Posted By: Brian Hendrickson


In 2005, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in regard to the plague of pirated movies which was occurring through the so-called "analog hole." (For non-engineers, the "analog hole" is the movie industry's term for any content-playing device connected to a TV through the red, blue and green multi-use port on the back of millions of TV sets.) The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), argued that consumers would export movies through the analog output, stealing content and sending it out over the Internet.

Committee leaders didn't seem convinced that the analog connections on TV's were leading to piracy.

MPAA is now back before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - pleading for permission to disable lawfully purchased HDTV-capable TVs. Using an obscure procedural mechanism, MPAA is asking the FCC for authority to use "selectable output control" (SOC) to shut off TVs that don't use the preferred digital connections. (Again for the non-engineers, SOC allows content providers to shut off the video stream to any TV that is receiving content over a non-favored connection, such as analog.)

Some movie studio officials have agreed publicly that the biggest source of piracy comes from video cameras in the actual theater, operated by a movie patron while hidden under a coat.

The reason is not as much about movie piracy, but rather the control of your HDTV. By turning off an individual TV at will, the studios gain power over a viewer's TV experience. If successful, viewers will only be able to watch movies when, where and how Hollywood dictates.

"We will soon learn whether the "new FCC" is a reality. We hope they understand that to take away the consumer's ability to shift lawfully acquired content based on the speculation and whims of the MPAA is bad policy. That is why every major consumer group is on record opposing it. That is why we oppose it." (Gary Shapiro. Nov 12, 2009. Dear FCC, Please don't let Hollywood break my TV)

Posted by:  Brian Hendrickson

Gamers are purchasing a lot more PS3's since price drop in September. But, according to PS3 owners, Blu-ray movies aren't a big driving force to get the console.

"When PS3 owners where asked why they purchased the console, 58% said it was mostly to play games; 34% said it was for enjoying games and Blu-ray movies equally; and 8% said mostly for Blu-ray movies. And according to study in August 2009, 34% of PS3 owners had never tried to watch Blu-ray movies on their machine. That result is virtually unchanged from responses given during a similar study in August 2008.

Two-thirds of PS3 owners had watched Blu-ray movies, however, which is a higher percentage of owners who watched DVDs on the PlayStation 2 at a similar point in its lifecycle, according to NPD."(Susanne Ault. Oct 2009. Consoles are selling faster, but most buyers are using it to play games)

Obviously, Ms. Ault has never tried to watch a DVD with a PS2... It was a pain. But that's another story for another day...

It amazes me that people don't know what to think when you would drop $300 on something that was designed to play games, and end up doing just that. Screw using the Blu-ray player to watch movies... I want my backwards compatibility Sony!

Skyler Here!  I know it's been a while since we posted a show, but I thought I would try to ease your pain and play you this little song I wrote in high school. 

Enjoy!

       The game is set in New York City just as a virus begins to infect people and as the military attempts to put an end to it. The story is focused on Alex Mercer, who has no memory of his recent past. As the game begins Alex has enemy-absorbing and shape-shifting powers. He can take memories, experience and physical forms of enemies through absorption. Alex can also shapeshift into more specialized forms for attack. All of these together are intended to give players multiple ways to complete their objectives. (Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_(video_game))
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The Review

       As the game starts out in the prologue, you have a large array of attacks available to you.  These attacks all but disappear as the actual gameplay begins. 
       Control-wise I don't have a lot to really complain about. I really liked how easy it was to get around the city. It gets even better as you progress through the game, purchasing upgrades with the experience points you earn. I really reminded me of the Spider-Man games, with the way you move around the city. You don't have the ability to fly or swing on webs, but you can run incredibly fast and jump extremely high.
      I wasn't able to complete the entire game, but I was able to get more than half of the way through it. The story was interesting enough that I wanted to continue through the game to learn more. As you go through the game there are 'key' individuals that you have to consume in order to either get information about your current mission, get info about your past, to gain a 'costume' so you can enter restricted areas, or operate vehicles or weapons.
      The Onion AV Club gave the game an "A" ranking, calling the movement style "exhilarating" and saying it was a "mature, science-fiction superhero fantasy that somehow makes players feel simultaneously powerful and vulnerable."
      I would have to say that I agree.