Banjo's World

Today at 6:00pm in every time zone across the USA, iPhone will be released to the public. Though it come with two big price tags, $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model.

From what I have looked at, I have to say this is the most amazing mobile phone I have yet to see. Some of the shortcomings are that it doesn't come with iChat at launch, but hopefully it will someday through software updates. To me, instant messaging capabilities are a must on any mobile phone. As I'm deaf, I rely on text messaging and instant messaging applications to communicate with my friends, family, co-workers and more. The other major issue is the lack of closed captioning while watching movies or TV shows on it. Apple, Inc needs to be more supportive of the deaf and hard of hearing’s needs. The deaf consumers pay the same prices as the hearing consumers do, the iPhone need to become more accessible to the deaf. I must say that the subscription fees are a tad too rich for my taste.

Now, a lot of people are skeptical and curious about the touch-screen keyboard being used on the iPhone rather than a real keyboard. From the few reviews I have read, they are saying that the keyboard is reliable and you will be able to type as fast as you can on a real keyboard within a few days of using it. So, it’s just going to take a bit of time to adapt to it. It’s a feature I’m really looking forward to, as I prefer to get the biggest screen size possible on a device of that size.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It's not coming out in Canada yet, maybe later this year or next year. So that give me a lot of time to find out what people think of it or how good it is in the long run without having to buy one for myself. I have never been impressed by any mobile phones until my eyes laid on the iPhone from the day it was unveiled.

If you happen to get your hands onto an iPhone and want to share your thoughts, feel free to share it here!

Recently, the German government banned the film production, 'Valkyrie' from their military bases.

Why?

Because Tom Cruise is a scientologist.

This isn't the first time this happened. Back in 1996, they called for a boycott of "Mission: Impossible" and other movies he starred in. The boycott didn't work so well since the movie brought in $24.2 million. The new movie, "Valkyrie" has absolutely nothing to do with Scientology. Not one bit. So the government really had no reason to ban the production from filming at their military bases if they allow the others to do so.

It's bizarre how the government just blatantly discriminated Tom Cruise in such a manner. I can't help it myself but think of the Third Reich whenever a story like this is brought up. I imagine a lot of people got the same impression as I did. You can read more on the situation, just click here.

In the movie, Tom Cruise portrays the German officer, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. A historical figure celebrated for trying to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944. The German Defense Ministry warned that if Tom Cruise were to play the role, they wouldn't allow the filming to take place at the ministry sites because of his involvement with the church of Scientology.

Von Stauffenberg's son objected to the idea of Tom Cruise stepping into the role of his father. Though he is entitled to his opinion, but he has no call in who can and cannot play the role of his father. This isn't a matter of how the family feels; it's about how the government practices discrimination against people for being involved with a church like Scientology.

It's already disturbing enough to imagine a government practicing discrimination against people of different religions and philosophies. Now that I know the government of Germany is one of them. It is like a slap to the face because many soldiers from around the country fought and died to stop the Third Reich from dominating Europe. Now this is how they operate the government, they practice a strong form of censorship. People cannot express their opinions freely.

In fact, it's a crime to deny that the holocaust took place. You can go to jail for it. As much as I believe the holocaust took place and I have met people who went through with it. I will not agree with the idea of sending people to the prison for saying otherwise. People live in fear and cannot express themselves as freely as they would like to even if they were wrong.

The Germans should be ashamed of their government; which I imagine a lot of them are.

Here are the 100 keywords used which brought traffic to my blogsite. Some you may find amusing and just plainly dull. Though I will have to note the fact that somebody want to see Ben Vess, a popular deaf blogger in the buff.

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Thank you for all the positive feedback regarding my last blog entry titled, 'HDTV Captioning: What You Should Know'. As a result, here's another 'What You Should Know' column.

The reason why I'm writing this is in response to several complaints among some deaf people regarding subtitle issues while watching movies on their DVD players. There are a lot of people out there who dislike watching movies where black bars are present. I prefer watching movies in their original aspect ratio; which mean black bars will be displayed quite often.

Before the fifties, movies were often filmed and projected in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is what most television sets are set at. Though that is changing, as there's a lot of widescreen television sets on the market. They are already mainstreamed as of a few years ago. Most widescreen TV displays are set at around 1.78:1. Many television programs today are filmed in 1.78:1.

Then when the television sets were starting to become popular in households, the theatre owners started to see a decline in audience attendance. So they came up with a new aspect ratio and convinced people that the wider the movie, the better. In fact, many film lovers including myself agree with the philosophy. An aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 give the movie a much more cinematic look to it compared to 1.33:1.

Anyway, the problem with subtitles is that they are images, not text. So when you turn them on, they are locked into their place all through the movie. You cannot move it or adjust the size of the subtitles. It doesn't help especially when most television sets already over scan the pictures to start with.

What is an overscan?

There are a few types of overscan. There are two common overscan types starting with optical overscan and digital zoom. Optical overscan is when the TV showing less of the picture rather than the whole picture. Most of the times, it's just mostly borders with a little of the actual image cut off. Digital zoom, it's when the image is scaled or zoomed so it will be larger than the visible area. If your television set does that, you cannot disable it so you may face some problems with subtitles. Usually, it's the super-cheap television sets the deaf consumers should think twice before buying. There are some affordable television sets that won't overscan enough to crop the subtitles, but you should at least do research before buying a television set.

A lot of people make a habit out of zooming into their movies to get rid of the black bars. What will happen is that the subtitles will be cropped out of the display area. Not only to mention that it will decrease the picture quality of the movie. If you have a standard television (1.33:1) and prefer to watch movie in full frame meaning no black bars, you should buy DVDs that are marked 'Full Screen' or 'Full Frame', or where it says 1.33:1 or 1.33. Avoid any DVDs marked 'Widescreen' or the aspect ratios, 1.78:1, 2.35:1 or 2.40:1. If you have a widescreen display and still don't want black bars, avoid any DVDs that are in 1.33:1 or 2.35:1 and 2.40:1. Stick to either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1.

I do have some good news for the Blu-ray owners who prefer to fill up the screen by eliminating the black bars. Sony will be implementing a new feature onto future titles. The new feature will allow us to re-position the subtitles after the black bars are eliminated. Mainly, it is for projectors that are set to project 2.35:1 which result in eliminating the black bars, so will be the subtitles. This won't be possible on the DVD players, they lack the technology needed to use it.

I made some graphic examples for people who want to learn more about the aspect ratios used.

The three examples below, the screen size represents the standard televisions (4:3, Full Frame), the most common screen size used in North America. In each example, the aspect ratio is displayed and named. The black area represent the whole aspect ratio used within a 4:3 television set. The area labelled ‘Black Bars’ is unused area. A lot of people find the black bars to be an annoyance because they believe they are seeing less of the movie, which they are not. It's the other way around; they are getting the whole movie in its full glory.


The three examples below, the screen size represents the widescreen televisions (16:9 or 1.78:1), a mainstreamed screen size used in North America. In each example, the aspect ratio is displayed and named. The black area represent the whole aspect ratio used within a 16:9 (1.78:1) television set. The area labelled ‘Black Bars’ is unused area. In the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, black bars will appear at the top and bottom. The only aspect ratio that will fill up the whole widescreen display is if the movie is in either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1. The black bars will be displayed when a 1.33:1 (4:3, Full-Frame) movie is displayed, the only difference is that it will appear on the sides instead of the top and bottom.


The bottom line is, the best solution is to avoid using the zoom function if you want the subtitles to stay in the picture.

The technology of closed captioning is a wonderful tool for the deaf and hard of hearing. Even the hearing people are finding the benefits in using the technology. I just want to let everybody know that this blog entry will not be covering the issues regarding the problems with captioning on HD channels through some cable/satellite services. Mainly, I will be focusing on all DVD, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD and the HDTV displays. I do feel that it's important that people understand the issues surrounding these formats. It concerns the technology of closed captioning. It is crucial that the deaf consumers become aware of this as many salespeople at stores like Best Buy, Circuit City and more tend to lack knowledge on the technology of captioning.

Closed Captioning Logo

More than ten years ago, high definition televisions started making their way onto the market. There are several resolutions available now including 480i, 480p, 720p, 768p, 1080i and 1080p. Now you may be asking how this concerns you and your needs. It's important that you know why.

For these unfamiliar with the resolutions I just mentioned, below is a picture showing the difference between all resolutions.


Here's an example, if you set your computer's resolution to 800x600. The last number, 600 would be known as 600p, for 1024x768, it would be 768p because all computer monitors are already in progressive.

If you have seen some people using terms like 1080p24 and 1080p60. Both 24 and 60 are refresh rates. 24 frames per second and 60 frames per second. The standard frame rate for movies is approximately 24 (23.97) frames per second. So that's basically the best way to watch movies. If you are to buy a 1080p HDTV, be sure to check that it offer this option.

The problem with a lot of HDTV displays is that they can be difficult to work with when it comes to closed captioning. Every time they make an upgrade in resolution, there will be a problem with closed captioning. Especially with two video inputs, DVI (Digital Visual Interface) and HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). On many HDTV displays, the option to select CC is nowhere to be found when one of these inputs is on display.

Digital Visual Interface Logo

High Definition Multimedia Interface Logo

Component Cables

CC is an analog technology; the information is entered at every 21st line in the 480i mode. In the 480p mode, they have nowhere to put it because all 480 lines are displayed at once. They do now offer digital closed captioning on many HDTV displays. However, it's not as user-friendly as one would think. Not even with DVD players. There are at least 2 standard digital closed captioning modes that I know of. I'm still reading about many deaf consumers who face problems with their DVD players when the progressive mode is enabled. The truth is, no deaf consumer should ever have to put up with it.


This is an example of what an interlaced signal look like. The lines are much more visible in the interlaced mode. Only half of the 480 lines appear per frame.


This is what a progressive scan signal look like, the lines are much less visible because they all appear at once.

Now, we're moving onto SDH. It either stands for 'Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing' or 'Subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing'. This is important for the deaf and hard of hearing consumers to understand. There is a difference between SDH and English subtitles when it's mentioned on the back of a DVD case. When it says, 'English Subtitles', it's not often formatted for the deaf. It will exclude all background noise, names, common words people may be familiar with, song lyrics and more.

SDH (Subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) Logo

Myself, I now prefer SDH because it guarantee that you will get access at any given time regardless of what you are using, a portable DVD player with a small LCD display, a TV with no closed captioning decoder built in, on the computer and more.

The truth is, the major studios are leaning toward SDH because of the easiness with working with them and the fact that people can subtitle the movies within the DVD authoring software. Apple's DVD Studio offers this option. Not only to mention that it's probably the cheaper solution because they won't have to pay for the captioning equipment, which isn't cheap. I have looked up the prices for some of the equipments and software used to caption movies, they are not as cost effective since many DVD authoring software already offer the option to subtitle movies.

Universal Studios was one of the first studios on the DVD format to use SDH instead of CC. Though it was labeled as captions for the first few years till the term, SDH was introduced. I am not sure why Universal Studios chose to go on this path to start with but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the progressive scan mode causing headaches at Universal Studios.

Two new high definition video formats, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD (High Density Digital Versatile Disc) were released last year. The majority of the movies released on both high definition formats lack analog/digital closed captioning. I’m not entirely confident but I believe none of the movies available on either Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD include analog CC. I believe it’s due to the reason I mentioned earlier. The HDMI and DVI inputs often lack the ability to display CC. So the movie studios are going the SDH route to make it easier on the consumers. I will be the first to admit that it's not perfect yet because of how most of them format it. The dialogues should be placed all over the screen rather than dead-on centre on the screen through the whole movie. They also often lack a solid or transparent background behind the subtitles. But I am pleased to tell you that they do include all the information as they do with closed captioning on the DVD and VHS.

As far I can tell you, Fox Home Entertainment and Sony are the best when it comes to formatting the SDH. Fox Home Entertainment uses a strong black stroke all around the subtitles. Sony formats the SDH to bear a strong resemblance to the old-fashioned CC style, which I do appreciate. In fact, Sony even moves them around the screen like they do with CC. Though Sony's SDH style can only be found on their Blu-ray Disc titles.

I made some examples for you to look at to get the idea of how a SDH is formatted and the difference between English subtitles and SDH.

The subtitle shown above is a common format seen on many DVD titles using English subtitles. They often exclude people's names from the dialogues.


The subtitle shown above is a common format seen on many DVD titles using SDH. They often include people's names from the dialogues.


The subtitle shown above is a format seen on some DVD titles and is strongly disliked due to the lack of black strokes around the subtitles making it difficult to read if the background is too light.


The subtitles shown above are the SDH format Sony use on their Blu-ray titles. Like I told you, it bears a strong resemblance to the closed captioning style.


The subtitles shown above show a description of a sound heard in the background. This is the kind of information you can expect to find on a DVD/Blu-ray/HD DVD where SDH is used.


Nothing appears on the screen at all, this is what you can expect from watching a movie with English subtitles, it is obviously not formatted for the deaf and hard of hearing. It's for people who are learning English or these who like to read subtitles.


Here's another example of how English subtitles is formatted. In the dialogue, the person's name is spoken but isn't included in the subtitle because the hearing people will already know who the person is. So it is not necessary to name the person.


As you can see, both images above show subtitles including the person's name rather than excluding it. This is important for the deaf and hard of hearing consumers. They need to know who's saying these lines, if they don't include this kind of information, people may end up finding it difficult to follow the storyline and whose lines it is.

Whew, what a long blog entry. It’s a blog entry I started on last week but I had to put it off for a while. Now that I’m on my vacation, I decided to finish it and publish it. I hope many people will find the information useful and helpful and clear up the confusion among many deaf consumers when it comes to HDTV displays, DVD and the high definition video formats.

If you have any questions or have something to share, feel free to leave a comment.

It's official. 'Jericho' will be brought back next year. No specific date has been set but it's likely to be somewhere in February or March, maybe April at the latest. They will be producing seven episodes. They are hoping that they will get more viewers. After all, publicity is what they need. We gave them the publicity and they have taken it in stride. The truth is, CBS has been quite patient with us and took the time to listen. Not many will even bother to listen. Here's a letter from the President of CBS Entertainment.

June 6, 2007

To the Fans of Jericho:

Wow!

Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard.

As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of “Jericho” for mid-season next year. In success, there is the potential for more. But, for there to be more “Jericho,” we will need more viewers.

A loyal and passionate community has clearly formed around the show. But that community needs to grow. It needs to grow on the CBS Television Network, as well as on the many digital platforms where we make the show available.

We will count on you to rally around the show, to recruit new viewers with the same grass-roots energy, intensity and volume you have displayed in recent weeks.

At this time, I cannot tell you the specific date or time period that “Jericho” will return to our schedule. However, in the interim, we are working on several initiatives to help introduce the show to new audiences. This includes re-broadcasting “Jericho” on CBS this summer, streaming episodes and clips from these episodes across the CBS Audience Network (online), releasing the first season DVD on September 25 and continuing the story of Jericho in the digital world until the new episodes return. We will let you know specifics when we have them so you can pass them on.

On behalf of everyone at CBS, thank you for expressing your support of “Jericho” in such an extraordinary manner. Your protest was creative, sustained and very thoughtful and respectful in tone. You made a difference.

Sincerely,

Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment

P.S. Please stop sending us nuts :)

Well, not yet. Though we are getting closer than ever.

A few hours ago, several reports started coming in regarding the cancelled TV series, 'Jericho'. It has been reported that CBS is now reconsidering the cancellation of 'Jericho'. I must say that I'm incredibly proud of the people who got involved with the campaign. With the number of people involved, we did make a big impact because CBS has realized that they may have made a mistake. They must had gotten the message since they got over 50,000 pounds of nuts from the fans of 'Jericho'. Wouldn't you say? What's really neat is that they are donating the nuts to charities including these that send care packages to troops overseas. Got to command CBS for making a good move on that part.

So far, it has been reported that there is a possibility that they will bring the show back onto the air mid-season. That would be somewhere near the beginning of spring 2008. Eight episodes are being considered for the second season, and it has been said that there will be reductions in the budget. I cannot say I'm surprised and this also means getting rid of some regular characters. Chances are it will be the secondary characters. Don't be surprised if the deaf character gets the boot. But who knows?

The big problem is that the sound stage they used for 'Jericho' is going to be used for the new CBS program, 'Swingtown'. Though in some of the reports, it says that they are trying to find ways to solve the problems associated with the sound stage, scheduling, cast members and more.

The show hasn't been officially saved yet. 'Jericho' has not been saved yet. CBS is definitely readying the plans and in talks with the cast members.

Let's keep hoping because we are getting closer to accomplishing our mission to save ‘Jericho’.

All we have to wait is for a press release from CBS to declare victory.

The other night, I was fooling around with Apple's Photo Booth. It's a novelty but it's always fun to play with once in a while when you're bored. I made some silly faces and used the effects found in Photo Booth. I'm sharing some of them with you tonight.

Enjoy!