| (Unranked) | The Last Stand Blu-ray Review (Big Picture Big Sound, 5/30/2013 5:28pm) |
| Good, bad, and weird, The Last Stand brings the biggest action movie icon of all time back to the big [...] (Read Full Article) |
| (Unranked) | Blu-ray Highlights: Week of May 19th, 2013 (High-Def Digest, 5/20/2013 10:30pm) |
| This week's Blu-ray releases feature a curious convergence of coming and going. A former action icon returns from retirement while an A-List filmmaker calls his career quits. Read about these and [...] (Read Full Article) |
| (Unranked) | 'I Am Bruce Lee' Blu-ray Announced (High-Def Digest, 10/26/2012 4:00pm) |
| An action icon lives again on Blu-ray this January. In an early announcement to retailers, Shout Factory is readying 'I Am Bruce Lee' for Blu-ray on January 15. Despite his sudden death in 1973 at [...] (Read Full Article) |
| (Unranked) | New Zelda For 3DS Gets Handsome Boxart With Intriguing Icon (Kotaku, 8/28/2013 5:45pm) |
| Here's the excellent box art for November 22's Nintendo 3DS (and 2DS—wow that feels weird) game The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between [...] (Read Full Article) |
| (Unranked) | Barbie in The Pink Shoes Blu-ray Review (Big Picture Big Sound, 2/26/2013 9:27pm) |
| The toy icon has a sparkly new Blu-ray geared towards ballet (and Barbie) [...] (Read Full Article) |
| (Unranked) | This Week on Blu-ray: 42, Evil Dead, Hell on Wheels, Lord of the Flies, and more! (Big Picture Big Sound, 7/17/2013 12:15am) |
| A baseball icon, a cult classic reincarnated, and another stunner from AMC; get a peek at this week's new and notable [...] (Read Full Article) |
 | Does the Samsung Instinct HD really shoot HD video? (Consumer Reports, 10/08/2009 7:02pm) |
| The Samsung Instinct HD. [PHOTO courtesy of Samsung] The Samsung Instinct HD, available from Sprint for $250 with a two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate, is the first cell phone we've seen that claims to make high-definition video recordings. It also boasts a 5-megapixel still camera with flash. That camera is a step up from the flashless, 2-megapixel camera found on previous Instincts, also from Sprint, including the S30 version now in our Ratings, available to subscribers. We’re evaluating the Instinct HD now, and will post full test results on it to our Ratings later this month. Meantime, our initial results on its imaging are promising, albeit with a few quibbles. The new Instinct’s camera is easy to access, thanks to a dedicated camera button, conveniently located on the lower right side of the phone. Pushing the button activates the camera’s still mode. Tapping a camera icon on the upper left of the largish (1.78 x 2.66 in.) display switches the camera to video mode. Tapping again summons controls for auto-focus, exposure, and other camera functions. The Instinct HD claims it can record video resolution of 1280 x 720p, which is a true HD format—although, as we often point out, HD format alone does not assure images of pristine, high-definition quality. To assess quality, we shot a series of videos on the Instinct and hooked it up to a 50-inch Panasonic plasma television using the optional ($30) HDMI cable. Our findings: Color was good in the MPEG4 videos, though they lacked fine detail and texture. They blurred even more when we panned the camera to the left or right. In short, they couldn’t rival the image quality you’d enjoy from full-sized HD camcorders in our Ratings, available to subscribers. But such camcorders are much bigger and pricier than the Instinct HD, and do nothing except shoot video and stills. The high-def video quality of the Instinct was comparable to what you’d get from a standard-definition pocket camcorder, such as the Flip. And that's still way ahead of the video we've seen any other camera phone. A few details and quibbles: The HDMI cable has a proprietary connector that works only with the Samsung HD, so you may have trouble finding a replacement if it's lost while you're on vacation. You can't use the cable for showing stills on your TV. If your TV has an SD memory-card slot, you can play photos and videos off of the phone's 4GB microSD memory card (the phone comes with an SD memory card adaptor). Unfortunately, accessing the card is a pain. You have to open the phone's back cover and remove the battery, which shuts off the phone. And the still-image performance of the Instinct? Pictures were sharp and well-defined, with good color overall on the TV screen, though shots taken in low light still looked dark—even with the flash. Camera controls were fairly responsive for a phone, with an acceptable next-shot delay. Our photo engineers are currently giving the Instinct HD's... (Read Full Article) |
