Charlie’s Corner

Ah yes, the Consumer Electronics Show. It’s hard to believe it’s hours away from being the end of the year and that next week I’ll be walking around in Vegas, missing my lady tremendously but taking in all of the shiny new electronics. I’m eager to see what awaits.
Things I’m really looking forward to:
-The new camcorders.
-Whether one of the HD disc formats is going to die. (Personally, I hope so, because I’m disgusted that none of the CE manufacturers figured out that format wars are a waste of marketing dollars and just serve to anger the consumers that they want to make buy their products.)
-Lower prices on A/V receivers that include nice features like 3+ HDMI inputs, upcoversion of all sources to HDMI, dot-matrix displays, OSD-driven easy setup, etc. (This is a secondary consideration, but if I stumble into any booths with audio equipment and I have a spare minute, of course I’m going to look.) I’ve found one that I really want but it costs a little bit more than I’m really willing to spend at the moment.

Meeting time now–catch ya later.

Welcome to my third blog. My first is on MySpace (readable by friends only), I contribute to the main Videomaker blog, and now I have my own soapbox from which to talk about all things video-related. Left to my own devices I have a tendency to be a bit jaded. Probably not as cranky as some CE or computer writers, but not a yes man, either.

I may well have a few loyal minions out there wondering why I haven’t been on the Vidcast lately. Well, combined with the new format and that my strongest points are on the post/dist side of things (e.g. I’m the dark master of Adobe Encore, but I know studio lighting isn’t my strong point), the next time you’re likely to see my mug at 30fps will be when we discuss DVD authoring tricks.

I’ve got a rant brewing, but I’ll save it for a little later when I’ve got it more polished.

Song o’ the Day: Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years” (version from Alive in America.)

Until next time, see you next time.