Greater Satellites

For a long time, I’ve considered going the route of scooping up a fairly recent, possibly refurbished Intel Mac mini and using it as my DVD player, DVR, audio streamer, DivX player, and all around Home Theater PC. There are even several friggin websites dedicated to helping people set up their dream system.

That dream was shaken at the core when I bought a PS3, which plays Blu Ray movies, upscales DVDs, and handles most video formats I’d want to play on it with the most recent firmware upgrade. Sony recently released a bad little MF’er by the name of PlayTV, which is an additional component for a PS3 that allows you to watch and record television directly to your console. This is pretty friggin sweet. What’s more is that the files it records (in high def or standard def) are DRM free. That’s right — you can record ‘em on your PS3, move them over to your computer to re-encode them for an iPod/iPhone, or burn them to DVD with no icky rights management debacle. What’s the catch? It’s currently unavailable in the US as it’s only compatible with PAL. You can bet your ass I would scoop that up the minute it’s available here in the states.

On a kind-of related note, there a really interesting media server being announced by a company called Conceptronic. The specs seem pretty decent and if the price is right, maybe this will grace my home entertainment setup:

• Built in analog tuner (blah, but I’ll take it)
• 1TB internal storage (saweeeet!)
• Component, composite, and firewire inputs
• HDMI (woot!), component, and digital audio out
• Optional networking adapter
• Codec support: DivX, XviD, WMV9, SVCD, and VOB

Hopefully the price will hit the sweet spot.

Recently came across the site for the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (a sports magazine that even I enjoy) and found a hilarious crossover of humor and sex appeal in a shoot featuring Heidi Klum (rhymes with boom, if you didn’t know) and one of my personal favorites, Will Ferrell. These are promotional shots, I would assume, for his upcoming movie, Semi Pro, and are pretty damn funny. Heidi never seemed like a typical supermodel to me because you always see her smiling and having fun, unlike other super models who always come off as looking bitchy, catty, or otherwise pissed off.

The official website has a boatload of pictures (the body painting is especially hot this year) and a few brief articles. Can someone remind me again why I should buy the actual magazine?

The following post was completed inspired by the following website: http://www.pinkfloyd.co.uk/obtw/

Now, my love of Pink Floyd has nothing to do with this website. For a site running entirely in Flash, it’s a great effort and a design that matches up completely with the band as I understand them. It does look like total ass in Firefox for me currently, but I first saw and was able to appreciate it at home in Safari.

I see a lot of “design is…” wallpapers cropping up on the interwebs lately and I think they are, much like Ron Burgundy, the balls. I have my own hat I’d like to throw into this ring, however, only it’s in the form of words and not so much a clever wallpaper… Would it be cool to have a thousand word essay in wallpaper format? Hmmm…

I digress.

Design is about making what the visitors sees relevant to the subject. If that Pink Floyd site above was just a black background with the signature spectrum somehow implemented, a long track list with images of each album cover in a list format, I would not be as impressed because it pales in comparison to the creativity of the band. Instead, the site is relative to the subject (in this case, Pink Floyd) and embodies a level of creativity shared on par with the music it is representing. The subtle visuals, including of music (which I normally hate), and the presentation really stand out… Much like the music of Pink Floyd.

The reason Greater Satellites hasn’t had a design in, oh - I don’t know, a year now is because I’m not sure how to relate what I see to my visitors. I don’t need to be flashy, but I have a personal like of shininess and reflections on websites. I don’t have to include anything about space, but I personally enjoy it and would like to incorporate it in a tasteful way.

After some experimenting, testing certain elements with friends and family, I’m sure I’ll find the perfect mix of a design that will both showcase my talents and be relevant to my visitors. Until then… Just keep waiting. I guarantee* it won’t take another year.

* - This is not a guarantee

I held off writing a post about the death of Heath Ledger for a few reasons up to this point, the primary reason being that I wanted to know about his cause of death before throwing my hat into the ring.  Using uninformed opinions to jump to illogical conclusions is a job for the associated press which, over the past few days, I’ve come to loathe.  Their outright disrespect of the deceased is utterly astounding and incomprehensible.  It’s obvious from footage shown over the past few days that he was never one for interviews or press junkets, and it seems to me that the media is compensating for his lack of participating by exploiting him now.

My condolences to his family, especially for his daughter who may only vaguely remember him as she grows up.  I’ll admit I was never a huge fan of his career, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen of him.  Whether he was regaling A Knight’s Tale or facing off against The Dark Knight, Heath will most probably go down as a talent that was taken from us too soon.

I’m my never ending quest to have one of the sweetest, most future-proof home entertainment setups I can afford, here are a few things that I’ve been doing in preparation before I take the plunge:

• Research… Then Do Some More Research: This is the most obvious, but also the most important. You should know what you want to be capable of doing, then follow thru with research on whether something you’re eyeballing has the capacity to perform. Want to be able to watch Blu-Ray movies at the highest possible quality? Then you’re going to need a TV that is 1080P capable, which leads me to my next point…
• Know Thy Terms: Do you know what the “P” in 1080P stands for? Do you think that Plasma is just something the green poltergeist from Ghostbusters was made of? These are things that are important to know, and can be explained pretty easily on Wikipedia, Consumer Reports, and even just general tech sites. I wouldn’t trust retail outlet explanations, just like I wouldn’t trust their prices. Oh, speaking of which…
• Shop Around: Say you scoop up a PlayStation 3 and want to reduce cable clutter, so you opt to buy an HDMI cable. If you go to Best Buy, you can expect to pay a pinch over $72 for a 4′ Monster Brand HDMI Cable. After following thru with the previous two steps, you’d know that there’s nothing really unique about that Monster Brand Cable when you compare it to, say, a 6′ Monoprice HDMI Cable for the low, low price of $5.24. A side-by-side comparison of these cables would render the picture virtually identical. Your wallet will thank you.
• Don’t Buy Brand Spankin’ New: I know it’s tough not to scoop up seven new things each year right after CES, but it’s better than paying the early adopter tax. Technology tends to get better first, then smaller second; so once a TV is packed with all the features that would make it competitive, the only thing to do would be to make it smaller, thinner, sexier. Usually when you look back at the model that’s being replaced by a newer one, you’ll find that the aesthetics are the biggest refresh of them all.
• Check Reviews Online: Amazon, Froogle, Best Buy, Circuit City, Newegg… The list goes on and on of sites that offer people the ability to rate and review their recently purchased products in a variety of different ways. Be sure to read thru a few reviews from various websites to ensure that whatever you’re looking to buy meets the high standards you should be setting for your gear.
• Don’t Be Afraid To Spend: This one seems pretty obvious, but it really isn’t. If you’re going shopping for your new TV at Kmart, don’t expect too much out of it in any sense. Conversely, you don’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money at places like Tweeter either. Sometimes your best bet is to find what you’re looking for in person and then purchase online for a discounted rate.
• Don’t Get Locked Into One System: Sure, a HTIB is a total package, and priced to sell, but don’t think for a second that you’ll have many options in the field of expandability. Sometimes it’s better to custom tailor a solution that you can upgrade piece-by-piece in the future. For instance: buy a receiver, speakers, DVD player, etc as a separate package and you won’t ever have to worry about being behind the curve because you can just upgrade one component at a time.

Follow these few simple guidelines and you’ll be well on your way to owning some versatile electronic audio-visual-computing equipment.

If you got the vague reference in the title of this post, then no doubt you were like me for the past six months in following all of the viral marketing for a little piece of film released yesterday called Cloverfield. My initial review and impressions are as follows (warning: SPOILERS):

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