On The Flip Side

So late last fall Susanne and I finally got rid of the old 36” Trinitron TV that we had owned for several years. As part of the deal on the new plasma we got a discount on a Samsung Blu-Ray player. Now I cannot stress enough the difference between upscaled DVD and a crappy DVD playing on the same TV. It’s worlds apart so when we watch movies we tend to use the Blu-Ray player. Well, it was a 1.0 version and we have had weird issues with it since we bought it and it quickly was discontinued. Luckily we bought the extended warranty and I keep waiting for the player to die hoping we will get the newer model. Long story long, we have weird issues with it not loading DVD’s, getting stuck, etc. Frustrating but nothing reproducible to expedite a return.

On Sunday when we were coming back from Jet Skiing at Pyramid Lake Susanne said “Oh, you know what movie I want to see again, Pelican Brief. It’s an oldie, but a goodie”. Now I don’t even remember the plot but it has that Pretty Prostitute chick who spilled composting worms on Oprah, so I said sure, lets rent it.

Life with children sometimes puts movies in the wayback. Not just the backseat but the WAAYBACK like the area behind the third row of seats in the old family station wagon. Needless to say it took a couple of days to get to. Tuesday night we finally got around to watching it. We were both enjoying it very much when-BLIP, it just stops and up pops the pretty (but at this moment very annoying) Samsung branded screen. We both think WTF our damn player is giving up the ghost (yay extended warranty still in effect). So Susanne goes into the menu, selects the last chapter, fast forwards prior to the spot where it stopped and we proceed to watch.

It stops. Again. In the exact same spot. WTF. Again.

Now you should feel free to make fun of me for what I am about to tell you dear reader, because I probably deserve it, but in my household I am not allowed to touch the remote. Yes, its a good thing I don’t watch sports or this could be an issue, but in my household the woman rules the remote. So I of course figure Susanne keeps pressing the stop button when she stuffs it between the cushions far out of my reach but I am not ABOUT to tell her this or my budget for the next gadget in the house could be drastically cut or even revoked altogether. Yes, she controls the remote control AND the budget BUT I get to select WHICH remote control we buy (can you say Logitech Harmony).

So here we are, selecting the chapter, fast forwarding to just prior to the break point, press play and watch for a bit.

It stops. Again. In the exact same spot. WTF. YET AGAIN.

Ok, now I am kinda pissed off. I am tech savvy. Really I am. I was ripping MP3’s back in 1997 on my 1X CD-R burner from the command line and unsuccessfully trying to convince my family and friends that this was the future and how revolutionary it would be if we could play MP3’s in our cars and portable stereos. Not bright enough to get rich off it mind you, but savvy enough. Yes, we proceeded to prove ourselves insane by going into the menu for yet the third time to try it just once more. As Susanne is AGAIN selecting the final chapter on the disk we see very subtle letters at the top of the menu.

Side A.

(ok, so for those of you who don't know some older DVD's had two sides and you had to flip it over see the second side).