Sports: July 2005 Archives
Well, I am glad I have them, but they were not worth the price for the quality. I already mentioned they are not widescreen, but it gets worse. It's not even in surround sound. They don't even put the Dolby Surround encoded track on there, just plain stereo. And even worse, on my 60-inch TV at 13 feet or so, I can clearly see digital compression artifacts all over the place.
And on some of the DVDs, there's a "Fox 5 NY" logo in the bottom right.
The quality is basically about as good as if someone gave you a videotape with the commercials cut out. The audio (with no surround sound) and video (with significant compression artifacts) quality both are worse than what I recorded off DirecTV onto my DirecTiVo.
The menus are also kinda crummy, with even worse compression on the video. But crummy DVD menus are common: I just got Alison Krauss + Union Station Live, and while the quality of the audio* and video of the program are some of the best I've seen, the menus are nauseatingly bad.
This should be Dolby Digital 5.1, anamorphic widescreen, with a very crisp picture. Is that asking too much for something that I want to last a long time, watch over and over, and that costs this much?
Oh, and the bonus DVD is just the World Series film I already bought, plus some extra stuff like press conferences and celebrations (different from the extras on the one I already bought).
*The audio sounds great, and comes in three formats: stereo PCM (i.e., WAV), and multichannel Dolby Digital and DTS. I use all three: PCM for ripping to my music collection, DTS for normal use, and Dolby Digital if I want to listen at night, so I can use the dynamic compression on my amp and not wake anyone up.
And on some of the DVDs, there's a "Fox 5 NY" logo in the bottom right.
The quality is basically about as good as if someone gave you a videotape with the commercials cut out. The audio (with no surround sound) and video (with significant compression artifacts) quality both are worse than what I recorded off DirecTV onto my DirecTiVo.
The menus are also kinda crummy, with even worse compression on the video. But crummy DVD menus are common: I just got Alison Krauss + Union Station Live, and while the quality of the audio* and video of the program are some of the best I've seen, the menus are nauseatingly bad.
This should be Dolby Digital 5.1, anamorphic widescreen, with a very crisp picture. Is that asking too much for something that I want to last a long time, watch over and over, and that costs this much?
Oh, and the bonus DVD is just the World Series film I already bought, plus some extra stuff like press conferences and celebrations (different from the extras on the one I already bought).
*The audio sounds great, and comes in three formats: stereo PCM (i.e., WAV), and multichannel Dolby Digital and DTS. I use all three: PCM for ripping to my music collection, DTS for normal use, and Dolby Digital if I want to listen at night, so I can use the dynamic compression on my amp and not wake anyone up.
I ordered the DVDs from Amazon, but I was bummed to learn they are in 4:3 ratio. Just like all my other sports DVDs. Why don't they take the HD 16:9 ratio and use that for the DVDs? Seems stupid not to.
However, I was pleased to see the picture on the MLB web site, because I was thinking, "I should print up box scores for when I watch the games," but I saw each DVD has the complete box score on the back of its individual case. Smarties!
However, I was pleased to see the picture on the MLB web site, because I was thinking, "I should print up box scores for when I watch the games," but I saw each DVD has the complete box score on the back of its individual case. Smarties!
That Reverend Dimmesdale-Hester Prynne jazz in The Scarlet Letter isn't just romantic bullshit. There is a very real streak of dour pessimism in the New England character, and it runs right down into the bedrock. We buy new cars expecting them to be lemons. We put in new heating systems and expect them not just to go tits-up but to do it stealthily, thereby suffocating the kiddies in their beds (but leaving us, their parents, to grieve and blame ourselves for at least fifty years). We understand we're never going to win the lottery, we know we'll get that unpassable and exquisitely painful gallstone on a hunting or snowmobiling trip far from medical help, and that Robert Frost was fucking-A right when he said that good fences make good neighbors. We expect the snow to turn to freezing rain, rich relatives to die leaving us nothing, and the kids (assuming they escape the Black Furnace Death) to get refused by the college of their choice. And we expect the Red Sox to lose. It's the curse, all right, but it has nothing to do with the Bambino; it's the curse of living here, in New England, just up that Christing potholed I-84 deathroad from the goddamn Yankees.-- Stephen King, "Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season," July 13, 2004
Let's remember just how much the Yankees suck. The Red Sox are only a couple of games ahead of them, but ... they suck, and the we rule.
I made a video using footage from the 27-hit game the Sox put about a month ago at Yankee Stadium, as a reminder of these basic facts.
I made a video using footage from the 27-hit game the Sox put about a month ago at Yankee Stadium, as a reminder of these basic facts.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
