Technology catch-all thread

[Steve9347]

One of my friends has a huge "DVD Collection." Whoops.

That's all the rage when you're in your teens and maybe in college. Sad is when you're like my buddy and still think it's cool to have those s***ty dvds and still think people think you're cool when you suggest throwing on Big Lebowski or Mallrats.

[iamshack]

That's all the rage when you're in your teens and maybe in college. Sad is when you're like my buddy and still think it's cool to have those s***ty dvds and still think people think you're cool when you suggest throwing on Big Lebowski or Mallrats.

However, I do enjoy throwing on Spy Game every once in awhile...still one of the coolest movies of the last 20 years, IMHO...

[Steve9347]

I stopped purchasing movies about 5 years ago.

I did, too, mostly. The only blurays I own are Blackhawks Stanley Cup video, The Departed, and the three Batman movies.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Steve9347

[Iwritecode]

I never knew of a specific deal until reading that but I did always wonder, why were movies available for rent several weeks before you could buy them but this didn't apply when we started getting DVDs in 2000?

 

To an employee, the way this looked is the sale price would show on the computer screen of a new release VHS for something like $109 (next to the rental price of $3.99 or whatever) until it was designated "for sale," when Blockbuster would start selling it in stores along with other stores. But when we started selling DVDs, the sale price was the standard $19.99 or $24.99 and you could get the movie at any other retail chain.

 

When I was in HS I found out how much Blockbuster paid for VHS tapes when I accidentally mixed 2 up from 2 different stores. Put the wrong tape in the wrong case.

 

BB caught the mistake. The other store not only missed that it was the wrong tape, they actually rented it out to another person! They finally figured it out when the other person brougth it back. This was after the dumbass store manager vehemently denied that it could have gotten rented out and insisted that they didn't have the BB movie.

 

In the meantime I'm freaking out wondering how I'm going to come up with $100 for a VHS tape.

[Iwritecode]

I think the last thing they did a solid job marketing was the "return by noon" concept. A lot of customers were confused by this and I honestly felt if you didn't understand it, it wasn't Blockbuster's fault, you were just dumb. I had people cuss me out about changing the return time without their consent and one guy said it was 12 hours less and we were being deceptive. No, dips***, it would've been due "tomorrow by midnight" like it's been for the company's entire existence, but we gave you an extra 12 hours. You can still return it the following evening if you want but now you won't be late if you return it in the morning, and the store loses no money because the movie's not gonna be rented early in the morning anyway.

 

I had forgotten about this but it was one thing I did really like. Many times we would finish watching a movie and it would be 12:30 or 1 in the morning. Changing the return time to noon saved us a lot of late fees.

 

[lostfan]

When I was in HS I found out how much Blockbuster paid for VHS tapes when I accidentally mixed 2 up from 2 different stores. Put the wrong tape in the wrong case.

 

BB caught the mistake. The other store not only missed that it was the wrong tape, they actually rented it out to another person! They finally figured it out when the other person brougth it back. This was after the dumbass store manager vehemently denied that it could have gotten rented out and insisted that they didn't have the BB movie.

 

In the meantime I'm freaking out wondering how I'm going to come up with $100 for a VHS tape.

Yeah, it wasn't like this was common knowledge. I'm not sure what Blockbuster paid for them, but that was the replacement cost for the customer and if you really wanted, I suppose you could've paid that but I'm not sure why anyone would. I only knew that because I'd see it on the computer screen.

 

When tapes were done with the renting cycle (after a while, you don't need 218 copies of Gladiator or X-Men) those would either get converted to used copies and sold at a discount or they'd get sent "back to distribution" which was some mythical place in the sky and we have no idea what they did with them there.

[Jake]

It sounds like the main thing about Family Video is that it doesn't have too high of ambitions and it is generally offering the same service that Blockbuster did before they alienated their customers.

 

The article posted by Y2HH shows why those blunders with service were fatal instead of harmful. They had already made their service unnecessary.

[RockRaines]

Install a program called Handbreak (free), and an encoder/decoder like VLC (free), works on either Windows or OSX. Handbreak is a ripper, VLC is used by Handbreak to decrypt the DVD.

 

You insert the DVD, then select any one of a number of presets that are pre-configured, such as AppleTV3, which is basically a maximum quality, full 480p rip (which is DVD quality).

 

You then click Start. And depending on the speed of your computer, it will take 15-30 minutes to complete, and you have your digital copy that can be imported into iTunes, or whatever streaming media player you use where you can tag it, add album art, etc.

 

There are a few other things, but nothing complicated. You just have to make sure you rip the right track, as sometimes there will be multiple tracks and one will be Fullscreen and the other Widescreen (you can use a preview button to see a sample image, and you'll be able to tell if it's widescreen or not, either with that or looking at the resolution width.)

 

----

 

It takes a long time...it's not something I did overnight, but I did it slowly over the past year whenever I was sitting at my computer. But now that it's done, it's really cool having a huge library of movies to watch at any time. I have an AppleTV on both of my larger televisions, and of course the stream works to any iPad/iPhone on my WiFi, too. It's really kinda cool.

Thanks dude, I have VLC already but not handbreak. I am going to do this as well since I am a huge Apple TV user.

[witesoxfan]

I did, too, mostly. The only blurays I own are Blackhawks Stanley Cup video, The Departed, and the three Batman movies.

 

Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin?

[Big Hurtin]

Anyone use Vudu? They got broken into and hard drives with user info were stolen.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/09/vudu-of...er-info-stolen/

[Steve9347]

Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin?

NO IDIOT

[Brian]

Love my Roku3. Great picture for MLB.tv and Netflix.

[witesoxfan]

NO IDIOT

 

[Jenksismyhero]

 

 

This guy is going to make a ton of money.......

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...me-machine.html

[Steve9347]

This guy is going to make a ton of money.......

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...me-machine.html

Comedy Central

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

This guy is going to make a ton of money.......

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...me-machine.html

 

Sounds more like a fortune teller, not a time machine.

[Y2HH]

This guy is going to make a ton of money.......

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...me-machine.html

 

...until the second he uses it, creates an inevitable paradox that goes with all time travel, and that link (and all other links), and these posts all disappear from existence/memory and we/nobody else ever heard of a guy that never existed.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Y2HH

[lostfan]

...until the second he uses it, creates an inevitable paradox that goes with all time travel, and that link (and all other links), and these posts all disappear from existence/memory and we/nobody else ever heard of a guy that never existed.

but he says he can only tell the future and not the past.

[Brian]

My continual viewing of the Back to the Future trilogy makes me an expert in time travel theory.

 

This guy could tell you something is going to happen to you but when it doesn't when it is suppose to, he can just say, "Well since you knew it was going to happen, you did something differently, like stepping on a butterfly, and changed the future!"

[Y2HH]

My continual viewing of the Back to the Future trilogy makes me an expert in time travel theory.

 

This guy could tell you something is going to happen to you but when it doesn't when it is suppose to, he can just say, "Well since you knew it was going to happen, you did something differently, like stepping on a butterfly, and changed the future!"

 

The Butterfly Effect is the essence of a paradox, whether it happens in the past affecting the future, or the future affecting the past, such as in this case.

 

Knowing the future and changing it isn't knowing the future, because that means it was never the future in the first place.

 

The initial conversation with this guy never took place if he told you about your future and you changed it. So, from the get-go, he should have only seen the alternate version of your future, because he created a "future paradox" by seeing what you would have done initially and telling you so you wouldn't do it. Therefore he saw a future that never happened...thus he never saw that future.

[witesoxfan]

but he says he can only tell the future and not the past.

 

That's because we already history class to tell us about the past and every 4th grader knows that history class sucks

[Iwritecode]

The FM tuner on my MP3 player has started crapping out. I didn't even know that was possible. It plays MP3s just fine though. That sucks because I was perfectly happy listening to the radio when I get bored with the 100 or so songs I have on it.

 

I've been thinking about getting a cheap little battery-powered AM/FM walkman for like $15. Then I can listen to Sox games during the day as well.

 

[IlliniKrush]

The FM tuner on my MP3 player has started crapping out. I didn't even know that was possible. It plays MP3s just fine though. That sucks because I was perfectly happy listening to the radio when I get bored with the 100 or so songs I have on it.

 

I've been thinking about getting a cheap little battery-powered AM/FM walkman for like $15. Then I can listen to Sox games during the day as well.

This one gets the job done

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00020S7X...333BJXH60WH2CWS

[iamshack]

So I've got my PS3 player running through a Sony receiver (recent model) and then the receiver running to the TV, which has something which is called Audio Return Channel...this essentially allows audio to be sent back to the receiver from the tv.

 

Anyways, everything has been fine up until this point, when I threw in Mad Men season 1 blu ray on the PS3 last night. The audio was slightly ahead of the video and it was driving me nuts. For whatever reason, the audio is being processed by the receiver faster than the video is being processed.

 

I fixed the problem by running the PS3 right to the tv, but that of course ruins the whole point of the sound system if I can't watch Blu Rays using it.

 

Anyone have any fixes for this? I tried turning on the sync features of the receiver, via HDMI control on, as well as A/V sync, and neither eliminated the problem. I also tried playing with the audio settings on the PS3, but could not seem to make a difference either.

[BigSqwert]

It might have something to do with the boring, slow pace of the show.