As of today (4 March, 2010) you can purchase this DVD from this site.
Please order one for your Pastor!
I have to tell you that the DVD's came out...better than we ever could have dreamed. The menus, the packaging, the bonus features, etc. Stunning. I hate to "blow our own horn" but you won't regret this purchase.
Jeff, I have no doubt that it is fabulous. I just ordered my copy and will urge my schola members to buy it as well. And I'll probably buy some as gifts for priest friends.
I think the Bill Mahrt lecture *alone* is worth the price of admission.
Again, not to "blow our own horn here," but I think that if people started to buy these DVD's and give them to their parish priests, I think we'd start to see a major difference. Am I wrong?
I just got my copy today. I haven't had a chance to watch the interview with Dr. Mahrt yet, but since not everyone in my schola was able to watch this online, I was thinking of having a viewing party (after Easter, of course!)
I did watch the opening credits. Seeing the sunrise over Lake Michigan with Kevin Allen's "Tantum ergo" being sung in the background always gives me goose bumps (especially because I was lucky enough to be in the group singing it!).
Congratulations, Jeff, on the beautiful Colloquium video!
Here's a little technical note for viewers with old-fashioned television sets like mine:
The first time I played the DVD, my TV set started to display the 16x9 images in 4x3 format, squeezed horizontally, without "letterboxing". For a moment I wondered if there had been some terrible mistake! That happened because my newish player assumed it was working with a modern TV in 16x9 format.
After I found the proper setting in my player's menus and changed it, the player correctly "letterboxed" the video (centered it on-screen, with black space above and below) and used the proper proportions. So it looks just fine now.
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thanks, Chonak ---- yes, this is something I learned about ---- the fact that different TV's play things differently ----- 4/3 is so different from 16:9, but the TV companies seem not to care --- I think everything will eventually be in 16:9 ----- if you watch certain TV shows (like Forensic Files) you will notice that they constantly switch back and forth between 16:9 and 4/3 ----- it's very interesting ----- the newer shots are always in 16:9 ----- I don't pretend to understand any of this, but I can tell you we chose to stick to the "standard" output, which should play perfectly well on any TV ---- and I spent hours and hours trying it on numerous televisions ---- it actually works the best on our old television (5 years old) which IS a 4/3 ---- again, I don't pretend to understand any of this
by the way, Chonak, I've seen that setting --- the one that "squeezes" everything to fit --- it is a very weird setting --- I'm surprised they even have it at all, but all the new TV's do have that setting as an option
Even some TV organizations don't get it yet: our local diocesan cable channel produces their shows in 4:3 but streams them online in 16:9, which makes the video stretch horizontally, so that everyone's face looks unnaturally wide. They don't seem to know the difference.
But I assume EWTN (which broadcasts in 4:3 format) can "letterbox" the Colloquium video when it airs the program, whenever that eventually happens, so that the 16:9 proportion will be preserved.
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