Chris Chiarella

Sort By: Post Date | Title | Publish Date
Audio Video News
Easy Video Sharing, The Hard Way
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 23, 2004
The size of a deck of cards, Verbatim's new 2.1-gigabyte Store 'n' Go HD Drive offers the blazing speed of a USB 2.0 connection (which also powers the little guy), meaning that even enormous MPEG video files can be transferred fast. The vast capacity of the one-inch, 4,200RPM hard disk puts it in a class above the popular flash memory drives, to hold almost half a DVD's worth of video... or music or photos or any other files you care to drag and drop. The Store 'n' Go is plug-and-play for Windows ME or better--Win98SE users, keep that driver CD handy--and is also Mac- and Linux-ready. The built-in USB cable means you never need to search for it, although an extension cable is also included, and at under two ounces this drive is light enough to carry around your neck, with a lanyard and protective carrying pouch supplied for that very purpose.
Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Elysium
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 19, 2014
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to his justly acclaimed District 9 is Elysium, another social commentary set in a strangely relatable future. This time he contrasts the lives of the wealthy against those of the downtrodden, with all of Earth having become a decrepit, overcrowded hellhole. A former criminal (Matt Damon) is trying to stay on the straight and narrow, but when he becomes collateral damage of the rich getting richer, his only hope for survival is to infiltrate that utopian space station of the title.
Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
End-of-Summer Sizzlers: Top Movies on Disc
Chris Chiarella  |  Aug 23, 2024

Once again, the studios have saved some of their very best releases for the warm weather months. Settle in with a cool drink for a wide variety of films—and a couple of soundtracks—both high-profile and under-the-radar, across a range of genres, decades, and even different languages.

Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Enter the Dragon
Chris Chiarella  |  Dec 13, 2013
Picture
Sound
Extras
Interactivity
By 1973, the marital arts genre was nothing new, but Bruce Lee took it to new heights with what would be his final completed film, Enter the Dragon. The movie gave a worldwide theatrical audience a glimpse of his genius as a true star and as an action hero second to none, performing feats that boggle the mind even in today’s jaded milieu of wire-enhanced stunts and computer-generated effects. Lee starred as, well, “Lee,” a gifted Shaolin martial artist recruited by British intelligence to compete in an exclusive tournament staged by the suspected opium lord, Mr. Han.
Continue Reading >
Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Enter the Dragon
Chris Chiarella  |  Oct 20, 2023
Picture
Sound
Extras

Under the guise of an invitation-only tournament for the world’s most elite fighters, the notorious crime lord Han is in fact planning something far more sinister. After some convincing from British intelligence, martial arts master Lee (Bruce Lee) agrees to participate, with the dual agenda of gathering the evidence needed for a government takedown plus revenge upon the man responsible for the death of his sister. A couple of newfound friends share Lee’s opposition to Han, but it will take more than these three to win this fight.

Continue Reading >
Other Source Component Reviews
Escient FireBall DVDM-100 DVD and Music Manager
Chris Chiarella  |  Jul 01, 2004
The latest FireBall aims to give us what we've been missing.

One of the benefits of talking about home theater all day every day is that I get to hear people ask questions like this: "I'd buy a DVD megachanger if there were a way to keep track of my hundreds of discs, but what choice do I have?" Apparently, the spies from Escient were eavesdropping. Their FireBall DVDM-100 DVD and Music Manager has been designed specifically to integrate with the latest generation of super DVD jukeboxes to help identify and organize all of the movies and music stored inside, with a little help from the Internet. You can find a specific DVD in a hurry, sort through all of your comedies, or visually search through all of the covers, right from the sofa.

Continue Reading >
Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Eternals
Chris Chiarella  |  Mar 04, 2022
Picture
Sound
Extras
When you're all-in with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you take the good with the bad, and Jack Kirby's lesser-known 1970s comic book has yielded the latter. With Eternals, we are introduced to a diverse team of never-aging otherworldly protectors, each with a different superpower, who are tasked with defending humanity from some nasty creatures.
Continue Reading >
Out Of The Blu
Évocateur, The Frozen Ground and The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 28, 2013
Mort the Mouth returns to our television screens, Nicolas Cage and John Cusack square off, and the grip of post-9/11 paranoia gets personal.
Continue Reading >
Other Tech
Expand Your Memory
Chris Chiarella  |  Sep 02, 2002  |  Published: Sep 03, 2002
A bigger hard drive, a little time, and you're halfway there. I'm a lucky guy. My wife and I have had only one major squabble since the beginning of the year, and it was about sharing the space on our personal video recorder's rapidly filling hard drive. My problem: I've fallen behind in archiving and deleting my keeper episodes. Hers: She waits too long to watch her recorded Ally McBeal, Buffy, and Friends, and the PVR automatically purges them. Although many possible solutions exist (Ally was cancelled, thankfully), the simplest would be to add a larger hard drive. Compared with the purchase of a newer, higher-capacity PVR, this approach is quite economical, and it's a project that a home theater buff with some electronics/computer expertise can tackle.
Continue Reading >
AV Receiver Reviews
Face Off: Budget Receivers
Chris Chiarella  |  Jan 31, 2001  |  Published: Feb 01, 2001
Budget receivers can make anyone a home theater meister.

I'm a simple man. As I travel this great land of ours, for both business and pleasure, most of my conversations with others sooner or later lead to two topics: movies and their inevitable offshoot, home theater. I rarely discuss the specifics of what I'm packing at Rancho Chiarella; rather, I listen to the wide-eyed yearnings of the hard-working Everyman who dreams of experiencing all that a respectable A/V system can deliver. For so many of the folks I've talked with, an affordable home theater receiver is the key to their wish fulfillment.

Continue Reading >

Pages

X