Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Captain's bLog 0222.11

  Apologies for the lack of posts over the last week and a half. Aside from simply having too much to do, my wife & I also finally purchased a HD television set.

Although I've been enjoying our Blu-Ray player for a couple years (thanks to a generous Christmas gift from my mother-in-law), I haven't actually been getting the full benefits of the technology since I was still viewing the discs on a standard-definition monitor. But about two weeks ago, that 15 year-old TV finally gasped its last breath. It lived a full life, but after years of heavy use, it just couldn't go on any longer.

Fortunately, the timing was pretty good for a change. Some automotive repairs we'd been saving for for a while turned out to be much less expensive than we expected (how often does that happen?), and we found a remarkably good deal on a high-end 55" Phillips LCD set. (It's even Netflix Instant-ready.)

Needless to say, I've been spending a lot of time (too much, actually) over the last week or so, looking at my Blu-Rays and DVDs on the big screen. I've watched Star Trek - The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan all the way through on Blu-Ray, as well as Flash Gordon, Starcrash, and various episodes of Space: 1999 and Star Trek (TOS) in HD. I've also been checking out many of my standard-def DVDs to see which ones still look good, blown-up on the big screen. Some look better than others, obviously, but overall, I'm thrilled with my new set.

Now, all I need is a new surround sound set-up, and the Alien & Planet of the Apes Blu-Ray box sets....

•  ADDENDUM: As it turns out, I actually managed to get my hands on inexpensive copies of four of the five Planet of the Apes Blu-Rays tonight. Not only do they look & sound incredible, but I was pleased to see that Fox included the alternate cuts of Conquest and Battle along with the original theatrical versions (something Paramount didn't see fit to do - or was too greedy to do - with the Trek Blu-Rays).

I also was amused to see that Eric Greene, who played "Loki" on Filmation's Space Academy, was featured in the documentaries. Apparently, he's a sci-fi geek himself, and has written a book on the Apes films. Cool.

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on all the new media, TV, and such. Sounds like you're already enjoying it greatly. One of these days I hope to make the leap, but for now, I'm keeping what I've got. The TV being Netflix ready is one of the things I want too.

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  2. Alright! That's great news on your upgrade, Christopher! And I'll bet that those Planet of the Apes movies look awesome on your screen. So, does the Battle for the Planet of the Apes have the alternate scenes with the Alpha-Omega bomb? I can't wait to get those myself, as I'm a huge PotA fan.

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  3. Steve - Yeah, the BATTLE disc gives you the option to watch the original theatrical cut or the extended cut with the Alpha-Omega bomb sequences put back in. The CONQUEST disc likewise offers both the theatrical cut with the "softened" ending, and the darker, "unrated" cut with the originally intended ending.

    And they all look fantastic!

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