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darkblue

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Posts posted by darkblue

  1. I use only Taiyo Yuden - buy them in bulk orders of 200 from a Canadian source at a cost of 32 cents each (about 25 cents in U.S. funds) plus shipping cost (and tax - Canadians always pay sales tax).

     

    I use 8x Shiny Silver Premium - as recommended by an expert repairman who posts at AVS.

     

    A disc that doesn't record successfully is too rare to mention. Maybe 1 in 1000. Taiyo Yuden is virtually flawless.

    • Like 1
  2. Wow, I'm certainly not alone is how shivery I found 'Twenty Two' to be of all the TZ episodes. Just for kicks I looked it up and read the comments at IMDb. Here are some excerpts of what I read:

     

    "This is the most terrifying Twilight Zone episode that I have ever seen.......Arlene Martel is wonderful as the frightening morgue nurse: she has this cold, exotic look that chills you to your very bones"

     

    "Twenty-Two is markedly different from most other Twilight Zone episodes, in part due to the film quality - video tape.......quality greatly enhances the story, making the acting & score more surreal which makes the atmosphere even more unsettling"

     

    "This is one of the scariest, most nerve-wracking episodes in the series. It is genuinely frightening and will affect you on a visceral level. It's done so well that it's actually discomfiting to watch.......Filming it on videotape actually provides a documentary-like feel to the production, enhancing the realism and the shock value.......The nurse is beautiful.......but spooky.......the look on her face will send chills down your spine. Her voice sounds like it's coming from the grave.......I remember being badly frightened by this episode when I originally saw it. And all these years later, it still frightens me"

     

    "TWENTY TWO was one of six TWILIGHT ZONE episodes that were shot on video tape, and it certainly adds an "odd dimension" to the viewing pleasure of it.......it makes the turmoil of Nichols' apparent mental breakdown more effective"

     

    "I agree with everyone who says that this episode gave them nightmares. It is one of the few Twilight Zone episodes I'm actually afraid to watch. There's something inexplicably real and convincing about it"

     

    "when Liz Powell (Barbara Nichols) first encounters the morgue nurse.......you'd be hard pressed to hear a more blood curdling scream in the history of film; it goes right through you.......'Twenty Two' ranks up there as one of the most memorable ones. It has that haunting quality that stays with you"

     

    "Citizen Kane in black and white.......In one of the best episodes of the entire series.......the line between reality and dreamland is blurred with amazing effectiveness......an exemplary episode of the show, and works on more levels than can be described in a single review"

     

    "videotaped episode.......but this one does have an effectively eerie atmosphere and striking end that still make it succeed, and it is memorable"

     

    "An Exception to the rule.......they say that to every rule there is an exception, and "Twenty Two" is that exception. Despite being made using the ugly videotape method, it is a dandy little thriller.......the mood of the entire show is creepy and keeps you on edge"
     

    Okay, so I have company in how much affected I was watching this of all the episodes. Of course, there are a few comments that complain about the "poor quality of the production". There's always some videophile-centric ones that just don't get it, know what I mean.

     

  3. There is one that produced the greatest chill in me of all the episodes.

     

    It's 'Twenty Two' - the 17th episode of season 2.

     

    A seemingly empty hospital at night, a woman wakes up at the same time night after night and follows a nurse through the halls at a distance - the nurse's face always just being hidden from us as she rounds corners and enters elevators. We do eventually see her, and she's beautiful - but there's a coldness to her face and voice that scared the crap outta me.

     

    I remember many episodes - seen them all - but that's the one that leaps to mind immediately whenever 'Twilight Zone' is mentioned.

  4. Monday, October 5

     

    7:15 a.m.  The Southerner (1945) by Jean Renoir is a good bet.  J. Carroll Naish is pretty good in it.

     

    9 a.m.  Of Mice and Men (1939) featuring Aaron Copland’s amazing score.

     

    11 a.m.  Cabin In the Cotton (1932).  An early Bette Davis that I would like a copy of.

     

    3 a.m.  Splendor (1935) with Miriam Hopkins.  One of her best films actually.  I haven’t seen this one in some time.

     

    'Of Mice and Men' and 'The Wizard of Oz' were, to me, the best films of 1939.

     

    In fact, I think 'Of Mice and Men' is the most faithful adaptation of a novel ever filmed. It's perfect.

    • Like 1
  5. It's a little bewildering how much affection I have for Lon Chaney Jr.

     

    One of the most under-rated actors of the "golden age" to me.

     

    I love it that, rather than burial or cremation, he left his body to science. I'm doing that too. Med students have to practice on something.

  6. I have the Magnavox MDR557H/F7 as a backup for the day when my current DVD recorder (Pioneer DVR-660H) finally kicks the bucket. I love the Pioneer but, unfortunately, it was discontinued some years ago. I've been using mine now for at least five or six years and it does a great job for what I want - recording to the HD, where I edit the recordings then copy them to DVD-Rs.

     

    I did test the Magnavox before storing it away - it seemed to be okay for my needs, as well. However, spelling on it (for the title to appear on the discs) did appear to be more cumbersome. Still, I can record to the hard drive, edit the recordings and copy them to a disc, which is all the basics that I require. I can also do the recordings with a timer on it, also a blessing.

     

    I too have a Pioneer 660 and a 540. Fabulous machines.

     

    While Magnavox is the one manufacturer left supplying America with DVD/HDD units, the loss of variable bit recording that Pio's have is not a welcome change. Still, it's better than nothing.

     

    You know, I've read that Europe doesn't have these American issues. They're still selling lots of recorders - even blu ray - over there, and recording to their heart's content.

    • Like 1
  7. A few years ago I acquired a DVD recorder and attempted to record from the DVR supplied by my cable company.  Copy protection prevented my efforts.  However I have noticed that certain older plasma tvs have outputs for video and audio--features which are no longer permitted on today's tvs.  From the record outputs on these older sets, copy protection does not seem to interfere with recording...

     

    Yep. Older electronics are often a solution. Using very old dvd players plugged through vcr's, I found a back door that has allowed me to record copies of commercial dvd's. And I mean everything. Macrovision is defeated by these old electronics if they're routed a certain way.

    • Like 1
  8. Your cable company has mistakenly embedded a "record blocking signal" in the feed for TCM.

     

    This is probably due to laziness on their part. Some stations have contracted the requirement that they do so and for their own convenience they've just gone ahead and blocked every channel - or have erroneously blocked TCM due to a misunderstanding (perhaps intentionally planted by a studio).

     

    I'm dealing with these issues myself these past few months up here in Ontario.

     

    Anyway, that's my best guess as to what's happened. If the cable company won't do anything about it, try switching to a different provider maybe.

     

    You could also try replacing your dvr with a DVD recorder with HDD - but they are becoming more and more scarce. Pioneers and Panasonics were superb machines, but both have stopped manufacturing. The much-vaunted Sony's were good quality also - but those may have given you recording problems as well.

     

    Man, this new "rights" war sucks.

    • Like 1
  9. Chaney claimed that  his father brutally beat him with a strap.  Is there any element of truth to that claim? Who knows. Sometimes people explain away their own behavior by referencing their  bad experiences when they were young.

     

    Lots of us were beat by straps back then. Switches and belts and - in my case once - a length of rubber hose.

     

    Spare the rod and spoil the child was every parents justification.

     

    Lots of things have changed since the baby boom generation came into the world.  Like the song summed up, "we're not gonna take it any more". That went especially for us Catholics. We abandoned that corporal punishment enclave in droves as the 60's drew to a close and made damn certain it had reformed before putting our own kids back in there.

     

    Our parents let those nuns and priests beat on us because they were afraid of the Church. They were an obedient generation.

     

    We were a disobedient generation and we put a stop to that ----.

  10. That's my recollection as well, except for most of us it wasn't "abuse" by those standards, as "abuse" is defined today.

     

    By today's standards most of us would have been taken from our parents and sent to a foster home because our parents, god forbid, had the audacity to smack our butts when we misbehaved.

     

    Yep. And sometimes when we didn't. Young parents, ay.

    • Like 1
  11. Lon Chaney Sr. was a working class actor who had to earn his stardom, and I think he always kept a working class actor attitude about his job. He certainly never acted, to the best of my knowledge, like a swell headed, filled with himself Movie Star. It also sounds like he wasn't the type to coddle his son and gave him a lot of tough love. Do you have any illustrations of the types of abuse to which Lon Jr. said he was subjected, mrroberts?

     

    All kids born during the 50's and earlier were abused.

     

    We had no rights then. We were always in the wrong - our side was never believed or supported by the adult establishment.

     

    Off course, I was Catholic - so that added extra authority over kids. Those treasured days of corporal punishment.

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