Pete's Write

  Toy Story 3 When Pixar first emerged, their first movie was the start of a long string of hits which never seems to stop. With Toy Story I, you had a hit which was a mix of startling animation, lots of fun but mostly important and yet ironical in an animation, the human touch. The story of a bond of friendship between two different personalities, overcoming adversity together, along with genuine chemistry, lots of funny lines and some excitement made an instant hit of the first show. Can they make it 3 hits in a row? Toy Story II was even better and there is a lot to prove almost 10 years after the first release. It also comes in 3D and with a string of duds and some skepticism that 3D is merely a means to squeeze more out of the movie goer, the third installment has a lot to live up to. But trust Pixar to not only live up to expectations, but exceed them, and be able to introduce a whole new bunch of characters, which add a new dimension, but still allow the original dy...

This is to help sieve through the many calibration discs we have on the market.     Too many discs can add confusion to new buyers and newbies to HT.   Firstly, understand the controls on your TV, amp or speakers. Go through the basic terms like speaker placement, SPL meters, color, brightness, contrast etc first before you venture further. Then you will need to see if you use your TV in 2 settings – day and night. Then you may need to use 2 different settings for each light condition.   For video, the main thing is optimising your settings to give you the best picture quality (PQ) and similarly for sound, the ideal setting to make you feel part of the sound.   For video, it should have the basic brightness, colour, contrast and tint sections, then it may have test screens to centre the picture, and further tests of alignment, bleed, interlacing etc, but the first few should be present.   Good test discs also have realistic sce...

  LIFE - BBC series 4 discs - region free.   If BBC's Planet Earth was the aperitif that showcases what High Definition could do, then Life is the tour de force course which reinforces it and more... The picture quality here, the kind of detail on offer is so astounding, you almost feel voyeuristic in your vantage point. Sure the plethora of action movies on offer is plenty, and you can get many CGI scenes but if you want real action accompanied by real gore, and lots of surround effects, look no further.   As for the plot - let’s just say Mother Nature knows how to give you a great story, and you are in the middle of the gripping action watching animals fight for their lives. This is accompanied by Sir Attenborough's wonderful narrative in his natural calm smooth voice - forget the Oprah version chaps, this is the real man.   Life does not leave you short-changed when comes to the ...