Info and forum posts by 'pmr12'

RE: Fuji 5700

The silver version of the Fuji 5700 seems to be selling on the Jessops website for £129-99
The black version is going for £111-70 on the Amazon.co.uk website.
The one problem with this model I believe though is the lack of Image Stabilisation.

There seems to be a new model the Fuji S8000fd, which includes x18 optical zoom, uses both SD memory cards and xD, 8MP and face detection. I think it stabilises long zoom images by increasing ISO and CCD image shift. Amazon are selling it for £203.
It looks pretty good - anyone seen a review?

Comparison of the quality of several recent Free Newspaper DVDs

I have made a comparison of a number of the recent Free DVDs which have come with various newspapers. Some are of very good quality while others are probably best thrown in the bin and certainly not worth buying a newspaper for. Ratings are given based on the quality of the disc produced rather than the actual film - opinions on films vary anyway.

The Independent :

Wings of Desire (Anchor Bay, 122mins, Widescreen 16:9)
Has a menu which includes scene index (chapters); no adverts on this disc Rating 5/5

Indochine (Arrow films, 151mins, Widescreen 16:9)
Has moving menus with scene index (chapters); no adverts on this disc. Rating 5/5

My Life as a Dog (Arrow films, 97mins, Widescreen 16:9)
Has moving menus with scene index (chapters); no adverts on this disc. Rating 5/5


The Times and Sunday Times

The Last Emperor (Optimum Releasing & The Practice, 156 mins, Widescreen 2.35:1)
No menu, no chapters (can only navigate with forward and reverse buttons) Rating 3/5
Note it is possible to buy the 2 disc Special Edition of this film with theatrical and directors cut at Play.com as part of their 2 for £12 deal at present (might have given 3.5 otherwise)

Moby Dick (Studio Canal & The Practice, 110 mins, 4:3 ratio)
No menu, no chapters, no adverts. The original film was in widescreen unlike this disc and the quality of the print used was poor. Rating: 2/5

Where Angels Fear to Tread (Prism & The Practice, 108 mins, Widescreen 16:9)
No menu, no chapters (can only navigate with forward and reverse buttons)
Includes a 1 min advert for the Sunday Times (can forward) Rating: 3/5

The Guardian
The Madness of King George (Film 4, 104 mins, Widescreen 16:9)
No menu, no chapters, forced 1m advert for Film 4. Rating: 2/5

The Daily Mail

Bob the Builder (Hit Entertainment & The Practice, 30 mins, 4:3 Ratio)
No menu, no chapters, forced adverts lasting 8 minutes before you can see any of the three ten minute episodes. There is no way to avoid these adverts every time you watch the disc even on a computer. This is the worst disc I have ever seen.
Rating: 0/5

Sunday Express

Charade (ca 110 mins, 4:3 Ratio rather than the original widescreen of the film)
Basic Menu, but no chapters. This is the worst quality print of a film I have ever seen. It is surprising that such poor quality was ever transferred onto a DVD. Rating 0/5

It is clear from all this that the quality of DVDs from newspapers varies a great deal. Recently the best have been from `The Independent` and are worth trying even if you don`t normally go for subtitled films. The main problems with discs from other newspapers are the lack of chapters and in some cases forced adverts. Companies like `The Practice` appear to author the DVDs for many newspapers, limiting the features and may add forced adverts. At a time when the cost of set top box DVD recorders is dropping all the time, newspaper DVDs have to offer something more than home recordings. Bear in mind it is possible to have basic menus and chapters on any disc you record off the television!

Hope this is of interest

This item was edited on Saturday, 15th October 2005, 19:13

RE: Freebies in the newspapers on Saturday

There also appears to be another free audio book download in `The Times` on Saturday.

It is `Pride and Prejudice`, cashing in on the new movie release.

Last weeks download information was in the `Books` section and required a keyword to be filled in on the website.

RE: Times Online Free Audiobooks- Wuthering Heights & Enduring Love

Bought this weeks Sunday Times and they are advertising two free audio book downloads next weekend.

In the Saturday Times will be `Great Expectations` read by Hugh Laurie
In the Sunday Times will be `Oliver Twist` read by Alex Jennings.

They claim the downloads are worth £20 - really !!

In this weeks Sunday Times was a DVD of the EM Forster story `Where Angels fear to Tread` made by Merchant-Ivory. It was in widescreen but they included an advert for the Sunday Times at the beginning and took out all the chapters.

Free DVD with Sunday Mail - `A River Runs Through It`

Apparently there will be a free DVD in tomorrows `Sunday Mail`. It will be the movie ` A River Runs Through It`, directed by Robert Redford and starring Brad Pitt. The story involves a turbulent father - son relationship and quite a lot of fly fishing!

The quality of the picture in the advert did not look too special. The DVD might turn out to have only a 4 : 3 picture specially prepared for the Mail and not up to the quality of the bought DVD with a widescreen picture. It would be nice to know what it was like before wasting money on that particular "newspaper"! I doubt it will be possible to see if it is widescreen from the sealed bag they tend to put the disc in. Hopefully someone will find it interesting

Lite-On LVW-5045B DVD recorder with 160 GB Hard drive for £345

E-buyer are selling a set top DVD recorder with 160 GB hard drive (model LVW-5045B) for about £345 including postage

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=4576022611&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=79374

It looks like it will record DVD +R/+RW and -R/-RW

The quality may not be up to Panasonic & Sony, but at this price with a decent sized Hard disc drive it could be worth going for.

www.savastore.com (Watford Electronics) also seem to be advertising it for £350 in magazine adverts

RE: Is it the Director`s Cut?

Have bought the Guardian and the `Cinema Paradiso` disc comes with the paper (no Blockbuster etc.). It is the shorter version (118 mins) which claims to be Widescreen and Digitally re-mastered. It has no chapters but does allow you to forward and reverse, so it is not as bad as the copy of `Brassed off` in The Mirror in this respect.

I noticed a large piece of dirt on the film in the first few minutes - so much for remastering. As for the widescreen bit, it is between 4:3 and 16:9, being closer to 4:3 - so I think that some of the edges are cut off. Strangely on the opening credits, the edge of the P and O in PARADISO were cut off when watching on a DVD player and TV, but when viewed on a computer using Cyberlink Power DVD none of the letters were missing (ie. more of the picture was viewed). Any suggestions for why this occurs?

My guess is that the free DVD is based on the 2nd disc in the two disc set for the Cinema Paradiso Collectors edition and less effort was put into the quality of the print (compared to the longer Directors cut).