Blu-ray standalone players, do we actually need ‘em?

Walk into any electronic shop across the Island & you will notice number of deals going on on Blu-ray players. A good brand player will cost about $150 -$160, which is a decent price for now. But the question is, is it worth buying a player unlike a dvd player which had become to be more of necessity?

Some of the questions one should ask before spending money are:-

1. Do I have a high definition television? Blu-ray disc record movie a 1920 X 1080 resolution and to get this quality you need to have a 1080p television. Not just a HD ready which have highest resolution of 1280 X 720 pixels. I know many people have ended up buying HD ready TV thinking they are getting the best bargain. But reality is they now have a flat panel TV and have upgraded themselves from 720 x 576 which is standard definition tv. Until & unless your tv is 1080p you will be watching downgraded picture. The high definition satellite decoders not necessarily have 1080p output, actually they are 1080i. Google to find the difference.

2. Do I have a good surround sound audio receiver? Good quality sound is 50% of the movie enjoyment. Try watching a horror movie with sound on mute, I bet that you will never feel scared as when you watch it on a 7.1, 6.1 or a 5.1 surround sound. As Blu-ray disc have high data carrying capacity, unlike DVD which has maximum of 4.7 GB, audio is recorded in lossless format. Normally, audio output is in two different format Dolby Digital & DTS. It is upon the viewers discretion which one to use. If you are going to plug you blu-ray player directly to TV then your movie watching experience is will be that less as the TV sound can never match those of dedicated receiver connected to perfectly synced speakers & bass.

3. Are blu-ray disc easily available? In Bahrain, I have hardly come across any blu-ray rental shop unlike DVD which you can buy for half a dinar. This may be due higher cost of blank blu-ray disc & recording hardware. There was a time when even DVD were not easily available but today its everywhere. No more will you be able to find video CD, VHS tapes are as extinct as the dinosaurs. Purchasing online is not a real answer to the solution.

If you are fine with the above and still want to get the player there is still a matter on increasing internet bandwidth & speed. Having a very good internet connection which runs on anything more than 4Mbps can actually work wonders by pulling stuff off the net using Apple TV or Google TV. Its cheap to rent a high definition movie or shows from here & best part is its is legal.

For those who are more internet savy can actually invest in high capacity (2 TB) external hard disk or HDD Media player would be worthwhile. The players have all types of connection from HDMI to composite, component, SPDIF (fibre optic), RJ45 (lan connection), USB etc. Get all your media online using torrents & play directly on media player or your computer.

Conducting a thorough research online as well as in local market actually saves you from purchasing low end products and wasting your money.

Children of Heaven- Innocent emotions in motion

THIS IS A REPRODUCTION OF POST I HAD DONE ON PFC ON 27th FEB 2009
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A month back my friend asked me to join him for a movie at his place. It was an Iranian movie by a director unknown to me. Frankly speaking I am not a big fan of Irani movies. With lots of cajoling and pushing I sat down in his TV room to watch this flick called Children of Heaven.

The next 80 minutes completely blew me off. It was my privilege to spend the next 80 minutes watching a director bring out one of the best in cinema the world has even seen. The movie is in Farsi language and one reads to the subtitles to understand it. The whole movie must have been made on shoe string budget but it can put to shame most of the Bollywood and Hollywood million dollar budget stupid flicks that are neither entertaining nor good value for your money.

Children on Heaven (Bacheha Ye Aseman in Farsi) starts with Ali Mondegar (played by young Amir Hashemian) getting his younger sister Zahra (Bahare Siddiqi) shoe mended at the cobbler. On the way back he pops into a vegetables shop, leaving the shoe bag outside. Unknown to him a garbage collector picks up the bag. He goes back home to his sister and informs her of the misfortune. But asks her not to tell their parents. He understands that being poor their father does not have money to buy a new pair and would need to borrow money for it. Till such time they will make use of Ali’s sneakers. Zahra will wear them to school in the morning and Ali will use them for his school on her return.

This is the basic premise of the whole movie and what follows is just fantastic. You get totally drawn into the whole drama and the close to life resemblance of the situations. Your heart goes out to the siblings when they have verbal arguments and adore them when they support each other. The film has less dialogue and one really does not need to keep reading the subs after understanding the basic issue of lost shoes. Both the children have shown depth in their characters; their smiles, their eyes, the frowns and body language are in sync with the situations that are forced upon them due to the loss. The supporting cast is just as good but don’t have much say in the movie.

The film promotes team work, responsibility, love, trust, sense on honour, politeness, respect for elders, family values and many aspects of life. The story has universal appeal; you can base it anywhere in the world, be it Mumbai or Manila. More than the story it’s the director (Majid Majidi) who should be given credit for showcasing it in a very simple and easy to understand format. Camera works is very simple, no crazy angles here. Music is bare and on need base only. Dialogues are sparse and light. The movie is humorous as well as soul searching. Majidi has ensured that audience are not subjected to heavy douse of emotional outcry that would have been the norm if it were made in Bollywood.

As final credits start rolling in I was left thinking about the movie and how all the situations are related to real life. There was a complete silence between me and my friend and it took good ten minutes to break it. All that while I was thinking about how the sibling dealt with the situation and how I have scream and throw fits when I an under situations that are not to my liking. I have not written any post in a long time but this movie has compelled me to add my two bits and make more of you aware about it.

I recommend all to watch this flick; especially parents should do it with their children. I assure you those will be some of the best 80 minutes of your lives.

Watch out for some of the outstanding scenes. My personal favourites are

1. Exchange of notes by the sibling
2. Zahra being ashamed wearing Ali’s large and dirty sneakers to school
3. Zahra’s facial expression when se finds her shoe being worn by a school mate
4. The sibling going to the other girls house to get the shows but coming back empty handed as they find how poor and helpless the girls father is
5. Zahra’s being upset when she finds out that the other girls mother has thrown her old shoes
6. Ali giving his best to come third in the race as the prize is pair of sneakers for that position

I have become huge fan of Majid Majidi and can’t wait to watch his other movies. May write about them in my next post.

What Rajnikant Can’t Do?

This is something I got in my mail. Its so apt and great that I had to put it up for all to read. Looks like it has come out of some magazine.