August 5, 2008
Could A Poor Man’s “High-Def” Alternative (With Region-Free Playback) Be A Blu-ray Killer?
Electronics | Aug 5, 08
There are some very inexpensive DVD players out there offering high-def upconversion for regular DVD disks, and at least one can be set to provide region-free playback.
Upconversion of a standard DVD uses interpolation to add extras pixels so as to create a picture with the same number of pixels as high def. Of course, this mathematical technique produces a “false precision”, with "higher resolution" detail a product of a mathematical algorithm’s “guess”, as opposed to the image actually shot. However, many people apparently find the resulting picture quite stunning, including a film-scholar friend of mine who recently bought the Philips DVP3960/37.
As of this writing, the Philips DVP3960/37 Upconvert DVD Player with DivX is available from a vendor on PriceSCAN for just under $40. With HDMI connectivity, it provides 720p/1080i upconversion for standard DVD disks. Formats supported include DVD video and video CD (i.e. play of DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R,-RW and CD-R), as well as JPEG, MP3, DivX, and WMA. Further, this model can be set to play DVDs from any region, not just the US – a significant advantage for lovers of foreign films.
The cheapest Blu-ray player on PriceSCAN, the Sony BDP-S300, is going for over $320 (of course the PlayStation 3 comes with one for just under $400). And that’s not taking into account the value of your old DVD collection or the price and availability of new Blu-ray content. Considering the economics, forty bucks for an ersatz “high-def” experience does sound like kind of a deal, even if some of those pixels are born of an equation.
Posted by jeffrey.trester
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July 20, 2008
Xbox Pricing: Microsoft Travels Middle Of Road, Presumably Plans Not To Get Run Over
Electronics | Jul 20, 08
Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 will have a 60 gigabyte hard drive and list for $349, placing it between a costlier Sony PlayStation 3 and the lower-end Nintendo Wii.
Ahead of the August release of the 60 GB model, Redmond also said it would drop the price of the current 20 GB Xbox to just under $300 until current supplies are exhausted, and indeed several merchants on PriceSCAN.com offering the older system at $299.99. By contrast, the PS3 is offered at $399.99, and while its hard drive is only 40 GB, the extra $50 gets you a built-in Blu-ray player, not a bad deal when one considers the cheapest stand-alone Blu-ray player goes for over $200. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s Wii captures the low-priced market at just under $250.
According to a recent report by Bloomberg (quoting NPD Group data) in the first five months of 2008, PlayStation 3 unit sales edged out Xbox 360 1.2 million to 1.12 million, but the big volume is to be found on the cheap side, with Nintendo moving 2.8 million Wii players.
So does Microsoft believe an extra 20 GB and fifty bucks less beats a Blu-ray- sporting PS3 while trumping a wildly popular Wii that’s $150 cheaper than the new Xbox? This strategy sounds a bit more robust when one considers Redmond’s alliance with Netflix, which will reportedly make some 10,000 streamed movies and television programs available this fall to Xbox Live Gold members who subscribe to Netflix. When combined with current Xbox Live Video Marketplace offerings, this makes Microsoft’s value proposition compelling when compared with Sony’s PS3 based video download service; reports have the latter offering some 300 movies and 1200 television episodes from Sony, Warner, Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount and Disney.
To be sure, Sony’s offerings will include high-def Blu-ray content, but such material will reportedly only be available for rental, not purchase. Netflix’s streams for Xbox will apparently not be in high-def, but HD content is available from the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. In any case, if Microsoft and Netflix can deliver a broader array of desirable video content then Sony, a larger hard drive and lower price may give the new Xbox an edge against the PS3, Blu-ray notwithstanding. That said, sooner or later the Microsoft/Netflix alliance may well have to address high-def to stay competitive as Sony expands its offerings As for Nintendo’s little wonder, perhaps in the new age of video stream and download-enabled game consoles, the number one seller will seem just a “Wii”-bit lightweight, but, then again, that huge fan base may be having too much fun playing with their controllers to even notice.
Posted by jeffrey.trester
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December 19, 2007
Blu-ray, HD-DVD Prices Falling Like A Gentle Winter Snow (And In High-Def You Can Really See Those Flakes!)
Electronics | Dec 19, 07
Some early tech-fan enthusiasm for Blu-ray and HD-DVD was of the sort normally reserved for James Lipton's commentaries on the brilliance of filmmakers behind the likes of, say, "Beerfest."
However, the somewhat tepid response of consumers has motivated repeated rounds of price cuts, and Sony's inclusion of a Blu-ray player in the $399 40 GB PlayStation 3 may have, as predicted, introduced further downward price pressure (see "But Blu-ray's An Amazing Technology….OK, What If We Cut The Price, Let You Pretend To Shoot People And Throw In Spiderman 3?"). Now, in the home stretch of the holiday shopping season, introductory-level high-def players are available for less than the price of some iPods.
Consider the Samsung BD-P1400, the top Blu-ray player on PriceSCAN by popularity. Since the Blu-ray bearing PS 3's October introduction, this model has fallen from at least $400 to well under $300, a discount of over 25% to the Playstation 3 (after all, the Samsung doesn't play games).
Time Period: 9/3/2007 through 12/10/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
With Toshiba's HD-DVD standard perhaps feeling the heat from Blu-ray, HD-DVD players are going for even less. The Toshiba HD-A3 HD-DVD player has fallen from $300 to under $215 in the last six weeks.
Time Period: 9/24/2007 through 12/10/2007
Each tick mark represents one week
Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price
Then again, in the holiday spirit of peace, perhaps you'd like a player that can handle both high-def standards. Both the LG Electronics BH-200 Super Blu Player and the Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray / HD-DVD Combo are being offered by well-known vendors for less than $800. But check availability, as, like peace itself , neither may be immediately obtained.
Oh, and as for Mr. Lipton, he's got a new book out called "Inside Inside", in which you can read about his life and interview subjects, each of the later being more gifted and talented than the last.
Posted by jeffrey.trester
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April 5, 2006
Hollywood's Download Model: Less Content, Less Versatility, Higher Cost
Movies | Apr 5, 06
So who says the studios are refusing to embrace the web? The Associated Press reports that two Hollywood-backed movie download services have just started selling downloads of major motion pictures. Of course, new releases will go for between $20 and $30, nicely north of many DVDs. And you won't be able to burn that download onto a DVD for playback on your DVR, nor can you play that file on an iPod; portable playback may become available later this year. Want those little extras you've come to expect from DVDs? Better learn to live with less – these downloads are refreshingly special-feature free.
Now the two services in question are Movielink, owned by Universal, Sony, MGM, Time-Warner and Paramount, and CinemaNow, heavily backed by LionsGate. The former is offering the products of its owners plus that of News Corp's 20th Century Fox, while the later is selling films from LionsGate plus Sony and MGM (and neither is selling Disney movies though talks with the Mouse are said to be ongoing. From the restrictions and curtailed content offered by these firms, it seems like the titans of DRM-crazed Tinseltown are almost trying to discourage consumers from looking to the Internet for their cinematic needs. Studio honchos are reportedly concerned that downloads could cut into DVD sales. Remember when they were concerned about DVDs cutting into VHS, and both of these cutting into box office, and now there's Blue-ray and HD-DVD and downloads –oh, my!
It never seems to occur to these folks that their sales might be down because, independent of format or viewing venue, much of their content sucks. Who'd want to steal most of this stuff, anyway? Maybe they ought to consider spending less time worrying about rights, and putting a bit more thought into creating films whose rights are worth protecting.
Posted by jeffrey.trester
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May 10, 2005
Unforgettable Cartoons
Movies | May 10, 05
Just recently, the history of American "personality animation" has been emerging from obscurity onto DVD. Several years ago Image Entertainment brought out three volumes of "Cartoons that Time Forgot." These are currently selling very cheaply at some of the vendors listed on PriceSCAN, and they are truly not to be missed. For those who think that cartoons from the 30's mostly resemble Snow White and Mickey Mouse, these DVDs are an eye-opener.
The first two volumes feature cartoons by Ub Iwerks, who worked with Disney on the very first Mickey Mouse cartoons. He went on to produce a series of cartoons for MGM, mostly featuring a very un-frog-like character, Flip the Frog. There is also a "Comicolor" series which takes off on familiar nursery rhymes and fairy tales usually to comic effect. Detractors may point to the lack of coherent plot lines in some of these shorts. But it is the constant inventiveness of the transformations and the barrage of sight gags that make these cartoons so remarkable. Not to mention the sheer technical genius with which Iwerks brings it all off. Not that his gags are all brilliant, and many are just plain crude, but the way they just keep coming at you assures that sooner or later one will hit you. (They can't all be gems, as Groucho used to say.)
An added delight is the musical scores written by the young Carl Stalling, who went on to greater brilliance in the later Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series at Warner Brother. He doesn't have the Warner Brother catalog on hand here, but he makes good with mostly public domain songs. Certainly the best of the Flip cartoons are the ones that foreground music most emphatically. "Ragtime Romeo" is my favorite of these in which Flip comes to serenade his girlfriend (a cat?) on his piano, which he handily totes over in his tiny car. Soon all the tenants of the apartment building are swinging, except for a music-hating cow who calls the cops on the lot of them. This cartoon really rocks.
The fairy tales can be cloying at times, but they also have their surprising turns. In "Humpty Dumpty Jr." the emperilled heroine, a female egg, falls in a pot of boiling water. When she emerges, she has become "hard-boiled" and does a mean Mae West impersonation. Mary's little lamb sneaks on stage during a school talent show and stops the show with a riotous sheep shimmy dance. In "Balloonland" a civilization of balloons is menaced by an animated pin cushion. I'm not making any of this up.
The restorations are much better than you would expect, given that all of the cartoons are over 70 years old and that the color ones use an early two-strip color process. And the sources must be very rare - I don't think I had ever seen a single one of these cartoons before this. All in all quite an education and quite a package.
Posted by paul.hiles
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