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VT 1010

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Everything posted by VT 1010

  1. VT 1010
    With how quickly everyone seems to spot the little detail errors on the past figures, I was surprised nobody mentioned it earlier. The M+ VF-11B is one of the few valks that doesn't have the kite in its standard colors. To me, that kind of stands out.
  2. VT 1010
    Did anybody notice the U.N. Spacey kites are the wrong color? They used the standard red type instead of the low-viz gray version. Is it still too late to correct this? Where's Graham?
  3. VT 1010
    I didn't know they still made them. Quite ironically, I just bought some Laserdiscs last night.
  4. VT 1010
    I was finally able to restore my files after trying a couple of data recovery programs. The only one that could find everything was Recoverer 2000. Crisis averted...
  5. VT 1010
    I have a bit of a data loss crisis, and I'm in desperate need of help. I was in the process of using the system restore disk for my laptop, and realized I forgot to backup my data. As soon as it started, I quickly shut it down. I rebooted and it said no Operating System found. I'm assuming it has already formatted the HD. Is there a way to recover any of my files? These files consisted of my school work and I need them before next week.
  6. VT 1010
    I just posted this in the OT forum. I guess I missed the thread here. The law doesn't apply to just toys, but all childrens' products. This includes clothes too. This will have a dramatic effect on places such as thrift stores, yard sales, and flea markets. I know of a couple of local places that sell primarily old toys. This law won't help them. I wonder if this applies to video games as well. I guess George Orwell was a prophet... Should we get started on the black toy market now? Looking to score some "Yams"? I got some great "product". 100% pure Chinese plastic...
  7. VT 1010
    Yack De Culture!!! I'm surprised this hasn't been discussed yet. http://www.toyark.com/news/general-toy-new...s-products-522/ Not only does this affect old toys, but importing new Macross figures as well. This law also applies to all childrens' products. There goes a whole industry... At least Big Brother has our best interest in mind. I wonder how much a Low-Viz will sell for on the black market.
  8. VT 1010
    Maybe the early model terminators aren't as well armored as the ones in the other movies. Maybe they could be using some "special" armor-piercing bullets. Maybe the resistance has yet to procure any phased plasma rifles (they're using the terminators' own rifles in the TV series anyway). At this point, we can only guess until the movie is released.
  9. VT 1010
    Didn't John Conner say something in the trailer about the future being different than he thought? Changing the future is one of the themes of the franchise. In reality, they probably thought M4s looked cooler or they were just lazy.
  10. VT 1010
    The PS3 has both.
  11. VT 1010
    I agree that the transfer isn't that horrible. I would not mind if it just had the ringing from the IMAX version, but they added extra sharpening. There was no real reason to add any edge enhancement. There is no excuse for it these days. This movie didn't need to have it; that's what irritates me. It's the principle of it. DNR? I didn't notice any DNR applied. It still looks relatively grainy and detailed. Edge enhancement can cause detail to be lost though. After the Patton debacle, I'd be surprised if they used any major kind of DNR. The edge enhancement may not be an issue for some, but I can notice it quite easily (even when it's playing). It will often have a certain "look" to it. In addition, certain scenes can have painfully obvious ringing. I'm sure this will all be even more noticeable when I get my Home Theater built (whenever that will be...). This is why I prefer Amazon.
  12. VT 1010
    The IMAX version already had artificial sharpening for the non-IMAX scenes. So, they added edge enhancement to something that was already artificially sharpened. On the other hand, at least it didn't have any DNR...
  13. VT 1010
    Technically, the studios have only upscaled a couple of SD sources for release. It's a very small number. Excluding those poor examples, even some of the worst Blu-ray (and HD DVD) titles will be an improvement over their SD counterparts (sometimes, it just isn't much of an improvement). Even the edge enhanced atrocity known as The Dark Knight is an improvement over the DVD. The only time I thought the DVD looked better than the BD was when I watched Robocop. The DTS core track was awfully flat, dull, and really weak. The film won an Oscar for Sound Effects Editing and was nominated for Best Sound, yet this BD sounded like crap. The color timing was way off too, with this orange-ish look. This transfer doesn't do the film justice. I will say, however, the Blu-ray was more sharp and detailed. Despite the many poor examples, most Blu-ray movies look quite good. They may not all be of reference quality, but most are better than DVD. Welcome to Blu-ray. Once you get used to high quality HD movies, you won't stand for any less. Trust me...
  14. VT 1010
    For HD DVD, this caused more harm than good. Blu-ray is already quite expensive compared to its DVD counterpart; adding more to the price isn't going to help things (Japanese BDs never were cheap anyway). I often heard of HD DVD combo discs having reliability issues too. Considering the physical differences in manufacturing between Blu-ray and HD DVD, I can't help but be worried. And to top it all off, there's only a single layer for Blu-ray. Even HD DVD had two layers on its combo disk. HD DVD combo disks might have worked, if they only released them, instead of the regular DVDs. Since they didn't do that, people continued to buy the cheaper alternative. Of course, there was also some confusion between HD DVD and DVD as well. Outside of a pretty small market, I don't see this catching on. Why can't people learn from past mistakes? I thought the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results each time...
  15. VT 1010
    Didn't Mortal Kombat rip-off much of the plot of Enter the Dragon? Does that count?
  16. VT 1010
    It needs a Blu-ray release so bad. 2009 is the 30th anniversary of Alien...
  17. VT 1010
    You're right, to a degree. When it comes to a properly adjusted display, that can make a huge difference. Many DVDs were being ruined by inaccurate displays and the same thing happens with HD material. Throwing resolution and color at the problem won't help. If only many of the "grain-haters" realized this... The main reason TVs have a torch mode is to differentiate them from each other. If all TVs were accurately calibrated, they wouldn't look that different (although there certainly would still be differences). They even add special "features" to compensate for these inaccuracies. As a side note, some people are so used to "torch mode" that they think it looks wrong when a display is more accurate and will occasionally go back to their old settings or set. I'm apparently that 1% that has a nicely adjusted display (DVE and user menu only, at the moment. I Can't afford a professional calibration yet. It's still a huge improvement over torch mode), yet still thinks DVD looks poor. I've gotten so used to scrutinizing Blu-ray transfers that it's easy to spot problems on DVD. Once you get used to Blu-ray, DVD seems a little "dull". To add to this, 90% of all DVDs seem to have some sort of ringing. I have a 73" 1080P HDTV and I sit about 7'-8' away, so this doesn't help things either. On a smaller display and/or a larger viewing distance, DVD is more acceptable. Yes, this is a part what I was saying, but eugimon was able to say it in one sentence.
  18. VT 1010
    Don't feel so bad. When my then six year old CRT HDTV died out last year, I replaced it with another new CRT HDTV. CRT's still have a lot of advantages over some of the newer technologies. Like scaling for example. Since CRT displays aren't fixed pixel based, they generally don't need any scaling. Some CRT HDTVs, however, do perform scaling despite this. Either way, I'm quite satisfied with my Sony 34XBR970 direct view CRT HDTV (I wouldn't mind a 960 though ).
  19. VT 1010
    All fixed pixel HDTVs (LCD, DLP, Plasma, LCOS, etc.) will scale (or "convert") the different signals to it's native resolution. They will not natively display a signal that isn't the same resolution as its own native resolution. For example, say you want to watch a standard DVD on your new 1080P display. You decide to use your old 480I DVD player. Your HDTV has a native resolution of 1920x1080. The resolution output by your DVD player is 720x480. Obviously, there is quite the difference in the number of pixels. If the HDTV were to display the 720x480 signal natively, it would only take up a fraction of the screen (kind of like the little preview window, in the corner of the channel guide, on your cable or satellite box). To prevent this, the HDTV will upscale (or "upconvert") the 720x480 signal to 1920x1080 (it also has to deinterlace the image too, but that is a whole other topic). Some displays will even perform downscaling in addition to upscaling in order to make sure the signal will display properly. Although all fixed pixel HDTVs will scale to their native resolution, some displays do a better job than others. The same can be said for DVD players as well. Some people also use dedicated video processors or HTPCs. The reason people often use special DVD players or video processors instead of their HDTVs, is because they can sometimes do better job at scaling, in addition to other image processing functions. In the end, there is going to be scaling, whether it's the display or the source. An upscaling DVD player isn't necessarily better than the display. The quality of scaling can vary and is really dependent on the individual piece of equipment or software. Furthermore, scaling may not be the most important video processing feature you may want, but this will depend on your own personal preferences. Don't forget that, no matter how good the scaling, it still cannot add information that doesn't exist. That is why "upconverting" is an inaccurate term. It doesn't really convert the image to HD per se; in actuality it is more like an advanced "zoom", so to speak (though, this may be over simplifying it). The picture quality is still limited by the source material. If the DVD looked like crap before, it will still look like crap upscaled. There are better and more detailed articles out there, but this is just a quick and simple explanation. I hope I was able to clarify some things and not make them seem even more confusing.
  20. VT 1010
    The 1/6 scale is very impressive. The articulation and detail is excellent. It has some inaccuracies, but for the most part it looks just like the one in the movie. It's also in the same scale as the other Hot Toys Aliens figures. It even lights up too! If your willing to pay the extra cash, I would get the 1/6 scale power loader.
  21. VT 1010
    I heard a couple of months ago that there was a new movie in the works. I believe a draft was being written by some writers from The Office. Harold Ramis was involved as well. All of the old cast members had mentioned they were interested in it. This is even including Bill Murray. I just hope this game and Aliens: Colonial Marines live up to the hype.
  22. VT 1010
    It was somewhat inconsistent, but it did happen every once in a while. I can remember them mentioning it in the X-Play review (or was it Extended Play, back then).
  23. VT 1010
    The IMAX version had artificial sharpening in the non-IMAX scenes. So it's sort of supposed to be there (not that I like it). For the IMAX scenes on the Blu-ray version, however, they added Edge Enhancement. It's IMAX; It doesn't need EE! The preview on the Batman Begins BD didn't have any and it looked great. I hope the next edition gets remastered and includes the regular theatrical version (EE free). I'm quite curious about the live director's commentary on December 18.
  24. VT 1010
    MGS2 on the Xbox had framerate issues. A couple of times on the deck of the tanker, it almost turned into a slide show. That was the only real glitch I that I know.
  25. VT 1010
    The best part is that she wants to do another one...without any aliens! Ripley died in the third movie. She needs to just accept it and move on.
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