09.24.07
@verso : take a look…
@verso : take a look at http://tinyurl.com/2ybddm for links to great site designs in two of the bullet points.
@archineas – Welcome to Twitter!…
@archineas – Welcome to Twitter! I'm guessing you found me through my Facebook page?
Halftime at Timbers match: nil-nil/1-1…
Halftime at Timbers match: nil-nil/1-1 aggragate.
09.22.07
Gloating over my Depeche Mode…
Gloating over my Depeche Mode laserdisc collection… How sad.
Depeche Mode: Strange on LaserDisc
If you noticed my Depeche Mode fandom it should not come as a surprise that I may have a bit of a Depeche Mode library. Having been an obsessive collector of Depeche Mode for a number of years (tapering off after the Ultra era), I still have quite a collection of releases, but there are a few items that have always been out of reach. One of those items recently became available:
eBay: DEPECHE MODE – STRANGE * JAPANESE LASERDISC WITH OBI
Yes, the only non-VHS release of these videos up until the DVD era. Now here’s why this is important in a Depeche Mode collection: 1) it is laserdisc, which means playing it more than once doesn’t risk destroying the media (unlike video tape), 2) it is laserdisc which means, properly taken care of, it will retain a higher quality signal than the VHS release, 3) it has entire song and cuts of other videos that are currently unavailable on DVD.
The closest release of these videos on DVD was The Videos 86->98 DVD, which had the ‘single mix’ of most of the tracks (A Question Of Time, Strangelove, Never Let Me Down Again, and Behind The Wheel) which is a terrible thing, and a travesty when it comes to the NLMDA video because it cuts out NEARLY HALF of the original footage! Adding to the problem is the lack of the short inter-song connections and the the complete loss of the video for Pimpf. What makes Pimpf so special? It’s the only b-side that Mode has ever made a video for.
Strange is one of the best Mode releases, ever. Now I have it in the most pristine format ever released.
So, as of this week I finally have purchased (but not received yet) the Japanese laserdisc release of Strange, thanks to an eBay god, a friend of mine who goes by the handle “HighVelocityVav”. Vavrin, your are my hero, my fast-fingered-friend!
…And before you ask, yes, I do actually own a laserdisc player and no, I don’t even have to dig it out of storage.
09.16.07
HDTV on the Mac in Portland
So I got the $100 rebate from Apple for my iPhone and added that to a small monetary gift I got recently to purchase the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid which I had on my wish list for a while. The device receives HDTV signals and passes them to a Mac and works pretty well.
The one piece missing from the package is an antenna. A simple $20 antenna gets a good solid signal. Given the location of our TV, facing west out through our westward-facing windows out to the West Hills where the TV broadcast antennas are at, we could have gone with the even cheaper $10 model. Remember, in most cities, HDTV broadcasts use the UHF band, and any UHF antenna can be use. (There’s no need to get an HD-specific antenna so don’t over spend in this arena.)
The biggest problem with our setup is that the Mac Mini only has the base 512MB of RAM. Until an upgrade, a few of the highest quality channels stutter. KGW seems to be pushing out a full 1080p signal, which I think is overwhelming the RAM buffer. Whereas the KOIN and KATU feeds are at 720p and the Mini keeps up with them pretty well.
The reason I’m most interested in Over The Air (OTA) HDTV is that our analog cable signal gets horrible crosstalk and ghosting. With a lack of insulated coaxial wiring, local channels are bad to really bad. Now we can see them really in clear, sharp high quality. Next to getting Digital Cable, this is the best way to get these channels.
Getting ready for Timbers playoff…
Getting ready for Timbers playoff game this PM. "Mental and blarmy" indeed.