Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Hello! All seems to be okay now with Savant's computer situation, and this new iMac is faster than anything I've worked on. I was shocked at how simple it was to "reconstitute" my entire hard drive on the new computer -- it literally only took one 40-minute upload. "¡Viva Time Machine!"

I should also probably make the announcement that I'm completely set up for 1080p full resolution HD viewing now. I've from time to time read a sniping diss or two on web boards that my technical assessments are limited by my equipment. That's not the issue, it's that I'm concerned about technical matters only to the degree that they affect my overall subjective opinion of a disc's quality (whew!). As it was, I made a weekly trek to a friend's house to sample Blu-rays that didn't seem all that good-looking in 1080i; now I won't have to do that any more.

I've also finally gotten an HD cable feed with the new movie channel MGM HD. This means that I'm enjoying DVR'ing immaculate HD cablecasts of irreplaceable classics like The Neanderthal Man and Curse of the Faceless Man (not be confused with the Mister Rogers biopic, Face of the Curseless Man). The HD is somewhat compressed but still looks great. I worked with the UA library for about eight years; I'm hoping to see my favorites in glorious detailed transfers.

An odd thing that happened last week is that MGM HD showed a great-looking transfer of the CinemaScope North West Frontier (Flame Over India), a flawed Indian adventure with Lauren Bacall. MGM just released the title on DVD last week and I was frustrated not to receive a screener. But after watching the superior HD version on cable, I'm not sure I still want to see the standard DVD. If cable or the web are able to deliver this kind of quality (and obscurity) this cheaply, deep library titles on DVD may become extinct sooner than later!

Well, back to reviewing ... I have a goodly stack of discuses, each of which I want to give a fair shake. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson