Tools4Movies DVD Catalyst Newsletter 47

[dvdcatalyst]

Thank you for reading the 47th. Tools4Movies Newsletter,


Today is iPad3 Day. Announced last week, and of course massive pre-orders, FedEx is finally delivering them to the lucky few million.


This week was busier than usual for me. Last weekend, I rewrote the main information for DVD Catalyst Guides, and throughout the week, I have updated the guides for a couple of popular devices. With those guides, I tried to include as much information as possible, including answers to questions I get a lot.


This week, I also took the first step of eliminating my crappy Cable TV.


First, Tech News.


Of course this week was all about the new iPad. All over the web, unboxing videos appeared, images, screenshots, reviews etc. While the iPad 3 isn't officially available until today, a few people managed (claimed) to get a hold of one pretty early, and of course this flooded the tech websites. Mine is supposedly on the Fedex truck already, so it should be here soon.


The new AppleTV is officially available today as well, with its core-enhancement being 1080p video playback. Mine (accidentally) arrived yesterday, and I am currently play-testing with it and DVD Catalyst 4 to see what I can push out of it when it comes to video playback. Of course when the iPad3 arrives later today, I'll be fiddling with AirPlay as well


Yesterday, Dish Network released its new Hopper & Joey DVR system. As many of the newsletter readers know, I haven't been too happy with my CableTV+TiVo combo after they upgraded to Digital-only. So, yesterday, the local Dish guy set me up with the new Dish setup. It took a bit longer than expected to get it all hooked up.


As I mentioned earlier, this week has been quite busy for me, so I haven't kept up with much news this week. Normally I start the newsletter on Thursday's, but the entire day yesterday I spent on running cables, and of course had support questions to answer as well.




Tools4Movies Articles:


The device guides (xoom, nook etc) I have on the Tools4Movies were getting a bit out-dated, so last weekend I worked on a more detailed guide that covers just about everything I could think of, and throughout the week, I have been posting device guides based on that.


Of course a lot of the content in the guides applies to every device, rather than forcing people to read a generic guide, I opted for using one template and making it specific for a particular device. So while you can use a Transformer Prime guide for the Kindle Fire by just selecting the proper profile when you get to that point in the guide, I figured it would be easier to make it specific so everything in the guide looks and works as it should for that particular device.


These guides have been added/updated so far:


Kindle Fire:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...-how-to-guide/

NOOKtablet:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...-how-to-guide/


New iPad:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...-how-to-guide/


XyBoard:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...-how-to-guide/


Transformer Prime:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...-how-to-guide/


Galaxy Tab:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...-how-to-guide/


The rest of the guides will be updated over the next couple of days.




In addition to the guides, I also posted the second "method" for merging multi-part Bluray movies:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...bluray-method/


And of course this week, I also posted some "Problem DVD" articles:


Immortals:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/immortals-dvd/


Mercenaries:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/mercenaries-dvd/


Footloose:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/footloose-2011-dvd/


Tin Tin:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...f-tin-tin-dvd/


Thoughts:


iPad3.


Fedex just delivered the new iPad (32GB Wifi), so I will be playing with that shortly to see what I can come up with for video (and audio) settings to make DVD Catalyst 4 the best conversion tool for it. I'm sure there are some settings I can tweak to make your own conversions look better than what Apple themselves have to offer in iTunes. If you just got your iPad3, have a look through the guide here:
http://www.tools4movies.com/2012/03/...-how-to-guide/


Aside from the conversion process, the guide also explains how you can set cover images for your movies to make them look all cool and fancy on your iPad. Of course it works for the older iPad models as well.


I'll be posting my findings on my website, so keep an eye on the News section on the tools4movies.com website for the next couple of days.




Dish Network Hopper + Joey.


Since my cable company went all-digital last year (after false promises of never dropping analog support the year before) I was forced to retire my beloved TiVo Series 2's. Forced to upgrade to a Premiere, we kept running into complications, and while TiVo managed to take care of their issues, the Cable company has not, so after the umpteenth problem, I've been looking for a replacement.


When Dish announced their all-room-DVR system, I've been waiting for its availability.


Yesterday was the day it was officially available, so I had it installed.


We ran into some complications with placing the dish, so I spent some time fighting with a tree (I lost), and of course the cabling was a bit of a pain, but everything did get hooked up eventually, and to be honest, it rocks.


I haven't had too much time with it, because of course I had to catch up on support emails after it was all done, but the brief time I did get to play with it definitely impressed me.


The system is based around a main unit, the Hopper, which is a 2-terabyte DVR. This is placed in one room, and hooks up to a TV (of course). Then there are so-called Joey's, which act as little remote devices that connect the DVR to TV's in other rooms. Sort of like a terminal-system or a remote-desktop system.


The hopper takes care of the recordings and TV viewing for itself and the Joey's, and since it is central you can watch your shows from whatever room you are at. This was one of the things we liked so much when we were using 2 TiVo S2's, pulling shows off of one, and watching it on the other, but because this system just has 1 DVR in the middle, there is no transfer involved.


As I mentioned, I haven't had that much time with it yet (1 hour or so), so expect more about it next week.




Closings:


Thank you for reading this week's Tools4Movies newsletter, and have a great weekend.


Sincerely,
Mitch

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