Info and forum posts by 'cjrushbrook'

RE: DVDOO - Several movies at 39Kr (£3.50)

Hi Brian,

the number they`re looking for is just the last three numbers on your card. A lot of sites have started to ask for this number as extra authentification, it is always two or three numbers and appear as the last numbers on your signature strip, separated from any other numbers by a space.

Good luck ordering!

Chris.

RE: NEAR DARK 2 Disc SE £11.60ish at dvdboxoffice.com

Woo-hoo!

I`ve been looking forward to this one since I heard they were gonna do it and this makes it seem that much closer! Thanks for the spot - have gone ahead and ordered one myself.

Chris

RE: New JVC widescreen TV - advice please.

Thanks Tom,

I`m sure I can put up with it, just wanted to make sure I hadn`t bought a dud. As I say, apart from that it`s an excellent TV.

Chris.

New JVC widescreen TV - advice please.

Hi y`all,

I`ve finally found the courage (and money) to get myself a widescreen TV. It`s the JVC AV28T25EKS flat-screen 28" bought from Costco for £500 including 3 yr. warranty (had been looking at Philips 5407/6006 but the JVC`s picture seemed significantly better). I`ve got it home and all set up and it`s absolutely stunning. Watched "The Nightmare Before Christmas" on it lastnight and it was amazing!

Now, being a newbie to all of this, I just wanted to check something. I`ve figured out all the zoom modes and got everything the right shape & size, but I`ve noticed that when watching in 4:3 (in the centre of the screen), there is some curvature at the edge of the image, so that the overall picture is slightly narrower in the middle and wider at the top & bottom. It`s not a major problem, it`s still watchable, but it is noticeable. Similarly, when watching widscreen stuff, objects on-screen which are vertical (e.g. lamps/doorframes) also seem to curve slightly when at the edges of the screen.

Is this supposed to be happening (has 4:3 TV got this curve built in to fit non flat-screens), am I missing a setting, or is it a fault?

Thanks,

Chris.

Philips Widescreen TVs - ADVICE NEEDED

Hi y`all,

I have decided that the time has finally come for me to join the widescreen TV cult. On reading previous threads I am quite taken by the idea of the Philips 6006 as it is so highly recommended and meets my price range (£500 absolute max).

However, I asked my Dad to check what they had in Costco as I would quite like to get it from there as they are pretty cheap and have an excellent returns policy in the case of faults. They didn`t have the 6006, but they did have the 5407 which I hadn`t really heard about.

On checking the Philips website, there doesn`t seem to be a great deal of difference between the two models, except that the 5407 seems to be missing a couple of features (FM radio & simulated surround sound).

What I need to now is if there are any other differences between them or is the 5407 as good a machine as the 6006. I have a set of 5.1 speakers so I can live without the surround sound option and I don`t think I would have used the radio anyway. I haven`t had a chance to go and look at either of the machines yet, so has anybody checked these machines out and could they offer me some advice.

The price at Costco for the 5407 (with stand I think) is around £350.

Thanks

Chris.

RE: Futureent or DVDimport?

Have used both of these companies a few times. Both are reliable. The difference between them really just comes down to a trade-off between speed and price. DVDimport tend to be quite a bit cheaper on most things, but they can take quite a while (normally not more than 2-3 weeks) to come, whereas Futureent charge that little bit more, but I`ve never had to wait longer than a week for stuff to come through. Last disc I got was AB`s Maniac - decieded to go with DVDimport as they only charged £11.50 for it and Futureent wanted more like £18. Ended up waiting just over 2 weeks for it to come, but in my opinion when you`re saving that much money you can afford to wait.

Chris.

RE: Any opinions on Sony DVP-NS300/400?

Hi y`all, thanks for the comments. Am still thinking about what to get. Have just started looking at the Toshiba 220 aswell... Oh decisions, decisions. I always make these things far more complicated than they need to be.

Chris.

Any opinions on Sony DVP-NS300/400?

Am considering telling my parents to go for one of these machines. Anybody got one/seen one in action to let me know whether they`re worth the investment. Richer sounds sells both machines as multi-region models (although out of stock of both at the moment). Is there much advantage in getting the better machine solely for the second Scart and 5.1 decoder. My parents almost certainly won`t need either initially, but will they get burned later if they upgrade other equipment and don`t have these features.

All advice welcome.

Chris.

RE: DVD player for my parents - advice needed.

Come on people, questions of this type normally get tons of responses from people keen to show they know more than the next man/woman. Throw me a bone here...

Chris.

DVD player for my parents - advice needed.

Hi all,

my parents have decided to go DVD at long last and I needed a bit of advice vis a vis which player to tell them to get. I myself have had a Cyberhome AD-L528 for quite a while now and been very happy with it, but can tell this isn`t the machine for my parents (mostly because it`s not the simplest machine in the world to use and because of the lack of support in this country).

I`m guessing my Dad`s budget will stretch to £250 or at a push £300. Requirements are:
1) Reliable machine
2) Easy to use
4) Simple multi-region hack
5) Auto PAL/NTSC output switching (they have a multi-standard TV & can handle NTSC output) (& auto anything else you can think of!)
6) Must have single cinch composite video out (it`s an old telly and this is the only input - but RGB may be a useful feature too incase they upgrade their TV). Also stereo 2 cinch out, although I assume that`s pretty much standard. UPDATE - it occurs to me that you can get SCART-> 3 cinch (1 vid, 2 audio) cables. If this would work to then this isn`t so necessary
7) If it looks good, that`s a bonus.

So come on guys & gals, lets get those heart-felt recommendations pouring in. Share some of that aquired wisdom.

Thanks in advance,

Chris.

This item was edited on Monday, 29th April 2002, 10:37

RE: DVD Chainsaw and HoRrOR!!!

I have used Chainsaw once before, in fact I bought the exact same thing you`re thinking of getting. I had no problems whatsoever, except that you can`t pay on the site so I had to fax him my card details. Came within a week.

The quality of the discs isn`t upto much, but it`s certainly the best package around at the moment, although Anchor Bay are supposed to be doing a 3-disc set (Theatrical cut, Romero`s cut & Argento`s cut) sometime in the next year or two. Also, the documentary on the DFW version is brilliant.

Good luck,

Chris.

RE: Spanish abre los ojos and question to "cjrushbrook"

Sorry LUX, no Spanish subs on the specials either. BTW, does anybody know of any good releases of his earlier film Tesis (Thesis) as I`m quite keen to get my hands on that as well. I know there`s a Tartan disc with a "making of" on it (anybody know how long/good?), but couldn`t find any other European releases.

Ta,

Chris.

Spanish DVD release of "Abre Los Ojos" is amazing!

In reference to a previous post concerning a disappointing review of the UK DVD release of Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes - the original Vanilla Sky was based on), I have just watched the Spanish R2 release of this film and felt it necessary to let anyone who wants a decent DVD release of this film to look no further.

The disc has a tasty widescreen print which looked teriffic, has a 5.1 Spanish soundtrack which added some depth to the fantastic score, and a very reader-friendly set of English subtitles (lettering was white with black borders so always visible and the grammar was spot on). I haven`t seen the UK release for comparison but know that these features took a bit of a hammering in the review.

Then it also has some nice extras (not to mention beautiful menus). However, you`ll need to be fluent in Spanish to appreciate some of them (only downside, although not a problem in my case). You get a feature-length director`s commentary in Spanish, and the option to listen to the isolated soundtrack. Then there`s a 20 mins making of documentary, again in Spanish with no subtitles, which was entertaining and informative. Also included is a short film called Luna (Moon) directed by Amenabar and featuring the lead from ALO, although again no subtitles. Then there are trailers for ALO and Tesis, some storyboard comparisons which link directly to the relevant scene in the film, plenty of stills and publicity pics (including some interesting artwork suggesting a planned alternative ending), some pages from the original script, some text based information about the ideas for the film, and a short sequence showing pages from the score with some music playing over it. Not bad eh?

So, if you fancy owning this gem on DVD then I heartily recommend this disc (which I got from a place called www.dvdgo.com for just over £20).

Chris.

RE: SARAH SCOTT`S

Well I`m keeping myself pure for the original myself (having still not seen either version). I`ve got the Spanish DVD release of Abre Los Ojos on order from Spain which should hopefully counter the criticsms of the UK release in that it has a 5.1 spanish sountrack (English subtitles) and quite a few extras including the isolated score and a making of featurette. Most (if not all) of the extras will be in Spanish I imagine, but this is where being fluent in a second language comes in handy.

Will let you know what it`s like when it turns up.

Chris

RE: Cyberhome 528, does it have DTS decoding ability? can you disbale macrovision?

Sorry to say but the answers are 1) No, 2) Not really.

I am a 528 owner and love my machine to pieces, but it does fall short in these two areas. It does output a DTS signal, but it will need decoding by an external decoder. As for macrovision, the only way to handle it so far is to get it chipped.

On all other fronts it`s pretty good, although I gather there are a lot of dud machines out there. No doubt someone will respond to this telling you to not waste your money and that it`s the worst machine ever made, but if you get a good`un I`d say it`s worth £100. However, if these features are imprtant to you, I think there are some other £100 machines that can disable macro (Dansai?), not sure about DTS though.

Any further cyberhome queries, check out the forum at http://www.cyberhome-help.de

Hope this helps,

Chris.

RE: ANY GOOD EUROPEAN SITES ??

Hey baldy,

you might want to check out this site: http://www.sexgoremutants.co.uk

They`ve got lots of links to European suppliers as well as supplying some stuff themselves. I`ve used Chainsaw before (listed on this site), v. good service.

Hope this helps,

Chris (slightly receding).

RE: Night of The Living Dead for £1.50

Shock, think you might get caught out by the "only one order per household" condition, but you never know. Just ordered mine too. Imagine it won`t be the best disc in the world but it`ll keep me happy until the new Elite Millenium edition comes out and I can get my hands on that.

Chris.

RE: A good place for CD-Rs

Thanks for the info T2,

they do come in a little bit cheapert than the one I just used, although adding in p&p means that for 50 discs they come out at 57.5p per disc, but better than the site I used where it would have been 60p per disc for the 650MB discs. Still, cheaper is cheaper. Great that you can order any number you like too. Shame they don`t keep any 700MB discs. Might think about using them next time.

Chris.

A good place for CD-Rs

Hi all,

If anybody is looking for a place that does good prices on CD-Rs then I must recommend http://cd-rmedia.se-o.co.uk

Managed to get 50 80min TDK reflex CD-Rs (16x) for £33 including courier delivery. Ordered them yesterday over the phone at about 2pm and got them at work this morning at 11am. Worked out at 66p per disk. No hassles. Don`t know if anybody else has used them, only found them on a fluke through a search engine, but thought I`d try them.

By the way, I`m using these mostly for (S)VCD burning. Went for TDKs since I know they work on my Cyberhome 528, but was wondering if anybody knew of any other (cheaper) brands that work on this machine (I know that the 528 has issues with some brands).

Chris.

RE: DV646A Has Arrived !!

Lee (a.k.a. Happy Larry)

Glad to hear all`s going well. Wish I could go for something as snazzy myself, have to start thinking of a way to afford it. Enjoy!

Chris.

RE: Best £100 DVD player

I`ve got a Cyberhome 528 too and think it`s an excellent player. I have had absolutely no problems whatsoever, although I gather that as a brand they are not the most reliable and there are quite a few faulty machines produced too. Can be got from WHSmiths for £99 with a 2 year warranty, which means at least you can go in and bang on the desk if you`re not happy, as I gather all other retailers of this machine defer to Cyberhome for support and they are apparently very bad at customer services, but Smiths should replace the machine for you if there is anything wrong with it.

The other good thing about the 528 is that it has a 5.1 decoder in it, so for 5.1 sound you just have to buy a set of active 5.1 speakers which can be got for £100 or sometimes less, and there`s no need for a separate decoder (unless you want DTS that is).

Chris.

NB. It does play CD-R (although not all brands) and mp3 (but has annoying bug that cuts first second or two off songs), along with VCD & SVCD.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 5th February 2002, 16:10

RE: Fav. Simpsons, Futurama or Family Guy quote!

I`ve gotta go with Ralph Wiggum, I mean, how can you argue with:

"Principal Skinner, I got car-sick in your office."

"Me fail English? That`s unpossible."

"When I grow up I`m going to Bovine University."

Oh dear, now I know I`m just gonna spend the whole evening going through my Simpsons collection. D`oh!

RE: DV646A

I wouldn`t get too upset Lee. The Techtronics price mentioned above excludes VAT, so when you put that in it comes to about £348, so you still got a pretty good bargain.

Moreover if comments on these forums are anything to go by, you`re best off avoiding any dealing with Techtronics (although I haven`t used them myself so can`t give a personal opinion). Let us know if Sound&Vision are a good seller and what the machine`s like.

RE: Those blink-and-you-miss-them moments

I recently re-watched Richard III with Ian McKellen and spotted James Dreyfus (Tom from Gimme, Gimme, Gimme) playing the VERY small role of a soldier/messenger who Ian shouts at a lot before getting on the train towards the end of the film. Actually seems a bit like the sort of role his Tom character would dream of getting!

RE: Evil Dead: Book of the Dead

Sad to say, but `Within The Woods` has disappered from both the R1 & R2 versions of the upcoming Book Of The Dead, so you can`t get it either way.

As far as I have heard this is official, but if anyone knows something I don`t, please let me know (I would love to hear that it was all a big prank and that we will get to see it!).

RE: What music artists/groups would you like to see release a DVD?

I`m quite keen to get the new Daft Punk videos on DVD. I know they`ve already got a DVD out which is supposed ot be pretty good, but I just love the new ones so much!

RE: Has anyone used www.chainsaw.demon.nl?

Mark,

sorry, haven`t been on the web over the weekend. I decided to trust Han`s advice about avoiding customs and it came through fine for me. You don`t get the box, just the discs and the sleeve (if you`re duying DOTD you also don`t get the little booklet as apparrently the new batches he`s getting in don`t have them anymore). Packaging is very good and the cost of a DVD keep-case isn`t that big.

Having said that I`ve imported lots of stuff from abroad (in their boxes) that could have been siezed and nothing ever has been, although someone once muttered that stuff from Holland is often more likely to get checked.

Hope this helps,

Chris.

RE: Has anyone used www.chainsaw.demon.nl?

Hey again Ascomdog,

Just to let you know I bought from them after reading about them on a site called http://www.sexgoremutants.co.uk (not a bad site for reviews either). They are highly praised on the site and are rated one of the best European suppliers (but I`m not sure by whom). I think I`ve also seen references to them on http://www.horrordvds.com

Transaction was very quick but slightly complicated as you place an order on an online order form, they then contact you by email and ask how you would like to pay, and I ended up faxing them my card details. Worked alright though and got the discs within a week. They also offer an ingenious way of avoiding customs seizure, although it`s not guaranteed.

Hope this helps,

Chris.

RE: Do PS2s do the job with DVDs?

I`m a cyberhome man myself, although my girlfriend has a PS2. I watched the DVD of Dr Strangelove on the PS2 with her one night and was not impressed. The screen seemed a bit flickery and there appeared to be a slight but constant high pitched sound in the background. In fairness however, I haven`t tried the disc on my own machine (it was her brother`s and he`s taken it away with him), so it is possible it`s just a naff disc. Also watched on different TV to mine consequently could be a hardware issue. Most reviews I`ve read of PS2 really see DVD playback as a gimmicky extra and obviously it`s not what the machine is primarily built to do, so it depends on how many movies you`re going to watch on it.

RE: Dutch Filmworks Dawn of the Dead subtitles query

I heard of them through a website called http://www.sexgoremutants.co.uk where they are highly praised, but god knows how I found that site!