Episode 34: No Avatar in Blu-ray 3D! Archive Your Blu-ray, Walmart Buys... [Discussion]

[jackierulesall]

James Cameron wants a 3D Avatar release, Fox says 3D isn't ready. Will Amazon charge you sales tax soon? Secret Code Controls Silverlight's GPU Acceleration. Why don't Robert and Patrick love Apple? The new Blu-ray releases for March 2, 2010.

Watch or download now!

[ghelyar]

amazon sales tax 8.25%, 10%, we pay 17.5% on everything but food, some countries in Europe pay 21%, maybe more and anything which is imported is held by customs until you pay the tax

"atom ion powered HTPC"?! "ion graphics chip"?! - ION is the name of the configuration of an Intel Atom CPU with an NVIDIA 9400M GPU. There is no "atom ion" or anything, just as there will not be an ION with a CPU other than an atom (people asking for SU2700+ION etc are getting it wrong all the time). ION 2 (which will just be called ION) is going to be slightly different, but its still only going to be a single configuration and not just a name for the GPU or CPU or anything. It's the same kind of idea as AMD "Spider" etc.

Why people aren't turning on hardware acceleration for silverlight? Likely because it would reduce compatibility, which means a smaller audience and the CPU can just about handle it on its own anyway, particularly for modern desktop CPUs. Even giving them the option for hardware acceleration would likely cause confusion for 99% of users, and if they enable it then it loses compatibility and they need to turn it back off again, they may not know how which means further support costs.


you complain about things like contrast, resolution or whether a speaker is a few ft to the left ruining your movie experience then you only watch half of inglorious basterds. NOTHING will take you out of the movie experience more than actually *leaving the movie half way through*!




Not that any of this matters because I'm sure the only person who reads this, *if anyone*, is Serafina.




For the Mac fanboy, no Apple gets no props at all for HD support since HD iTunes sucks and if you have to put Windows on to actually do anything, you're not using Mac at all (because modern Mac hardware is just crippled [in that it is usually low end stuff that you have absolutely no choice about] PC hardware) so you're actually just using a PC. I use this term loosely because MACS *ARE* PCs. If you think they aren't, you've been watching too many misleading Mac adverts.






At least AnyDVD finally got a mention. I have been using AnyDVD HD for a while and it's great. Well worth the money. I will say this though. If you're just doing DVDs (it will let you use any region of DVD, rip them to ISO, etc) get the cheapest, short term you can. DVDs don't change much. If you're ripping Blu-rays get the lifetime licence. 3 years is *probably* all you need before they get as stable as DVDs but since the lifetime is not much more, you may as well get it. The reason for this is that Blu-ray encryption changes frequently, as is the problem with some old Blu-ray players not playing newer disks. Slysoft releases regular updates every couple of weeks that ensure you can always play the latest disks.

Note that you may have to remove the encryption to play it on another PC, if you don't have AnyDVD HD installed there but once you do, you can play Blu-rays in VLC or whatever you want.

Also note that some software may not play iso files. I don't know how it can tell the difference but I've heard that PowerDVD does their best to avoid playing Blu-ray rips, even legal ones.

Also, AnyDVD HD with a Blu-ray writer is good for those people who can no longer play Blu-rays on their old players. You can just rip it, remove the encryption and burn it to a new disk. It should still be 1080p even though the encryption is gone, because these players are supposed to let you play your own HD content at 1080p and that is what it appears as.

[quagga]

Originally Posted by ghelyar

For the Mac fanboy, no Apple gets no props at all for HD support since HD iTunes sucks and if you have to put Windows on to actually do anything, you're not using Mac at all (because modern Mac hardware is just crippled [in that it is usually low end stuff that you have absolutely no choice about] PC hardware) so you're actually just using a PC. I use this term loosely because MACS *ARE* PCs. If you think they aren't, you've been watching too many misleading Mac adverts.

Well it is a lovely post but would you care to expand on this? I don't have Windows on my Mac. I have two Macs; one as a HTPC and they work fine. I disagree that Mac's are "low end" (although they are due for a refresh to the i3,i5,i7 lines). I do agree with the statement, "Macs are PCs" although by saying that you essentially deflate your prior arguments. Frankly, the whole post just came across as a case of the Mondays.

Not that any of this matters because I'm sure the only person who reads this, *if anyone*, is Serafina.

Ah, well I figured she just filled in Robert or Patrick when needed. "What's going on on the forums?" "Ah, flame wars, insane ramblings, nitpicking, the usual". .

[serafina]

Originally Posted by quagga

Ah, well I figured she just filled in Robert or Patrick when needed. "What's going on on the forums?" "Ah, flame wars, insane ramblings, nitpicking, the usual". .

If you want to make sure your message gets to Pat & Rob, email them: hdnation@revision3.com. They do read emails.

[ghelyar]

There's no point in emailing unless you have a very simple question and you don't mind waiting a while to get it answered. I use the forums mainly for feedback, not questions, which is pretty much ignored entirely although I have to say that AnimeTV is very good at responding to their forum feedback and acting accordingly. From what I see here and in the shows, I get the impression that Serafina actually cares but nobody else does and even if she says things to anyone else, they don't care enough to listen. That's just what people are going to think if you ignore them. I watch HD Nation and Tekzilla more to get the news than anything else. I don't have silly little easy questions to email in because if I did, I would spend a little time searching for the answer and easily finding it myself before asking. What I have asked for, such as recommendations for specific things, has always been ignored so I don't bother any more. (note that I do not have any questions any more that I'm still waiting for an answer on or anything, this is not just a nuisance post to get an answer for something).

Originally Posted by quagga

Well it is a lovely post but would you care to expand on this? I don't have Windows on my Mac. I have two Macs; one as a HTPC and they work fine. I disagree that Mac's are "low end" (although they are due for a refresh to the i3,i5,i7 lines). I do agree with the statement, "Macs are PCs" although by saying that you essentially deflate your prior arguments. Frankly, the whole post just came across as a case of the Mondays.

"Case of the Mondays" just reminds me of the movie Office Space.

The point was just that Macs don't do Blu-ray and iTunes HD sucks for quality, so it doesn't really count (as Patrick said). I'm sure if you have your own H.264 1080p content (and unless you have ripped it from a Blu-ray on a Windows box or make your own recordings, you probably don't), a Mac can handle it well, but the disgruntled Mac fanboy viewer asked why Mac wasn't mentioned more, and that is why.

For "usually low end" Macs, you can buy a "high end" one but it isn't as good as you can put in a so called "PC" (if you want to use that term to differentiate a non-Mac from a Mac just to make it easier) you have absolutely no choice in the matter and it costs at least double the price. You can't overclock, you cant even choose your brand of graphics card. I don't think they do CrossfireX but I could be wrong, I haven't checked in a while, not that you actually need to since the only game anyone would ever play on a Mac is WoW. As an overclocker, I look at what Apple calls "high end", look at what they charge for it and laugh. As a Linux user, I like that OS X 10.5 is actually a full spec Unix (but I do giggle a little that it was based on NeXT).

I just went to the apple website, chose the $3000 starting Mac Pro 8 core and the top graphics card option is 4x NVIDIA GT120 cards, which is pathetic. They want $200 for each 1TB hard drive, $900 for a screen (cheaper to actually get a dual fibre card?!), etc.

The rant was just about Apple's continued tradition of misleading advertising, where they advertised an iPod as something other than a MP3 player, a Mac as something other than a PC (while it still had a processor called "PowerPC" inside it) etc. I just hate liars, and misleading advertising is just lies.

Most of my point was just regarding the whole "I can put bootcamp on it so Macs work fine" type of idea in the question, since if you use Bootcamp to boot Windows on a Mac, you are no longer using a Mac anyway.

[serafina]

Originally Posted by ghelyar

There's no point in emailing unless you have a very simple question and you don't mind waiting a while to get it answered.

You seem to have different ideas on what the forums vs emails are for, compared to what we use them for on the show.

As you've noted, Rob and Pat dont really check into the forums, at least not regularly. Email them if you want to get a message to them, be it a question (simple or complex), or feedback.

Forums are for conversing with other fans of the show. And yes, other shows use them differently.

Pat and Rob often reply to emails via email - not just the ones you see on the show. I'm not sure why you think you need a question to be simple to be worth emailing. Email us news stories you want to see covered, products you want to see reviewed, concepts you want to hear explained, suggestions for a particular HT/PC setup, the possibilities are endless. Don't come on to the forums and complain that no one's listening when you dont even bother emailing.

As we say at the end of every episode: We want to know what you think, so send your comments, questions, or suggestions to hdnation@revision3.com. Or hang out with other viewers in the HD nation forums at revision3.com/forum.

[ghelyar]

Originally Posted by Serafina

Don't come on to the forums and complain that no one's listening when you dont even bother emailing.

As I said: emailed, ignored, don't bother emailing any more.

Forums are a place to discuss things with others, and if you are discussing the show that is essentially feedback but then what? Once you reach a consensus with the other viewers, you nominate someone to email or something (only for it to be ignored anyway)?

Emailing is like talking to a wall and if the forums about a show cant be used to discuss the show itself, you shouldn't be posting there. E.g. if you have HTPC questions unrelated to the show, you should try to post them to a HTPC board.

Anyway, I will drop it now and stop replying.

[quagga]

Well, uh, how many email's do you think they get? Aside from the "You were clearly wrong!" and "I hate you!" emails which could probably be sorted out. I'm sure they don't have the time to respond to every email they get. I don't respond to every email I get and I get like 10 a day. I'm not a fancy show host or anything.

Some people aren't forumites; I understand that so if Robert/Patrick don't have the time I think that's fine. However I like the folks here and they've actually had some much more helpful info than I've gotten out of the show. davmoo, CrispyCritter, lots of good info. So that's why I post. If I really had something I thought P&D should address I'd probably break out an email.

The only thread on here that I think should really make it to them in some fashion would be the "suggestions for future shows" stuff. So I hope folks email that in. I think the next logical thing to discuss after the HTPC is the home NAS because they seem to go together. My DVDs are good but even if I have just a few BDs, I'd need to upgrade my storage.

As to the Mac Vs. PC thing, I think that has been done to death so I'll just cite "half of the interwebs" for the counter-flame to your flame. Personally, I don't really care; I'm tired of the Mac Vs PC battle - use what you like and let users use what they like. Macs can play BDs though. We covered that one several posts ago.

I'll take a "pathetic" 8 core, 4 video card machine if you're buying . Now then, I suppose I should go home from work and actually watch this episode ...

[serafina]

Originally Posted by ghelyar

As I said: emailed, ignored, don't bother emailing any more.

Forums are a place to discuss things with others, and if you are discussing the show that is essentially feedback but then what? Once you reach a consensus with the other viewers, you nominate someone to email or something (only for it to be ignored anyway)?

Emailing is like talking to a wall and if the forums about a show cant be used to discuss the show itself, you shouldn't be posting there. E.g. if you have HTPC questions unrelated to the show, you should try to post them to a HTPC board.

Anyway, I will drop it now and stop replying.

My point is just that if you're looking for a reply from Pat or Rob, you'll have a MUCH better chance via email than here on the forums.

[nav13eh]

Good Show! All I have to say is, ha US we kicked you in hockey, and in Mens and womans, Canada is the Hockey country!