OT: Movie Magic

[Don Y]

I (re-)watch a fair number of movies. Much more fun as you don't have to pay attention. Also, aren't focused on tracking the story line as you already KNOW it!

Entertaining, however, as you are free to notice all of the blemishes; the "man behind the curtain", so to speak.

Doing so with the Jurassic Park trilogy, tonight. First scene "accidentally" exposes the underside of Velociraptor cage -- made to look like it is built of tough steel! Except, the bottom is obviously made of WOOD. Complete with *tiny* casters -- hardly sufficient to support the weight of that "metal" cage AND an adult dinosaur...

Ah, well... I've found worse in other flicks so I shouldn't be TOO disappointed...

[Stormin Mormon]

I'm rather fond of the Emergency! series from the 1970s. I've been known to yell at the TV, all the goofs and gaffes they do. Fire is over here---> and they spray water over there

[Micky]

I watch a lot of 50's and 60's tv and I see a lot more flaws than I remember seeing before. One showed an Indian riding off on his horse, and I saw the light reflecting in a horseshoe! It would be asking too much for them to get unshod horses for the Indians to ride, but I've never noticed a horseshoe before.

[bob haller]

My TIVO makes finding mistakes easier, just skip back and pause on the frame of interest

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Don Y:

Adds to the entertainment value, IMHO.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per bob haller:

Can somebody have a TIVO without paying a monthly Channel Lineup fee?

[rbowman]

My oddity is noticing the landscape. For example the 'Red Dawn' remake has part of the action taking place in a lush, hardwood forest. Around Spokane, WA? If you're going to film it in Michigan you might as well set it in Michigan. 'Justified' was careful about no showing the orange groves next to Arlo's house but some of the forest scenes were hard to imagine as in eastern Kentucky.

Green screen and CGI has replaced some of the obvious scenery painted on a sound stage from the older movies. otoh, some of the older movies were painstaking in their realism with the cast putting up with some discomfort to film on location. John Wayne dragging Maureen O'Hara across a genuine sheep pasture filled with genuine sheep shit in 'The Quiet Man' comes to mind, or the cast of 'The Vikings' freezing their butts off while living on a ship in a Norwegian fjord.

[Micky]

Last time we discussed this, at least two years ago, the answer seemed to be, Only if you could find one of the boxes that were made several years ago. And they didn't get all the channels iirc. Still I'd be happy to have that, but I didn't try to find one. I refuse to pay the monthly fee.

[Micky]

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Micky:

That is disappointing. I know somebody whose life would be significantly improved if somebody bought them a TIVO and set it up for them.... but the monthly charge would be a deal breaker..... like giving somebody a puppy....

I use something called SageTV and, for me, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.... and it gets freebie channel lineups, but it is an enthusiast's product and I cannot see a technophobe using it.

[Don Y]

Last time I played with a surplus TiVo, you had a month or so grace period to pay for service. But, I'm pretty sure you couldn't just keep "resetting" the device and reclaiming that month.

There are two problems with rolling your own DVR:

- access to "program information" (TV schedule)

- access to RELIABLE, INTUITIVE, inexpensive software

I tried the MythTV approach. And, despite having 30+ years of UN*X experience, found the implementation buggy, non-intuitive and brittle. Given how little we watch OTA broadcasts (no cable!), it simply was not worth the hassle.

Yet another example of Linux technocrats screwing up what *should* be a turnkey appliance!

[Don Y]

I thought google discontinued sagetv when it acquired it?

[Don Y]

Exactly. There's a scene in one of the Indiana Jones' movies where he's essentially playing Tarzan across a gorge (rope bridge has failed). He *slams* into the far-side -- and you can see the rocks compress as he BOUNCES off them!

A scene in Battlestar Galactica shows the city lights (Caprica?) spelling out the words "F*CK OFF".

The status displays in the opening scene of Buckaroo Banzai are labeled: SINED [sic], SEELED [sic] and DELIVERED, sequentially.

Same show: the lat-lon displayed on the monitors (same scene, probably filmed on salt flats?) are those of Cape Canaveral

[Don Y]

We tend to note the (incorrect) presence (or absence!) of saguaro's in films. E.g., there's a scene in _Paul_ that is claimed to be in NV -- yet there are saguaros in the shot! The same is true of _Rio Bravo_ -- set in TX but why are there saguaros present?!

[Micky]

I think in that thread, someone knew the model name, or a way to identify it, and maybe I did look on Ebay and not find any.

There's a monthly charge for a puppy! My friend has a puppy and I don't think he's paying it. Will the puppy be disconnected?

I make extensive use of the DVDR with hard drive There are only two or three models sold, but one only needs one. In fact even if I'm there to watch OTA tv live, I watch something else for a while and then watch the recording of, say, the news. That way I can FF through commercials and rewind if it's esp. interesting. And phone calls or putting the food in the oven don't cause me to miss anything.

Even without cable there is far more tv than I can watch now.

[Micky]

BTW, in another ng you said you were using Lasso, so I got it too. The main screen is too complicated for me, but I liked the summary that showed up in the systray when I put the cursor next to the icon.

Then about 3 weeks ago, after an update it disappeared, and I was going to ask you if it disappeared for you too, but I waited a while and a couple days ago another update brought it back.

[Jon Danniken]

Yes, but it's called MythTV:

Jon

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Don Y:

They did - but I had a legacy version from years before that.

But sometime last year they released it back into the public domain and it has gone Open-Source.

I am running v7. Last I looked they were up to v9.

I am not sure how the channel lineup provider thing worked out.... might be that open-source users have to find something on their own.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Micky:

That's where I am.

Nothing but OTA - and I have more good, interesting TV in the box than I can possibly watch.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Don Y:

I have heard from a number of Myth users that they find it trouble-free and easy to use.

On my way to Sage, I tried Myth for about a year.

It was like having a part-time job except the pay was lousy.