Edshugeo The GodMoor

Japan first, of course, then the U.S. (hopefully this year). Ponyo will be out in a couple of weeks. I'll get it if it's cheap enough, but it's my least favorite Miyazki film (not counting Panda Ko Panda). Totoro No Tonari (My Neighbor Totoro) is probably my favorite movie of all time, but it won't bother me to get some of his other classic films on Blu-Ray before that one. As long as I know they're coming.

Labels: Animation, Anime, Awesome, DVD, HDTV, japanese, movies, youtube and other video

From Blu-Ray.com:

"Warner Home Video has announced that they have launched a new program which allows owners trade in their Warner DVD titles for Blu-ray upgrades for as little as $7.95. To take advantage of the program, owners will be required to identify which titles they want to upgrade through the DVD2Blu site, and then mail-in their DVD discs to show proof of ownership. In 4-5 weeks they will receive Blu-ray copies of those same titles."

More details here and at DVD2Blu.com itself.

Only 55 title are represented currently, of which I have four. Blazing Saddles, Rio Bravo, Superman II: The Donner Cut, and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Of those, only Blazing Saddles would've been upgraded eventually. The rest were fine as they were as far as I'm concerned. Not every movie absolutely needs to be in hi-def.

Labels: DVD, good deal, HDTV, movies

Last Year At Marienbad - This one I can have in a couple of weeks. After reading this glowing review of the disc's picture and audio quality, I went ahead and pre-ordered it. I'll be watching this one over and over. I'm glad that Criterion got to handle this. The region 1 DVD by Fox Lorber was horrendous. Somehow I was still able to get more than a hundred bucks for it on eBay (even mentioning how bad I thought it was).



Pootie Tang - Louis C.K.'s masterpiece starring Lance Crouther (strange, I thought it was Carruthers or something). Not many people appreciate the brilliance of this film, yet, but they will. Or maybe their kids will. Crouther used to be in a comedy troupe called Mary Wong. I remember a great kung fu movie skit they did back on Comedy Tonight, a late night show hosted by Bill Boggs back in the day. Always loved him for that. Oddly enough, I did not like the Pootie Tang skits on the Chris Rock Show.



Nowhere - This movie is currently nowhere to be found. Not on Netflix. Not on DVD in the U.S., which is why I had to get a French DVD off of eBay a few years ago. I had a couple of region free DVD players, but neither of them is hooked up anymore. I can rip the disc and stream it to my 360 or PS3 if I feel like it, though. Nowhere is sorta a gayish sci-fi film which stars the guy who wore the rabbit suit in Donnie Darko as a Keanu Reeves looking kid named Dark. One day I'll figure out what the intended connection between the two films is supposed to be. Someone I used to work with saw both films together (in a film class) and said Darko alludes to Nowhere, but I'm not sure I know what the fuck that means. I believe this movie was introduced to me by another co-worker on VHS years and years ago.



Daughters Of The Dust - So beautifully shot, it doesn't really matter what this movie is about. Something about a family reunion of Gullah people who are about to move from their island home (off the Carolinas, if I recall correctly) a hundred years ago. I've only seen it on PBS, I think. I had a tape but I don't recall if I copied a rental or taped it off TV. Gave it away in anticipation of getting the DVD, but now DVD won't be good enough. I dunno if anyone but Criterion can do the film justice on disc.



The Manchurian Candidate - Not the Denzel one. The Sinatra one.



The Yellow Submarine



Quilombo - Brazilian movie I used to watch on Bravo about a community in that country formed by escaped slaves who fend off the Portuguese, mostly through the efforts of their leader, who can channel the spirit of their god for protection. Only at this writing did it occur to me to look it up on Netflix. I can watch it on my 360 anytime I want. Woot!



Macross: Do You Remember Love? - retells the story of the Macross (Robotech in the U.S.) TV series, but cuts out all the bullshit and animates it better. You will believe that a pop song can save the universe.



Vanilla Sky and Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) - Somehow, I feel my collection of Matrix films is incomplete without these two. Vanilla Sky is a U.S. remake of Abre Los Ojos, but both movies are wonderful, due in no small part to Penelope Cruz who plays the same part in both realities/movies. I also consider I, Robot, Dark City (both by the same director) and Groundhog Day to be Matrix movies as well, but these are all on Blu and of course I have them.



Bullet In The Head - John Woo's Vietnam epic about wannabe drug dealers. Preferably including both endings (via seamless branching).

Labels: Anime, Anticipay-yay-shun..., DVD, HDTV, movies, nostalgia, youtube and other video

Cool interview about the remastered version of the first Star Trek pilot (pre-Kirk), The Cage, which is airing this weekend. It's probably my favorite episode out of the original series, so it bothered me that it didn't appear on the first season Blu-Ray set just released. Nice to know that it hasn't been left out of the remastering of the original series. I might even be able to download it.



Also of interest in the comments following the article, is the interest showed by some fans who are down for a re-animation of the original Star Trek cartoon from the seventies, which utilized the voices of much of the original cast, and if I remember correctly, had some pretty decent stories. The animation, however, was a bit shitty. Filmation was good for stuff like The Archies, The Groovy Ghoulies, Josie and the Pussycats and all that, but not for Star Trek. I've always thought that new animation (particularly the CGI sort) would be a great idea for the show. I won't watch the old cartoon the way it was.

Labels: Awesome, Capt Pike was a bad MuthaFucka, HDTV, nostalgia, tv

Cablevision's Voom "Network", a suite of channels that included Kung Fu, Monsters, Gameplay, Filmfest, Rave and a few others in Hi-Def finally got shut down yesterday. Cablevision plans on replacing them with multiple premium channels in HD because some people apparently don't have enough channels called HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc.

Perhaps there just isn't a big enough market for a Kung Fu channel. If that's the case, so be it. I have less use for Cablevision now, as a result. Right away, I've cancelled the IO package of channels that the Voom suite were a part of. Currently, this is what the basic Io package consists of:
History International
Investigation Discovery
Logo
Military Channel
MLB Network
MLB Network HD†
MTV Hits
MTV Tr3s
mun2
The N
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel HD†
Nicktoons Network
Noggin
Planet Green
Science Channel
Science Channel HD†
Toon Disney
VERSUS
VERSUS HD†
VH1 Classic
VH1 Soul

I don't watch any of that shit. So why would I pay an extra ten bucks a month for it?
I don't subscribe to the premium channels, so that leaves broadcast basic and Family cable, and I'm thinking of dumping family, which does include stuff I watch like CNN, FoxNews, Comedy Central for The Daily Show and South Park (neither of which needs to be seen in Hi-Def).

News I can, and do get on the web (through Cablevision, mostly, though sometimes even on my cheapie little Virgin Mobile phone). The Daily Show is just as accessable. South Park hasn't been very good in a while. I don't think I'll miss it.

So what replaces the rest of it? Blu-Ray and DVD movies (I buy more than I have time to watch), Netflix on Xbox Live, TV on internet video (such as The Daily Show, Hulu, etc.) via the Ps3s web browser, and of course streaming hard drive content (downloaded movies and whatnot) from the PC to both consoles using Windows Media Player 11 or if I'm on Ubuntu, to the PS3 using MediaTomb.

I've been trying out the XBox/Netflix thing for about a week or so and am very impressed despite some issues. The two week trial is free but then goes into a regular membership. I chose the basic one disc at a time membership which is like eight or nine bucks a month. An extra dollar if Blu-Rays are to be included. At the moment my disc queue does not include movies available on Blu, so I'm holding off on that.

My first experience with streaming Netflix was the Johnny To movie, Exiled. It started out in Hi-Def (which in this case is really decent DVD quality) but at nearly the hour and a half mark, the image froze up and a message appeared on the screen saying that my internet connection had slowed. Playback was gonna adjust to accomodate the current speed. I then ended up with something that at the time looked to be Youtube quality. There was another freeze and I called it a night. The next night I watched the rest of the film without incident (if I recall correctly).
I liked the movie. Kinda (intentionally?) silly take on John Woo's bullet ballet thing, which To may've done before on Heroes Never Die. Sorta.



Next movie was Harold, a silly indie film about a kid with male pattern baldness. Video quality was just below DVD (not seeing what the actual DVD looked liked), but quite a bit better than standard def cable. I don't remember if this was supposed to be Hi-def or not. Kinda liked this one, even though it's a bit stupid and clichéd. Speaking of stupid, they pulled the trailer off Youtube.

Kiltro was billed as a Chilean Martial Arts film and I guess it is, but it felt like more. This one froze up a couple of times, but didn't drop in quality the way it had when I watched Exiled.
Really enjoyed this one.



My first disc from Netflix was The Bodyguard, a Thai movie that claims on it's U.S. release to star Tony Jaa, but clearly does not. I assumed this might've been an old movie dusted off 'cause Jaa had a small role of some sort and avoided it and it's sequel when I sighted them on a store shelf. As a rental, it was not a risk at all when you consider the bang for the buck you get with this deal. I thought it was a surprisingly and often funny action comedy. Jaa does show up in a cameo, but it appears the film was made after he was famous, not before.



I only sent it back the other day, so my next disc isn't due till like tomorrow (according to an email). Another Spanish language action film, The Nest. I know nothing about it, but look forward to seeing it.

My queue includes a number of films and series I might not normally try. Plus I just noticed there are a number of Shaw Bros. films available through Netflix as well as some wu-xia and anime series I've yet to sample.

You know what? who needs Cablevision (aside from internet service)?

And I'm returning their DVR as soon as I watch all the stuff I got stacked on it. That's another ten dollars a month.

Labels: bullshit, DVD, Fucking Idiots, good deal, HDTV, kung fu, movies, PS3, ripoffs, Shaw Bros., tv, wu-xia, youtube and other video

It appears to be so. Kung Fu HD is part of the Voom network of HD channels, and Voom is gettin' the axe in late January. This is quite upsetting to me as much of what I watched outside of CNN and The Daily Show resided on Kung Fu and a few other Voom HD channels.

There has to be sanctions! I may not cancel my service completely, but there will be a downgrade of some sort.

Labels: bullshit, HDTV, kung fu, movies, tv

While browsing the list of upcoming Blu-Rays at DVDTalk, I spied a pair of curious titles; Life Gamble and Opium And The Kung Fu Master.

Why, these are Shaw Bros. movies. On Blu-Ray. Coming out in a month. And I knew... Nothing! A Google search showed it wasn't a big secret, but still, I was shocked. These are being released by BCI, which has a shady past (released some crappy quasi-bootlegs a while back), but recently released some quality product; The Tiger Blade which I (in the minority) thought was awesome, and Vengeance, which was okay as a (B) movie, and decent as a blu-ray disc.

Opium And The Kung Fu Master is a bad movie with a great premise. Ti Lung plays the title role, a kung fu master who's on the pipe and has to get the monkey off his back to reclaim his dignity. Chen Kwan Tai and Lee Hai Seng (Lee Hoi San) are villians. The fight choreography is obviously sped up in places, the acting not so hot (even for a kung fu movie) and the inevitable scenes of Ti Lung dealing with his addiction are a weird mix of painful to watch and hilarious. Still, I may buy this, if only to help encourage more such releases. Plus, it isn't expensive, nor is it all that bad (not to the point of being completely unentertaining).



Life Gamble, I know little about. I have it on my DVR as it (and OATKFM) were among the many Shaw films to air on Kung Fu HD over the last few months. I may just erase it and wait till I have the disc to see it. I watched a few minutes and it looked pretty solid.



Also available on Blu-Ray is Behind The Yellow Line, an early (1984) film featuring the late Leslie Cheung (committed suicide a few years ago on April 1st), Maggie Cheung, and the also late Anita Mui (cancer). This one appears to be a drama with no kung fu in it, and it's like thirty-five bucks (it's an import), so I'll pass. While the others don't come out till January, this one's been out for a little bit.

All three films are available at HKFlix cheaper than they are at Amazon, though I will still post affiliate links to the martial arts films.

Labels: DVD, HDTV, kung fu, movies, online retailers, Shaw Bros., The Sell Out?

Spoiler alert! This scene is from the end of the movie.




The two Princes are Ti Lung and Derek Yee. Yee's a fairly well known director nowadays and has an upcoming drama with Jackie Chan coming up, The Shinjuku Incident. I don't know his stuff, though I have a copy of Protege around here somewhere.

This movie, Shaolin Prince is awesome, though I haven't seen it in almost (more than?) a decade, on a VHS tape called Death Mask Of The Ninja. There are no Ninja in this film, though there is a scene of a guy sneaking around dressed in black. Aside from the sedan fight, the highlights are the antics of the Three Holy Fools. Kinda like the Three Stooges but Buddhist, and Chinese. Also a great fight with a bunch of monks with large brass rings.

Labels: Awesome, fun, HDTV, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., wu-xia, youtube and other video

There's a number of things to complain about Cablevision, a local (?) provider of cable, broadband internet, and phone service; High prices, loud ass commercials which make it unsafe to leave the TV running in the background while doing other stuff, high prices, occasional issues trying to access my bill online, the DVR which every now and then forgets to record The Daily Show on Mondays. My brother lived in a building in which many people were using Cablevision for internet, and that severely slowed down his online access, forcing him to switch to Verizon (not a problem in my building).

They do get some stuff right, which should be noted.

Kung Fu HD - which I keep mentioning around here. Cablevision sees their competition coming from satellite and now from phone companies. Many of their HD channels were added with them in mind. Kung Fu HD is a far better channel than I used to fantasize about. Hi-Def, a decent selection of movies (including a lot of Samurai flicks and some vaguely related genres), a whole load of Shaw bros. films, no commercial interuptions (as of this writing) and best of all, no episodes of Kung Fu, the slo mo western series starring David Carradine. I assumed any 24 hour Kung Fu channel wouldn't be able to avoid that shitty ass show. I'm glad to be wrong (as of this writing), but I would've put up with it for the good of the cause. Not all the movies are good (Bruce Li), and they play about 3 films play per day, to be repeated throughout. That's fine. I only have so much time to watch and so much space on my DVR.

Note - Kung Fu HD is long gone. Bastards!

Free Wi-Fi - Long Island was supposed to build an island wide free wi-fi network. I don't know what the status of that project is, but in the meantime, Cablevision has stepped up and waived the $30 (I think that's what it was) monthy fee it used to charge it's customers to log in when outside. Hotspot access is still somewhat spotty, but continues to grow. It's even available in my neighborhood (though not when I'm inside). I have limited use for this currently since my PSP has barely enough internal memory to go online before I get a "not enough memory" error message. Sony won't allow the PSP to use the memory stick for such purposes. Newer versions of the PSP has more internal memory, but I don't know how well they fare online. In any case, this is pretty cool. I have audio issues with my current PSP and instead of upgrading to a newer model, as I was considering, I may get some other gadget altogether...

Usenet Access - Andrew Cuomo, son of one of New York State's favorite Governers, recently convinced a number of internet providers to drop usenet service so he could pretend he was doing something about child pornography. Any action taken that does not end up with child molesters/pornographers in jail is actually no action taken against child pornography. It's just a pretence that will be repeated during Cuomo's inevitable run for the Governorship or some other high office in the near future. Not getting my vote, Andy.
Cablevision has so far continued to provide usenet access, to my surprise. While many usenet users responded to this news, noting that their ISP had sucky usenet service (and their preference to commercial usenet providers), I feel that Cablevision's usenet service is actually pretty good. Not as good as commercial usenet servers (which are unaffected by Cuomo's pretentions), but I happen to think that approximately 90 days retention (based on a couple of recent downloads) is more than adequate. Of course, it may be that they've outsourced usenet access, and are continuing service until a contract runs out, like at the end of the year or something. Until then, I can continue my own illegal activities of downloading movies, television shows, and music. Yay.

All three of these things add value to Cablevision's service, and would make me reluctant to go to the competition. I might be inviting a fare hile by admitting that in public, though.

Labels: Awesome, good deal, HDTV, kung fu, Long Island, movies, technology

The story of Hung Sei Quan (Hung Hei Goon)! The fate of Abbot Chi San! Pai Mei (The White Brow Priest) and his receding balls! The marriage and offspring of Tiger and Crane!





I neglected to mention that 8 diagram Pole Fighter was on last night. There's always re-runs.



This bit wasn't part of the broadcast;

Labels: Awesome, feats of strength, HDTV, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., youtube and other video

The schedule

Labels: Awesome, HDTV, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., youtube and other video

The Kid With The Golden Arm, in hi-Def, on Cablevision. 8pm EST

Labels: Awesome, HDTV, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., tv, youtube and other video

I've been waiting for some of these classics to hit the Kung Fu HD channel, since getting this service on Cablevision. This made sense as James Dolan, who was (is?) owner of Cablevision at the time was apparently involved in the Miramax aquisition of a fraction of the Shaw library a few years ago. Miramax eventually gave way to The Wienstein Company and a number of Shaw Bros. classics have been released on their Dragon Dynasty label. A number of movies on Kung Fu HD (and a few other Voom HD channels) still sport the Miramax logo, which again made me wonder when they'd get to some Chang Cheh goodness.

Now.

Tired of whatever was on CNN (last night), I flipped channels to Kung Fu HD. The info bar said I was watching Seven Samurai, but I clearly wasn't.* I was watching The Water Margin, an early seventies epic directed by Chang Cheh. Odd thing about this was that, it isn't among the Dragon Dynasty releases. Image Entertainment put it out. Hmm. Wonder what's going on here?
The picture quality was quite good, but HD cable isn't as good as Blu-Ray for the most part. I compared the picture to the Image DVD and found the cable version to be a significant enough improvement.

According to the TV listings (which may or may not be accurate),* We'll see more Shaw pics on Thursday, Sept. 4th;

Shaolin Handlock



Shaolin Abbot (dunno if I've seen this one, but Lo Lieh is Pai Mei again and something unfortunate is gonna happen to Fung Sai Yuk/Fong Si Yu).



Kung Fu Vengence



The aforementioned Water Margin (aka Seven Blows Of The Dragon) and hopefully more to come.



I don't know if my DVR can take this (assuming there is more to come). I might have some difficulty in erasing some of this content, especially as none of it has been even announced for Blu-Ray, yet (that I know of)
(I can't seem to link to a specific day, so after a while it'll be just the current 4 day cycle after a few days)

*there's some incompetence at Cablevision that causes either the wrong programing, the wrong info, or both. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen often.

Sept. 6th, 2008 - KungFuCinema.com posted the press release yesterday. Sixty movies. Holy shit! Way to go Cablevision.

Films include;

THE WATER MARGIN (1972) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/1 @ 8PM ET

This sprawling affair based on the true legend of how 108 rebel heroes successfully defeated invading Sung armies on their mountain headquarters stars David Chiang, Lily Ho and Ti Lung.

VENGEANCE (1970) - NR
U.S. HD Premiere 9/2 @ 8PM ET

In the first of Cheh’s Blood Brothers movies pairing the deadly duo of David Chiang and Ti Lung, a brother seeks justice against a crime boss who killed his brother. Vengeance was a watershed movie of Hong Kong martial arts cinema that defined Cheh’s cinematic approach for years.

THE BRAVE ARCHER (1977) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere 9/5 @ 8PM ET

Following his father’s death, Kuo Ching (Fu Sheng) is raised and trained during the Sung dynasty by a group of kung fu experts. This film, the first in the Brave Archer series, was one of the first to usher in Cheh’s “Venom Mob,” a group of actors/choreographers/weapons experts who would go on to star in many of his films.

GOLDEN SWALLOW (1968) - NR
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/13 @ 8PM ET

Golden Swallow (Pei-pei Cheng) finds her peaceful life shattered when an unrequited suitor starts a killing spree in her name. As she tries to clear her good name, the two men in her life also race towards a final showdown. Hsin-yen Chao and Lo Lieh also star in this swordplay epic, a follow-up to King Hu’s wuxia classic Come Drink with Me, which was originally known as The Girl with the Thunderbolt Kick in the U.S.

THE BOXER FROM SHANTUNG (1972) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/15 @ 8PM ET

After heading to Shanghai for a better life, a boxer quickly gains fame and fortune and falls into a ring of corruption and gang warfare. Ching Lee and David Chiang star in this film, one of the first on which John Woo served as assistant director.

BLOOD BROTHERS (1973) - NR
U.S. HD Premiere 9/17 @ 8PM ET

Blood Brothers tells of one of the most sensational scandals in Chinese history, the assassination of a provincial governor (Ti Lung) by his lieutenant and sworn brother (David Chiang).

THE NEW ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN (1973) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/23 @ 8PM ET

David Chiang and Ti Lung star in this sequel to Cheh’s classic The One Armed Swordsman. Here, the revenge plot which forms the basis of nearly every Cheh film receives particularly vivid treatment, with the crippled Chiang out to avenge the murder of Ti, who has been viciously murdered.

THE ASSASSIN (1967) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/26 @ 8PM ET

Yu is a two-armed swordsman who is betrayed by a jealous rival, but initially seeks a life of simple pleasures until an accidental meeting with another patriot sets him back on the road to bloody, brutal vengeance.

FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS (1974) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/28 @ 8PM ET

Shaolin renegades fight against their Manchu oppressors and traitorous collaborators. David Chiang, Ti Lung, Meng Fei star.

Other Shaw Brothers films premiering in high-definition during the month of September include SHAOLIN HAND LOCK (9/3), SHAOLIN ABBOT (9/4), THE BRAVE ARCHER 2 (9/6), BRAVE ARCHER 3 (9/7), SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS (9/8), THE DUEL (9/9), SHAOLIN MANTIS (9/10), FIVE ELEMENTS NINJAS (9/11), ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS (9/12), CHINATOWN KID (9/14), SHAOLIN TEMPLE (9/16), INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN (9/18), THE KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (9/19), THE HEROIC ONES (9/20), HEROES TWO (9/21), MEN FROM THE MONASTERY (9/22), THE NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (9/23), THE DEADLY DUO (9/24), LIFE GAMBLE (9/25), FOUR RIDERS (9/27), DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN (9/29) and THE DELIGHTFUL FOREST (9/30).

As with all films airing on KUNG FU HD, these premieres will all be presented uncut, in high-definition, and commercial-free in their original aspect ratios. KUNG FU HD is available in the U.S. Cablevision’s iO digital cable service (channel 776).

Labels: Awesome, HDTV, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., tv, youtube and other video

Probably the granddaddy of genre film, influencing everything from kung fu movies to space opera sci-fi to urban crime dramas. I like a good western. Not just the "Spaghetti" ones, but some John Wayne stuff and others, as well.

Aside from the Leone films (Once Upon A Time In The West in particular), a favorite would be El Dorado with Wayne, Robert Mitchum and James Caan. This movie is about as badass as anything made by John Woo in the eighties, or so that's how I remember it. It's been a while since viewing it, though I did watch Rio Bravo, a similar, earlier film also directed by Howard Hawks, for the first time a year or so ago.

Vera Cruz was a film that played on one of the Hi-Def channels several months ago that I dug a lot as well. While there weren't any outright profanity, or obvious bleeding, I was surprised at how rough it seemed for the time it was made (mid-fifties). Also had a very cool cast including Ceasar Romero, Charles Bronson, Earnest Borgnine, and Jack Elam. The leads were good too. Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.

Anyway, I'd watched a small bunch of westerns in the last week or so;

Take A Hard Ride pits the cast of Three The Hard Way (Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Jim Kelly) against the awesome Lee Van Cleef. It's a spaghetti western, but as it's been said by everyone else who's written about it, it doesn't feel like one. This is mostly attributed to the score by Jerry Goldsmith, and the mostly black cast, but I think it's mainly the fact that the cast use their own voices that makes this feel so American. Spaghetti westerns often sound like kung fu movies (I'm sure the same voices were often used). The Goldsmith score, Hal Needham's second unit direction and stunt co-ordination and the story's relatively down to earth characters don't hurt either. The one drawback is that Jim Kelly portrays a mute, so you don't get to hear his trademark "Oooooyyyy!" while he's whippin' up on some ass. Also his jogging while everybody's on horseback got really silly at one point. Other than that, I recommend it. A fun, action packed movie. Better than this trailer makes it appear...



Open Range - Got this cheap on DVD. Robert Duvall is great and so is Kevin Costner as the Badass who tries very hard not to be. I liked it. But even though I didn't need this movie to be longer than it was, I kinda wanted to know a little bit more about the bad guy. Why? Well, there came a point when it became really obvious that he was fuckin' with the wrong people, and yet he just wouldn't let up. This happens occasionally in genre stories, and when it does, I actually want to know why. Otherwise, it taxes my (often generous) suspension of disbelief.
Still, I liked it. I'll have to check out Dances With Wolves one day.



3:10 To Yuma - I got this on Blu-Ray. Some of the gunfights scared the cat outta the room, whereas in Open Range, they merely alarmed him somewhat. I hadn't seen the original, but I knew it was a remake. When I read in the credits that it was based on a story by Elmore Leonard, I was surprised as I assumed the original must've been really old. Holy crap! It is.
And so's he! I had no idea. Anyway, I mostly enjoyed this one, though I was a little confused by an odd change of heart at one point in the flick. Can't say anymore on that without giving shit away, so I won't. Though not a spaghetti western, the movie contains one of the genre's staples, identified by David Walker in an article some years back, as "the evil homosexual in white". Charlie Prince isn't dressed completely in white, but fits the part otherwise.

I'll have to hunt down the original.



Sukiyaki Western Django - This is a Takeshi Miike film, so this could be waaaay crazier than it is. It's not that crazy. A Japanese spaghetti western, with a mostly Japanese cast sounding out the English dialog. I thought watching it on a DVD that had no English subtitles was a bad idea, and it was, kinda, but I was fine. I did miss a bit of dialog, but I don't think it always mattered. I enjoyed it, and Quentin Tarantino's small role (appearing twice) was interesting but a little confusing. And the segment which explains the origin of Bloody Benten almost seems to be making fun of Kill Bill. It was fun, needlessly violent (which is neccessary), and not that crazy. I liked it.



The Proposition is a western from Australia. I haven't seen this one, yet. I've ordered the Blu-Ray and look forward to watching it.

Labels: DVD, HDTV, japanese, movies

Ordered two more Blu-Ray flicks in anticipation of my eventual PS3 purchase. Continuing the pattern of getting one familiar movie and one unfamiliar (unseen), I've ordered Kung Fu Hustle, which I'd seen previously as a downloaded Hong Kong DVD and Tekkon Kinkreet, an Anime based on Black And White, a manga (comicbook) I read a little of some years back in a compilation.

As with DVD, the Hi-Def formats are occasionally abused by studios and labels (publishers?) who put out great movies or shows as badly encoded (or otherwise sucky) discs. In such cases, it's best to either get the standard def version (DVD) if it is decent, or wait for the eventual double dip (special edition, director's cut, etc). I can wait several years if I have to, as I did after the first DVD release of Purple Rain (released in 4:3 instead of widescreen). I held off until 2004 when the special edition came out.

Bladerunner was the film that made me want to get a Laserdisc player (never did) after Siskel & Ebert did a show about pan & scan versus widescreen using a clip from this movie as one example. I'd seen it in the theatre and maybe once on VHS, but after its release on DVD, I held off on it. I think I already knew Ridley Scott was working on another cut, but I don't remember for sure. I got that one last week on Blu.

So, assuming that a movie is gonna look good (or better than DVD) because it's on Blu-Ray isn't practical. It's best to look at a couple of resources.
I order a lot of stuff on Amazon, but their reviews can be less than reliable as they occasionally lump reviews of different versions of the same film together (sometimes without stating so). It was on their forums that I read about Blu-Ray Picture Quality Thread. It's a six tier list from 0-5 with 0 representing the best releases (reference quality) and 5 representing the worst (bottom of the barrel). It's not a complete list plus opinions vary, but it's a good guide to check out titles you're interested in. As of this writing, much of the list is missing, but I'm sure it'll be back up in no time. I wanted to mention a couple of movies I wanted to buy, but didn't because of quality issues, but I've forgotten what they were and can't reference the list.

After checking the PQ list, I do a title search on High Def Digest for blu-ray reviews, skipping the movie review, and going to quality and supplements.

As I mentioned last time, I still buy DVD. There's some stuff, I'm not gonna be able to wait too long on, like a few of the remastered Shaw films (Martial Club in particular), and a two disc set of Curtis Mayfield performances I read about on Undercover Black Man. That one got here yesterday, though I still haven't seen it. Reading about it, it occurred to me that I don't have any of his music in digital (CD or mp3). I had a great cassette tape made from a CD set from the library a decade ago or so, called Anthology. I'm a gonna have to fix that.

Labels: Anime, Anticipay-yay-shun..., DVD, HDTV, movies, music, PS3

I was rooting for those guys back when there was a format war, but now it's a little bit late for them. They're sounding somewhat optimistic. Perhaps they've simply come too far to turn back. I dunno. I don't care.

I'm waiting for either the price of full profile (2.0) Blu-Ray players to come down significantly, or a compelling reason to buy a PS3 (I already have an XBox 360).

In the meantime, I get my HD fix from the occasionally pixelated fare on Cablevision's Voom HD network, and also from downloading WMVHD encodes of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD releases. These look fantastic, and I've noticed no pixelation at all, watching Mr. And Mrs. Smith and almost no artifacts during Appleseed Ex-Machina. This quells my fear that the pixelation which occurred during fast motion scenes on the HD cable channels were due to a limitation of my moderately priced 37" screen. I now know that isn't the case, based on those downloads and from renting Ratatouille on XBox Live marketplace.

The WMVHD downloads are obtained from usenet (alt.binaries.movies.wmv, alt.binaries.HDTV), saved on a USB hard-drive formatted as HFS+ using Macdrive 7 (I'm not a Mac user), 'cause the 360 doesn't recognize NTFS despite it coming from the same company (Microsoft), and FAT 32 has a 4GB file size limitation (most of what I've downloaded is 8+GBs). The 360 is compatible with HFS+ which is an Apple file system. Hmm.

The only problem I'm having so far, is I can't copy files of folders to this drive if they have Chinese characters in the names, which is the case for some in my music collection.
03/16/08 - easily rectified by right clicking on the drive, selecting "Mac File Names" and "International".

Labels: Anime, downloads, HDTV, movies, music video, PS3, tv, XBox 360

Now that it's official that HD-DVD is dead and that Blu-Ray is the victor in the war over next gen movie software formats, what's to be done with unsold players and discs?

Price cuts, of course.

I once thought I'd jump at HD-DVD if the price reached a certain low, but those price drops came only after things got progressively worse for them and defeat almost certain. So, I still held off.

Now comes a rumor that the HD-DVD add on for the XBox 360 will be lowered to about fifty bucks. Close to the $40 I thought it was worth, post format war. Before the end, I would'a considered paying $80. (now confirmed - Feb. 26th, 2008)

I reasoned that I could enjoy a bunch of movies for a while (likely to fall in price as well) and then at some point, take advantage of the notion that the 360 add-on can be made to work on a PC, rip the movies, and eventually burn those to Blu-Ray, once such burners and blank discs became affordable. That's a good plan for those who have already built up a sizable collection of HD-DVD discs (maybe not if their PCs are Mac or Linux, I dunno). Not such a good plan for me. I'd end up accumulating crap, I would eventually have to throw away. Eventually meaning in a year or two. Might not be such a bad thing if disc prices end up being close to that of a rental.

For now I'll continue to buy (and download) DVDs, though not as frequently as before, and maybe slowly start to buy a Blu-Ray disc here and there, so that I'll have a few titles once I get my first player (maybe, ...possibly a PS3, not likely before December).

Prior to getting my first DVD player at the end of 1998 (I think), I made frequent trips to Chinatown and stocked up on VCDs, a movie disc format that never took off here in the U.S., but was very popular in Asia. I was able to watch them on my computer, and knew I would pick a DVD player that would support that format. That allowed me to have a small library (in addition to the first DVDs I purchased) ready. Stephen Chow movies made up a good chunk of that collection. His movies were not as heavily bootlegged (at the time) as a lot of the stuff coming out of Hong Kong in that decade and before, so it was new stuff to me, and a change from Jet Li, Jackie Chan*, Tsui Hark, etc. I almost made Chow's Kung Fu Hustle my first Blu-Ray purchase, but backed out of it. I did order the Dragon Dynasty DVD release of Royal Tramp, which contains both 1&2 (based on Louis Cha's Deer And The Cauldron AKA Duke Of Mount Deer). I haven't seen them since watching those VCDs. Though I recently watched a TV series starring Dickie Cheung and produced by Royal Tramp director/producer Wong Jing.

Of course, with Blu-Ray's backwards compatibility, I already have a 400+ strong library of commercial (which means I bought, not downloaded them) DVDs, many of which look good to great on my 37". There is also decent hi-def content on cable, and downloadable rentals on XBox Live (which I'm not that partial to).

While I've yet to make the PC to 360 connection work, for the purpose of streaming video and movies from the computer to the TV in the living room, I can connect a USB hard drive to the XBox 360 to play that content. Same with the PSP (music and video, not games). I've not downloaded hi-def content from the web, yet. At least not in the formats recognizable to the 360 (wmv, mp4, avi). But that seems like a possibility.

In any case, I think I shall leave HD-DVD to rot.

* I once read a review of City Hunter (the live action HK version) that stated that Jackie Chan was trying to make a Stephen Chow film (it was directed by Wong Jing, who'd made a lot of films with Chow at the time). Seeing how that movie made a mockery of one of my favorite 80s anime (and not in an amusing way), I was a little hesitant to experience Chow's wackiness first hand. Once I made the jump, I was hooked.

Labels: DVD, HDTV, movies, PS3, wu-xia, XBox 360

Prices aren't quite as low as I'd like, but still tempting, even for a dead (?) format. But what to do with the HD-DVDs after eventually (?) moving to Blu-Ray? I still buy DVDs and will be able to play them in HD-DVD or Blu-Ray machines, the same can't be said for HD-DVD discs. The HD-DVD player will play standard DVDs and upconvert them, now at a price similar to decent upconverting standard DVD players. Might not be such a bad thing to use this while waiting for fully spec'd Blu-Ray machines to come down to a reasonable price.

Doesn't matter right now as my wallet is paying attention to some other issues.

Labels: DVD, good deal, HDTV, technology

Lot's of Katsu Shintaro's famous blind swordsman (and masseuse), Zatoichi showing up on the Kung Fu HD Channel over the past couple of weeks or so, and for a little while longer. Seeing how often they repeat movies, I'll have some time to catch up. I usually catch a flick already in progress, but I've caught a few of these already and they're just great.
Katsu in this role is a lot like Peter Falk in Columbo; kinda clumsy and sloppy looking, but still cool, because unlike the characters around him, we know about the badass lurking beneath the surface.

The second film looks much better than it did on DVD, but that's because the dvd was downright crummy. I didn't check the first which I also have on disc. So far, all of the samurai flicks on this channel have used decent film transfers. Some of the kung fu movies as well, though some of the lower-lower budget stuff (Bruce Li, etc.) was obviously deemed unworthy of re-masters.

Labels: Awesome, HDTV, japanese, kung fu, movies, youtube

I bought the 360 Elite last week after spending a week debating the PS3 vs. the 360. Prior to that point I went from no interest in a next gen system to "Ooh! The PS3 will be out next year" to "It's gonna cost what?" to "No Fuckin' way am I spending that on a game system" to "It would probably look nice on my 37 inch flatscreen TV." My interest gradually escalated from there and I started to brake down after purchasing three used games for the PS2 and not being overly impressed by the graphics.

I was gonna get a PS3, but I mentioned that to a coupl'a friends, and was advised to avoid it and go for the 360. Their opinions were based on hearsay (about the PS3) and the fact that they owned 360s, so I dismissed them at first. But I was motivated to explore the issue a li'l bit.

There were a number of things that I was concerned about already. Price wasn't one of them at this point, though it had been a major issue in the past. If I wanted to go cheap, I'd have gone with the 360 core system. Not interested in the Wii, though I'm sure it's fine for what it is.

Sony's dicking around with the PSP didn't help (or perhaps it did). The PSP is a great hand held multimedia device. There's nothing like it out there. If you just want games, there's the DS and all the previous incarnations of the Game Boy by Nintendo. If you just want music and/or movies, theres the various iPods and other personal media players. But for all of the above and also wireless internet there's only the PSP which is capable of even more thanks to the efforts of the homebrew community.

The PSP was my first taste of Sony's "sleeping giant" marketing tactic of presenting a device with great potential, but only unlocking it's capabilities a piece at a time via firmware upgrades (usually after a homebrew developer had unlocked it first). Some of these things were fixes to issues that might not have been well thought out at first, like the placement and naming of videos. Other things were obviously being held back, like full resolution video, which was available on UMD video discs, but not supported on the memory stick until a much later firmware. Officially, that is.

When Sony finally provided the one feature homebrewers could not get right, the ability to play PS1 games on our favorite portable, they chose not to allow their limited selection of games to be purchased and downloaded by anyone who did not have a PS3. Apparently this was expected to motivate purchases of the new system, instead of angering their existing customers who already owned internet capable devices (the PSP and likely a computer). Instead, homebrew came to the rescue and modified the software that allowed the playability of PS1 games as well as provide a way for users to convert their existing game library to the PSP. No PS3 needed. No need to buy the old games again. I even bought a used title off Amazon.com for less than the supposed price of a download (not including the PS3 price). Fuck you, Sony, for even thinking of pulling a stunt like that.

Still, I was somewhat convinced that the PS3 was the most powerful game machine, out there. It was expected to be miles ahead of what the XBox 360 was capable of. I was unconvinced, however, that it's power was being fully demonstrated. Games made for both the 360 and the PS3 were turning out better on the 360 (according to many reports). This being due to developers being more familiar with the XBox platform. Sony defenders point out that Microsoft had a years head start on the PS3 and that their strongest games are just being released now. When the PS3 reaches a similar point in it's development we will see it deliver the goods and maybe it'll surpass the 360.

If I was gonna wait another year to get a game machine, that would be fine and dandy. Placing my bets now on a system that might be great eventually? Um, ... no. Buying a machine that does what it's supposed to do very well, right now? That makes more sense.

HD DVD vs. Blu Ray? A non issue for me. I'll wait for a winner in that contest or I'll wait for a cheap HD disc recorder (it'll happen eventually), download whatever HD content I want from each competing format and convert them to the one I have.

XBox Live vs. PS3's online service - PS3 online is free, but kinda sloppy from what I understand. Sony has some interesting ideas, but they're just promises right now.
XBox Live seems to garner better reviews. So far I like it as far as downloading demos are concerned. Haven't tried online gaming yet, but I will.

PSP to PS3 connectivity seemed like a good idea at first, but makes no sense in it's current application, downloading media to the PS3 and then send it over to the PSP. The PSP can access the internet already. Thank you. If it could be used as a location free player to play PS3 games (and other media) on the PSP via wi-fi wherever you were, that would be a killer app. I don't know what the technical limitations are that keep such a thing from happening. I only hope that it is issues like that that keep it from happening, and not Sony dicking around again. Sony's Location Free player is a device that allows television to stream via wi-fi to an owners PSP wherever he happens to be.
Oct. 18th, 2007 - According to the November issue (#175) of Game Informer magazine (pg 24 - Portable Puppetmaster), Sony plans to allow this very feature sometime in 2008. It'll probably be 2009 until it's up and running. Once it is and a good number of PS3 games are playable on the PSP, I'm gettin' one. Though if Microsoft were to announce a handheld gaming device capable of the same thing via the 360, I might hold off.

The renting movies to the XBox hard drive thing is kinda interesting, but needs to be cheaper. I won't be doing that. I've got decent HD cable service, a DVR and I can't complain about the prices of DVDs. I still prefer to own hard copies of media (less true for music with non-DRM mp3s) and the less DRM the better. Rentals (pay per view) don't need to be as expensive as they are.

Sony vs. Microsoft: which is more evil? Microsoft, probably. Certainly more hated in the PC world. That they've managed to create a product that their customers are mostly happy with is a huge achievement! I mean, a lot of us are Windows users, who won't go near a Mac, but that doesn't mean that Windows doesn't piss us off for a variety of reasons. 360 users really like their machine regardless of how evil Microsoft is with PC software. I've always viewed Sony as a maker of decent electronics. My first DVD player was a Sony. Back then the hardware did the talking. Now when Sony talks, they sound a little like Microsoft, but not the Microsoft in the gaming business.

The games - the 360's got 'em and those that are also on the PS3 are not quite as good (hearsay), though that may change. If Grand Theft Auto IV had been a Sony exclusive, that might've been enough to sway me back to the PS3. I love GTA. The extra content being developed for the 360 wasn't really a determining factor for me though it definitely doesn't hurt. The PS3 will no doubt get great games that can't be found on the 360, but they don't really have them now, and that's a major disadvantage for buyers who aren't waiting. I'll be trying Halo for the first time next week. Haven't tried the first two games and don't feel I need to.

My first games...
Bioshock is a creepy first person story based thriller that takes place in a would be paradise that's gone horribly wrong. I'm enjoying it so far though I haven't played it much, yet.
Burnout Revenge is a race and crash game I bought for simple fun. I played Burnout Legends on the PSP and loved it. I was unaware of the Burnout games before then. Revenge is much more awesome than I expected.
Quake 4 I haven't played yet. Bought it used for twenty bucks.

Also tried a few demos, both on XBox Live and also from the magazine, XBM, which obviously isn't necessary since they are downloadable. Demos don't need hard copies. Sony canceled their official Playstation magazine (the US version) for the same reason.

Hardware failures. Sony wins on that account. Microsoft is handling the issue in a number of ways, but this shouldn't have been an issue to begin with. Still all the pluses outweigh this negative.

The future? Maybe the PS3 will turn out to be hot shit, after all. If this happens by next winter, maybe I'll get one in addition to my 360, PS2 and my PSP (which is still a brilliant console). I don't expect Sony to give up, no matter how bad the numbers get. They stuck with Betamax until after DVDs dominated. Right now, the PS2 is outselling the PS3, so there's still life in that system as well. There are a few games I want to finish on it before I put it out to pasture.

Labels: HDTV, PS3, PSP, technology, video games, XBox 360

Good! Cause shit is about to get interesting...

Next month will supposedly see the launch of a third format, HD VMD. The players will cost about $150.00 US and use the traditional red laser used in regular dvd drives. If I understand correctly, these are just DVD drives with a different firmware. If this is true, can the XBox 360's regular disc drive (which handles DVDs as well as games) be converted to HD with a mere firmware update? Sounds unlikely, but exciting, especially as I just got a 360 a few days ago. More on that tomorrow or so.

A major drawback is that many studios are allied to either HD DVD, or Blue Ray, so this new format will likely have little Hollywood support at first. But it's very existence will make things more difficult for the "big" 2. People posting comments seem to have little faith that this will go very far, and perhaps they're correct. However, remember when the Wii was still called The Revolution, and so many thought that platform was gonna be way too lo-tech to compete with Sony and Microsoft?
More details at PC World and Team XBox.com

HD VMD would be enough to drive Sony execs to suicide, but there's more: The Chinese. Yes, the Chinese, who brought down the prices of HDTVs with prison labor (just joking - I Think), thus allowing me to own one*, may be about to do the same with their own HD disc format. Check this shit out...

Meanwhile in the comments, people who have already invested in their already dead formats continue their silly war as if it still mattered. They should'a read this article from last year, 10 Reasons Why High Definition DVD Formats Have Already Failed. I think I disagree with #10, though. I'll talk about that when I talk about the 360.

Stick with DVDs for the time being.

November 26th, 2007 - HD-VMD players appeared for a short while on Amazon, but not at the $150.00 price point. Was more like $200-250. As of this writing they're not available on Amazon, but are through their own site.

Now that HD-DVD players are available in the $200 and below price range, there is no advantage to HD-VMD except for the availability of Bollywood films on that format.

I don't know that the price drop for HD-DVD can offset Blu-Ray's main advantage of being built into PS3s, but I was tempted for a second. I held off. For now, I continue to stick with DVDs. But for how long? How long?

*Apparently my set is American made. If that's true, go Olevia!!! Screen's made out of plastic, though. Still happy with it.

Labels: DVD, funny-ass shit, HDTV, XBox 360

Reminds me of early 90s cable TV, which had great commercial free channels like Bravo and American Movie Classics. Those channels still exist, but are not commercial free. Bravo which used to showcase foreign films primarily, had become known as the gay channel (no homophobe) for a while due to programming like Queer Eye and some other programming. American Movie Classics still plays classic American films, but also movies that aren't necessarily classic nor American. The real crime, though, is butchering (editing) the movies and interrupting them with commercials.

I bring this up because of the inclusion of the Voom HD channels in my cable package.
Film Fest HD is a movie mix of classics, indies, and curiosities.
World Cinema HD give us an international mix.
Kung Fu HD (previously mentioned) Hong Kong action (subtitled and dubbed), Samurai flicks, and of course some U.S. attempts like Kick Boxer 4.
Monster HD all horror, all the time. Not my favorite genre, but there's some interesting stuff.

The above are Movie channels with films shown complete and without interruption. Great, right? Yeah, but for how long?

Voom started as Cablevision's satellite service meant to compete with DirectTv and other providers, without actually improving cable service (fuckers!). When that plan failed, they fell back on the obvious and added these channels to the cable service at no extra cost. Great, but for how long?

There's a bunch of other channels on the Voom "network" that wouldn't be hurt by commercials. AniMania is mostly short form cartoons, though not enough Anime (Samurai 7 airs nightly).
GamePlay is all video game related programming; Tournaments, interviews, previews and a show (Cinemaddicts) that combine the cut scenes with the game play to produce short films. Like machinima, except these (from what I've seen) seem to follow the plotline of the game itself.
Rave is all music programming. Live performances rather than music videos.
None of these would be hurt by commercials in my opinion.

I like the approach taken by Universal HD (on Cablevision, but not part of the Voom package); they play full length, unedited movies without commercial interuption, and also TV shows with commercials. I have no problem with that.

Labels: good deal, HDTV, tv

I can't believe I have the Kung Fu Channel. In HD even. I'd noticed a couple of new HD stations a couple of weeks ago, but never fully explored what was available. I was flippin' channels a little while ago and found something called The Samurai Saga (haven't watched it yet), an old Japanese film with subtitles. The channel ID puzzled me.

"KFUHD? What's KFU? Wait...

No way! No Fuckin' Way!"

So I check online, and yes Virginia, there is a Kung Fu channel (766 on IO in Nassau County, NY), and I got it (along with some other stuff) without even asking. Me so happy.

I know it won't be perfect. For instance, they're showing The Defender instead of it's original version, The Bodyguard From Beijing. There's sure to be a fair share of crap (sometimes I like crap), but there's also a bunch of flicks listed I either haven't seen, never heard of, or have seen, but never on a decent DVD. Awesomeness.

Shit. Am I gonna have to get a Tivo-like box?

Labels: good deal, HDTV, kung fu, movies, tv

Most commercial DVDs look great on my 38" LCD. About as good as the HDTV channels I get through cable, without the annoying pixelation during fast scenes. So until prices come down significantly, and there's a single format, I have no need to upgrade.

There's the chance I'll get a PS3 at some point. Then again, maybe not.

Labels: bullshit, DVD, HDTV

I tried out one of my cable provider's international channels over the last three months, iO Chinese. It was a mix of news and entertainment, including movies and dramas. Save for a few episodes of Wu Dang 2, I didn't really watch much. The target audience for these various foreign channels are people who speak English as a second language, so subtitles are rare (I haven't checked out the others: Russian, South Asian, etc.). Since I can easily download Chinese dramas with subtitles with relative ease, there was little this channel could offer me, so I canceled. I considered the Japanese station to supplement my on again/off again attempts at learning the language, but at nearly 30 bucks a month, that just ain't happenin'.

Cable already offers a lot of Spanish stations, one or two are bi-lingual, I think. A few years ago, just before or just after Charlie's Angels was made into a film, there was a Spanish language remake of the old series broadcast on Telemundo or something. Anticipating some crossover interest, the show was subtitled, which allowed me to enjoy a couple of episodes. It seems to me that subtitling Spanish language programing would be a great service to immigrants who should be encouraged to learn to speak and read English, as well as to natives, who could gain some insight into the various South American cultures.

Anyway, I replaced iO Chinese with HBO, for almost the same price (12 bucks HBO vs. 10 bucks Chinese). There's a crapload of HBOs, but I'll only need the Hi-Def one (regular cable sucks on a 38", probably worse on larger screens). The Sopranos are starting back up, so I need to be ready, though I may've missed the entire last season.

Labels: dorama, HDTV, tv

Great prices can be found on Nerds.net on a variety of items, but if you're in a hurry to get your stuff, I'd advise you steer clear of them. If you need a place for your money to hang out for a while, before (hopefully) being returned to you, these may be your kinda nerds.

My 20" RCA was new when Miami Vice was still on the air. It had seen better days, and I had been meaning to replace it for years.

My interest in getting a new TV perked up over the hype for the upcoming PS3, which was recently released (sorta). My enthusiasm for Sony's new gaming platform went from "No fucking way am I paying 600 bucks for that" to "hmmm, I dunno."

Considering the PS3 and the XBox 360 (slightly cheaper and available) got me thinking about HDTV. Prices had been coming down on LCD and Plasma screens and even the smaller models were looking attractive, so I decided I was gonna get one by years end.

At first I thought a 27" would be enough of an upgrade, but though the screen would be wider, it wouldn't be taller than the old 20". I think it would be shorter in height. So 30-32" made more sense to me. I considered a model from WalMart, but I'm a Teamster. I wouldn't like their labor practices even if I wasn't. Spending $600 there wasn't gonna happen for me, though I've bought 2-tin packs of Altoids for 3 bucks over there as well as other minor purchases. I did actually go there and check out a couple of models and almost rethought my hesitation over the 27" size. A Sanyo looked pretty good at that size. Better than the 32" next to it. I think it was the Ilo, but I don't remember for sure.

I soon came across this guy at Target. The reviews were mostly decent and the price wasn't bad, but I decided to check Pricegrabber.com to see if I could do better. The site lead me to nerds.net which had the LCD monitor at $518.99 at the time. The merchant reviews were mostly positive (4 1/2 out of 5 stars) though there were few negative reports. I bit the bullet and placed my order on a Sunday. I paid for overnight shipping so that I could get it that Tuesday and make sure I was home to get it. Nerds.net also charge a fee to expedite the processing of the order which I also paid. Something like $3.75. So on Monday, I get a call. My phone # was different from what was on file at the credit card company and the person on the other line needed confirmation. This was fine. it showed they were taking some effort to avoid fraud and whatnot. I also got a name and a phone extension, just in case I needed to contact somebody. I asked the guy would my order ship out that day, and he said yes.

That's not the way it worked out, though. I never got the order, because it never shipped. Not that I could tell at the time as it seems they don't like to give tracking numbers. I emailed them on Tuesday evening, saying they should at least refund the overnite shipping charge as it obviously hadn't been shipped overnight. Got a response the next day saying it would be looked into. Thursday was Thanksgiving and phone calls on Friday indicated they were closed for the holiday. I sent an email demanding a complete refund Friday night. Had it even shipped Wednesday via overnight shipping, it would've come Friday, but no. The email wouldn't have been read until Monday, but I couldn't wait till then to vent. I didn't want to log the experience here until I knew for sure what was going on.

On Monday, the 27th of November, a week after my order should have been processed, I placed a call to my contact to discuss cancelling my order. He wanted to find out what happened to it first. The "tracking system" had been down. I said fine, but I would be calling back once an hour, until I got an answer. I skipped an hour after the second call cuz I was washing my dreads. On the third, I was told they could ship my TV out that day. I said no. At that point I just wanted my money back and he said fine. No problem. I got an email later that day apologising for my inconvenience and now saying that they were out of stock on the item in question. Whether or not this was bullshit didn't concern me as the email also stated I would be getting my money back and that it would post to my account in 3-5 business days.

Guess what? On Monday December 4th, two weeks after I'd placed my order with nerds.net, they still had my money. I let the business day pass before sending yet another email. I decided to wait till morning to make another phone call. When I did, the guy (the same guy I always talk to over there) says they issued the credit yesterday (Monday). "Yesterday?" "Weren't you supposed to do this last week?" I wasn't happy, but I remained patient while quietly fantasizing about how I was gonna wage war on these assholes.

On Wednesday the 6th, Nerds.net finally gave me my money back. By the time this occurred, I'd already received my new 37" LCD HDTV from an Amazon.com vendor, Worldwide Distributors and was enjoying the hell out of it.

While I was wrestling with nerds.net to get my money back, I was looking at alternatives. I knew the 32" I wanted was available at Target and Amazon, but I'd now decided I wanted to go even bigger. This guy was 37" and included the NTSC/HDTV tuner that the model I'd previously ordered lacked. I don't think I actually need the tuner, but whatever.

I didn't like that "expedited shipping" doesn't necessarily mean next day or even second or third day (at least they tell you that), but I went with it anyway and got it in two business days. No tracking number here, either. Can't say I'm happy about that, but the delivery went well and the product is great.

One good thing about nerds.net is that they give you time to reconsider your purchase with them.

Labels: bullshit, HDTV, online retailers, ripoffs, tv