May 19, 2009 by admin.

Here’s the results of a 20-year test drive of the very first LEXUS. In 1989 my dad went to the local Toyota dealership to see a new model being hyped. He drove home with the first LEXUS sedan. Although the sticker proclaimed LS400, the car was not badged with that number. There was no other LEXUS after all. The silver LS400 was their only model and one of only two in stock. There was not even a LEXUS dealer yet, so when one was built we had quite a time getting warranty service.

The 250 horsepower motor was so quiet we often thought it had stalled. The ride so quiet that even a Cadillac seemed noisy by comparison. It did not have the latest audio gear, back in 1989 car CD players were just starting to be optional and not standard in any car of that time. The leather sets were buttery soft and comfortable. It had a long list of standard options and needed special “S” rated tires for the sporty suspension. I liked the “power” switch. Much like the “close door” button on an elevator it was installed to reduce the frustration of drivers wanting more get up and go. It seemed to bog down when you stomped on the accelerator. Under the hood it was mysterious and futuristic with an almost hidden motor under the LEXUS nameplate.

Now, 20 years later, my Dad passed away back in 1997 and the car was used by my Mom until she became unsure at the wheel. Mom gave the car to my bother, our youngest family member with only 80K miles on the odometer. It had a checkered past, Since Dad had gone, I was responsible for it’s maintenance. It seemed to take more than $1000 a year to keep it in shape. It had a new drivers seat, new oil pan, two AC systems, a tranny, and loads of little gadgets and widgets that seemed to drop off.

My brother gets the car and tallys up the repairs after warranty. From the end of the warranty to now it has had over $17,000 in repairs. WHAT? SEVENTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! The stupid car only cost $37K when new. I’m not counting the ordinary stuff like batteries (that cost too much for no reason), tires, oil changes or belts. My God, that is crazy, the car only had 80K miles and had used just 8 sets of tires in it’s life. The finish was like new and the car had been garaged all it’s life. So, if you buy a LEXUS LS400, don’t buy it for life. Know that after 10 years you should sell it or give it away or it will eat your retirement money faster than the stock market. LS must stand for Lose your Shirt. 400 is what your quarterly maintenance costs are $400.

 Love your LEXUS? It must be new.

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May 8, 2009 by admin.

First I bought a Western Digital WDTV device from Best Buy (ugh, I hate Best Buy). I installed it and set it up. I thought it was a great idea, but I was dismayed by the amount of time needed to transfer my DVD library to the formats the WDTV would play. Limited to MPEG, MKV, MOV, AVI, WMV and H264 the best I could expect was a “real time” format transfer, where a 2-hour movie takes 2-hours to encode. Smaller file size was a benefit, but with today’s cheap drive prices it was not worth the extra time. So I started looking around for something better. I found the MX-780DVI (with DVDI output)  MVIX MX-760 also sold as the MX-760HD with a drive installed. 

I bought a MVIX MX-760 on eBay for $209.  I bought the version without a drive and installed a 1TB drive that I bought at CompUSA for $89. My total out of pocket was $298 since the shipping was free. I noticed the same guy sells my system with a 1TB installed for $359. That’s a bit much for simply plugging in a drive. I suggest you buy the unit without a drive and install one yourself, it comes with every cable and part you need.

 Simply stated, I love it. I put 240 movies on the 1TB drive and I am now adding external drives to finish transferring my DVD library. Theorhetically dubbing my DVDs into my MVIX is illegal, but I don’t know why… I bought the DVD’s, they are just too bulky and cumbersome to use and store. I use DVD Decrypter to convert the DVDs to .ISO files and save it to a hard drive.

The pictures are great and the thing works like a champ. Buy one.

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May 7, 2009 by admin.

CREATIVE COW SHIT UPDATE - a review of their “star” forum participant:

I searched Bob Zelin on IMDB.com and found nothing. Bob loves to put down people, I see it all over the forums. Mostly he insults people that have created something. Written, produced, directed or shot a film. That’s because after 30 years he has nothing creative to show. Nothing other than that ridiculous hairdo and stupid photos of himself. I don’t even think he knows everyone is laughing AT HIM and not with him when we look at the pictures. As an engineer and a creative person I find him an incompetent buffoon and a joke in the industry.

On his profile he lists 4 friends… four….  enough said.

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May 6, 2009 by admin.

As some of you know I am the proud owner of a new indie feature film. I worked my ass off and dumped every dime I have into my little film. I finished it, and to top that off, I even got a distribution deal. So I contacted a couple of places to dub my final movie to HDcamSR, the format requested by my distributor.

 Not sure about pricing or procedure I made the stupid decision to join www.creativecow.com and post a question in their forums. I had been receiving their little magazine for free each month and it seemed to be legit.

Well, what I found out was that the Creative Cow forums are actually a sort of misfits club. All the unemployed geeks we made fun of in high school and college float around the forums waiting to pounce on anyone new. I posted my questions and some background info. Here is the first reply:

Hey Joe,

Just to be clear; you are neither doing a dubbing nor a transfer of your film. You are doing a full on HD online with cross conversion from 59.94 to HD-CAM SR 29.97 + down and cross conversions to SD NTSC & PAL.

Honestly, $4,700 is too cheap once you start legalising and QC - that guy must have seen you coming.

Pack away your film and your dreams and get a proper hobby - angling should be nice and relaxing

If you do end up using a cheap/no budget solution, make sure NOT to pay “the ferryman” until you’ve reached the other side - in your case, that is once the distribution company has cleared (QC’ed) your tapes for distribution. One more thing, if your “facility” is hiring in the HD-CAM SR - get them to run you two or three masters out, so you have a safety in your own cupboard.

Good Luck!!!

All the Best
Mads
London, UK

Wait a minute… did this brit douche-bag just tell me to “get a new hobby”? Does he think Americans make movies as a hobby? Does he think movies shot as a “hobby” get distribution? I thought maybe I misunderstood. Who asked him? I’m an American and anything a Brit knows is last years tech. They should spend more time wondering why prince charles is married to a man. If England sank into the ocean the world would be a better place. The next guy wrote:

 Hi Joe -
I would like to commend your distributors for keeping a PROFESSIONAL HI END standard for their film distribution.  As Mads said “this is not a hobby”.  We do this to make a decent living, to pay for things like medical insurance, and a car, and to feed our families.  THIS IS NOT YOUTUBE (and if it was, most of us would not participate on this forum).  A Sony SRW-5500 with options is $130,000.  Most of the people on all of these forums cannot afford this VTR, but this is the “top of the line” VTR, used by HI END professionals.  You know - like guys that shoot with Panavision cameras (and super hi end HD cameras as well).  We LIKE the fact that it is expensive, so that we can “be above and beyond” the Youtube generation that works with Sony PD150 cameras, and the like.

And just remember, when you buy your Red Scarlet for $3000, a higher standard will be created, and it will ALWAYS BE THIS WAY, because when the amateurs “catch up” to the pros, new higher standards are created, so that a professional market can exist.

And I don’t like your attitude.  Films are made to make money. 

bob Zelin

 You should see the homo that wrote this… he looks like the witch from Wizard of Oz. He must have thought I was someone else or he is having his period. What an asshole to write something like that when ha has never seen my movie or met me. He is a liar too, because he once wrote that he pioneered the use of SATA drives in non-linear editing. Dozens of people (including me) were using SATA drives striped for editing for almost a year before his “pioneering” started.

These posts were made within minutes of my question being submitted. They are just sitting around unemployed and they are pissed off. They hate the world and the fact that people are smarter now than ever before. They wish the old days would come back. The days when nobody knew anything and guys like “bob Zelin” (SIC) were the mysterious geniouses. But those days are over. Even high school kids in media class know more than these fops.

The lesson here? www.CREATIVECOW.com should be called www.BUCKETOFASSHOLES.com . They are all there in a giant circle jerk hoping to meet each other at a public bathroom someday. They are rude and useless as well as washed up morons.
 

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