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Attack of the Really Big Clones
An anonymous reader writes "CNN reports that Attack of the Clones is coming to an IMAX theatre near you. 50 IMAX commercial venues, and 20-30 science museum sites will begin showing the film on November 1. The IMAX version is expected to add another $20M to the films current $300M take."
Now that Star Wars is nothing more than a marketing tool for crappy fast food meals and stupid action figures, it doesn't surprise me that they are going to go "IMAX" to boost the take of AotC so "My Fat Greek Wedding" (A far better movie) won't beat it at the box office this year. Yes, "My Fat Greek Wedding" is better than Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
then why come here? *click*
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
So Jar Jar is now going to be a BIG pain in the ass instead of just a 'pain in the ass'. Whats next - giant tribbles?
George Lucas must be a bit miffed that Spiderman was the bigger hit and is trying to put the final nail in the "who made more money" coffin.
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
Would you rather we discuss ROTJ?
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
will be coming out on IMAX about the same time too. Could be a good year end for IMAX.
--- Nothing To See Here ---
Finally...I can completely immerse myself in the sickly sweet meadow scene.
And watch Yoda bounce and skitter across the heads of the audience down in front.
Some of the more grandiose, expansive scenes will come out nicely though. These are what IMAX does best. The droid factory, the clone factory, and the city chase will be especially striking.
...
those slashdot editors, took my title and still rejected it..
2002-09-10 16:46:30 Attack of the really big Clones (articles,movies) (rejected)
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Well, that should make the pixels on the screen that I saw on standard 35mm about as big as a life-size R2. Nausiating Pixelicous goodness.
Seriously, though, "Beauty and the beast" was hard to watch in IMAX, because you could see every little artist flaw, and the 1990-era CGI looked really terrible. And 'clones' was shot in 1920x1080, that should make the pixels approxamately, what, one foot square each? Yikes.
Who do I have to beat up with a light saber to get it to Europe (Denmark)?
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Wonder how tall Yodi is on an IMAX screen...
I hear they have sex in real life now.
Now I can watch horrible directing, actors with bad dialog and no chemistry as well as the use of old ideas. All of these wonderful things on a REALLY BIG SCREEN. Just how I want to spend November 1. ~g
The only marketing in "My Fat Greek Wedding" was the constant plugging of Windex which is one product you rarely see "placed" in a film.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Who wants to see AOTC on a massive screen? The pixelation was bad enough on a normal screen. Perhaps LucasFilms have developed an advanced interpolation algorithm to overcome the problem.
I know Episode II wasn't the greatest of flicks, but that's a whole huge flamewar waiting to happen. Moving on...
The real question: The CNN story doesn't list cities where it'll be playing. Anybody find any stories elsewhere that list venues?
Of showing movies shot with the idea of standard movie theater in mind being shown on a IMAX screen. What's the big deal? It's just a bigger screen. I can see that (with exception of Crappy Audio) at a drive in!
Gorkman
I fail to see how blowing up the image and putting me a lot closer to it is going to make it any easier to watch anakin explain to the senator how her skin isn't like sand.
I have a feeling it'd have the opposite effect.
Now maybe if they just took the last 20 minutes of the movie and put it on replay for an hour and half they'd be on to something.
It's a pixel the size of your head!
Now the original starwars and empire, that would be cool (am I getting old?).
Is anyone else going to see episode 3 only because we know anikin is gonna get his ass kicked by obi-wan?
Alright, mod away, I got karma to burn.
As we've seen, there are lots of SourceForge ads on Slashdot (both part of OSDN, I know). There are a few different kinds, but the two I see most often are the ones based off of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Now, I dunno/don't care about the LOTR ones but I was curious - since we all know how hard Lucas___ can come down on copyright infringement, how is it that SourceForge is able to advertise using clearly Star Wars related ads? Or are they different enough from Star Wars to avoid it?
Schnapple
Anything to get it over Spider-Man, eh?
http://us.imdb.com/Charts/usatopmovies
Oh, that Lucas. Anything to say "Episode II: Highest grossing movie of 2002!!!"
Spider-Man: $403,706,375
Episode II: $301,131,530
El riesgo vive siempre!
i wonder if the original film was converted using the newly developed technology by RedHat called IMAX DMRTM using Dell PowerEdge servers.
at the last LinuxWorld show in San Francisco, i was able to catch bits of a converted Apollo 13 to IMAX format.
holy crap, the launch scene was absolutely incredible and shots from the moon actually brought a tear to my eye.
with this technology, any movie can be converted to IMAX format. here's a blurb from RedHat:
"IMAX's new patent-pending technology, IMAX® DMRTM (Digital Re-mastering), uses the processing power of Dell PowerEdge servers to re-purpose individual frames of 35mm film into IMAX films are projected on screens eight-stories high and 120-feet wide with high caliber sound and image quality. Apollo 13 is the first theatrical live-action film to be digitally re-mastered for The IMAX Experience.
The IMAX DMR technology resides at IMAX's Toronto data center which processes several hundred gigabytes of data daily and is one of the largest rendering farms in Canada. IMAX uses dozens of Dell PowerEdge 2550 servers running Red Hat Linux for its DMR process, as well as an additional cluster of Dell PowerEdge 2550 servers for testing. IMAX chose Dell PowerEdge servers running Red Hat Linux for its IMAX DMR process because of the easy-to-use industry-standard platform, outstanding price and performance, and superior Dell support."
IT was the scorpian king, I was kinda expecting them to at least blow the image up so that it reached from the left side of the screen to the righ, insted was typical 35mm image on a 70mm screen was presented with the ultimate letter box with 20 or so feet top and bottom and 10 feet left and right so you hade this huge screen with an image smaller then most larger movie theaters, wasnt a total loss the seating lay out was nice in that your view is much higher then the person in front of you and the sound was good, I realy dont expect AOTC to be much better unless they plan on converting it to 3:4 format and blowing it up full screen
I just happen to have a chance cube here. Blue, I won't see the movie on Imax. Red, I'll queue up early.
(Roll cube and wave my own hand over it.)
Blue! What a surprise!
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
that will be awesome to see yoda saber fight extra large.
Dan Mayer: my blog, essays, art, etc
...at the Mall of Georgia IMAX , right when the movie first came out. Of course, it was merely the normal print shown on an IMAX projector, but it was still pretty nice. They play alot of geeky movies on the IMAX screen there. I also saw Fellowship of the Ring, XXX, and Spiderman on the IMAX screen, and I look forward to seeing The Two Towers, the next James Bond, and the next Star Trek flicks on it. And no, the pixels weren't a foot tall.
Yeah the idea of Star Wars on iMax is a good idea... EXCEPT the movie wasn't filmed for iMax. iMax was made to give you the feeling of being pulled into the action with it's peripheral vision filling screensize. Putting this movie on it will give you headaches and seizures. all those huge 7-story tall people on both sides of the screen making you move your head more than a tennis match
Not to mention the frame rate of iMax causes an obvious flicker when projected so large. And that this movie was filmed digitally with resolution that = crap to many movie goers now... If you couldn't tell then, I'll bet you can tell on iMax!
It will look like another iMax movie that was screwed up by camera shots that were all wrong for such a big screen
See What I hate about iMax - It isn't really iMax I hate, just what some people do to it.See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
Who is this Yodi of whom you speak? A great Jedi master was he, until he turned to the dark side? Or perhaps an unknown spawn of the scenes cut from SW2, in which Yoda gets jiggy with JarJar (was their gender firmly established?).
Assuming that the 100 foot wide screen mentioned in the article is correct, and your stat of 1920 pixels wide is also correct then:
1920 pixels / 100 feet = 19.2 pixels per foot.
12 inches per foot / 19.2 pixels per foot = 0.625 inches
Slashdot decides that it likes the MPAA after all.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
According to this site, the average imax screen is 21.5m x 15.6m.
The resolution of 'Clones' was in the neighborhood of 2000x1000 (2.2 million pixels sony 24p)
We can assume it will be pan and scan (as all IMAX-conversions so far have been)--IMAX is 4:3.
Therefore, the vertical resolution will be about 1000 pixels per 15.6m, or 1.56 CM each. That's a pretty huge pixel. Ow.
Whoa... put down that fifth cup of coffee and step away from the computer. Go outside and take a deep breath.
/. community is not aware of current political and social affairs. We are. More than you are aware.
/. community isn't active in political and social affairs. We are. More than you are aware.
Please don't think for a moment that the
In addition, don't think for a moment that the
However, it is not realistic to expect us to discuss only one topic. One issue. One idea. Etc...
People die, everyday. Nations attack each other, everyday. Children go hungry, everyday. That sucks... but life and work goes on. And so must we.
So, we discuss "bubble-gum" topics like AOTC going to IMAX.
Personally, I think it's cool. Seeing a 40 foot tall Yoda will be cool. Does it change what's going on in the Middle-East, Africa, Asia, or Los Angeles? No. Does it make the world a better place? Probably not.
But it will give my wife and I some enjoyment for a couple of hours. And enjoyment and happiness is what's important, my friend.
Out.
Will it still suck?
personal attacks hurt, especially when deserved
I went to the Matrix in IMAX, and I seriously hope this survives the transition better. The Matrix came out with horrid color and degraded picture quality.
Also, I'm assuming that the IMAX media won't be showing it in digital format, so I hope that the larger size doesn't just enhance the fact that it wasn't made for the format. The movie looked good in the normal theatre, but considering the picture quality I don't expect it to look better when it's bigger.
Science may someday discover what faith has always known.
I saw it on imax about a month ago.... so i dont know why this is really news. (note, st. george, UT at the Zion National Park IMAX)
"Martha Stewart can lick my Scrotum......do i have a scrotum?" -- Sharon Osbourne
Like many of you, I could give a damn, and would rather see something like Two Towers on iMax. Has "A New Hope" even been transferred to iMax? I musta missed it if it has been. How bout doing that instead, Lucas? I know its not about what is artistically worthy, but dammit, can't a man dream?
Offtopic, but Spider-man made more money because...IT WAS BETTER.
Kickin' it self-righteous school.
I didn't see anything about Digital Light Projection. Will IMAX have this too or is it not possible? :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Also, Pinocchio, the one Disney cartoon masterpiece.
Then they can stop. Human civilization will have been completed.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
... the film will suck 8 times as much? Will the bad guys be 8 times as stupid?
If you send a droid to go assassinate someone, you don't then program the droid to come right back to you when it's done! You make it blow itself up!
Along those lines, why use worms when you can use a thermal detonnator? She dies, Jedi dies, everybody within a few kilometers dies... problem solved!
Not that you'd have to do that if you had just nuked the landing platform to begin with...
The Jedi lost you in the bar. You're a shape-shifter. You can then waltz out without anybody being the wiser. So why do you try to attack one of them?
Jedi comes after you and tries to kill you before you're able to leave the planet. You have two guns, but he deflects the shots. Why not shoot both guns at the same time, making him deflect two at once? Better yet, get a freakin' shotgun!
But Obi Wan has the pesky habit of not dying. Why not destroy the damned hyperdrive he left up in orbit? Guaranteed way to keep him from following you! Dur!
Hmmm... Jedi are attacking bad guy base. They all have light sabres. You have guns. Ranged weapons! Do you honestly think that the Jedi are going to have a harder time deflecting your shots if you get close enough to... say... get your head cut off?
Jengo Fett: Bad-ass or dumb-ass? No wonder the clones dropped like flies, look at who they were trying to re-create!
Not that the good guys are much better. Let's fall in love with the freaky stalker/homicidal maniac character! Hell, if that were anything like real life, I might not have... well, let's not go there...
50 IMAX commercial venues, and 20-30 science museum sites will begin showing the film on November 1.
Okay, enough jokes about pixelation on the IMAX screen. Time for something serious. Am I the only one here who is getting a bit annoyed by LucasFilm's pentration into the museum market? A few years ago Lucas managed to con museums into showing a bunch of Star Wars stuff under the pretense that it was a modern day mythology and should be deserving of serious study. Now he's got science museums showing his movies? Look, regardless of whether you thought AOTC was a good movie or not, can anyone give me a good reason why it should be shown in a science museum? That's supposed to be a place for learning facts about the world around you. Not for watching a movie about explosions a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Are the museums going to get a cut of the profits for showing the film there? Is that why they're doing this? Or is it a gimmick to increase their attendance? Isn't it enough that I can't get a burger without seeing Anakin's smug face starting back at me? Do they have to invade museums too? Will I ever stop asking questions? :)
Seriously, the "science museum" part bugged me a lot more than the IMAX part.
GMD
watch this
Just my quick two cents: I totally agree. MBFGW was a thousand times better than that cereal-pushing, merchandise-spawning, whiny-Canadian-Ptretty-Boy-Starring multi-million dollar fiasco.
That said, I'm still going to see Episode 3
I mean, come on. It's STAR WARS, people!
I am alone, yet I also surf the universal backwash of undifferentiated Being, which is LOVE.
Though I would have worded it differently, I agree with this view... In the long run, it is probably more effective to drop huge loads of Beatles CD's and walkmans over these countries rather than straffing them with AC-130's. All it takes is one generation...
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
Listen, not to get your hopes up, but here in Canada (Ontario Place specifically) they've been showing a variety of movies there for years.
The only thing that's BIG is the LETDOWN when you realize the a huge border around the movie doesn't get used. They just show the movie in the centre of the IMAX Screen and draw the curtains to make it look bigger.
Bah, watch out for marketing tricks. If it wasn't shot in IMAX or converted to IMAX, it'll be shown in regular size, just on a bigger screen.
I hope someone can confirm or deny that my experience stands with AOTC
- Yo Grark
Canadian Bred, with American Buttering
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
...aren't IMAX screens 1.33:1? Attack of the Clones was 2.35:1, so will they be displayed a Pan/Scan version, or the widescreen?
----------
Check out my blackbox styles
Wouldn't it be fantastic to watch a great movie, like ANH, ESB or RotJ on the IMAX, rather than some soppy drivel that came out in the last few years...
The creator of SW is dead. When TPM came out, the good man that was the creator of SW became the evil George Lucas. Why don't they celebrate the works of the first man, rather than the latter, on the really huge screen?
That was about 1.5 years ago and let me tell you it rocked. The visuals and sound were incredible.
The screen size of IMAX creates the illusion of actually being in the movie.
I will probably will go and see the Apollo 13 movie and LOTR if it ever comes to IMAX. I will skip the Attack of Clones for obvious reasons.
I was three years old an I saw return of the jedi on the big screen so thats good for me. My earliest memory actually. Screw all this new hollywood crap. ( i am excited about two towers coming up)
With IMAX, the actors and thier egos will be of the same size!
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
For that it might almost be worth it. Only if they edit out every scene she's not in and replace the soundtrack with some generic porno soundtrack music.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
So much anger...
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering!
(yea I know the first part is missing)
jedi master yoda might be, master of syntax yoda isn't
16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
Natalie Portman nip-ons in three-story screen glory.
'Nuff said.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
There are certain films I'd be more than happy to see in IMAX theatres... ATOC probably being one of them, Matrix... anything that's stunning visually and is a good ride. I don't know how much Sense and Sensibility or even some Jackie Chan films would fit in.
But most of all, I worry about whether the current really interesting IMAX fare would be replaced by Hollywood dreck. After all, it sells, right? The day that "To the limit" is replaced by "Gone in 60 seconds" is the day the IMAX stuff will stop meaning much.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
I saw both movies the same weekend. It was a couple weeks after AotC came out. The theater was pretty empty. The next day, me and a friend went to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding... we were shocked at the turn out. The place was damned full. It was by far a superior movie.
Star Wars has totally lost me. The first three movies in their original release form is about all I'll watch now. Episode I wasn't very good, and Episode II is more of the same. Putting it on IMAX isn't going to fix the underlying problems with the movie.
I think someone needs to inform Mr. Lucas that all the special effects in the world can make a bad plot/story any better. Crap in a pretty box is still crap.
The only verson I would like to see of AotC, is the MST3K verson, because it actually is bad to make me laugh, with the midget wrestling, that having robot heads making fun of it would be the only way to improve it..
~~~
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on a bigger screen it will make it better ? I'd like to see LOTR on a IMAX :) The latest LucasArts toy line extended commercial I can pass on.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
The IMAX version of Fantasia 2000 was painful. That project was an edit of old and new material. The new stuff had been created at a resolution suitable for IMAX, but blowing the old stuff up to that scale made it look awful.
"20-30 science museum sites"
A lot of people are complaining that this is a ploy by George to earn himself more money and possibly surpass Spiderman (not gonna happen).
But, did anyone think maybe the Science Museums showing the film may benefit finacially tremendously? That's only a good thing.
Honestly, despite all the hype over the "mind-blowing special effects" in Attack of the Clones - I also saw a few really poor quality scenes.
EG. When that "stamper" in the factory was about to crush the droids on the conveyor belt, it looked like the characters were overlaid on top of a backdrop. (Same cheezy stuff you see on those late-night commercials where they want to make it look like a guy is flying, so they have him stand in front of a bluescreen and replace the blue with a photo of the city skyline.)
The movie had sort of a "cut and paste" feel to it. Some scenes (AKA. Yoda saber fight) were top-notch, but they went up against scenes where everything looked too computer-generated and "fake". In the battle scenes with many characters on the ground, I got the feel that they took scenes from Jurassic Park and replaced the dinosaurs with Star Wars creatures.
Why would I want to see this patchwork zoomed up on an IMAX screen, where the flaws become even more apparent?
...I'd rather watch porn on IMAX. It would certainly be an *educational* experience.
The trench run and the tunnel run would be cool to see on IMAX.
You're just mad because you fell for it and went to the site, YOU DUMB BITCH!
just kidding...i fell for it too.
what does yoda's penis look like?
Note the fine difference between "made" and "remain in."
Most museums have benefactors and patrons that contribute with the idea that they are promoting a non-commercial environment for learning.
Thanks, kawika, for bringing that up. I never really said it in my original post but I was thinking that if I was some rich dude giving money to a museum and then found out they were showing Star Wars films, I'd be mucho pissedo (that's spanish for "very upset").
A number of people have stated something along the lines of "if IMAX is idle, then what's the harm?" I admit I don't live in a city with an IMAX theatre in the museum (although I have been to ones) so I'll have to ask: is the IMAX ever idle? I'm guessing that there's no shortage of documentaries that can be shown in these museums. So I'm guessing some learning-thing got bumped to make way for Lucas. Second, even if the IMAX is idle, I'm still not that comfortable with them showing Star Wars during regular museum hours. After watching a bunch of stuff get blown up onscreen, I imagine that it's pretty hard to find the educational aspects of the museum interesting at all. It kind of spoils the atmosphere of learning and wonder.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion. I was just surprised that no one was commenting on the silliness of showing science fiction in a science museum. Now, it would be way cool if people left the theatre and walked along a hallway explaining the scientific inaccuracies of Sci-Fi films (noise in space, etc.).
GMD
watch this
Sorry to be so blunt, but honestly.
Maybe Lucas is employing some kind of "invasion of the science museums" idea with this, but in reality, they're the only place to find an IMAX screen within 300 miles, and science museums (the one in Boston, actually) are the ONLY place I've ever seen the dome-shaped screen in. THAT is an experience, I actually got motion sickness there once, and I'm usually very strong stomached.
Dont' get me wrong, I'm sure they said "Hey! When we convert to IMAX we can flood the museums with our merchandising crap too!" but I would imagine the availibility of screen space is the key to this move.
P.S. Isn't Star Wars a form of modern mythology? Certainly enough people are into it to quialify it somewhat. I'm not sure it should be "pushed" on a museum however...
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Are they goign to be editing AotC for content? A /. article not to long ago said they were editing the IMAX release of Apollo 13, i think a couple of swears would upset a lot fewer people than a kid picking up his fathers decapitated head.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
'Now' that StarWars is nothing more than a marketing tool for crappy fast food meals and stupid action figures you say? Do we really need a time machine to remind all the people who complain about the marketing about the original trilogy? Collectable glasses, sleeping bags, and R2D2 underoos were everywhere. There was an action figure for every character who appeared on screen for half a second, even if they only appeared from the waist up or even less. People who bash the acting are just oblivious as to the roles that the actors were portraying - they're not just 'Mom and Dad Skywalker'. If you take into account these characters personal lives, or rather lack thereof, it becomes clear that the actors actually did quite a good job in their roles - but if you can take a step back from your childhood and try to look at things objectivle, you might realize that the acting in the original trilogy wasn't exactly oscar worthy either. But after all that, let me remind you that StarWars is not and never has been 'high art'. It's action/adventure about the struggle between good and evil, with exposition into the lives of those caught in that struggle. The other key ingredient has always been special effects. They pushed technology in the original trilogy, just as they are doing now. When it becomes possible, try sitting down and watching Episodes I - III as many times as you have probably seen IV-VI in your life. You may find your prejudices slipping away.
Only reason I might be interested in the IMAX version. :-)
If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. -Ghandi
But when I went to buy my "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" ticket, they said that Lucas wasn't allowing any Imax showings, arguing that the film quality was not up to par for that format. I assume they are doing a different film format, but I also can't imagine paying another $9 or $10 to see a movie I've seen before. (I'd gladly have paid the full-price ticket to see it on Imax originally, rather than paying the matinee price for the regular viewing.)
As I think about it, I'm not sure which scenes would benefit especially from Imax. The war scenes in "Pearl Harbor" were cool at that size, and Gladiator was OK at that size.
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ Pleasanton California
Now if they did the first three movies I would be excited, but to do any of the new series is an example of Lucas just rubbing it in our faces. Bastard!
What's Godzilla doing with a lightsaber!!!
Oh, wait, thats yoda... cool!
| - | - |
Interestingly, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has in fact been shown in IMAX already. I don't know how many theaters had it, but I do know the IMAX theater in Tampa, Florida had it this past spring. Sadly, I found out about it on the last day of exhibition, and couldn't go. :( It was supposedly quite a treat, from what I've read - none of the graininess one would expect from blowing up the image, apparently. I don't know whether it used the process described here, though.
Bad acting on a scale never before imagined.
That stupid curved screen; those uncomfortable seats with your head cocked back scanning all that stuff you can't see because you're too damned close to the screen. Who needs that! I have NEVER had an immersive experience in an IMAX theater; I am always totally aware of the screen and the people around me. I am always wondering when the damned thing will end. Which leaves me with the conclusion that no one here will admit: IMAX sucks, and 2 hours of SWE2:AOTC will suck just that much more.
can anyone tell me what its like to have sex? a friend of mine wants to know.
Every time I've been to an IMAX movie, they tell the audience that if you get up to leave during the show - tough luck, you're not getting back in. Attack of the Clones is what, 2 1/2 hours long? My bladder will EXPLODE in that amount of time..... I'll have to hold off on all the water before hand or make sure to work out for a very long time before I go (to sweat out all that extra water).
Now that Star Wars is nothing more than a marketing tool for crappy fast food meals and stupid action figures,
As if any other big movie doesn't market itself heavily.
I for one am really looking forward to seeing Clones on an IMAX screen, though it will make the DVD seem pretty crappy.
"But the frame-by-frame conversion process takes at least five weeks" Ye GAWDS! And I thought Divx conversions were slow.
really ?!?! There is one here in SF but I never heard anything ARGHHHHhhh
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?