Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Upgrade

So back in February I mentioned that we had to get a new TV, a 32" Sony 720p HDTV (DW). As noted then, installing the TV was pretty easy.

One oddity was having hooked it up to our old DVD player, where it had only one option for viewing which spread the image full width. But the aspect ratio wasn't quite right. Close, but not perfect. Despite how good the only analog channels looked on the TV, the DVD experience was not as good. Nothing wrong with the player, only the software in how it was rendered on the new TV.

The first time I saw a movie on Blu-Ray was in one of the ballrooms at WindyCon a couple of years ago. They had a player that could do both Blu-Ray and that other system which hadn't yet lost out, and projected with one of the newfangled Texas Instruments movie mirror chips on a big screen. I think that's when I saw Eragon. The image quality was impressive.

Fast forward to 2012 and I looked up Blu-Ray DVD players on Amazon -- again going with Sony, because Bravia Sync will interlink the HDTV and Blu-Ray. Found a unit, but didn't order it. Then Mrs. Dr. Phil was playing with Hulu Plus on her Kindle Fire and I pointed out that there were models of Blu-Ray players with WiFi. Could have gotten a USB WiFi unit for $40 plus the Blu-Ray player, or pay only $20 more and get the model with WiFi built-in.

With some summer birthday money, we finally decided to order the unit and it came the other day, with an HDMI cable coming a few days later. Tonight we decided to hook the thing up. As expected, the Sonys talked to each other right away -- turn on one and the other one comes on as needed.

Trying to input the WiFi password using the remote is a pain. But... the unit has a USB port and it does connect to a standard 101-key keyboard. I've got things jiggered up in a typical Dr. Phil way, so the easy connect method didn't connect. But doing it the manual option got us connected. The unit has a web browser. As you can imagine, it's pretty limited. But it works. The photos from yesterday's blog entry look pretty good. (grin)

Put a DVD in and it looked good. Next test will involve streaming something from the Internet and seeing if the DSL can hold up. Will have to buy an actual Blu-Ray disk to check out that function. I hear that Hunger Games is coming out this weekend and I have a B&N gift card for just about that much, so...

Technology Creep

We're too cheap to be early adopters of new television technology and have been. We didn't get our first color TV until 1985 or '86, when the cable expanded in Laurium and they announced we were going to get WGN-Chicago. And that's when we bought our first VCR, to timeshift Cubs day games all summer long. Put off CD and DVD players for a long time. In fact our DVD player itself works fine, it's only because we have an HDTV that I was at all interested in getting a Blu-Ray player -- and we're not going to duplicate all our old movies. VCR works, too.

It's funny, because a SF writer I know recently dumped his VCR and all his VHS tapes -- and a Pioneer Laser Disc player and laser discs. Ah laser discs. I actually own a couple, because Physics educators were using laser disc players a lot and there were a couple of movies I wanted to show clips in class.

There's a part of me worried about the changeover in technology and the ability to eventually find players for many types of media. And I suppose eventually we'll run into the problem of too many things connecting to the WiFi all at once. Then there'll be another upgrade.(grin)

Dr. Phil

What To Do, What To Do?

What a dead Saturday night for television. Time to go through the pile of new, unopened DVDs. Ooh, here's the J.J. Abrams' Star Trek which we saw just a year ago...

Star Trek [PG-13] on DVD

Seeing it on a small 20" TV, as opposed to the giant IMAX screen, doesn't take away the power of the opening act. Ooh look -- it's an early one nacelle starship. There's Kirk -- it must be before he took command of the Enterprise. Oh no, it's George Kirk -- it's Dad and there is James T. Kirk about to be born. "Your father was captain for 12 minutes. And in that time he saved 800 lives." Right from the start we know we are in a new timeline. And dammit, it brings tears to my eyes every time I see the beginning. (grin) A touch, a touch, I do confess.

The casting really is brilliant, from top to bottom. Zoe Saldana holds her own as the only major female character on the bridge. Gifted and talented, she even gets The Guy. Karl Urban as McCoy has it down cold -- his entrance explains everything and it only gets better from there. And I find Simon Pegg's Scotty to be just the right cockiness for all the others in this band. The Spocks are all three perfect. I can even deal with our young Captain Kirk. If only Star Fleet as a military organization wasn't so cringe inducing. All those people on board and no one can ever find any officers except for the wunderkids?

Sure, the movie is almost campy. But it's got the fast action they were looking for and the sense of urgency needed to make a 124 minute movie seem short. Yeah, red matter is cringe worthy, too. As one wag said, it's probably made of unobtainium, that other 2009 SF materials science disaster. But you were never supposed to really look too closely at Trek in the first place, even though we made a whole cottage industry on making excuses for all the errors. Guess this really is Star Trek -- in glorious lens flaring spades.

Deleted Scenes

There's always more film shot than they can use in movies. Deleted scenes are interesting, because they suggest ways that a movie might've gone. Sometimes it's a good thing that they're deleted. Of the bunch on Disk 2 of this DVD set, I can deal with most of them on the cutting room floor. But I think they should've included the one with the young Jim Kirk. First of all, it shows his older brother George. Second we learn that the asshole is the uncle. Third, we find out it's really Dad's car. And fourth, we figure out why James Tiberius Kirk takes the Stingray out for a spin in the first place. It makes him look almost principled, instead of a J.D. as in the film. Just sayin'.

The first special feature on Disk 1 was a blooper real, with titles cut like Original Star Trek. Ah those damned doors. The extras documentaries were fun. Not only did it look like a fun shoot, but there was a lot of respect shown to the old show and the old cast.

Bottom Line

Can't wait for Star Trek 2. And Nimoy's cameo. (grin)

Dr. Phil