More movies and a new gadget...

Hello guys!

I keep neglecting this because of time and work constraints but I'll try to make a few updates this month. First of all, being a compulsive ass, I ordered more movies from Columbia House. I'll probably be reviewing a couple of them here. They are (in no particular order):

1) Miller's Crossing
2) Dolls
3) Drunken Monkey
4) War Inc.
5) Get Smart
6) Kung Fu Panda
7) Hellboy II (Blu Ray)

On this past Black Friday I went to Radio Shack to check on some GPS and found a good deal on a Moov Mio 300 for just $139.99 (retails @ $229.00). Already started testing it and soon I will try unlocking it and using other navigators (just to learn and to test it).

Finally I have also bought some PS3 games (from the Playstation Store and retail discs also). So as you can see, I might have some new material for December!! YAY!

Anyway, when I get everything in order, I will start making some posts here ;-)

Thanks.
Talk to all of you soon.

I have a confession to make...

I AM A COMPULSIVE BUYER!!! hehehe

So Columbia House had a Buy 1 Get 1 Sale for their Blu-Ray selection and I was going to jump in last week but something told me:

"Angel, why not wait to see if "someone" finds a free shipping code?"

So I followed my own suggestion and waited until today.
I bought 6 Blu-Ray discs plus 5 DVDs and only spent like $117.00. As you guys should know by now, Blu-Rays are usually at a price of $30.00 so I automatically saved some dough. And if you think that all they have are old movies, think again (my order includes Iron Man in Blu!!!)

So what am I recommending?
Join the Columbia House DVD club and fulfill your membership (it's easy to do!). Then, like most of us, wait for a great offer like this one. They usually do this a couple of times a year!

If you are a Movie Collector like me, then what are you waiting for? I know this sounds like a freaking Advertisement but...

Join the Club!!


Movies I just ordered:


Iron Man
Ultimate Edition
Blu-ray

Transformers
Special Edition
Blu-ray

Sex and the City: The Movie
Extended Cut
Blu-ray

The Forbidden Kingdom
Blu-ray

The Fall
Blu-ray

Redbelt
Blu-ray

Brotherhood of the Wolf
Director's Cut

CB4: The Movie

The Devil's Backbone
Special Edition

Animal Factory

New Jack City
Special Edition


A good collection of new and old movies.

Hurray for me!!!
Booo for my Credit Card bill... (shucks!!)

Bye

Archos 605 Official Home-made Review

So, I have been promising a review of the Archos 605 WiFi 30GB for a couple of weeks now and here it is officially. First a little bit of info on the unit, then we will get onto the functionality.

The Archos 605 Wifi 30GB is a PMP (Portable Media Player) and plays most of the digital content available out there (i.e. movies, TV shows, photos, music, etc.) We can call this unit the main competitor to the iPod Touch series since this unit sports:

- Touch Screen
- Internet access via a Wireless Access Point
- Content Portal (to download movies, TV shows, etc.)

What sets the unit apart from the iPod Touch is that with the optional DVR station (which I also bought), as the name implies, you can use the unit to record TV shows (or anything actually via the input be it a VHS, camcorder, etc.). Other differences, the unit support more music formats and of course, there's the very pretty 4.3'' screen (800 x 480). Movies look very great and so do pictures (still you can notice that the black levels are not deep enough). Finally the last difference is the capacity and of course PRICE! For $270.00 I got the 30GB PMP unit, and the DVR Station (a similar iPod Touch with the same capacity is like $400 but at least it's not a hard disk drive ;-))

Ok, so let's get to the meat of it.



Video Support: The unit comes with a couple of video demos so that you can experience out of the box the capabilities of this little thing and I have to say that the videos looked quite good. But of course, I had to test some of the videos I had here on my PC. I quickly uploaded a couple of videos:

1) Dexter Season 3 episode 1 -- DivX format 480 x 360
2) Boxing vid: Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Joel Casamayor -- XVid 512 x 384
3) Pablo Francisco Stand-up (Mpeg2 + mp3 audio)
4) extra miscellaneous videos I had lying around.

The First 2 videos played flawlessly. They looked good, they sounded good, just like they played on my PC or through my Playstation 3 (I got my PC set-up as a Media Server -- more on that later!) Now for the other 2 or 3 videos.... a pop-up appeared:

"In order to view the contents, you need to acquire a plug-in"

OOoookkkk... I get it. We get the unit, it plays a couple of formats but in order to access all formats you need to pony up more $$$$ I don't have a problem with this business model, I mean, if you don't want to pay up, just convert all of your movies to Divx or a supported format and that's it! Once I got the plug ins everything was gooood.

Once you are watching a movie, you have access to a couple of settings such as Brightness, Contrast, etc. You can zoom in a video, select from full frame, original aspect-ratio,etc.

Audio Support: Just like any other media player, the unit supports MP3 audio and also supports WAV, WMA and protected WMA. I copied some of my files in different formats and bit-rates and they played without problems! There are a couple of audio settings out there and even an equalizer. You can customize the sound or use an already created preset.



Web Browser: So, again, the unit comes with the capability to do something BUT, you have to pay for it! For a couple of bucks you get access to the Opera Browser for the unit and to tell you the truth, it actually works quite well. It's not the fastest in the world but it works! The unit found my internet access point, I configured it (sine I have WEP activated) and connected within minutes. Accessed the usual sites (google, facebook, techimo, ps3fanboy, youtube) and everything worked great and displayed correctly. Videos from youtube pop-up in the video player if you like or you could just play it from the browser. You can also access the Content Portal where you have the ability to access more "movie" sites. I'm still not sure regarding the purchase of video content since I have not tried it but, hey, if it works and you are into it, the option is there to spend more dough! :-p

I was surprised that the unit recognized my Media Server (using TVersity) without any configuration on my part! I could access all of my "shared" files through my WiFi connection which is great since I can just now listen to music and watch videos at home in my room without being near the PC. So this was a nice surprise!

Finally the real winner here and one of the main reasons I bought this... the DVR STATION!



With this little device you can record your favorite TV shows, movies, series directly on the ARCHOS 605 unit. You can even download a TV Guide and program it to record at certain hours or per show! It works with most video sources such as satellite/cable box, VCR, DVD player and records in MPEG-4 format. Most important of all, it WORKS! ;-) Also, you don't have to program the TV Guide or download anything if you don't want to as there is a "manual" record tab so anything you connect through the inputs, it will work.



The unit comes with the Station, 2 audio cables, 2 S-Video cables and a remote control.



I used the composite connection (not the S-Video one) with the supplied audio cables! Also, the DVR Station charges the Archos way faster than the proprietary USB cable provided (the cable is like 8 hours while the Station charges it in 3!)

Below you can access a video I made from the DVR Station (a bit of an I Love Money episode). I put it up in rapidshare (it's 17MB). You can download it and judge the quality yourselves! ;-)

I Love Money clip with DVR Station

All in all I think this was a good investment.

To summarize, let's go out with Pros and Cons.


Pros:

1) PMP that plays audio (MP3, WMA, WAV and more if you buy plug-ins), video (MPEG-4 including Divx and Xvid, WMV and MPEG-2, VOB, etc. if you buy a plug-in)
2) Beautiful 4.3 '' touch-screen
3) Ability to record shows or anything via the DVR Station
4) Good sound and video playback quality
5) WiFi capabilities means you can access your media server and access the web also with the optional plug-in
6) Has a little kick-stand so you can set it up in a table
7) Price! (considering is a 30giger)

Cons:

1) In order to play other formats you have to buy optional plug-ins
2) Volume levels are not that great
3) Touch-screen is not as responsive as the iPod Touch
4) Web Browsing is not lightning fast ;-)
5) No slot to store the stylus (forcing you to use your fingers on the screen)
6) Can't listen to OGG, FLAC or WMA Lossless files
7) Proprietary USB cable!

Well, that's all I can think of right now! :-p

Hope you find this useful... BUT!!!!! Archos already has new players out there... well, they are calling them "Internet Media Tablets" but well, it's actually the next generation of their players so you might want to check into those. They are actually more expensive but they seem to kick ass too so... you have been warned! ;-)


See ya!

Archos 605 First Impressions...

Wow oh Wow.

It might not be as "flashy" as an iPod Touch.
It might not be as complete (in terms of formats supported) as the Creative Zen
but the Archos 605 WiFi sure knows how to kick ass!

I will say this, I'm impressed by this little unit and what it can do!
Will continue my testing over the weekend and then post a mini review.

Laterssss

Archos 605 Review

COMING SOON

Item already left Canada and should hit home this week.
I can't wait for it to get here already.
I also got the DVR Station so I'll be testing that also!

Come oooonnn..
Get hereeeee

NOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Talk to you later guys.

PC Games

Hi guys.

I was out of the loop regarding PC games for a while (since College I guess). I mean, I was kind of a computer freak back then but when I started working I became more of a movie freak. Since I bought the GeForce card like a month ago, I gave a shot to some PC games just to see how they ran. So I stood away from my PS3, Wii and DS and gave the PC a chance... and I'm glad I did.

Yesterday I spent like 6 hours or more playing GRID.
Great graphics, good progression, great options and better yet you can choose your difficulty by races or events! The game is running really smooth on the 'puter thanks to the new addition.

Also got Bioshock.
I know it's coming to the PS3 but so what!
These FPS are better played with a keyboard and mouse anyway! hehehehe
I was really surprised at the level of detail of the game. Great graphics and better yet, great atmosphere. (those little girls scare the hell out of me!)

I have tried a couple of other demos and they run flawlessly on my computer. So the total tally for my PC was:

$260

And I can play all of these games... I'm wondering if I should buy another company owned workstation! WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Well, this was just a little update.

Talk to you soon!

Mini Review: ZOTAC 8800GTS 512 card

Hello everyone!

So, since I bought a workstation from work and it's powerful enough to hold one of those nifty new cards, I decided to check out what the fuzz is all about with gaming cards. Now I have to say, I haven't been following the "PC gaming scene" in quite a while (probably since I finished my BS) so I was quite hesitant to buy one for: THE BEAST



So I started doing my usual reviews before I buy and had a lot of questions!

1) Will it work on my system?
2) Do PCIe 2.0 cards work (or are backward compatible) with PCIe1.0?
3) How much power do I need?
4) Do I need 6pin converters to power the video card?
etc. etc.

For:

1) Yes, it will work on my system.
2) Yep, they are all backward compatible
3) A LOT! hehehe Luckily my PSU is rated at 650w
4) If the motherboard doesn't have extra PCIe power connectors, YES you need converters!

After finding all of the answers, I then started looking at cards... and people, THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM OUT THERE!!!



I was between the following:

1) NVidia 9800GTX
2) ATi 4850
3) NVidia 8800GTS

and a couple more BUT another thing was $$$$... the budget!
I decided to spend only $200 and lucky for me that bought me about any of the cards I was looking for but there was a special I couldn't resist! After looking at benchmarks from other sites, I noticed that the 8800 GTS 512 (based on G92) performance wasn't that bad and it was cheaper! And on the 4th of July, I got a great deal on one!!! It was listed at $159.99 with a $40 rebate bringing it to just $119.99. So I was getting the performance of an almost $200 card for almost half the price. Good deal if you ask me. So I went ahead and ordered it!



Got a call today from FedEx, went to pick up the package. I have to give 2 thumbs up to the retailer where I bought this. Prompt delivery, great prices, what more can you ask for? Anyway, opened the box and verified that everything was in order and started stripping out my PC. Now, THE BEAST is a big case and it weighs a ton. I carefully removed the card that was installed (Nvidia Quadro FX 1400). This is a workstation card so gaming performance was really not up to stuff.




For example: (all of these were run with default settings)

3DMark 06 --> 1496
Aquamark --> 50981
3DMark 05 --> 3134
Test Drive Unlimited --> Avg: 17fps (according to FRAPS)
Bioshock --> Could not run! :-p hehehehehe

So Here was I hoping that the new card would blow this thing out of the water...
After removing the old card, I started to install the new card and noticed the extra power slot on it. Luckily my case had a PCIe 6-pin power slot available but the card comes with a converter just in case you don't!



After installing the card and drivers... it definitely shows the improvement!
These were the results after the upgrade:

Forceware 6.14.11.6906

FurMark --> 2848 (min: 41, max: 63, avg: 47)
Aquamark --> 80338
3dmark05 --> 7608
3dmark06 --> 6172
Test Drive Unlimited --> Avg: 88.9 (1024x768)
Bioshock --> Avg: 53.7 (1152x864)

Am I happy?
Yeah I am.
Is this the best the card can do?
OF COURSE NOT!! I'm running this card on a 4 year old system/platform! I'm getting more than I imagined! Still, I believe it was a good buy and who knows, maybe I'll buy a couple of PC games (now that Starcraft and Diablo games have been announced!!! hehehehehe)

Hope you enjoyed this mini review.
Now I'm going to sleep (it's 2:00am here :-p).

Bye.

NVidia 8800 GTS review and benchmarks...

Coming soon! (next week)

DVD Profiler by Invelos Software

Hello guys.

After trying a couple of options to organize my DVD/Blu-Ray collection, I just found what I believe is the best software out there for this!

Invelos Software DVD Profiler: Invelos



Notice that as all similar programs, you need an internet connection in order to download the newest databases. Now once these databases are downloaded adding DVDs is simple. You have a couple of options to enter DVDs:

1) By UPC Code

2) By Searching for the name in the DB

3) If you have a DVD-ROM drive, by inserting the DVD in the drive and letting the software recognize it automatically.

I started yesterday getting my movies into the software (I'm at 204 but I still have half a closet to enter into my collection! ;-)) and it's a snap. I can honestly say that this is better than the Movie Collector Software (by Collectorz) that I was using.

You can also:

- Keep track of loaned DVDs (as in Movie Collector)
- Upload and share your collection online (peruse mine HERE)
- Export your database
- Print reports
- And even customize the way these reports come out (or you can download some templates from the site made by users).

These are only some of the features that this program has!
If you have more than 30 DVDs, I urge you to get this software.
It's easy to use and it makes your life easier.

Hope you enjoyed this mini review.
Once I get more experience with it, I'll probably post another update.


Check.

Party Games

Yeah Yeah Yeah I know. I haven't posted anything in quite a while. It's just that I haven't had the time to do so.

I'm waiting for a couple of pics to use in this post so, wait a while ;-)

I'll just have to say that:

Smash Bros Brawl + Mario Kart Wii + Rock Band + Dance Dance Revolution + alcohol = FUN!


Talk to you guys later.

HD vs SD image comparisons...

Here are a couple of links to comparison images.
You'll see the differences in color, detail, richness, crispiness, etc. that HD brings to the table:

Link 1

Link 2

Enjoy!

30 Days of Night Review...

Sorry guys that I hadn't time to update this page.
I've been doing so much stuff... anyway, saw 30 Days of Night on Blu-Ray a couple of weeks ago and I have to give it at least 1 Thumb up! ;-)

30 Days of Night

Ok, so it goes like this.

PLOT: The movie takes place at a town in Alaska where people are packing up and getting ready to leave... why? Because the sun will come down and wont come back up again in 30 days (a really reeeeaaaallly good premise for a horror movie). Some people can't handle living in obscurity/darkness so they catch a ride to wherever and return a month later. The thing is that while people are saying goodbye to their lovers, daughters, husbands, etc. weird things are going on. First all of the cellphones are burnt, sled dogs are killed and you ask yourself, what the hell is going on? The answer, vampires.

So after darkness arrives things really start going on and vampires take over the town. Except for a select few of course, everybody becomes meat popsicles. These brave souls have to endure being 30 days of total darkness surrounded by vampires.
I wont go into subplots or details (watch it if you like a good take on vampires even though they don't really get into the story of these vamps in particular).

The acting is quite solid.



Josh Hartnett, I like him, he does a good job as the local Sheriff and all of the supporting cast does a great job driving their characters (even though they don't get properly developed). I have to say though that for the "bad guys" the make up is not quite up there. To me, the even look funny.

The movie was directed by David Slade. Mehhh... he could have done better I believe (he did not used the material to build proper tension! :-(). And I believe that a major flaw was that we didn't know anything about the setting (i.e. how big is the town, how far is the jail, etc.) This movie involves a lot of running around and since you don't even know if they are going far, you don't really get that involved in the action. Finally, the passage of time... the director didn't even bother to tell us how many days had passed, etc... So no tension = no horror.

Video: This is Blu-ray. This is also a dark movie. The transfer is 2:40 and although most is monochromatic, where there are colors involved (especially red! hehehe) they shine! The transfer is extremely good, the images are so freaking crisp (I didn't notice any halos, a lot of graininess, etc.). And yes, there is film grain but really minimal. So basically I would say that this is a good movie to show off your home theater! ;-)





Audio: There are a couple of tracks included on this release. We have a 24-bit TrueHD 5.1 English track that sounds really good. It delivers a lot of bass and although I'm not testing with a 5.1 system I'm sure that whoever has a good system will appreciate this track. Also on the disc it's a
French TrueHD 5.1 track and Dolby Digital 5.1 in Spanish, Portuguese and Thai.

Extras: Not too hefty compliments but the material included is golden. We have:

30 Images of Night --> Shot comparison (images from film vs illustrations)
Audio Commentary --> With producer Rob Tapert actors, Melissa George and Josh Hartnett.
Eight Featurettes --> Totalling around an hour and delving into production aspects, casting, etc.
A couple of trailers.

All in all, good movie to show your stuff and an enjoyable movie to boot. Still, just 1 Thumb up (or 3 Stars ;-)) as I believe this could have been better.

Update on the Panasonic SC-PTX7

Well, after testing the hell out of the unit, I haven't experienced freezes or lock-ups as other people seem to have suffer. But I noticed that some games, trailers and movies played through the optical (i.e. coming from the PS3) were not giving me any sound output. So what did I do?

Removed the optical from the PS3.
Configured the PS3 to output the sound through HDMI to the TV.
Connected the Optical Out from the TV to the Panny unit.

That's it.
Worked like a charm and it still sounds great.
Just watched Shoot Em Up on Blu-Ray yesterday.
Will post a review this week or over the weekend probably (alongside 30 Days of Night review! ;-)).

See ya.

2.1 / 3.1 Home Theater System -- At last I chose...

Hello again everyone.

I have been fighting with myself trying to decide whether I should buy a 5.1 Surround Sound System with "wireless" rear speakers or a more compact 2.1 or 3.1 system for quite a few months. I had looked into a couple of them but really didn't got into any of them probably because I didn't know what "next-gen" disc format I was going to settle with. Well, now that I have a PS3 and Blu-Ray, I decided to once again visit this question.

Now, why wouldn't I buy a 5.1 system?

1) My Living Room is small.
2) I don't want cables everywhere on the room.
3) Speaker placement.

Why wouldn't I buy a 2.1 system?
1) No Real Surround options out there
2) Underpowered systems
3) Lacking input/output options

So I basically weighted all the pros and cons and still decided with a compact system. These were the options (click the names to go to product web page):

1. Sony DAV-X10:

An elegant 2.1 BRAVIA system that supports Dolby EX, Pro Logic, Pro Logic II, DTS, and most important of all it has inputs to support my other systems (i.e. DISH box, or PS3, etc.) You can check the specs on the page posted, and as you can see, it is a good option. In fact, this was the one that was winning the ballots ;-) BUT there wasn't any in P.R. and I had to order it.

Also, the price (in Amazon.com) was in the range of $650.00 and that doesn't include extended warranties NOR shipping.

So next stop was:

2. Phillips Soundbar HTS8100

This one just screams... STYLE.
It looks good, and Phillips is known for their good "Ambisound" algorithm which simulates Surround Sound quite well... BUT it got eliminated quite quickly because it lacks Optical inputs and it was expensive as well (SEARS has it at $800.00!)

Next in line:

3. Samsung HT-X200

This option was up there with the Sony model in terms of input/outputs, sound quality and best of all, this one was quite cheaper than the Sony one. So of course it caught my attention. Went to SEARS and they had an old model on Clearance BUT they just had the floor model. I could had order it online but still I would have paid more than $400 with no extended plan :-(

So, I was again back to square one. Undecided, no system at home until ... I went to a local SAM's Club and saw:



4. (WINNER)Panasonic SC-PTX7

I had already read about this online and thought: "Maaaan... I don't want a "MP3 Jukebox" on my home!" But after listening to it and looking at the back of the receiver I noticed that it included everything I wanted. And best of all, the price with a 2 year extended warranty was just $350 (including taxes). The difference of this one, this is actually a 3.1 system (the front speakers also integrate the center module). And it does well with movies too, not just as a music jukebox, so I went with it.



I bought it without hesitation and took it home... then I forgot I didn't have an optical cable to connect my Playstation 3, so I went to my local Walmart, took a Phillips Cable, and went back home again. Opened the box, everything was in order (sorry I didn't took more pictures when I was opening the box) and started organizing everything in my Living Room.



I already had speaker stands that I used with my old cheapie HTIB that died so I set the new Pannies alongside the TV. Connected the PS3 to the Box and started to Rock out. First I put up a normal music CD on the drive. It sounded awesome right out of the box. I didn't even have to fiddle with the Bass settings, as it sounded A-OK. It does gives you options to equalize, add Bass Boost, even a pseudo surround sound effect but I didn't activate any of this.

Next, I tried ripping music from the CD in order to store some in the Jukebox. Ripping times are not quite as fast as in a PC but it was ok. Played the songs after ripping and they sounded good.

After this, I tried inserting a DVD full of MP3s and WMA files. The unit did found all of the MP3s I had and I could play them without problem. Still, I have to figure out how to "copy" from the DVD to the unit's HDD. But I guess I'll do this at a later time.





Finally, I turned on my PS3, put the Panny unit to "DIN" (Digital IN) and... nothing.
Not a sound!
WTF?!?!?!

Oooppsss I had forgotten to set the PS3 to output through the Digital port. Once I did this, aaaahhhh pure Bliss ;-).
Games sounded quite good.
Now I'm going to be hooked playing more Call of Duty 4 with more ooomph thanks to the richness of the Bass output from the subwoofer and the good sounding front/center speakers.

After testing COD and Ratchet and Clank, I put on the Black Sheep DVD (you can look at the review below) and enjoyed the movie with a 3.1 Sound Experience.



In conclusion, if you are looking for a cheap 2.1/3.1 system I definitely recommend this Panny unit or the Samsung HT-X200.


P.S. DO NOT look into the BOSE 3.2.1 or Cinemate systems. They are completely outdated (No optical input nor outputs, no HDMI, no upconverting to 1080p, etc.) They probably sound good but for the price, they are not really worth it (unless you are a rich guy that wipes his arse with $100 bills! ;-)).

Hope you enjoyed this.
Bye.

Black Sheep Review

Since the preview copy of 30 Days of Night is not working :-( (thanks anyway Ben, hopefully you'll send me another pre-release copy of another movie in the future! But I'll buy this one in a couple of weeks. :-p) I took the time to review a little movie from New Zealand called:

Black Sheep

They say that every time people go to New Zealand for vacation they take pictures of sheep and the hometown people just say: "don't worry about taking pictures now, you'll see a lot more of them!" hehehe Well, it seems that in fact there are A LOT of sheep in NZ and good for us on this movie, they are BBBBBBBAAAAAAADDDDDDDD... lol sorry, I couldn't resist! :-p

"Plot:" A family (The Oldfields) have a farm land that have been theirs for generations. The dad dies in a farming accident leaving his two sons "in charge." The younger one, Henry, moves away with a stress induced phobia of sheep (due to a prank his older brother played AND because of his father's death) leaving older, brother Angus in charge of the farm. The bad thing... Angus doesn't like the traditional concepts of farming and starts doing genetic experiments on the sheep... that's when things start going wrong... An animal activist steals a zombie lamb fetus and drops it by accident. As in every "zombie" movie, the thing just starts to spread...




As you can see, the plot is just as simple as it can be as it just wants to be the vehicle to get where it wants to get and that is... SHOW US A LOT OF GORE! ;-) This movie is made in the tradition of Peter Jackson movies like Bad Taste and one of my faves, Dead Alive. It successfully mixes Comedy and Horror with a lot of gore. So even if you don't care about the plot, you'll be in for a treat. The WETA Worshop did a good shop with the practical effects and in fact, I think I will not look at sheep the same way! hahaha

The cool thing about this B-movie, it mixes the zombie culture WITH the werewolves culture. So ... you should know what happens if you get bitten!

And I know this is a "schlocky", B-Movie but bottom line... is it enjoyable?
If you like movies like Dead Alive, Slither, Return of the Living Dead, etc. then the answer is a resounding YES! You'll have fun and you'll be amazed at what the WETA guys did without CGI! ;-)

Video: As far as the DVD goes, the transfer was done quite well in it's natural Widescreen format. No obvious inconsistencies were noted.

Audio: They only gave us 2 audio tracks. The main one is a 5.1 Dolby Soundtrack and the commentary track. As I don't have a full 5.1 system at home I wont comment much on the sound. I have to say though that on my 3.1 system the reproduction was quite alright and I could listen to the separation of the action from left and right.

Extras: A couple of Deleted Scenes (with optional commentary), a "Making of" feature (like half an hour worth of entertaining material), an extra "clip" especially for the DVD release, a 2 minute Blooper Reel that it's NOT really entertaining and the Theatrical Trailer.



All in all, I give the movie and DVD package a solid 3.5 Stars out of 5.

Recommended to B-movie and horror fans.

A Bunch of movies...

Yeah, I haven't been posted a lot lately here because of that "damned" PS3 and that "stupid-ass" game called Call of Duty 4 :rolleyes:

Damn..

Anyway, got a bunch of movies that I have yet to finish looking at.
I mean I have seen all of them, but not these transfers and not upscaled.
Still have to go through seasons 1 and 2 of Wings, and a couple of flicks.

Coming soon, my first Blu-ray review for 30 Days of Night

Talk to you later guys.

This explains quite well...

What a Software Designer must do.
That's my current title at the company I'm at now...

O M G


hehehehe
The only difference, I DON'T CODE!!! :-(
Don't even ask me how to initialize a parameter in C.
Does that even exists anymore?!? :-p

On The Job

Addicted to CoD4...

Yes everyone.
I'm an addict.

Wow... I never thought I'd be addicted once again to a First Person Shooter. WTF!?!?! Yes, I have been playing a lot of Call of Duty 4 on my PS3. That doesn't mean that I'm good, lol, but I'm having a lot of fun. I haven't even played the single player campaign yet! hehehehe

That's it,
just wanted to let you know.


P.S. Saw my first Blu Ray movie and I have to say I'm impressed. But it was an "animated" movie (A Scanner Darkly) so I have yet to test it with a "live-action" one. I'll keep you posted.... if I have time... must play... now. ;-)

Rambo, Cloverfield, movies...

One of my co-workers asked me on Friday: "Are you going to see Rambo?"
I just laughed...
I mean, RAMBO?!?!! Sly Stallone Rambo?!?!?! hehehehe
What's up with this guy? First Rocky Balboa, now Rambo! What's next?

Cliffhanger 2?
Lock Up 2?
Cobra 2?
Over the Top 2?

hehehehe The only one I would see is Tango and Cash 2 if Kurt Russell signs up! ;)

So, after all of these came up to my mind (right after the guy asked the question) I answered: "HELL NO!" I'm not going to see it, I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT but you know what... I kind of do. lol Probably just to see buckets of blood if there are any... other than that... it should be a pretty forgettable movie.

Regarding Cloverfield, I thought I had talked about this before (probably on Gelocks Corner) and I really hate the handheld camera work! It makes me want to throw up... as in the last 2 Bourne movies! Hate that Paul Greengrass... I guess the use of hand-held is effective sometimes but throughout the whole movie?!?! Damn... Still I liked the Bourne movies so I will probably like Cloverfield.

Finally ... still don't know which movie will be my first Blu ray disc. Was thinking of something like 28 days later which has a lot of darkness but also should show some good details once they are outside... or maybe Sunshine! Die Hard 4 is a no-go since I already have the 2 disc collectors edition... still don't know. I'll decide later...

Anyway... bye

Indexed Blog...

If you want to laugh for a bit, then visit:

INDEXED

Love all of the posts and I think there's even a book coming! ;)

What's up with Super Smash Bros.?!? More gaming...

Yeah!
It seems everyone is going ga-ga over this game.
Everyone is talking about it, everyone is pre-ordering it but I am just not so attracted to it. I mean, I enjoyed a lot the GameCube iteration... and that was some years ago... but still I enjoyed more Soul Calibur II on the little purple box!

Still, I can see why people are obsessing over it. Here is my list:

1) The 40+ characters you might be able to fight with
2) The interactive stages and different strategic points on each of these stages.
3) Online gameplay!
4) It's the only fighting game in the Wii that might be worth our time...

I'm leaning more on number 3 and 4 as the reason why everyone is going crazy for this. Still, I want to play it BUT don't think I'll buy it once it comes out... I'll give it a couple of weeks or months IF at all...


And speaking of games... I'm thinking of giving my Guitar Hero III on the Wii for Trade-in and buying the PS3 version... WHY?!? DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT!!!. Yep. I can soooooo imagine myself rocking out to Journey, Boston, Rush and Foreigner!! hehehehe

Finally, I know I haven't finished Motorstorm yet but... I WANT BURNOUT!!!!!!!

Ok... talk to youse later! ;-)

Couldn't Resist... and bought a PS3.

Yeah.
This weekend I went to pay for my furniture and my Plasma TV since I had till February to pay without finance charges and since I spent a whole lot of $$$ I said: "What the heck, I should keep this spending binge going!" hehehehe

I went home, took a look at my Playstation 2, at the games, at some Nintendo DS games and decided to trade in a couple of games and along the PS2. Left home with a PS2, Fight Night Round 3 for the PS2, New Super Mario Bros., Meteos and Mario Kart for my DS. Went to Gamestop, gave everything and asked for an 80GB PS3 and Call of Duty 4. They gave me $102 for the things I brought so I paid like $485 for the new PS3 and COD4. I think it's a pretty decent deal.

Here are some pics:





And here's a video (no audio) of a Motorstorm video:



(For more info on the game: Metacritic Link and Sony's Motorstorm Page)

** In Sony's page you can watch gameplay videos with audio. **


I have to say... I'm HOOKED!
After seeing the PS3 in action at home I don't even want to power up my Wii (I did play a little bit of GH3 on it today though ;-)). Motorstorm looks great, Call of Duty 4 looks even better! I have played some games on XBOX 360 and I STILL BELIEVE that the 360 has the better games BUT I'm a movie buff. I'll probably watch more movies than play on my PS3 and since it upscales normal DVDs and plays Blu-ray, what the heck.

Anyway, I'll try and enjoy these things while I'm young.

Talk to you later guys!

My Song: Wishing

Seems to be getting a lot of internet "airplay" as it was up to #6 in the soundclick charts:

Wishing

lol

That's the power of Harmony Central's Songwriting Forum! hehehe
I'm always asking on ways to improve my "songs" since this is really a good hobby that I would like to keep pursuing all of my life. All of the suggestions I receive I take them to heart and try to practice, practice and practice.

Anyway, nothing to see here!

Bye.

The Great Debate: PS3 or X-Box 360?

It's been firing up in my mind for this last year.
Should I buy an X-Box 360 or should I get a Playstation 3.
I've been an EGM subscriber since 1993 and trust their views and opinions. Historically (these past years) the 360 has had an edge gaming-wise in the magazine. Games ARE JUST BETTER on the 360 as in they look better, they run faster, they load faster and the XBox Live just plainly kicks ass.

BUT the Playstation has something the the 360 lacks...

BLURAY!

Yep, I'm a movie buff and a gamer but I have to admit that I definitely watch more movies than play games (at least lately!). So I'm more inclined on buying a PS3. Now, this post is not to preach or tell you which is the best but my summary is:

If YOU like GAMES, get the X-Box 360.
You'll have a lot of variety and great games like BioShock, Gears of War, Halo, Project Gotham Racing, Crackdown, Virtua Fighter 5 (with online support), Call of Duty 4 (also available in PS3 but it looks better, plays better and fully use the XBOX live interface), Ace Combat 6, etc. etc.

But if YOU like MOVIES, get the PS3.
Just think of having a Blu-Ray player that also plays Divx movies (with the latest firmware update), and it's a good game machine with games like Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, and upcoming ones like Metal Gear Solid 4, FF XIII, etc. it sure does looks good.

But for a really good comparison page, check out:

PS3 vs XBOX 360

And DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!!!


See you later...

I'll tell you tomorrow if I bought either one of those (if I can find them! :-p)

WTF?!?!?!

Hehehehe I almost crapped my pants after seeing this:

Cute Rifle

LOL.

Just thought I'd share...

And this is why I love American Musical....

Yesterday I made an order of Monitor Stands for my newly acquired Tapco Monitors and the guys over at AMS shipped them today!

These are the monitors:

S5 Active Monitors

These are the stands:

Monitor Stands

And what's even better, it was cheaper because they gave me an extra discount via e-mail for my recent purchase and my review of the site (which you can see on the main site still):

American Musical

I'm the ass that wrote: "I love ordering from AMS. And what's really special about them and sets them apart from the competition is the extra 1 year warranty they apply for a lot of the products they carry. Couple that with great low prices and good service and you get the best music online store there is!"

lol...

But it's the truth.
I've only ordered from Musicians Friend or ZMusic like 1 time each and I keep going back to AMS and probably always will. (lambon mode off... I promise!)


Anyway, hopefully I'll get my stands soon and my PC monitor will stop suffering the consequences caused by my Audio monitors!! ;-)


Bye.

Movie Collection...

Hello again guys.

Just wanted to give you a heads up about a piece of software called Movie Collectorz (you can take a look at: Collectorz) and started testing it to see how it would perform.

I have to say that it does a really good job organizing the entries you submit and it's a really fast program. You can search manually, automatically and even has a Bar Code option. I imported a text list of the movies I had and it searched on the web through various websites for movie information. It ended up being successful on most of my selections.

I exported web pages here: (note that this was a Trial Version so you'll see messages saying that, but it's an useful output)


Gelocks DVD Collection


Finally you can even organize loaned movies like in a Video Store (a real treat since I always loan DVDs to my friends).

Anyway, there are a couple of options out there but this one looks like it could be a really good buy.


See ya.

And speaking of next-gen HD...

It seems that the Toshiba camp DOES NOT WANT TO LET GO! ;-)
And this is Why I took my stance on waiting who is victorious:

HD DVD Fires Back and Slashes Hardware Prices

I believe you'll see more opinions from the news that stems from sites like Engadget (my favorite by far) and Gizmodo on this blog. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'll go back to watching Law and Order: SVU Season 2.

BTW, I just ordered:

The Frighteners Director's Cut
Widescreen

Wings: The Complete First & Second Seasons
Full Screen

Unforgiven 10th Anniversary Edition
Widescreen

Death Proof Extended and Unrated Special Edition
Widescreen

Live Free or Die Hard Collector's Edition (Unrated)
Widescreen

From my favorite place Columbia House.
They had this Fun Cash special that I couldn't pass up and I also saved like $70 so it's all good. Go on and open your account. They are also carrying HD DVD and BluRay movies ;-)


Bye.

Welcome Geeks!!!

Hello everyone.

I figured I needed to create another page to discuss the latest gadgets, music CDs, DVDs, or anything other than my personal life (I'll leave that on the other blog). So Sit back, relax and let the geeky-goodness begin.

I'll be starting by discussing the current Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD piece news we got almost two weeks ago regarding Warner Bros. jumping ship to the blue camp. Big news indeed. I still have not bought into the next gen movie players yet but this might change my mind. Right now Blu-ray has support from the following studios:

Walt Disney
20th Century Fox
MGM
Lionsgate
Sony
Warner Bros
New Line Cinema

while HD DVD stays with the following supporters:

Paramount Pictures
Universal Pictures
Dreamworks Animation

One of the reasons Warner supposedly jumped camps was because of International sales of the BluRay format. There was/is a rumor that 500 million $$$ made them jump ship but I guess we'll never know.

Since I don't have either of those formats, I was thinking of buying a PS3 and get the best of both, gaming and movie worlds. It sounds good BUT I wont give in yet. I'm going to wait for the dust to settle and then make my move. Also I don't think (as a gamer) that I'll be able to spend a lot of time playing since I still have Wii and DS games I haven't finished yet! ;-)


Anyway, I guess this was a good way to start.


Any comments or suggestions, hit me up G!!


Bye