Every guy with a home audio/video system worth his salt has a couple of shelves packed to the brim with CDs.  Since our not-so-fictional media savvy dude had a DVD player since the DVD release of the first Matrix movie, by now he’s even filled up one of those really smart DVD shelves from Ikea.  Guests can peruse rows of DVD case spines for just the right classic film among the teeming collection.

That’s so 2001!

In a few years we’ll look at this whole requirement to facilitate silvery shiny media discs as a quaint relic from the past.  We’ll fondly look back at manually alphabetizing and categorizing expansive CD collections like today we might think of how cool vinyl album covers were.  It’ll be interesting to muse upon a return to the “single” just like the 50’s, before they were undermined by the more mature and sophisticated ‘album’.  The whole album paradigm is likely to shift as yet again, the economic and distribution reality affects art itself.

Even today corporations like Sony, Philips, NEC err on the side of vanity as they spend resources drawing battle lines between HD DVD and Blu-Ray.  One can’t help but think of these corporations today as vaguely analogous to the narcissism of a 14^th century European king investing heavily in stone fortification for a medieval style keep.  His monument to his wealth and greatness is doomed to obsolescence with the coming of gunpowder and the canon.

Perhaps corporations who invest in war are blinded by the status quo and lack the ability to sniff out the obvious change in the air.  The two newest media types, the newest shiny disc formats to hit the scene also have a format war of their own.  DVD-Audio and SACD are locked in another format war between Sony and the rest of the recording industry.  While the technology behind the new formats are sound, simply amazing multi-channel high resolution audio that specializes in making your favorite records blow you away if you have a 5.1 home theater system.  But who has won this format war? 

Suppose they threw a war and nobody came?

The war between SACD and DVD-Audio is a non-issue to modern media consumers.  SACD and DVD-Audio combined have sold as much as vinyl (600,000 units) in the first half of 2004.  Meanwhile, Apple has sold some ten million iPods.  Those iPod customers are downloading from iTunes at a rate of some 1.25 million singles per day.  It’s obvious that the winner in the format war between DVD-Audio and SACD is the online distribution model.

In a couple of years from now, lets revisit our media savvy “every guy”.  In his entertainment room in 2008 will there be another smart silvery disc shelf from Ikea sporting a new expanded library of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs?  Only if he’s hosting a retro-90s party!  To be certain, media library software and hardware that seamlessly integrates to your wireless network is going to drop in price.  The ability to manipulate large quantities of files, navigate an enormous collection of movies and songs from the living room couch will be a snap.  You’ll access your collection either party mix-playlists or select a genre, just like you do on any MP3 player today.  But this time it’s your entire collection, and available via menu systems on your TV accessed by remote control from your couch.  Of course you’ll be able throw in some videos and multi-channel audio selections in your playlists as well.  Or you can watch a movie, selected from a list of your personal downloads, high quality and perfectly legal.

This is the direction of home theater it will exist legally or largely illegally.  The entertainment industry can only embrace it and make it profitable or they’ll ignore this overwhelming consumer demand at their peril.

Xbox 360’s release date draws ever nearer; can you taste the palpable anticipation across the web?  Microsoft hopes to make this the holiday season of the Xbox360.  Just as Christmas season 1977 was the Christmas of the Atari.  Ah yes I remember it well,  Christmas dinner…blasting alien space invaders.  It was a truly misspent youth, and yes I am that old.  But Xbox 360 is more than just a gaming machine, what seemed to start off as Microsoft’s way of keeping up with a possible new outlet for the online experience seems to be driving it forward.

Gates vision of being there for the set top internet experience is really coming together.  It’s no secret Microsoft first entered the console games market, not necessarily simply to dominate online gaming.  As the developer of the world’s most widely used operating system, Microsoft (like anything that big) is in danger of becoming of a dinosaur.  And like anything that powerful (think of Kings through history) are in danger of losing their market-space objectivity.  Bill Gates must have seen the writing on the walls back in the mid 90s with inventions like CD-i.  Ironically CD-i was a collaborative effort between Philips and SONY but its implications likely got Gate’s attention in those days.  CD-i didn’t really go anywhere in North America but it lead directly to the fruits of another collaboration between Philips and Sony, WebTV.  Now WebTV must have been seen as a threat to Microsoft.  Rather than dismiss the new internet-in-a-set-top-box experience; Microsoft bought it!  So there was Microsoft’s first foray into the set top box market WebTV.

Xbox was seen as they way to stay on top of the wired set top box scene, however it panned out, Microsoft would be there.  A few other things have been going on with Microsoft, like their own distilled version of the internet experience itself, MSN.  A new arm of MSN is now MSN Music, Microsoft’s own music download service.  Microsoft again finds itself competing with an old adversary, Apple and iTunes.  Microsoft has driven the Home Theater PC with the HTPC operating system, Windows Media Center. 

Back to Xbox360, not only is it going to be the top gaming platform at its release.  But the most obvious competition pits it head to head against Sony and the PS3.  Games fans are obviously concerned with specs, which is the ‘best’ gaming machine.  While comparisons between the obvious competitors are fair game, Xbox 360’s pedigree is not really that of a pure gaming machine.  Microsoft’s vision for Xbox 360 is that of a complete all in one media center package.  It’ll come stock with Media Center Extender compatible with Windows Media Center.  Xbox 360 will be fully compliant with the VC1, WMVHD formats that will allow you to play back digital programming in HD.  360’s will have a 20Gig removable and upgradeable hard drive.  Xbox 360’s Music Player will rip your CDs and digitize your music collection. 

"We see the Xbox 360 as replacing your CD player in your entertainment center, but also as the best digital media amplifier available," said Xbox 360 product manager Barry Steinglass. "Your PC is a great place to manage your music, but it's not always the best place to enjoy it. With Xbox 360 you've got one central place to listen to all your music on the best sound system in the house."

How long before Xbox 360’s Xbox Live service is bridged to MSN features like MSN Music?  Xbox Live is geared to be a vast online marketplace, have your credit card number ready.  Now all we need are movie downloads instead of having to go to the store and buy those crappy plastic discs.

Microsoft seems to have transcended fear of the writing on the wall that the set top box internet experience may turn their operating systems into fossils.  Microsoft themselves are driving a vision of the wired/home entertainment/internet box forward.  Who says 360 is just a gaming machine?

You’ve heard of THX certification for home theater equipment.  With everything from refrigerators to socks that are getting microprocessors and LCD screens built in  there is a new level of certification out there.  Get ready for “IT PLAYS DOOM!”; a right of passage for any device.  This should be standard on Home Theater surround processors.

From a viewers perspective there is little difference between the two display types.  I won’t get into the exact technical differences between the two devices.  But there are many who find themselves at the local TV shop wondering which one they should buy, both have had significant drops in price lately and rumor has it that there is going to be more before the Christmas season this year.  Today’s 720P DLP and LCD rear projectors are no longer priced out in orbit, comparable deals can be found on both.  Both technologies are very good at what they do with only subtle differences in appearance it can be an intimidating decision trying to figure out which to buy. 

Sets like Samsung’s HLP4663W is a very good 46” DLP set based on TI latest series of DLP processors.  Sony’s GRAND WEGA line of LCD rear projectors like the KDFE55A20 makes for good competition from another display technology.  You can drive yourself crazy driving to more and more TV shops looking at more different sets to see if any of them are going to have that magical quality that your eyes love. 

My advice might differ from the orthodoxy you’ll get on many forums or even sales people who say to compare, compare, compare and trust your eyes.  Outside looking for a few specific details on a new TV, I don’t think viewing more TVs in store are going to do you much good.  Sure, you can see with your eyes standing in the store that the CRT based Rear Projectors (RPs) sometimes have color alignment problems, but can you really trust the TVs are even calibrated correctly sitting at Best Buy?  Even the high def feed from the local cable company that’s piped into an aisle of hi-def TVs might be sullied from being split too many times.  I’ve seen DVD players connected to display model TVs with a movie and the DVD player isn’t even setup to play at progressive scan, so the resulting image is horrible.  So, I don’t think you’ll get much out of looking at displays in the store.

But when deciding between LCD and DLP do some critical viewing, knowing what to look for in each display type will go a long way in helping you decide. 

Look at both TV types from a direct viewing angle, mimic being seated in front of the set, bend down on a knee if you have to.  All rear projector displays are designed to be viewed straight on.  This may seem like a limitation until you consider the average size of the family room and how huge these TVs get.  In your average viewing room a 50” set is going to loom so large it’ll hard NOT to see it straight on.

On the DLP make sure you watch something moving quickly across the screen, like a dogfight between two planes that scream across the screen, follow them with your eyes.  You can just flick your eyes across the screen while watching anything.  Do you see the rainbow?  If the rainbow effect is disturbing LCD is your option.  The rainbow effect is caused by the color wheel that presents equal amounts of red, green and blue to create all the colors you see.  If you move your eyes with the color wheel you’ll probably see the rainbow.  There is a percentage of the population who will see this rainbow all the time.  These people’s eyes aren’t easily fooled by technologies optical illusions and they probably have very good eyes.

When judging an LCD, look directly at a particularly bright image, lots of bright sand or white snow.  Does it look to you like you're viewing the images through a screen?  This is the screen door effect found on LCD projectors.  The screen door is caused by the spacing of each pixel on the LCD chip being amplified across the projected surface.  That handful of microns of space on a chips starts to get noticeable when projected to 50” or even 70”.  There are various tricks done with lenses and mirrors in newer LCD RP designs to alleviate this symptom but a certain amount of it is inevitable.  Between each pixel must run a circuit trace, even on the tiny IC chip that is the LCD, the circuit trace regulates voltages to activate the LCD itself.   

Those are the drawbacks with each device type.  Otherwise they're both great with nice, bright digital images.  Both will require lamp replacement from time to time which can about $300 but shouldn't need replacement for about 2 years or so.  The DLP has a "color wheel" inside, but this should be no louder than the fan that cools the lamp.  So, listening to each TV is important, you want to hear silence.  Well... neither will be completely silent because there is going to be a fan, on the DLP a color wheel spinning but you probably won't even hear the color wheel.  Otherwise it's up what you like the best.  Don't be too concerned about the macroblocking effect when looking at those HD digital cable feeds at the stores.  All sets will do this, it's not the sets fault, it's the video. 

Good luck and happy viewing.

In my last installment (part 1) I expressed some concern that the HD “upscaling” feature found on some DVD players today was more of a marketing feature than a technical feature that will give you better picture quality from a DVD player.  The reasons “DVD Upsampling” seemed like B.S. to me were twofold.

Upscaling or upsampling DVD players might be a way for cheaper players to offer a tighter picture that can scale pixel per pixel to HD or DTV resolutions.  This could be a benefit if your HDTV has a very poor internal scaler.  HDTVs today have a native resolution and scale everything to “that” resolution.  If you have a CRT based HDTV it scales to 1080i, if you have a fixed display device (LCD, Plasma, DLP) it’s most likely 720P.  So, your DVD player’s 480P images are converted to your TV’s native resolution and “should” do a better job of it than any external box that retails at the $150 range.

Upscaling DVD players don't add anything to the image, you won't get HD from a DVD.  Be patient HD DVD and Blu-Ray are coming. 

What intrigues me is the ‘upscaling’ DVD players like the LG LDA-531 and Samsung’s HD850 provide video to your HDTV in the digital domain, that is they use an HDMI output.  When the DVD player sends video to the TV using HDMI or DVI it’s fully digital, no need to process the video signal to send it through analogue component cables, which could cause some degradation.  So, I had to test one of these for myself.

I had a chance over the weekend to play with one of these DVD players in a head to head video contest against my old faithful Cambridge Audio Azur 540d.  The player in question was the Samsung HD850 complete with HD upsampling and an HDMI output I connected to my Sony LCD rear projector (Grand Wega KF-50WE620).  The Cambridge Audio DVD player should be a far superior player, if for no other reason than it is a more expensive player and designed for a specialty consumer market who desires higher end quality.  The Azur 540d uses MediaTek’s highly rated DACs and it’s always been my assumption that better quality DACs make for better sound and audio quality from your DVD player.  So, even if the Samsung does use some superior technology to do a better pixel overlay on a 720P display device, if it’s using cheaper DACs it’s doing little more than putting lipstick on a pig.

Out of the box the Samsung HD850 had a nice build quality for a sub $150 player, the silver finish and indigo power light is a nice touch, the box has an appeal you wouldn’t mind seeing in your stack.  I hooked it up with the HDMI port.  The Cambridge Audio 540d is  component only.  As I navigated the menu systems I went straight to the display settings.  The menus were intuitive, I have no complaints so far.  The default 480P setting made the menus themselves look a little “soft” they got whipped into shape when I switched to 720P.  I experimented with my Superbit version of Spiderman2, probably the best Superhero movie ever made given the Superbit treatment I’ve always admired.  This is where I started to notice cracks in the veneer of what otherwise seemed like a fine player.  It was way too dark.  I played with the video settings in the DVD player and found a brightness control that allowed me to pump it up. 

At this point I could go “soft” not using the “upsampling” feature at all and I had all the brightness I needed or I could enable 720P and suddenly lose brightness and contrast.  I pumped up the Samsung’s brightness to 5 which was all the way, and it gave the images the brightness I was accustomed to seeing.  This didn’t look half bad on Spiderman 2, I paid particular attention to the daylight scenes and they looked good on 720P when the brightness was all the way up.  However there was a minor problem where I felt the color palette was limited, complexity in skin tones were ‘off’.  Flesh tones are always difficult for video to reproduce, skin is a very complex color and we humans know it very well so much that if it’s not right it sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl.  The two kids Spiderman rescues from impact with the truck had oversatured reddish highlights on their faces instead of the healthful glow of rosy cheeks.  Coloration seemed to be a problem but didn’t really stand out too badly when images were in good lighting.  Pixel overlay seemed right on, I had no problems with fuzziness, flickering, macroblocking or clearly inferior 3:2 pulldown.

I broke out Digital Video Essentials and did a few color test/calibrations so hopefully it would balance the flesh tones.

Next DVD Elektra;  I decided to add complexity to the video by popping in Elektra staring Jennifer Garner.  Early in the film she performs an assassination in shadowy darkness.  There is even a fireplace leaving flickering reflections on everything in that scene to add complexity to video coloration.  My Cambridge Audio recreates this scene perfectly.  The Samsung HD850 looked horrible.  There were no shadowy nuances, anything you were supposed to see that was layered in shadow was lost in a muck of darkness.  The fireplace left cartoonish orange on everything.  What seems like a dance of shadow and fire on my Cambridge Audio was a bloody mess on the Samsung. 

My video testing was far from scientific, I didn’t use any test equipment to calibrate my concern was purely for real world images and enjoyment.  I honestly don’t know what to ”look for” in any video engineering capacity to test differences between these two machines.  I realize comparisons are flawed because the two players aren’t designed to compete with each other in the market, the Cambridge Audio player should be superior and certainly was.  What my testing did prove to me was that this “upsampling” feature offers nothing significant in the way of any technical breakthrough.  It is certainly not HD DVD or anything akin to it.  As I suspected good quality DACs will trump any extemporaneous pixel overlay technology every time.

The other thing I wasn’t expecting was the difference in audio.  I knew the Cambridge Audio’s strong point was audio but I had no idea how significant it would be.  Both players used their digital audio outputs to my Arcam receiver which processed Dolby Digital in all testing.  I assumed any audio differences would be slight as all the player is doing is presenting the receiver with a flat audio signal to process, no DACs involved in the reading of this digital audio signal, so I figured the difference would be minimal.  Boy was I wrong, this causes me to re-think many long standing assumptions I have had about digital playback devices and the role they play in audio reproduction even where no DAC is used.  The assassination scene in Elektra depicted in the image samples below is preceded by a whisper, the ring of metal then a powerful score kicks in as the anti-hero does her dirty work.  It’s a powerful scene, the Cambridge Audio DVD player can make even the most dour film critic say… “That was a good scene!”

The Samsung on the other hand made that whole scene sound flat.  The directional quality on the soundtrack was lost, the left, right – front, rear separation seemed muddled.  Although the surround effects existed, they weren’t as noticeable.  Even the dynamic range was affected, the gentle whisper “I died once” sounds chilling and up close on the Cambridge Audio, on the Samsung it was just a whisper. 

My assumptions about the audio differences is that you’re simply hearing the sound of superior electronics, pure and simple since there can be no processing differences here (both used my Arcam DAC to decode the bitstream).  The Cambridge Audio has a better quality power-supply and likely better optics and subsequent circuitry.  I wonder if the Samsung had some noise issues or electronically minute details in the soundtrack were simply unsustainable through the electronics.

In summary, all is as I suspected in the universe.  The old adage you get what you pay for is especially true for DVD players.  If you’re looking for significant gains from any DVD player in the sub $200 range you have to step up to the plus side of $300 and the score of players that compete on this level.  The likes of NAD, Denon and Cambridge Audio even Onkyo and Yamaha offer quality at affordable prices.  HDMI or DVI outputs on any DVD player should never be considered an image quality boost.  The image quality from any DVD player is dependent on how well it can process the video stored on the disc.

Here are two images; these are as close as I could get to the same frame, the “mark” discusses his misspent life as a ruse to cock his pistol just before Elektra plunges her sai into his back.  The flickering fireplace prevent the Samsung from drawing any perceptible flesh tones from his face, the color of his shirt is also distorted.  It almost seems like the Samsung had a limited number of colors it could paint into image.

The Samsung HD850 has considerable trouble presenting realistic flesh tones under the extra colors of a fireplace in low lighting.

Edit:  I've received a lot of responses on this particular post.  As mentioned above the test is NOT scientific, no test equipment was used.  The video results pictured above were after performing and 'eye' calibration using DVE w/ the new Samsung.  Samsung is connected via HDMI, Cambridge Audio was connected via component toggling back and forth gives the above results.  Unique video settings are saved for the different inputs, in short both are calibrated as best I could. 

True, the comparison is hardly a fair one because the CA DVD player is better and more expensive.  My only point with this post is that the upscaling feature shouldn't be considered important when looking at DVD players.  Upscaling is secondary to the DACs used for video processing.

Sony has released two new digital (HD) Personal Video Recorders in North America the DHG-HDD500 and the HDD250.  The model's nomenclature indicates the drive capacity the 500 model with 500Gigs and the 250 with only half capacity.

The 500 Gig model (DHG-HDD500) runs for a steep $1000, but 500 Gigs is simply massive.  That’s 60 hours of HD programming or 400 hours standard definition.  Just looking at those numbers gives you an idea of the difference between HD and standard definition TV in how much more information you’re viewing in HD.  250Gig model (DHG-HDD250) at $800 is no slouch either but I’d be tempted to put another $200 into the initial investment for double space.  But, you say you’ll never need more than 30 hours of recorded HD programming?  Yeah, and computers will never need more than 640K memory.

Since Sony’s new PVRs include an over the air HD tuner they make the perfect add-on for anyone with an HD-Ready set and no tuner.  If you live on continental US you can receive all the over the air networks in full digital from a rooftop antenna.  Both models also include a cable card slot, a new item on the set top box scene that allows cable companies to turn any STB armed with a cable card slot into a fully functional subscriber cable box for their perspective cable company.  I like the CableTV electronics programming guide, no subscription required.  Just setup the guide for your local area and away you go.  HDMI and optical outputs for digital video and 5.1 audio ensure compatibility with your digital home theater systems. 

The one weakness with these Sony’s new PVRs is that they only have one tuner, this means you have to watch what you record and cannot record one channel while watching another.  Many popular digital PVRs like the Scientific Atlanta HD8300 include the extra tuner.  However Sony’s over the air tuner is a compelling feature not commonly found on PVRs that double as a subscriber cable box like those by Scientific Atlanta and Motorola.

This week’s notable DVD release is Constantine staring Keanu Reeves.  It’s difficult to describe exactly what Constantine is about and what the character John Constantine played by Keanu Reeves, really is.  As a sort of occultist super-hero figure his strength does not lie in his physical body but in his gift/curse of being able to challenge beings of the nether realms of heaven and hell.  John Constantine is an anti-hero suited for the 1990s when the comic book Hellblazer made its mark on DC’s Vertigo line.  Vertigo are DC comics adult line of comics that tried to gain entry into the independent comics market in the 90’s when indies were killing the big two (DC and Marvel).  Alan Moore was the creative genius behind the Hellblazer comics who made it one of Vertigo’s most successful titles. 

Constantine the film is a sort of cross between Exorcist, James Bond, Prophecy (the film with Christopher Walken as the archangel Gabriel) and any superhero film released in the last five years.  If this sounds like a confusing mix it’s because it is, as a result I can’t recommend it unless you’re a fan of any or all of the types of films I just compared it to.  Being a fan of the comic will not be enough to make you want to even see this film, it might just be a bit offencive to the more sensitive comic book purists who will find that Constantine is no longer an Englishman and his hair color has changed.  The story is loosely fitted around an incomprehensible plot involving servants of heaven and hell in a plot to bring the Earth into this struggle.  Exactly what the master plan is why it is and what it’s all about eludes me.  The special effects in this film are many involving CGI images of a post apocalyptic Earth that seems to have merged with hell.  The CGI looks limited in effect and colors to a whole lot of glossy gold looking amputated monsters.  I believe this is because producers attempt to capture the general look and feel of frames from the comics.  The effect is a far cry from the graphical success of Sin City. 

Keanu Reeves is suitable as the deadpan chain smoking hero of the prime material plane in a performance that echoes his Neo character from the Matrix series.  Other quality performances include Tilda Swinton as an androgynous version of the archangel Gabriel and Rachel Weisz as agent Angela Dobson a cop who may have some buried connection to the netherworld (no spoilers here!).  But the real star of the film are the visuals and bombastic window rattling subwoofer effects, it’s the kind of film you have to watch on a 5.1 system.  John Constantine is introduced (as many of these kinds of films do) performing an exorcism with a cig dangling from his mouth he enters the bedroom of a possessed young girl like a rebel without a cross.  In typical brooding anti-hero fashion he even punches the demon in face and calls him a** hole.  I can’t decide if the scene worked for me, I didn’t laugh and I’m not sure if I was supposed to.  One scene that did work for me are the meetings with his old ‘friend’ Pappa Midnite (played by Djimon Hounsou) a character fans of the comic will remember.  Midnite is a voodoo occultist who runs a nightclub for the supernaturally endowed.  Through their snappy dialogue Constantine and Midnite elude to their strained history having read many comics with the two characters I thought these scenes were some of the best character interactions in film next to any scene with Swinson. 

The DVD

There are two opposing aspects to the DVD the audio and video.  I found the video quality to be sub-par for the grade of video we expect on DVD transfers these days.  Even the animated menu that comes up when you insert the disc shows visible compression artifacts.  There is some minor background graininess throughout the film particularly when the background is dark.  I convinced myself they were going for a sort of dark palette in this movie but I think it would have been better served with the bright crispness of the Spiderman films.  By contrast the sound quality is awesome.  There are ample opportunities for the realms of heaven and hell to present us with deep rich subwoofer rumble and John Constantine gets to handle some ear shaking metaphysical hardware in this film that has to be heard to be believed.  The surround effects are suitably aggressive for this type of film.  Everything from echoing voices in a dank corridor to the directional effects of shattered glass moving about the room are done with an acoustical panache.

Special Features

Having purchased the 2 disc deluxe DVD early the BEST special features are the ones I got with the DVD outside of the plastic discs.  If you bought it while supplies last you got a t-shirt and a Hellblazer comic book inserted right into the packaging.  Now this is the kind of special feature I can deal with, did I ever mention the t-shirt is my preferred garment?  The t-shirt is plain black with only the word Constantine in red.  Some might think it’s a bit too plain to be cool, but for me it serves a dual purpose.  You can wear it as a Constantine ‘the movie’ and when that’s not cool anymore it instantly transforms into a t-shirt that shows your support for everybody’s favorite Roman Emperor who banned the persecution of Christianity.

Disc two’s features show much of the typical extras, promotional documentaries, deleted scenes and more documentaries that show talking heads with various titles talk about how tickled they are to be on board such a project.  Surprisingly little is shown of the comics outside the feature Conjuring Constantine a rather short documentary that delves slightly into the character.  Glaringly absent from any special feature is the man, the myth, the legend himself Alan Moore.  I would go out and buy a DVD of just Alan Moore talking about whatever he wanted to talk about.  But I find the special features sub par light weight stuff.  If you’re not interested in the t-shirt and extra comic you might want to pass on the 2 disc set unless you really like that talking head stuff with brimming smiles. 

DVD Features:
o Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French
o Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
o Disc One: The Movie
o Commentary by director Francis Lawrence, producer Akiva Goldsman, and sreenwriters Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello
o A Perfect Circle music video: "Passive"
o Theatrical trailers
o Disc Two: Special Features
o 18 Minutes of deleted scenes, including alternate ending
o Conjuring Constantine
o The Production from Hell documentary gallery: director's confessional, collision with evil, holy relices
o Imagining the Underworld documentary gallery: Hellscape, visualizing vermin, warrior wings, unholy abduction
o Constantine Cosmology
o Foresight: the Power of Previsualization
o Exclusive collectible Hellblazer comic book featuring a reprint of issue #41 Dangerous Habits and a Hellblazer short story
o Number of discs: 2

Everyone with an Ipod is familiar with iTunes, Apples internet mp3 download service where you can pay for MP3 and take advantage of other streaming music options.  However most users I suspect have promptly avoided iTunes as their online musical source.  The MP3 are overpriced and include DRM encoding which is a big inconvenience to users.  It’s better to get your music from sources like allofmp3.com a Russian site that allows you to legally buy and download music for less. 

Apple has been exploring licensing options from various recording companies to make videos available on their iTunes service.  Can full motion video iPods be very far behind?  Industry analysts feel this is a logical next step for the iPod as Apple’s strong point has always been video.  Is there a market for downloading and watching the latest music video on a handheld device?  This has promise as a “portable-theater” alternative, you might be able to watch a movie over a new iPod as early as next September.