YOU GO JIRA!! YOU GO JIRA!!
Yes, it's 2014 and Godzilla is Living Life Large! He is definitely the king of the plus-sized monsters. Isn't it fascinating how fat monsters can still be so nimble on their feet?
Read moreDealing with Radio Frequency Interference, OR "Hiss, the Villain!"
In my previous post on Ground Loops and Power Line Interference Hum, I mentioned another common complaint in Home Theater setups: "Hiss" from your speakers. Hiss comes from Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) -- i.e., higher frequency signals emitted by something in or near your Home Theater setup. If these emissions get past the shielding of your electronics they can result in audible Hiss from your speakers, even when you are not playing anything!
If you'd like more info on what's going on, and suggestions for how to deal with it, this post is for you!
Read more"It Happened One Night" (1934) on Blu-ray -- A Tale of Old Hollywood!
What is widely considered the first ever "screwball comedy" -- and still one of the best -- was made by Frank Capra for Harry Cohn's "Poverty Row" studio, Columbia Pictures.
MGM had loaned Clark Gable for the film -- pocketing a neat $500/week profit over his contract salary of $2,000/week. When several actresses turned down the female lead (partly due to the script at the time making the character less sympathetic), Cohn suggested Claudette Colbert. Colbert had made a previous film with Capra which turned out poorly. And besides she had a long planned vacation scheduled to start -- just weeks away. So she told Cohn and Capra she'd only take the part if they paid DOUBLE her normal salary *AND* could complete her shooting in just 4 weeks . NOT a 4 week shoot beginning some time in the future, but 4 weeks from THAT VERY DAY! Keep in mind this was at a point when costumes and sets had yet to be created!
Read more"Lilies of the Field" (1963) on Blu-ray -- A Tale of Old Hollywood!
There have ALWAYS been "independent" films of course. But with the gradual breakdown of the Hollywood Studio System in the 50s and early 60s, independent filmmaking really came into its own. Shooting for just 14 days, and with only $400K to spend, Director Ralph Nelson ended up Producing THIS flick all on his own, when no major studio wanted to take on the project!
The result (Distributed by United Artists) garnered an Oscar Nomination for Best Picture (losing out to "Tom Jones"). It also got Oscar Nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Lilia Skala), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Black & White Cinematography. But of course what everyone remembers is that this is the film that got Sidney Poitier his only acting Oscar.
Read moreJust Bought a New TV, eh? Time to Extinguish its Torch Mode Settings!
OK, so you just forked over the cash for a brand new TV. You wrangled it out of the box, got it positioned in place, cabled up, plugged in, and Voila!, you've even got a picture! Pretty cool, eh? Time to kick back, relax, and enjoy?
Not so fast, Bunky!
One of the dirty little secrets of the Consumer Electronics biz is that the "out of box", Factory Default Settings on just about every TV ever sold are flat out WRONG for best quality viewing! There's no real mystery behind this. The default settings are deliberately chosen to make the TV stand out -- to catch your eye -- from a distance, when buried amidst a whole wall of competing TVs, under garish, store lighting conditions. THESE, my friend, are the so-called (and rightfully infamous) "Torch Mode" settings. And if you are reading this, know that your FIRST task, should you choose to accept it, is to douse all of them!
Read moreYikes! All my Shows are Shocking Pink / Ghastly Green!
Does the world seem rather "off" to you today? Does everything look like you are seeing it through rose colored glasses? Or perhaps through a refreshing glass of limeade? And you don't even LIKE limeade? Is that what's bothering you, Bunky?
Well congratulations! You've stumbled into the exciting, new, high tech world of HDMI Handshake Failures! For a handle on what's really going on -- and what to DO about it -- read on!
Read more"The Big Sleep" (1946) on Blu-ray -- A Tale of Old Hollywood!
Sometimes it's truly weird how Hollywood cranks out a hit. Howard Hawks' film adaptation of the notoriously convoluted and confusing Raymond Chandler novel was actually completed, and in the can in 1945. But then Warner suddenly realized, with the war coming to an end, they had to rush all their WAR themed movies out the door RIGHT NOW while there was still a market for them! So "The Big Sleep" was put on the shelf.
And THAT gave Lauren Bacall's agent a chance to lobby with Jack Warner. To wit: The film should be reshot and reedited to give Bacall more screen time with Bogart, along with new dialog geared at reprising their fiery chemistry from, "To Have and Have Not" (1944). The result is truly amazing of course; even iconic. It probably helped that the Bacall/Bogart affair going on during the 1945 shoot had turned into the Bacall/Bogart marriage by 1946!
Read more"Dunkirk" (2017) on UHD Blu-ray -- HDR and WCG done right!
Writer/Director Christopher Nolan has called his blockbuster an "experimental" film; and that is both its genius and its problem. This shortish film (only 106 minutes) *IS* an experiential masterpiece. But that is accomplished at the expense of traditional story-telling and character development. It will not appeal to everyone, particularly if you come to it thinking you are about to see a typical, Hollywood-mytholgized, period history film. Ya know, with big name stars the audience can root for!
Read moreDealing with Ground Loops, OR "Bah! Bug Hum!"
Most Home Theater users have experienced a "Ground Loop" at some point, even if they have no idea that's what it's called. A Ground Loop is garbage voltage which travels between the devices in your system -- over the cable shields of the cables connecting them -- looking for a path back to Ground so that current can flow. In the process, it can cause havoc with various different parts of your system. The most common symptom is an annoying "Hum" from your Subwoofer.
Getting rid of a Ground Loop can be a trying experience -- made more so if you are operating in the dark about what's going on. So in this post, we'll talk about Ground Loops: What they are, where they come from, and how to squelch them.
Read moreXLR (Balanced) Analog Audio Cables, OR Signal So Nice we Sent it Twice!
Most always when you go to connect two pieces of electronics together for Analog Audio you will find yourself using RCA cables. These are the ubiquitous cables with a round plug, about the size of a pencil eraser, consisting of a metal ring around a single pin. That pin fits into the single hole of a matching, RCA socket, and the metal ring of the plug slides over the barrel of that socket to complete the connection. For a Stereo connection, you would use two such RCA cables.
But PROFESSIONAL Audio gear frequently uses much cooler-looking cables, with a bigger plug (still round) containing THREE pins. These are XLR Analog Audio cables -- also called Balanced cables. Again, for a Stereo connection, you would use two of them.
Higher end Home Theater gear will frequently offer the option of using either RCA or XLR cables for your Analog Audio connections. The XLR choice is undeniably the Cooler choice! But if you've ever wondered whether there's any OTHER reason to use XLR cabling, this post is for you!
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