So I have been using my flip for some time now and my first post on the topic was on how easy the built-in tools were on posting a video on the web. My next project was to use free software on the computer. First up, Windows Movie Maker. Here is what I created:

Movie Maker definitely made it easy to add titles and transitions. I like the drag and drop for the clips and the ability to add multiple tracks for audio. The end result kept the quality at 640×480 which was better than what the built-in Flip tools which was 320×200. What I did not like was the performance. I guess a Pentium 4HT at 3 GHz with 2 GB of RAM was just not enough to handle less than five minutes of AVI video. The application took forever to render the frames or import and worse, would crash midway through edits. Save and save often! My love for Windows has faded over the last couple of years and going back to it every once in awhile just confirms the decision I made to move on to Ubuntu. Next up will be iMovie on the Mac and kdenlive on Ubuntu.

There is a bootleg video from this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego that is showing the first ever preview of Tron 2. And like Giz where I read this first, I too am “wetting myself” so to speak on the eventual release of this film. You see it was Tron and War Games that got me into technology and made me into this feverish gadget hound of today. I will never forget after watching the first Tron over and over as a child in Germany during my father’s military tour how the colors hypnotized me and what the humanization of technology did to my imagination. My friends and I would put cards in our tires and long streamers on our bmx bikes and race down the street cutting each other off until the falls would hurt too much. We then would have Frisbee wars as we threw our discs as hard as we can at each other using other discs to deflect them, yeah that hurt too. Then came the desire to try to create some type of interaction with the only computer I had at the time, the Atari 800. Basic was my friend.

I am looking forward to this movie. Not to re-live my youth, but to introduce an aspect of it to my son and daughter, both who are also smitten to tech because of dear old dad. Yes I am excited.

I complained a lot on why anyone would stream movies over the Internet, especially services that claim to stream true HD (the key here kiddies is TRUE HD). Well, over the last couple of months, I took a very old laptop that had a decent video card and hooked it up to my Sony 52XBR4 set. I have two wireless access points, one upstairs in the master closet and one downstairs in the office to ensure I have no dropouts. I hate to admit but the quality was actually not that bad on the set and there were no buffering issues streaming Netflix movies over a wireless connection on the LCD. I also love the fact that any movie we stopped midway through to watch at another time will start where we last left off. As much as we enjoy the convenience of streaming our movies, I am not sure a Netflix stream would look good blown up to 106″ but I will like to give it a try. It seems I may have the opportunity as there is some talk out there that Netflix may be thinking of giving PS3 owners a disc to fire up the movie stream. I know Sony is about to release their own service so I am curious on how this will all pan out. It may just noise but if it does turn out to be true, I will be first in line to pick up a disc.

Netflix and LG are teaming up to make a set-top box to stream movies directly from the web to your TV. The streaming services is already part of my subscription to Netflix and we tried it for the bedroom. It worked as well as expected. Nothing close to DVD quality but viewable and we did not have to wait for our mailer to show up. That was a nice feature if you want to watch a movie in the spur of the moment. Now with news of a hardware solution for the TV, this should simplify many setups like mine and allow movies to be streamed from a click of a button. I would love to find the specs on this box. It would be killer if it will support HD. Every LCD/projector in my home is wired for broadband so it just a matter of adding this box, or boxes, to each tv. Oh I pray the cost will be in the low hundreds or this could get expensive quickly.

Several months ago while driving home on RR 620, a 7-11 type store was blocked off as a movie set was filming. In the area were two cars, a yellow late model hotrod and a dark gray car. As we pass, we thought nothing about it other than wondering which movie it will be in. Today we settled down and watched Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino. During the second half of the film where they claim to be in Lebanon Tennessee, we recognize our section of the road. In fact it was nice to see the south Congress Bridge and downtown. This was the third film we saw with scenes that are from our area. The Hitcher, The Return were the other two that had shots of areas around our town. It was cool to know that not only are we known for our live music but you might see the mighty Ruiz’s minivan in an upcoming Hollywood flick. Watch out, we are coming to a silver screen near you!