Archive for the ‘Home Theater’ Category

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…like sugar-free chocolate.


2008
01.10

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I am an admitted home theater snob. Among my circle of friends, they know that if they invite me to their homes to watch a movie that I could watch at my house, I’ll often have a moment of hesitation before I respond which betrays the fact that I am that asshole who wants to scream:

“We could watch it at my house and it’ll be EVEN COOLER!”

That said, my Samsung 46″ LCD TV that I bought back when I remodeled my house has been on the blink. It won’t power up, and given that I’m paying for DirecTV, and have a a ton of over-the-air HD TV shows (including Redskins games I’ve recorded) on the Powermac G5 (via an El Gato Systems EyeTV), and a Sony PS3, well…

I need my TV to be working.

The story as to why it isn’t working is a comedy of errors. When I plunked down $6605 (the MSRP was $9999, so I like to think I got a deal) for my Samsung LTP-468W I also bought an extended warranty through Repair Master (a.k.a., WarranTech).

The original TV I bought had a weird issue where the backlighting as uneven. Watching a bright scene in a movie was like looking through the bars of a jail cell… with one bar creating a blur in the middle of my vision.

To their credit, Samsung exchanged the TV for me… and when the next one showed up with several dead pixels (including a few in the top center of the screen), they exchanged it yet again for the unit I have now.

Of course, along the way, I didn’t get paperwork with each unit — and so I’ve had to reach out to the kind folks at Samsung to send me a document that explains the heritage of the unit that is currently defective so that the extended warranty will be honored.

So now I have to wait. And likely watch the Superbowl on something else. Something else being my, ummm, other HDTV.

See, when I bought a Wii, I quickly realized that a 20″ TV was too small to really enjoy the games with multiple players. Maybe it’s because I’m slowly going blind. Or maybe it’s the HD-elitist snob in me (as Homer Simpson once said in regards to standard-definition TV: “Awww! This is like rubbing dirt in my eyes!”), so I saw a deal on a 32″ LCD TV by Syntax Olevia for $600 and pulled the trigger.

Now, one thing I know is that for someone who isn’t big on A/V gear or movies, the size of a TV is a non-issue. I used to think it was a gender issue, but I’ve met a few women (like Liz Barone, my ex’s best friend) who super-sized her TV purchase with a 60″ Sony RPTV. It seems that if people really enjoy sports or movies, they tend to prioritize the quality (and size) of their TV accordingly.

So… submitted for your perusal is this photo of my 32″ LCD TV taking over the duties of the 46″ LCD TV hovering behind it.


It’s really like eating sugar-free chocolate

The 32″ LCD TV is adequate. I will be just fine with it. It beats nothing. And yet… it is about as enjoyable for me as eating sugar-free chocolate when I crave the real thing.

Seriously, I need to eat some cake.

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Fire!


2008
01.07

Posted in Blu-Ray, Home, Home Theater, Movies | Comments Off


Fire

Basically, I was chilling, watching “Syriana” (courtesy of Netflix) because I’ve had it for… six months and still haven’t watched it.

Then I noticed a weird odor…

(No, not my own flatulence)

I thought it may be one of the many electronic gizmos in my home theater rig overheating, since it smelled like roasted electronics with a hint of rubber.

Given how shitty my sense of smell is, it could have smelled like roast duck with mango salsa and I’d have freaked…

So I cut the lights on, looked in my kitchen and noticed a smoky haze in the kitchen.

I then proceeded to run around the kitchen (“like a chicken with its head cut off” as my dear old Mom used to say) looking to see if the oven, the cooktop or anything else might be on.

Nada.

I noticed the smoke was up to the ceiling in there, so I bolted upstairs, and checked all the rooms. Nothing burning, and the odor was not even noticeable up there.

So I dialed 9-1-1, told the operator what was going on, and got a visit from PGFD and Greenbelt Volunteer FD so quickly that I barely had time to move my car out the garage (because I sure as Hell was not going to let my precious car go up in flames… or get water damaged if they needed to put a fire out!) before they showed up en masse.

My boss may appreciate the fact that somewhere in the process of moving the car, I also threw my laptop and all my work-related stuff into the trunk because I love my job. :-)

So the fire department ran around the place checking for the source of the smoke and discovered that something electronic failed in the (overly complex and, in my opinion, poorly designed) electronic HVAC unit that handles the heat in the house.

It kicked out a lot of smoke, tripped the circuit breaker, but the fans pushed the smoke throughout the house.

Joy. :-(

That said, I’m glad to be alive, glad that all the “things” I’ve got aren’t lost to fire, damaged, or destroyed. And I’m grateful to the fire department for getting out here so quickly, even though I caught one of the guys playing with an elastic ribbon I used while rehabilitating my ankle (why do I keep it? I don’t know!) to smack his co-worker on the ass.

:-)

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Sumptuous


2007
07.28

Posted in Blu-Ray, Home Theater, Movies | Comments Off

“Gold and jade on the outside, decay on the inside…” – Zhang Yimou, director of “Curse of the Golden Flower”

Three weeks ago, I woke up at 5:30am and camped out with my friend Yan in Central Park to get tickets to one of the last Shakespeare in Central Park productions — “Romeo & Juliet”.

The show was fantastic, and it reminded me of the beauty of Shakespeare on stage. I found myself silently admiring aspects of the production. The set design was innovative and intriguing, using a modular metal bridge and a rotating stage that was partially submerged, which made every actor’s step sparkle and glitter, and it drew the eye to every movement, no matter how subtle. I could go on and on, but you can read a review here.

Last night, I watched “Curse of the Golden Flower” on Blu-Ray, and I found that same sense of wonder welling up within me… This movie strikes chords on multiple levels, with complex characters who are reminiscent of one of Shakespeare’s classics.

“It reveals the complexity of the relationships… The emotional ties are complex. Everyone has a secret. This is the nucleus of the story…” — Zhang Yimou


The young prince stands up to his father…

The young prince stands up to his father…

I have to start by first deferring a description of the substance of this story to comment on the stunning visuals. Honestly, I am not sure I can even endorse watching this movie on DVD with a standard definiton TV. It is sumptuous and seductive in its beauty, and if you really want to enjoy this film to the fullest, and recreate the sense of grandeur it attempts to impart through its cinematography, you’ll want the biggest 1080p TV you can afford.

This film is simply beautiful.

The vibrant, colorful sets and the sweeping, epic nature of the battle scenes are so gorgeous when viewed in high definition. The sound mix was good, though the music is not quite as lush as the soundtrack to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (which benefitted from Tan Dun‘s beautiful score (with Yo-Yo Ma) which won him several internatonal awards). Even so, running this in Dolby Digital 5.1 (uncompressed!) was delicious, especially during the battle sequences.

Now, to the substance… which I’ll try to focus on without giving away any spoilers.

The story itself is built upon a “decaying” marriage between the Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) and his wife, the Empress (Gong Li), who gives an amazing turn in this role that forces her to play a wife, a scorned lover, and a courtly manipulator who wants to bring about the downfall of her husband.


Gong Li as The Empress

If you thought Lady Macbeth was a big, bad mama…

She has been sleeping with his oldest son, Crown Prince Wan, so there is also a dynamic in play due to the near-incestuous nature of the infidelity. However, Wan is also enjoying the charms of young maiden wh serves the royals, and who is the daughter of the Imperial Physician. Who happens to be married to… well, let’s just say that the story weaves a tangled web that will leave you feeling like you’ve just seen the Chinese equivalent of a West Virginia family reunion!

The conflict all stems from a battle to wrest control over the “body” of the Empress, for the Emperor claims that she is sick and must take a medicine every hour, and when she realizes that she seems to be getting sicker, a plot is set into motion that will test the loyalties of the every member in the royal family, especially those of Prince Jai who is the only child of the Emperor & Empress’ union.


A flag doesn’t stand much of a chance against a guy with a blade…

“I am soooooo going to kick somebody’s ass…”

And when things turn violent, and you know that in an epic story like this that it will, it is more beautiful than it is visceral. Heroism in Chinese cinema is not always about winning, but about taking on the impossible task, despite knowing that victory is impossible.


One against hundreds

“Okay, if 300 can defeat a million, then surely I can beat these guys! Plus this looks just like Dynasty Warriors 5 on Playstation 2!”

There is a beautiful, almost stoic charm to the way the characters evolve as the story moves towards its conclusion that makes this movie absolutely compelling.


Dysfunctional Royal Family… and no, they aren’t British.

If you think your family is dysfunctional…

Highly, highly recommended in my book. But be forewarned — there is a lot of exposition early in the film, so go in with the expectation that you’re going to be inundated with plot before you enjoy a very rewarding finale. It is a sumptuous feast for cinema lovers.

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Oh, I’m totally down with doing the thing that makes the babies!


2007
06.16

Posted in Home Theater, Humor, The Web | Comments Off






You know what they say… Once you go 16:9, you never go back.

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Another terabyte of storage…


2007
05.12

Posted in Home Theater, Shopping | Comments Off

Wanna know the scary thing?

I already have 2.5 terabytes of storage on my Power Mac G5 already, but between the TV shows (recorded in HD using an EyeTV 500), video editing I’ve done, pictures I’ve taken, and my music collection… I was running out of space!

So yes… I admit it… I am a multimedia packrat.

So how did I burn up so much disk space?

Well.. I record every episode (in HD, no less!) of “The Office“, “Heroes“, “Lost“, “My Name Is Earl“, “How I Met Your Mother“, and “Raines” … oh, and a bunch of episodes of “Law & Order“… and… ummm… every Redskins game that had a big play in it since 2005, when they swept the Cowboys… and…



The big play… in HD!

Well you get the idea.

As a result, I just ordered up another terabyte of storage. For my non-geek friends, if you own an iPod nano 4GB, this would be like 250 of those.

I figure that’ll tide me over for a l’il bit… :-)

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