I was recently looking for a way to enjoy Divx-encoded videos on my Zune — you know for road trips and such. Apparently some work has been done in this field, yet I have had little success in duplicating the effort.

The folks over at Techmixer.com have suggested the following steps:

1. Copy and paste the following lines into a text edit program and save it under .reg extension.

   Windows Registry Editor Version5.00
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\Zune\Extensions\.avi]
   “Extension.Handler”=”Microsoft.Zune.1.AVI””MediaType.Description”=”Video Clip”
   “MediaType.Icon”=”C:\\Program Files\\Zune\\ZuneLoc.dll,-736?”Extension.MIME”=”video/avi””AlreadyRegistered”=”no”
   “Runtime”=dword:00000007?PerceivedType”=”video”
   “Permissions”=dword:0000000f
   “UserApprovedOwning”=”no”
   @=””

2. Double-click the newly .reg file and the register information will be added to your registry.
3. Restart Computer
4. After restart, you start dragging your divx movies using Zune software into your zune player. The files will synced with Zune devices and force the zune software to convert the files.

You may have to locate a file called “zuneloc.dll” for this to work too…

It is important to note that your mileage may vary with this and to proceed at your own risk. You will be mucking around in the registry, which can do serious harm to your computer. And, I’ve not tried this out yet, so be warned… I am just passing along what information I have found so far.

If you haven’t seen this yet, you owe it to yourself to watch Neil Patrick “Doogie” Harris, Nathan “Captain Mal” Fillion, and Felicia “Felicia” Day sing in Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.

After a busy weekend or partying, house-cleaning, and hosting, Brandy and I went to relax at the theaters. We obviously went to see “Get Smart” according to the title of this post. Here is a brief synopsis:

Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is a CONTROL Analyst who dreams to be a field-agent, working alongside his favorite agent, Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). CONTROL is then infilitrated by KAOS and compromises the identities of all current field-agents. So the chief (Alan Arkin) promotes Smart to the field as Agent 86 and teams him with the beautiful and deadly Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). It is up to Agents 86 and 99 to thwart KAOS and save the world from certain destruction.

Ok, so there’s the premise of the movie. Since it is based off the comic screwball TV series, I was expecting a series of goofball sight gags and a Maxwell Smart that was equal parts Michael Scott (The Office) and Evan Baxter (Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Carell play Maxwell Smart as the straight man and not the incompetent boob. Not to say he wasn’t funny, which he was.

I would say overall that Get Smart was a good summer comedy, but definitely not one for the ages. The throwbacks to the original series were quaint and obviously treated with a respectful nostalgia. I don’t think this is one of Carell’s best performances, because it didn’t require him to stretch himself. It was safe, but sufficient. Anne Hathaway brought an elegance to the film as a fashionable, yet strong agent. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has certainly come a long way from “The Scorpion King” in this flick. It’s really hard to not like any of these characters. But, my favorite actor in this film has to be Alan Arkin. He steals pretty much every scene he is in. And let’s just mention this… the cameos were great… with the exception of Bill Murray’s odd casting choice. I’m still scratching my head over that one.

All in all, Get Smart is good summer comedy. It will not be the best film of the year, nor will it make it to your top 10 comedies of all time. What it is, though, is satisfying film… just don’t expect the sun, moon, and stars. 7/10

If you couldn’t tell from the title of this post, I was a little less than pleased with my time spent with the latest, and hopefully last, installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise. I knew going in that I should keep my expectations low, because let’s face it — George Lucas hasn’t had a great track record when it comes to bringing back beloved movie franchises from my childhood. Wow — I had no idea what to expect, but what I got wasn’t it.

First off, some positive notes. It was great to see Harrison Ford back in action wielding the legendary whip and donning the infamous fedora. He definitely not the action star he used to be, but I wasn’t expecting him to be either. Shia LeBeouf handled his character as well as he could have. Both actors did quite well, provided the schlock they were given. The musical score was a total throwback to the original series - great! Spielberg can create some amazingly beautiful shots. The ant sequence was entertaining as well.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to the meat of the matter. I figure I’ll present my complaints in a bulleted format.

• The script was just pitiful. It was said the powers that be were waiting for the perfect script to come along — I’m wondering why they stopped waiting. Since when did Indiana Jones become a sci-fi character? As my friend Christian mentioned, the plot seemed to fit around action-sequences as opposed to the action fitting around the plot. Moving along…
• Did we need the gratuitous crotch-shot, and I use this word loosely, joke?
• I was not aware that George of the Jungle was a part of the Indiana Jones mythos.
• Gophers? Monkeys? Aliens? Really?
• I wasn’t aware that Cate Blanchett’s character was supposed to be psychic until well after the movie was over.
• Many of the action sequences left me bored. There were several times I found myself just staring at the screen wondering why I wasn’t more involved with the story. There was little to draw me into the film and make me really truly care about the adventure that was being spoon-fed to the audience.

This was another reason to dislike George Lucas, or at least what he has become. Without his vision, we wouldn’t have such fond childhood memories, but did he really have to come back and spit on these memories? The acting was decent, the visuals were appealing, the score was exciting, the story was terrible, the dialog was bland. Would I recommend seeing the movie? Yes, but in the comfort of your own home. That way, you won’t feel bad when you want to turn it off and go do something else.

This is from FunnyOrDie.com. A great parody of the Pc/Mac Apple commericals starring Iron Man and Batman. The video is embedded after the jump.

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After a busy weekend spent with family and friends celebrating the impending birth of Baby Pate, Brandy and I went out for a date night to the movies. We had our choices between Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Iron Man. We went with “Iron Man.”

Needless to say, the hype machine has been in full gear for this flick for quite some time. There is a theory that I believe in regarding movies, games, tv shows, and books that goes like this:

“The more advertising you experience for the given[movie, game, tv show, book], the less likely you are to enjoy it.”

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From HighDefDigest.com:

Universal Breaks Silence on HD DVD Playback Issues; Announces Disc Replacement Program | High-Def Digest

“Universal is currently investigating reports that Children of Men, The Good Shepherd, and select other discs not playing properly in some HD DVD players. While we believe this is limited to a small number of HD DVD discs, Universal is offering a replacement service for any customers who are experiencing this problem. We are still investigating the cause and will provide further updates as we get them. Any customer problems should be directed to USHE.ConsumerRelations@worldmarkinc.com.”

EnGadget reports that Wal-Mart is getting into the High Definitive market with a $299 HD-DVD player. We’ll have to see the quality of the Chinese made units will be, but this could be a huge hit.

The Wal-Mart $299 HD DVD player on the way - Engadget HD

If you ever found yourself wondering if you’d like the next Nicholas Cage movie hitting the theaters, here’s a handy guide over at TheJay.com that will help you make your decision.

Some of my favorites include:

• If Nic’s hair is longer than four inches, you are watching a bad Nicolas Cage movie.
• If his role requires him to have any muscle tone, for whatever reason, press stop on the DVD player and go watch some Family Guy reruns, because you’re watching a shitty Nicolas Cage movie.

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