mkjones

The Soprano’s just ended for me with the strange and interesting last episode leaving a gaping void in the TV schedule.

What with the death of the West Wing a year ago and Studio 60 giving up it seems that quality drama will be left to likes of Heroes and Dexter. Neither of which excite me in the same way as the aforementioned shows.

I suppose it gives me time to play more 360 games. I really need to get hold of the Orange Box. I never did get around to playing HL:2 on the old Xbox.

I’m on episode 10 of ‘Studio 60′ the amazingly well put together Aaron Sorkin West Wing follow-up.

I love the show, its entertaining and funny with an excellent cast. This however was deemed not good enough for the US media and after a bumpy ride and ‘mixed’ reviews the show was cancelled after only one series.

Many rumors circled for months regarding the cancellation of the show, and as of June 26, 2007, the official show website listed “What Kind Of Day Has It Been?” as the series finale.

From Wikipedia

I have not been this gutted since FireFly was unceremoniously bumped from our screens. Sadly, unlike FireFly I can’t see a ‘Studio 60: The Movie’ any time soon.

Just wow. This TV is only 3mm thick:

Looks like Sony and Co finally worked out how to make OLED displayer larger more vibrant images.

Can you imagine what it will be like in 5/6 years time when you can get a 40″ version of one of these things for under £1000?

Add some WiFi and a few Gigabytes of flash media and you could have a networked picture frame that can be could essentially hang anywhere.

The UK has been subject to some rather impressive displays of sport with the amazing Manchester Utd 8-3 victory and Chelsea’s historic win over Valencia.

The real fun however begins in around 2 weeks time when the Snooker World Championship comes to the BBC.

If, like me, you love this tournament, copy these dates and times onto your calender now:

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOKER ON THE BBC

All times subject to change, all live coverage simulcast on BBC Sport website

Saturday 21 April
1300-1630, BBC ONE
1630-1730 and 1900-2030, BBC TWO
2320-0200, BBC Two, highlights
1000-2300, BBCi

Sunday 22 April
1400-1745 and 1900-2000, BBC TWO
0000-0250, BBC TWO, highlights
1000-2300, BBCi

(Keep reading)

This TV Ad for the Xbox 360 game “Gears of War” ran on ITV last night:

I think its an excellent ad. The only let down was the “Actual In-Game Footage” sticker that had to overlaid in order to comply with recent legal proceedings concerning misleading gaming ads. But I digress… (Keep reading)

Microsoft sent me this email today:

It’s time to tune in. We’d like you to try MSN’s new user-uploaded video service we’re calling Soapbox on MSN Video. Before we take the service to prime time we’re looking for beta testers who are into watching and uploading videos to help us put the service to the test.

Soapbox is Microsoft’s much anticipated YouTube rip off.

Is it any good? Not yet. As with any video site its the community that makes it work and Soapbox has no community, not yet anyway.

The question is, will Microsoft be able to pry users away from YouTube/MetaCafe/Etc?

If they can address these key issues they could pull it off:

• Speed videos should load a hell of a lot faster than on YouTube.
• Copyright admins removing video is not fun.
• Returns PAY users who upload videos that bring visitors to the site. Set up some kind of ad-sharing program.
• Easy make uploading easy, like Mac user easy.

Even with these in place its the quality of the content that will eventually “sell” the site. At the moment its full off re-hashed comedy videos and some un-amusing Microsoft stuff.

One interesting video I did find is below:

Video: Girl Photoshoped - beauty is distorted

More bad celebrity cancer news this week, turns out former Mastermind presenter Magnus Magnusson has been diagnosed with cancer.

Sad news of course. But one part of the news article did put a smile on my face:

A statement from the family said the presenter was undergoing tests, but was “in good fettle”.
Full Story

From now on the phrase “in good fettle” will be sincerely wedged in my vocabulary. Thanks Magnus

It happened. I got Sky+. It was installed only 2 days ago. I am pleased, of course, I finally have a decent Sports Package! Its also truly wonderful to have Discovery and Sky One back in my life.

Sadly this means that the era of Satellite based HDTV in my living room is not meant to be - just yet.

The Cost of HD
SkyHD let me down tremendously a few months ago when I tried it out in my local Sony Centre. Read why here.

In the end £300 for a SkyHD box and an extra £10 on top of that per month as well as a £60 install fee just didn’t make good economical sense for the measly array of HD channels you actually get (around 5 standard and 2 sports). No matter how good the football looks on it.

The SD Alternative
In contrast I got my Sky+ box free and it was installed free. I also got 6 months half price on the package. All of this was gained simply by calling up and doing some very mild bartering with a member of the Sky sales team. (Keep reading)

This came as a very weird shock today:

James Van Allen, one of the pioneers of America’s space program who gave his name to the belts of radiation that encircle the Earth, died Wednesday. He was 91.

Read full article (latimes.com)

Why was it a such a shock? He was 91 years old!

It was a shock Because yesterday I watched this documentary:

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon (2001)

I found this pile of pseudo - science - conspiracy - theory - crap via the quite wonderful Free Movies, Documentaries, Cartoons, Music & Comedy website.

I could not believe that such a idiotic piece of film could have been put together as late as the year 2001. A time when surely ALL of the conspiracy about the moon trips had been proved for what they are (complete bollocks).

The religious overtones and overuse of spooky and over-dramatized music made me physically wince in my seat as I watched, sometimes screaming at the TV.

ALL of the so called “theory’s” put forward were shambolic and under researched to the point of pure ignorance.

Today, I planned to write a short de-bunk-style post linked to this useless piece of film making. My main gripe with the film was its use of the Van Allen Belts as evidence that we never went to the moon.
(Keep reading)

I finally found a local shop that has SkyHD to play with before I throw £300 at something I have never seen/used.

The SkyHD box was connected up to a 42″ Bravia LCD and I was given free reign over the remote and told to play around.

It was very disappointing

Here is why:

Interface
I expected sky to update the almost-10-year-old UI. I wanted to see swish HD menus, similar to Media Centre PCs or the Xbox 360. Sadly its the same old boxy blue bland stuff.

Also the HUD for the Sky+ function looks TERRIBLE in HD (you know the Play and Pause circle). Its blocky, nasty and irritating. How much work would it have been to increase the resolution of a simple icon? It makes the whole experience seem cheap.

Content
Most of the HD channels looked mediocre at best. I expected National Geographic to be one of the best but a documentary on Apes had pixelated motion blur and the colours and details were washed out. Discovery was slightly better but nothing like the Demos I have seen in the past.

Fortunately SkySportsHD looked rather good. Unfortunately it was the Cricket. However it still gave a good indication of what live HD video should look like. The picture was crisp colours were natural and detail was by far the best of the HD channels I had available.

Movies looked ok, they were DVD quality and nothing really stood out.

Hardware
The box is huge and ugly. Talking original Xbox design school here. It looks great on the website and in the press but in the flesh its a monster coming over the hill.

The ‘new’ remote is a waste of however much money Sky put into its re-design (probably very little) its STILL too large and the button config is still as mis-placed as ever.

Overall
I am glad I found the demo before signing up. I would have been red with rage if I had ordered this and it be this inadequate.

For now Sky+ will do until they work on updating there HD services.

SkyHD Links

• SkyHD Official Site
• HDTV UK - Sky HD clips reviewed
• AV Forums - SkyHD section