Found and Lost

Another year, another Paranormal Activity. Have I seen it? No I have not. Will I see it? I doubt it. Did I see the first one? Yes. Did I like it? Yes. Do I believe in the supernatural? Yes. Do I think events like those in the films could actually happen? Certainly. Did I see the second film? Nope.

Well, that explains why I won't see the third one, doesn't it? Yes, but that's not the whole reason. Okay, then. Explain it to me. What is the whole reason? To the point, the whole found footage conceit. Even more to the point, the cameras. What about the cameras? Look at them. They all use tapes, don't they? There isn't a hard disc camera to be found is Paranormal Activityland, is there? Well,  I don't really remember. Go back and watch the first film. You'll see. DV tapes last, at most, 90 minutes, and then you have to change them. Is that right? Yes, it is. So how is it the bloody cameras are able to record all night long without stopping? Are you sure the cameras aren't recording to a computer hard drive? Well, even if they were. it's very likely the hard drive wouldn't be large enough to hold days and nights worth of footage. Couldn't the guy have edited the footage as he went and deleted all the stuff he couldn't use? He could have, bit he's never really shown doing that. He's just reviewing footage-- Wait, we're talking about the first one, right? Yeah. Because that's the one I've seen. You don't even know, then. In the second one, it's like security cameras and stuff. Those pretty much always connect to computers. True, but some of them record to tapes.

It's a freaking movie. Get over it. Normally I can overlook movie logic, but not when the movie purports to be real. The sequels aren't claiming to be real.  No, actually they mostly are, it's just not as many people believe it now--hardly any, I bet. You can get away with it every now and then. The found footage gimmick worked with Blair Witch, and then it worked with PA1 because it hadn't really been over used. But now it has. Think of Cloverfield. How ridiculous is it the camera survives a bomb that wipes out a huge hideous monster? Or that the camera man could make that crazy jump without putting down the camera? I hadn't seen Cloverfield and you just spoiled it for me. Well, sorry. But you're not really missing anything. The point is, found footage needs to stay lost for a while now. If there's some really good reason to find it again, fine, but -- Don't you think it's weird talking to yourself like this? Well at least I don't have a little boy living in my mouth. Who said anything about a little boy? It's from a much better movie. Well what movie? Well!?!?! What movie?

Blu Ray Dis May

Blu Ray is the best, most accessible HD format on the market. I believe that. Films transferred properly to the format have never looked (or sounded) better. Take the new Pulp Fiction blu ray. It's beautiful. A few soft scenes here and there, but most of the film looks like it was shot last week. Of course, the format doesn't much change the movie (as detractors might note). All the things about Pulp that you love or hate (the endless and often profane dialogue, leisurely pace, the copious pop culture references) are still the same, but all the added fine detail really does make it more enjoyable (the stitching on Jule's wallet, which on the DVD looks red, can now be properly seen as brown. If you're a Tarantino geek, that little factoid is invaluable).

I wanted to see Pulp this way. And fortunately, unlike some other recent releases (Source Code, Trainspotting, Carlos, The Office Season 7), it doesn't use the latest copy protection schemes, so this was not a problem. But if you want to watch a disc that does use the copy protection, you might be in need of an upgrade.

For a standalone Blu ray player connected to an HDTV, the upgrade might be fairly simple. Check your player for a firmware update, install it, and off you go . On a PC, it's not so simple. Software players (Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra, Corel Win DVD, Arcsoft Total Media Theatre) need to have their security codes updated periodically to remain compatible with newer discs and copy protection schemes. But the catch is, most of these companies will only update the codes for their newest versions. If you have a copy of PowerDVD 8 + BD and want to watch Source Code, that's too bad. Cyberlink is only providing updates for versions 10 and 11. You will have to upgrade.

If you decide to pay the extra money to upgrade (at least $80 if the software is on sale on Cyberlink's website), there might be another problem. Power DVD, Win DVD and Total Media Theatre now only support monitors with HDCP (High Bandwith Digital Copy Protection) compliant connections. If you've been getting by on an analog VGA monito, too bad. You'll have to upgrade. And of course, an HDCP monitor will only work if you have an HDCP compliant video card. So if your card doesn't have at least a DVI connection on it, too bad. You'll have to upgrade. If you tried the aforementioned firmware upgrade on your standalone blu ray player and it didn't work, too bad. You'll have to upgrade.

This can all become a huge headache.  All you want to do is watch your freakin' movie. You purchased it legally, you have no intent of putting it up on a torrent or selling it as a bootleg. So why should you be forced to jump through hoops? Piracy is the primary issue, but Sony's solutions for the format do nothing to prevent it. Software exists that allows you to easily strip a disc of its security and watch a perfect copy of the disc straight from your hard drive. From there, those without moral qualms can do as they please with it.

So what we have is a great format bound by unnecessary and utterly useless red tape. The question becomes, where do we go from here?