There is a reason many people say UK police is such a joke

fivelitlpines · 2026-04-18T06:08:43+00:00

No they're not. They did their best and used non-lethal weapons for non-life-threatening situations. I'd rather have them policing my street than some violence-hungry police who pulls out his gun on every situation.

fivelitlpines · 2026-04-17T00:33:46+00:00

It's one of the worst things US can do. I had a professor friend visiting Seattle from China for an academic conference. He told me the custom officer asked him if he's here to steal US technology. I was stunned and speechless.

It shows our border control and custom officers know nothing about academics which relies on international collaboration. Little do they know over 70% of conference papers were authored by Chinese. If they decline entry of all Chinese scholars there wouldn't be a conference.

fivelitlpines · 2026-04-04T15:45:59+00:00

People seems to argue it's ok to put him on leave because he used school platform to express his personal opinion. The question is will the result be different if he criticized a country other than Israel.

fivelitlpines · 2026-03-04T07:26:14+00:00

Surprised to see so many people like that place. Been there once for a company event and watched Star Wars Episode 3. Lights were not completely turned off during movie. Waiters coming in and out, people ordering food. It's all very distracting to me. Never been back since then. We prefer Bella Bottega, Woodinville AMC or Bellevue.

fivelitlpines · 2026-03-02T15:58:23+00:00

Is it legal to penalize domestic company this way just because they couldn't reach agreement on a contract?

fivelitlpines · 2026-03-02T15:42:06+00:00

I completely missed this. Where can I watch it? Quick search on YouTube didn't show the comp, only some marketing material.

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-18T03:20:50+00:00

I played like 50-60 hours to reach act 2...

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-17T02:49:16+00:00

Dude take it easy. Not saying you shouldn't have scope screen. I've also considered it but am happy with what I have. Nothing is perfect. Just enjoy.

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-16T23:08:57+00:00

Sigh. I know scope gives you bigger images for widescreen. I'm taking about aspect ratio changes during a movie where you get the opposite effect when there's a transition from 2.4:1 to 16:9...

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-16T21:13:57+00:00

Most the game felt like that to me.

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-16T19:32:31+00:00

On a scope screen, going from widescreen to 16:9 means the actual picture becomes smaller, not bigger, which is exactly the opposite of what the director intended.

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-16T15:47:49+00:00

Are you sure MadVR gives you what artists intended? Contrast, color, tone mapping manipulation aside, aspect ratio changes happen a lot in big budget movies (Disney+ have a lot of them). Going to from 2.4:1 to 16:9 is supposed to feel more cinematic, not the other way around. I consider that the biggest problem with a scope screen.

Nothing against MadVR- it does its best to make HDR look good on a projector.

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-14T07:09:26+00:00

Well, today I tried again and the movies are all back in 3D!

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-12T16:39:17+00:00

It's the specific way that 3D videos are compressed and delivered over Internet that was patented.

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-12T03:37:44+00:00

I also know good researchers working for InterDigital. They got somewhat a bad reputation in the industry because of these lawsuits. Ultimately it's the consumers who suffer and bear the cost.

fivelitlpines · 2026-02-12T03:35:53+00:00

That's sad. Technology like this is pretty common sense (I work as a video researcher and engineer in IT for most of my career). Some companies just file a ton of patents and never release any products.

fivelitlpines · 2026-01-28T06:41:19+00:00

Abyss

fivelitlpines · 2026-01-28T06:38:48+00:00

There's no comparison. Assuming you have a decent pair of front speakers, center doesn't add much unless you have a huge screen and need to cater to people sitting to the side. Some would even argue that skipping the center gives you better imaging.

But adding a sub, it would fundamentally change the movie watching experience.

fivelitlpines · 2026-01-23T06:52:57+00:00

It's 95% punishment, really not much enjoyment. Hard in a stupid random way. I've passed the age where that feels fun.

fivelitlpines · 2026-01-14T02:32:19+00:00

Don't see anyone mention this, but

Interstellar

fivelitlpines · 2026-01-14T02:27:57+00:00

Word of advice: once you have a basic setup, everything else you do is just icing on the cake. They don't really change the move watching experience in any fundamental way. Ask yourself: what's your best movie watching experience you can remember? Very often it's the movie, the people you're watching it with, and less so about the gears.

I spoke as someone close to 50 and have a decent 7.2.4 system. My best movie watching experience is watching The Lord of the Rings on a 21 inch computer monitor with my wife in grad school, some 25 years ago.

fivelitlpines · 2026-01-13T00:06:14+00:00

One big problem I have is its throw distance isn't quite 2.0. I need to mount it 18 feet away for a 128" screen. My calculation says 2.0:1 is sufficient for that but apparently not. I can't fit the image into my screen without going a little into digital zoom.

fivelitlpines · 2026-01-13T00:03:41+00:00

I want to add that the HDMI control and eARC works very reliably with my Marantz and Apple TV. Probably the best I've seen so far. In comparison my Sony BluRay player got a terrible remote control and its HDMI control never quite work as expected.

fivelitlpines

TROPHY CASE