TAPPTOONS NEWS

 

21st September 2007

THE TAPPTOONS ANIMATION STUDIO IS NOW FREE OF CHARGE!

**From this week anyone will be able to use the full edition of the Tapptoons Animation Studio absolutely free of charge. I will still be working on improving the programme where I can and hope that perhaps users will feel generous enough, if they think the programme is worth it, to make a donation via Paypal. Any feedback about the programme via e-mail is always welcome and I`ll try to help solve any problems users might be having with it.

 VINTAGE POPEYE ON DVD

At last it looks as if the old Fleischer Popeye cartoons from the 1930s are about to be released on DVD in a box set, albeit at present only for Region 1 viewers. To read the full article from the DVD Times website CLICK HERE

Here`s a handy page for hacks to convert DVD players/recorders to multi-region CLICK HERE

*UPDATE TO THIS ITEM:

The Fleischer Popeye colour featurettes and some of the black and white short films are evidently now in the public domain and can be freely downloaded in NTSC format as Mpeg1, 2 or 4 files from the website below:

Downloads of public domain Popeye cartoon films

Use the search facility, type in "Popeye" and select to search in the moving image section.

There are also quite a few DVDs on ebay offering the public domain titles very cheaply.

 

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**As expected, the introduction of Microsoft`s latest operating system is going to cost you more than just the Windows software itself. ISP Orange have just e-mailed their broadband subscribers to tell them that there might well be a problem with using Windows Vista and the USB modems Orange supply to their customers (and, inevitably I expect, modems supplied by other ISPs and manufacturers). You might have thought that some co-ordination between manufacturers of these devices and Microsoft might have avoided things like this but then they wouldn`t be able to sell you the devices all over again would they?

 

**You might be thinking of buying a DVD player (if you are one of the few who still don`t have one). Before you do, keep this in mind: DVD PLAYERS ARE ALWAYS MOVING ON! Some of the latest players can not only play standard DVDs, VCDs and SVCDs using MPEG1, MPEG2 and MP3 sound but can also read discs coded using MPEG4 and it`s various flavours such as DivX and Xvid.

Philips have a DVD recorder that can also playback DivX files and so have LG with their 175 model. I`ve seen the LG model selling for just under £80 at Tesco, around £100 at Comet. The Philips machine is priced around £130. The LG also plays WMA music files.

 

**There`s a boom in sales of LCD and Plasma tv displays at all the electrical retailers at present. Dixons are coining it in at their Currys and PC World stores. The big buzz words are "HDTV READY" and a sticker saying so on every LCD and Plasma set in the shop. Only one little problem, of course. When I was in Currys the other day only THREE of the many sets in view could actually display an image that was 1080 lines in depth. Most could only go up to 768 pixels/lines in depth. Some could only go to 720 and one was claimed to have a maximum pixel depth of 480 (Strangely, that particular set was showing a rather good quality picture for such a meagre pixel count, so perhaps the label is wrong).

"So what?" I hear you mutter. Well, if my information is correct, the HDTV standard being used in the U.K. by Sky TV is 1080 lines vertical definition. INTERLACED. The international standards body has allowed the electrical manufacturers to label a set as "HDTV READY" if it can display a minimum of 720 lines deep. (The alternative HDTV broadcast standard is 720 pixels PROGRESSIVE SCAN, but who is using it? The Sky HD Digibox can receive both standards but most of the sets available at reasonable price can`t display 1080 line tv)

So, if you buy one of these 720/768 sets the image will be downsized and converted to display on your inadequate tv display. Little or no benefit to you or anyone else except the retailers who will be at home counting their profits, having misled the public YET AGAIN. Remember all the items that were advertised as DIGITAL when the only thing that was digital about them was a LCD readout (like analogue radios with a LCD frequency indicator). The retail industry love their buzz words. First it was ALL TRANSISTOR then we got IC and DIGITAL IC printed on all the boxes whether relevant to the products performance or not.

A lot of people will be confused by this and the Trading Standards people ought to do something about it.

 

** I`ve just read something rather puzzling in Computer Shopper magazine`s Newsfile. According to them Microsoft is going to discontinue "support" for Windows XP as soon as they release the new Windows Vista operating system at the end of 2006. Which suggests that anybody buying a new computer today will only get support until the end of the year! I wonder if the Office of Fair Trading knows about this. If you buy a computer today you automatically will have at least one year`s guarantee, but evidently any faults with the operating system (and Windows always has plenty of things that need patching) won`t be fixed for you after a few months. Unless, of course, you make Bill Gates even wealthier by purchasing an upgrade to Vista.

Ever feel you`ve been here before? Remember the introduction of XP when you suddenly found that the parallel port scanner you were so use to using and which was in fine working condition still, couldn`t be used with Windows XP? And that trusty old video capture card that was also now redundant? Or that Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4 programme that cost you a packet only a year before? The manufacturers all had a simple answer: buy their new products that are designed for Windows XP!

What mugs we are! Why does Windows XP Home still cost so much? You never see any real price competition when it comes to Windows, do you?

 

 

 

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