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Bar and Grill 4: The Conversation Pit

^ I took a few days off over Christmas and it was great. My back has been bothering me so I didn't do anything...but I watched alot of classic films, which is fun for me. I also watched a few episodes of DS9....just got in the mood one night.

I'm not usually one for taking vacation unless I'm pulling out the passport and going on some overseas trip...but I have to confess that it was kinda nice to have a few days to just hang out and relax.
 
^ Well I currently get 25 vacation days every year, so I gotta use 'em up at some point. And I've always liked being free for at least a week around Christmas.
 
^ Yeah...I know that feeling. Even after I took the vacation at Christmas, I still have 24 days of vacation left that I have to take. :lol:

Good thing my boss is cool with it, because we are really not supposed to be rolling over that much.

I'll take Monday off as well - so after that I'll have 23 days left....and I'll begin starting to accrue next years 4 weeks.
 
^ I guess that you'll have a lot of days to use up for a great holiday in the future! :bolian:

I'm on vacation until after the new year too.
 
Hope you all enjoy your Vacations.


I took one up to the mountains last week, but overall I'm not a big fan of traveling. I'll do it, but for some reason traveling can be much more a hassle than it really is worth. Maybe it's the company I'm with or maybe it's the location of home. I love the Bay Area and no matter how nice another city is, flying over the bay with the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge in sight makes me always feel good.
 
^ Well, you do live in a beautiful area! If housing wasn't so doggone expensive, I'd live in the Bay Area myself!

My cousin is a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Labs at Berkeley...and even though she is one of the foremost leaders in her field world-wide, she can't afford to buy a HOUSE! :eek:

So she lives in this dinky little apartment made out of someone's basement.

I mean, you know housing prices are high when someone so accomplished can't afford to buy a bloomin' HOUSE! :lol:


--------------------------------------
Anyway, I have a question for you guys related to High-Def DVDs.

As many of you know, I have a really nice high-def TV. Until now, I was staying out of the high-def DVD market because I understand there is a format war, and I didn't want to pick the wrong side. That, and I find the whole techie discussion incredibly boring. :lol:

Anyway, that judgment momentarily went by the wayside when Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End came out. I mean, that movie is just chock FULL of great CGI that I really wanted to see in high def. So I purchased the Blu-Ray edition.

My questions, for those of you who keep up with this stuff:

Can you give me an executive summary of this little war and who is expected to win? And can you tell me if I can play this blu-ray disk on a regular TV as well...or in my little portable DVD player that I take on trips? Do I need any special equipment at all?

Also, I want to make sure of this here - it seems like the best things to buy in high def are films with great action sequences and/or great CGI. Is that true? I can't afford to buy EVERYTHING in high def...but I might begin to pick and choose a bit....maybe getting all of the PotC films in high def, and stuff like that.

Thoughts? Recommendations? Anything else I need to know about high-def DVDs?

Don't be afraid of being too basic here - because I know zilch on the subject.
 
CindyLouWho said:
^ Well, you do live in a beautiful area! If housing wasn't so doggone expensive, I'd live in the Bay Area myself!

My cousin is a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Labs at Berkeley...and even though she is one of the foremost leaders in her field world-wide, she can't afford to buy a HOUSE! :eek:

So she lives in this dinky little apartment made out of someone's basement.

I mean, you know housing prices are high when someone so accomplished can't afford to buy a bloomin' HOUSE! :lol:
Click to expand...

Yeah that is the biggest problem. I'm sure I will need to move out of the area when I get things established because prices just keep going up.
 
CindyLouWho said:
Anyway, I have a question for you guys related to High-Def DVDs.

As many of you know, I have a really nice high-def TV. Until now, I was staying out of the high-def DVD market because I understand there is a format war, and I didn't want to pick the wrong side. That, and I find the whole techie discussion incredibly boring. :lol:

Anyway, that judgment momentarily went by the wayside when Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End came out. I mean, that movie is just chock FULL of great CGI that I really wanted to see in high def. So I purchased the Blu-Ray edition.

My questions, for those of you who keep up with this stuff:

Can you give me an executive summary of this little war and who is expected to win? And can you tell me if I can play this blu-ray disk on a regular TV as well...or in my little portable DVD player that I take on trips? Do I need any special equipment at all?

Also, I want to make sure of this here - it seems like the best things to buy in high def are films with great action sequences and/or great CGI. Is that true? I can't afford to buy EVERYTHING in high def...but I might begin to pick and choose a bit....maybe getting all of the PotC films in high def, and stuff like that.

Thoughts? Recommendations? Anything else I need to know about high-def DVDs?

Don't be afraid of being too basic here - because I know zilch on the subject.
Click to expand...

Ooooh, HD... I love talking about HD. ;)

Ok, here goes it:
1) Blu-ray is definitely doing a lot better then HD DVD. At the moment, for every three Blu-ray titles, only one HD DVD title is sold. It's even more one-sided in Europe and Japan. And with rumours that WB might be going Blu-ray exclusive soon, well HD DVD is definitely not doing all that great.

2) You can play Blu-ray discs on a regular SD television, as long as you have a Blu-ray player attached to it. So unfortunately Blu-ray discs will not play on your portable DVD player.

3) All films are definitely look better in HD. While it is probably true that PQ (picture quality) is more important in an action film (compared to a comedy for instance), IMO all movies are improved when viewed in HD. And there are definitely a LOT of non-action movies released on Blu-ray.

4) Well, I don't plan to upgrade most of my library to HD. I have double dipped on my favourite films (Pirates, The Rock, Underworld...) and I will do so with a couple of other titles (Lord of the Rings, The Matrix). But yeah, I don't really see the point in replacing all of your titles. Maybe just your favourite ones like I did.

5) Recommendations? Hmmm.... get Casino Royale and The Prestige on Blu-ray. They're both excellent movies and look awesome in HD.

I think that's about it. I've got something else on my mind right now, so I apologize if some of my thoughts in this post were all over the place. ;) Have fun in the wonderful world of HD.

PS: In case you didn't know, I chose a side in the format war a couple of months ago, and it's the Blu one. :bolian:
 
I know we're supposed to be off-topic in this thread but what I'm about to post about is too weak to support its own thread and I figured some of you might be interested in how the following turned out.

Remember some months back when my younger brother and I were going to show a mutual friend DS9 but were going to cut out some of the fat in order to get through the series quicker?

That didn't pan out becuase this friend moved to Plymouth which is about an hour from where I live. What I've done instead is let him borrow the series a season at a time.

Notice I didn't say "season sets". The boxes for those sets are complete shit and I think we probably have universal consensus on this. What I've done instead is put all the DVD's for DS9 in a CD-jacket book. One season at a time, I'm taking out the DVD's and putting each of them into sleeves that I'm loaning out. I'm not comfortable with giving anyone seven seasons worth of DVD's at the same time. It's a paranoia/principle thing.

Works better this way becuase now he gets to see the entire series which is better than selectivity, I think, since it gives a more well-rounded view of the series as a whole. Let him decide what he likes and doesn't, not us.
 
^ Wow! That's really nice of you to loan them out at all.

You are alot more trusting than I would be! :lol:

And yeah...I think we can all agree that the R1 boxes are crap. :lol:
 
^ Agreed. One of my R1 boxes is falling apart, though the other ones are doing alright.

And yeah, I don't like to loan my DVDs either. Besides the obvious (my family members) there are only a couple of other people I'd loan my DVDs.


Anyway... quick update. As some of you know I started watching Roswell on January 2nd. Well, I finished it on the 12th and I gotta say despite all the flaws, I absolutely loved the show. I have this feeling that Max and Liz have ruined almost all other TV/movie relationships for me though. Because those two are just... the perfect couple. ;) The only other couple that comes close are Crichton and Aeryn (Farscape).


The other thing I wanted to mention is that I started watching Pushing Daisies last night. I watched the first two eps and so far I'm really enjoying the show. I gotta admit, the only character I'm not a fan of is Olive (Kristin Chenoweth's character). So yeah, PKTrekGirl that should make you happy. ;)


That's it from me for today. Have fun everyone!
 
PKTrekGirl said:
^ Wow! That's really nice of you to loan them out at all.

You are alot more trusting than I would be! :lol:

And yeah...I think we can all agree that the R1 boxes are crap. :lol:
Click to expand...

He's in the police academy right now. If I can't trust the police, who can I trust?

Wait... don't answer that. :p
 
BigFoot - you finished ALL of Roswell already???

Not just season 1, but ALL of it??? :eek:

Isn't that show, like, a ton of seasons long now??? How could you watch it that fast? Are you still on vacation?

Glad you like Pushing Daisies. Isn't it just the quirkiest show EVER? :lol: And don't worry - Olive is not that important..and she does get better. Besides, I think a character like hers is really needed. Sorta fleshes the thing out. Besides, she color-coordinates with the the pie shop sets. :p

I personally get a huge kick out of Emmerson Cod. He is hilarious.

And Lord Garth...aren't you Iranian? And you TRUST the police?

My, you are the trusting sort. :lol:
 
^ Yes, I finished all or Roswell already. And no, I have no life. ;)

Hehe, honestly I just couldn't stop watching the show (it's three seasons btw). I loved all the characters so much that I just had to know how things were gonna work out.


Yeah, it's definitely a very quirky shows. It reminds me of Bryan Fuller's other show about death, Dead Like Me (have you seen that?). And yeah, Chi McBride is absolutely amazing in PD. The way he delivers his lines is awesome. :D


Anyway, I had a fun couple of days. I got to test drive the new Audi A4 yesterday and the new Volkswagen Tiguan today. Both cars get thumbs up from me, though I actually have more problems with the Audi (despite the fact that I loved it).


That's it from me for now. Later. :)
 
No...I've not seen Dead Like Me.

Is it as quirky as Pushing Daisies?

If so, I'll have to grab it on DVD. How many seasons is it? And is it still on TV? I've lost track.
 
Yeah, I'd say it's definitely about as quirky as PD. ;) I just hope you don't have a problem with a lot of swearing. DLM contains a ton of it. Anyway, two seasons aired a couple of years ago (about 13 to 15 episodes each) and a direct-to-DVD movie is coming out this year.
 
Swearing? Me?

Fuck no!

:p

(I've gotten to be quite adept at swearing during the Bush Administration - those are the only words I could find to describe some of it :lol: )
 
^ Yeah, I thought you wouldn't mind. I just wanted to warn you in case you would. :) I do think you'll thoroughly enjoy DLM if you decide to check it out. It's quirky and funny and often also very poignant.
 
^ Ordered. We tend to have very similar taste in TV shows...and if you say it's good and sorta like PD, then I'm sure I'll love it.

Also ordered season 1 of Roswell.

I'll let you know. :p

By the way, I don't think we have ever discussed this: have you seen Jericho? And if so, did you like it?

I've seen most of season 1 and like it quite a bit. I heard it got a 7 episode order for season 2 as it was brought back from cancellation purgatory...but I can't seem to find any info about when/if these episodes are airing...if they even are, with the writers strike and all.
 
^ Awesome. Once you watch some of Roswell and DLM, make sure you post your thoughts about the two shows in here. :)

And no, I've never watched Jericho. According to both tv.com and tvrage.com season 2 starts on February 12th.
 
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