BlogAllAlong » Movies

Toy Story 3 Video Game, Just How All Movie Games Should Be

Bashar — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:49:37 +0000

How many movie games are released each year? How many movie games have you tried in your life time? How many did you really like? The answer would be I bet very close to zero! Well I can say I added one to mine. The moment I saw Toy Story 3 video game trailer it felt like something different. Like something with a hope of enjoying it. Having gone through the story mode game now, the game really delivered the promise, setting an example of how video games should be made.

First of all, voice actors are all real not a replacement like many other Disney games I tried, this by it self tells you the company is taking the game seriously. Graphics was really great as well, and the game followed the real story to a very good extent, and added some extra fun levels as side stories that won’t really spoil the game, but rather add extra spice to it. Yes there were some critical scenes I thought should be included, like what happened to the bear. They made it look like he was no evil or anything, just a side character you pass by. Other characters were also missing, but nothing that spoiled the joy in my opinion.

What’s the best part for me was the multi-player mode. For the first time I’m really able to enjoy a game with my kid, playing together through the story mode, making our through the obstacles, helping each other, and most of the time, the lack of one player doesn’t hardly affect the other. You die, the other player resumes play until you respawn at next point. So this was for real a family + gaming time in one. I was kinda pushing him to play it over other games toward the end really :).

Is this because of the Avalanche Software? I never liked THQ games, but UP demo sounded a bit nice for kids.

Either way, I hope this isn’t an incidental success but a sign of better Pixar movie games to come. And why don’t other movie studios give such focus to their games? Have you ever heard of a good Harry Potter game? Yes Lego version was probably fun for kids, but that’s a lame shift after the successive failure the movie games have seen. I guess massive movie game failures have given them a bad reputation. It’s just something they have to get done, get quick cash from and leave.

NOTE: Zurg character is playable on PS3 version of the game.

It’s happening… 3D Bluray Movies

Bashar — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:15:27 +0000

That’s one movie I definitely wanna get.

Careful Which “Life” Documentary to Buy

Bashar — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:18:47 +0000

From the creators of Planet Earth, one of the most astonishing, and I would say best, documentaries ever made, and also the creators of Blue Planet, comes the new highly anticipated documentary, “Life”.

Item is already available for pre-order on Amazon, and ofcourse such quality only deserves the Bluray version. But BEWARE. I was surprised to see the item starred 1 only.

But if you look closely, you realize this is all because of the narrator. Oprah Winfrey? Seriously? There is no one else more qualified to narrate the most anticipated documentary of the year than her? The thing is good enough to stand by it self without celebrities polishing it, and what you want is the best in this field… Get the David Attenborough version.

Kuwait Cinescape Patenting New Technology?

Bashar — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:16:34 +0000

Kuwait Cinema Company, Cinescape (a.k.a KNCC), seems to be filing a patent for a new technology, that will revolutionize the world of censorship as we know it. Cinescape says the new technology cuts down the editing time of the movie, and allows for dynamic re-censoring on the fly without having to go back to the execution chamber.

Without going too deep into the technical details of this technology, the method works in a way where a movie is screened it seems just once before the real show, and points of desired censorship are marked down. That’s all they need to deliver the movie to the fans. During the show, and when the specified not-yet-censored scene approaches, the magic starts to happen. A guy standing near the projector places what seems to be a piece of cardboard (Cinescape officials refused to confirm what it is exactly) to block the offensive scene from showing, and then removing the so-called cardboard when the scene is gone.

The new dynamic-censorship technology has already been put to practice in-mix with the old fashioned way of pre-editing, in the 3D IMAX screens of the blockbuster movie Avatar. The new technology might have been developed to overcome the technical difficulties Cinescape spoke of a week earlier, that caused the delay of the 3D IMAX version of Avatar.

Nevertheless Cinescape officials say this new technology delivers more than just a solution to a one-time problem. As on top of providing quick and dynamic censorship, it also allows the audio to go by, thus giving the viewers an idea about what’s happening, and keeping them in the action mood, as well as keeping the movie’s official showtime duration close, or same as the original movie, thus giving customers more minute value for their money.

Cinescape added then that the new technology have been well received by viewers with laughters, calling the competitors claims of deciphering laughter oddly as mocking total non-sense.

Neighbor countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran have already shown great interested in licensing this new dynamic censorship, but Cinescape says they’re still early in the process, and want to improve the technology even further, before licensing it to the outside world. Couple of challenges Cinescape noted are being tackled right now. One is the redundancy of MCG (Manual Censorship Guy) who will be responsible for all the censorship, as in the case of emergency like restroom visits, Cinescape needs to ensure another MCG is in his place to do the job.

“This is too serious of a thing to play with. While viewers are enjoying the movie, we are working very hard behind the scenes to make sure this country stays intact. Single uncensored scene might bring more chaos to the parliament, and might even dissolve it once more.”

Another challenge is the audio censoring during for example sexual scenes, but Cinescape are hopeful they will soon relocate the primary wire feeding the audio, and be also able to kill it during such scenes. And as the technology gets better, I guess we can all hope to see full length dynamically censored movies by the holiday season of 2010. Here is one to Cinescape’s new year resolution.

UPDATE: Here is a call from MBH to officially boycott Kuwait cinema.

Assassin’s Creed 2 Lineage

Bashar — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:10:40 +0000

Prequel to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed 2 game. The short film is not a spoiler for the game, but rather an intro to it, you should watch it before you play the game.

NOTICE: Contains some blood scenes, so do not watch if you can’t tolerate it.

Embed is disabled, you can watch the three parts here.

9 [Blu-ray] Coming End Of This Year

Bashar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:29:42 +0000

Looking forward to it.

BBC Earth Collection Bluray One Day Amazon Offer

Bashar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:09:43 +0000

The great Planet Earth documentary in Bluray plus Earth: The Biography from BBC is on one day sale from Amazon.com.

Movies in 3D, finally of high quality

Bashar — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:20:26 +0000

After the positive feedback I got about it from a friend, I decided to give Cloudy With A Chance Of A Meatballs a try (what a silly name huh? They couldn’t just call it “Meatball Clouds”). My first impressions from the trailer wasn’t up high, but I thought it could be worth a few laughs for a computer-animated movies fan like me. What my friend told me about the IMAX 3D glasses experience however made me determined to go and try it, and I’m so glad I did!

For the first time in my life, this is a real good clear 3D view that I can enjoy. The 3D glasses there are so good, and you can see some high quality 3D picture. You do see the double picture however at the slightest of a head twist, so you gotta keep your head straight. Also, your eyes might get a bit tired, I took the glasses several times for a few seconds just to relax my eyes. But it’s a great experience I don’t think anyone should miss. Cinema had good crowd even though it was only in the early afternoon and in a working day.

The real catch is, there is always one, you have to set in family section, and go back furthest you can, avoiding side seats I guess is a better choice as well. Bachelor seats are so poor they should not be sold, or sold for half the price with a message saying “We cannot guarantee best picture from this seat”, or else just say it “We guarantee a hardly enjoyable experience from that seat”. There was one poor guy only in the bachelor section. I felt sorry for him.

The fascinating experience makes me regret failing to catch the Monsters Vs Aliens in 3D, even if it was only available outside Kuwait. And hey, I just got this two days ago from Disney.

Sad to miss such an opportunity. Now what movies would I love to see again in 3D? Hmmm…:

Wall-E
Incredibles
Finding Nemo
Monsters Inc.
Should I just say PIXAR?
Monsters Vs Aliens (received strong feedback for it’s 3D release)
Coraline
Dinosaurs

In terms of non-animated movies, I’d love to see Pirates of the Caribbean and Iron Man. Transformers? I’m sure it’s gonna be great, but their sequel kinda makes me lose the passion for it.

Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides

Bashar — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:29:22 +0000

Finally, Jack Sparrow is gonna ride the seas to stranger tides! Just wonder why don’t they get Ron Gilbert to enhance the story, and win even more fans? Arrgh!

UP Blu-ray 4 Disc Combo Pack

Bashar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:31:07 +0000

The previously announced high-priced pre-order from Amazon for the PIXAR animation UP has now got a a lower price, and more details about the item contents. The new price guarantee now for pre-order is $31.99, and it comes as a set of 4 discs that includes a DVD copy, and a digital copy that you can play on your PC, Mac, or iPhone. One is ofcourse for the movie it self, and a fourth for the bonus materials, like several original ideas about Muntz’s end. Amazon page has all the details.

Sounds cool, and is a fair price now. Only bad thing is, it’s still two months to go!

UP Available for Pre-Order on Amazon

Bashar — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:24:21 +0000

Knowing Disney however, I bet this will take sometime before it’s released. And hey, when are we going to get the previously promised PIXAR movies like Finding Nemo & Monsters on Blu-Ray?

Coraline DVD/Blu-ray released!

Bashar — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:59:46 +0000

It’s finally released, Coraline on DVD single edition, DVD two-disc edition, and a combo of DVD + Blu-ray, and a digital copy that you can play on your PC, MacBook, or even iPhone. And they all come with 3-D version, along with the glasses. Although these 3-D home glasses usually bring disappointment before anything else, but let’s see how it goes.

Harry Potter 1-5 DVD or Blu-ray One Day Deal

Bashar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:11:06 +0000

Either on DVD or Blu-ray for $56.99! Frankly the DVD collection looks much more fancier though.

HOME

Bashar — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:16:59 +0000

With unique high-def air footage from over 50 countries, Mr. Yann Arthus-Bertrand sheds the light on our way of life. How we humans, who inherited the earth just 200,000 years ago, managed to destroy in so little time, what has been magnificently balanced for billions of years, and how we continue to make it worse, without a mere look at the future, taking it for granted

The video is made available publicly for free at the official YouTube Home Project page. The video is also made available in different languages, including Arabic. For some reason though, the English version is not available in countries like Kuwait, while the Arabic version is. Kinda weird to me. If the video is available publicly, it shouldn’t matter a lot about the language which I see it in. Anyways, try to play the one that suits and works for you. It’s long, but I promise you, you will see scenes you never thought exist. Even while seeing them you will pause to think if it’s true or just perfect 3D graphics.

(English Version)

Arabic version (Embed Disabled)

Or if you like it so much, and want as well to support it, you may wish to get the Bluray ($16.99) or DVD ($14.99) version of it.

NOTE: Apparently the Bluray and DVD version includes extra footage, as the YouTube version is around 1:33 while the Bluray and DVD are 1:58, so there is some considerable difference to keep in mind.

Official Home Site.

Amazon Blu-ray Discs Sale

Bashar — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:53:38 +0000

Until March 22nd only. Blu-Ray discs for as low as $13.99.

Got me:

March of the Penguins

The Aviator

When We Left Earth – The NASA Mission

Eagle Eye

The Magical World of Disney… SUCKS!

Bashar — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:51:28 +0000

Since the release of Lion King back in 1994, Disney have gone into dark ages, deteriorating quality, and lack of focus big time, with some few exceptions. I keep arguing with my parents about their current status, and how they are only saved by PIXAR acquisition, which they refused as an idea several times over the past two decades. Acquiring it eventually ofcourse was a bad piece of news for me, as I really believe in PIXAR and lost faith in Dinsey. I hope with time I turn out to be wrong, and John Lasseter manages to set things straight again.

Regardless though, as I was preparing for my kid’s birthday this year, I decided for it to be a Wall-E themed one, and I got decorations, story books, and other stuff for it. For the main gift, it had to be a Wall-E toy then. But why on earth is Amazon listing the toy for almost triple the price of Disney store? I rarely find minor differences, but never something like this!

Whatever I said, I will order from Disney now and contact Amazon later on. This was 2 weeks prior to the birthday date, and I made sure I select the fastest shipping method of 2 days. But then I though, Oh My God, my mother will never let me hear the end of this. Buying my kid’s gift from Disney online store!

As the time passed, I started receiving most of the items, and thought of checking on this one as well. Where is it? Several attempts and I finally got to it’s status: “Not Shipped“! What? Why? This must be a mistake. It was already too late to wait for it to hit Aramex box and reach Kuwait, so I wrote this email of good faith:

“Dear Disney,

I have unfortunately placed the order for a WALL-E Electronic Truck by the order # #### for
my kid’s birthday, and I requested a two-day Express shipping to make sure I am way ahead of the
deadline.

I did not expect this from such a big brand, but I’m sorry to say your online store did more than
just let me down. I have planned for most of the birthday online and the main part of it, the gift,
is now still not shipped according to your tracking information, and as far as I’m concerned, I don’t
need it anymore as it won’t arrive in time anyways.

The deadline already passed as far as I’m concerned and I’m in no need of the item anymore.

May I please inquire as to why it had to face such great delays and without any notice? The fact it
had a GIFT WRAP makes it clear its a gift with a deadline.

Also, since the deadline already passed, I regret to ask you to kindly cancel my order and refund
the full amount.

I will be waiting your kind reply for confirmation on order cancellation.

Regards,
Bashar”

And in record time almost superior to their auto-reply, 3 minutes at most, I received a reply from Disney. A response full of joy and happiness informing me (some words highlighted for clarity):

“Dear Bashar,

Thanks for the email and the chance to help!

After review, I am happy to inform you, I was able to cancel your order
as requested. Any emails that you may receive regarding your order will
not reflect this change but please be assured, it has been completed.
Should you have any further questions please feel free to contact us.
We are always happy to assist our Guests!“

So the guy is so happy he was able to cancel my order rather than sorry for ruining my gift. Then he says that I may receive future emails about the order, but I should neglect them they are also false! And he reassures how happy they are assisting their guests. Well ofcourse I’m a guest and nothing more. Customers buy, but for some reason you don’t want to sell! I felt like he was waiting for me to say it, perhaps he wanted it for his own kid. The irony however continues with the rest of his email:

“We look forward to being of service to you in the future and hope you
will continue to enjoy the Magic of Disney!

Sincerely,

Nick
The DisneyShopping.com Team

Have a Magical Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!“

How nice! Not only is he happy, but he assumes I am as well somehow and wishes that I continue to do so. Ohh, and he also blessed me with a “Have a Magical Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (27 Explanation marks) Is he trying to piss me off? As by that time, I really started laughing. Mom is not gonna hear the end of this now!

Also, wonder why he used 27 explanation marks exactly. Hmmm… Is it their magical number?

For the record, when confronted, Mom admitted “Yes, you’re right this time”. Family converted!

PS: Now I know why Amazon charges triple the price. They deliver, Disney just offers!

Give Kuwait Movies “One More Chance”

Bashar — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:02:30 +0000

I have sworn before times and times not to go to any Arabic or Indian movie. It’s just not my taste. Couple of weeks back however, I got an email from a friend with a link for an upcoming Kuwaiti movie in cinema called “One More Chance”, aka OMC. When I asked, he told me he was the producer of the film. Knowing how smart and multi-talented he is made me pause and have a second thought. First I was shocked as this production business came out of nowhere, and second I was considering for the first time going to a Kuwaiti movie. So I read the synopsis saying “Meshaal, the investigation officer, investigates the murder of his best friend Alaa the programmer. “One More Chance” is a Kuwaiti action comedy movie.” This is when I decided, it’s time to break my vows, and that I did.

OMC is an action-comedy short 1-hour movie that turned out to be fun, and brings new ideas and ways of thinking to the Kuwaiti movie industry I believe. It brings a promise of possible good things to come. The beginning of the movie, the intro, is one thing that will raise expectations so high it was the best part of the movie. It was done Hollywood FBI or hacking movie styles, something I have never seen done before in Kuwait. The remain of the movie however goes below the intro level, and the way the story was quickly wrapped up and ended will leave you in disappointment after the strong intro scene.

Comic scenes were partly fun, though actors could do better as comedians in action movies. You get the feeling sometimes they are hesitating to tell the joke or something. There is one scene however I bet most people would blast at as we did. Action scenes were sadly the worst. They are Indian styles, and poorly directed Indian styles. Shooting scenes were never also fully completed. Bullet is fired, but you can only try to guess where it went. I will get to why is that in a minute. Camera angles were in many occassions wisely chosen, unlike regular stuff we see in Kuwait which is just Point & Shoot. Also, some environment shots help give the viewer a feeling of the environment, which is another thing overlooked usually. Transition between the scenes is not managed professionally I have to say, as you can tell when a cut and new shot was made pretty easily. Music was in some scenes classic and quite out of focus, irrelated to the scene.

The character of the investigator was completely missing as my friend called it. You can’t tell if he is top-detective, comedian, lame, or anything else. There is just no single character for him.

One thing that was pretty smart is the trick or puzzle if you wanna call it at the beginning of the movie that was resolved at the end. This type of mystery and puzzle solving, though not very complicated, is something we don’t see in Kuwait. Everything is pretty straight forward, you are never surprised or shocked at some point. This movie gave you the Aha! moment at the end.

Another thing I liked about the movie is how they didn’t include any hot girls to attract audience. Instead, they tried to depend on the story and movie content itself. I pretty much hate the over-use of girls as the main purpose of the movie. Love is not everything. You can do a great movie without it. 12 Angry Men should be a perfect example right? Also, no girls most likely means to censored scenes ;)

Actors:

Not being a high budget meant deending on so many new and amature faces, trying movie thing for the first time. Some have shown promises, others need a lot more to work on. For me, Bin Salem was the best actor in the movie. What do you think?

What this movie Isn’t:

I agreed to go to the movie with the promise I will get an hour or two with the producer to hammer him with my review. He genuily accepted it, and that I did. I gave him the long list, chatted about the movie production and his role in it. Once you know the full details, you should know not to raise your expectations so high of the movie. First, the movie was never intended to be a real movie, but rather a short testimonial and rehearsal one instead as a proof of concept, and it was shot with very low budget, and used many voluntairly efforts. Heck the whole movie was shot using one single camera! Thus, some incompleted action scenes were overlooked. You can’t ask for much when you’re not giving anything right? This is why some bullets scenes are missing!

The fact that the movie got good impressions and motivation persuaded them to push it to the big screen. It was too late to go back and finish the incompleted scenes however. It was basically tough luck, so don’t go to the movie expecting a full real movie, but rather a short one that might be fun, and shows you a potential attempt, and a promise of possible good things to come.

As a matter of fact the producer was saying “Bashar, I am glad you are reviewing it as a movie. This was made for us as a practice only, and if there is going to be next movie it will definitely be much better prepared for”.

Another thing is, I highly doubt this movie will suit females. It seems like a pure male targeted one. Action, and IT.

Geeky Takes [WARNING: SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!]:

Being an IT person the producer said you have to see it. I did, but that comes at a cost. I will expect high IT stuff from it, just like AntiTrust. So here goes the list of Geeky Takes

Intro movie was, again, great and gave feeling of IT upcoming events.
Spyware Definition: First of all, Spyware is not so much a techy catchy thing to show off with. If you wanna show off with techy stuff, pick a more deep topic. Second and most importantly, the definition was wrong or at least incomplete. Spyware is a software that normally installs without the user awareness, that’s right. But most importantly, a spyware is a software that collects information about your computer usage and transmits it to other parties without your approval, which was missing from the definition.
What is the program about? They say it’s program for secure communication between police and investigators, however that does not make it a Spyware right? Apparently, no one really knows what the program really does.
The programmer, Alaa, used Mac to program a client based app, which was later ran on Windows laptops. While you could argue Mac was running dual boot systems, that thing was apparently not accounted for.
The programmer Alaa was too much decent looking, his desk was completely clean from any papers. No empty pepsi cans, no cold pizzas lying around. It just didn’t give the feeling of hard-core geek.
No single command line shown! Boo-Hoo!
The program did not give the feeling of being a security communication program, and it seemed to look different from begin than from the end of the movie.
Programmers don’t use mouse! At least not so often.
The identity program was kinda neat one, how it scans through identities to find the right person.
When the gang steals the program, they do the old Delete Files trick rather than steal the laptop with it’s source code, or at least shoot the MacBook to death. Apparently, no one was welling to sacrifice his MacBook for the sake of the movie. I wouldn’t :)

While the above list might seem a bit rough, I wrote every single point with the hope it will help enhanced future productions, and I really wish them all the best luck.

[END OF SPOILERS!]

Give them your feedback

The movie producer was really open and encouraging to all sorts of feedback he could get. So please, let him have it. Give it to him here in the comments. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s still shown in cinemas for one more week. You still have One More Chance!

Movie Site: http://www.abdalmovies.com

Pirates, now you can “Buy Once, Play Anywhere”

Bashar — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:41:40 +0000

After years of struggling against piracy, the move is finally happening. If you can’t beat them, join them, a wise man once said. And who can beat a free digital download that could play any where I want? The fact that it’s pirates makes some people hesitate, but the majority want. And for those people who like to obey the law, they eventually get frustrated when they pay for something they can only play on a single device from a single manufacturer. Makes absolute no sense.

Now, after the studio industry realized it, ofcourse they can’t offer FREE videos to compete with piracy, but they are doing the best thing they can in this move. The group is being formed, with the goal of allowing “purchased video content to play seamlessly on any device or screen that the buyer owns and to allow access to a “virtual library” of purchased content accessible from anywhere on the ‘Net”. Now how awesome that could be? People who complain about the DRM will have no further excuse, and a much larger amount of people I bet would be welling to spend few dollars for leitimiate DRM-FREE copy, or what ever they may come up with, allowing you to move your video anywhere freely.

The initiative is led by Sony CTO, Mitch Singer, and he is joined by all major players in the game, except for… You guessed it. Apple! This is despite Jobs being previously quoted saying “Apple would welcome a DRM-FREE world”. Well, maybe it’s true, but now that they are tasting the glory, perhaps they welcome the money they are making for them selves more.

Another LG Recorder, Another Region Hack

Bashar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:47:19 +0000

Few months back I had to look for a region hack for the LG RH299H. The solution was pretty simply. Go to Menu -> Settings -> Lock icon -> “00000000″ That’s it. Things aren’t always the case however. This time I was faced with LG RH399H. The Zeros hacks didn’t work, no known hack for this model. At least none I was able to find. This site however made my day. The first two hacks didn’t work. I hesitated a bit, and then decided to trust the site with my DVD Recorder. The CD Hack worked perfectly as it should.

Bookmark the site. You never know when it might come in handy.

UPDATE: Alas, apparently, the site has been taken down for some reason. Sorry

When is Wall-E coming in Kuwait?

Bashar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:37:22 +0000

People who know me must know how much I adore animated movies, and every year I keep waiting for Pixar to strike me with another masterpiece. Wall-E is what I’ve been looking for since last year, and it’s coming this end of June. Looking at the release dates on IMDB however, Kuwait is still not listed!.

This is sometimes incomplete I know. But I look at Cinescape coming soon movies and I still can’t see it! I also don’t recall seeing any poster about it there. Could they possibly be missing it? Kung Fu Panda is coming one week after the US release, and it’s not a big of anticipated as Wall-E at all. Any body has some idea?

Sony LCD Bravia KLV-46V200A Review

Bashar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:39:16 +0000

Upon request from macaholiQ8, I am reviewing this LCD 46″ V-Series screen from Sony. I should note that I’m not the expert in this field, but it’s mostly an end user opinion of it. Below are the specs, and my opinion along with it.
Product Name: Sony LCD Bravia KLV-46V200A

SIZE: 46″

Supported Resolutions: 480p, 720p, 1080i – This is the drawback for HD Gamers who mostly would want to go with 1080p. Even though for me, when I tried the 1080i, I did not see huge improvement over 720p in the picture quality, and neither I noticed any problems with motion in video games. For more information about the two types, read the post 1080i & 1080p.

Input & Output Slots: The device comes with the widest range of possible options you may think of for connecting external equipments.

Side Slots: S VHS/Hi8/DVC camcoder & Headphones. So you can easily connet your camera to play videos, or your normal definition gaming device, e.g. Wii or PS2.
Back Slots: Loads of slots are there. Most important are PC IN, Digital Satellite Receiver, Digital Terrestrial Receiver, HDMI-IN (1 only), video game equipment, VCR, DVD Recorder, Hi-Fi audio equipment. Mostly, you won’t miss a thing. But the problem is, this LCD screen best fits on walls rather than TV stand, and once you do so, you will have to take the screen down every time you want to put or remove a new cable. And for that, it really takes two strong men to do. Your house mate won’t help much, I had to call my brother over to the house to get it down. The other option is, if you are so skinny, and lubricate your hand with oil, you might be able to slid your hand in the back and just get the cable in. I somehow managed to do that when I couldn’t wait any longer to play PS3 using the HDMI cable :). Point being is, I guess they could’ve made the wall hanger a bit adjustable to move back and forth when wanting to connect new equipments.

Viewing Angle: 178 Degrees. I’ve heard that others in numbers outdo this one, or that Plasma has a better viewing angle. Regardless of why you may want to watch the TV from such an angle, I have my TV in the living room, lay down in my bedroom and am able to watch it crystal clear though the door. I can’t wish for more than that.

Ghosting effect: Nothing yet.

Fast motion response: This one is usually a take against LCDs, but I’ve seen movies like Blood Diamond and Flags of our Father, watch soccer games, and played hard-core PS3 games with not a single problem yet thank God. Is this where the brand comes in handy? Maybe.

Additional Equipments: Alongside the LCD screen, I got the Sony DVD Home Theater System. It’s not cheap at all, but the great thing about it is, it includes 5 DVD-Exchanger with embedded sound amplifier. Also, the rear speakers are connected to the front ones via infrared. So no wiring all across the room is needed. If you notice the small deive on top left of the image, that’s the transmitter for infrared signal.

Why did I choose it?

Going through lots of reviews and comparisons between LCD and Plasma, while numbers in general favored Plasma, I still inclined towards the LCD. First, it does not have the Burn-In effect, and it’s much more suitable for gamers. Even though I didn’t have any plans for games at the time, I knew I won’t be able to resist for long. Second is LOVE. That’s right. You move inside the showroom, browsing tens of different screens, not even knowing the size, type, or brand of it. And you find your self suddenly standing infont of one only, staring at it. Saying, this is the one I want. I kept doing this for maybe 8 months. Everytime I enter Sony shop I stand infront of the same one. I went then to public showrooms showing different brands. I somehow found my self staring at the very same screen. It got on the nerve of all people around me. I kept saying I want it, and didn’t get it. They just shouted back, just get it “Theba7tna!”. Eventually I did.

Isn’t it so romantic? Let’s make a hollywood movie. Better than the Titanic. Point I want to make is, browse through all kinds, and see the one that you really like. The one that really catches your eyes (and fits your budget!).

Hope this little was a bit of help for some, at least MacaholiQ8. If you have specific question, please fire away.

Useful Links:

Sony Bravia KLV-46V200A Cnet Review: 9/10 on Cnet. Not bad.

LCD and Plasma Pros & Cons: Pros & Cons of both LCD and Plasma.

LCD Vs CRT: Even though I don’t see the need to compare it to CRT, the LCD points them selves are useful.

How LCDs Work

How Plasma Displays Work

Cinescape Cancellation

Bashar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:33:05 +0000

Cinescape keeps giving people more and more reasons to abandon them. I used to go once every 1/2 weeks, now I only go occasionally just for a change. And on that occasion, I had to cancel my bank paid tickets for personal reasons. Could someone please explain this to me!

I already paid for this ticket, it’s not a free coupon to have an expiry date. You are keeping the money for my future use of the service.
Do not try to fool the minds of people that you actually can’t refund the online paid money. Knet online payment have easy way to refund the money directly to user account, and I’m pretty sure all others have as well.

LaserTV Is Real – Coming Q3 2008

Bashar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:22:01 +0000

When I wrote earlier about Laser TV, many including my self were doubting how soon this Laser TV technology can be. Well, Mitsubishi is really promising it now in 2008 on their official website. Some news say the new Laser TV is coming Q3 this year. The TV will be ranging in price between $1800 and $4700, 60″ to 73″ diagonal, and only 10″ thick! The maximum price is a bit high OK, but look at what you’re getting. The refresh rate of the screen will be 120 hz, excellent for video gaming. Just what I need :).

LG RH299H All Region Unlock Hack

Bashar — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:17:32 +0000

It is those sort of acts that make me regret respecting any copyrights on digital content. Region locking is the typical example. Many commercial DVDs come encoded with what’s called the Region code, restricting play of that DVD to certain regions, relying on the fact the commercial DVD Player specifications enforces single-region play only per DVD player. So if you buy your DVD somewhere, and your DVD player from somewhere else, you’re out of luck. Unless ofcourse if you don’t wanna obey by their pointless rules.

So why is that Region locking there? “The purpose of this is to allow motion picture studios to control aspects of a release, including content, date and in particular, price, according to the region. “. (Wikipedia)

Isn’t that just annoying? At a time where all those motion picture studios are at the mercy of honest people who buy the original copy for tens of dollars, as opposed to just pirating it from BitTorrent for FREE, getting it faster, cheaper, and easier to throw away if you don’t like it, as you didn’t pay for it. Yet, they chose to have some manners and respect to the content owner, and pay them for it. Why do you need to give them another reason not to respect you, and pirate it! My story here is simple. I got The Blue Planet from Amazon, and got the LG RH299H from Kuwait local showroom. What do I find out? It’s region 2 only! Even though the seller confirmed it’s multi-region.

Ironically, even the DVD Player manufacturers are not convinced of this single-region locking at all, that they make it so simple to break this locking. So damn simple I just had to follow those easy steps the seller gave me. Those steps work for the RH299H DVD Player, and your player may be different keep in mind. You will find loads of hacks on the net if you just search them:

Click on the Home button of the remote control.
Using Left & Right arrow keys on the remote, browse to the Settings menu.
Move down over the Lock icon, don’t click it, just move over it.
Enter “0000″.

That’s it. And not only you have broken the region lock, but the player actually gives you a “Congratulations, you have enabled All Region Playback” message! So DVD Player manufacturers have made the locking to match the specs, made it too easy to break, and they’re happy you did :).

Ohh, and what did you get out of that motion picture studios? Just more hate and reasons for piracy I presume.

Hulu launching, traffic jumping

Bashar — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:41:53 +0000

Hulu is a new, long anticipated and speculated, service that have just opened to the public after months of private Beta. The site does not just offer another video streaming service, but it separates it self by offering full-length original legal content for streaming on the web. You get to watch many of your favorite TV series and movies there, without paying a single dime, and in pretty good quality too. Only thing is, you have to stream it and can’t download, which is pretty much OK with me as long as they are offering it for FREE. You do not get ofcourse latest movies, but some good movies such as Master & Commander, Ice Age, and more. Stuff that we wait for our subscription cable channels to show are not available online. The collection is not large yet, but hopefully with time, and if people respect streaming and don’t attempt to download it, the collection will get bigger and bigger. Another thing is, and here is the bad side of it, it’s currently limited to US only, but they seem to be planning on worldwide release later on as they say:

” For now, Hulu is a U.S. service only. That said, our intention is to make Hulu’s growing content lineup available worldwide”

So how is the trend and reaction to it inside the US only? Rank 5,497 worldwide, 575 inside the US, and the chart speaks for it self.

HD VMD Format?

Bashar — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:20:33 +0000

Oh God! Just put a bullet in his head and stop mankind’s misery. New Medium Enterprises is the new comer with what they are calling the HD VMD format. The company says their technology costs much less than Blu-Ray players, priced at $199 vs $300+ for Blu, and yet gives the same quality of high definition. The reason behind the price cut is the use of same red laser technology used with normal DVDs, as opposed to blue laser in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. The new players are expected to hit Amazon online store in 5 weeks time, but Andy Parsons, Chairman of the Blu-Ray association seems less than impressed with the new comer, saying their business model is based on the false fact that Blu-Ray will always cost higher, which is not true as more mass production is coming along.

Another challenge the new comer face is the lack of content. How on earth are you going to sell a player with nothing more than a promise of content to come later on! Big movie production studios have not commented on the new format, but you can already see Blu-Ray formats are popping every where, and the quality difference is really awesome. Xbox 360 is shaking hands with Blu-Ray as well right now, so the strong customer base is already being established. Normal people would stick to DVDs I guess, while HD seekers would not go for something new, very much unknown, and has no content. Console gamers already have their player good to go as well.

I was more than happy when the HD war was just over, just like all other consumers. I knew it’s coming back, but I didn’t know it was this fast.

What a day for Blu-Ray

Bashar — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:22:27 +0000

So I wake up today to find an email from my in-law, Toshiba seems to be ready to raise the white flag, and hit the last nail into HD-DVD coffen, as CNET Buzz Out Loud like to refer to it. From their side also, rumors are spreading that Microsoft will be introducing a Blu-Ray player add-on to their Xbox 360! Just think how bad it must feel for Microsoft. But what I really feel sorry for is the HD-DVD users who have to buy add-ons or replace their DVD Player, and I have to say, when I bought the PS3 I didn’t really think Blu-Ray will outdo the HD-DVD, even though I was strongly supporting it, enough being anti-Microsoft. Luckily, it did win.

Rush Hour 3 in less than 60 minutes!

Bashar — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:23:22 +0000

When I saw Rush Hour 3 trailer in Kuwait Cinema (Cinescape) I told my wife I’m not going to this movie. I could see what’s coming very obvious. People who went to the movie in theatre told me as expected. Cinescape took the movie name literally and managed to squeeze the whole movie in less than an hour! The rest of the movie (30 minutes) was censored. I could tell from the trailer, no surprises. It’s not the first time that a great movie is completely spoiled because of how they censor it. We live in a Muslim country, and we have our regulations and religious restrictions. No issues, I am not against them at all. However, when the movie is so full of inappropriate scenes that third of the movie is removed, then there is no point in showing the movie in the first place. Just cancel it. Or at least, give a discounted ticket price for it.

Speaking of price. I don’t know about outside, but in Kuwait normal tickets are 2.5 KD ($9). You are not allowed to take any food inside. No water, or anything else. Not even a milk shake, which they don’t sell inside anyways. Going inside and wanting to enjoy the movie, the normal tradition is a soft drink and a popcorn. That would be another 0.75 KD ($ 2.6). Sum is around $12 for one person to see a movie. You spend that much to find out one third of the movie is censored. This is not a very special case I assure you. I still remember when I went to Crash. 3 Oscars, 8.2/10 rating on IMDB. Everyone who saw it in Kuwait said it’s completely pointless and sucks! Foreigns however defend it by heart saying it was a master piece. How come? Sandra Bullock, one of the movie stars only appeared in Kuwait theaters for around 5-10 minutes! The movie was completely shredded to small pieces and them summed up again. Quarter the movie was canceled. Want more? Recently I went to Ratatouille (I can actually spell it!) which is a wonderful 3D animation movie from PIXAR as usual. Again, a scene was deleted and I still can’t figure out what happened in that scene. But I keep asking my self: “What could’ve happened in Kid’s movie? How bad was it to remove the whole scene?”

But that’s not all that spoils the movies in Kuwait Cinema. So often I go to the cinema and the sound is not clear, screen is trimmed from both top and bottom, or you see some vertical lines as in the old days. Except for the fact that Kuwait is hot, and there aren’t really any varieties of family entertainment places, cinema would have been abandoned long time back. And even now, I am thinking about sparing some movies until I get the DVDs and enjoy them at home. If you’ve got large good display screen, and the appropriate surrounding system, just get the place quite and enjoy 10 times better show at home. Even if not, the least you would not feel fooled and ripped off.

Carrefour selling illegal DVD copies in Kuwait?

Bashar — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:57:17 +0000

So I was shopping in Carrefour in Avenues with the family and I saw 300 the movie. I bought the original copy from there, like a good American … arr I mean Kuwaiti. Taking it home, opening it when there is no one else at home, excited to play it in the home theatre and see what it’s like after so much great review about the movie graphics and direction. I was surprised to see the bonus CD looking like this:

That looks like Indian or some other language. And to be honest, I’m not really going to be able to follow up with Indian 300 movie. Lucky it was only the cover and the movie it self is English. So I watched and enjoyed it. But I felt there is something missing. Like some scenes from the trailer were not there “Instead ask yourself what should a free man do?”. When I watched the bonus I saw parts of the missing scenes. So now even the original copies are censored in Kuwait, at least in Carrefour and Virgin as I heard before. I have to say, the censoring is the kind of clean one. Meaning you don’t see the movie jumping from one scene to the other. They try to remove scenes that are offensive in a way that won’t annoy the person watching it. Still however, I was able to feel missing scenes, and the fact that the cover does not mention that this is a censored version makes it worse. There should be a sign about it.

But that’s not the most surprising thing. What really caught my eyes is the end of movie warning you see below. There was a message at the bottom clearly saying:

“FOR SALE OR RENTAL FOR HOME USE IN INDIA, BANGLADESH, AND SRI LANKA ONLY.”

Doesn’t need to consult your lawyer to tell this is an illegal distribution of the copy! I read this and say to my self “Why did I want to be the good American?” I could get the CD for less, uncensored and I chose when to skip, and they are both illegal at the end of the day. I also remembered when I bought a DVD from Virgin that was for US region only. So that was a lesson for me. I have bought my last DVD from Kuwait. From now on, it’s all from outside.

Lucasarts revisiting The Dig?

Bashar — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:51:48 +0000

That’s right. The great old classic game, The Dig is not forgotten at all by Lucasarts as many people might think, not even after 12 years. You can tell so from the lawsuit Lucasarts are filing against Digg.com, saying that the name is confusing with their 12 years old point and click adventure game, which was not a big success even. Lucas have also turned down the offer by Digg to trademark it’s name. The funny thing is, Dig.com is a registered domain for Walt Disney Interactive Group, and they had nothing to say about it! I find it awkward Lucas are revisiting the name after 12 years just for the sake of a lawsuit. This is either a UTube inspired similar lawsuit case, and if so, it’s a real shame on Lucas to follow that way just to make few bucks. Who the hell would remember The Dig game today, and instead of searching for it would think there is a domain for it, and that domain is misspelled as Digg.com. The other possibility is that Lucasarts are planning to revisit The Dig again! Since Lucasarts have republished the classic adventure games for sale, said they are getting back to adventure games, even if in 2015, they are probably either considering a second episode, or a movie based on the game. After all, there have been some thoughts about making movie of the game. All in all, it is still very funny how Lucas ignores the customer cries for years, promise only to come back in 2015, when they know many people are going to Digg.com to read about the dozen years old game, yet they still do nothing but file lawsuits about it. More on the news also from International House of Mojo.

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