Monthly Archives: March 2010

Paranormal Activity and DTS-HD Master Audio

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Icon Film Distribution is releasing Paranormal Activity in Australia on Blu-ray and DVD on 2 April. This is a film that cost about $US15,000 to make and has since done about $US100 million at the box office. Pretty good ROI! … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Codecs, Compression, Disc details | 1 Comment

Saving the world, 13 grams at a time

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Universal studios sent me a bunch of Blu-ray discs recently. One of them is a movie of which I had never previously heard. Called Home, it is apparently an environmental documentary. From the blurb: In 200,000 years, humans have disrupted the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Mysticism, Rant | 3 Comments

Anamorphic revisited

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I have a little bit of sympathy for DVD distributors who used pan and scan for some of their titles, at least in the early days. Back then the vast majority of TVs were still 4:3, and that was what … Continue reading →

Posted in Compression, DTV, DVD, Video | Leave a comment

Pan and Scan again

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

About nine years ago I published an article in which I suggested that so-called ‘Pan and Scan’ isn’t always as bad as feared. Pan and Scan is a technique by which a widescreen movie is reformatted to full frame display … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DVD, Video, Video tape | 3 Comments

LED Projectors

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

My review of the Vivitek H9080FD LED home theatre projector shall be appear in The Canberra Times on Monday, and I’m hoping to look at a Runco LED projector next week. But I’ve been thinking: must LED projectors be limited … Continue reading →

Posted in Video | Leave a comment

Another Heinlein movie coming

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’d missed this until now, but it looks like Robert A. Heinlein’s long short story, or short novel, ‘The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag‘, is being made into a movie. Being of a somewhat optimistic disposition, I hope this will … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema | Leave a comment

Am I to be forced into employment?

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I don’t normally comment here on politics, despite having very strong views on the subject, because it isn’t usually relevant to home entertainment or to me writing about home entertainment. But when Robert Gottliebsen writes that people like me are … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Rant | Leave a comment

A further Blu-ray giveaway – Angels and Demons

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

This is a ‘Testmold’ disc, which means that it don’t have a proper label and so forth, nor a proper Blu-ray box, nor a slick, but it works just like a bought one. Has both Extended and Theatrical versions my … Continue reading →

Posted in BD-Live, Disc details, Giveaway | 2 Comments