On a production line it takes a few seconds to produce a commercial DVD and place it into its packaging. A burned DVD-R copy takes longer and is more labor intensive, perhaps the reason for the higher price. It's much better to have the original (commercial) DVD. With a burned copy one never knows i...

MissGoddess, DVRs provided by cable and satellite services have become the product of choice among most consumers. This trend is destroying the market for stand-alone DVD recorders and HDD/DVD recorders. Some cable/satellite DVRs time-shift the popular High Definition programming. These DVRs are eas...

This post was updated 28 March 2009. I've been using my Philips 3575 HDD/DVD recorder going on a year now. The 3575 is a 2007 model with a 160GB hard drive. The 3576 is the current version. More recently I purchased the similar Magnavox H2160MW9, the latest version of the Philips 3575/3576 twins. Th...

I remember the family watching K, F & O when I was a child. On Friday evenings we would go out to dinner at Vic & Ockey Harris' Three Star Restaurant in Portland Oregon. After a while my parents made an agreement with the restaurant staff that I may sit at the seldom used lunch counter at th...

It's taken repeated viewings before I observed the connection of the rays of light (finally) producing the Robert Osborne screen. Only now do I see it--that this is "the ethereal light that comes from the projection booth." But I'm still confused by the people fixated upon the rays of ligh...

At long last the original Robert Osborne introduction has been replaced by a "Rays Of Light" introduction shown for the first time before 2001: A Space Odyssey and repeated before Touch Of Evil and The Red Shoes. See it here: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?o_cid=mediaroomlink&cid=...

The issues are more substantive than names.

Watching the Obama "press conference" it becomes clearer how this nation is becoming a socialist nation where Obama is the Agent of Change.

Bread and Circuses!

Yes, it's true, MGM-WHEN THE LION ROARS is finally being released as a three disc set on January 20, 2009. The list price is $29.95, but I'm sure the usual discount sources will have deals. For those who are not into buying, TCM will be showing it on January 12-13-14 at 5:45pm. Joy of Joys! I think...

I watched the debate, er, shouting match as well. About the only thing where there was agreement was that the incumbent is out of touch and as dumb as they come. He speaks well, when he manages to speak at all, is a handsome fellow, and it appears that he's just enduring the insults waiting for the ...

Pktrekgirl,

Your rendering of Errol and Olivia is still my current desktop wallpaper.

Thank you again!

Leonard Maltin's Selected Short Subjects lists forty Laurel and Hardy sound shorts over the 1929-1935 period. A quick look at my Index shows that most of these sound shorts were shown in the 1980s and 1990s by AMC, CBN/Family Channel, or the various incarnations of the Comedy Channel. A number of th...

Thank you moderator/administrator for fixing my long link blunder. Sometimes I'm internet ignorant. With regard to the Philips, note that this model has both ATSC and NTSC (digital and analog) tuners. On the AVS Forum I'm known as DigaDo. Since "Diga" is a Panasonic logo I'm sure to feel l...

A number of my earlier postings have lauded various Panasonic DVD recorders and combo recorders, models DMR-ES30V, DMR-ES15 and DMR-ES35V, manufactured in 2005 and 2006. I have been critical of one 2005 model, DMR-ES40V, that had various design flaws and bugs. In 2007 and 2008 I purchased Panasonic ...

ANALOG TO DIGITAL TV TRANSITION, ANTENNA RECEPTION. For those receiving TV from an antenna an important date is approaching. The taxpayer-funded coupon program for digital to analog converters begins on January 1, 2008. This program provides up to two $40 coupons per household toward the purchase of...

It seems to me that I read a lengthy article in American Heritage magazine concerning this matter. This was back in the days when American Heritage was hardbound and without advertising--probably back in the 1960's. The article even described that Lincoln's fingernails had continued to grow after hi...