Entries from August 2006 ↓

Yeah, I really mean it. No exaggeration. A file size just 2 GB and with resolution 1024×432 or 960 x 528 compared to 720 x 480 resolution of your normal DVD-R, that can play in your “old and slow” PC without any issues. That’s AdmitONE (a scene release group) “HD movies” for you!

HD is high definition, it can only be played optimal when your TFT/LCD supported HD, and you need to have HDCP if you have blue ray player and HD movie. These are Ripped HD DVD movies, usually in 720p. They look great even without a screen that supports it! It looks damn good, even better than 4.xx GB DVD-R. They are really clear and crisp and I don’t see any pixilation even when there is high speed movement.

The AdmitOne releases are sourced from HDTV, but are HR (High resolution) releases not HD releases (HIGH definition). HD means releases that are standard 720p or 1080i (and evetually 1080p).HD means - HIGHER definition in AdmitONE releases (and real HD is HIGH definition).

AdmitONE releases might not be 1280×720 but 960×528 (or 1024×432) is still better than the normal DVD Rip xvid releases in 640×360 at the highest, some releases are only in like 512×272. So for size around 1.39GB to 2.75 GB (but 90% of the releases are 2.1 GB), you get 2.5x the resolution of a normal DVDRip and just more than half (0.55x) the resolution of true HD 720P.

AdmitONE movies will play on DivX ULTRA certified DVD players, not normal DivX certified DVD players.If you want them to play in your DVD player, then rencodede to 720×480, 29.97fps which is the NTSC standards to be playable on your DVD Player.

At present there are 29 movies in these HD format including Serenity, The Matrix, Scarface, Crash,The Girl Next Door, Batman Begins, etc.. I have snatched 6 movies and I might snatch movies more movies if I like the movie that I feel ought to be seen in good quality.

Screenshots:
Angelina Jolie
Spiderman 2
Matrix Revolution

Technical details:
Here is some technical details of these releases. Note that I just picked up a movie and did the testing, most all the releases have pretty much these details:
Video: XVID, 1024×432, 23.98fps,2346Kbps (another one was 960 x 528, 1424 Kbps)
Audio: Dolby 5.1 AC3, 48000Hz ,384 Kbps

The details of the resolution and size of various formats:
DVD - R …………………………… 720 x 480 (4.xx GBs)
AdmitONE…………………………. 960 x 528 / 1024 x 432 (2.xx GBs)
DVD Rips………………………….. 640 x 360 / 512 x 272 (depends on the size) (700 MB to 2.01GB)
Normal HD 720p ………………….. 1280 x 720 (4.xx GBs)
Popular LCD HDTV (1080i) ………. 1366 x 768 (9.5 - 13.5 GBs)
Full HD 1080p …………………….. 1920 x 1080

Why I like these releases?
This is playable on my computer, unlike 720p. Not everyone has Dual/Duo core 3GHz+ computers. My my “slow” and old PC; P3, 128 MB RAM, 800 MHz processor, they play almost flawlessly but the CPU usage is high (there should be no problem if you have a decent rig).

A 1080i HD movie will be like 13.5 GB, now most of us (atleast in India) won’t have high speed connections to snatch such copies. More over, as I use 800 x 600 screen resolution, the 1024×432 or 960 x 528 should look like a 720p or 1080i!! So these movies looks great in my PC and also download time should be less (compared to DVD-R or HD Rips). Thanks to the uploader (anonymous), Torrent Leech and AdmitONE!

Respected Scene Releasers:
After these HD releases, I’ve become a big fan of AdmitONE. Let me list the screen releasers who are respected in torrent-p2p circles (or atleast I respect them).

AdmitONE (Small size HD releasers)
ALLiANCE
aXXo (for small size 700 MB quality rips)
BrG (Hindi/Desi scene releasers)
DiAMOND
DoNE
LOL (for TV Shows)
maVen (for TS/TC/CAM releases)
RiPTATORz

Check these AdmitONE movies and see how good they are! If you want Torrent Leech invites, head over here: Private Torrent Trackers and request for a invite.

The thing is DVD resolution are 720×480 and the DVD Rips XViD releases are normally 612×384 or something, so I believe this could be the thing for HD Xvid releases, they are not going to be as good as the real HD Rip thing but will be better than normal DVDs, so they will be basically in the middle, I enjoy Xvid releases of normal DVDs, so I thing this is the next step for me and many others.

It’s no big secret that I love Satyam Cinemas. One good reason is it’s just 10-15 minutes walk and a 5 minutes drive from my place! I had already written about this here: Satyam Cinemas rocks! but I thought I would go on and write something that has come up fresh at Satyam Cinemas.

The people over at Satyam have done a magnificent job to transform the whole place. The road where the theater is situated used to be “dull” street - that is without much traffic, but now it’s bustling with activities. It has now become the hangout zone of Chennai. Here’s a picture as how Satyam used to look some 6-7 years ago: (Click on the thumbnail to view a larger photo)

Why do we all like Satyam Cinemas?
I like satyam for their pakka maintainence and providing a great environment to watch the movie! A cool theatre with lots of peppy guys and girls….all the time bright and colorful.

The sound effects and cleaniness…….And also “No Smoking Area” zones throughout the cineplex. Sathyam’s awesome, economical (unlike the other multiplexes in Mumbai n Delhi). Ticket prices start from Rs. 50 (used to be 40 only some months ago) to Rs. 110. And not to forget those 10 bucks tickets where you get “up close with the stars”!

Let’s see what Kirran Reddy and his team been upto for the past few months or so to make Satyam Cinemas very cool n happening place in Chennai…

thecinema.in
The official website of the Satyam Cinemas,Chennai is thecinema.in

How to book tickets: All you have to do is log on and select the movie,show timings, number of seats, (seat selection is also available), and snacks. Enter your Credit Card number and note down the order number.
At the date you’re catching up with the movie, go to the counter and give your Credit Card and the order number … thats it.. u get the tickets immediately after they swipe ur card…no rush, no standing in queues, no headaches…

The only problem is that it uses a flash interface and takes some time to load (even with my 256k line). Maybe they should try to have a AJAX site. The website also offers booking of snacks and drinks as well during the show. The ticket status is refreshed frequently. So we can use the site for acquiring information on ticket rates, availability of the seats, which movie in which screen, etc.. thecinema.in - The Queue is dead!

Six Degrees
Six Degrees is the 6th Screen and the latest addition at Satyam Cinemas. The tickets cost Rs 110 (They charged Rs. 130 for Rang De Basanti) - a never heard before ticket rates in Chennai.

6 Degrees is small with only 9 rows. The seat’s upholstery is good. A comparatively big screen for a comparatively small theater. I also heard that it got LCD displays (but not sure of this).

The seating arrangement is simply amazing, ample space for both the body and legs. The arm rest thing!! … at any time a person can have both their arms on the arm rest rather than waiting for opportunity rather than thinking “Dude when do I get my turn at the arm rest“!! And even if a Basket ball player sits in the front row, you can still have a unobstructed view to the screen.

Seats are very comfortable and even the hand rests are also cushioned.Taking all this in account to “luxuries”, Rs. 110 is a bargain… compare this to other metros where you are charged 200+ and even rs. 350 for those “airplane” seats.

Blind Date
The first Cinemas in Chennai to bring the innovative idea of making us using our sixth sense for guessing the movie. All they say is the rating for the movie. The show is on Studio 5 every Thursday, 7′o Clock show. It’s good to catch up with Premiers even before they make it the FDFS. It would be thrilling to sit in the hall and guessing for the movie.. it itself would be a thriller!

Pure Cinema
Again a very nice concept and an innovative idea. As the title says, movies which has more creative side, good wholesome movie are screened which otherwise might not run at par with “masala” movies.

At first, they started showing Pure Cinema movies every Friday (or everyday? I’m not sure, I forgot) 10 PM show, but now they show more than a movie also at some random timings.

Four Frames
It’s a great forum for avid cinema lovers to interact with technicians & get to know the nuances of film making. Recently it has Om Puri in the show. They showed his Movie - The Hangman which he directed and then tête - à - tête with him.

110 Years of World Cinema
This is a new concept where we get to see some really old but true classics that you might never ever see in DVDs or TV channels. At the time I’m writing this post, they are showing Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashômon with expert commentary by K. Hariharan and Sunny Joseph followed by audience discussion. It’ll be good thing where we can discuss about the movies just as we do in discussion boards.

The 10 bucks Ticket!
10 bucks for a movie in a theater that has good ambiance, clean, and provide good environment in a Metro Cinema. 10 Rs. ticket so that I can watch almost every movie without evaporating my moolah.

The seats are in front (first 3 rows) and has no cushion. You need to stand in that friggin queue for some time (Many have stood in line at 12, wanting to go for 1′o clock show, ended up goin at 4, for some other random film) but for ten rupees, its worth!!!

We can spend on steam corn, butter popcorn and others. When we’re going with our friends we need not impress them..its a date which will be different!! Save the money for girlfriends/boyfriends. 10 bucks tickets - the true budget Cinema experience!

R|D|X Experience
Sathyam. Ground Floor. Middle of the theatre. Middle of the row. R|D|X. That’s some movie experience. Experienced this three times. I saw Harry Potter 4 ,Superman Returns and Pirates of Caribbean 2 in the middle of the theater and boy what a feeling! I really can’t express all those in words. You got to check them for yourself. We have Satyam and Sree which got this R|D|X thing.

Interval Stuffs and Snacks
Butter Pop corn, Iced Tea ,Cold Coffee, hot and juicy corns (I first saw this and eat at Brigade Street in Bangalore for 25 bucks). So much for your stomach to digest in the break time! The only problem is that it’s costly compared what it’s priced outside in the city (still cheaper than what we see in Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore).

Magic Hat
I don’t know much about Magic Hat, all I know is it’s a place where we get to leave the kids n toddlers to play n fool around while we are at peace enjoying the movie. Magic Hat - Transit play lounge for kids.

What more is planned?
A total entertainment arena for audiences, where they don’t just go to the movie hall, buy tickets, watch the movie,catch up with some bird watching(!) and go back. Moviegoers can now look forward to combining dinner with a late-night show or a game of bowling before an evening show, all inside the same movie complex.

In addition, there are rumors about the possible 7th screen (at the place where there used to be a big waiting hall in front of Satyam cinemas), or maybe that could be the much talked INOX screen.

In addition, they’ve planned 20 more screens in Chennai including 2 new cineplex in Vadapalani and Amjikarai. Things never looked so rosy and fabulous of Chennai moviegoers and filmlovers.

Some closing comments…
Sathyam has the best R|D|X sound effects, Santham’s Balcony seats are the best, Subham has a nicely lit area in a corner with that haunted feeling. Sree’s Rendezvous seats are special. Studio 5 which is nice n compact with chandeliers, Six Degrees with those LCD displays, seats and arm rest!

I had decided to go for some RSS readers. I’m off late reading so many blogs and thought it would be good if I have a RSS manager for me.

I use Firefox so I looked for RSS extension where I can get to see all my subscribed blogs/sites. I tried Wizz RSS Firefox Extension, but it was too complicated and more over I couldn’t customize to me needs.

Then I looked for some 3rd party application where I get to subscribe to RSS feeds. I tried Feedreader, but it’s takes up a lot of memory. Moreover I prefer to check the stuffs with FX itself instead of launching a new application everytime.

So finally I decided to scout of Online Feed Readers that can keep track of my subscribed blogs and also manage them. All the Feed Readers are free unless stated. Let’s get started…

Bloglines

Bloglines is not AJAX. Has unwanted items like tags. It’s the only service that integrate feeds and emails. Bloglines lets me set up email addresses in the form of username.digits@bloglines.com; emails are sent to these addresses are displayed in the same way that feeds are.

You get Mobile access. You can also but some how I didn’t like the look and feel of the site along with it’s interface; Important things are not there where it ought to be.

FeedLounge

I didn’t even try. It’s not free. It’s “just” $5/month.

Google Reader

At first I didn’t like Google Reader, but after I started using it, it’s somewhat better. It’s simple and straight forward. but it took me sometime to get organize my subscription.

Google Reader lacks one huge feature - the ability for the User to be able to select what feeds I want to read next. the interface is a nightmare if you subscribe to a lot of feeds. Took me some to get feeds categorized (labels as Google calls it). It displays only item from the blog at a time, so it loads faster. Scrolling also is less because of this. Even otherwise I find Google Faster than most of the other Readers.

NewsAlloy

It got a Gmail like look and feel. It got load of features.

One problem is that I couldn’t check the direct post if I wanted to view. It’ll take some time to get used and be comfortable using this.

NewsGator Online

They got one Free package and another paid package (19.95$ per year).

We can add new feeds by either “Browse by Category” or “Enter a Search Term”. Not the usual add direct URL method is not employed.
It took me some time to even add new folders.

It’s not AJAX as well, when most of the RSS Feed Readers are AJAXified, it’s little irritating when I find the page loads every time I perform some actions.

Newshutch

This was the first Reader that I tested on, even before I started to scout for more readers. A very easy to use. Easy to categorize. We can drag-drop a feed from one category to another - which I dint notice in most of the readers. Moreover we have the option to show the feeds for the period of time we need.

It’s little slow when compared to other Reader that I tried, but IMO it’s still easy to use and customize. Most of all it does what we all want. Read the post. Fully AJAXified Online web RSS reader.

Netvibes

The Good thing about NetVibes is that they allow personalized pages. you don’t need to sign up as well (good for lazy bums like me!). You can modify move modules, add new RSS/ATOM feeds, add your own notes, add new tab (useful when you categorize). You can even change the colors of the modules and name the page!

But the one problem that I found was when I want to read any of the feeds, we get a new window which will be bad if the post is long and will require a lot of scrolling.

Rojo

Rojo incorporates a lot of the best stuff about Digg, Memorandum, del.icio.us, etc. into an all-in-one application. You can also rate the post, shows how much people have subscribed to a particular fed via Rojo and more such fancy features.

In Web-based RSS Readers, you can tag a post with the keywords, view what others have tagged. Rojo does it perfect, but I don’t like this. It does not do what we really want. Read the post. You just have the title of the post, to read the post, you need to visit the original article.

Look at a similar comparison at TechCrunch which has also reviewed Web based Online Feed readers with features chart. Overall, TechCrunch test shows that Google Reader and FeedLounge are the fastest in performance. Bloglines and Rojo are the best choice if you are looking for a feature rich application (and Rojo blows Bloglines away on “web 2.0″ type features).

Final Verdict
RSS is the next best thing that makes web 2.0 exiting. It’s so easy and useful that you should not fail to try it out if you have never used RSS feeds before. I’m must accept that before I started to search for RSS feed reader, I never knew anything about RSS! Now I’m a big fan of RSS!! Imagine this - I keep track over 15 sites in a single place using RSS feeds.

After using all the web based Online RSS feed Readers and some more (like Yahoo!) I feel that it all depends on your likings. Having a AJAX based Readers is good and less annoying. I love to have a Reader that is clutter free and does the job fine without any fuss. In that respect I feel Newshutch is the best Online RSS feed reader. Google Reader comes second in this respect. The only problem with Google Reader is that managing and customizing a large amount of subscription will be a tiring task.

If you want something more than a RSS reader and need something with many fancy features and all the jazz, then I recommend Rojo. If you want something like a portal with all you favorite sites, then NetVibes is good, if you don’t make small reading window.

Many people still are afraid of RSS and feeds (including myself!) but once you give it try, you’ll really like it. Try it now and if you glad you used it, then save me a cookie!!

Amazon recently annouced a new program aStore (Beta) for it’s affiliates to have their own virtual store. The one thing that really works out well for Amazon is that they have a site that sell almost anything! Finding a product that shares the same frequency as your niche is easy.

The concept is very good in my opinion. For example, I posted a list: Top 25 Romance Movies, now what I did was have a online store with the movies that I recommended. It’s a win-win situation for me and my visitors who might be really interested in buying the DVDs.

Check out my Romance Movie Store at Amazon if you wish to buy Romance movies in DVD and enjoy with your GF/BF/Spouse: Ashwin’s Romance Movie Store.

Let’s get into the pros and cons of the program…

Pros:
1. It’s FREE!
2. Very easy to set up. Very simple and straight forward. It took me only 30 minutes to get going (It should take only 5-10 minutes, but I added product description and other jazz)
3. It’ll compliment the niche of your site if properly made use of. Best example is that of books, jewelry, DVDs items complimented with your content.

Cons:
1. Hosted by Amazon, so it might not look as if it’s part of your site. (You can use iframe to set this right. Check DuctTapeMarketing’s article)
2. You can’t link back to your site.
3. A limit of only 9 features items can be listed.
4. Even you can’t change the feel and the look of the page. Customization is limited to
5. Only one store per affiliate (or rather affiliate ID).
6. The products in the widgets (sidebar) is not in your control. No matter how well you define keywords to filter out, products might not be cohesive as your site’s contents.

Other than that Amazon’s Affiliate program itself got some limitations like the 24 hour cookie, used items sales gives only 1% commission, and the quarterly payments only even if you make 100$ within 3 months.

Let aStore compliment your site’s content
Amazon’s affiliate program sounds very useful - especially for sites that don’t have much text content. Targetting to someone’s real interests rather than the site content is an interesting phenomenon. Take for example.. I love movies, so when I visit one site with some review of a particular movie I look for and then if I see a movie DVD, then I might be tempted to buy the DVD. So unless your site has any specific interest, then it’s going to good, otherwise it’s not worth the space in your web page.

Associate-o-matic is the still the best way to have your own online store. It creates 1000’s of pages in a jiffy and adds your amazon associate IDs (Free Version makes every 5th link associated with their ID).

aStore is not bad considering how easy it can be to set a shop up. Imagine a person like me set up with half an hour! They need to fix a couple of things, but on the whole good going by Amazon. It’s upto the publishers to make it for their sites.

My favourite TV show Prison Break is back! For Good!! I was waiting for this for a long time. The wait almost killed me!

The episode was out in the P2P networks at around 1:15 PM (GMT) barely after it was premiered! It’s amusing to hear that people (West Coast area, USA) download the show as it’s yet to aired in TV and besides who wants to watch with ads! It would take ages for the show to be aired in India. Even it’s aired (eventually) I won’t able to watch the show because of the CAS in Chennai. But now, who cares?

The First Episode
I just watched the episode and writing this post. Man, what a episode to kick start the season! Most of the important characters come in this episode and carry their part to a next level. Even the Origami makes a appearance!

The episode was perfect and it’s time for me to crave for more. But there was some plot hole (some rather big) but nevertheless a good spend 40 minutes for me today.

I recommend Prison Break to all those who love thrillers and gripping drama. Once you start watching some good three-four episodes, you’ll crave for more! Check out the Prison Break Season 1 DVD if you’re interested.

Let me know if you guys also enjoyed this episode and how you felt.

I recently applied to Amazon’s Affiliate program. I was approved instantly within a day for showing Amazon ads on my blog. (Take a hint : Getting approved for Amazon affiliate program is easy!)

After Amazon approved me, I contacted Google to let them know if it’s alright to serve both AdSense and Omakase on the same page as the TOS clearly states that publishers are not allowed to serve ads that “mimic Google ads or otherwise appear to be associated with Google” or any other contextual ad service.

I’m thinking of placing Omakase (Amazons affiliate program) in my blog page along with AdSense. Can I go ahead? Already I see a lot of sites with them and Adsense together in the same page.

They replied after 4 days:

Google AdSense program policy does not permit Google ads to be published on the same web page as other contextually-targeted ads. More broadly, our policy does not permit Google ads to be displayed on the same website as ads that mimic or attempt to be associated with Google ads.

Our intent with this policy is to be as fair to our advertisers as
possible and to maintain the integrity of the AdWords and AdSense
programs.

When I pressed that “Omakase is NOT exactly contextual unlike AdSense. They sell “physical” products. It’s not PPC (pay per click), it’s CPA and pay 4% of what they earn when I send traffic from my site. So it’s more like a affiate program than a contextual program like AdSense.” They replied:

Thanks for your response. I understand you would like some clarification on our competing ads policy. Unfortunately, we generally do not provide guidance on third-party networks while they are still in beta launches.

As you already know, we do not permit Google ads to be published on web pages that also contain what could be considered competing ads. This would include all content-targeted ads as well as text-based ads. We do allow affiliate or limited-text links, but we do not allow text-based ads that either directly mimic or attempt to be associated with Google ads.

Please note that we constantly monitor all of the web pages displaying Google ads. If we find that one of your web pages violates our policies, we will notify you and ask you to remove the AdSense ad code from that page.

Joel Comm, a an Internet entrepreneur quotes here:

Omakase isn’t really a contextualized ad program like AdSense or YPN. It’s more like a kind of smart affiliate program. (Although with commissions ranging from 4 to 8.5 percent, it’s one with pretty low fees.)

AdSense team when asked to comment on this, they said:

According to our program policies, Omakase may be displayed on the same page as Google ads on your site.

How can they say no to me (a small publisher) whereas entertain the big sites? Atleast they should edit their TOS or have a clause stating that such and such site meeting this and that requirement can violate the TOS.

There are so many sites which have both AdSense and Omakase served in the same page. I’m not going to waste your time (and mine) on pointing such websites. I know Google doesn’t care some times but I want to play safe. I don’t want to loose my hard earned money.

Google AdSense also has some “premier publisher” program, where you can have different type of ads. Example of this the technology site Digg. You can also apply for the program. All websites that receive at least 20 million page views per month are eligible. At least this is acceptable as they say we need this-that and if you need our requirements, then be my guest.

Another AdSense publisher Brent also faced such issues when he wanted to serve Vibrant Media’s IntelliTXT ads with AdSense and Google didn’t allow such practice. Read more : Adsense TOS Applied on a Per Site Basis

Now I have removed all the Omakase links and I really don’t feel that bad as I don’t get heavy targeted traffic..as yet. Also I was earning something with AdSense and I didn’t want to spoil that.

Many “big sites” have been doing this for months and seems to be able to get away with it. Are we, the small bloggers, the only ones who violate the TOS?

The Unitech Cup Cricket Series between Sri Lanka India and South Africa is here! I’m looking forward to this series as it’s been long I saw a Cricket series. Hope India pimps the Sri Lankans and the South Africans. It’s been long since they won a ODI series.

[Edited]
No play was possible and the whole series was canceled.

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