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Today’s Tom Sawyer

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

I’ve been listening to a lot of 5-channel music lately. Well, I’ve been picking up a lot of 5-channel music and getting around to listening when I can. Some of this stuff is hard to find, so I buy when I find it and listen when I’m good and ready.

But today, a disc jumped the queue. Not because it’s my favorite (hey, I’ve still got a bunch of Genesis to stroll through), but because I figured this was an excellent chance to spread the Good Word of multi-channel music.

I’m sure I’m not the only one (just check sa-cd.net) who’s been annoyed by the half-assed adoption of high-resolution audio formats. It’s particularly distressing when discs go out of print and become astronomically expensive. A few reissues would work wonders for sales of new music. So any time I get more people on board is a good day.

And today, my friends, we have a new weapon: Rush fans. I was going to say “Crazy Rush fans”, but that’s redundant. Rush fans are fervent beyond mere mortals, and I’m hoping that does the trick.

Today, Rush’s “Moving Pictures” was re-released. It’s sold in three formats: CD, CD/DVD-A, and CD/BD. The latter two have hi-res stereo and 5.1 mixes as well as videos of the band in the studio where and when (and maybe some as) they recorded the album with Jack Nance keeping an eye on them.

Most places don’t have the BD version yet, but Best Buy does, and it’s only $20 this week. I picked up the BD mostly because it has more audio options and because the menu system is probably friendlier to messing around while the music is playing (though most DVD-As do a pretty good job). Obviously the videos were shot on video in 1980 (didn’t clock the camera model, but you can see the videographer at work in the photos), and they aren’t HD, so that’s not a reason to go BD instead of DVD-A.

The audio bitrates on DVD-A are nothing to sneeze at either, but if your DVD player won’t play DVD-A tracks (most won’t), you’ll miss out on the really hi-res stuff when your player falls back to the more compressed DVD-V versions. May not make a difference depending on your system, but if you’ve got a BD player, why take the chance, right?

This is a great opportunity to vote with your wallet. You can support high-resolution audio formats and the reissue of classic albums. And Rush. (It’s also a lot cheaper than the $170 a ticket it costs to see them these days.)

Were you looking for a review of the album? I can’t say much about the music that hasn’t already been said. If there’s one Rush album beloved by fans and proles alike, it’s this one. It’s the Rush gateway drug. C’mon, you know you want some.

How’re the mixes? The little bit of the 2-channel I listened to was good. I haven’t pulled out my old CD to compare (think I have it on vinyl too), but I imagine the new version is much better.

But I doubt I’ll listen to it all the way through, at least in my big room. The 5.1 mixes give the music a lot more space. There’s no gaudy panning (well, that wasn’t in the stereo version) or other “surroundy” distractions. It just drops you smack in the middle of this mix so you can hear all of what’s going on. In other words, it works good like a 5.1 mix should.

Just switch from 2- to 5.1-channel and back a few times, or check out the opening of “The Camera Eye” if you’re not sold on this multi-channel stuff. You’ll really be able to hear all the details. You can show your friends that Rush’s music is really as intricate as you always say it is.

On the BD, I switched between the PCM and DTS-HD 5.1 mixes and the PCM sounded a little better (less harsh) sometimes, but I think they’re just at different levels (often are), and I didn’t run down to grab the dB meter to check. I quit messing around, turned it to DTS and lowered the volume a bit so I could just sit and listen to the rest of the album. It’s certainly the best I’ve ever heard the album sound.

But, hey, what do I know? I’m not a Rush fan. Yet.

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Because It’s in Surround, It Turns Me On…

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I will reveal a secret that I probably shouldn’t. If you have surround sound on a DVD-Video or DVD-Audio (better, and this may be your chance to find out if your machine will do it) player, run out and get the 2-disc version of The Beatles’ Love. Make sure you hold out for the 2-disc version. It’s in a thicker cardboard box, not a jewel case. It’ll probably cost more than you’d like and you might have to wait for it if you order it from somewhere, but it’s worth it.

Now take that DVD and play it in surround sound to show your friends how badass your system is. If they want to borrow it, lend them the CD from the box instead. They’ll go crazy wondering how you got so much cooler than they are.

Only one of my disc players is a DVD-A player as far as I know. I’m certain my other Oppo isn’t. Guess I should try the rest of them now that I have a bunch of DVD-As around.

All the DVD-As I’ve seen include DVD-V content too, and it’s good, but the bitrate is way lower. Whether that makes much difference depends on your hardware, your ears, and the content. The Downward Spiral is considerably crunchier in DVD-A (or SA-CD) for example.

I’ve been buying up a bunch of multi-channel music lately and have only begun to listen to it on the new system. “Love” gives good demo, that’s for sure. And it has a much wider appeal than Trent Reznor screaming about suicide (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

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It’s Comcraptastic! II: The Wrath of Com

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

I had Comcast come out Friday to wire up the new room and check my existing cable connection. It’s a long run from the basement to the front of the third floor, so I wanted them to make sure it was fine.

I also got two cable boxes, an HD one for up there and a regular one to try with my existing gear downstairs. If I were to move my premium channels to digital cable instead of satellite, I’d want to make sure my DVRs can get along with their boxes, so it seemed like a good experiment even though it costs me bucks that using the analog tuner doesn’t.

The HD box was a little flaky over the weekend. A couple of times I didn’t get a picture. Powercycling seemed to get it going, so I wrote it off as an HDMI handshake issue or something. Worked well enough I watched a little here and there. Sat through most of the Super Bowl with T.

But last night was the first important event. I wanted to watch “Lost” in HD. That didn’t seem like much to ask. For years, I’ve watched nearly all my TV from recordings- even when I had to do it with tape. Not being able to record HD yet, I have to schedule anything I want to watch that way. If I’m going to put up with appointment television, it might as well be something worth the appointment.

So I turn on the cable box and there’s no picture. Tried powercycling. Tried recabling. Checked settings. Still no picture. Sound but no picture. I changed to an SD channel and it worked. Then I got the clever idea of trying to use the box’s GUI when on an HD channel. It worked, which meant the only possible problem could be in the box itself. Argh.

I contacted Comcast’s online help. The rep was well-versed in their procedures (might want to mix up the canned platitudes so they aren’t so obvious in repetition), but not very helpful. The lack of line wrapping in the web chat was a problem too. Not to get off on the don’t-make-me-scroll-sideways rant, but don’t make me scroll sideways!

After the usual preliminaries to confirm that I’m not an idiot (understandable- many who contact customer service are), I was told they’d “hit” my box as a diagnostic measure. Neat.

Rep said the signal was low and that was probably the problem. They’d send a tech out between five and seven PM today. No help for “Lost”, but OK.

So I switched to the SD ABC channel and the 4:3 picture was stretched out to 16:9. Ugh. I can’t freaking stand that. It’s especially heinous on a really big screen.

It’s sending out 1080 to my AVR, so it’s not being processed that way by me. It also doesn’t pop to anamorphic on the SD channel on my other set, so it’s not flagged wrong. The box is just doing it because it thinks I’m blind or a moron. Or a blind moron. Or a person who likes that- but I repeat myself.

So I asked the rep about that. I was told to change the mode on the box. Ain’t no mode on the box. Not in any menu I can see.

No, I’m told. You have to use the buttons on the front of the box. That would make sense- if you screwed up the output resolution, you couldn’t use the onscreen menus.

But there are absolutely no buttons on the cable box. Not one. I told the rep as much, and it was clear I lost them completely. They referred me to the online manual, which also mentioned the buttons. No buttons on the machine. “Press the menu button on the box.” Which part of “no buttons” don’t you understand?

I told the rep that they’d apparently switched to new boxes and not updated the documentation. Please forward that upstream. I’ll wait for the tech to come.

So this morning at 9:00am, a tech calls and says he can come over. Sorry, I’m already at the office. Window didn’t start ’til 5pm, figured I wouldn’t wait at home that long. He had it down as all-day availability. I explained the problem and he said he’d see what he could find out externally and call me back.

He calls back about forty minutes later and says my account was flagged to get no HD. He removed the flag and figured it’d work now. Hit him back later if it doesn’t.

So the message from all this is that Comcast may be delivering product just fine (not that I could possibly tell you yet), but they have serious accounting and documentation issues. In just one incident, I discovered that they a) can’t make appointments correctly, b) randomly deny paying customers of service for no reason and apparently without enough accountability for their reps to detect it, and c) field equipment that neither their documentation nor their reps can support.

And I still have my 4:3 channels stretched out. Well, unless the tech’s wrong and he fixes it when he comes over tonight.

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And Which Quality Does “Goodrich” Describe?

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Went to go see the 3-D conversion of The Nightmare Before Christmas yesterday. Goodrich Quality Theaters recently installed a digital system in one of the rooms at the Eastside 9 (nee 10). The only other 3-D title they’ve shown is Fly Me to the Moon, which I saw a few weeks ago. I was just marking time until Bolt comes out, so Nightmare was a pleasant surprise.

However, they managed to ruin my day. The projection was wrong so the eyes were switched. This is often called “pseudostereo”, and causes visual confusion, headaches, and nausea. Doesn’t give a decent 3-D effect either, but because your system is getting weird stimuli, it doesn’t look flat, so many viewers don’t know what’s wrong.

After the trailers were over and the movie still didn’t look right, I spent the next five minutes convincing myself the eyes were really switched and then did what you do when that’s the case- flipped my glasses over. Told T to as well.

Ah, much better. The 3-D conversion is pretty impressive, but, more exciting, they ran the trailer for Coraline, which is made by the same crew, the same way, but actually shot in 3-D. Yow! Could be the best 3-D movie ever. They said it was the first stop-motion shot in 3-D, which isn’t so (that’d be The Adventures of Sam Space- and yes, I’ve seen it), but it’s probably the first feature.

The row behind us was full of guys complaining about the 3-D. I tried to tell them to flip the glasses over, but they didn’t listen. Even after I explained it during the closing credits.

This brings us to several problems. First, “Goodrich” Quality control is obviously “low” or “no”. Modern digital 3-D projection is pretty straightforward. This is about the only thing that can go wrong, really, so they need someone there to make sure it doesn’t happen. They charge a $2 premium per ticket for 3-D. I expect them to deliver.

Second, it gives audience members a bad impression of the process, if not the movie itself. You can bet those guys sitting behind me will tell everyone that the 3-D conversion was worse than worthless. And some people in there might’ve been turned off enough by the physiological effects that they couldn’t enjoy the show at all.

After the movie was over, I went out to find someone to ask/tell about the projection problem. I asked a worker who I should tell about projection problems in the 3-D room, and she said, “Oh, just turn your glasses over!” Yes, I told her, but we shouldn’t have to do that, and the other people in there who don’t know to do that are going to have a miserable time.

She used her radio to summon a woman in a suit who told me they’d recently replaced “the [ polarizer ] glass” because they were getting double images with the old one. They’d had it a few weeks and hadn’t heard any complaints. I told her that didn’t mean much- no one complained from this show but me, and, let’s face it, I’m an expert on this stuff.

Bottom line is that I hope they get their standards up to snuff. I was so happy to finally have a 3-D-capable digital house in town, but so far they’ve not done better than random on getting things right. Next one will be the tie-breaker, and if they blow it, you’ll know it.

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The “Not Ready for Blu-ray” Blues

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

With the recent announcements by movie studios and vendors, more and more people are acting like the Format War is over and we can come out of our shelters. I’d like to, but, no.

Besides my concern that small companies can’t go HD until things settle down (and production facilities become more available), the biggest impediment to me considering Blu-ray Disc at the moment is the dawn of Profile 2.0 (“BD-Live”). A few discs have already been released that require a BD-Live player to access all the features, but the players aren’t really here yet. Should be coming soon, but the prices look pretty steep. I’ve been trying to avoid Early Adopter Tax this time around.

If you look at the field, you won’t see many players that’re Profile 2 (and those aren’t on the street yet), but at least all of those will do DTS-HD MA, which is a must for me. And I’d like that over HDMI, please.

My arm’s twistable when it comes to getting a Playstation 3, which could be a good start until BD players and media get cheaper. But I’m probably fine waiting another cycle too. Though I’d sure love to get the Blade Runner set.

Of course, that might all go out the window once I start using that big screen up there. Nothing screams “upgrade to HD” like making your display eleven times as big.

But it would be hard to get used to paying real money for discs again. My notorious bargain hunting is only possible because DVD is in the demand curve now. Even a year ago it wasn’t so easy to average $4.46 per movie on disc, which was last year’s final tally for features (TV series are harder to reckon- I’ll post that article sometime soon). It’ll be a few years before I can pull that off in HD.

Bottom line for me is that until the content from smaller distributors is there, the price of media is lower, or I can burn my own test discs, I don’t have a good reason to jump until the player features stabilize. When will that be? Inside two years, probably. Depends on whether online movie distribution really works for people.

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Watch “Dexter”, You Slackers!

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

I know I’ve tortured everyone remotely close to me- pretty much from the night it debuted- to check it out, but if you haven’t yet watched the wonder that is “Dexter”, set the mad video machine to record it Sunday from CBS.

And after you enjoy that episode, save yourself some grief and go pick up those DVDs and see it uncut. Best $30 you’ll drop all year, and you won’t have to wait three months to see how it ends.

But you will probably have to wait a while to see the second season. (I’m guessing the DVDs will come out about the time CBS finishes showing season one.) And then (like me!) you’ll have to wait for the third to even be made. The show’s usually on in December on SHO, so I don’t know if the strike will have much effect on its production schedule.

I’ll insert the usual warning that the show’s not for kids- no way, no how- and that CBS is going to have to trim them for time more than content, which is bound to hurt. But if for some reason you haven’t heeded my call yet, give it a try.

It’s already the most popular show SHO’s ever broadcast. World domination is within Dexter’s grasp. Sunday’s the night.

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A Sight for Sore Ears?

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

My speakers showed up today, and, like the rest of this stuff, I can’t try them yet, but I can tell you this: they’re beautiful.

No, really. These are damn fine looking speakers. Reminds me of something Steve Jobs once said: I almost want to lick them. If they sound half as good as they look, this is going to be fandamntastic.

My only concern is that they are 6Ω and I’d specced the system for 8Ω. The wiring is (deliberately) good enough for that, but the Denon really wants 8Ω if you double the surrounds. Should be OK as long as I don’t drive them too hard.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing them on the walls almost as much as firing them up so I can hear them. More reassurance that this will all pay off soon.

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Don’t Open ‘Til Xmas

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Today UPS brought stuff for my end (the electronic one, that is) of the third floor project. Trouble is, I can’t try any of this stuff out yet. It’s like waiting for Christmas morning.

I did fire up the receiver to get its firmware updated. That’s really neat. I added it to my DNS and DHCP server, pointed a web browser at it, and hit the button to update the firmware. It put good status info on the front panel display as it went. Seemed to finish in about the amount of time it said, and it knows it’s up-to-date now.

Of course, I haven’t anywhere to use it yet. Or speakers to hear it.

And speaking of speakers, my subwoofer showed up today. That’s a big box. It was upside down, and there’s a hole in the bottom that was wide enough to put my fingers in. In fact, it was deep enough to get my hand in! I thought the poor thing was toast, but it turns out they didn’t mess around packing it up. Not a scratch on it.

Of course, I haven’t anywhere to use it yet. Or a source to feed it.

I considered hooking the iPod to it. The idea of a tiny player with a 15″ speaker makes me laugh. But I can wait. Time will come soon enough.

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And Speaking of Things That Suck

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Another big boo to anyone publishing a synopsis of the “Dexter” season finale. (Ok, of anything, actually, but especially something like this.) Why? Because anyone who saw it knows what happened and anyone who didn’t probably wants to watch it someday. And that day ain’t today because they don’t get SHO. Most people don’t, you know.

This is the same big giant “Duh” that I had when people squealed about the “Sopranos” finale. No, not everyone was upset about it- at least 60% of people didn’t get to see it. So shut the hell up and at least wait until the DVDs are out.

And, yeah, I’m talkin’ about you TV Guide. You come not to Cheer “Dexter”, but to bury him. Way to give away a whole season in one sentence you douchebags. Don’t read them. Try this:

Cheers to Showtime’s “Dexter” for a fitting ending to another great season. If we haven’t convinced you to subscribe to SHO yet, run, don’t walk, when these DVDs hit the streets.

Jeers to TV Guide for being a bunch of douchebags.

See, you don’t have to be an asshole to say something nice.

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I Got Your Innertube Right Here

Monday, December 17th, 2007

News flash! CBS‘ Innertube continues to suck.

OK, that’s hardly news, but it had to be said. I managed to miss the “Survivor” finale last night, much to my annoyance, and had to wait until today to watch it online. Well, should be, but it still can’t be watched at their site. It plays the Staples ad fine, and then just sits there with no indication of what it’s doing. Other episodes play, but the finale does not.

And even if it could be watched, I have learned from previous experience that it a) does not work well on DSL- which is ridiculous considering the low resolution of the video- and b) if I use Safari, it’ll ask me every couple of minutes if it should kill that Flash job (the video player, that is!) that’s running so slow. That requester can’t be ignored (or playback slows to a crawl), so it has to be clicked on nearly continuously, making fullscreen unusable and the whole thing no fun anyway. (Firefox doesn’t do that, but the playback seems choppier.)

ABC’s and Fox’s players are much better. I hadn’t tried NBC lately, but I just did and it seems to work pretty well.

Luckily, I don’t have to do this sort of thing often, but it’s not- and I choose my cliché deliberately- ready for primetime. It’s bad enough to have to watch TV on a tiny window on my screen. (Even fullscreen on my 30″ screen is not as nice as my TV!) It’s bad enough that not all shows are available. (Still haven’t seen the “Cold Case” season premiere- rerun that mother already!) But having buggy, piggy, hard to use software is the puke icing on the crap cake.

So here’s another big Jeer for CBS’ Innertube. Boo!

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