4K TVs, Streaming Content, and Media News

This is Phil Lamar. You are listening to the

geek cast radio network Hello and welcome to

the unofficial flagship podcast of the GeekCast

Radio Network. This is Altered Geek Unlimited.

Every so often, I am your host, Michael Powers.

I am joined by Steve Megatron Phillips. Yo! How

was last week? Did you have fun doing it by yourself?

Did you put a mirror in front of your TV so you

could at least talk to yourself? It was actually

kind of interesting, being that I actually added

show structure. So I was able to actually keep

to what I was wanting to talk about fairly easily.

My solo adventures usually don't end up very

good. Case point is I did MWire Spotlight on

Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. And as each

one goes on, they get shorter and more rambly.

so specifically the fourth one was the worst

one which is sad because I did that about two

months ago and it was like 15 minutes long and

I was like oh that's super and then this I managed

to get to an hour so I feel very proud I managed

to get that far and not have a train wreck of

a show all right well this week we've got a little

we've got some structure planned we've got We've

got blitz, which unfortunately it won't be the

10 minute blitz that we promised. I was only

able to scrounge up three things to do. So we've

got that. Maybe we can stretch those out to be,

if we did three minutes each, that'd be about

nine minutes. We could almost do a 10 minute

blitz if we did it three minutes a piece. That

could work. Give us more time to, a little more

time to talk about the three questions that we

have. Which actually I just looked at the three

questions and they actually cover Three different

or three different mediums, so that works out

pretty well nice We've also got An attempt to

bring back headshot for Steve. Yes with an interesting

Well, I don't know if it's interesting but a

small list. Yeah small a small little twist instead

of just the generic Rants and ravings of a internet

lunatic We might actually try and theorize and

hypothesize ways to Fix said complaints that

we have And we can talk more about that when

we get to it because I actually have a really

good example of Just something that I would like

to see You know something that kind of irks me

that I would like to see that one that only one

company I know have has actually implemented

But we can talk more about that when we get there.

I've got TV stuff to talk about, because all

I've been doing for the last two weeks is reading

up on televisions. And I'm sure Steve's got some

stuff he wants to talk about, so I'm going to

go ahead and let Steve fill us in on what he's

been doing the last week. Um, I've been keeping

busy pretty much after I edited the podcast last

week and Scheduled it for the next day I ended

up having a website that I was working on which

I mentioned which is in Iberation which is a

Indie film magazine that's going to be local

to here as I mentioned before They're launching

February 1st, so I had to have the site done

before. I think I'm actually done with it now,

other than moving the directory that it's in.

So it went fairly well, but it was a headache.

I've been staying up and basically getting three,

four hours sleep every day until I got it done.

That's mostly what I've been doing and prepping

for the GCRN Awards, of course. Ah, yes, the

GCRN Awards. Yes. Those will be fun. It'll be

a headache, but it'll be fun to see how it all

turns out. Headache for me, it'll be fun for

everyone else. I hope so. I hope we get more

than just the regulars. I hope it brings in something,

some other people too. Yeah, so basically Last

week. I really wanted to be on the show last

week and I got hung up at my second job and The

longer I sat in the chair at my second job the

more annoyed I got I actually got home at about

1030 and for anyone that doesn't know we actually

are supposed to start recording this show at

about 10 p .m. Or at least that's when we are

supposed to sign online and start comparing notes

before we record And I didn't want to be in a

miserable mood for last week's episode when I

got home So I was not on I wanted to spare the

listeners that grief was not expecting Steve

to do it by himself I Wasn't either it's just

it was kind of weird how it it all turned out

like I said in the the episode I wasn't sure

If I was gonna be able to get anybody on the

show and then every time I looked for another

person they were all either recording or offline.

So I was like, oh, oh well. And I was like, I

must have the show. The show must go on. I am

on my computer. So exactly. I just was like,

yeah, we'll see what happens. And I did it solo

and it actually worked. Well, just it really

bummed me out because I. You know what one earlier

in the day because at work I can actually tweet

out stuff for the episode and ask You know for

listeners questions and stuff like that and I

I asked for blitz questions and I asked for I

said that I really wanted to talk about HD TVs

on the upcoming episode because at that point

I had been you know diving down the rabbit hole

Of like you know the last year's worth of TV

news and information for about a week and I really

wanted to talk about him. Unfortunately, I wasn't

able to get on the show, but we did get one listener

actually wrote in with an email. Thank you for

the email. It was Reggie Williams. Yes. And he

says, so I do have a question regarding TVs.

What the hell is the difference between LED and

LCD? And is either one really better than the

last? I have no clue. Let's see I heard that

the last episode and you talked about how some

companies are offering cheaper TVs that are just

as capable of all as the expensive ones But I

want but what I want to know is which ones are

the most durable even if cheap TVs look looks

great My worry is it won't last because the equipment

they use is cheaper. Is that true? Okay, I Think

back when we first I have no problem addressing

this again But back when we first started we

were going to do like an HD TV 101 kind of segment

at the end of the episodes and I'm thinking Maybe

we should Bring that back every once in a while

Or at least as people want information Regarding

LED and LCD All unless it's a plasma every other

TV on the market as an LCD TV LED just refers

to the the light source for LCD televisions because

unlike plasmas LCDs cannot produce their own

light They need to be They need to be backlit

in some way and there's two types of There's

two types I won't even bring up CCFL the old

the old type of LCDs TVs because last time I

was in Best Buy I didn't see a single one I don't

even think they make them anymore I believe everybody

has switched over to LED lit televisions. And

there's two types. There is an edge lit design

where they put the LEDs in the bezel and they

shoot across the TV. Either they shoot on the

left and the right and they shoot across or they're

along the top and the bottom and they shoot up

and down the TV. That's called an edge lit design

those tend to be a lot thinner Usually if you

see a TV and it's advertised as like an inch

thin like an inch thick or Less than an inch

thick it is an edge lit television. The other

type of LED is called full array and that is

where there are lots of little LEDs behind the

entire back of You know directly placed directly

behind the screen and that's called a full array

LED. And those tend to be a little bit thicker.

Before they used to be like three to four inches

thick. Now because they're starting to use more

LEDs behind them, they can actually make them

thinner because they don't have to have... When

you have more lights behind the screen, you don't

have to run them as high at... They don't have

to put out as much light to produce a pixel or

produce a picture So they can actually place

the light source closer to the to the surface

of the screen making for a smaller It's not as

thick basically Yeah, so you go from something

that's like three or four inches thick to like

two inches thick Versus the edge lit designs

which are like an inch thick There are some problems

that are that arise from both types of LED lighting.

Edge lit designs tend to suffer from, I believe

the term is called flash lighting, where if you

have a really dark scene, the light, because

they're in the edge of the screen shooting inwards,

sometimes the left and right side of the screen

tend to get washed out more, especially when

you have something bright in the center and it's

dark on the outsides. The blacks and the shadows

will get crushed or washed out because the light

has to Go across the screen in such a way that

it's brighter on the outside just to light that

side just to light that image in the center Therefore

all the detail on the outside can get crushed

and lost Now there's like lots of little tricks

and things here and there like some some LCD

manufacturers have like they call it micro dimming

where they can turn off each of the LEDs Independently

to kind of control how much light is actually

being shot across the screen One of the really

neat things about them Is that when you're watching

like a widescreen movie and you have the black

bars at the top and the bottom they can turn

off the LEDs that would light that black bar

and So they are actually black they are off So

if you're in a dark room All you actually see

is the picture and not these really dark gray

boxes at the top and bottom of your screen, which

is really nice. Another fancy term that's been

around for a few years but is now kind of making

a big comeback is the full array LED lighting.

That's a very expensive technology to light the

entire back of the screen with LEDs. But there's

a second method. There's another thing that they're

doing with that. One of the inherent flaws with

a full array LED in the back of the TV is called,

I think it's called blooming, or light plumes,

where you can actually see the LED behind the

screen. And so if you have a dark screen and

it's supposed to be black, you can see splotches

of light. Coming from behind the screen, which

is very annoying. I one of the TVs I have in

my house actually does that Anyways what they've

done what they've decided One of the things that

they've done in the past on very high -end TVs.

We're talking 5 ,000 plus For this kind of stuff

is called local dimming where they will Take

banks of LEDs and they will allow them to shut

off independently or dim independently so You

know the TV is analyzing the incoming video source

So if like half the screen is supposed to be

dark and the other half of the screen is supposed

to be light It will dim all the LEDs on like

the left side of the screen and brighten all

the LEDs on the right side of the screen and

it can do that independently All across the screen

in zones The more zones the better light control

you have so one of the interesting one of the

things where this would be most apparent on a

television or on an HD set is So just like when

you're watching a widescreen movie the bars the

top and bottom those will shut off Because those

that that would be considered a zone and the

TV can just shut that off Now if you have an

edge lit television, and you're watching standard

definition content and the old four by three

so you have the the square and the center of

your giant rectangle. You have black bars on

the left and the right side of the screen, right?

With an edge -lit design, you have light shooting

to the center of your screen, and so those black

bars are never really black. They're really dark

gray because the TV still has to light everything

in the center. When you have the full array with

the local dimming, you can get that four by three

image in the center of the screen. but it will

turn off the lights in the black bars on the

left and the right side of the screen. So it

gives you that kind of control to go along with

it. And that's one of the big things that came

out of CES. And one of the reasons why Vizio

kind of walked away with the show is because

every single one of their TVs for 2014 is a full

array LED with local dimming. Even like their

like their cheapest tv, which is like 340 is

like has It's a you know, a full array with the

local dimming now where it gets kind of jumbled

up is There's So in their economy line, which

is like their e series, you know, it's a full

array tv But it only has five dimming zones,

which means there's five blocks There's five

banks of lights that can be dimmed and the way

they did it was they decided to split the screen

up into five horizontal sections Stacked on top

of each other so natural naturally if you're

watching a widescreen movie your black bars are

gonna be turned off And then it will then there

will be three other Banks of LEDs that it can

say like okay this one needs to be this bright

and that and but it can only do it Horizontally,

it can't do it vertically across the screen So

they go all the way they go like I think the

lowest number of zones is like five in their

e -series And then in their brand new reference

series line, which is like the top of the line

cream of the crop there are 384 Dimmable dimmable

zones in the TV Wow Which is great and the one

TV that I'm looking at which is their p -series

line, which is a 4k television It's you know,

it's the the full array again and it's local

dimming. It has 64 of those zones. So I'm not

interested in the reference series because I

think it might be out of my price range but the

reference the But the p -series is definitely

within my wheelhouse. So Regarding So that that's

it about like the there is no difference between

an LED and an LCD TV. It's just the light source

It's all LCD unless it's a plasma like I said

and if I rambled on too much or you want more

information you can You know, let me know in

the forums or you can send us an email and I

can try to clarify it a little bit more but Generally

if you have to pick I like I have I Have a 2012

Samsung d8000 in my family room, which was their

flagship LCD in 2012 and it It is an edge lit

panel and it's edge lit from the sides That is

what I would recommend if you want an edge lit

television make sure it's lit from the sides

not from the top or the bottom Because they won't

be able to Do the fancy black bar thing if it's

lit from the top because if you turn off the

lights at the top You don't have a picture um

as far as like cheaper HD televisions and You

know the expense and you know the expensive ones

and the equipment used in them I There's like

There's Four I think only I could be wrong. I

think Samsung LG sharp Sony Make all of the panels

for all TVs I'm pretty sure that's about right

regardless of what you buy so Like I just said

that I know there's the there's the Vizio There's

the Vizio P series the 4k television that I'm

really looking forward to buying that panel is

not made by Vizio It's made by one of those four

guys And in most cases, that's the way that it

is But as far as when you're when you're researching

TVs, I wouldn't look at anything lower than a

Vizio. Don't look at a house brand television,

which is like your. What's the what's the best

buy house brand? Oh, man. Oh, my gosh. Caught

me off guard on that one, because I know what

it is, but I do, too. I can see it. I know it's

not Westinghouse. Westinghouse is. That's at

least a real brand, but it's a low -end brand.

Yeah, but it but it's a house brand. It's um

Why do I want to say it's walmart Although I

think rca is walmart or magnabox is walmart Anyways,

I think magnabox is walmart rca is like a radio

shack thing But yeah, there there are house brands

like each individual like big box store has their

own brand of Stuff especially like electronics

stay away from that stuff But generally I wouldn't

go anything lower than a vizio and that's pretty

much the like vizio is the bottom of the barrel

this is they vizio sits right in the middle of

They are your guardian between your house brand

stuff and your name brand stuff So if you want

a very low low cost TV That's the lowest you

should go But that's not a bad thing No, I see

a lot of places have them and they're they're

not a bad picture. They just know what's well

Okay, here's what's really interesting and all

the research I've ever done regarding HD TVs

I've always known that Vizio has been the best

bang for your buck I've always known that But

for me I've usually gotten sucked into the name

-brand stuff like the Sony like the Samsung's

and I would rely on Vizio to Drive that drive

the price of HD televisions down and by that

I mean that When we bought the TV that we like

just as an example here when we bought the TV

that we have right now Which is in our family

room I? Was lucky enough to find it on sale for

like $1 ,900 that TV just two years ago that

TV was $3 ,500 new And I was lucky enough to

find it for like 19 Like brand new not open box

or anything like that and You know, we talked

a little bit of we talked a little bit in the

last two episodes Well, probably well now it

was two episodes ago we talked a little bit about

the stuff coming out of CES which like the 4k

televisions and stuff like that and We bought

the TV that we have Told my wife I said I will

not buy another TV until 4k becomes like a thing

and CES in 2013 is when 4k became a thing the

problem is everyone that had a set you Samsung

had a set and Sony had a set and they were over

$5 ,000 and Obviously that is not something that's

going to fly with my wife and it's not something

that flew with me So I didn't even bother to

look into them um interesting enough vizio did

not show up at ces 2013 with a 4k television

they stuck with just their their 1080p stuff

and They revamped their entire line in 2013 um

and they they finally caught my eye one of the

One of the reasons I absolutely went with the

tv that I have right now is because the name

brand guys generally Because they have the money

Their stuff looks better Not necessarily the

picture quality, but the way it just looks when

it's off just looks better. I can see that. But

you pay for that. Oh yeah, most definitely. I

mean, I'm a matte guy. I am not afraid to admit

that I am paying for an aluminum computer. I'm

not afraid to admit that. The fact that it works

amazing is a bonus, but I definitely know that

I paid for the way that it looked. But that's

why I went with them because I wanted the TV

I went with the Samsung because I wanted the

TV that had the really thin bezel well That CES

2013 when everyone was showing off their 4k TVs

Vizio came in and was like Guys, we have the

same TV sets that you have now with the really

thin bezels and guess what they're all half the

price and I Kind of turned my head to the side

and I my ears perked up and I started to take

notice because I know that they used all the

same stuff And now they're able to their engineering

team has now been able to produce tvs visually

from an aesthetic viewpoint that look identical

to your samsung's and your and your lgs and But

I wasn't going to buy a new 1080p tv last year

that I knew that would be a waste of money um

And at ces 2014 you know everyone showed up samsung

showed up sony showed up with all their 4k tvs

and their curved screens and all this other stuff

and they um but no one announced pricing for

anything they were all these really nice tvs

these bendable tvs and all this other flashy

mumbo jumbo and that no one announced pricing

and then vizio got up on stage and they got up

there and said okay we have a 50 inch 4k television

starting at $1 ,000. And for the second year

in a row, my ears perked up, big time. And at

first I was kind of like, okay, well what is

the P -Series? You know, because I'm not really

familiar with Vizio's lineup. And I'm thinking,

well the P -Series is probably like a piece of

garbage. And I went and looked at it online and

I was stunned by what it was and by the way that

it looked. And it is their... It's a brand new

it's they did it's one of two brand new lines

that they debuted at the 20 at the CES in 2014

It is their second highest from You know, they're

the only step up from that is their top of the

line model In fact their top of the line model

from last year became their midline model this

year nice So all that stuff like trickled down

and they kept the same great looks and they kept

the same pricing There are a lot of people that

think that the bigger guys can't compete with

those with those pricing so not only do they

have the looks but they also have that pricing

and Visio is like I said Visio going back to

what I said is Visio is always a company that

you can rely on to Put the pressure on the big

guys to lower their pricing in some way Because

you can bet that it's a more compelling upgrade

To jump into 4k for a thousand dollars than it

is to jump into 4k for four to five thousand

dollars Which is why I'm thoroughly on board

with it and I I won my wife over through my enthusiasm

and excitement for it Nice and I it kind of like

that kind of flows into Something else we hit

on it a little bit in the last episode off the

cuff But I didn't really want to like dive into

it even though we we didn't really talk about

a whole lot of games in that last episode I know

people come here to hear us talk about tech and

stuff like that. So 4k is the big thing that's

coming out right now and There's a lot of questions

about what is 4k? What does it? What can be watched

in 4k? What's the point of a 4k television? now

If you want to see the benefit of a 4k television

Best Buy has both a Samsung and a Sony 4k television

on display If you walk up to it, they're playing

designated 4k content from a source that is It

it looks like a window 4k 4k content as far as

like nature stuff goes looks like you're looking

through a window and not in that cheesy soap

opera effect That some of the newer TVs can get

Like the the automotion plus and the high frame

rate stuff. It doesn't look like that like this

it just It looks really good Now it's good to

know now that's source material. That's like

that's nature shots, but you don't watch nature

shots You don't do any of that stuff You want

to know where the content is actually coming

from as far as you know stuff you want to watch

Netflix has stated at the show they came out

in a really big way for 4k they showed up with

With 4k with you know ready to go They were showing

off house of cards, which was shot in 4k and

mastered in 4k And it will actually be streamed

on Netflix in 4k Now obviously if you don't have

a 4k TV you won't be able to see it that way

But they also did say that all of their original

content going forward will be shot and mastered

in 4k and will be available in streaming in 4k

and If anybody if any geek needs a reason to

get excited about that let's not forget that

they are producing four marvel tv shows um yeah

i i yeah that's that's definitely something awesome

that they're taking on so i'm i'm excited for

for that plus they said that they're getting

sony is going to give them a 4k remaster of breaking

bad to stream which you know everybody loves

breaking bad i only like season two but that's

just me So there there will be streaming content

and some of it It's it's weird because I was

kind of concerned about what's the bandwidth

gonna be like for a 4k streaming movie and that

is when I started diving down the rabbit hole

of what h265 or the HVAC codec really is and

From what I've been reading is that it is a massive

Step up from the h264 codec that has been used

for the lat like the last decade. Oh Yeah, I

I think Before I really get into it. I just want

to say I think we may start seeing 1080p content

on broadcast TV and That would be cool. If we

don't I will I Will want to know why? And the

reason I say this is because through the magic

of compression technology and keep in mind Most

of your blu -ray movies are in h2 six or are

any version of h2 six four and they are compressed

because a movie is ranges a theatrical movie

ranges anywhere from a hundred gigabytes to like

400 uncompressed and a blu -ray can only hold

50 gigabytes so Your blu -ray movies are compressed

I'm sorry to say but they look really good right

and that's what the h264 codec The h265 codec

is capable of delivering for 1080p streams In

the same bandwidth as an h264 1080p stream Wow

so basically what that means is Not to you know,

put the nail too much on the head is that you

can either You know watch four different channels.

You can you know, you can watch four things in

1080p For like 15 megabytes or you can watch

Or I shouldn't say 15. Yeah, no 15 megabytes

megabits I always have trouble mixing out my

bites and my bits I don't I can't remember which

one's the smaller which one's the larger Bits

are smaller. Okay So 15 megabits. You can stream

4 1080p streams for 15 megabits or you can do

one 4K stream for 15 megabits. Because 4K is

just essentially 4 1080p pictures. So basically

that's what H .265 is and that's why a lot of

gaming people leading up to The release of the

next -gen consoles for tweeting out like all

these YouTube videos and all these trailers that

you guys are watching for all these games The

real thing looks way better than what you're

seeing online because they can't show you what

you're seeing online because The H265 codec is

not available to anybody yet Now here's what's

really nice every single 2014 TV that is 4k Actually

comes with h265 HVAC hardware encoding Built

into it. Oh nice so You won't need like a special

adapter down the road The TV handles that for

you and not only does the TV handle it for you.

It's not software -based It's it has designated

hardware to do it and anyone that knows anything

about computers knows that designated hardware

for doing something is Way better than it being

done Through software. Oh Yeah And even the Vizio

that I the the p -series Vizio that I told you

those that I was pipping out earlier You know

not five minutes ago. They've got it. They are

ready to go with Netflix 4k streaming out of

the box You're good to go So that is basically

what I've been researching and finding out about

that The other interesting I think I noticed

Going into you know diving down the rabbit hole

is that vizio has come out and said that 3d is

dead They have that coming well the interesting

enough they dropped 3d from all of their TVs

for 2014 Wow, they are not offering it now I'm

gonna go ahead and I'm not a big fan of 3d. We

know this I've made it abundantly clear on M

-Wire, on Twitter, on Off the Cuff, not a fan

of 3D in any way shape or form. I do own a 3D

TV because a 3D TV generally will provide a better

2D picture. That is the only reason I have it.

That said, I was kind of... I do believe that

the 2015 Vizio's will have 3D in them again.

I'm just putting that out there. But I think

that Vizio... Isn't doing it with their 2013

or their 2014 lineup because they're waiting

until they can do the glasses free 3d Which is

something that can be done with 4k televisions,

but it's not ready yet So I think they just decided

to shit can the whole thing part of my language

But I do think it will be back next year. So

if 3D is your thing and the Vizio TVs sound really

cool because Dang it. I do think they are neat

3D will be back in them next year and I also

Tidbit for gamers one of the things that actually

really turned me on to the Vizio stuff But I

started diving down the Vizio rabbit hole to

find out if their TVs were actually any good

They are very good for gaming They have very

low input lag that's good like better than any

tv in my house so that made me really excited

and if that carries over into the pv series that

will be awesome but yeah i i highly recommend

and we can put a link in the show notes um if

you're looking for a good quality tv i really

recommend the um The visit the Vizios 2014 lineup.

I really don't think you can go wrong. They're

all smart TVs They're all like they have they

all the I think it's the M series and up They

all have six core processors in them There's

like a four core a quad core GPU and a dual core

CPU They've got like the whole shebang as far

as like Netflix Hulu Amazon Prime Pandora all

the all the different streaming stuff is actually

built into the TV and they all have Wi -Fi built

into them as well So you're pretty much good

to go as soon as you get out of the box The model

numbers can be a little confusing because the

2014 model numbers are exactly the same as the

2013 model number Except the 2013s have an a

in the model number and the 2014s have a B in

the model number So if you fall down the rabbit

hole and you're looking at a TV and you in a

Vizio TV And you find one that you like and you

go to the store and you check it out You know

if it has a bee in it Then that's one of the

new ones if it doesn't you're still getting a

good TV because they were still good last year

So the only difference is that if you get one

of the new ones like I said before they're all

gonna be full array and they're all gonna have

the local dimming so you'll you should end up

with a better picture out of the box, but I think

that's I really want to say because I know that

just all came pouring out of me, but like I said,

I've been reading forums for Hours at a time

about this stuff Really quickly before we take

a break though and talk about something else

a great resource for anything to do with TVs

if you ever want to just Read a form on this

stuff is AVS forums and we can put a link to

those in the show notes as well That is a great

place just to go and research they have a thread

for like every TV you could possibly want Like

owners of those threads are in there and they're

talking about the TVs that they have and their

experience with the TV and they're talking about

calibration settings and like the quality and

Helping each other like troubleshoot stuff. It's

a great place to like just learn the language

And figure things out it's one of the it's one

of the places that helped me pick out my you

know Help me finalize my decision my decision

to get a d8000 And I learned about some of the

inherent flaws that were in the TV and luckily

because I read that forum I was able to avoid

having some of those flaws in the TV when I got

it Just through the way that I took it out of

the box I was able to avoid some construction

problems or Structural problems with the TV which

I can go into at a later date if anyone's actually

interested excuse me interested in that stuff,

but um No, I think unless Steve has anything

he wants to throw in here on this we can we can

take a break and when we come back on the other

side side Side I will Share a small little tidbit

One last small little tidbit and then we'll move

on to something else No, I think that about covers

that topic I'm sorry if I if anyone's still listening,

we'll see you on the other side of this brick

All right, we're back on the other side of whatever

Steve decided to drop in there Hopefully it was

entertaining. Oh It was Oh, I'm going to have

to hold you to that one. Just a real quick side

day off from work and I got really bored. I love

my TV, but there's one movie and one scene that

my TV just destroys. Just like literally destroys

it to the point where I don't want to watch that

movie on my TV And it is the Dark Knight And

it's because the TV is edge lit When in the scene

where he's in Hong Kong and he's trying to get

the guy out of the building You have a very you

have a very white build it like a very well lit

building on one side of the screen and you have

a very dark city scape on the right side of the

screen. The problem is that building is so bright

in that screen that the... at first I didn't

think the TV knew... at first I thought it was

the TV because what was happening is the right

side of the TV was overcompensating to help the

left side of the TV light the building. So it

was washing out. There was like streaks across

my TV of it just washing out the darkness on

the right side of my TV. And I noticed it right

off the bat and it hurt me very badly. And I

filled with it and I calibrated my TV and I fiddled

with it some more and I adjusted this setting

and that setting to see if I can make it go away.

Apparently it is an inherent problem at least

with that movie and as I said before the AVS

forums They're actually the ones that pointed

it out to me And I wanted to see if it actually

was true and sure enough it is like that is a

problem that everybody has had with that movie

What's interesting is I need to try it again

because I I Did it yesterday like at 2 So there

was some light coming into my family room, but

I have a blackout shade, but it was still relatively

bright, like I didn't need to have any lights

on in the house. I also, not only do I own the

standard Blu -ray Dark Knight, I have the ultimate

trilogy collection. So I have two copies of the

Dark Knight. I decided to see once and for all

if it was my TV that was doing it, or if it was

the encoding for the movie. So what I did is

I decided, oh I have two copies of the movie

in my house. So what I did is I took one copy

into the bedroom where I have a 1080p full array,

it doesn't have local dimming on it, but it's

just a full array LCD television. So I put the

movie in the standalone Blu -ray that I've had

since it came out on Blu -ray. I put that in

there and I played the scene. And the scene looked

fine. It wasn't getting washed out or anything

like that. I mean, it didn't look perfect, but

it looked fine. And so I grabbed the Ultimate

Trilogy collection and I went and put it in the

Blu -ray player out with my nice big television.

And I went to that scene and I played it. And

it didn't do that. And I haven't been able to,

I tried looking up a little bit online here and

there, but basically what I'm theorizing is that

the ultimate trilogy collection may be new prints

or new encodings. But like I said, I have yet

to test that out in a completely dark room. So

it could have been like a placebo effect, but

I ran through the scene like three or four times.

and then I went and got um the original disc

and I put it in and I ran it through twice and

there is a definite different the exact same

scene two different blu -rays there is definitely

a difference in the picture quality in that scene

so yeah just a little something interesting I

found out I or not I don't even know for sure

if it if I you know quote unquote found it out

but just something that I may or may not have

noticed that because you know they don't tell

you that they didn't they don't say like it's

a brand new transfer of the movie or anything

like that Well, no, they don't advertise any

of that. Well, sometimes they do, you know, especially

like right now with like the the 4k Remaster

for Robocop, you know that that's going around

yeah, but I I Want to get that's one thing I

wanted to get to in the last section All this

4k remaster stuff. Those are not 4k blu -rays,

please please please listeners. Those are not

4k blu -rays Do not fall for that That that is

not what they are they are still only in 1080p

What that means is the studio has a 4k restoration

of the movie? Sitting on a hard drive somewhere

so in the future if they want to have theatrical

releases or IMAX releases or if they want to

release it on blu -ray again they have a restored

print that will never deteriorate and That's

where they you know they took the time and the

money to clean that up to root so it could be

saved and For posterity, I guess because who

wants to save Robocop for posterity? Yeah, really?

um But that is that is what that is. It just

means that it's it is you know, it is compressed

from a 4k master copy And that's not a bad thing.

You do get improved picture quality in detail

And if you do play it on a 4k d 4k tv It is capable

of showing you more detail because even if it

even if the detail is there it can still get

washed out just from the size of the pixels from

a 1080p television. Another movie that has had

another Blu -ray that has had the 4k remastered

treatment is The Wizard of Oz. Interesting little

tidbit about that is they tried a computer algorithm

to scan the movie into 4k. They let a computer

do it and you know Dorothy's shoes, how they

sparkle. Yeah. The computer just interpreted

the shoes as red So when it was all done and

they were watching it her shoes were just red.

They didn't sparkle So they had to have an animator

went in frame by frame And added the sparkles

back in That would be such a pain Yeah, but anyways

that and so basically the wizard of oz like the

3d printed wizard wizard of oz That was like

just in theaters and stuff like that like the

classic one That was the 4K restoration print.

They took that 4K print and they converted it

to 3D, and that's what went in IMAX. But they

did that years ago, just so that they could have

a good copy of it saved somewhere for future

generations. So they could keep milking it for

money. Lately. Yes. They love to milk it. Steve

wants to talk about media news. Yes media and

it's news No, I mean there was a lot of different

things that were going around when I collect

these I try and grab some things that are different

This episode you will see the revival of the

superhero Some of it good some of it bad, but

again should be interesting I don't know if you

saw this the Thing of South Korea trying to build

a 5g network Supposedly a thousand times faster

than 4g well that's funny because 4g or LTE is

actually supposed to be way faster than it actually

is What's what's interesting about this, and

I'm not trying to make you know a 5g network

is obviously going to be much faster And I haven't

read the article. I'm just reading the headline

here, but for anyone that actually cares LTE

doesn't even live up to the spec that it's supposed

to LTE is supposed to be a hundred megabits per

second while you're moving Yeah, that's a lie.

I I get I Can get 45 while I'm moving but it's

supposed to be it's supposed to be a hundred

while you're moving and like Something even more

stupid if you're in one location so But this

is one of those things, cellular technology to

me, and I don't doubt South Korea can do this

because South Korea just does whatever it wants,

and there are other places around the world that

have better internet infrastructure and cell

phone infrastructure than we do. But I just,

for just like, I don't know, every once in a

while, for like half a second, I wish that technology

would just stabilize. not constantly have that

moving target like cell phone cell phone technology

like LTE that is such every time they get close

they just move to something else and they never

even bother to Like get to where they were going.

Yeah, they never complete their mission. They

just it's abandoned ship. What's new? Yeah, exactly.

And this goes back to what we were talking about

earlier with TV, which is that we've had 1080p

TVs for the last decade now, but we have no 1080p

content on television. And now they're trying

to work on the Super HD. Yeah. And broadcast

television? I mean, maybe, like I said before

in the last segment, with H .265, they can finally

bring that to that. But will they? Probably not.

Not without charging you a premium. But I'm still

waiting to see if they'll even give you 1080p

because they probably won't so the only way you'll

be able to get it is through streaming or through

video games or through blu -ray, but I'm But

yeah, and I have the same opinion cell phone

technologies. I'm like where is my hundred megabits

per second while I'm driving down the road And

if you have your sprint you really don't have

more than five megabits a second I'd do a speed

test right now if I could I'm not I should I'll

I'll do it right on the air. I'll do it. I'll

do it. I'll do what you do one. I'll do one It's

in the term. Let me turn my Wi -Fi is off because

I'd be cheating Yeah, my Comcast would definitely

blow it away Let's see. Okay. Do you have 4g

right now? I have yeah, I have three bars of

the LT Isles I have Two bars or I'm sorry one

bar of signal and mind you that's with ace a

Signal booster in the house that's connected

to Comcast. Oh, never mind. I have two bars now

and I have 3g so Starting my test now Do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do

-do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do -do - okay

and this is sprint which i'll bring some of that

up later i don't even know if and my upload is

0 .72 megabits yeah i don't even know if i want

to share what mine is with you no do it okay

all right my three bars uh i don't have a signal

repeater in my house um three bars in my house

i get 8 .25 down and four and a half up. And

you have what company? I have AT &T. I'm trying

to see if I can pull up my history. No, those

are all white. Wait, wait, wait. The fastest

cellular connection I've ever gotten was... I

know it was in Grand Rapids when LTE first went,

yeah. 47 .1. Wow. Down and 7 .61 up over cellular

connection. That actually is what prompted me

to up my internet speed. When my cell phone was

all of a sudden faster than my home internet.

That's just sad. I immediately called Comcast.

and bent them over a barrel and got the internet

that I have now. And I'm debating on whether

or not I want to crank it up to 100. Well, mind

you, when I have my phone connected to my Wi

-Fi, I get 27 .5 for download and upload is 11.

And these are megabits. Yeah. So I mean... it

but with the the regular it's just it's it's

terrible yeah uh let's see we're at 57 and 57

and a half on the wi -fis and 15 up that's what

string that's what the Skype call going on holy

cow Okay, sure whatever um Yeah, thank you listeners

if you're still listening, but yeah keep in mind

that is supposed to be and the 100 megabits per

second number for LTE is supposed to be while

you're moving I Just I'm all for pushing the

boundaries man, but and Obviously 5g is not coming

here for a long time. Oh heck no Because it's

really funny because AT &T has offered 4G for

a while, but I always called it faux G. Faux

G? Faux G, like fake G. Which was between, I

think I never really got higher than 15 megabytes

per second, but then they added LTE. I'm switching

companies after my contract's up. I have until

June. Are you doing the T -Mobile thing? Actually,

no. Because the catch with that is you're paying

full price for a phone. Yeah. That's one of the

reasons why I was turned off to it. Because I

was originally... I was kind of interested in

it because T -Mobile does something really interesting

with their data plan. They do offer unlimited

data. All their plans are unlimited data. However,

the way it works is you pay for a bucket of...

Unthrottled data So basically you will get like

let's just say you pay for two and a half gigabytes

of data you're paying for two and a half gigabytes

of their internet at its fastest possible speed

and Once you once you hit your two and a half

gigabytes instead of just charging you more because

you went over They just throttle you down to

like 3g speeds Which that's fair. That's fine.

That's awesome, you know, and as most people

don't go over it anyway No, they don't but and

I do think it's a really nice idea Which is one

of the reasons why I was like, oh that's really

neat plus they throw in and you know unlimited

talk and text and all that other stuff and the

plan was significantly cheaper the problem is

as soon as you start realizing that you you know

one you have to pay for a phone outright or two

you all of a sudden you have to You have to subsidize

a phone Your plan goes up by $25 per line Yeah,

I I figured that out and My wife and I we were

we were looking at the price and she's like you're

paying $600 a phone You know when you break it

down monthly, it's it's like yeah, we'll just

stick with crappy old sprint until it's Sick

with the subsidized stuff. Yeah, and I mean they're

all starting to go that direction like Verizon

They have the option where you can either do

the two -year contract and get your discounted

phone for, you know, if you're getting one of

the newer ones, it's like $1 .99, which whatever,

I'll pay up to $1 .99 for a phone, I don't care.

And usually I'm fine with sticking with them

for a contract. But they have, you can do no

contract, but you're paying full price for the

phone. So either way you're still in a contract.

It's just it's it you get your discount Something

you might want to look into is the Google Play

like the Nexus devices They have a Nexus It's

not for some reason they it's not a Nexus phone,

but it's an Android phone with pure Google on

it 180 bucks no contract works on T -Mobile and

AT &T No contract and it's actually Android.

It's not skinned or anything Yeah, that's the

other thing when I get a new phone and I guess

when it gets closer Maybe we'll talk about phones

and everything Because I'll be in the market

anyway looking so it'll be research as well I'm

The main thing I really want is I want to make

sure I'm gonna get all my calls which With sprint

you're constantly cutting out. So I mean like

not you but I mean like anybody that calls So

I just like that about it but It's It's also

I like Verizon, but I don't I mean and in to

a fair degree I don't like any of the other companies

phones. I like that Verizon has like Motorola,

which is owned by Google and has you know the

google phones as well i know everybody has a

google phone um that's not well actually the

actual google phones are really only available

on um t -mobile and 18t true because the actual

google phones are all gsm devices and verizon

is not verizon is cdma um so that's i i could

i i sent that to my friend the the 180 android

phone because he still has his unlimited data

from verizon But he can't and he's out of his

contract the problem is now he can't if he If

he wants another subsidized phone, he has to

renew his contract and he loses his unlimited

data So he's been buying He's been finding like

cheap unlocked phones from the internet He has

a Nexus Actually, I think I think eventually

you can get the Nexus phones on Verizon. You

just have to wait a long time for them Like they

don't show up there first. Yeah, I think I think

I checked into it. I think I'm pretty sure Verizon

has them. I don't think it's the most up to date

stuff, but it's still more up to date than some

of their other phones. Right. Yeah, it's yeah,

I that's that's the only way that I've ever used

Android because I don't I don't care for the

skinning that the individual companies do. Well,

and that's another thing. I have an HTC phone.

I hate this phone because Not only is it outdated,

constantly, but the skin on it, because it's

so embedded with HTC crap, it's like the equivalent

of running your computer and having AOL and like

50 different toolbars, modding Internet Explorer,

because you can be making a phone call and it

starts loading random applications that are associated

with HTC. All right. All right. All right. It

sounds like you what? Okay. I think we're getting

into headshot territory. So let's um Let's let's

cover a couple more media things and then we'll

move on to headshot Sounds good So, yeah There's

also the news that Gal Gadot the actress who

was cast as Wonder Woman Will I guess is signed

on for a three movie deal. Yay Meaning if she's

if if she's actually in Batman v Superman Or

it's a Justice League movie and then her own

movie And the Justice League movie yeah, well

as this was getting at is if the Batman v Superman

isn't just the The the mock title for Justice

League see the one thing I'm I wonder this about

all like these contract deals and like the you

know when they're like they're signed for this

many movies I wonder if that includes like the

little cameos like do you think that the cameo

that and this is kind of mild spoilers that Chris

Evans had in Thor the Dark World do you think

that counted against his like number of movies

that he's contracted to play Captain America

in I think so you do I think so, because Sam

Jackson and Donnie Jr. did it and they were signed

for so many films and then they just even just

appearing for a while. Hmm, I mean, it just seems

like so tiny when they're like, it's a nine picture

deal. And then like one of those is like 30 seconds

of screen time. And it's like, no, you're done.

Like that doesn't, 30 seconds to me does not

equal a picture. No, that's that's where I'm

what that's why like in my head that doesn't

equal a picture so I'm just wondering if that

actually like counts against their contractual

obligations or if that's just something they

want to do for fun because I think I heard somewhere

that the Chris Evans cameo was was not planned

for Thor the Dark World it was just like Tom

Hylston was doing a really funny Chris Evans

impression and So they they wanted Chris Evans

to come in and do like the Loki impression. Nice.

So I don't know if I heard that like from M .Y.

or when I was on that and we were talking about

it or not but like I just you know I'm wondering

if those like last because it seems like that's

something that's not like planned that's like

something they thought of while they were like

in the middle of shooting and so I don't know

if anyone that listens to this knows if that

actually counts against like their contractual

obligations for things or not but it'd be interesting

to find out though yeah so like like would You

know if gal you know she signed for three movies

if she shows up as at the end like this Like

I just say she shows up at the end of Batman

versus Superman does that count as like one?

Even if she's only there for like 30 seconds

like or the like if she's only in the post credit

sequence Does that count as one? It's You know,

it's it's I'm just kind of like wondering about

that I mean, maybe it does though because I know

Sam Jackson signed for like what nine movies

Yeah, and he hasn't actually been in... I mean,

he's had little parts in some of the movies.

Well, he's done Avengers, and I know he's got

a big thing in Captain America 2, so I don't

think those will count, but maybe he does. Who

knows? We'll have to see. Maybe he does. Oh,

yeah. Yeah, they as far as like the Batman Superman

movie have you seen all the I'm not gonna get

too much into this because it's just again, it's

all rumor milled but Have you heard all the the

latest rumblings about the suit That it's the

blue and gray It's either the blue and gray or

it's the black and gray Either they're saying

that there's definitely two suits that are gonna

be in this film Isn't that what we? kind of Your

I think that's what we started. Yeah, I'm pretty

sure like the beginning of this podcast We were

guessing this all along Yeah, cuz it yeah, I

I Hope we're right I hope so too because I would

love to see the new 52 suit and then whatever

cuz I there is going to be An Iron Man suit.

There's gonna be a regular suit and an Iron Man

suit So it's gonna get some he's gonna get a

superman buster suit instead of a hawk buster

suit it'll be just like in the dark knight returns

yay then of course the guy that plays arrow went

off half -cocked earlier this week I didn't see

this well it was because of like interviews and

everything everybody was saying oh he's gonna

be in Justice League or there's Justice League

talks and he's like it's bullshit It's all bullshit.

No, because they're going to do the Justice League

on the CW. Yeah, so it's going to they're going

to have their own thing. It's not I mean, would

it be great if eventually, like in a future film,

they brought them in? Yeah, that'd be kind of

cool. But I really doubt they're going to connect

the two universes because they're going to have

they're going to have the Bruce Wayne type thing

on the other. And, you know, I mean, it would

be a great engine to kind of build, you know,

like the Flash and Well, yeah, it's there it

would be there arrow would be like their agents

of shield to you know Marvel So I mean I would

I would be behind it but I Sincerely doubt they're

gonna even worry about that right now. I see

that you threw in the the new blue microphone

Yes, which I I thought about bringing that up,

but that's not for pot. That's not a microphone

for podcasting So I didn't really like, think

it was anything... I mean, don't get me wrong,

I love Blue's microphones. Obviously we all love

them here at DCast Radio. You know, you've got

the Yeti and Danner, myself and Dan over at M

-Wire, we all have the Nessie. But yeah, I was

really excited when they announced it, when they

were like, new microphone? I was like, what?

No way, I don't want to buy another microphone.

but yeah i think i believe that the the hampton

is specifically for music recordings although

on that note they are making headphones this

year blue is yeah so i'm i'm kind of uh excited

for that to see what it is the that was something

that they kind of teased at ces and they're calling

they're calling them mo -fi like instead of instead

of hi -fi because they're headphones designed

to get the most out of your mobile devices. So

they're, they're mo -fi. Um, and they really

haven't shown anything off. It looks like a pair

of the headphones may have like a microphone

built into them. So obviously you could like

talk on the phone with them. Um, but the idea

behind them, there's some type of, you know,

technology built into them that will, you know,

make the audio of your mobile devices sound like

more like their like Hi -Fi devices instead of

the mobile device that they are, which given

what I've seen out of the Nessie, I have no doubt

in my mind that they can deliver something like

that. And so I'm really interested to see what

they do. And I mean, I say that about the Nessie

because the Nessie has a lot of like, you know,

normalization and balancing and stuff like that,

that it does by itself before the audio even

gets to my computer. Whereas like the Yeti, or

like the Snowball, those are mainly just for

capturing the audio and then you're just as cleanly

as possible and then you do all that extra stuff

in post. That's just what I mean by that. I'm

more interested in their headphones than I am

about this code name Hampton. Yeah, I would be

interested to see what they are. I mean, I'm

such a... I think, like you said, we're all big

supporters of Blue. Honestly, I'd love if they

would eventually send us trial stuff to test

out. That would be cool. Wishful thinking. I

might invest in the headphones because one, as

I mentioned last week, I still have my Logitech

USB ClearChat Pro headset. that has the microphone

on it that I used before I got the Yeti and uh

the fake wannabe leather type stuff or whatever

it's called that's on the sides for the cushion

is deteriorated alright so every time I take

it off I have like black stuff stuck to my head

aww but it's comfortable so I don't get rid of

them Well, I'll tell you what if you you should

start saving for them because I don't know how

much they're gonna be But if they're anything

like the other blue stuff, they probably won't

be terribly cheap But as soon as I see like a

picture of them I will definitely send you something

like it was it really bummed me out because all

through CES They were teasing this and I kept

seeing come see the new move the mo fi headphones

from blue and I was like Oh, let me go click

on that and I clicked the link and it took me

to this Took me to a web page where I could sign

up to be notified about more information about

them But what was really bad is every time I

saw anything to do with mo -fi I would always

be like, ooh Do they have a picture of it and

I click the link and it always took me back to

that same page. I Was like I want to see what

they look like dang it But no, they didn't have

anything to show. I'm kind of hoping because

they're showing off this The Hampton microphone

at the I think it's like North American multimedia.

I think that's what NAMM stands for saying they

have I think they have the mo -fi on their website

is it well I know that that's They have an actual

picture of it on the website now. I'm pretty

sure Hold on I say they have the video I believe

okay. That's not that video is like such a tease

Really, it's not it like that. I've watched that

video. It doesn't it shows everything is like

from like really close up and because they're

trying to keep it like under wraps like it's

supposed to be like super secret um but you can

you can kind of see like the that's like the

obviously the earpiece that you see like in that

first picture like when you load it up that's

like the earpiece and you can see like what looks

like it's a little boom mic that comes off of

it i would imagine For like, you know using it

with your like mobile devices and talking and

stuff like that I know I'm I'm interested to

see what it is I've got like, you know, I've

got a little fund set up so I can actually like

snag a pair of them because like I said, we're

big fans of I'm big fans of their stuff like

I did I didn't even hesitate when they last year

at CES when they announced the Nessie I mean

I had I had a Yeti and I was very happy with

it and that's what I used for like, you know

two years and the minute they announced the Nessie

and said what it did, this, that, and the other

thing. I just started watching everything like

a hawk for it to actually hit stores so I could

buy one, because I just wanted to have it. I

just wish that they had a microphone for Android

phones. Yeah, I can see that. Because, and maybe

with some software or something, because Android

has crappy recording software for audio. Maybe

when you switch to Verizon you can just get an

iPhone and all of your problems can just go away

All right Let's just do like maybe one more cuz

I don't I can't be up for too much longer I know

we want to do headshot and the the blitz so Did

you see Bill Cosby is coming back to TV I saw

that Like a lot of TV stuff he's not a thing

for me I I Think he's a part of that latest craze

to try and boost ratings by bringing back things

that were like Tim Allen people that were hot

back in the day that aren't really now the Tim

Allen is like that rare exception Because they

had like the Michael J Fox show which isn't really

doing all that great. I might have been doing

that great, but I do like that show. Oh, I don't

discount that it is. It's good, but it's it's

it's an acquired taste, I think. Yeah. Whereas

Tim Allen's show is more so you can pick it up,

watch it wherever and it doesn't matter, but

it's also kind of fun. I don't think he's going

to draw that much. I mean, last week I covered

the fact that. Chevy chase and Beverly D 'Angelo

are gonna be doing a vacation TV series Okay,

basically raising their grandkids So and that's

supposed to be like a 2014 2015 show So him coming

back to TV isn't really a surprise but I Don't

I don't know. I Don't it's like Robin Williams

to his shows. All right, too, but it's kind of

the same thing every week. Right. So I have a

hard time following these older stars that are,

you know, either have been in films or used to

be on TV, either coming back to TV or coming

back to the stations that they used to be on.

It's... I think it's kind of past that point.

Okay. I don't know. I just... It was interesting

that he's trying to come back to TV and he's

kind of done anyway. Yeah. Alright. Wanna take

another break? Sure, that sounds great. And we're

back on another wonderful plug brought to you

by Steve in the editing booth. Yes. Well, let's

see. Let's see if we can do this. We're going

to we're going to headshot. I don't know how

long it's going to go. Hopefully it won't go

too horribly long. If it if it takes off, we'll

probably. You know expand on it a little bit

in in future episodes, but basically as an example

i'm just gonna throw this out there and for For

the way that I thought of like revamping or expanding

on the idea of headshot i'm gonna throw out an

example and of a open shot kind of thing and

Steve can kind of and then steve can take over.

Um But I one of the things that I kind of really

bothers me With online returns or like if I buy

something online and I need to return it I I

hate the I hate the return process for things

Like where I have to send you my your you know,

I get a product from you and it is faulty I have

to send you that product and Then you have to

do whatever with that product and then you have

to send a product back to me And you know, it

could be like a week or two before I get that

product back, right? Case in point, like two

examples here, and I'll show you, one is the

wrong way to do it, and the other one is the

way that I wish everybody would do it, okay?

When Microsoft had their whole Red Ring of Death

fiasco with the Xbox 360, I went a month without

my 360. They sent me a box, an empty box, I put

my 360 in it, I sent it to them, it got there

in a week. Two weeks after it got there. They

had finally gotten around to looking at it. They

decided it didn't work So they sent me a replacement

unit and a week later. I got it. So the thing

was gone for a month and So not only did they

not do the expedited shipping so it took longer

to get around the United States I was without

a system for a month so I couldn't play with

my friends I couldn't do anything as a result

of this. I ended up buying a PlayStation 3 However,

that is the wrong way to do it The right way

to do it is the way that Harmonix did it with

their rock band peripherals. What they did is

if you had one of their guitars and it broke,

you had two options. You had the poor man's option

and you had the guy with the credit card option.

What you could do is you called them up and you

said, hey, my guitar is broken. I need to get

it fixed. And they would Say okay, you have an

option we can send you an empty box you can put

your guitar in it and you can send it back to

us and We will send you a replacement guitar.

That's the way everybody does it right there

other up there other option was We'll send you

a box with a guitar with your replacement guitar

in it You give us your credit card. We will put

a hundred and fifty dollar hold on your card

when we receive your broken guitar we will give

you back your hundred and fifty dollars i everybody

should do that why would you not like That that

is awesome. I took it. I took advantage of that

my I actually did that my guitar broke I said

yes, and I said here's my credit card number

They sent me they sent me a box and in that box

was a brand new guitar. I took that guitar out

I slapped my other one in it. I threw the packaging

label on it. I sent it to them You know two or

three days later. I got my $150 hold back. I

was without that money for like three days But

you know what I had the new guitar. I didn't

have to wait for, you know, the box to get to

me, back to them, and then back to me. Like,

I was able to play right then and there. I wish

more companies would do that. That kind of makes

sense though. It's good business is what it is.

Especially if you exist like online. Like, I

just don't understand. how that, you know, that

stuff, you know, why more people don't do that.

And I really haven't come across another company

that's done that and I haven't really heard of

another company that's done that. But anyways,

that's kind of like what we're talking about

here about how I wanna talk about this, like

where we have issues with like consumer service

or something like that. And, you know, we wanna

rant about it and maybe bring it up so we can

warn our listeners about. You know pitfalls and

stuff like that dealing with certain products,

but we'd also instead of just ranting about them

We would also like to come up with suggestions

as to maybe how to handle it the right way beyond

just the Customer is always right and I should

get what I want mentality So anyways, why don't

we give this a shot Steve? Why don't you take

it away? Okay Well, for instance I have the entire

... Well, I'll just start off with Comcast. That

one never ceases to amaze me. I constantly have

an ongoing battle with this company. They, for

whatever reason, cannot seem to appreciate their

current customers, which ... Kind of boggles

my mind because you're pissing off the people

that are you know, you're biting the hand that

feeds you it's Yeah, they have you know millions

and millions of people that are subscribed to

it but again, it's it's the principle of the

whole thing that they screw their new customers

or screw their old customers and give the new

customers good deals when if they just made a

standard cheap low price or cheaper price for

people that don't want all the bundled garbage

or can't afford it like right now i my comcast

bill is like 50 bucks a month with internet and

the basic basic cable and the modem rental So

I'm fine with that. I'm still not happy and paying

close to 50 bucks, but I'm fine with that on

the other hand, I won't pay more than what I'm

paying now for Any other service like they keep

sending me Mailers and everything for oh get

the triple play. It's a hundred and thirty nine

dollars for twelve months and That's on the special

price Yeah, and I'm like no, thank you You know,

I already pay entirely more than I want to on

my cell phone bill. I'm not paying that to Have

a home phone and have cable I'm not going to

watch Right, like it's I I truthfully don't want

anything beyond Just internet. I don't I don't

need it. I don't want it but They don't seem

to have any kind of special for people that just

want one thing. Or if they're going to do the

cable, they should at least have some kind of

a better a la carte system or some kind of some

some system where you can kind of choose some

channels on the lineup. Not maybe not all of

them, because then they wouldn't make any money.

But. something because I All the crap that they

put on like the basic cable I they took half

of it away in the in the year that I've had this

and It's it's annoying more so than anything

because I barely have any channels to watch and

then you have crap channels like oh I have c

-span and I have You know, I have, you know,

the wannabe QVC and I have this, it's like I

don't really want all these channels. I'd rather

have, you know, this select set of channels and

then just call it good. Would I pay a few more

dollars to have like a specific set of channels?

Yes, I would, but I'm not going to pay them,

you know, 80 dollars for just so I can have all

the channels that I want, plus all the channels

I don't want. Whereas if I pay for just internet

I can go to their websites and watch it directly

from the website of the actual publisher mm -hmm

Kind of like Netflix, but although what I hate

about that stuff like you know You have more

ads than you would if you watched it on on -demand

on comp I have I Interesting thing I have no

problem with ads. I really don't My actually

my only problem with ads is that I am very susceptible

to them That is probably my the biggest problem.

I have with ads I What I don't like is the like

the the new Netflix or not Netflix now the FX

now or The like HBO go. I don't like that you

not only do you have to have internet? Do you

have to have the specific cable package in order

to access those services? That's stupid Um, like

you have to in order to sign into fx now to watch

all the tv shows that are on fx on the internet

You have to log in with your comcast account

And when you log in with your comcast account,

it will tell you that you don't have that package.

So you can't watch these shows Yeah, I hate that

as well that that's the kind of that really bothers

me And I think we're gonna start seeing that

go away because one of the things we talked about

in the ces special was the wwe network Where

they're just gonna do their own channel, right?

so it it'll be interesting to see what kind of

with everyone kind of breaking out of the You

know With networks trying to offer their stuff

a la carte. It'll be interesting to see who does

it next after WWE Like I think it'll be HBO that

does it because they have the infrastructure

in place already like they have the apps and

all that the question really will come down to

you know, what will they want for that content

and I think that's that's one of those things

where It's gonna come down to the individual

user the you know Comcast and and the like may

not be willing to offer up their stuff a la carte

But the individual networks may but the question

the question then becomes well, do I want to

pay? You know the baseline if you use the baseline

of 799 for Netflix content Okay Like but HBO

comes into the game and they think their stuff's

worth worth $15 a month That that becomes a question

and that just goes back to the other card That's

your decision like I get to sit down. I get to

go well is you know is Newsroom and Game of Thrones

and True Blood and girls worth $15 a month to

me it might be especially when I don't have to

have the hundred and some odd dollar cable package

to get HBO to get access to HBO Go, you know

what I'm saying? But that kind of stuff will

add up pretty soon you could end up with you

know a a la carte streaming package that rivals

you know a cable bill. But the difference with

it is you're going to end up with that bill that

you're going to end up footing. Let's just say

you wind up with a $100 streaming internet bill

versus a $100 cable bill. Your $100 a la carte

streaming thing is going to be like HD content,

like when you want it at your fingertips versus,

you know, hundreds of channels that you don't

care about all in standard definition. When you're

not able to watch it, you know what I'm saying?

Oh, yeah, so it's kind of like one of those things

like am I willing to pay a hundred dollars to

watch exactly what I want to watch when I want

to watch it in high definition or do I want to

pay a hundred dollars to Watch standard definition

stuff when I'm told to watch standard definition

stuff like I think I'd be willing to pay a hundred

dollars for Like like almost like not more than

$100, but I think you know between Netflix and

Hulu and you know like $15 for this that and

the other Network of shows. I think I'd be willing

to To do that myself So it'll be interesting

to see if that if that comes up and I know that

Sony and Amazon are in talks to offer uh live

streams of television on like amazon prime and

on like the playstation um so the idea there

being that you'll just pay sony like a subscription

fee and you'll get all of your tv stuff streaming

under their boxes so eventually you won't have

to have a cable provider you'll just have to

have them for the internet and i I understand

where the cable companies are coming from because

what they don't want to be is just they call

them dumb pipes. Where all they are is just providing

internet to the house. And everyone just goes

around them for other content. But I just say

that kind of stuff is like devil's advocate because

I do agree with you, they do charge too much.

I don't really understand why their introductory

price. Isn't the same as their regular pricing

Like why why can I pay $30 a month and get 45

megabit internet on my phone? But to get 50 meg

internet at home I have to pay Not on special.

I think it's like $65 a month like that's That's

it's ridiculous. It's It's mildly ridiculous.

Yes. Okay. Fine. It is ridiculous. I guess it

all depends on... Because part of me has to look

at it from what I am willing to fight for and

what I'm willing to pay. And what I'm willing

to pay for usually comes down to what I can afford

to pay, if that makes any sense. Like, I still

like I'm sitting here and I know that I'm going

to have a fight on my hands. Um, because I, my

Comcast special, um, much like yours, you know,

I'm paying, I pay $40. I went out and bought

my modem. So I'm not paying for a modem rental

because I didn't, I didn't want to use theirs.

I wanted to use one that I owned. Yeah. Um, so

my, my special is like $40 a month for TV, which

by the way, my TV doesn't even work. Um, it has

not worked from day one. I cannot get a picture

on my TV through their stupid cable box. I can

get the guide shows up. and the audio shows up,

but none of the channels show up. But I have

the, I more or less just, I haven't really complained

about it because I more or less wanted it because

they offered the 50 meg internet for $40 a month,

which is all I really wanted. So I've been hemming

and hawing, you know, the last two weeks because

in May I have to, you know, my deal is up. and

I've been looking at what their off contract

prices are at $65 a month for the 50 meg internet

that is still within my tolerance range because

when I was with AT &T I was paying when I wasn't

on special I was paying $63 a month for 24 meg

internet so like I'm used to paying that much

but I'm getting twice as fast a speed from Comcast

Do I want to pay that much? No. But one of my

options that I'm looking at is going to their

100 meg internet special for $65 a month. Nice.

I will pay the 65 if you will give me your 100

meg internet. You know what I'm saying? Yeah,

but I think right now that's only the 20. On

regular, I mean. What do you mean? Think it's

the 20 megabyte, but it's the regular price is

like 59 a Mine when I look at myself as a 65

for the 50 meg internet This is like they changed

it. This is like 40 or 50 for the For the they

haven't even shown me any specials anymore. They're

just showing me the off -contract stuff now Yeah,

that's all they do to me, too so but i yeah that's

what but i think that's all just kind of relative

like i like i said i can afford to pay 65 do

i want to pay 65 no i never really want to pay

more than i have to but i have i also have to

think about how much time do i want to spend

you know bitching and complaining on twitter

you know so we'll we'll see what happens when

it gets closer to that time that's just kind

of one of those things that i've been talking

about and i would like to see more more channels

do the ala carte thing I wish they would. There

was an interesting article though, because I

think Congress passed a bill not too long ago

about cable companies needing to offer a la carte

stuff. And there were a couple of interesting

articles about why that is bad for the programming

that you enjoy. And I think a lot of it has to

do with once you Once it's like if you hate all

the reality television shows that you're watching

right now Just wait until everything is that

because that's all anybody will pay for You know

you know what they're saying yeah So that that

was that's like one of the pitfalls because if

that's like what sells then that's all that anyone's

going to make So that's that's that's one of

the things that they're They're worried about

because Comcast and the other cable providers

they do offset some of the costs for those shows

that we all like so much on a B our AMC and HBO

and stuff like that. So Well, yeah, I think that's

about the only complaint I had so far I'll save

my cell phone for next time. Yeah, okay All right

I added a fourth one to the to the blitz section

so we're actually gonna call this the eight minute

blitz actually I think we should just call it

the blitz instead of doing it a time that way

it doesn't really matter how much how many we

have It sounds good So this is the blitz section

for anyone that's this is your first time listening

basically what I've done is I've compiled questions

or anything like that that were either submitted

via email at feedback at geekcastradio .com or

directly to us on Twitter under the hashtag alteredgeek

or in the comments section on the episode post.

We've decided to do this in place of, like more

or less in place of listener feedback. We decided

to do the Blitz and we combed through it and

we decided to look for topics or questions or

things that you want our opinions on. So you

guys, you ask us what you want us to talk about

and we will pick anywhere between one and five

of those and we will talk about them for two

or three minutes. We run a timer and when that

timer goes up, that is it for that topic. This

is the second official time we have done this.

So I'm going to start the timer here in just

a moment at two minutes The first comment comes

from Freddy Savage He submitted this on Twitter

and he says what are your favorite musical artists

of all time? And I'm gonna count down from three

and then Steve you can go ahead and take that

you can start us off Three two one Some of my

my favorite musical groups of all time I I would

put weird Al Yankovic only because I like the

fact that he parodies People's songs because

I may not care for the original song sometimes

Or sometimes I do but it gets me more familiar

with it. But anyways, I like the fact that it's

all parodies I actually have all the CDs pretty

much That's one that I I like Okay Okay interesting

for me Okay, kid of the 80s. I like Michael Jackson.

I Do I like his stuff? Some of his newer stuff

like before he passed away not not so much but

the the older stuff like thriller bad speed demon

You know man the mirror that kind of stuff. I

do enjoy more recently I've decided I've become

more of a connoisseur of just media in general

since like 2006, 2005, I started paying attention

more to music. Music is a really passive thing

for me. It wasn't until I read the book American

Psycho that I actually started to understand

the idea of the album. So now whenever there's

an artist that I'm interested in and I want to

hear more from I will listen in to entire CDs

of theirs from beginning to end and see like

what they tell a story from and to that end Some

of my favorites right now. I would have to say

are like panic at the disco. I actually I really

like I like fallout boy maroon 5 and Some other

stuff because I just feel like they They and

it sounds kind of corny, but I do feel like they

tell the story from beginning to end of some

of those CDs and it's interesting to see how

They progress from CD to CD and stuff like that.

But those are some of my some of my favorites

I know they're like more modern than what probably

most people are talking thinking of but I I like

a lot of music, but those are like my favorite

go -to ones in the car so And the next topic

is okay. The next one is from Rachel Manning

She asked about I'm gonna pull up my comments

pretty much just gonna read my comment from what

I posted on the forum But she said what are some

of your favorite books because she's looking

for a book to read I'm gonna start the timer.

I'm gonna start counting down from three and

then I'm gonna hand it off to you again Steve

already three Some books that I find interesting,

I generally go towards the sci -fi area. Most

of my books that I read are either Star Trek

Transformers or Batman related. I do branch out

to some degree like I like Ender's Game and things

to that kind of degree. Unfortunately, I don't

read too much anymore other than comic books

and maybe the occasional Audio manual type thing

Okay I Am a big fan of Michael Crichton. I've

read almost all of his books some of them For

my favorite ones from him Were like timeline,

which is way better than the movie that had Paul

Walker in it. I finally got my revenge Pray as

another good one by him airframe is also really

good and state of fear is Pretty good there.

Those are all like sci -fi present -day kind

of kind of twists on some stuff Another one of

my favorite authors is probably Brett Easton

Ellis And as I mentioned just a little bit ago

in the music segment. He is the writer of American

Psycho He also along with that book. He also

did less than zero He did the informers the rules

of attractions and glamorama the interesting

thing about those that series of books is that

many of the characters in those books show up

in other books as the same people just at different

points in their life and one of the things I

always wanted to do was reread them and make

a spiderweb of who knows who And when like like

a big diagram of a map for these books Because

they're so intertwined and they're they're really

interesting reads. They're really short A lot

of them are shorter books You could probably

finish them in like a day if you were a speed

reader or anything like that So that's just some

of the ones that I've got All right, let's see

The next one I wish we could figure out who to

credit this one to but we can't seem to find

it TV shows we haven't seen, but that we want

to. Again, count down for three and hand it off

to you. Yeah, I started covering that last week,

but didn't really get full answers. I was waiting

for you to come back, really. All right, so yeah,

we can do that right now. So three, two, one.

Already. I guess some shows that I might try,

I might actually try watching, after I've thought

about it a little bit more, Person of Interest,

just because I like the concept behind it. I

just haven't, I didn't catch it at the beginning,

so it's one of those things that I'll probably

go back after the entire series is done. Oh,

it's so good. And then blitz through it because

I don't want to have to watch another show at

this point. Another one that I caught bits and

pieces before was Stargate and Babylon 5 I just

but it was more so because it was on I might

go back and check those out, but uh That's that's

pretty much my answer. This is a really tough

one for me because I watch a lot of TV shows

I Try to watch anything that's like rec recommended

to me. I've wanted to watch Mad Men from AMC

I know that that is on Netflix. That's on like

that's like on my If I stumble across it on a

rainy day, and I have nothing else to watch maybe

I'll start watching it So I think I don't know

I mean I've heard like songs of anarchy and stuff

like that, but that's not really like my thing

Shoot I mean usually anything if I hear about

it I'll try and like sample like I try to give

anything like the two episode shake You know

like you watch the first episode and it might

be a mess and the second episode is generally

a repeat of the first one But it's like better

as better pacing or as fleshed out in a better

way And that's the one that usually gets me.

I just I wish I could Maybe people would throw

out some TV shows, but for the most part I do

watch I watch quite a bit Yeah, I'm just gonna

have the listeners throw some TV shows at me

that they think I should watch because They probably

don't know that I watch like 60 TV shows So let's

throw that out there. Yeah. Yeah, yes throw me

some TV shows that you think I should watch and

I'll let you know if I've seen them Okay. Now

the last one I I picked this out of our list

of stuff and it's not it's a news related thing

But I kind of want to rant about it a little

bit It's the rumor that's shooting around the

internet right now about Pixar's newest project,

it's Star Wars. I'm not sure if this is in the

article that we're going to post on there, but

I've heard some a little more about what it's

supposed to be. So yeah, well, I'll I just want

to address that here in the two minute blitz.

So I'll start this and then I'll get it flowing.

Steve can chime in if he wants to. All righty.

All right. So Pixar making a Star Wars movie

I don't really I don't have an I have an issue

with this because one I think Pixar has gone

downhill since Steve Jobs passed away I don't

think they've had a good movie since up Don't

get me wrong. I like Toy Story 3. I don't think

as good as people think it is I just think it's

the last one in the series. So that's what people

remember. I don't know I'm not saying I didn't

like it, but I didn't I don't know it didn't

Wasn't what I wanted I guess but maybe I need

to see it again. Anyways I want them to do more

original stuff and they are on this like Sequel

fest right now and I even though Star Wars would

be like an original movie by them It's not like

they're remaking like episode one or like, you

know Empire Strikes Back and like the Pixar art

style or anything like that. I I've heard that

this was gonna in revolve around wedge Antilles

who was the leader of like rogue squadron Okay,

and he was gonna be voiced by Michael Fassbender

and that Brad Bird was attached to direct Yes,

that all sounds awesome Except it's not going

to happen It's not because Brad Bird has moved

on to other things and if Brad Bird comes back

to Pixar and does anything but Incredibles 2

I will cry Don't get me wrong. I love Brad Bird.

I wish him the best in everything that he does.

However, he Pixar both have so much on their

plate right now that this movie wouldn't happen

and until like 2018 or 2019 but at that time

that's just way too far away to get your hopes

up and Pixar needs to like get their shit the

ship back in in order and stop with the sequels

which they seem to be doing but nobody asked

for Finding Nemo 2 nobody asked for a prequel

to Monsters Inc nobody or Cars 2 Y 'all should

have just gone and kept making new new stuff.

I I Yes, you need more new Pixar stuff I'm sorry.

I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna can't do this one. It's

just like a slight bonus thing Do you have anything

you want to say in regards to this? No, I kind

of agree with you. Okay All right, Steve, why

don't you take us out tell them how they can

yell at us if they feel like it Yes, be sure

to yell at us. We like that. Don't beat me master!

Thanks as always for joining us here on Altered

Geek Unlimited. You can contact us in the following

ways. You can email us, feedback at geekcastradio

.com. You can visit the website post at geekcastradio

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get geeky with the Altered Geeks. See you next

time! Bye!