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Zion

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Join date
23-Sep-2004
Last activity
16-Jul-2025
Posts
1,996

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Post
#307534
Topic
Video Games - a general discussion thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/307534/action/topic#307534
Time
I'm not one to ever buy strategy guides. But I considered buying the Mario Galaxy strategy guide early on because I thought I'd never figure out most of the secret stars and such. I thought it might be one of those games where it's almost impossible to find everything without consulting either the internet or a guide. I guess I was wrong.

I popped in my GC copy of Sonic Mega Collection the other day and realized that I had never played Sonic 3 or Sonic and Knuckles before. So after quickly playing through the first two games, I decided to give them a try. Much to my surprise, they both seem a lot different than the first two. The first thing I noticed was that "better graphics" in these two games usually meant "more detailed". I personally loved the simplicity in the graphics of the first two games and in my mind they actually look better than the pixel-fest that is Sonic 3. Knuckles is a better game I think, but I'm only about half way through either one. They are both definitely harder and more challenging than 1 and 2 combined.
Post
#307532
Topic
News from MacWorld
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/307532/action/topic#307532
Time
Originally posted by: PSYCHO_DAYV
I HAVE FIREFOX INSTALLED, AND I USE IT EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. THE THING THAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT T IS THAT IT LOOKS TO MUCH LIKE SOMETHING YOU WOULD FIND ON WINDOWS. HOWEVER, THE ADD-ONS FOR FIREFOX ARE PRETTY COOL. THAT'S PROBABLY WHAT MADE IT SO POPULAR IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I HONESTLY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE STILL USING IE. IT'S BECOME SO OUTDATED. THERE ARE A LOT OF WEBSITE THAT REQUIRE EITHER FIREFOX OR SAFARI. IF YOU TRY USING IE YOU'RE SHIT OUT OF LUCK.


I think something like 75% of all computers use IE to browse the web. It used to be a lot higher before Firefox came out. The problem with IE (and this is the reason I've despised it for the past 10 years) is that it doesn't conform to W3C web standards like Mozilla browsers, Safari, Opera, etc. do. IE instead uses their own coding and standards, which is why web sites optimized for IE don't work correctly with any other browser. Any site that says it's optimized for Firefox or any other browser usually means that it conforms to web standards and therefore will work the way it was intended to on any browser but IE. That's not to say such sites, or even IE optimized sites won't work in other browsers, but usually are missing certain functionality or features.


Anyway, back on topic.
I heard the other day that the iPhone still can't send multimedia messages, and despite the upgrades to the interface, people are still peeved at Apple for not including a feature that is standard on pretty much any other phone today. Is it true that you can "hack" your iPhone to enable pic and movie messages?
Post
#307120
Topic
H.264/AVC/MPEG-4
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/307120/action/topic#307120
Time
I haven't seen a lot of discussion on this around here so I thought I'd start this to get some of your opinions on using these codecs and playing them on your computers and home theater systems.

First of all, a little background on my experiences. As you may or may not know, I have been in film school for about a year now and have edited a dozen or so short films. In addition to authoring these films to DVD, I've also encoded my HD projects in H.264 using Final Cut Studio 2's Compressor application. Other than my own films, I've accumulated a lot of MPEG-4 HD programming from my DVR that has been transfered to my HTPC.

I've recently set up Vista's Media Center on my HTPC along with FFDShow/Haali Splitter/etc. to optimize video playback of any and all formats that are on my PC. What I've noticed though, is that playback of HD MPEG-4 content seems to be a lot more stressful on my system than a comparable HD MPEG-2 file. In fact, I haven't really gotten it to play back correctly on my system yet. Episodes of The Office that I've transfered over from my DVR (.TS files) play back perfectly in PowerDVD, but don't play right in Media Player Classic, Media Center, and VLC, if at all.

Has anyone else run into problems like this? I'm guessing that the problem has to do with FFDShow, but I could be wrong.

Regardless, I'm planning on converting all my MPEG-2 programming to H.264 to save on precious disk space. Is anyone else doing anything similar, or planning on releasing their stuff in H.264?
Post
#306661
Topic
News from MacWorld
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/306661/action/topic#306661
Time
Even with all the great things Mac software can do with video, I still can't live without my VirtualDub/AviSynth and all the great scripts that are out there. Still, I'll probably never edit a film on a PC again.

As far as the Macbook Air goes, I found it interesting that it doesn't come with a firewire port. I guess if it was only going to have one port, the USB 2.0 would be the way to go. But it still would have been cool to see a FW800 on there. Personally, I've never really been a fan of portable electronics (iPod aside), but if I was ever in the market for a laptop, I'd want to get something like this.
Post
#306045
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/306045/action/topic#306045
Time
Sure, there'll be a lack of competition between formats, but not a lack of competition between brands and models. Prices will go down because of the competition and introduction of cheap no-name players just like with DVD. Anyone remember when the Apex DVD player hit the market back in 2000? (You know, the one with the secret menu to disable macrovision and region coding.) That thing started at a then-ultra cheap price of about $169, and by Christmas, it was a door-buster selling for just $69. I bet a year from now we'll be seeing the same thing happen in the Blu-ray market.
Post
#306034
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/306034/action/topic#306034
Time
I told myself a while back that once Blu-ray drives were around $200, I'd look into getting one. The only problem with that right now is that the software players (PowerDVD) aren't very good yet. I think I'd rather buy a stand-alone player once they're in that $200 range and then buy a BD burner once their prices and media prices are reasonable. As a filmmaker, I'd love to be able to author Blu-ray discs for my own projects.
Post
#305698
Topic
LOST
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305698/action/topic#305698
Time
Wow. Am I the only person here who understands what a union does and why they are necessary? Let me ask you this. Imagine your favorite fast food chain suddenly doubled all their prices. Would you get pissed at the restaurant, get pissed at the beef distributors nationwide who are causing the price hike, or perhaps you'd just say, "fuck those stupid cows, it's their fault because they taste so good."


Anyway, I can't wait for Lost to come back on January 31st. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't showing the commercials every 5 minutes on ESPN.
Post
#305696
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305696/action/topic#305696
Time
Originally posted by: dumb_kid
I think this is what MBJ has been getting at. Once HD-DVD is gone, what makes you think the studios are going to use a higher bitrate? They have no incentive to do that. "We'll get better picture quality!" The studios don't care. All they care about is making money. With HD-DVD gone, that'll be one less expense. Why bother with going with a higher bitrate when the picture looks fine as it is?

Actually studios do care when the consumer cares. When DVDs first came out they many were still P&S, or if you were lucky 4x3 letterboxed. Today DVDs are almost all anormorphic widescreen (minues the GOUT of course). Studios are not friends-- they are direct competitors. I'm thrilled that the format war caused many good things... rapid player price drops, dumping of MPEG2, BOGO sales, etc. But just like DVD, when there is a lone HD format, studios will continue to innovate... at least to double dip from early adopters


Let's also not forget that the first DVD releases were all under 4GB because they were pressing on single-layered discs. What happened? Studios started releasing double-layered discs once the cost was efficient enough and there was demand for better quality. Studios started releasing anamorphic widescreen DVDs to satisfy the quality-hungry consumers. But did studios stop there? No, they re-released their most popular titles touting better picture quality and extra features. Anyone remember Super-Bit? The point I'm trying to make here is that just because HD-DVD may be exiting the picture soon, that doesn't mean we're going to be stuck with "crappy" 30GB encodes on Blu-ray forever.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the quality of an encode is all about the bit rate - not the amount of space on the disc. There's a huge quality difference between a 90-minute movie that takes up 36GB and a 120-minute movie that takes up 36GB. The maximum transfer rate on an HD DVD is 36.55 Mb/s (mega-bits per second) vs. 53.95 on Blu-ray. (DVD is 11.08 Mb/s.) The maximum bit rate for video is limited to 29.4 Mb/s on HD DVD. Blu-ray is capable of 40 Mb/s.

I don't believe for a second that studios won't eventually take advantage of the full capability of Blu-ray. They'll do it because it's been proven that consumers are willing to pay for better quality, and because of competition.
Post
#305693
Topic
LOST
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305693/action/topic#305693
Time
They've lost more money being on strike? You don't say! You make it sound like it's OK that the producers and studios are ripping the writers off. I don't like missing my favorite TV shows either, but as a person soon to be working in the film/TV industry, I totally understand why the writers are doing what they're doing. And besides, people can only take so much reality TV and game shows before they're breathing down the studios' neck for new episodes of their favorite shows.