My Wish List

This is mostly so I can keep track of the things I want. Is this a good thing? One could argue that if I forget about it, I don’t really need it, and so I should let things fall off my list by falling out of the forefront of my thoughts.

Well, that’s great, but I’m going to put things on this list that I keep coming back to wishing I’d already obtained, because I could really use it right now. That sorta thing.

Except the movies section. In there, I plan to list movies that I’d really like to own. That’s the sort of thing that one can forget without much disappointment later, but then I’d be missing out either by never having seen a particular movie or by not being able to go back and watch it again -- or even introduce someone new to it!

Gosh, I’m just so thoughtful, ain’t I?

Misc

(Perhaps these items might make good gifts... :)

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Movies

My preferred formats are Laserdisc and DVD; magnetic tapes (video casettes) wear out relatively quickly.

For some time, I was not convinced that there’s a real advantage to DVDs, other than the smaller (easer-to-handle) physical form factor.

Since then, I have discovered one definite advantage to DVDs: on a wide-screen television monitor, you can get higher resolution using an anamorphic transfer. That way, you can then just stretch the image horizontally to fill the screen. With the "letterbox" technique used on laserdiscs (and some DVDs), you have to zoom in on the image, losing vertical lines of resolution. Of course, this technique could be used just as effectively on laserdiscs, but it isn’t.

On the other hand, there are some really bad DVD pressings out there, replete with MPEG artifacts that severely detract from the movie. Of course, there are also superb DVD transfers.

I also should pick up these DVD box sets of really decent television shows, recently released:

I’ve also been told I should see these movies, but they sound more like rentals than movies to own. Still, I don’t have a better place to put this list, so here they are:

Books

I guess this is similar to the movies section. I might not necessarily remember all the books I’ve come across that I might want, and it’d be a shame to miss out.

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Photography

And Amazon thinks I’d also like My Wife, by Petter Hegre (ISBN: 3908163285) and Michel Comte : Kontraste/Contrasts Portfolio, by Michel Comte (ISBN: 3570191656).