bioneural.net » movies

Silent and grey iTunes movie rentals

Bruce — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:47:51 +0000

Well behind the American iTunes Store, earlier this month (June 2008) Apple gave iTunes Store customers in the UK the chance to rent (or purchase) movie downloads. Initially I wasn't sure I'd want to watch movies at my computer, even though I have a good screen and sound system. But I had to try it. With a 17Mbps downstream broadband connection getting the movie onto the computer posed no problem (a typical 1GB movie takes a few minutes). Trouble is all I see is a grey box with no audio. Now that I can't do it, of course I'm more inclined to want to. My iTunes Store account allows me to playback my DRM-protected iTunes music, a free TV episode, and a purchased short film with no problems. I'm running the latest version of OS X (10.5.3) with the latest version of iTunes (7.6.2) and QuickTime (7.5). I've now tried renting two films, hearing nothing and seeing only this during desktop playback: Hmmm.. if I wanted to look at nothing but dull grey I shouldn't have to pay for it—I can just look out the window at English skies. Oddly, when I moved the movie onto my iPhone I could watch it (and hear it) as expected. It seems I'm not alone having this issue, according to discussion in the Apple Support Forums. A number of suggestions have been made, most of which I have tried to no avail: Re-installed QuickTime 7.5 (on top of the previous: there is no "uninstaller"); Re-installed iTunes; Removed ...

HDTV, Blue-ray, HD DVD, HDV, PVR, TV & Macs

Bruce — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:29:18 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

I was recently impressed by a HDTV broadcast I saw in Brisbane. The Wellington House & Home Exhibition demoed the Bose Series III Lifestyle 28 ($NZ5500), a Toshiba-based DVD player with media centre functionality. House of flying daggers looked and sounded superb on a large $NZ10000 Samsung "high definition" LCD TV. Although the Lifestyle is a multi-region player (I'll never by region-locked again) it uses yesterday's tech, offering neither HD nor support for higher-capacity optical discs (Blue-ray or HD DVD). My current DVD player, TV, and camcorder are all limited to "standard definition". Would largely garbage free-to-air TV programming justify the cost of making the jump to high def? What equipment would I need and what technology standards should I be mindful of? And, in a Mac-centric home, how much of this would be compatible with my preferred computing platform? Here are the results of my investigations into these surprisingly complex questions: if I have erred please feel free to re-educate me. Terminology and standards Firstly the normal PAL television is now considered to be SD, or standard-definition. HD is thus high-definition, and HDTV refers to high-definition television. There are three HDTV formats in common usage: 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. Note that: The numbers stand for lines of vertical display resolution; The p stands for progressive scan (the whole frame is redrawn in each refresh); The i stands for interlaced (alternate lines are redrawn in each refresh); Sometimes another number, the frame rate, is tacked on to the end (e.g. 1080i25). "Full HD" may refer to 1080p, ...

Changing DVD regions

Bruce — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:15:13 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

When we moved to New Zealand I brought my UK-purchased Mac mini with us. In the world of DVD region codes, the UK is "2" but New Zealand is "4". When I rented Utu, an 80's film about revenge set during the New Zealand Wars (fought over land) between various Maori tribes and the Colonial Government, I ran into this obstacle to the "fair use" of my Mac as a DVD player. Should I change the region code of my DVD drive? Were there alternatives? Region codes are geographic (Image: Wikipedia) Consumer DVD players currently on sale in New Zealand are apparently not restricted to playing discs from a single region. Apple computers currently sold worldwide are so restricted. So what do you do when you pop in a DVD and see a message like this?: The answer, of course, is to consult the melee of misinformed opinion and rock-solid advice that can be had via Google. It turns out that the Matshita UJ-846 drive in my Mac mini poses something of a problem, as there is no region-free firmware available. I found an very helpful article that discusses viewing options for both Intel-based and PowerPC Macs (interestingly, written by a lawyer who likes Mac The Ripper). I didn't want to buy extra hardware and VLC as a region-ignorant alternative to Apple's DVD Player didn't work with my drive. I do have Windows XP installed via Boot Camp and I do own a copy of WinDVD—but this combo likewise coughed at the ...

Human = fragile

Bruce — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 15:34:17 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

To be human is to be aware of your own fragility. Sometimes references to the delicate nature of our own flesh and blood are stark. Burned into my mind is the image of a small child in an Intensive Care Unit who had breathed in sewege as he floundered in a septic tank outflow. Surrounded by electronics that blink and go ping, he lay entangled in wiring and tubes like the hub of a spagetti-armed starfish, unconscious and paralysed in a fragile interface between boy and machine. Many movies refer to the fragility of human bodies and minds. Having recently re-watched The Matrix on DVD, my mind drew some parallels between the fictional machine-dependence in the film, and the very real but strikingly similar image of that boy I saw in the ICU. The Matrix © 1999 Warner Bros. The Matrix © 1999 Warner Bros. Although our weakness are both multiple and varied (jealousy cf. a speck of dirt in the eye), the image of machine-dependence is a particularly potent reminder of our vulnerability to forces beyond our control. This is at the same time an indication of our growing power to modify and control our environment, and to use technology to take our bodies places they were not designed to go. We continue to look for something absolute to define our humanity and our consciousness. Language was a candidate, but it seems that other species can communicate verbally, or in the case of Great Apes, even learn the use of rudimentary symbols. Tool use ...

Playing anamorphic DVDs under OS X

Bruce — Thu, 25 Dec 2003 10:17:42 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Apple's DVD Player won't change the aspect ratio for anamorphic video, but the VLC media player can... So you've recorded anamorphic video to DVD but when you watch it on your Mac it plays back looking horizontally squashed? This will occur, for example, when using a Philips DVD Recorder to save a widescreen movie on Freeview, the UK's digital terrestrial television (DVB-T) service. The VLC media player can be manually adjusted to play back your movie using the correct aspect ratio. From the VCL menu select Preferences then check the Advanced box. Select Video in the left pane and scroll down to Source Aspect Ratio and type in 16:9 Click Save. Quit VLC and then launch it again in order to play the VOB file or DVD. This is an anamorphic picture: Changing the aspect ratio to 16:9 will allow widescreen viewing: Update 26.03.06: You can also use Apple's DVD Player (OS X Tiger plus) to view anamorphic video. Details here.

Digital video: iDVD and widescreen movies

Bruce — Fri, 03 Oct 2003 11:34:04 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

iDVD 3 does not produce PAL widescreen (16:9) movies by default, but can be tricked into doing so... If you have a camcorder that can shoot anamorphic DV (e.g. Sony DCR-TVR60e PAL), you will need Final Cut Express rather than iMovie to edit the footage. Once editing is complete, save the movie in Final Cut Express format including any markers (e.g. Chapter markers), but uncheck the box that makes the file self-contained. Open iDVD and create your project file; when the status indicator shows that encoding is complete, save the project file and quit iDVD. Right-click on the DVD project file and select Show Package Contents. Navigate throught the folders Contents and Resources to locate the MPEG folder. Option-drag the MPEG folder to another location (e.g. your Desktop) to make a copy. Download HexEdit and use it to open in turn each file within the copied MPEG folder. Use HexEdit's Find and Replace option to find every instance of "2D 02 40 23" (describing 720 x 576 PAL in 4:3 ratio at 25 fps) and replace it with "2D 02 40 33" (describing 720 x 404 PAL in 16:9 ratio at 25 fps), saving each file. For more information about the changing the MPEG header, click here. Delete the original (4:3) MPEG files from within the Package, and replace them with the new (16:9) files you have just saved. You can view the effect this change has by opening each file in QuickTime if you have purchased the QuickTime 6 MPEG-2 Playback component (you might need to give the file ...