allankintz.com

Dear Movie Studios,

If I buy or rent a movie, be it DVD or BluRay, why must I be bombarded with stupid previews that I don’t want to see?

I can understand it at the theater. Fine. That’s how people find out about the absolute latest movies and future movies. The previews on discs are for old things. Who cares? I got the disc because I wanted to watch the MOVIE. Not the stupid shit before the movie that you want to shove down people’s throats. I just want to sit down and turn the movie on. Not sit down, turn the previews on and get bored after 10 minutes of shit.

Normally I can deal with this. I just hit Menu and skip through them all. Then that feature was disabled on almost everything. So then I could press the Next Chapter (or skip) button at least through most of them and get to the menu fairly quickly. Today, I found a new low.

Received Where the Wild Things Are from Netflix and popped it in. Tried Menu to skip the Blu-Ray ad that came on. Fail. Tried the Top Menu button (sometimes that works with Blu-Ray, not an option for DVD). Fail. Tried the Next Chapter/Skip button. Fail. Wait… what? In all the discs I’ve had, I have NEVER had that be a problem. EVER. Apparently they have reached a new low.

And while we’re talking about previews… can someone explain to me why there are advertisements for Blu-Ray on Blu-Ray discs? Newsflash: If I got a Blu-Ray movie to watch, I ALREADY HAVE BLU-RAY! You don’t have to tell me how awesome it is, I already know. Stop wasting my time.

Speaking of movie studios, stop fucking over Netflix. I pay for Netflix to watch movies when I want to watch them. Not for them to pay you and for you to fuck them over by making them wait another month for new releases which then fucks me over waiting for new releases. It takes long enough to get a new disc from them as it is without having a fabricated waiting period because you wanted more money.

In closing, I’d just like to say that you suck. All of you. I hate you.

(ok, i’m done. back to the movie)

As some of you may know, I got my fancy new TV yesterday. In the dictionary, under the word “awesome” … there is a picture of this TV. Go ahead and look it up… I’ll wait.

See, told you so.

Moving right along to seriousness. This TV really is quite spectacular. But let’s back up a bit… if you remember a week or so ago, I posted about ordering my new TV. I ordered through vanns.com and got a great deal. $1499 even. No tax. Free shipping. Cannot beat that price for this TV (right now). I even ordered a Square Trade extended warranty with it for 3 years. Figured the money saved on tax/shipping would be put to better use with a warranty.

Shipping was via freight – as it is with most large TVs. The shipping company had called me early yesterday morning to set something up. They were able to call me at work when they were just a few minutes out and I took a quick break to head down to get my TV. Met the guy there, he helped me bring it inside and waited while I looked it over and opened it up to make sure everything arrived OK. All was well… I signed the paper and got to work.

more

What is going on with Netflix? Do they just hate me? Do they not want to send me the movies I want? Am I watching movies too fast?

The top 4 movies in my queue are either Long Wait or Very Long Wait (3 of them are the latter). Yes, they’re recent movies… but come on. You can’t tell me THAT many people still are watching Funny People. It came out like 3 weeks ago! What is going on?

This reminds me of many of the rumors in the past that Netflix would start staggering your movies if you watch too many – likely on the assumption that you’re just ripping/copying them (which I am not… this time). I just want to see the movies I want to see.

I have actually purchased two new movies in the last month because I didn’t want to wait 6 months for Netflix to get around to sending them to me. I bought Star Trek a little while ago (which is awesome) and just this past weekend bought Terminator: Salvation (also awesome).

So as soon as Netflix gets to sending me Funny People, Public Enemies, The Hangover and Inglourious Basterds… I’ll be waiting… if I don’t go buy them all first. In the meantime, I’ll be trying to enjoy the second rate movies I have backed up in the rest of my queue. I hope someone is really enjoying these new releases… cause I’m not.

Thanks Netflix. Thanks for nothing.

There’s something about Mad Men on AMC. I can’t stop watching it.

It’s not like it is any crazy, action-filled show of madness and intensity. I don’t know if it is the writing or the actors. Is the story that good? Are they selling it that well? Strange because it often feels slow moving and boring. Then they just broadside you or something and I’m dragged back in. Can’t… stop… it.

Maybe it is because it is about a time that I never knew – and while not necessarily “based on a true story” … I feel that there is a certain truth to it all. I think that helps. Of course I don’t know if people were REALLY like that in that era, but it is plausible. And that’s enough.

Season 3 just ended and I CANNOT wait until season 4. This is the kind of show that I buy on disc (BluRay in this case). I have season 1 and need to pick up season 2 when I get a chance. It is fantastic.

If you haven’t been watching this show, that’s sad. Hit up iTunes and see if you can start from the beginning. Like I said though, it may feel slow – so be patient. Give it some time and give yourself a chance to get into it.

So I’m a car person… I think that’s fairly obvious. I’m not the most educated or knowledgeable about cars. I haven’t always been a car person. But I like cars…. I think is what I’m trying to get at.

I also like movies about cars. Some are better than others. Then there are some that are just so bad… they’re actually a lot of fun to watch. I’m talking about the Fast and the Furious series… if you didn’t know.

As a quality flick, all of the movies in this series fail… but being a car person, I find great enjoyment in them – even if they did spawn an entire generation and culture of ricers. Yes… ricers. Stupid kids (or in some cases, adults) that buy crappy cars and do stupid things to them that have no value, no benefit, no performance… no real purpose other than trying to look like they might drive a race car. And they don’t. “All show and no go” is a common term there. Or if you prefer the acronym: Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements.

Annnyway… as much as a joke as these movies are, they’re fun. I’ve had the first three on DVD for a while and even went to see the latest at the theater when it came out.

Turns out they were all just released on BluRay (at least the new one was – the others may have already been out). What better opportunity to upgrade my poor DVDs than with fancy new BDs? No time like the present!

The value of my PS3 has already increased significantly… or at least as much as the value of my (now) useless DVD player.

Even with the PS3 taking over DVD upconverting duties from my (very recently purchased) DVD player, I still was leary of getting rid of it… mostly for its ability to brilliantly and easily play my entire collection of movies and TV shows on my computer. Only catch was I had to put whatever I wanted to watch onto a USB drive and plug it into the front of the player. Still.. quite simple and very worth the trouble.

Turns out the PS3 can stream media from other sources. Also turns out that Windows Media Player 11 can share my current collection to the PS3 (I had at first tried a program called TVersity for this, but had nothing but issues).

All of my files are divx or xvid coded avi files, and WMP doesn’t seem to have that much trouble streaming them to the PS3. I just have to search for the media server and browse through what I have. I had a couple little issues at first but I was able to watch an entire episode of Top Gear without much trouble.

The PS3′s stock just went up in my book and I may be able to get rid of my DVD player after all.

When I upgraded my receiver a couple months ago, I didn’t go for the lowest possible one I could use… I figured I’d eventually want some more expansion abilities and went for the next step up.

Good thing.

I now have 3 different sources connected via HDMI and another pair of devices connected through component HD cables. Jen thinks I’m crazy. I tell her it’s worth it.

Oh wait.. what am I rambling about? Jen got me a Playstation 3 for Christmas (with the Formula One World Championship game). So not only do I get the joys of another gaming console but I also be the benefit of having a BluRay player – and what might as well be considered one of the better BluRay players.

I used some of my Christmas cash to pick up a couple movies and another accessory. Got Hitman, No Country for Old Men and the Band of Brothers set, all in BluRay. I also got the Nyko Blu-Wave for it… so now I can control the PS3 with my Logitech Harmony.

The PS3 uses Bluetooth for the controllers (same as the Wii) so you can’t use an infrared remote (the Harmony). The Nyko thing remedies this.

Time to start building another collection I guess…