For the launch of TNT channel in Belgium they placed a big red push button in the middle of a square with a sign saying “Push to add drama”.

It looks like you don’t need a dedicated Technosat reciever do get MBC’s HD channels anymore. The Abu Dhabi TV Network just added the MBC package to their list of channels. Not sure how much you have to pay to get though. But that beats the stupid exclusivity that Technosat had that made no sense.

You can check you subscription and add the package by following this [link]

Got a new TV a few weeks ago, I was looking to upgrade my 46″LCD with a 46″ LED. I was exclusively looking for a LED screen with no 3D support as I refuse to support this stupid gimmick.

My first destination was X-Cite at the Avenues mall, I was surprised that they hardly had any 46″ TV’s at all in their collection. so I went to Carrefour and there I found my next TV, the Samsung UA46D5500RR. A LED with no 3D support. But they didn’t have any in stock other than the one on display which they refused to give me a discount on, which was puzzling since it was an “open box”  product.

I have no idea why I walked back to X-Cite and asked them about that specific model, to my surprise the guy tells me that they do have it but its not on display. Its not on display so that they can clear out the old stock they’ve got. But he told me that I can purchase it and they can have it delivered to me in a couple of days. I immediately agreed and it was delivered as scheduled.

The TV is great, it has both allshare functionality that allows you to stream from other Samsung devices, say the Galaxy S II, to the TV wirelessly ala Airplay, but it won’t work for me as I am not running the stock rom on my SGS2 . It also supports a number of video codecs to be played back via USB like MKV,MP4 and AVI just to name a few, in HD as well.

In the above video clip from Discovery Network’s show Sons of Guns. the challenge was for the female to fire a Desert Eagle hand gun. A really powerful hand gun that not everyone can handle. But clearly on the 1:28 mark you can see clearly that the Desert Eagle is now magically transformed into a Beretta.

A lot of respect is lost Discovery, A lot.

A look at the visual effects that made HBO’s Game Of Thrones the success that it is. Special effects came a long way in the last few years, its getting harder and harder to distinguish reality from fiction.

In A Legal Mind, one of Manhattan’s top corporate lawyers (Gabriel Macht) sets out to recruit a new hotshot associate and hires the only guy that impresses him – a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout (Patrick J. Adams). Though he isn’t actually a lawyer, this legal prodigy has the book smarts of a Harvard law grad and the street smarts of a hustler. However, in order to serve justice and save their jobs, both these unconventional thinkers must continue the charade.

The show is highly recommended and is just released with episode 2 airing next thursday.

]]> http://uptill1.com/2011/06/27/new-tv-series-suits/feed/ 4 http://uptill1.com/2011/06/26/new-tv-series-falling-skies/ http://uptill1.com/2011/06/26/new-tv-series-falling-skies/#comments Sun, 26 Jun 2011 11:56:56 +0000 N http://uptill1.com/2011/06/26/new-tv-series-falling-skies/

A new TV series premiered a few days ago. Falling Skies is TNT’s answer to AMC’s The Walking Dead. But instead of zombies the bad guys are aliens. The show is produced by Steven Spielberg.

The chaotic aftermath of an alien attack has left most of the world completely incapacitated. In the six months since the initial invasion, the few survivors have banded together outside major cities to begin the difficult task of fighting back. Each day is a test of survival as citizen soldiers work to protect the people in their care while also engaging in an insurgency campaign against the occupying alien force.

After watching the first couple of episodes I was impressed.

There have been a lot of TV show cancelation lately, some of them were not bad. I also didn’t have time in the past few months to watch all the series I usually follow.

I downloaded a bunch of new shows and watched at least a few episodes from almost all of them. here is the list:

• An Idiot Abroad (2010)
• Body Of Proof (2011)
• Blue Bloods (2010)
• Breaking In (2011)
• Breakout Kings (2011)
• Camelot (2011)
• Community (2009)
• Detroit 1-8-7 (2010)
• Drew Cary’s Improve-A-Ganza (2011)
• End Game (2011)
• Game OF Thrones (2011)
• Justified (2010)
• Modern Family (2009)
• Outsourced (2010)
• Sherlock (2010)
• The Borgias (2011)
• The Event (2010)
• The Killing (2011)
• Treme (2010)

I used the website on many occasions. I subscribed saturday before the games but the account activated the next day (or late in the evening the same day not sure) and managed to watch the extra-long highlights of the yesterdays matches which were 45 mins long so you don’t miss a thing.

As for live viewing I watched Chelsea vs West Brom, Liverpool vs Arsenal and Man U vs New Castle all were great. And if you have a the bandwidth for it the quality automatically adjust (ala Netflix) to some very nice looking video.

Whats missing though is the short highlights that has just the goals, they might be there but I haven’t looked thoroughly enough and the ability to change the commentator language, from what I can see at the moment there is no why to do that at the moment.

Abu Dhabi online subscription is highly recommended even if you already have bought the receiver due to its shear and utter awesomeness

The show was stupid and pathetic, I wont even watch it during the summer when its considered to be TV’s dead season. There’s no way I’m spending time on a stupid show like that.

Next was watching a relatively new show (its 3rd season just finished airing). Breaking Bad is about a Chemistry teacher that his life gets turned upside down when he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and decides to deal meth to provide for his family.

This series looked very good and I’m definitely going to watch more of it.

Certificate of Authenticity
Michael Scott
is a proud owner of a quality Seyko timepiece.

Click on the image to read it your self.

درب الزلق

For the people that were looking forward for the next season, this is more like a slap in the face, now we will never know what happens. Damn you NBC.

On the bright side, there are 2 new series that I’m looking forward to, J.J. Abram’s Undercovers and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Chase.

Thanks DVLz

I haven’t uploaded anything last week, I was busy with the redesign so cut me some slack.

Link

Just to let you know that Lost Season 6’s first episode just aired last night and is now available via torrent.

Thank you ShowRSS

Just more of those Coco’s fanatics showing of their skills.

Yesterday we passed by Info Connect at the International Fair Ground to see what’s new. We weren’t expecting much from there except for some new DSL prices but we still had to wonder around checking stuff out before ManU/Arsenal – Egypt/Ghana games.

To our amazement we found a cleaning solution in an Tech/IT expo.

we ended up buying 3 of this AMAZING Kleaner :/

Also when walking around we noticed an unreleased Android mobile device on display in a protected glass case.

Yes it is the SonyEricsson’s upcoming X10. it will be the company’s first android device that should be available as early as next month.

Zidaneoo was also looking for a new laptop. So, we had a quick look around and saw an i7 and an i5 HP laptops that had a very good price. cant remember the exact pricing and specs. but I should have the up soon.

We took our time there wich made us miss both game’s kick-off. and when we got to Showtime’s booth i saw this.

Of course they were watching the Egypt game.

And when it was time to leave, it was raining and we were greeted with a lightnings show.

So, not much to say about the Expo. With the exception of semi-good ADSL prices.

LINK

This is goalkeeper Joao Rafael in the game between Benin vs Mozambique from the African Cup of Nations. He made a “routine” save late in the game almost cost him a goal and a broken neck! Hilarious fail moment from the ACN.

Ian Fleming created his legacy, and it continues until current times. I don’t think there is a person who doesn’t enjoy 007 in general. Showmovies Action have recently been putting re-runs of all the Bond movies and anytime i see them on i have to start watching. Probably the worst Bond movies were Pierce Brosnan’s even though he had potential to play the part. And maybe the worst casted Bond was Timothy Dalton. Sean Connery and Roger Moore were great, though I am enjoying Daniel Craig in this new role. He has given Bond a new refreshing and “badass” feel. Gotta love those Bond movies.

I went to watch Avatar on Friday after hearing alot about it without really reading much. All i knew was that it was a James Cameron movie and the most expensive of all time, and sci-fi based. I am not the biggest sci-fi fan. I appreciated the idea behind District 9 but at times thought it was too far fetched and just silly. Not to say that Avatar is not far fetched, its just different. First of all, graphically, its like nothing any of us has ever seen before. The colors, the images and the scenes are out of this world, literally. There is the whole underlined meaning of global warming/green peace/save the world, as well as the curiosity most people have of other life forms. Its a very long movie, but the action scenes and twists in the storyline keep you interested all the way to the end. James Cameron has a very vivid imagination to be able to think up a story like this and implement it onto the screen. Great movie, a must-see even for non sci-fi fans.

24 is one of these shows that everybody watches, and everybody is eagerly awaiting season 8.
Cant wait till January 17th

Via Zdistrict

These kinds of websites are popping up everywhere with the imminent release of Michael Jackson’s “This is it” movie. Elizabeth Taylor has twittered about it, Latoya Jackson has bashed it, and father Joe has accused AEG of using stunt doubles. Anticipation, conspiracy and Michael Jackson all rolled into one reel.

You can check out the video below.

For years and years alot of us have heard about subliminal messages in cartoons and animations. So what are subliminal messages and how do they work?

Subliminal messages in movies and television take two forms. The first and most controversial is a few frames added to a movie or television show that contain a message. The second type of subliminal message is the inclusion of an object in the movie set which can contain a message that is theoretically interpreted by the subconscious.

A movie in the theater is projected at 24 frames per second. This rate of projection insures that the film is interpreted as “flicker less” by the human brain. The human eye and brain can not interpret action that occurs at less than 1/30th of a second. The projection rate insures that the human neural system can interpret the action on the screen without being jumpy or starting and stopping.

Subliminal messages can be a few frames of message that are inserted into a scene in the movie. While there is some debate as to whether subliminal messages truly are effective, they are inserted into many movies as either a product promotion or an attempt to heighten the sensation that is created in the scene.

In theory, while the eye can not visually see the few frames of subliminal message edited into the movie the subconscious receives the message and responds to the message. When an object is inserted into the scene, the eye may be following the action of the scene while the subconscious responds to the object and this response is transmitted to the conscious. link

In recent times, most of the uncovering of subliminal messages are found in Disney movies. And surprisingly enough, most of them are of sexual content. Which makes it even worse since these are usually made for children. I was expecting to find alot of different subliminal messages. Reading Ansam’s post about an Alladin song which included the line “Where they cut off your ear, if they don’t like your face… It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home”, i thought when i did the research i would find subliminal messages on the same level. Politics, war and present day crisis’s was not to be found, so far at least. Aladdin’s song was a portrayal of Arabs as barbaric and uncivilised by the above quote. Yet, if you google subliminal messages in Disney, you will find the same 6 parts from the same movies. I was surprised, some debatable to me, but the fact that site after site, and blog after blog all mention the same messages has to have some truth in it. You can find the link here if you dont mind seeing and listening to some sexual content in animated movies.

Flash Forward is a new TV series by ABC that looks like a TV show that I would want to watch, I mentiond this show back in June when I wrote my best new shows of 2009 list.

The season premiers Thursday 24th September.

When the world’s population is given a glimpse of their future due to a mysterious global event, it forces everyone to come to grips with whether their destinies can be fulfilled or avoided.

“An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology.”  IMDB

- To enjoy this movie, you have to be a sci-fi fan.

- To enjoy this movie, you have to be able to withstand the South African (Afrikaan) accent for 112 minutes.

- To enjoy this movie, you have to look beyond some of the bad CGI and hilarious alien costumes.

Alot of us enjoyed watching it, until it turned into more of a drama than a sci-fi/action movie. The ending wasnt too great either. As one of our friends said, “this should have been part 2 of a movie series”. But i would not have probably wanted to watch the “part 1″ then. IMDB gave it an 8.5/10 rating which proves there are many sci-fi fans, as well as underdog fans since this is a low budget movie that made it big. I can’t be that generous, and i am speaking on behalf of about 6 other guys. It needed more than one fight scene as everyone was waiting for those alien weapons to be used earlier. Check out the trailer here.

[xrr rating= 4.5/10

Random Movie Information of the Day : The movie District 9 was not well recieved in Nigeria due to its negative portrayal of Nigerians. Check out the link here.

Ask any guy and he will tell you Mike Tyson is awesome. Ask any boxing fan and they will tell you he is arguably pound for pound the best fighter to ever step inside the ring. Ask anyone and they will also tell you Mike Tyson is a pyscho. This documentary will only validate all those points, but in ways many you could never have imagined. The way he talks is funny, they way he chokes up and cries is funny , and the way he can flick a switch and become a madman is funny. All in their own pyschotic way. But make no mistake, he was a vicious fighter and a flammable personality. There is a classic scene when he gets out of prison and a reporter says he “should be in a straight-jacket”; triggering Mike Tyson to let off one of the most absurd and bone-shattering verbal tirades i have ever heard. A roller coaster of emotions from his highs and depths of his lows, which spanned his career. You will feel sorry for him, and you will regret that you never got to see more of him. A great documentary, even for non-boxing fans. Check out the trailer below.

Random facts from IMDB :

To gage what effect “Tyson” would have on audiences, James Toback asked the opinions of the film’s opposite demographic: older white women who were disinterested in boxing. He asked that they come to his editing suite and watch the film. If they left after 5 minutes, Toback would give them $100 USD. If they stayed after 5 minutes, they would have to stay for the whole picture – and give Toback extensive feedback on the film. According to Toback, not one woman left after 5 minutes, and many were in tears by the film’s finale.

“Tyson” received only one distribution offer during its run on the festival circuit, from Sony Classics Pictures. After Toback accepted the offer, the film screened at the Cannes Film Festival and received a 10 minute standing ovation. Many of the executives who initially passed on the film were at that screening.