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Welcome to the world of the Vincent D'Onofrio obsessed - and a bit of real life thrown in.


Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Vincent Year

(We hope!)

Here's a short celebration with pictures from another episode i didn't realise I hadn't capped - Con-Text. The one with some fo the best butt shots in the whole of CI...

Sorry about the watermark across the groin in that one picture :(

Of course, he is so beautiful throughout this episode.













































































































Just for Jane - it will bore the rest of you

Jane, I know you only want to spread the benefit of your technical knowhow to us ignoramuses, but you really haven't understood the problem. I didn't either till I called Philips. I originally thought the problem was with my HDD/DVD recorder, on which I recorded the episodes directly from Sky+. When I tried to transfer it to DVD, I kept getting the "copy protected" message, and thought I had inadvertantly done something. When I could not put right what I thought I'd done, I phoned Philips, the manufacturer. They went through it all with me, and eventually concluded that it was a random restriction imposed by Sky. I asked them about using a switchable input/output scart plug to transfer the video copy on to the HDD (my TV-video combi is also Philips) and that was when they told me that there is no output signal from the unit, so I couldn't send it to the HDD no matter what bells and whistles I added. That's when I got out the old video recorder/dvd player combi and fiddled with the various scart plugs (I have a multi-scart socket so I can run extra things through my TV) till the signal got through to the HDD. Thus I recorded the episode to the HDD, edited it, and put it on DVD. I have to do that again to get the last Bobby episode on to a DVD. It has nothing to do with US recordings, it came via Sky and was recorded on Sky+.

The idea of Sky+ is to record a programme to watch later, not to transfer it and keep it. When we do that we are in breach of copyright laws, though of course everyone does it. This is probably just their way of keeping the progamme makers happy on the copyright front. It's very nice of you to tell me I should be able to do it as we live on the same island, but the facts are as I have told them. It is not do-able. The solution is as I have told it. The reason why I can't record my NTSC tapes to HDD/DVD is the lack of output of my TV/video, which has the NTSC capability, not the copyright protection, though that may figure if I ever found a vehicle to transfer it with.

Actually, I have another TV/video which I have just had repaired, and which also plays NTSC videos, so I may try and see if that has an output, then all my problems would be solved! But pretending they don't exist because someone else with different equipment doesn't have them is just a waste of time.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Cuba Libre

Profile With Tongue

Now, this bit of sleight-of-hand would defeat even our Vincent The Magician. First he shuffles the cards, then he deals them out IN SUITS and immediately knows where they are short.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

News Update

I have just ordered another copy of Guy from Ebay that the seller SWEARS is in its cellophane wrapper and NOT a burn. I actually queried the first copy with the seller when I got it because it had no proper case, and I was told they'd got it at the Sundance festival as was.

Just to recap for Jane/Janey/Lexy/Frogger regarding the copyright protection message I'm getting on Season 5 Episode 21, when I had the copyright problem on an earlier episode, I tried out a connector I had bought to try and convert my NTSC videos to DVD, but no deal. The manufacturer of my TV-video informed me that there was no output on the video except to the TV. So I dug out my old video recorder (which incorporates a DVD player), manipulated the scart plugs till I got a feed from the player to my HDD/DVD - where the episode lurked on the HDD, but was also displaying the protected message when I tried to copy it to DVD - and then put in my video (yes, I had recorded it to video as well as HDD and Sky+). This I copied to the HDD, then edited it and transferred it to DVD.

So, thanks, Jane, but it's actually not as easy as you make it sound. It's do-able, and I will do it, but it will take several hours that I have not yet had to spare. This nightmare journey was originally posted on here by me at a stage when you were obviously not reading my blog.

Shandeh

Last night we had another opportunity to drool over Bobby's deliciousness in this episode. It's not a favourite from the point of view of the storyline, but it contains some great moments.






































































































































And then of course there's the wonderful sleight-of-hand that only our esteemed former street magician could achieve.

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