Long before lasers saved my eyesight, I was watching LaserDisc video. I’ve been going through some of my discs to see how good — or not — they look. Here are a couple of short transfers.
TV shows come off well, being 4:3 with plenty of close-ups.
https://youtu.be/DKGrhzo6R7U
Widescreen movies, letterboxed on LD to avoid the “talking noses” of pan-and-scan video, suffer from small images and reduced resolution.
https://youtu.be/ZH_RwxFAwXI
Ya know, when I started this web log (14 years ago on Sept. 5), a primary motivation was learning about WordPress and all of the software components that make it work. Eventually the platform became stable, and I guess I got spoiled, because I’m not looking forward to tackling a new technical mess that Bluehost has warned me is coming. I’ll try to motivate myself to make everything right before the automatic updates screw up the site, but if I don’t manage to do that, then www.dograt.com will be gone for a while.
I skipped watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when the series began airing more than 25 years ago, choosing instead to watch The X-Files. But I’m catching up to ST:DS9 now, during family viewing time.
DS9 shares many similarities with another 90’s TV series, Babylon 5. Something the two shows didn’t share at first was how their outer space effects were done. Babylon used groundbreaking computer graphics effects exclusively for its spaceships, while DS9 relied upon physical models until later in the series.
DS9 is available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and CBS All Access. It also airs on the over-the-air broadcast channel H&I. All of these outlets are showing the same standard definition copies. I know because I’ve checked. I keep wondering how much better DS9 would look if it could be presented in HD, as was done for the original 1960’s Trek.
Special effects wiz Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz, a 2-time Emmy winner who got his start on Babylon, remastered a scene he worked on in 1997, to demonstrate what’s possible.
Today isn’t quite as hot as yesterday’s scorching heat, when I decided to use the 13′ ladder and replace the coaxial cable on the antenna for the porch TV. The old cable is white, and after four years it’s covered in spots of black mold. I’m not sure how much shielding it has, so I replaced it with a black, quad-shielded RG6 cable. Look carefully, and you’ll see there are actually two antennas in this picture.
With that latest frivolous project out of the way — the house has many other, much bigger, ones that need attention — my thoughts are returning to these unprecedented times. There seems to be an underlying expectation by Trump’s hardcore supporters that everything will return to normal, if we would only let the coronavirus play itself out. Doing that would crush hospitals and result in an even more significant culling of the elderly population, along with people suffering from a compromised medical condition. The same crowd that claimed Obamacare would have death panels and “kill grandma,” are now saying “let grandma die.”
In yet another bizarre bit of irony, Trump is touting the promise of a vaccine to his anti-vax followers! America has yet to get a grip on the pandemic, and the ongoing anti-science nonsense is one reason why. William G. Kaelin Jr., 2019 Nobel laureate in Medicine, expresses his opinion on the need for facts in The Boston Globe. These are his concluding remarks:
I saw an Internet meme that said, “Having some states locked down and others not locked down is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.” It’s true. We are all in this together, and the current coronavirus case spikes in other parts of the country will eventually harm both our health and the economic recovery.
Our fragmented and uneven response to COVID-19 is an unintended consequence of the war on science. We must make decisions based on the best scientific advice available, not on wishful thinking and hunches. It is our best hope for dealing with this crisis.
I enjoy looking at various turntable forums, in particular those about vintage Thorens models. I bought my TD-166 MKII 37 years ago. A frequent topic of discussion on the forums is how to polish a tarnished Thorens platter rim. A lot of devotees want a mirror-like shine, which requires a grinding wheel. I don’t care for that look myself, and I’m happy with the results I get using fine steel wool.
I can imagine boys of a certain age joking, “Pee… cock. Get it?” I was once a boy of a certain age, so there you go. But for whatever reason, somebody at NBC/Universal decided to call their new streaming service Peacock TV. Not being a Comcast customer I couldn’t watch Peacock until today, and I’m doing that now only because access is free with commercials.
The two properties that interest me are the classic Universal monster movies…
… and the Alfred Hitchcock films and TV series.
Peacock is being rolled out without support for Roku or Amazon streaming devices, which greatly limits its coverage, but I have a Chromecast puck on the porch TV. Well, I’d better get back to my viewing!
