Matt’s Journal

Bumblebee Takes To The Floor

Posted by Matt under Film, Videos

Look’s like an amateur film but it’s some slick animation!

The second film in the franchise is being made as we speak, can’t wait!

Films I Want…No Need, To See…

Posted by Matt under Film

There were the summer blockbusters like Die Hard 4.0 and Blockbusters…I came, I saw and I watched in awe. Our American counterparts have release dates well before our own but here are a list of films I want to see either in the next two weeks or the whole of 2008..

1. I am Legend

Starring Will Smith, “I am Legend” is a film centring on “the last man on earth”. The trailer depicts Smith in a desolate New York City with only his dog for company. Problem is, is he really alone?

It smashed records in the US and with a Boxing Day release in the UK, I can see it doing the same here. Is it me or is Will Smith actually a really nice guy (judging from interviews etc)?

Studio Ghibli

Posted by Matt under Film

A few years back, as I slumped into bed from a late night out, I put on the TV and caught the last remaining minutes of Jonathan Ross’ film night. On this particular programme, he was reviewing an animated film, one by a noted Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki; Spirited Away.

Even though I caught the last few minutes, I was impressed enough (not to buy it) to stick it into my trusted Bittorrent search and grab a download of the film. I sat back and let myself into the world that is Studio Ghibli. If you are wondering what Studio Ghibli is, let Wikipedia show you the light:

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio, and previously was a subsidiary of Tokuma Shoten. Its emotional anime films are widely praised all over the world. Its name derives from the nickname the Italians used for their Saharan scouting planes in the Second World War. The theory behind the name was that the studio was blowing a new wind into the Japanese anime industry. The company’s logo features the character Totoro from the film My Neighbor Totoro.

Since viewing Spirited Away, I bought the DVD and looked at what else the studio had done. I found a new film, Howls Moving Castle and did the same, downloading it and loving it. All I can say is since then I have taken to all the films they have produced and look to add them to my collection at any opportunity. Owning half the collection, I can’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

I seriously suggest you view the two I have mentioned here, you won’t be disappointed. Check the video promo below which shows you snippets from all the Ghibli films:

The best place to get these films that I know of at the moment are HMV, they are all £5.99 or lower. Play.com offers them at £12 and over, so I would definitely go with the HMV route.

Off To The Cinema

Posted by Matt under Film

Myself and Katie are big film goers, we probably go to the cinema (movies) three or four times a month. I had seen the new Elizabeth film advertised, but thought that it wouldn’t be a thing for me. Anyway, I am signed up to a few email newsletters, RSS feeds and am sent preview tickets to the new films, in this case being “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”.

The link takes you to the SeeFilmFirst website, you enter a code and you choose how many tickets you want, two being the maximum for this particular film.

You send them a text message and they send you your SMS invitation, so tomorrow at 6.30pm, I will being seeing a film for free!

Using TVersity to stream to your Xbox 360

Posted by Matt under Film, Gaming, Music, Tech

Following on from my previous post on the 360 and Conor’s suggestion, I thought that I would write a short post on how-to setup streaming of DivX etc onto your Xbox using TVersity. The guide is written for users running Windows XP.

Step 1
Make sure you have your Xbox 360 connected to your home/office network. Point your browser over to TVersity’s website and download the latest edition of TVersity. Whilst that is downloading, if you dont already have Windows Media Player 11, download the new install from here.

Step 2
Install both TVersity and WMP11. Run TVersity. Once installed, configure your personal firewall so that the Media Server component of this software can accept incoming connections from external software. To do this add a rule for MediaServer.exe (C:\Program Files\TVersity\Media Server) which uses port 41952. For Windows Firewall add the same file under Control Panel -> Windows Firewall -> Exceptions.

Step 3
If you already had your Xbox connected to your other computers you will need to disable sharing in Windows Media Player 11. If TVersity is running, point your browser to http://localhost:41952/ to use the GUI, you can also use the executable in your taskbar to open the same GUI.

Step 4
The next step is to share your media. Click the Green Plus button in the TVersity GUI to open a list of options to add media. Choose “Add Folder” and browse to the folder you wish to share. TVersity will then pause while it adds your media to your “Library” tab. Click into the Library tab and select your media type, the videos/pictures/music you added should be there.

Step 5
The final step is to get your Xbox to connect to your computer. On your Xbox, make sure you disconnect any previous computers in the System blade. Once this is done, navigate to the “Media” blade and select video. This will prompt for Console or Computer, choose Computer. The 360 should search and then find the TVersity server, add this and it should load your local library you shared on your computer.

That should be it, here are some extra tips:

• If you cant connect your 360 to your computer, try turning off your Windows Firewall.
• To increase the picture quality, in your TVersity GUI, click Settings and then Transcoder. Change your Connection Speed and Quality to Wired and Quality to Excellent if you are on a Wired LAN and change your Video Resolution to 1024×768 or higher (mine is 1600×1200). This will stop the picture from being pixelated.

Hopefully that helps, if it doesnt, head over to the TVersity Support Page and their Forums.

The Matrix Locations

Posted by Matt under Film, Internet

Flickr user adactio has gone through all the landmarks in The Matrix and photographed them in their real life situes. It’s pretty cool to see how they were changed, how they look when mirrored with shots from the film and even looking at the models posing in the exact same positions as the characters for the shots.

Take a look @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/sets/72157594317693606/

[tags]Matrix, photos, set[/tags]