bobafred

Tonight’s ATL blogger meetup consisted of 7 people. This was definitely the weakest showing since I’ve been attending. To those that said they were going to be there and didn’t show, you suck. To those that never show, maybe it’s time you asked to be removed from the evite. To those that did show, I’m kind of glad those other fockers didn’t make it, they suck.

Photos of the exciting times you missed are on flickr here.

As the world already knows, there is going to be yet another Star Wars release. The big selling point this time around is that we will get the theatrical versions on officially licensed DVDs. Like any good SW fanboy, I was pretty excited when I first read this a few weeks ago. Then I read that the films were going to be presented in Dolby 2.0 Surround and I was less excited. My limited knowledge of the Dolby technology suggests this is a stereo track with a matrixed surround effect. Yeah, I think I had Dolby Pro-Logic on my VHS copies from the 80s.

Now The Bits is reporting that the discs are going to be non-anamorphic. If you don’t yet own a widescreen TV, like me, this isn’t really a huge problem. But, someday you will and it will be. As I understand it, if you watch a non-anamorphic DVD on your widescreen TV you’ll not only have black bars across the top and bottom, but also gray bars along the left and right. You can zoom the image to get rid of this, but you sacrifice quality. To learn more about anamorphic widescreen, checkout The Ultimate Guide to Anamorphic Widescreen DVD.

Sadly, a lot of people are going to be in for an unpleasant surprise when they watch these discs on their state of the art home theater systems. Have no fear, though, I’m sure the solution to this exists in the 30th Anniversary Edition that is likely to drop next year.

Long story short, I won’t be purchasing these discs. Yes, I was as shocked to type that as you were to read it. I suppose the original movies that I fell in love with as a kid will have to live on in my memory only.

The Bits is reporting that The Brak Show Volume 2 DVD set is scheduled for release on 08/22. This is real good news. In fact, I’d say it’s perfect Friday afternoon news.

Ok, back to not updating for awhile.