I can't believe my eyes. Someone is really complaining that the DVD releases are in the aspect ratio that the director and cinematographer intended? Wow!
All these films have been framed for aspect ratio of 1.66:1 or 1.85:1. It's what the director and cinematographer wanted. It's the aspect ratio that is seen in theaters. It's the correct aspect ratio. Of course, the actual film frame itself has an aspect ratio of about 1.37:1, so there is more information available in the original film frames, but it's not supposed to be seen, and it's been framed out.
Because so many uninformed individuals seem to prefer wrong aspect ratios to black bars on their 82-inch 4:3 TVs it's pretty common to do TV/video versions of these movies by simply opening up the top and the bottom of the frame. This is called open matte. This way there is more picture to be seen, yes, but it's all picture that's not supposed to be seen. There may be visible microphones, visible effects, visible set pieces, that were framed out by the director and the cinematographer.
More explanation about widescreen formats and how they're done, with examples: http://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/AV/FilmToVideo/#Vid eoSoftMatte. The page has also a demonstration of how Super35 widescreen/4:3 versions are done, which is worth noting, because it's the process that's widely used nowadays in high-profile productions, such as The Lord of the Rings or The Matrix trilogies.
Remember kids, it's intended to be widescreen, unless it's either very old or by Stanley Kubrick.
Peter Jackson was already working on a King Kong remake back in 1996-1997 before The Lord of the Rings trilogy became reality. One story about it is here.
The first script draft from 1996 is also available in the net on several sites, for example at TheOneRing.net.
The problem is that not every record sells a million copies. Not every artist tours large arenas and stadiums. Many international artists sell perhaps 50000 copies per album, and tour at small clubs. If they can afford to tour at all.
Let's say we have a five-piece rock band just trying to get their stuff heard. After spending months of their free time writing and rehearsing material they decide to record a four-song demo. One full day in a studio with an engineer. Then mastering, and optimistic 1000 copies of the disc, including cases and artwork, to sell in the Internet. Total cost approximately $2000. If they sell all the copies for $6 they get $6000. Reduce expenses, and they have $800 for one person. That's not much for months of hard work put into their material.
Let's take another example. CMX, a popular Finnish band who have basically no markets outside of Finland, because all their material is in Finnish. Three years ago they did a 120-minute double-album, which has sold over 20000 copies (that's successful, gold certification in Finland is 15000). They had two studios for four months to record it. Total cost, including cost of people involved, was probably somewhere near $200000. That's about $10 per album sold. Add distribution and marketing. Had it been a single-disc album it would've been a disaster, but as a double-disc it could be sold for a slightly higher price of about $22-$25.
This is one of the most expensive albums ever produced in Finland. It wouldn't have been made if they weren't a well-established and popular band. Getting songs even recorded and released if your potential audience is small (like in smaller countiers, or with somewhat marginal music) isn't easy.
Most less-known artists have dayjobs, because they would have to sell tens of thousands of CDs every year to make enough money to live. A lot of my over 600-CD record collection is from artists, who sell perhaps 20000 copies of their albums worldwide. They simply can't afford $200000 to do a record, nor have they time to write and record a new album every year because of their jobs.
Then again, should records really cost only as much as the production, marketing and distributing them really costs? Sure, you could get the latest Britney Spears or Limp Bizkit disc for $5 and they would still be profitable for the record company, but stuff by CMX or Shadow Gallery or [insert your favourite underground artist] would still be at least $15 just to break even.
Unlike many people seem to think, the only film of the trilogy that's been finished so far is the first one. The movies were only filmed at the same time, their post production is done one at a time. Just like Fellowship, The Two Towers probably won't be in its finished form with soundtrack and all the effects in place until October. That's why the story talked about "part of the film". And most likely The Return of the King exists only in rough cut form for now, they won't even start working on it before TTT is done.
The worst thing I find about DVD is region encoding. Why is it there?
The original idea was to prevent importing movies on DVD from other regions before they actually hit cinemas locally. The point has become somewhat vague, because many discs are released only on some region, so many people have to resort to importing to get all the stuff they like. Interestingly, lately many blockbusters have opened at cinema almost simultaneously worldwide, which is definitely a good development. I wouldn't be surprised if this was at least partly because of the DVD importing still being possible despite region codes.
It seems they wanted to put something to replace the PAL/SECAM/NTSC barrier.
That barrier still exists on DVDs, but it's easier to overcome than with VHS. There are PAL and NTSC discs. Every PAL player can also play NTSC discs, but only some NTSC players can play PAL discs. If component signal is used (RGB is very common in Europe) you don't have to bother with color encodings, only whether your television can sync to 50/60Hz and display all the lines needed.
Is the NTSC stuff encoded on the DVD or is it an artifact of the conversion from digital to analong of the image?
Picture on DVD is fully digital MPEG-2, hence it has no NTSC, PAL or SECAM color encoding. Picture resolution and FPS still match either NTSC or PAL (SECAM has same specs as PAL, so there are no SECAM discs), because almost every display device used with DVDs still uses them. NTSC resolution on DVD is 720x480, while PAL is 720x576. Player handles 2:2 (PAL) or 3:2 (NTSC) pulldown on film material, and is also responsible for generating actual NTSC/PAL/SECAM color encoding if something else than component signal is used in connecting player to the display device. Needless to say, using component signal gives the best image quality you can achieve without going progressive, because it requires no additional signal format conversions after DA-conversion.
It's also good to note that because of the slight differences between NTSC and PAL discs, well-encoded PAL disc has better picture and smoother movement than well-encoded NTSC disc.
They may elect to tax physical items (books, hardware,etc) at a later date.
Come on, is this 2002 or 1992? Seriously, the other part of the news (i.e. taxing online transactions for online goods) is totally valid, because it's not being done yet, AFAIK.
There is a concept of EU's taxation area, which includes pretty much the whole EU with a couple of exceptions (like Jersey). Since something like 1993 there has been the EU "Single Market", and most physical goods imported from elsewhere have been subject to VAT. If I order something from for example the US or Australia or Japan I have to pay VAT if the package gets caught in the customs. If I order something from the UK or France or Germany, who cares, it's from the taxation area, and taxes are assumed to have already been paid. Many European online vendors have VAT already included in their prices, and for example Amazon.co.uk charges the VAT based on the destination country.
At least some Canadian online vendors go around VAT by sending their shipments to the customer from some country in the EU. The package isn't subject to VAT if it's sent from France or Belgium. I don't know the legality of this, but the concept sounds somewhat dubious, despite allowing cheaper prices for the customer.
At least in Finland the key is to order less in one package, because our customs don't bother to charge less than 10 euros. I have something like 90 DVD titles (some of them being 5-6 disc boxes), with almost all of them being ordered from the net, and only 15 of them originate from the EU taxation area. I haven't paid VAT (22% in Finland) or customs (3.5%) for a single one of the imported ones, because I order only one or two discs at a time.
More information about VAT is available at European Union's
VAT info page.
Gainax actually ran out of money, so when they got around to the last two episodes, they had to do SOMETHING. Basically they took a bunch of concept sketches and put them to some strange voiceover so they could fulfill a 26 episode contract. The next two movies were their attempt to raise money for End of Evangelion, the real episodes 25 and 26.
I think Gainax panicked when they quickly announced the movies soon after the end of the series caused controversy. Hideaki Anno himself didn't approve the projects, but did participate. He also said in the interviews that he is satisfied with the original ending. Everyone feels out-of-character in EoE, and there seems to be a strong "F U" attitude aimed at the fans demanding "real" ending. Next time you watch EoE, think Shinji as yelling otakus, and Asuka as Hideaki Anno and the NGE series. It's kind of funny how everything fits:-)
I've always considered the last two episodes of the series being among the best ones. I've also understood that the episode 25 is pretty much what was originally planned, while 26 was heavily rewritten because of the circumstances. I think it is definitely art-by-accident, because the last ep beats the hell out of your-standard-giant-robot-huge-battle-ending any day.
I also consider 25' (the first half of End of Evangelion) to be simply the most awful piece of crap that has ever had the name Evangelion on it. 26' (second half of EoE) is somewhat better, though I still definitely prefer the subjective perspective of the series. So, EoE wasn't necessary in the first place. Giving something to think of is way better than showing some wicked visions first hand.
The other posts I'm reading say that you'll be denied this low-level hardware access you speak of.
Main processors (including MIPS core & FPU, vector units), graphics synth, DMA controller and MPEG decoder will be available, with specs and programming examples. So, the heart of the Emotion Engine is all yours. However, there is a run-time environment (RTE) that will handle other stuff, like sound processor, IO processor, DVD, hard disk, controllers, memory card, USB etc. They can't be accessed directly, but there are kernel device drivers, and the RTE API is available. On the downside, there's no firewire support in RTE, at least yet.
These protected parts include of course all the proprietary and copy-protection related stuff. The actual documentation for other parts should be the very same that official registered developers have.
For a lot of other stuff about PS2 Linux read the FAQ.
Most people seem to forget the target audience of the PS2 Linux. It's *not* for desktop or server use, definitely not for average gamer or even typical Linux hacker. It's not for mainstream in any form, if it was it would be available outside of the net as well. It won't be very supported officially, it's supposed to be community-supported. PS2-games and DVDs won't work in Linux. Software made on PS2 Linux can't be run on another PS2 without Linux. Bootable CD/DVDs can't be burned even on PC, because PS2 won't boot from burned discs (at least without hardware mods).
It's for people who already know Linux and possibly programming, and want to play with PS2 hardware, try what it's really made of. Documentation and development tools for processor, vector units and graphics synth are included. And I'm going to get it, because I'm very interested in that very nice piece of hardware.
I think it's quite a smart move from Sony. PS2 has always been criticized as being a very difficult platform to develop to. PS2 Linux will make it possible for a couple of thousand (no, it won't sell much more) hobbyists, and even game developers without previous PS2 experience, to familiarize themselves with PS2 hardware. It won't brew a large community of home-made PS2 games, but it may give a good start for a few of PS2 coders.
In a related note, what the hell ever happened to the Future Crew?
The actual Future Crew is no more, but many of the members have been active in various projects in for example gaming industry. You may have heard of Max Payne, made by Remedy Entertainment, or 3DMark, made by MadOnion. Though not really related to FC, they both employ former FC members, and may be the best known examples. As for other demosceners, some Byterapers members were involved in Rally Trophy, made by Bugbear. It also features some music by Purple Motion/FC.
Any other examples of demosceners, perhaps from outside of Finland?-)
Why complain about RIAA, when there's no need to buy *their* CDs, yet you can still buy CDs. Not every record company is a member. Here is a complete list of members. If the CD you're buying is from a company/label not listed, then it's not from RIAA. Simple.
Big part of my CD collection is released by labels that are not members. Of course, it's not your average pop and radio hits, but a bit more marginal stuff, like progressive rock and metal. Labels like InsideOut, Nuclear Blast and Magna Carta release some *good* music instead of financially calculated products. These bands still have some talent and creativity, they don't even have to be MTV-ready. Small labels also often give way more freedom and flexibility to the bands.
And yes, I buy something like 100-200 CDs a year, paying perhaps $16 for most new CDs and $6-$10 for budget releases and used discs. Oh what a poor student I am. Get a job if you can't afford it, or live without CDs. Music is not required for survival.
Funny, that Tom's article sounds very much like MS marketing speak, with everything being "milestone", "extraordinary" or "unrivaled". It even goes as far as telling that there is no lack of good titles. As far as I know, that's the biggest problem of Xbox. It has only a very few exclusive titles that have been hailed as interesting. And yet, Tom couldn't even spell PS2 game names right.
This is my favourite: "the xbox is definitely a generation ahead, compared to the ps2 at least"
It *is* next generation! It's funny how people are still comparing *everything* to PS2. So, you're telling me Xbox or Nintendo GameCube has better technology and more processing power than almost TWO YEARS older PS2? Ooh, *gasp*, I'm shocked! Seems like PS2 really is technically pretty revolutionary, if it's still the comparison standard for new consoles. I'd be really, really worried if that much newer machine wasn't technically superior...
And in any case, it isn't technology that matters, it's the games. Original PSX was technically the weakest of its generation, Sega Saturn (released the same year) and Nintendo 64 (released about a year later) are both far superior, but PSX reigned because of the games. They still make games for PSX (and N64 as well, but in smaller scale), though it was released in 1994!
Among other things, yes. Commodore's marketing was awful to say the least, and bankruptcy followed in 1994 leaving Amiga in void for a couple of years. That finally killed the machine for the masses. Yes, I know it is still pretty popular hobbyist machine, but so are for example C64 or MSX.
Another fatal thing was slow progress. It took almost *ten* years to get new graphics chipset and more processor power to the lower-end models, and when AGA finally arrived it was too little too late, PC had already got first sound cards and VGA, and more processor power. There were rumors that Commodore had *lost* the original chipset (OCS) designs, and they had to reverse-engineer the chips to be able to make next generation AGA chips compatible.
It is also impossible to make an AmigaOS-compatible operating system with real memory protection without using virtual machines or emulators for older software. Original AmigaOS uses pointer-based messaging, and that's why the OS is so efficient. But unfortunately, that's impossible with virtual memory. So though AmigaOS was still way ahead of its time in 1985, it can't be updated to even 1995 standards without losing compatibility.
Sony claim they HAD to limit playback in this way (cos of the marcovision thing, I think), but most standalone dvd's over here, including ones manufactured by Sony DO let you play dvd's over an RGB lead.
This isn't very believable explanation from Sony. It is true that Macrovision has not been specified for RGB, only composite and S-video, but that's because most of the consumer-level equipment can't record RGB signal. And because VHS works with composite anyway it doesn't even matter.
Of course RGB signal is far superior to both S-video and composite, because all color components are separate, and because it is the "native" format of CRT-television, and every additional signal conversion will degrade the quality of the picture, no matter how it's done. Also, RGB doesn't have NTSC or PAL color encoding (because it's RGB, duh), so with RGB PAL-television doesn't have to support NTSC to watch imported NTSC-formatted DVDs in color and full quality (and vice versa). Actually, this might be more realistic reason for out-of-box PS2 not displaying RGB correctly with DVDs...
It's never been about who is better technically, it's all about support. VHS won the
VCR battle, despite being technically the weakest, because it was first to have real support (can you say "pr0n"?). MP3 has all the support. Many recent CD and DVD players can play MP3 files from a CD. There are portable MP3 players, MP3 jukeboxes, MP3-playing cell phones, you name it. Name any one device that supports Ogg or any other lossy audio format... MP3 is free as in beer for most uses. It isn't as free as Ogg, but you have to live with it if you want any *real* support in the *real* world, not just some obscure OSS.
There is also an MP3 extension PlusV, which
uses the idea that human ear is not very sensitive at high frequencies, and compresses higher half of the used frequencies in only less than 10kbps. This allows 128kbps MP3 audible quality to be reached at around perhaps 70kbps. Files
are compatible with old MP3 players, though without PlusV support the just play
the lower half of the frequencies. It's technically better than mp3pro, and even better, its specs are open and freely available. Actually, PlusV isn't even MP3-dependant, it could be implemented in Ogg as well.
Yes, PlusV has some patents, but the company's policies are pretty liberal.
Actually Aardman has been doing claymation all the time for more traditional medium as well, it's not just the net, and it's not dying anytime soon. Chicken Run starring the voice of Mel Gibson was a good example, which did very nicely at the box office a year or two ago, despite not being quite as good as Wallace & Gromit.
The three Wallace & Gromit shorts are classics, frequently shown on TV in many countries. Two of them won the Oscar for animated short films. There's also a fine DVD with all three stories available, with Nick Park's early animation work as a bonus. R1 DVD even has a commentary tracks by Nick Park himself. Highly recommended stuff!
Not too long ago I saw Aardman's pretty recent TV-show Rex the Runt. It's only something like 13 10-minute episodes, but it was completely hilarious, very trippy and psychedelic. There should be second series coming as well, and I can hardly wait for it being shown on TV here.
About the only Widescreen TV show I can think of is B5. Are there many others?
Yes there are, though B5 was basically the first one, the other pioneer being Lois & Clark. Some other shows that I know of include ER (from season 6, I think), NYPD Blue (from season 8), Sopranos, Buffy (from season 4), Angel... Neither TNG, DS9 nor Voyager were widescreen, Enterprise is the first one in Star Trek franchise. Come to think of it, most of recent television shows with budget have been moving to widescreen, though television broadcast versions may still be pan&scan.
Widescreen is the future way, and now there no point making shows that will have black bars on left and right in 5-10 years.
Actually, most of European TV productions, even low-budget ones, have been widescreen for years already.
And back to B5... It's a rather complicated example when it comes to widescreen. While live action was filmed widescreen with Super35 process, almost all CGI and composite shots were done in 4:3 (except for the last few episodes). Therefore all the CGI and composite shots must be cropped from top and/or bottom for widescreen version. Also there will be definite resolution loss when making anamorphic widescreen masters, because the original rendering was made for NTSC resolution. There is a long analysis of all the problems involved here.
According to this LotR has grossed already over $200M in the US and almost $200M elsewhere. That's way more than the budget of the whole trilogy. Four records mentioned include the biggest Christmas day gross, and some December records. There's also an interesting comparison chart, where the film's gross history is compared against Harry Potter, Star Wars ep 1 and Titanic.
Some guy at Miramax is going to get his ass kicked for wanting to reduce LotR into one movie and driving Peter Jackson away to New Line Cinema, who were ready to fund three movies.
The only reason the GameCube hasn't sold more than the PS2 is because the PS2 has been out longer.
Except of course the actual statistics mentioned in the article were only from Nov 11th:
PS2 Nov 11th - Dec 8th - 962k
Xbox Nov 15th (release) - Dec 8th - 934k
NGC Nov 18th (release) - Dec 8th - 602k
So, with per day sales on this four-or-so-week period Xbox is a winner. Not as clearly as one would expect though, in my opinion PS2 is doing surprisingly well for a machine that's been available for over a year already.
The reason for PS2 still doing this well compared to brand new consoles is probably that now PS2 *finally* has those killer games that actually make people go out and buy the console. Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2 have really boosted the PS2 sales over the past few months.
NEO4 is a warez mod
on
Sony vs Modchips
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I for one think that it was definitely right to go after NEO4. Despite being hyped and anticipated by some PS2 people, it is basically a warez mod. At first I was interested in it, but later I found out that it doesn't work with original PS2-imports, only PS2-warez. PSX-imports work though, but NEO4 would be insanely expensive for that feature alone. If modchip makers don't want to get Sony after them they should make mods that work with original games only. I've seen NEO4 being advertised as the chip that makes all the warez possible, sheesh.
I'll probably get a PS2 next year, and I want to be able to play both PS2 and PSX imports with it. I still haven't seen a mod that would do both, and NEO4 isn't one either. I have several imported PSX games that haven't been released in Europe at all (like some of the best PSX titles including Chrono Cross and Xenogears), and those are the only reason I have mod for my PSX. Sooner or later there will be similar titles for PS2.
As for DVD regions, Region X package for PS2 is both cheap and well-working. I don't see why anyone would want an awkward modchip that costs several times more just to watch import-DVDs.
since it premiered in the UK already for you lucky brits
The actual premiere is still on Wednesday December 19th almost everywhere. Even here in Finland, where all the other movie premieres are on Fridays. There have only been some advance showings for press and such, some earlier, but mostly on December 10th, I think. The Official World Premiere with PJ and the cast was for invited guests only in London on December 10th.
BTW, the film currently has IMDb rating of 9.3, with over 300 votes. #1 movie on the top 250 list has only 9.0...
Exactly. I just quickly browsed through my CD shelf (about 500 titles), and I'd estimate that *at least* a third (probably a lot more) of my CDs have definitely been released on labels that are not RIAA members. Of course, it isn't your average mainstream pop. Also many of them have been released by non-American labels, or smaller, more specialized American ones.
Also, it's these less known bands that could potentially suffer more from music piracy. 100000 warez copies of the new Madonna disc is just a superficial scratch in millions of sold discs. But 100000 copies of, say, the latest Shadow Gallery album hurts a lot. It would be many times the amount the band actually sells.
But somehow, it also seems that the fans of these more marginal artists also like to support good music by buying the CDs.
Funny no one has mentioned it yet, but on October 23rd there will be an excellent 2-disc DVD release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In addition to Holy Grail in Lego it includes for example "subtitles for people who don't like the movie" and "follow the killer rabbit". Here's the full and totally wicked list of extras:
Disc 1
Commentaries by Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, plus "general complaints and back-biting" by John Cleese, Eric Idle & Michael Palin
"Follow The Killer Rabbit" Feature
A special version for the Hard of Hearing
"A glorious extra 24 seconds absolutely free"
On-screen Screenplay allowing you to read it while you watch the movie
Trailer
Disc 2
Three sing-alongs
"The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations" documentary with Michael Palin and Terry Jones
"How To Use Your Coconuts" - an educational film
Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Japanese, with English subtitles
Monty Python and the Holy Grail In Lego
"On Location with The Pythons" - an 18-minute location report made in 1974 by BBC Film Night (broadcast December 19, 1974)
Interactive Cast Directory
Terry Gilliam's original sketches plus posters
Behind-the-Scenes Photos
"A Load of Old Rubbish - a surprise package of mystery items specially included for the mentally challenged"
Well, then buy R2/R4 version if your equipment can handle PAL. It's definitely not RCE. You also get better vertical resolution and smoother movement with PAL, and the actual disc features should be exactly the same.
There is a review of R2/R4 version of the disc at
MichaelDVD,
and they seem to consider video transfer rather disappointing.
And about RCE... My modified Sony chooses region automatically (also works with RCE discs), yet lets to override manually. No protection can fool good hand-selection without breaking compatibility with "legit" players as well.
So, which one of the roving robots sent to Mars was unsuccessful? For a little reminder, here's complete list of them to help pick the unsuccessful ones: Mars Pathfinder. Yes, that's the only one, and as far as I can remember it didn't crash, burn, or otherwise vaporize.
Am I the only one who's tired of this endless NASA bashing? Sure, their success rate at doing something completely new and revolutionary isn't 100%, but whose is? Still, only the occasional failures gain big media attention, while the numerous and constant successes have no wide interest, because they do not involve expensive equipment being destroyed, explosions or aliens.
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I can't believe my eyes. Someone is really complaining that the DVD releases are in the aspect ratio that the director and cinematographer intended? Wow!
d eoSoftMatte. The page has also a demonstration of how Super35 widescreen/4:3 versions are done, which is worth noting, because it's the process that's widely used nowadays in high-profile productions, such as The Lord of the Rings or The Matrix trilogies.
All these films have been framed for aspect ratio of 1.66:1 or 1.85:1. It's what the director and cinematographer wanted. It's the aspect ratio that is seen in theaters. It's the correct aspect ratio. Of course, the actual film frame itself has an aspect ratio of about 1.37:1, so there is more information available in the original film frames, but it's not supposed to be seen, and it's been framed out.
Because so many uninformed individuals seem to prefer wrong aspect ratios to black bars on their 82-inch 4:3 TVs it's pretty common to do TV/video versions of these movies by simply opening up the top and the bottom of the frame. This is called open matte. This way there is more picture to be seen, yes, but it's all picture that's not supposed to be seen. There may be visible microphones, visible effects, visible set pieces, that were framed out by the director and the cinematographer.
More explanation about widescreen formats and how they're done, with examples: http://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/AV/FilmToVideo/#Vi
Remember kids, it's intended to be widescreen, unless it's either very old or by Stanley Kubrick.
Peter Jackson was already working on a King Kong remake back in 1996-1997 before The Lord of the Rings trilogy became reality. One story about it is here. The first script draft from 1996 is also available in the net on several sites, for example at TheOneRing.net.
The problem is that not every record sells a million copies. Not every artist tours large arenas and stadiums. Many international artists sell perhaps 50000 copies per album, and tour at small clubs. If they can afford to tour at all.
Let's say we have a five-piece rock band just trying to get their stuff heard. After spending months of their free time writing and rehearsing material they decide to record a four-song demo. One full day in a studio with an engineer. Then mastering, and optimistic 1000 copies of the disc, including cases and artwork, to sell in the Internet. Total cost approximately $2000. If they sell all the copies for $6 they get $6000. Reduce expenses, and they have $800 for one person. That's not much for months of hard work put into their material.
Let's take another example. CMX, a popular Finnish band who have basically no markets outside of Finland, because all their material is in Finnish. Three years ago they did a 120-minute double-album, which has sold over 20000 copies (that's successful, gold certification in Finland is 15000). They had two studios for four months to record it. Total cost, including cost of people involved, was probably somewhere near $200000. That's about $10 per album sold. Add distribution and marketing. Had it been a single-disc album it would've been a disaster, but as a double-disc it could be sold for a slightly higher price of about $22-$25.
This is one of the most expensive albums ever produced in Finland. It wouldn't have been made if they weren't a well-established and popular band. Getting songs even recorded and released if your potential audience is small (like in smaller countiers, or with somewhat marginal music) isn't easy.
Most less-known artists have dayjobs, because they would have to sell tens of thousands of CDs every year to make enough money to live. A lot of my over 600-CD record collection is from artists, who sell perhaps 20000 copies of their albums worldwide. They simply can't afford $200000 to do a record, nor have they time to write and record a new album every year because of their jobs.
Then again, should records really cost only as much as the production, marketing and distributing them really costs? Sure, you could get the latest Britney Spears or Limp Bizkit disc for $5 and they would still be profitable for the record company, but stuff by CMX or Shadow Gallery or [insert your favourite underground artist] would still be at least $15 just to break even.
Unlike many people seem to think, the only film of the trilogy that's been finished so far is the first one. The movies were only filmed at the same time, their post production is done one at a time. Just like Fellowship, The Two Towers probably won't be in its finished form with soundtrack and all the effects in place until October. That's why the story talked about "part of the film". And most likely The Return of the King exists only in rough cut form for now, they won't even start working on it before TTT is done.
The worst thing I find about DVD is region encoding. Why is it there?
The original idea was to prevent importing movies on DVD from other regions before they actually hit cinemas locally. The point has become somewhat vague, because many discs are released only on some region, so many people have to resort to importing to get all the stuff they like. Interestingly, lately many blockbusters have opened at cinema almost simultaneously worldwide, which is definitely a good development. I wouldn't be surprised if this was at least partly because of the DVD importing still being possible despite region codes.
It seems they wanted to put something to replace the PAL/SECAM/NTSC barrier.
That barrier still exists on DVDs, but it's easier to overcome than with VHS. There are PAL and NTSC discs. Every PAL player can also play NTSC discs, but only some NTSC players can play PAL discs. If component signal is used (RGB is very common in Europe) you don't have to bother with color encodings, only whether your television can sync to 50/60Hz and display all the lines needed.
Is the NTSC stuff encoded on the DVD or is it an artifact of the conversion from digital to analong of the image?
Picture on DVD is fully digital MPEG-2, hence it has no NTSC, PAL or SECAM color encoding. Picture resolution and FPS still match either NTSC or PAL (SECAM has same specs as PAL, so there are no SECAM discs), because almost every display device used with DVDs still uses them. NTSC resolution on DVD is 720x480, while PAL is 720x576. Player handles 2:2 (PAL) or 3:2 (NTSC) pulldown on film material, and is also responsible for generating actual NTSC/PAL/SECAM color encoding if something else than component signal is used in connecting player to the display device. Needless to say, using component signal gives the best image quality you can achieve without going progressive, because it requires no additional signal format conversions after DA-conversion.
It's also good to note that because of the slight differences between NTSC and PAL discs, well-encoded PAL disc has better picture and smoother movement than well-encoded NTSC disc.
They may elect to tax physical items (books, hardware,etc) at a later date.
Come on, is this 2002 or 1992? Seriously, the other part of the news (i.e. taxing online transactions for online goods) is totally valid, because it's not being done yet, AFAIK.
There is a concept of EU's taxation area, which includes pretty much the whole EU with a couple of exceptions (like Jersey). Since something like 1993 there has been the EU "Single Market", and most physical goods imported from elsewhere have been subject to VAT. If I order something from for example the US or Australia or Japan I have to pay VAT if the package gets caught in the customs. If I order something from the UK or France or Germany, who cares, it's from the taxation area, and taxes are assumed to have already been paid. Many European online vendors have VAT already included in their prices, and for example Amazon.co.uk charges the VAT based on the destination country.
At least some Canadian online vendors go around VAT by sending their shipments to the customer from some country in the EU. The package isn't subject to VAT if it's sent from France or Belgium. I don't know the legality of this, but the concept sounds somewhat dubious, despite allowing cheaper prices for the customer.
At least in Finland the key is to order less in one package, because our customs don't bother to charge less than 10 euros. I have something like 90 DVD titles (some of them being 5-6 disc boxes), with almost all of them being ordered from the net, and only 15 of them originate from the EU taxation area. I haven't paid VAT (22% in Finland) or customs (3.5%) for a single one of the imported ones, because I order only one or two discs at a time.
More information about VAT is available at European Union's VAT info page.
Gainax actually ran out of money, so when they got around to the last two episodes, they had to do SOMETHING. Basically they took a bunch of concept sketches and put them to some strange voiceover so they could fulfill a 26 episode contract. The next two movies were their attempt to raise money for End of Evangelion, the real episodes 25 and 26.
:-)
I think Gainax panicked when they quickly announced the movies soon after the end of the series caused controversy. Hideaki Anno himself didn't approve the projects, but did participate. He also said in the interviews that he is satisfied with the original ending. Everyone feels out-of-character in EoE, and there seems to be a strong "F U" attitude aimed at the fans demanding "real" ending. Next time you watch EoE, think Shinji as yelling otakus, and Asuka as Hideaki Anno and the NGE series. It's kind of funny how everything fits
I've always considered the last two episodes of the series being among the best ones. I've also understood that the episode 25 is pretty much what was originally planned, while 26 was heavily rewritten because of the circumstances. I think it is definitely art-by-accident, because the last ep beats the hell out of your-standard-giant-robot-huge-battle-ending any day.
I also consider 25' (the first half of End of Evangelion) to be simply the most awful piece of crap that has ever had the name Evangelion on it. 26' (second half of EoE) is somewhat better, though I still definitely prefer the subjective perspective of the series. So, EoE wasn't necessary in the first place. Giving something to think of is way better than showing some wicked visions first hand.
The other posts I'm reading say that you'll be denied this low-level hardware access you speak of.
Main processors (including MIPS core & FPU, vector units), graphics synth, DMA controller and MPEG decoder will be available, with specs and programming examples. So, the heart of the Emotion Engine is all yours. However, there is a run-time environment (RTE) that will handle other stuff, like sound processor, IO processor, DVD, hard disk, controllers, memory card, USB etc. They can't be accessed directly, but there are kernel device drivers, and the RTE API is available. On the downside, there's no firewire support in RTE, at least yet.
These protected parts include of course all the proprietary and copy-protection related stuff. The actual documentation for other parts should be the very same that official registered developers have.
For a lot of other stuff about PS2 Linux read the FAQ.
Most people seem to forget the target audience of the PS2 Linux. It's *not* for desktop or server use, definitely not for average gamer or even typical Linux hacker. It's not for mainstream in any form, if it was it would be available outside of the net as well. It won't be very supported officially, it's supposed to be community-supported. PS2-games and DVDs won't work in Linux. Software made on PS2 Linux can't be run on another PS2 without Linux. Bootable CD/DVDs can't be burned even on PC, because PS2 won't boot from burned discs (at least without hardware mods).
It's for people who already know Linux and possibly programming, and want to play with PS2 hardware, try what it's really made of. Documentation and development tools for processor, vector units and graphics synth are included. And I'm going to get it, because I'm very interested in that very nice piece of hardware.
I think it's quite a smart move from Sony. PS2 has always been criticized as being a very difficult platform to develop to. PS2 Linux will make it possible for a couple of thousand (no, it won't sell much more) hobbyists, and even game developers without previous PS2 experience, to familiarize themselves with PS2 hardware. It won't brew a large community of home-made PS2 games, but it may give a good start for a few of PS2 coders.
In a related note, what the hell ever happened to the Future Crew?
The actual Future Crew is no more, but many of the members have been active in various projects in for example gaming industry. You may have heard of Max Payne, made by Remedy Entertainment, or 3DMark, made by MadOnion. Though not really related to FC, they both employ former FC members, and may be the best known examples. As for other demosceners, some Byterapers members were involved in Rally Trophy, made by Bugbear. It also features some music by Purple Motion/FC.
Any other examples of demosceners, perhaps from outside of Finland?-)
Why complain about RIAA, when there's no need to buy *their* CDs, yet you can still buy CDs. Not every record company is a member. Here is a complete list of members. If the CD you're buying is from a company/label not listed, then it's not from RIAA. Simple.
Big part of my CD collection is released by labels that are not members. Of course, it's not your average pop and radio hits, but a bit more marginal stuff, like progressive rock and metal. Labels like InsideOut, Nuclear Blast and Magna Carta release some *good* music instead of financially calculated products. These bands still have some talent and creativity, they don't even have to be MTV-ready. Small labels also often give way more freedom and flexibility to the bands.
And yes, I buy something like 100-200 CDs a year, paying perhaps $16 for most new CDs and $6-$10 for budget releases and used discs. Oh what a poor student I am. Get a job if you can't afford it, or live without CDs. Music is not required for survival.
Funny, that Tom's article sounds very much like MS marketing speak, with everything being "milestone", "extraordinary" or "unrivaled". It even goes as far as telling that there is no lack of good titles. As far as I know, that's the biggest problem of Xbox. It has only a very few exclusive titles that have been hailed as interesting. And yet, Tom couldn't even spell PS2 game names right.
This is my favourite: "the xbox is definitely a generation ahead, compared to the ps2 at least"
It *is* next generation! It's funny how people are still comparing *everything* to PS2. So, you're telling me Xbox or Nintendo GameCube has better technology and more processing power than almost TWO YEARS older PS2? Ooh, *gasp*, I'm shocked! Seems like PS2 really is technically pretty revolutionary, if it's still the comparison standard for new consoles. I'd be really, really worried if that much newer machine wasn't technically superior...
And in any case, it isn't technology that matters, it's the games. Original PSX was technically the weakest of its generation, Sega Saturn (released the same year) and Nintendo 64 (released about a year later) are both far superior, but PSX reigned because of the games. They still make games for PSX (and N64 as well, but in smaller scale), though it was released in 1994!
If it was so superior, what killed it? Marketing?
Among other things, yes. Commodore's marketing was awful to say the least, and bankruptcy followed in 1994 leaving Amiga in void for a couple of years. That finally killed the machine for the masses. Yes, I know it is still pretty popular hobbyist machine, but so are for example C64 or MSX.
Another fatal thing was slow progress. It took almost *ten* years to get new graphics chipset and more processor power to the lower-end models, and when AGA finally arrived it was too little too late, PC had already got first sound cards and VGA, and more processor power. There were rumors that Commodore had *lost* the original chipset (OCS) designs, and they had to reverse-engineer the chips to be able to make next generation AGA chips compatible.
It is also impossible to make an AmigaOS-compatible operating system with real memory protection without using virtual machines or emulators for older software. Original AmigaOS uses pointer-based messaging, and that's why the OS is so efficient. But unfortunately, that's impossible with virtual memory. So though AmigaOS was still way ahead of its time in 1985, it can't be updated to even 1995 standards without losing compatibility.
Sony claim they HAD to limit playback in this way (cos of the marcovision thing, I think), but most standalone dvd's over here, including ones manufactured by Sony DO let you play dvd's over an RGB lead.
This isn't very believable explanation from Sony. It is true that Macrovision has not been specified for RGB, only composite and S-video, but that's because most of the consumer-level equipment can't record RGB signal. And because VHS works with composite anyway it doesn't even matter.
Of course RGB signal is far superior to both S-video and composite, because all color components are separate, and because it is the "native" format of CRT-television, and every additional signal conversion will degrade the quality of the picture, no matter how it's done. Also, RGB doesn't have NTSC or PAL color encoding (because it's RGB, duh), so with RGB PAL-television doesn't have to support NTSC to watch imported NTSC-formatted DVDs in color and full quality (and vice versa). Actually, this might be more realistic reason for out-of-box PS2 not displaying RGB correctly with DVDs...
It's never been about who is better technically, it's all about support. VHS won the VCR battle, despite being technically the weakest, because it was first to have real support (can you say "pr0n"?). MP3 has all the support. Many recent CD and DVD players can play MP3 files from a CD. There are portable MP3 players, MP3 jukeboxes, MP3-playing cell phones, you name it. Name any one device that supports Ogg or any other lossy audio format... MP3 is free as in beer for most uses. It isn't as free as Ogg, but you have to live with it if you want any *real* support in the *real* world, not just some obscure OSS.
There is also an MP3 extension PlusV, which uses the idea that human ear is not very sensitive at high frequencies, and compresses higher half of the used frequencies in only less than 10kbps. This allows 128kbps MP3 audible quality to be reached at around perhaps 70kbps. Files are compatible with old MP3 players, though without PlusV support the just play the lower half of the frequencies. It's technically better than mp3pro, and even better, its specs are open and freely available. Actually, PlusV isn't even MP3-dependant, it could be implemented in Ogg as well. Yes, PlusV has some patents, but the company's policies are pretty liberal.
Actually Aardman has been doing claymation all the time for more traditional medium as well, it's not just the net, and it's not dying anytime soon. Chicken Run starring the voice of Mel Gibson was a good example, which did very nicely at the box office a year or two ago, despite not being quite as good as Wallace & Gromit.
The three Wallace & Gromit shorts are classics, frequently shown on TV in many countries. Two of them won the Oscar for animated short films. There's also a fine DVD with all three stories available, with Nick Park's early animation work as a bonus. R1 DVD even has a commentary tracks by Nick Park himself. Highly recommended stuff!
Not too long ago I saw Aardman's pretty recent TV-show Rex the Runt. It's only something like 13 10-minute episodes, but it was completely hilarious, very trippy and psychedelic. There should be second series coming as well, and I can hardly wait for it being shown on TV here.
About the only Widescreen TV show I can think of is B5. Are there many others?
Yes there are, though B5 was basically the first one, the other pioneer being Lois & Clark. Some other shows that I know of include ER (from season 6, I think), NYPD Blue (from season 8), Sopranos, Buffy (from season 4), Angel... Neither TNG, DS9 nor Voyager were widescreen, Enterprise is the first one in Star Trek franchise. Come to think of it, most of recent television shows with budget have been moving to widescreen, though television broadcast versions may still be pan&scan. Widescreen is the future way, and now there no point making shows that will have black bars on left and right in 5-10 years.
Actually, most of European TV productions, even low-budget ones, have been widescreen for years already.
And back to B5... It's a rather complicated example when it comes to widescreen. While live action was filmed widescreen with Super35 process, almost all CGI and composite shots were done in 4:3 (except for the last few episodes). Therefore all the CGI and composite shots must be cropped from top and/or bottom for widescreen version. Also there will be definite resolution loss when making anamorphic widescreen masters, because the original rendering was made for NTSC resolution. There is a long analysis of all the problems involved here.
According to this LotR has grossed already over $200M in the US and almost $200M elsewhere. That's way more than the budget of the whole trilogy. Four records mentioned include the biggest Christmas day gross, and some December records. There's also an interesting comparison chart, where the film's gross history is compared against Harry Potter, Star Wars ep 1 and Titanic.
Some guy at Miramax is going to get his ass kicked for wanting to reduce LotR into one movie and driving Peter Jackson away to New Line Cinema, who were ready to fund three movies.
The only reason the GameCube hasn't sold more than the PS2 is because the PS2 has been out longer.
Except of course the actual statistics mentioned in the article were only from Nov 11th:
PS2 Nov 11th - Dec 8th - 962k
Xbox Nov 15th (release) - Dec 8th - 934k
NGC Nov 18th (release) - Dec 8th - 602k
So, with per day sales on this four-or-so-week period Xbox is a winner. Not as clearly as one would expect though, in my opinion PS2 is doing surprisingly well for a machine that's been available for over a year already.
The reason for PS2 still doing this well compared to brand new consoles is probably that now PS2 *finally* has those killer games that actually make people go out and buy the console. Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2 have really boosted the PS2 sales over the past few months.
I for one think that it was definitely right to go after NEO4. Despite being hyped and anticipated by some PS2 people, it is basically a warez mod. At first I was interested in it, but later I found out that it doesn't work with original PS2-imports, only PS2-warez. PSX-imports work though, but NEO4 would be insanely expensive for that feature alone. If modchip makers don't want to get Sony after them they should make mods that work with original games only. I've seen NEO4 being advertised as the chip that makes all the warez possible, sheesh.
I'll probably get a PS2 next year, and I want to be able to play both PS2 and PSX imports with it. I still haven't seen a mod that would do both, and NEO4 isn't one either. I have several imported PSX games that haven't been released in Europe at all (like some of the best PSX titles including Chrono Cross and Xenogears), and those are the only reason I have mod for my PSX. Sooner or later there will be similar titles for PS2.
As for DVD regions, Region X package for PS2 is both cheap and well-working. I don't see why anyone would want an awkward modchip that costs several times more just to watch import-DVDs.
since it premiered in the UK already for you lucky brits
The actual premiere is still on Wednesday December 19th almost everywhere. Even here in Finland, where all the other movie premieres are on Fridays. There have only been some advance showings for press and such, some earlier, but mostly on December 10th, I think. The Official World Premiere with PJ and the cast was for invited guests only in London on December 10th.
BTW, the film currently has IMDb rating of 9.3, with over 300 votes. #1 movie on the top 250 list has only 9.0...
> Or sign to a non-RIAA label.
Exactly. I just quickly browsed through my CD shelf (about 500 titles), and I'd estimate that *at least* a third (probably a lot more) of my CDs have definitely been released on labels that are not RIAA members. Of course, it isn't your average mainstream pop. Also many of them have been released by non-American labels, or smaller, more specialized American ones.
Also, it's these less known bands that could potentially suffer more from music piracy. 100000 warez copies of the new Madonna disc is just a superficial scratch in millions of sold discs. But 100000 copies of, say, the latest Shadow Gallery album hurts a lot. It would be many times the amount the band actually sells. But somehow, it also seems that the fans of these more marginal artists also like to support good music by buying the CDs.
Well, then buy R2/R4 version if your equipment can handle PAL. It's definitely not RCE. You also get better vertical resolution and smoother movement with PAL, and the actual disc features should be exactly the same. There is a review of R2/R4 version of the disc at MichaelDVD, and they seem to consider video transfer rather disappointing. And about RCE... My modified Sony chooses region automatically (also works with RCE discs), yet lets to override manually. No protection can fool good hand-selection without breaking compatibility with "legit" players as well.
So, which one of the roving robots sent to Mars was unsuccessful? For a little reminder, here's complete list of them to help pick the unsuccessful ones: Mars Pathfinder. Yes, that's the only one, and as far as I can remember it didn't crash, burn, or otherwise vaporize.
Am I the only one who's tired of this endless NASA bashing? Sure, their success rate at doing something completely new and revolutionary isn't 100%, but whose is? Still, only the occasional failures gain big media attention, while the numerous and constant successes have no wide interest, because they do not involve expensive equipment being destroyed, explosions or aliens.