Hasta La Gadget!

Piracy may run rampant in China, but that hasn’t stopped Warner Bros. from launching the country’s first national Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand service. Under the program, movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 will be broadcast on You On Demand’s platform, and distributed to Chinese living rooms in cooperation with China Home Cinema — a branch of CCTV-6. According to You On Demand’s estimates, the service should be available in about three million homes by the end of this summer, and will have the potential to reach a full 200 million cable-equipped households. That’s certainly a huge market, and one that could provide some serious revenue — assuming, of course, that people are actually willing to pay for movies. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Warner brings Pay-Per-View, Video on Demand to China, hopes people will actually pay for it

Warner brings Pay-Per-View, Video on Demand to China, hopes people will actually pay for it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Projecting Super8 film is a largely unnecessary hassle these days, but those words are clearly meaningless to camera nut Friedemann Wachsmuth. His painstakingly constructed Lego projector runs at a rickety 24fps without mangling celluloid, and with only the most minor use of non-Lego components (lens, lamp, spindles, bah who’s counting?). The contraption serves no purpose other than to hurl photons of pure geek passion at white-ish walls, and previous Lego viewfinders and shutter releases are mere pecks on the cheek by comparison. Turn up your volume before you hit the video because the rattliness of this thing is all part of the love.

Continue reading Fully working Super8 film projector built totally out of Lego, well almost (video)

Fully working Super8 film projector built totally out of Lego, well almost (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analog apes digital apes analog. The colors of Impossible’s new Polaroid film are wonderful. Photo Steve Maniscalco

If you want to shoot Polaroids, forget about Polaroid. The company is now little more than a label slapped onto plastic junk, which it then tries to make palatable by paying Lady Gaga to say nice things about it.

What you need is to find an old Polaroid camera (the proper ones that spit out the iconic square photos) and load it up with Impossible film. And analog-retro fans are in luck today, as the Impossible Project has launched a new film pack, the PX 680 Color Shade.

PX 680 is much like Instagram for real photos. The colors are vivid and sometimes rather skewed, and odd things can happen thanks to the fact that the emulsion remains sensitive to light for the first few moments after it pops out into the world. If you shield it from bright light after its birth and coddle it for four minutes, you’ll be rewarded with stunningly bright colors.

You have to follow the instructions, though. These suggest shooting straight into a box, shooting in a warm place to get brighter colors, and overcranking the exposure slightly to saturate the colors. And the pictures will continue to change for a few days after shooting. Try getting that kind of thing out of your digital camera.

The film works with Polaroid 600 cameras, as well as the SX 70 if it has a neutral density filter (the speed of the film is ISO600). A pack of eight shots will cost you $22. Available now.

Color Shade product page [Impossible Project. Thanks, Marlene!]

See Also:

• Impossible Project
• New, Vintage Polaroid Cameras Sell Out in Hours
• Rebel Film Developers Give New Hope to Polaroid Fans
• Photo Enlargers Loom Like Dinosaurs of the Film Age

Ever wondered what it feels like to tear down a $58,000 professional video camera? Well, unless you’re as minted as Peter Jackson or James Cameron, chances are you’ll never get close to a RED EPIC-M (without breaking the law) to find out. That said, you may get some insight from this fresh batch of disassembly shots, courtesy of the FCC. Sure, there aren’t any jewels or unicorns hidden inside this powerful 5K imager, but you’ll get plenty of close-up shots of its delicate circuitry — it’s actually pretty impressive how much the hand-machined chassis holds. Head over to Wireless Goodness to admire the full glory, but make sure you don’t dribble over your keyboard.

FCC gives the RED EPIC-M its teardown treatment, so you don’t have to originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like another director’s been on a shopping spree lately, as RED’s Jim Jannard’s just announced that he sold another 50 EPIC-Ms to one generous customer. Who’s this, you ask? Why, it’s James Cameron of Avatar and Titanic fame, and he’s probably just blown $2.9 million on his latest stash of cinematographic toys — it’s $58,000 a pop for these hand-machined professional cameras. Details are scarce at the moment, but any educated guess would point at the upcoming Avatar 2 due end of 2014, meaning our favorite blue aliens will be returning in a healthy 5K resolution. Keep an eye out for Jannard’s official announcement later this week for the full lowdown.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

James Cameron picks up 50 RED EPIC-Ms, high-fives Peter Jackson originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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