Monday, November 12, 2007

The Perfect Movie

For me, there isn't just one perfect movie. Some movies when I watch them are just so well executed and done so perfectly though, they just stand out to me. Even my favorite movies I know aren't perfect, but some movies - while not my one favorite movie to beat all other movies are so perfectly done I can't imagine them being any better. The shots are flawless - the music is amazing.

Lost in Translation is one of those movies. Some people may watch this movie and think it is boring, but the style, characters, the visual imagery, and the music make this movie amazing. It came out in 2003, so it might just now be starting to be forgotten, but if you haven't seen it I wholehearedly recommend it.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Why I Don't Like Sony

I refuse to knowingly buy anything from Sony. In fact, I think the only product that I have in my house is a dvd-writer in my desktop, and I felt bad in buying it. I'd rather buy a gas guzzling vehicle at this point than support Sony.

Here are the previous examples of issues i've had with Sony:
Romance and Cigarettes
Casino Royale

Sony likes doing things their own way. Their own standards - and all of their equipment works together great. But only with itself. Its been this way as far as I can remember. Beta vs. VHS. Mini-disc vs CD. Memory stick vs. Any other memory card Standard (SD, Compact Flash, xD, etc). Sony was on the losing end of all of these battles. Yes, they had limited success, but people that purchase their electronics are left out in the cold for any kind of interoperability with other products in the future. Sony even puts anti copy technology in their DVDs so that they have bad sectors in them and other issues so that may DVD players and computers can't even play them. And it doesn't even stop people from copying the DVDs. :)

And to top all this, Sony products generally cost substantially more. I'm not saying that they aren't quality products, they generally are good. I'm just not going to buy all Sony products for the rest of my life so that everything works together.

And now HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray is being backed by Sony primarily. I don't care of Blu-Ray has a larger capacity, and technically slightly higher quality of picture. If Blu-Ray didn't exist, HD-DVD would already be the standard and I'd already have the player. But with Sony being a movie studio now, some movies are going to ONLY be on Blu-Ray in the future. Some will only be on HD-DVD. Some will be on both. Blu-Ray players are in the ballpark of $300 at the cheapest. HD-DVD players are on special for $99, but are more commonly found at $200. I really think HD-DVD will become the standard (and I predict it will be) because.

1. Sony does not play well with others.
2. HD-DVD will cost less for the movies, players, and burners in the long term.

Sure, there are a lot of Blu-Ray players because of the Playstation 3, but if I were to buy a gaming console, it would be a Wii or possibly an XBox 360, never anything by Sony.