Announced yesterday, NBC Olympics and Panasonic are going to produce daily 3D broadcasts from the 2012 London Olympic games. The programming will be shown on next-day delay on a variety of providers, including mine which is Verizon FiOS. They are expecting to produce some 242 hours of programming, including opening and closing ceremonies, gymnastics, diving and swimming, cycling, and track & field.

I called Verizon to see what I would need to watch 3D programming on my 3DTV. At first, they said nothing, until I explained that I did not get FiOS on my 3DTV. Then they said that I needed an HD set top box for $11.99 a month, after they verified that they indeed are broadcasting the Olympics in 3D. Apparently, I was the first person to call about it.

So I ordered an HD set top box (nothing fancy, just the receiver) and went to the local Verizon Plus store to pick it up. They were busy, with lots of people returning equipment. After a 45 minute wait, I was waited on, and got my box and a free upgrade to my internet speed. I got home, rearranged the wiring, and even hooked the box up to my A/V receiver so I can get 5.1 sound.

I found the Olympics 3D channel. It was broadcasting a test pattern. I also found the ESPN 3D channel. I selected it, and it said I needed to subscribe, which I chose not to do. But it did try to display the channel placeholder in side-by-side 3D, so it looks like 3D works.

Home Theater Forum had the scoop earlier today of a press release announcing the November release of Lawrence of Arabia on blu-ray, in a nice-looking box set.

Even more impressive is Robert Harris’ long-running thread about all things Lawrence, and many things not. Starting with this post, Harris goes into details about the long, arduous process of assembling the restoration that was released to theaters in 1989. After several pages of this, Sony’s Grover Crisp has been added to a dialogue that goes into details of the home video incarnations of Lawrence. Coming up is a discussion of the new 4K restoration, and upcoming blu-ray release.

It is compelling reading.

Now that The Dick Van Dyke Show has been announced for blu-ray release later this year, I am getting caught up on the five season collection on DVD, which I picked up from Amazon for a song. I can’t see myself upgrading the DVD’s for the blu-rays since I don’t see myself watching these many times. Plus, even though I liked The Twilight Zone blu-rays compared to my old non-season-set DVD collection, I just don’t see a huge improvement coming for Dick Van Dyke in high definition.

I tried giving the DVD’s a spin on my old Toshiba HD-D2 HD-DVD player, but the player locked up on me once and would not even spin one of the discs. So I used my trusty fat original PS3 and it played back fine upscaled to 1080p.

I watched The Artist by myself and with friends…it ran several people off who either weren’t feeling well, or weren’t into mostly silent films. I still think Hugo was a better movie, and should have won the Oscar for Best Picture. (Hugo, by the way, is stunning in blu-ray 3D.)

Next up, the freshly released Outland, or High Noon in space with Sean Connery as the sheriff. Early reviews of this blu-ray are positive, which is a relief considering the abomination that was the original DVD (which was sourced from a poor laserdisc master). The last time I saw Outland look good was in the movie theater during its original run.

I also have Chariots of Fire, another blu-ray of the same vintage, and Altered States, which I liked a lot on HBO as a teenager. We’ll see how well it holds up.

Oh, and I saw Disney / Pixar’s Brave theatrically in an auditorium featuring the new Dolby Atmos sound system (with speakers arrayed along the walls and ceiling). Much ado about nothing--I could hardly tell that there were special sound effects in the movie. And I paid $14.75 for the privilege of seeing it. For a few dollars more, I could have just bought the blu-ray when it is released. And for a few dollars beyond that, I can get it in 3D.

CNET reports on the first movie available to consumers in 4K format. Called TimeScapes, it features award-winning cinematography of New Zealand night skies. The 50-minute movie is $299 for a hard drive, or $99 for a compressed (though still 4K) version on USB stick.

Photo from CNET:


File this away in the killing the format before it was born file. $99 for a USB stick? $299 for a hard drive? Please!

4K will get me to the movie theater, but I have no need for it in my home, especially since I just upgraded my home theater to a large-screen 1080p 3D DLP set last year.