My multi-region Sherwood Bluray player arrived three or four days ago, and it actually does play Region 2 Blurays if you punch in the correct code. Very comforting and satisfying. My mistake was to place the Sherwood on top of my Samsung Bluray player, which I’ve had for a year and use for domestic Blurays. … Read more
The sound-synch problems that I wrote about in mid February were apparently not the fault of my Samsung 60-inch plasma nor the Oppo Bluray. It was the apparent fault of my dusty old Samsung sound bar, which I bought at a Westwood Radio Shack four or five years ago. So I went down to Best … Read more
I noticed a month or so ago that the sound is a half-second late when I’m watching domestic Blurays. That’s the fault of either (a) my Oppo BDP-93 Bluray player or (b) the sound settings on my Samsung 60″ plasma or (c) the Samsung sound bar, which has an AV synch button that allows you … Read more
Since buying an iLIVE sound bar for $130-something and hooking it up to the 50″ Vizio, I’ve been very pleased by the added volume and the increased bass and treble tones. Then it suddenly hit me last week that the Bluray sound is ever-so-slightly out of synch. The sound arrives just a tiny bit late. … Read more
Tragic Synch New Line Cinema’s decision to move the release date of Tony Scott’s Domino from 11.23 back to mid-August (which is when the film was originally scheduled to open for several months) may look like an exploitation of a tragedy to some…but apparently it’s not. I was shocked to learn Tuesday that 35 year-old … Read more
From “Trump Needs a Primary Challenge,” a N.Y. Times opinion piece by the once admittedly rancid but nonetheless marginally redeemed Joe Walsh, posted on 8.14.19: “In Mr. Trump, I see the worst and ugliest iteration of views I expressed for the better part of a decade. To be sure, I’ve had my share of controversy. … Read more
I got three hours’ sleep on yesterday’s Seoul-to-Los Angeles flight. I felt more or less okay when I got home around 5 pm, but my Hanoi body clock thought the time might be 7 am the next day. I was up until 1 am last night and then awoke at 3 am (5 pm Hanoi … Read more
My attempts to fix the sound-synch issue with the Samsung Bluray were going nowhere, and I knew I’d have to get another player to handle domestic Blurays. Plus the Sherwood Bluray player, which plays European Blurays quite nicely, doesn’t have an optical sound receptacle so I’ve had to shoot the sound through the TV speakers … Read more
I feel the same about Paramount Home Video’s To Catch A Thief Bluray as DVD Beaver’s Gary Tooze and Bluray.com’s Martin Leibman. It’s luscious and lascivious, every shot a spoonful of exquisite French sorbet. Robert Burks‘ Oscar-winning cinematography has never delivered this much tonal pleasure. But the disc I was given has a sound synch … Read more
Whoever was hired to screen the digitally restored Ben-Hur this morning at a New York Film Festival screening messed up big-time. It wasn’t the fault of the Warner Home Video guys, who have reportedly produced a stunningly exquisite Bluray. (Every Bluray reviewer has said this.) But I do know the following: (a) The sound this … Read more
Emerald Fennell‘s Wuthering Heights, which I sat through early last evening, is the female gaze in action. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It used to be fine to have male gaze movies until the wokeys decided that white males are fundamentally repellent. Female gaze movies are obviously more in synch with today’s swing … Read more
Robert Harris‘s “Conclave” was published on or about 12.1.16 — almost exactly eight years ago. Earlier that year Luca Guadagnino‘s A Bigger Splash, which costarred Ralph Fiennes as a free-spirited, middle-aged Dionysian and who eight years later would topline as a reverent, somber-minded cardinal in Edward Berger‘s film version of Conclave, opened in theatres and … Read more