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Zion

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Join date
23-Sep-2004
Last activity
28-Nov-2025
Posts
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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.
Post
#305577
Topic
Getting My First Mac this Weekend
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305577/action/topic#305577
Time
Don't you only get Apple Care for the first 90 days? I've had my Mac for closer to 120 days I'm afraid. I posted this problem on the Apple forums and emailed a friend of mine who works at an Apple store. So we'll see what happens. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a problem with the ATI graphics card, but this is different from the problem I've read other people are having with the ATI card.
Post
#305542
Topic
Getting My First Mac this Weekend
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305542/action/topic#305542
Time
Anyone have any experience installing Windows XP on a Mac Pro?

Here's what I have: Mac Pro w/ Leopard 10.5.1, 2 x 2.66GHz Xeon, 5GB RAM, ATI x1900 graphics card, 4 x 320 GB HDD + 1 x 250GB startup disk.

I've encountered several problems trying to get Windows installed. The first one was coming to the realization that you can't create the Boot Camp partition on a RAID disk. That's when I discovered there were two extra SATA ports on the mobo. I plugged in my extra 250GB drive and successfully created an 80GB partition with Boot Camp Assistant (and also made it my primary startup disk for OSX). The next thing I discovered was that those two extra SATA ports are not recognized by Windows, so I had to rearrange my hard drives and put the boot disk with the Windows partition into the #1 slot. After I got that figured out, I was able to boot with the Windows XP CD, format the partition as NTFS, and successfully install Windows.

But this is where I get stuck.

Now that Windows is installed and I've successfully installed the updated Boot Camp drivers, both my monitors go black after Windows loads. I see the XP startup screen, but after that I get nothing. I can hear the startup sound through the internal speaker but I'm forced to hit the power button because I have no display. There's another problem too - and it might be related to the black screen. Every time Windows starts to load (and also in Windows before I installed the updated drivers) the displays would get all messed up and there would be these weird vertical scewed lines and random DOS characters all over the screen. It would sometimes go away if I restarted the computer, but that would only work every 5 restarts or so.

Initial blank screen when Windows starts to load...
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/933/blackscreenez5.th.jpg
full size

Windows install screen...
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/5185/installscreenwj2.th.jpg
full size

Windows boot screen...
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7113/windowsscreenre5.th.jpg
full size


Anybody ever heard of these problems before? I'm guessing that it has to do with either the video card or the monitors, but I'm sort of at a loss for what to do next.
Post
#305541
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305541/action/topic#305541
Time
Originally posted by: zombie84
Originally posted by: Zion
Well whatever Dayv's exact words, I think we can all agree that the broadcast transition will introduce more households to HD in the next two years.


Not really, people will still watch standard def, they'll only be exposed to HD if they buy an HD tv and order special channels, you can't watch HD on a normal television.

Again, this whole conversion thing is totally unrelated to HD. It just means you won't be able to use your rabbit ears antennas anymore.

If people buy an HDTV, they will be able to watch HD channels over the air almost anywhere in the US. You don't have to have cable or "order special channels".

I don't think anyone's arguing with you about what the broadcast transition is. We know it isn't about upgrading to HD. But the fact is, some people are going to buy new HDTV's because of it and that means more potential BD/HD DVD buyers.
Post
#305507
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305507/action/topic#305507
Time
Originally posted by: PSYCHO_DAYV
THE OFTEN DELAYED HI-DEF LAW IS SET TO GO INTO PLACE IN 2009. THIS IS THE LAW THAT IS SUPPOSED TO GET RID OF ANALOGUE BROADCAST. IT WILL BE INTERESTING IF WE ACTUALLY SEE THIS LAW GO INTO AFFECT OR IF IT WILL BE DELAYED YET AGAIN. IT WILL BE INTERESTING IF THE LAW DOES GO INTO AFFECT AND PEOPLE ARE FORCED TO CONVERT WHETHER OR NOT THEY WILL GO AHEAD AND UPGRADE THEIR MOVIE WATCHING EXPERIENCE AT THE SAME TIME.


Well with all the commercials I've been seeing on TV about the deadline and even the local news talking about it, I'd guess that if they do delay it again, it'll only be 6 months or something like that. My grandparents are like many people out there who still have the same 32" TV in their living room they bought back in 1992. My grandfather keeps asking me why the government is forcing him to buy a new TV. He knows there's way better stuff out there these days, but he's likely to hold out just because the government is involved in the digital broadcast transition.

Despite people out there like him, I'm sure that the deadline will encourage a lot of people to buy new HDTV's and, eventually, new Blu-ray players once they get around that $100 price point.
Post
#305493
Topic
LOST
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305493/action/topic#305493
Time
You sound like a producer. The strike isn't about a few unknown writers who didn't read their contracts before they signed then. This is about EVERY writer in America trying to get what they deserve before digital distribution grows out of its infancy. And it isn't the writers' fault that there won't be any new shows for the time being. This could have been resolved months ago before the writers ever went on strike.

Anyway, I can't wait to see what happens in the new season. Even though we only get 8 episodes now, we should get a 24-episode season after the strike ends.
Post
#305135
Topic
Video Games - a general discussion thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305135/action/topic#305135
Time
Well let's see, use the spin move a lot if you're in a jam or if you can't quite make it to the next platform. Go around the level in a clockwise fashion - but leave enough space at the beginning so that you can get back to the starting platform to get the star. I didn't find the time to be a problem actually, just everything else. If you've noticed, the area all the way in the back right is loaded with the most coins. What I do is make my way around to the extra life, then line up to long jump over to the back right corner. From there, there are two lines of coins you can get by long jumping across to a section of yellow blocks and then long jumping back. If you manage to make it that far, you can hunt around the middle and near the starting platform for the remaining 10-20 coins. Good luck. It only took me about 5 million tries!

As for the dreadnought garbage blow up star, you go in a pipe on the underside of the platform you start on.
Post
#305119
Topic
Video Games - a general discussion thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305119/action/topic#305119
Time
I got to 102 stars when there wasn't much more I could do, so I went ahead and beat the game. That Luigi sprite thing was horrible. I think I spent a good 3 hours trying to beat that thing. The other one that gave me a lot of grief was the Dreadnought galaxy's purple comet. I'm at 119 stars right now, and the only thing I have yet to beat is the "blow up the trash" thing in the Dreadnought galaxy. I've played that thing at least a hundred times and I don't think I've ever been close to getting them all.
Post
#305046
Topic
Video Games - a general discussion thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/305046/action/topic#305046
Time
After amassing 93 stars last night, I would have to say Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite mario game. The gameplay is just outstanding. And I honestly thought graphics like these were not possible on the Wii.

Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
Okay. Luigi found the star himself, and it was a simple exercise in finding him and getting it back. I am happy, though, that for the first time in a main 3-D Mario game, Luigi is there. This is the first time he's appeared in a main Mario game since Yoshi's Island, and the first time he's been playable in a main Mario game since Super Mario World!


Yeah, I thought it was kind of cool to see Luigi in there too. If you haven't already, you'll find that you have to rescue Luigi a few more times from different levels. I'm at the point now where I can "go to the center of the universe", which I'm assuming means go to the final showdown and end the game. But instead, I'm trying to find every last star I can - just to see how much I can find without using a strategy guide.