people that buy DVDs over the past few years. When DVDs first started hitting the market, they were advertised as having super cool bonus features including deleted scenes, commentaries, trailers, bloopers, featuretes, etc. DVDs were a gold mine for the movie lover that enjoys useless information in documentary form. Those days are now gone, and I don’t even blame the introduction of Blu-Ray discs. I blame greedy movie stuidos that know that movie geeks will pay extra for this stuff.
The Dark Knight DVD release is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Warner Brothers decided that there will be single-DVD releases in both widescreen and full-screen. These will have the movie. Um… OK. It wasn’t that long ago that the single-disc version would be a veritable cornucopia of extras. If you want any of those, you’ll have to upgrade to the twice as expensive two-disc DVD. This will include:
That may seem like a lot but guess what? Regular DVD player owners are getting screwed. The Blu-Ray version comes with all of the above plus the following:
My question is this: what does everyone think of how movie studios enticed us into the DVD market by offering all manner of sweetness only to move said sweetness to multi-disc versions of the film? I can understand it but I hate it. And for those of us who hate Sony and refuse to buy their products, what about giving us über versions of regular DVDs a la The Lord of the Rings? Is that really too much to ask? We used to get these things for the price of a DVD and now we don’t and that just pisses me off.