Oscar Winners List

Here we are.... The Academy didn't throw up too many surprises.... Here's a list of winners!!!
Congrats to the winners!!! Daniel Day Lewis is da man...


Best Motion Picture: "No Country for Old Men."
Lead Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood."
Lead Actress: Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose."
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men."
Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."
Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men."
Foreign Language Film: "The Counterfeiters," Austria.
Adapted Screenplay: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men."
Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno."
Animated Feature Film: "Ratatouille."
Art Direction: "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
Cinematography: "There Will Be Blood."
Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum."
Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum."
Original Score: "Atonement," Dario Marianelli.
Original Song: "Falling Slowly" from "Once," Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
Costume: "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."
Documentary Feature: "Taxi to the Dark Side."
Documentary Short Subject: "Freeheld."
Film Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum."
Makeup: "La Vie en Rose."
Animated Short Film: "Peter & the Wolf."
Live Action Short Film: "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (`The Mozart of Pickpockets')."
Visual Effects: "The Golden Compass."

Format Wars Update -> Toshiba Quits HD-DVD

Toshiba has said it will stop making its high definition DVDs, ending a battle with rival format Blu-ray over which would be the industry standard. Following a review of its business, Toshiba said it would stop production of HD DVD players and recorders. The HD DVD format has suffered as major US film studios backed the Blu-ray format, which is being developed by electronics firm Sony and partners. Analysts said the move would allow Toshiba to focus on other products. “We concluded that a swift decision would be best,” Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida said.


Toshiba said the tipping point came last month when Warner Bros’ followed a number of other film studios in deciding to release its movies only in the Blu-ray format. “If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win,” he said. Toshiba will continue to supply retailers with machines until the end of March this year. After that, Toshiba will continue to provide technical support to the estimated one million people worldwide who own HD DVD players and recorders. A number of studios, including Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks, signed up to produce movies in HD DVD, but Toshiba’s withdrawal is expected to reduce the number films available in the format. RIP HD DVD, hail the Blu-Ray, the new king!


There's more to this though... Blu-Ray isn't going to have it all as one might think..... There may be tough times yet for Blu-Ray yet.... More on this... soon... (once i figure it out myself ) :-)


Cheers

Source: BBC

Oscar Nominations

Before i get into the nominations, i hope everyone knows that the WGA strike is officially over and the writers got back to work this past week. The Oscars will be on in full flow. Am sure this year's oscars show is gonna rock. People must be dying to celebrate. Here we go with the major nominations!! My Picks for the main one's are in Italic. Leave a comment with your picks!!!

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah"
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises"

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men"
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War"
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild"
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton"

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
Julie Christie in "Away from Her"
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose"
Laura Linney in "The Savages"
Ellen Page in "Juno"

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There"
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster"
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement"
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton"

Best animated feature film of the year
"Persepolis"
"Ratatouille"
"Surf's Up"

Achievement in directing
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"Julian Schnabel
"Juno" Jason Reitman
"Michael Clayton" Tony Gilroy
"No Country for Old Men" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" Paul Thomas Anderson

Best motion picture of the year
"Atonement"
"Juno"
"Michael Clayton"
"No Country for Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"

The Other nominations in my opinion are more technical and since i haven't seen all the movies i would rather not comment. In case you are wondering how i made a pick among these, I watched trailers and whatever footage i could while the other's i have seen.
One movie that i can't wait to watch is Paul Thomas Anderson's "There will be Blood".
Daniel Day Lewis is an awesome awesome actor. All his movies are so so awesome, Like Aamir Khan he too is a perfectionist and does movies only once in a while. Must watch movies of his
"My Left Foot", "Gangs of New York", "Last of the Mohicans", "In the Name of the Father" to name a few.... He won his last oscar for "My Left Foot". Am rooting for him and my other favorite JD (Johhnny Depp)

Movie Formats

VCD

VCD is an mpeg1 based format, with a constant bitrate of 1150kbit at a resolution of 352×240 (NTCS). VCDs are generally used for lower quality transfers (CAM/TS/TC/Screener(VHS)/TVrip(analogue) in order to make smaller file sizes, and fit as much on a single disc as possible. Both VCDs and SVCDs are timed in minutes, rather than MB, so when looking at an mpeg, it may appear larger than the disc capacity, and in reality u can fit 74min on a CDR74. I can see quite a few of you guys going "oh that's what the 74min on the CDR meant!!" Yep... it also refers to 74 min of audio that can be stored on a CDR, in audio cd format. Mp3 you can store upto 700mb. Just a FYI in case you ever wonder how to play a VCD on PC, when u open the cddrive look for files most likely to be named "avseq01.dat" you can play it in windows media player.

SVCD or SuperVCD

SVCD is an mpeg2 based (same as DVD) which allows variable bit-rates of up to 2500kbits at a resolution of 480×480 (NTSC) which is then decompressed into a 4:3 aspect ratio when played back. Due to the variable bit-rate, the length you can fit on a single CDR is not fixed, but generally between 35-60 Mins are the most common. This format is few and far between. I have yet to come across any SVCD.

DivX / XviD

DivX is probably the widely spread movie format in history. Everybody uses it for it's excellent quality and brilliant performance, not to mention impressive compressiblity. In case you are wondering what exactly DivX is, its basically a codec (set of files similar to driver files) that is used to both decode (read) and encode (write) movies. That means that if u have the codec installed in your system, you should be able to watch movies encoded using divX. You should also be able to convert/encode video's into DivX.

Why do i call it impressive, you ask. Well let me take the help of an example. Let me compare it to two choices that we have, VCD and DVD. VCD as described earlier can store movies in small resolution and 74min per 700mb, quality here is ok at best. DVD as is going to be described next is 4+gb for a 2+hr movie (in excellent quality). Another thing is the sound, in vcd we can only have 2 channel sound, DVD can have 5.1 surround sound. Now a 2+ hour movie encoded in DivX, will be not more than 1.36 GB (2 cd's) Also we can have 5.1 surround if the encoder decides. With the advent of DivX compatible DVD players, i can actually fit 6 movies on 1 DVD (700mb each) All in excellent quality (video and sound). Of course, if you have a kicka$$ big LCD/High Def TV, then you will notice a quality difference between DivX and DVD video, but hey, its a price i am willing to pay to watch 6 movies on 1 DVD.

Oh and Xvid is a different codec with same/similar features as DivX.

DVD-R

Is the recordable DVD solution that seems to be the most popular . it holds 4.7gb of data per side, and double sided discs are available, so discs can hold nearly 10gb in some circumstances. SVCD mpeg2 images must be converted before they can be burnt to DVD-R and played successfully. Well these are mostly, stripped down copies of DVD's after removing the extra features and compressing it to fit on a 4.7gb disc. Quality is gr8 if encoded well. These can be written directly on a DVD-R and watched on a regular DVD player.

HDDVD x264/720p

This is the latest addition. This the rip of HDDVD. These will come with labels such as x264 or 720p. Also nowdays Blu-ray rips are showing up. These are only meant for people with HIGH END systems and HIGH END Televisions, Hometheatres, dvd players.. you know the works... Shouldn't be bothered with if you have a small TV, without 5.1 surround and Rosita (FRIENDS anyone??) Of course this is my opinion...

I shall however include a list of stuff which i have installed on my system which ensures that practically any audio/video file is playable.

1. DivX (video codec)
2. Xvid (video codec)
3. Ac3 (audio codec)
4. Real media alternative (video codec)
5. Quick time player (vide codec, comes along with itunes, need not be installed if u have itunes)
6. vlc media player (this baby plays everything under the sun, excluding .rmvb)

For all of these except for the players, you need to install only the codecs, no need to install any players (divx has its own player)

I seem to have left out RMVB in all this, This is again a video codec which compresses even more than divx. If done well, the quality difference is minimal but evident. But the compression really makes up for it. For eg, a 700mb file can be reencoded in rmvb to be 450mb without a huge loss in quality.

Hope this helps in explaining about movie formats. Of course feel free to get in touch with me for any help... I shall try and help you out the best i can.

Cheers!

Movie Sources

First up, ma apologies for not posting for such a long time. Been busy !!
Hopefully shall keep posting more often from now on.... Plus the net's back up at home so that always helps....

The reason why i chose this topic is that i felt its something that is interesting......

I am sure that you all have either downloaded and/or seen a movie from the web.... Ever wondered what the filenames actually mean?? Hopefully after reading this you shall find some clarity.....

Here's a normal file/folder name that you may find on the web...
The.Darjeeling.Limited.DVDRip.XviD-DMT
So... what does this name mean in terms of quality, in terms of size, etc??

The name of the movie is obviously The Darjeeling Limited
Its a DVDRip... meaning ripped/copied/converted into .avi from a DVD
Xvid here refers to the codec used to rip the movie.
DMT here is the releasers/uploader/ripper's name

DMT here may be an individual or a group of dudes/dudettes who do this stuff!!

Ok so now you know what the name means... Lets move on to other movie sources...
Now movie sources are basically the format from which a movie is shaped up so that it can be uploaded and viewed by others.

Here are the Various Sources.

CAM
Now a CAM rip is what we call a "theatre print". Its usually shot using a Digital Video Camera in the theatre. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this wont be possible, so the camera may shake. Also since its dependant on a camera, there may be an agle involved. Cropping which means cutting a part of the picture out is used a lot in this kind of source because one may not always get the exact frame of the screen. Sound in this case is taken using the on board mic. Obviously, its not gr8 plus you might hear people laughing or screaming depending on the film. However, becasue this source is normally shot in an empty or close to empty hall to avoid detection, sound isn't always bad.

TELESYNC (TS)

A telesync is the same thing as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). A direct audio source does not ensure a good quality audio source, as a lot of background noise can interfere. A lot of the times a telesync is filmed in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with a professional camera, giving a better picture quality. The quality ranges from drastic to pristine. Its always advisable to check out samples before going in for this kind of source. It happens a lot that CAM rips are mislabelled at Telesync's.

TELECINE (TC)

A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. TC should not be confused with TimeCode, which is a visible counter on screen throughout the film. If done well, the TC is a big jump up in terms of quality from CAM for sure and most likely a TS as well.

SCR (VHS)

A pre VHS tape, sent to rental stores, and various other places for promotional use. A screener is supplied on a VHS tape, and is usually in a full screen resolution, although letterboxed screeners are sometimes found. The main draw back is a “ticker” (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number). Also, if the tape contains any serial numbers, or any other markings that could lead to the source of the tape, these will have to be blocked, usually with a black mark over the section. This is sometimes only for a few seconds, but unfortunately on some copies this will last for the entire film, and some can be quite big. Depending on the equipment used, screener quality can range from excellent if done from a MASTER copy, to very poor if done on an old VHS recorder thru poor capture equipment on a copied tape. Most screeners are transferred to VCD, but a few attempts at SVCD have occurred, some looking better than others. This type of thing is old school and not many are found these days.

DVD-SCREENER (DVDscr)

Same premise as a screener, but transferred off a DVD. Usually letterbox or widescreen (black bars top and bottom) , but without the extras that a DVD retail would contain. The ticker is not usually in the black bars, and will disrupt the viewing. If the ripper has any skill, a DVDscr should be very good. Usually transferred to SVCD or DivX/XviD. These show up a lot around award times because they are sent to award juries and end up getting leaked from there. Even otherwise DVDscr have become quite common. I remember the DVDscr for a certain ridley scott film about a "firangi gunda" was leaked online around 2 weeks prior to theatrical release.

WORKPRINT (WP)

A workprint is a copy of the film that has not been finished. It can be missing scenes, music, and quality can range from excellent to very poor. Some WPs are very different from the final print and others can contain extra scenes. WPs can be nice additions to the collection once a good quality final has been obtained. Sometimes the special effects have not been added so its quite funny. Same is when sound has not been added and people are firing shots onscreen without any sound.

R5

This is fairly new movie format. Basically the same as DVD Screener - this kind of release is legal DVD released in Russia to decrease the level of pirated movies in this country. Retail is rushed out by the studio, so there is little to no cleanup of the film after the telecine process. As a result, you can see some scratches, hairs or other mess on the picture, but you will hardly notice it while watching. External English audio is often used, as these are supplied with Russian sound by default. These are quite popular because they give nice flawless DVDlike prints, however because the audio used is not the original, sometimes it can be a lil weird. However, if the audio quality from another source is good, its almost as good as a DVDRip

DVDRip

A copy of the final released DVD. If possible this is released PRE retail. Again, should be excellent quality. DVDrips are released in SVCD and DivX/XviD. This is the definitive print for sure (unless its fake of course) These are normally on the web a good week or so before the actual retail release. These may come in 5.1 surround.

Each of these may come in either 1cd (700mb) or 2cd (1.36gb) sizes, depending on quality and length of the movie. The really good groups are great at getting the sources and releasing these before others. People also tend to re-encode other people's uploads and try and pass it on as theirs.

These wars are sometimes good and sometimes bad for people who await releases.