Rod Trent at myITforum.com : Movies and Television

Seinfeld Season 11 canceled

rodtrent — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:21:15 GMT

I may be the only one on Earth who actually liked the Jerry and Bill commercials. Still, if you only watched the short, abbreviated versions on television (instead of the Internet), I can understand that. But, for those who love Seinfeld, the sitcom, the new commercials were like waiting for a new Seinfeld episode each week. I was excited again, waiting anxiously for another episode.

Now, I hear that Microsoft ditched the Seinfeld commercials after hearing from sources on the web that folks “didn’t get it” and “didn’t like it”. I assume it’s those folks who only watched the abbreviated versions on television, instead of the full length versions on the Internet, only because, otherwise, I’d have to count them a bit lacking in some area of their intellectual life. I’m only giving them the benefit of the doubt.

So, without further ado, here’s a brief recap of the new commercials (the full length commercials):

Seinfeld Season 11, episode 1: http://www.myitforum.com/absolutevc/avc-view.aspx?videoid=1142

Seinfeld Season 11, episode 2: http://www.myitforum.com/absolutevc/avc-view.aspx?videoid=1152

-and-

Anti-Seinfeld Season 1, episode 2: http://www.myitforum.com/absolutevc/avc-view.aspx?videoid=1164

Ever watch Fight Quest?

rodtrent — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:52:12 GMT

Fight Quest is a television show on the Discovery Channel, where two trained fighters, Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson, spend a year traveling around the world and take a week at different locations to learn various fighting disciplines from where the discipline actually originated. It's an interesting series.

During one episode, the duo traveled to Deng Feng, China to spend a week at the Shaolin temple area. I remember watching that episode a while back, but when I made my trek to China and visited the Shaolin temple, I was immediately reminded of it because I visited one area, in particular, that one of the fighters spent time at during filming of the show.

If you have watched the episode I'm talking about, you'll know from the following pictures that this is where the Shaolin monks had Jimmy punching a bag that hung from the structure.

OK, so here's the funny thing about this. To get to this area in the Shaolin temple area you have to walk down a winding, stone staircase. The staircase itself is off the beaten path and is kind of secluded. We found it accidentally and were the only ones in this courtyard. It's so secluded that is makes a good spot for a bathroom, apparently, because the entire staircase smelled strongly of urine.

Still, it was cool to see the exact place that I had seen on television only a couple months earlier.

Interesting movie coming April 18th

rodtrent — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:52:15 GMT

Cool RSS feed for TV trackers

rodtrent — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:24:38 GMT

Gormly sent me a link to something posted to this site other day, but I picked up the RSS feed while I was there and truly like it. So…I thought I’d pass it on to you. This site covers newly released Television shows on DVD and news about upcoming TV show DVD releases.

Site: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/

RSS Feed: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsfeed.xml

DVDs in China

rodtrent — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:47:21 GMT

Pirated movies are rampant in China. You can buy just about any movie or TV show for about $2.00 U.S. Some DVDs are illegal in China. However, the local police really don’t care. So, even though the DVD sellers take their wares “underground”, they really don’t have to.

However, there are DVD stores in China that sell authorized copies — even American copies — of movies and television shows. However, there are some that you have to watch out for. The DVD trade in China can be wrought with danger.

Here’s a pic of a DVD “closet” that we visited:

As you can see, this looks like a mirror on a wall in a clothing store. In fact, it *is* a clothing store. However, when we asked for DVDs, one of the store owners showed us that the mirror was actually a closet door. She opened it and we went inside to find a walk-in closet with walls lined on both sides with illegal DVDs.

That’s me in the right-hand side of the mirror taking a picture with my phone camera. I risked life and limb to get that picture. As soon as the clothing store owners realized I was taking a picture, they became very agitated. We left before anything serious could happen, but it did get a little tense for a few seconds.

Once back on the street, someone approached us and asked, “DVD?” One of the fellows we were with had been feverishly looking for the old Tarzan collection, so he immediately said “Yes” before we could do anything about it. So, we followed this street artisan through an alley to a stairwell in an apartment building. He grabbed a couple bags from underneath the stairwell and led us to a backlot restaurant for employees, where we were quickly surrounded by folks that looked like Chinese mafia – in dress suits and everything (and, yes, we did have a couple run-ins with Chinese mafia – more on that later). After our friend looked through the bags full of DVDs, we felt obligated (i.e., pressured) to buy something. He purchased about 5 DVDs. It felt like we were paying for our freedom and well worth the purchase. He still didn’t find the Tarzan collection he was looking for, but we were safely on our way. Lesson learned – maybe.

Getting movies on my Zune 80

rodtrent — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:58:40 GMT

I get asked this periodically: How do I get DVDs and movies on my Zune?

You need an additional piece of software to rip the DVDs you own. I’ve found that the best piece of software is ImTOO Zune Converter Suite. You can purchase it from the Imtoo web site for $45.00 US.

Now, converting DVDs takes a long time depending on the length of the movie, and the conversion process does take quite a bit of computing power, i.e., it slows everything else down. When I do conversions, I generally schedule for a time when I’m ready to break away from the computer for an hour or so and just let the conversion process run to completion.

If you don’t want to break away from your computer to wait for the conversion to go through it’s steps, or you have other things to do on your computer and you don’t want it to bog down, or if you simply don’t have a movie on DVD already, there’s one more option.

ZuneDVDMovies.com is an awesome spot on the web where you can purchase already Zune-converted movies. Downloading is much quicker than converting and doesn’t bog your computer down. ZuneDVDMovies.com has a LOT of newer movies and a great archive to search through, too. You can also request movies that are not already on the site.

Newer movies will cost you $6.99, while older movies are $3.99.

The Technology of the X-Files

rodtrent — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:28:48 GMT

SciFi had X-Files on all day yesterday, so I watched. I had to chuckle when, in one episode, an evil computer was killing people yet the computer didn’t look at all foreboding.

Technology at it’s best in the age of the X-Files.

Is that an EGA monitor?

Where's the Bruce?

rodtrent — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:03:13 GMT

I was asked today why there haven’t been any Bruce Campbell posts on my blog in a while. Well, I’ve moved those posts to my “other” blog that Chris Mosby is hosting.

Here’s the BC specific stuff (lots of good stuff there):

http://comicbookblogs.net/rodtrent/category/bruce-campbell/

If Carl Sagan were still alive, would he own the Google copyright?

rodtrent — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:09:00 GMT

http://www.myITforum.com/absolutevc/?v=601

The Tiger Team - coming to the new Court TV

rodtrent — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:26:15 GMT

Tiger Team - NEW!
Tuesday, December 25 at 11 and 11:30pm E/P
This vérité action series follows Tiger Team – a group of elite professionals hired to infiltrate major business and corporate interests with the objective of exposing weaknesses in the world’s most sophisticated security systems, defeating criminals at their own game. Tiger Team is comprised of Security Audit Specialists Chris Nickerson, Luke McOmie and Ryan Jones who employ a variety of covert techniques – electronic, psychological and tactical - as they take on a new assignment in each episode. TV-PG L

http://www.courttv.com/onair/shows/upcoming_series/#tiger_team

"Evil Dead" movie marathon this weekend

rodtrent — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:59:48 GMT

http://nwitimes.com/articles/2007/12/14/entertainment/entertainment/doc55a93c390d661a04862573ae006a5554.txt

My name is Bruce - trailor

rodtrent — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:46:55 GMT

SciFi on the run

rodtrent — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:17:55 GMT

I’m a big SciFi channel fan, so finding their mobile offerings was a huge plus for me.

	Short Message Service lets you send and get text messages on your mobile. Text SCIFI to 72434.
	Wireless Application Protocol enables you to browse the Web on your phone or handheld device. Visit us at: mobile.scifi.com

Who knew? Another BC Classic

rodtrent — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:12:34 GMT

So, I’m reading some reviews on this today. Apparently, BC steals the show. It’s like a bad B-movie version of Die Hard.

Check it out…

New BC Button on my blog

rodtrent — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:40:08 GMT

If you look at the sidebar of my blog now, you’ll see a component that shows you the next time that BC is on TV. It shows time, date, channel, and movie/show — all powered by LocateTV.com.