All posts by site admin

Harry Potter at Swinley

My usual spot of mountain biking in Swinley Forest has been interrupted a little recently by some “major filming” (as they put it). Discovered lots of green screen, some cranes, and lots of crew vehicles. Not to mention a lot of mess! Spotted signs marked ‘WB’ and had a guess… big effects film, Warner Brothers… Harry Potter perhaps?

Did a bit of a search on the net and found my guess was right! Apparently they’re there filming some scenes for one or both of the Deathly Hallows films (due for release in two parts in 2010 and 2011).

Anyway, these are a few photos I’ve taken. They’re here for a couple of months apparently. I’ll be there every few weeks likely as usual so I’ll keep an eye on it, though I’m just there at the weekend for the biking so there’s not much activity to see.

Potter filming in Swinley Forest (2009)
Copyright (c) Tim Moore

Harry Potter filming - On Location (2009)
Copyright (c) Tim Moore

Harry Potter filming - Access Restricted
Copyright (c) Tim Moore

Harry Potter filming - Crane #1
Copyright (c) Tim Moore

Harry Potter filming - Crane #2
Copyright (c) Tim Moore

These photos,Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Please give credit.

Update: Possibly this is what they’re filming (not much of a spoiler, but tagged it as such anyway. Guess someone may not have read the book!)…

Spoiler: [spoiler]“We’re here in the forest, we’ve just finished the scene where Harry, Hermione and Ron are captured by the Snatchers after being chased through the woods. The Snatchers are brutal and scary but they aren’t the most intelligent of creatures.They’re trying to figure out exactly who it is they’ve caught.”(Source: LA Times)[/spoiler]

HD DVD is dead, long live… CBHD

Always thought that China would never accept Blu-Ray due to the high cost of licensing, and thus high cost of discs and players.

Well, China has been attempting a few formats over the last few years that are under their control and don’t require them to fork out on cost fees to licence holders outside their country. The latest is CBHD. Formerly known as CH-DVD and rebranded probably following the demise of HD-DVD. New photos have emerged of the players and there’s a stunning similarity to certain Tosh HD DVD players!

cbhd1

cbhd2

cbhd3

cbhd4

Apparently CBHD is almost identical to HD DVD with the exception of the licensed components, so mainly the codecs used. How similar their own codecs are is yet to be established, but it does mean the discs will be incompatible with HD DVD.

What does that mean for the rest of the world? Probably not much initially. HD DVD owners however may find that a firmware hack to turn their players into CBHD players is not beyond possibility, opening up the player to the CBHD stock of titles (which Warner has already signed up for at least).

The more interesting possibility comes down to the fact that Chinese manufacturers make the base components for a lot of western kit that gets re-branded into known names with Japanese logos on them (with inflated prices). This means the potential some day for multi-format players that could play everything and probably support HD DVD/CBHD as well as Blu-Ray and others. Much like how cheap DVD players these days support a wide array of formats, old and new. Hopefully like DVD players, region free hacks for Blu-Ray will be widely available (the lack of which is the major factor that stops me buying Blu at present).

Doesn’t do anything for reviving HD DVD in the west, though does open up a market in cheap discs from China. I suspect there will be a number of restrictions to prevent export though as Hollywood would rather the rest of the world pays the massive premium for Blu-Ray instead (at whatever the local maximum price is thanks to region controls).

(sources: avsforum, avforums)

Region Free DVD on Toshiba EP30 HD DVD Player

Following on from the EP35 region free mod, those clever guys have worked out a way of making the EP30 region free for DVD also (remember that HD DVD was always region free, this is for DVD playback only).

It’s a lot more complex than the EP35 mod unfortunately and a “dirty hack” as they put it. Be warned, you could brick your player, so only proceed if you feel happy with a dirty hack and the risks involved. Hopefully an easier mod will pop up later.

Details here: http://www.avforums.com/forums/hd-dvd-players/861280-ep30-region-free-firmware.html

Region free DVD on Toshiba EP35 HD DVD player

This wonderful device for budget HD movie watching, whilst was always region free for HD DVD discs, can now be made region free for SD DVDs with some modified firmware. This means upscaling of your DVD collection to 1080p regardless of DVD region. 🙂

Many thanks to those involved in getting the mod working.

To get this to work you need to apply some firmware that has the region free mod in it. The firmware currently available is version 1.3, which is older than latest firmwares available. However once the mod is applied, you can safely update to new official firmware releases without losing the region free status.

Also, if you have more recent firmware (up to 4.0 at least), you can roll back to the modified 1.3 and then re-apply firmware updates.

More details over at the AV Forums: EP35 Region Free Firmware

Note that RCE encoded discs require an extra handset hack as follows:

RCE HACK.
1) Turn on player
2) Open tray, put disc in tray but don´t close
3) Push T.search on remote
4) Push 1, 3, 9 and “Region number” (e.g. 1 for US discs)
5) Push T. search on remote.

You will see TEST on your player

6) Press PLAY on the remote

When player is turned off, this setting is cleared.

Channel 4 recreates Kubrick’s The Shining

Channel 4 recreates Kubrick’s The Shining… or at least has produced a short promotional piece using look-a-like actors and crew in 70s dress, with a one-shot walk through around the sets of The Shining from Stanley’s point of view.

This piece serves to promote More 4’s Kubrick season starting on 15th of July, and will be shown in the next few weeks across Channel 4 and More 4 in the UK.

More here including a web version of the clip: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/03/channel4.kubrick?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews