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canofhumdingers

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7-May-2005
Last activity
25-Sep-2023
Posts
1,285

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Post
#260017
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
i would say no to the ineterferance question as the problem appears on everything from laserdisc to dvd to standard & HD cable channels. Also, we had an interferance problem before & the cable guy cam out & gave us new heavily shielded cables (hough that was before we bought this tv).

Hmm, edge ghosting sounds like it might be a better description of the problem. I've never actually heard that term before. Also, it generally appears along the left side of the object that has the "ghosting" about 1mm from the actual edge.

& it's a CRT direct view.
Post
#259542
Topic
Hey guys, Remember when Star wars had writing like this?
Time
Originally posted by: Tiptup
Originally posted by: canofhumdingers
yeah, well, the last time i pointed out a grammatical mistake, a war erupted. so i figured i'd leave this one alone. (i admit, i'm pretty anal about using proper grammar)


Like capitalization and punctuation?


argh, this is what i get for posting on msg boards at 3am in the morning during the second half of a 12 hour shift.....
Post
#259528
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
That's exacltly the thing that happened when i bought the 06 release at Best Buy in late october. I was at the customer service counter to get them to match the online price. took FOREVER, then, they tried to tell me that only STAR WARS was on sale & ROTJ was full price..... (my brother gave me ESB on my birthday a couple days earlier). I wound up getting both for the sale price once i showed them that all 3 were indeed on sale...
Post
#259505
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
Really? That's very sad (for the state of electronics merchants) b/c i went to all the major electronics stores in my area & CC had the best service BY FAR. Not that it was great, it was really just acceptable. But that's far & away better than what i got at Sears, Best Buy, & the rest...

They were actually pretty good to me when i bought the tv. They matched the price from walmart (which was almost $200 less...) & then when they tried to sell me the 3 yr service plan, i almost declined, except that it covered lightning strikes. Sicnce i was buying a new tv due to lighting in the first place, & my parents who live a mile away have had lightning fry their electronics 3 times in last 10 years or so. I figured $70 for 3 years protection against lightning strikes was worth it. When i did, the salesman gave me a 10% off coupon out of the blue which wound up making the service plan virtually free. Of course, had he been really nice, he'd have offered the coupon to me BEFORE i bought the service plan.....

Also, I'm not certain this guy they sent actually works for CC. I'd have to double check the paperwork he left, but i think he's from a company contracted by CC for home repairs.

At least the guy on the phone was helpful when i called initially to set up the appointment. Come to think of it, he specifically said halos were a good valid reason to have a technician come check out the tv... You'd think that if what the tech told me were true, then halos would not be a valid reason..... gah, i'm still irritated at that guy....
Post
#259476
Topic
Left-Handed Explanation for accents in the PT
Time
i think it makes sense for him to. He delt with all three languages on a regular basis thgouh his partnership with Chewie & his job as a smuggler. It's not unusual to meet someone who can at least understand another language if they regularly deal with it (an example being many people who live in the southwest & are native english speakers can at least understand a fair amount of spanish just by being in contact with so much of it).

Plus, it shows he's not some unitelligent drug runner, but a cunning/streetsmart smuggler.
Post
#259473
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
yeah, i need to call some ISFT's around here & price them out. I have a feeling they'll be too much, but maybe they can at least answer some of my questions (unlike the guy Circuit City sent out...) I'll still be calling the CC service plan people (that's fun to say 3times fast...) & letting them know i'm not satisfied & the issue has not been resolved. Maybe they'll pay to calibrate it...
Post
#259459
Topic
Has technology accelerated that much?
Time
wow, my apologies. Didn't bother reading all the posts b/c it sort of exploded.

However, Vigo, I didn't intend to offend you & i apologize. I really just thought the spelling was kind of funny & was more pointing out something funny than trying to insult anyone. Obviously that fell flat, My bad.

I AM american, however i have a tremendous respect for other cultures & have a few that i'm actually quite fascinated by. (I love Godzilla and Kendo & Iaido... you can figure it out). While i haven't used it in years & have probably forgotten almost all of it, I was once mildly fluent in spanish (as in, i could hold a conversation with someone who spoke nothing but spanish, & not resort back to any english) so i do realize how hard it is to learn multiple languages & commend anyone who does so.

As for setting foot in any other countries, I'm a pilot & my career goal is to fly internationally for a major airline. While i'm still a ways from that goal, i have every belief that i will get there & once i do, i'll be fortunate enough to see more of the world than most people ever dream of.

Oh, & i don't care for McDonalds, I'm not fat, & i LOVE learning about foreign cultures (I'd love to live in Japan for a few years, or Italy...).

So, we've both made ignorant remarks, we've both apologized, lets get back to star wars!
Post
#259431
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
Well, the tv guy came by this afternoon & hsowed me that to use progressive scan, you must hook the component cables to a digital input. turns out my tv has both digital & analog component inputs, so that problems solved.

However, & this REALLY frustrated me, he did not offer any help with the issue of halos around objects against a light background. I showed them to him, he agreed, "yes, there are clearly halos there." But, his answer was there's nothing that can be done, because "that's just ahow HD tvs are."

Apparently, according to my tv repairman, when you send any signal other than an HD signal through an HD tv, this will result in halos (looks very similar to heavy edge enhancement gone awry). So if you watch regular dvds or regular cable channels (both analog & digital mind you) or anything else that's not HD, there will be halos outlining objects & people. He even went so far as to say this is true on all HD tvs.

I called bullcrap & asked for an explanation as to why this is so. His answer? "that's just how they work." I continued to adamantly disagree and ask him to thoroughly explain to me how the signal interacts with the tv so as to cause this haloing. He balked. He continually fell back to his answer of "that's just how it is." As i continued to press for an explanation behind his answer, he began to explain that things are "so complicated no, & you're running so many signals to the tv, that anything other than HD will create halos." He also said "when everything goes to HD, the problem will go away."

Really?, then why do i see the halos on HD programs sometimes to? Why are there halos also present on the tv generated picture control menu? He danced around the question & offered nothing but his original answer.

He turned to an HD channel & pointed out there were no halos. It was a low light interior shot on some law & order show. I agreed, "yes, there are no halos there, & they are mush less noticable on HD channels, but they DO STILL EXIST, if you watch long enough, you will see them at times. " I also explained that on the HD channels, the halos are easiest to spot on shots of buildings against the sky, esp. dueing sunsets. Unfortunately there was no programming on the couple of HD channels i get at the time that exhibited this.

So, he left without really answering my question & i'm very ticked off. The halos aren't too bad if you crank the sharpness up, but i shouldn't have to do that. At first they were a mild annoyance, but now thanks to this BS they tried to feed me, i'm thoroughly ticked off. I'm no mindless consumer who buys into anything a tech guy tells me. If you give me answer, have the information to back it up dangit!! If you don't have the information, then be honest & tell me you don't know. DONT try to give me an "answer" that doesn't really explain anything!

*sigh* So, I'll be calling customer support again tomorrow. hopefully they'll have a better answer than "that's just how it is."

Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps anything other than an HD signal really WILL produce haloing. But until i'm offered evidence to back that claim up, i'm not buying it.
Post
#258937
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
hmm, i'm fairly certain they're plugged in correctly as it works fine on interlaced. But i'll check that tomorrow before work (i'm on night shift right now). I've called the service center & they're going to send out a technician. I have a couple of other issues (very minor geometry issues at the very edge of the screen, & pretty nasty halos on objects in front of bright backgrounds if the sharpness isn't turned up to about 70%) & i have the 3 year service plan so i might as well make use of it. Overall the TV's great & these issues aren't really that big of a deal. (the halos are the biggest problem to me, but if you turn the sharpness up to 65-70% they go away & the image looks good, not what you'd typically expect with the sharpness that high). Hopefully, though, the technician will know what he's doing & be able to correct the problems. If they can't fix it, they give me a new tv, so i've got no complaints.
Post
#258846
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
well, i messed around a little with it today some more. It's connected with component cables. When i put the dvd player on prog. it doesn't make the "PROGRESSIVE" box appear like i was remembering, i guess i just made that up... However, it does do the split screen thingy like i mentioned & that's actually worse than i remembered. It's much like when you're getting a VERY weak over the air signal that is all slanted diagonally and blurry so that you can barely even tell whats on screen. & it travels slowly from left to right across the screen. It gets worse and worse the longer you leave it like that. I'm baffled b/c from everything i've read, it's setup & connected properly, & my tv should be capable, but it's not working. I've poured over my tv menu settings/options and can find nothing that would have any effect on this. I guess it's time to use that warranty/service package that Circuit City sold me... (they actually gave me a coupon which negated the price, normally i don't buy the additional service plans) I've got a couple of other questions for them too anyways....
Post
#258735
Topic
Progressive scan questions
Time
I have a CRT 30" HDTV & i'm not sure if it does progressive scan or not. I couldn't find nothing in the user manual & other paperwork that makes any mention of it when i initially unpacked the TV, though that was several months ago. However, everything I've been reading on HDguru.com & wikipedia (not always reliable i know) seems to imply that all CRT's can dsiplay progressive scan. SO, my question stems from the instance maybe a month ago or so when i decided to mess with my DVD player's settings & switched it to progressive scan & the image went all wacky. It was still there, but instead of being centered as appropriate, it was as if the image was split in half with the right half of the picture on the left half of the screen & the left half of the image on the right half of the screen. It was also all wavy looking. My memory isn't perfect on the next details, but i seem to remember that the text of the DVD player menu became almost illegible, & some sort of box appearing in the middle of the screen (which looked to be generated by the TV, not the player, as it was perfectly square & legible) that said "PROGRESSIVE". I don't remember for certain if that "PROGRESSIVE" box appeared, but i seem to remember it.... It's been a while. Anyway, after messing with it for a minute, i put it back on interlaced & left it alone. Ive been reading a lot about the how's & why's of HDTV (& tv in general) lately & i just rememebered that. I fighured I'd ask around to see if anyone here with FAR more knowledge than i have in the whole matter might know what was going on & whether my TV can display a progressive signal or not. It's no big deal as I'm very satisfied with my TV as is, but i would like to get the most out of it & i keep hearing more & more about progressive & how wonderful it is. Thanks to anyone who takes time to help me.

Oh yeah, my tv is a 30 inch Phillips, this one to be exact.

EDIT, ok i just saw on there it lists it as progressive-capable, however, I'm at work and can't check the model number to see if that's EXACTLY the same tv, but the picture looks exactly like my tv, & the features all sound the same... So what the heck was going on with my dvd player? Maybe i'll try plugging my PS2 into it & setting it to progressive to see what happens... Could there be a setting on the tv i need to change?
Post
#254436
Topic
McCallum on Jar Jar & Kids before TPM came out
Time
Originally posted by: JamesEightBitStarI know I'm probably coming off as the official "Defender of Go-Mer" here, but in all honesty, I still don't see where the hate is coming from.


B/C he's derailing every active thread into "prequel debate 101" or "George Lucas loving 102". He's sucking the life out of this forum. It's on the verge of becoming totally unfun to even visit the site anymore b/c every thread i click on is full of Gomer praising prequel & modern GL suckitude with nothing to really back it up. he has yet to present one shred of convincing evidence to back up his claims that the prequels/SEs are any good, but he won't fricking shut up about it. I've become weary of reading the same tired crap in every thread. GO AWAY Gomer. This is ORIGINALtrilogy.com. NOT prequeltrilogy. NOT specialeditiontrilogy. ORIGINALtrilogy. If i want to read prequel gushing or GL buttkissing, I'll go to tf.n or starwars.com. Leave us alone!

I've been quiet about this for a while, even debated with him a bit, but i've had it. I'll continue to visit the site & read posts, but will avoid anything Gomer's taken over like the plague.
Post
#254434
Topic
George Lucas interview - 29th October 1979
Time
Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
Wait a minute, which quotes are you talking about exactly?



From the interview posted today – he decided people wouldn't understand the numbering system

From the interview posted a few weeks ago – he stated it was the studio that forced him to drop the number from the title


Ok, i've had it. can we please make this guy go away? he's frickin derailed every thread here into a debate about the prequels or george lucas. He's sucking all the fun out of this board.
Post
#252662
Topic
Letterbox looks like CRAP on a widescreen HDTV :(
Time
Originally posted by: Knightmessenger
Just take a good looking anamorphic dvd and try that out on the widescreen tv for comparison. Some of these new tv's are really bad with atrocious black levels, pixelization and motion smearing/video noise. 25%.


#1: pixelization is not a real term AFAIK. I see people use it all the time when what they mean is artifacting.

#2: I agree that some widescreen tvs have atrocious looking pictures, but it's usually not the tv's fault. its that people generally don't know how to calibrate them correctly & use the atrocious factory settings.

ok, while typing this, i looked up pixelization, it is real, just people generally use the term incorrectly when they mean "artifacting" from what i've seen.

Pixelization Wiki
Post
#252400
Topic
Star Wars prequel film noir (* unfinished project *)
Time
wow, that was really cool. It actually made that scene work. not only was it not cringeworthy... it was.... good. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen any fan edits (don't have a dvd burner & am too lazy to really learn to use any of the file distribution methods you guys use), but i really want to see the whole project completed now! seeing as STAR WARS pulled from so many classic films and basic story concepts that are repeated from one generation to the next, it just seems so perfect to have the prequels as one film done as if made in the late 20's/early 30's. It just works. please put this together!!
Post
#251867
Topic
What is wrong with people??!!
Time
geez, i was making a quick joke at that stupid woman's expense.... didn't expect so much backlash. yes, i'll concede that Seven Samurai is clearly not from hollywood, but i was just trying to think of a couple of good movies off the top of my head.

Films released in 2006 - The Departed, Akeelah and the Bee, The Black Dahlia, Flags of Our Fathers, Hollywoodland, The Illusionist, Monster House, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Superman Returns...and yeah, for every one of those there's a Dungeon Siege or You Me and Dupree...


ok... flag of our fathers isn't even out yet.... POTC2 sucked, Superman Returns was decent, but not great. haven't seen the others, so i won't comment on them. but none of the ones you mentioned that i did see come close to some of the classic films like Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, To Catch a Thief, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Lawrence of Arabia, Roman Holiday etc.

sorry to ruffle so many feathers.
Post
#250063
Topic
2004 DVD crap-o-la
Time
well, he was seduced by the darkside. besides, it would still be a conscious choice to turn. Seduction merely means he was tempted by the power and possibilities of the dark side. It's still a conscious decision whether to give into that temptation or not. I know my choice of words might not have been perfect, but the idea was never that he believed the dark side, or the emperor, to be good. He made the choice to be a "bad guy" & knew it. When i say that he believed in the emperor, i mean just that. He believed in the power & the teachings of the emperor. Vader didn't see himself as a pawn, but as a loyal disciple of sorts. He trusted his teacher. Nowhere does that imply he was tricked into being evil. that was his choice. where he was tricked was in believing that the emperor actually cared about more than what Vader could do for him. That he actually cared about Vader & his progress, etc. etc. I'm sure Vader expected to be the emperor's heir, so he was essentially a father figure. It's when the emperor told vader to kill his own son that he began to doubt his master. after all, if the emperor would have him kill his own son, what did the emperor really think of him? Was Vader disposable too? surely not! But he get's his final confirmation of this in the throne room in ROTJ when the emperor commands Luke to destroy his father & take his place by the emperor's side. That's when Vader finally knows that he really was just a pawn. & that's when, with the help of Luke's compassion and faith, he is finally able to overcome himself and turn back to the good side.
Post
#250034
Topic
2004 DVD crap-o-la
Time
He became more machine than man, even his thoughts were mechanical and without heart.


That's a nifty idea & works well. I still think that having Vader not trust the Emperor (at least before he's ordered to kill luke) works against the story. The emperor is his master. He taught Vader the dark side powers. I see their relationship much the same as a relationship between a martial arts master and his student. The student doesn't follow a master/teacher who he doesn't trust/believe. I still find it to be a more powerful story for Vader to have betrayed his best friend (OB1) on order to follow an evil master who he really believed in, only to find out decades later that this master really IS evil, & he really DID make the wrong choice. At this point, Vader has an internal struggle that mirrors his turn to the dark side in that he must once again turn on his master and defeat him. Only this time, he succeeds. (after all, OB1 did beat him down, even before the PT came about).

That's a much more dramatic tale than the story of an apprentice who never really trusted his master & always had a desire to overthrow him - there's not nearly the same internal struggle going on. & there's not the parallelism of it mirroring his original turn to the dark side. After all, recurring themes is a big part of Star Wars. In my version (or the original version, if you like....), it's a huge battle for Vader to make that decision to kill the Emperor. He's been through this once before. He trused this man & looked up to him. Now he has to make the same decision again in his turn back to the good side as he made when turning to the dark side. His actions likewise parallel in making the choice to kill his master whom he once would trust to the ends of the galaxy and back. That is just so much better than what we were given in the PT! Now Vader isn't struggling so much in ROTJ. He's just taking advantage of the opportunity to do what's he's been planning on from the get go. *yawn*. No real drama there. No internal struggle. I think i'll keep my OOT version and so "no thank you" to the "saga".