2014 — 16 January: Thursday

Another somewhat dreary-looking morning1 — it's currently raining (again) but at least I have a lunch date lined up.

Meanwhile, if my chum...

... Mike survives his latest dental adventure today he'll then be able to spend time playing with his new toy: the "Darbee" edition of the same model of Oppo Blu-ray player that I bought last week. It will be interesting to see the effect of the extra video processing stage. Although I have my doubts about the curious phrase "one step beyond reference quality accuracy".

Let's hope it's not a step too far. [Pause] Time to step into my kitchen for a spot of breakfast. Of (I hope) reference quality.

Avoid Florida. (Link.)

Lunch having been...

... lunched, and a brief demo of the Oppo offered, and accepted, plus a post-lunch chat and choc éclair enjoyed over the inevitable cuppa, I finally returned to Technology Towers just in time not to miss the next heavy shower. Since it's often snow and/or ice at this time of year hereabouts... "mustn't grumble" will be my motto for the next five days of forecast rain. Though I may curse a little under my breath, too.

I find this time of year to be nearly as unattractive as the average November, or any wet Wednesday in Luton. Bearing in mind the closure, many years ago, of the excellent Paperback Parade chain of bookshops. (There, and — 30 years ago — in Soton, too.)

It seems...

... I may be (slightly) more of a completeist than I realised. When I mentioned Marc Behm's novel "Eye of the Beholder" a couple of days ago, I thought I now had both of the two films so far made from it. But if Tom Charity's entry in my 12th edition of the "Time Out Film Guide" I've just been leafing through is to be trusted, I actually already have a third film derived from it, too — "unacknowledged and with a gender twist". Namely, Bob Rafelson's 1987 "Black Widow", which is one of several titles I was able to rescue from LaserDisc on to DVD-R before it had finished "Laser Rotting" into total unwatchability.

I say "may" because I'm not entirely convinced. Its IMDB entry certainly doesn't credit Behm's original novel.

Mike's initial...

... impressions of the effectiveness of the Darbee video processing in crisping up the image are positive, at least on the 1080p/24 material he's tried from several Blu-rays. Good to hear. Such effects would be more noticeable, of course, on his much larger projection system's screen than on my miniature system :-)

  

Footnote

1  The weather is in stark contrast to the conditions Big Bro revealed "down on the farm" in NZ with his hay-making endeavours in a couple of photos he sent me yesterday. He's been getting excited over grass-cutting and collecting for hay on behalf of his next batch of "boys". I presume that's normal for a gentleman farmer?