Pan's Labyrinth HD-DVD Gets THX Thumbs Up May 30, 2007
READ MORE HD DVD , Home Cinema , Home Entertainment , Movies
I'm not sure how many cinephiles we have but there's a fair bit of excitement today as Pan's Labyrinth became the first, live action HD DVD to be THX Certified. The French are getting it first [Bah!] but we should see it soon.
Apart from being a top flick, it now means that it will look and sound as good as it possibly can because THX certification is the movie industry's version of an SAS Boot camp. The master copy is passed to THX who dissect the picture and audio, recommending the best encoding and compression rates as well as ensuring the sound adheres to studio reference levels. After this, a frame-by-frame analysis is carried out to ensure the picture is as crisp and clear as it was intended.
The HD DVD will feature THX Optimizer, the on-screen calibration tool for tweaking your home cinema set-up for the best results. However, I've used this tool with varying results in the past so don't expect miracles. Your own settings might be better.
The HD DVD Promotional Group is obviously chuffed, so much so that 100,000 demonstration discs will be going out with some leading home cinema and movie magazines. For those that don’t like reading their movies, there’s bound to be a THX-certified Adam Sandler movie in the pipeline too.-Martin Lynch
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Pop-Up TV Liquor Cabinet May 30, 2007
READ MORE Gadgets , Home Entertainment , TV
Planning to redecorate your place with a Villain-esque theme? Then this old-school TV/Liquor Cabinet should be just the thing for you.
You can set up a CCTV camera feed from your front door to this TV and know exactly when your mother-in-law arrives. Once she's inside, activate the Auton lift system to reveal the booze underneath. That'll keep her from yapping about how you should get a better job. – Jason Chen
Product Page [Auton via Geekologie]
Fragpedal Elite USB Foot Controller Reviewed (Verdict: For More Than Just Foot Fetishists) May 30, 2007
READ MORE Games , Peripherals
When we saw these Fragpedal USB Gaming Footpedals back at E3 2006 buried in Kentia Hall, we thought the concept was interesting, but reserved judgment until we could get our feet on them. i4u just got a pair and they seem to really like them.
The Fragpedals are essentially four buttons that you hit with your feet that you can map macros to. It's useful when you map functions that are either inconvenient to hit with your keyboard or ones that you want to hit simultaneously with your keyboard.
podXtreme Boosts Tinny iPod Sound May 30, 2007
READ MORE Gadgets , MP3 , Music , Peripherals , iPod
When you don’t feel like your friends cleaning the wax out of their ears with your iPod earphones, you may want to invest in something else to share your tunes.
Meet this Steampunk-ish add-on speaker dubbed, the podXtreme Sound Box. This clunky little thing promises to amp up your iPod sound externally so that everyone nearby can share your impeccable taste in music. It ain’t small and weighs 1lb, thanks to its own rechargeable lithium-ion battery, but the upside of this is that it doesn’t drain power from your iPod and can be used at a higher volume level than other miniature speakers.
This speaker promises plenty of bass but then, don’t they all? Still, for around £15, it’s hardly the biggest gadget blunder buy you’ll make this year.-Martin Lynch
Pen Of The Year 2007: Low-Tech Luxury May 30, 2007
READ MORE Gadgets , Gizmodo UK
The only thing I tend to actually write these days are cheques [to others] and reminders on the back of my hand.
People might text and type everything nowadays but there is still a market for low-tech luxury pens. Take the Graf von Faber-Castell Pen of the Year 2007, made from platinum, 18-carat gold and 360 million year-old petrified wood.
The petrified wood is so hard that it was cut, shaped and polished by gem-cutters, while the gold nib is ‘run-in’ by hand. It’s a good looking pen but would you pay almost £1,900 for it? And then, there is small chance you might feel cheated since the 2006 Pen of the Year, was fashioned with ancient mammoth ivory. Check it out after the jump – and yes, it does look virtually the same as this year’s offering but only costs £1,300. Bargain.-Martin Lynch
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