Geek with Family

Finally. Now I don’t have to look away in horror everytime George Lucas’s daughter is an extra in a Mos Eisley street scene. The sight is like a car crash that is trying to not look at the camera. From the Hollywood Reporter:

Original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy coming to DVD
The original theatrical versions of the three earliest ‘Star Wars’ films are finally coming to DVD Sept. 12, exactly two years after diehard fans blasted Lucasfilm Ltd. for releasing only the digitally modified 2004 versions of the celebrated trilogy in a boxed collection.

‘See the title crawl to ‘Star Wars’ before it was known as Episode IV; see the pioneering, if dated, motion-control model work on the attack on the Death Star; groove to Lapti Nek or the Ewok Celebration song like you did when you were a kid; and, yes, see Hans Solo shoot first,’ according to Lucasfilm.

Geoff Kleinman, editor-in-chief of the Web zine DVDtalk.com… Lucas, he said, ’seems to be able to put his fans through pain and misery and have them come out the other end buying more product. There’s only one ‘Star Wars,’ and anytime that appears on a shiny disc there will be people who will buy it.’”

I’m one of those fans. I will buy the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back DVDs, at least. I’m sure I’ll even waste my money on Return of the Jedi, for the opening scene at Jabba’s palace.

In 2010, when Lucas decides Blu-Ray is worthy of his masterpieces, I’ll buy these films again. That purchase should bring my running Star Wars investment to $14,567.36 (incl. tax).

(Via I Watch Stuff.)

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Most of the time I just want to casually watch a movie. I don’t need to own every DVD I have a passing interest in. I even have trouble watching movies I really love more than once. Back in 2001, I was browsing the Michigan Ave Borders in Chicago and found the Atlantis the Lost Empire Illustrated Script. I discovered after a few pages that one of my favorite comic book artists, Mike Mignola, designed all the characters and mecha. Later, in Hollywood Video I rented the non-special edition DVD. When I watched the disc through my home theater set up, I was disappointed that its Dolby Digital soundtrack was broken.

Continue reading Real Life DRM Problems: Atlantis the Lost Empire DVD

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The Hellboy Animated production crew keeps a blog. I’m pretty geeked to see this thing. The blog posts the latest character designs, concepts and background art for the series of 75 minute movies. The first movie is finished or close to it and the team has already begun the second feature. The outlook is hopeful for these direct to DVD movies to capture Mike Mignola’s vision better than the Hellboy live action movie or the animated, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, from Disney’s catalog.

Continue reading Hellboy Animated Movies Production Blog

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My Music Hall MMF-5’s setup is lacking after professionals in an audio specialty shop set it up and I set it up again using the HiFi News Test LP. Though this is a modest deck, I don’t feel I am getting the most out of the records I play. Luckily, in June Stereophile Magazine’s Michael Fremer will be releasing his 3 hour long Turntable Setup DVD.

Music Direct says:

How does Michael Fremer (Stereophile Contributing Editor and Analog Guru) start off his new turntable set-up DVD? With over 10 minutes of comedy, of course! But the coolest part of this three hour DVD is that it is filled with insight and expertise to help anyone get the most from their turntable! It’s a practical guide, no math and no complex geometric formulas. He goes through all the basic parameters on a Pro-Ject RM-5, a Rega P5 and a VPI Scoutmaster. There will be cool animation to highlight certain points and the most important part: he makes all this fun and easy, in a way only Mr. Fremer can! This is a project that will alleviate everyone’s fears regarding turntable set-up. That was his number one goal: To make everyone feel at ease attempting turntable set-up and optimization. This is a DVD that every analog lover will want on their shelves. Get a copy for yourself and one for your analog lovin’ friends! Turntable set-up has never been this much fun!

Joy, preorder pending.

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When you have a family, you constantly have to deal with differing sleep schedules. Toddle_o_Geek goes to bed by 8 PM, Wife_o_Geek passes out by 10 PM and I like to stay up till whenever. Those times when I stay up late or even when my wife is enjoying some other form of entertainment in another part of the house (usually Desperate Housewives) I can’t raise the home theater’s volume to a level where I can hear a Eastern Bloc commando sneaking up from my back left speaker. LTB Surround Headphone ads crept into my periphery vision while reading home entertainment magazines for the past few months. Curious, I checked out their website and immediately decided I couldn’t afford their nice wireless surround headphones. A few weeks ago, after reading one too many reviews involving wireless audio that mentioned hiss, I abandoned the wireless headphone idea likening it to leisurely riding a bicycle down an expressway, not pleasent. A scouring of a few online forums (they’re never wrong) led me back to LTB. Maybe I could afford some wired surround headphones.

Continue reading LTB 5.1 Personal Home Theater Headphones Review

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Third in a series how my front projection screen compels me to shop, this time for Superbit DVDs.

Continue reading My Optoma Graywolf 92 in. 16×9 Projection Screen made me #3: Buy movies I really don’t need to own for their Superbit encoding

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Now that all the 2005 holiday blockbusters that I cared about are on DVD, I still can’t find time to watch them. How do the creators of these movies expect me to find time to watch these with my schedule?

Continue reading Peter Jackson’s King Kong is too long

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Second in a series explaining how my front projection screen compels me to shop, this time I’m finding too many fatal flaws in my current DVD collection.

Continue reading My Optoma Graywolf 92 in. 16×9 Projection Screen made me #2: Wish for new video transfers of my favorite movies

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When you watch all your DVDs at 92 inches diagonal you can clearly see all of the flaws serious DVD reviewers, like Widescreen Review and DVD File, gripe about. Since the install of the front projection system last fall I’ve had to modify my setup in the following way.

Continue reading My Optoma Graywolf 92 in. 16×9 Projection Screen made me #1: Buy a New DVD Player

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We just watched Disney’s Dumbo because Toddler_o_Geek is sick and that’s all she wanted to do (after whining "no" to the shopping mall, snacks, and changing diaper). I must have had the Disney Story Soundtrack vinyl LP when I was a kid because I sure did remember all those songs about trains ("Casey Junior"), clowns, building circus tents ("Song of the Roustabouts") and black crows flying ("When I See an Elephant Fly").

Dumbo is probably one of the few cartoons from Disney’s catalog with a scene featuring the main characters so drunk that they hallucinate "Pink Elephants on Parade," which my wife doesn’t associate with alcoholism, guess she didn’t watch enough cartoons as a kid. Toddler_o_Geek totally cracked up over Dumbo’s agent, Timothy Q. Mouse, drunkily popping and floating between champagne bubbles Dumbo blew with his trunk (wonderful toddler laughter very welcome as she is quite miserable with her cold).

Continue reading Disney’s Dumbo Back on My Big Screen - DVD Review

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