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ICYMI: Channel your inner magician with IoT controllers
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: If you've gotten chicken juice on your smartphone one too many times while trying to whip up a masterpiece in the kitchen, you may be interested in a motion sensor that you can control with a wave of your hand. There's the practical option, or the adorable. Do you. Meanwhile, an MIT study aims to understand urban decay and will next automate the process of scoring city photos to help with urban planning. The parody video your shortcut-obsessed friend needs to see is here, while the Silicon Valley Fashion Show story is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Remastered Fifth Element Blu-ray disc finally shines
We can imagine quite a few Fifth Element faithful were ready and willing to hand over MSRP in order to take home one of the first Blu-ray copies of the quasi-cult classic, but the overwhelming response from those hoping for the best was nothing short of unpropitious. Thankfully for those still hanging on for some type of retribution, Sony announced that it would be exchanging the original copies out with fresh, remastered iterations just as soon as the cleaner, smoother, and more BD-worthy version went gold. Of course, it'd be awfully good to know whether to waste your time with such a process if the new flavor was just a minor upgrade, and we're quite relieved to hear from HighDefDigest that Sony nailed it this time around. From the overall image quality improvement to the unexpected addition of a Dolby TrueHD audio track, the differences were more than noticeable to the discerning eye, so if you managed to save yourself from snagging the subpar edition the first go 'round, it looks like the updated cut may actually be worth your while.
Blu-ray movie releases for the week of July 16
This summer has been a little dry on the Blu-ray release front, but we get a pretty decent batch this week. The most interesting movie is probably the remastered Fifth Element release; a move by Sony to help appease critics who dinged the initial release for poor visual quality and compression artifacts. In a rare move, they're also allowing the people who originally purchased the movie to send it in and get the new updated version for free. The Fifth Element (Remastered) Premonition Wild Things: Unrated Edition Waiting... Unrated and Raw Other releases include an unrated version of the sex and drama packed cult classic Wild Things, the Ryan Reynolds comedy Waiting (another unrated treatment), and the Sandra Bullock mystery Premonition. Not exactly a bunch of the most high-brow movies ever, but good fun all in all. What are you going to check out this week?
Fifth Element Blu-ray exchange program details announced
Considering what a mythical reference title The Fifth Element was when released on DVD (and Superbit, and Laserdisc!), it was surprising to see it reviewed as just another softly-focused, dirty, and scratchy launch title for Blu-ray. Many reviewers and fans complained about the lackluster MPEG-2 encoding, and the general poor quality of the transfer. Sony has announced details and contact information about a plan to exchange the first -- now discontinued -- batch of Blu-ray Discs for the remastered edition, due to be released in July. The new version is a new 1080p transfer from a different master, and includes Dolby TrueHD as well as uncompressed PCM audio. It will also be encoded in MPEG-4 AVC, which will hopefully show off the improved compression of the newer codec. Quite an olive branch from Sony for those who have already picked it up, and a show of good steps toward making Blu-ray titles the best they can be. Now the question remains, how many of the other initial MPEG-2 Blu-ray titles will be remastered like this?
Trade in the junky Fifth Element Blu-ray for the remastered one!
Did you get suckered into thinking that the coolest Blu-ray movie to get upon the PS3's inception was the incredibly colorful and flashy film The Fifth Element, only to realize upon viewing that it actually didn't have an impressive transfer at all? This blogger did. But at PS3 Fanboy, we strive to learn from our mistakes and pass the information gained onto you all. So, you may be happy to know that the folks at Blu-ray headquarters (if such a thing exists) are ready and willing to trade in those old Fifth Element Blu-rays and send you a fresh copy of a newly remastered and much improved version.The new version is getting released on July 17th, complete with AVC encoding, two lossless/uncompressed audio tracks (the original PCM track as well as a 20-bit Dolby TrueHD track), and an overall cleaner, crisper video presentation. Sony is taking it upon themselves to get your name and address so they can contact you closer to the release date in order to dole out information how you'll go about exchanging your old movie for the new one. We'll give you the contact info below, but have your name, address, and phone number ready to be imparted to Sony whichever path you choose. USA phone: 800-860-2878 Email: consumer@sphecustomersupport.sony.com Thanks, Sony!
The Fifth Element on Blu-ray to be remastered
Not even the most devout Blu-ray fanboy would argue that Blu-ray got off to a good start. Sony was responsible for the initial movie push and many of their titles looked like they were transfered from film in an alley. The one title that stood out among the rest -- as bad -- was The Fifth Element, because many of us had previously enjoyed this title on an HD movie channel and the quality was so good that it left an impression. When the title was announced on Blu-ray, many were very excited to own such a great looking HD movie, but then were very disappointed by almost every aspect of the Blu-ray disc. Well, it finally seems that Sony is ready to admit its mistake and re-release the title on July 17th, but hopefully they'll do it right this time. Of course this does nothing for everyone who bought the first version, but hey what do you expect? **There have been reports from a Sony insider that there will be an "informal exchange program", more details will follow when available.
