the vengeful cow blog

Console hardware pricing

Posted by marshall Mon, 18 Dec 2006 02:27:00 GMT

Price/feature comparison of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 hardware:

Backwards compatibility numbers only include titles released in the USA. The figures for the Japanese PS3 are considerably higher.

Posted in Home Theater

On studios and high-definition disc formats

Posted by marshall Fri, 15 Dec 2006 01:35:00 GMT

For reference...here is a list of top grossing films, their distributors, and the disc format(s) that the distributors support. Note that these specific titles may or may not have been announced yet in a high-definition format. Note also that these are box-office figures, not home video figures, which would arguably make a more interesting list.

Top 20 grossing films of 2006:

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
   Disney (Blu-Ray only)

2. Cars
   Disney (Blu-Ray only)

3. X-Men: The Last Stand
   Fox (Blu-Ray only)

4. The Da Vinci Code
   Sony (Blu-Ray only)

5. Superman Returns
   WB (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

6. Ice Age: The Meltdown
   Fox (Blu-Ray only)

7. Over the Hedge
   Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

8. Talladega Nights
   Sony (Blu-Ray only)

9. Happy Feet
   WB (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

10. Click
    Sony (Blu-Ray only)

11. Mission: Impossible III
    Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

12. Casino Royale
    Sony (Blu-Ray only)

13. The Devil Wears Prada
    Fox (Blu-Ray only)

14. Borat
    Fox (Blu-Ray only)

15. The Departed
    WB (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

16. The Break-Up
    Universal (HD-DVD only)

17. Scary Movie 4
    Weinstein (HD-DVD only)

18. Failure to Launch
    Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

19. Inside Man
    Universal (HD-DVD only)

20. Open Season
    Sony (Blu-Ray only)

Top grossing films of the past 20 years:

• 2006 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  Disney (Blu-Ray only)

• 2005 - Revenge of the Sith
  Fox (Blu-Ray only)

• 2004 - Shrek 2
  Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

• 2003 - Return of the King
  WB (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

• 2002 - Spider-Man
  Sony (Blu-Ray only)

• 2001 - Harry Potter
  WB (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

• 2000 - The Grinch
  Universal (HD-DVD only)

• 1999 - The Phantom Menace
  Fox (Blu-Ray only)

• 1998 - Saving Private Ryan
  Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

• 1997 - Titanic
  Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

• 1996 - Independence Day
  Fox (Blu-Ray only)

• 1995 - Toy Story
  Disney (Blu-Ray only)

• 1994 - Forrest Gump
  Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

• 1993 - Jurassic Park
  Universal (HD-DVD only)

• 1992 - Aladdin
  Disney (Blu-Ray only)

• 1991 - Terminator 2
  Lionsgate (Blu-Ray only)

• 1990 - Home Alone
  Fox (Blu-Ray only)

• 1989 - Batman
  WB (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

• 1988 - Rain Man
  Fox (Blu-Ray only)

• 1987 - Three Men & A Baby
  Disney (Blu-Ray only)

• 1986 - Top Gun
  Paramount (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD)

Studio support:

The studio support information is from The Digital Bits' High-Definition Release List.

From The Digital Bits on December 11, 2006:

I've just spoken today with Eric Maehara, VP of Communications for Buena Vista Home Entertainment...He reiterated to me in no uncertain terms that BVHE has no plans to support HD-DVD, despite persistent online rumors to the contrary.

I've also spoken this afternoon with Steve Feldstein, Senior VP of Corporate and Marketing Communications for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. He likewise confirmed that Fox has no plans to support HD-DVD...

And on December 12:

...Universal Home Entertainment has gotten back to us this afternoon with a bit of news regarding their high-def plans. Vivian Meyer, the studio's Senior VP of Publicity, has informed us that the studio will continue exclusively backing the HD-DVD format in 2007...

Posted in Home Theater

Giganticus

Posted by marshall Tue, 24 Jan 2006 05:03:00 GMT

So the projector was ceiling mounted, fulfilling a dream of many years. Yet all was not rosy in the land of Home Theater. I was a bit nervous about the stability of the hushbox. I was very nervous about something bumping the projector and having to adjust the aim again. I had big black wires running across the ceiling to a power strip barely balanced on top of the vertical blinds. All in all, it was ugly and precarious. Not quite the beautiful system I had envisioned.

There were further problems. I soon came to the disheartening realization that my retro-reflective high-power screen is designed to reflect light back in the same direction as the source. This is great when the projector is right next to your head (deafening you with fan noise just before your skin melts from the heat from the bulb), but not so great when the projector is suspended high overhead: the picture is rather dim when one sits on the floor or even the couch.

To top it off, one of the fans in the hushbox wasn't working. This caused the projector to overheat and shut itself off on New Year's Eve (thankfully after the main event). Now, this is probably some minor electrical thing that a do-it-yourself type could easily fix. I am not such a type. Well, perhaps I am with software, but electrical hardware remains a mystery to me. So this minor electrical straw basically killed my home theater camel. After all, who wants to watch a movie with the constant fear of the projector overheating and burning up right before it falls on your head?

Slowly, painfully, the understanding came that I had just poured a lot of time and money into a dream that would remain elusive. I would need to fix the fan. I would need a new screen that would reflect differently. I would need longer cables. I would need to re-mount everything when we moved to Idaho. I would need to replace the bulb in another 1,000 hours. All for a projector that wasn't even capable of fully displaying HD video.

The costs of front projection were starting to outweigh the benefits. I began to consider an option I had hoped I wouldn't be considering for a long time: replacing the projector. (Cue dramatic music.)

Posted in Pictures, Home Theater

Dancing on the ceiling: Part 2

Posted by marshall Tue, 24 Jan 2006 02:25:00 GMT

Around the middle of this past December, our projector bulb hit 1,000 hours. Projectors (and, by association, rear-projection TVs) have a bulb in them that has a life expectancy of a certain number of hours; in the case of the LT150, the magic number is 1,000. At that point, the bulb needs to be replaced. Bulbs that are run past their life expectancy have a tendency to explode, which can cause serious injury and/or death to the projector.

As I began to read about replacing the bulb, I came across some forum posts by Serious Home Theater Buffs (TM) about modifications to the LT150 to improve the picture. One of the biggest ones was disassembling the projector and painting over the clear segment of the color wheel, which required a bit more comfort with the concept of ripping apart a finely-tuned electronic device than I could muster. There was another modification, though, that did not require such drastic measures: placing a Hoya FL-D color filter in front of the projector. I further learned that Whisperflow, a well-known hushbox maker, could build such a filter into a hushbox design. I decided that I would do a projector tune-up: new bulb, hushbox with color filter, and -- finally -- ceiling mount.

Posted in Pictures, Home Theater

Dancing on the ceiling: Part 1

Posted by marshall Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:32:00 GMT

If you didn't just come across this blog during random wandering, you probably know that I have a certain fondness for home theater. This dates back to my early college days, when my roommate in the RIT dorms brought in his stereo with some impressive-looking (though not necessarily impressive-sounding) speakers, and I bought a massive 27" GE television from Sam's Club. It was, sadly enough, the largest and loudest video equipment on the floor, and soon we were hosting movie nights in our room. These events birthed the dream of one day getting a projector and having a real home "theater".

When I moved out of the dorms into an apartment, my new roommate had a Pro Logic surround sound system. In the spirit of kickin' it up a notch, I bought one of the early computer DVD drives and hooked it up to the TV and sound system, bringing us into the brave new world of digital video. (This was back when only the local specialty stores carried the few DVD movies in existence, and I was buying such award-winning classics as Tomorrow Never Dies just because they were on DVD.) The dream continued to come into focus: a ceiling-mounted projector, a progressive-scan DVD player, and a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound system.

It took several years for the dream to come true, but in September 2001, it did. Lara and I bought a Pioneer surround sound receiver, a set of speakers, and an NEC LT150 XGA DLP projector -- one of the best sets of acronyms found in a projector available at the time in our price range. We hooked a progressive-scan DVD player into it, and eventually ran a Nintendo GameCube into it as well. We got a lovely 84" high-power screen to display the projected image. It was good. Yes preciousss. Only one thing remained: mounting the projector on the ceiling.

Posted in Home Theater

Digital projection and 3D

Posted by marshall Mon, 26 Sep 2005 18:38:00 GMT

There's an interesting article on the New York Times site about digital projection and 3D. The thing that caught my eye about it was the screen refresh info. Apparently the 3D version of Chicken Little will be shown at "144 frames per second".

Now, I'm guessing they actually mean the projector will have a refresh rate of 144 Hz, and the movie itself will still have a standard 24 frames per second. But the point is that with digital projection, they can run the projector at a far higher refresh rate than film projectors have run, making it possible to alternate left and right images for 3D very quickly. With 144 Hz, each eye is essentially getting a 72 Hz refresh rate, which is what a lot of people run their CRT computer monitors at. That's pretty cool.

I wonder what the implications for this are for home theater. The article says they use a single projector. Hmmm...

Posted in Home Theater