Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Eclipsing chick flick extremes

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

There can be no doubt that The Twilight Saga movies have been financial successes, nor that they are chick flicks, if this term is defined not as a romantic comedy, but as a movie that appeals significantly more to females, on … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema | 6 Comments

Cyberlink PowerDVD irritations

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

A few minutes ago I was about to prepare a post, and this involved grabbing a couple of screen shots from websites to illustrate my points. But the Windows PrtScn and Alt-PrtScn snapshot facility wouldn’t work, or at least wouldn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Computer, Copyright | Leave a comment

Another 3D TV

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Today I received the fifty inch Panasonic plasma 3D TV. Obviously I’m doing reviews, so most of my observations belong to those, rather than here. But I would like to note that using the same test disc, there is much, … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Blu-ray, Disc details | Leave a comment

The Rise and Fall of M Night Shyamalan

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I was going to entitle this post ‘The Fall of M Night Shyamalan‘, but he actually made a couple of movies before The Sixth Sense. Yesterday my brother and I were discussing the disappointment of The Happening (to be fair, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema | Leave a comment

DVDs and Blu-rays To Die For

Posted on July 3, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

(Bumped to the top with this update.) Are there any movies that you would really like which, inexplicably, never appear to have been released on DVD in Australia? One that I love is To Die For, the 1995 comedy crime … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DVD | 7 Comments

HD DVD Giveaway

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I have quite a few HD DVD discs which I have since replaced with Blu-ray discs. Would any of you like them? No charge, except possibly for the postage, if it seems a bit pricey. Here’s what I have available: … Continue reading →

Posted in Giveaway, HD DVD | 4 Comments

Motion Adaptive video processing

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Want to know what it all means? My recent Sound and Image article, with pictures showing it in action, is here.

Posted in Interlacing, Progressive scan, Video | 10 Comments

IMDB going English

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Sometime in the past few days the Internet Movie Database appears to have changed from using the original non-English names for many foreign movies. Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo is now Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Misc | 2 Comments

Copy Protection

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Perhaps the most amazing thing about some DVDs is that they play at all, given the trouble that DVD makers go to copy protect them. This is what AnyDVD HD has to say about the Toy Story DVD (which comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Copyright | 4 Comments

Toy Story 3 – Take Two

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Well, yesterday I made some remarks about the new Toy Story movie. Last night I watched the original Toy Story on Blu-ray, and after not having seen it for several years, it still stands up very nicely, and looks gorgeous. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema | Leave a comment