Carl Sagan's parallel perspectives

[Rokcet Scientist]

It may have been 30 years ago, but Carl Sagan offered an inspiring insight into the brilliance of our ancestors, and the regrettable mechanics of their societies, with an astonishing number of parallels to today for observant watchers.

And the application of 'virtual reality', chromakey, and CGI, a quarter century before it came to Joe Blow's PC, was very effective too.

But don't blow the image up to full screen size, because it unfortunately hasn't got enough resolution for that and will become unbearably fuzzy... Well, Sagan's message is aural for 98% anyway.

http://www.vimeo.com/15107421

[dannan14]

But don't blow the image up to full screen size, because it unfortunately hasn't got enough resolution for that and will become unbearably fuzzy... Well, Sagan's message is aural for 98% anyway.

http://www.vimeo.com/15107421

i think you just have a weak video card RS. Either that or you have an obscenely large monitor. Anyway, was this from his series "Cosmos"? i used to watch that with my parents on PBS every week. Fantastic show. i don't think i ever saw this one though. The Great Library truly was a devastating loss. Cyril and the Church burning it to the ground may very well have been a larger part of the onset of the Dark Ages than the collapse of Rome itself.

[Rokcet Scientist]

i think you just have a weak video card RS.

No, dannan. This was recorded 30 years ago. The highest (TV/CRT) resolution at the time was VGA = 640×480. If you 'spread' that resolution across a screen that's capable of, say, 1920x900, it gets very fuzzy. Even today's greatest video card can't make a 640×480 resolution look sharp on today's 13" screens or bigger. A pixel is a pixel.

The Great Library truly was a devastating loss. Cyril and the Church burning it to the ground may very well have been a larger part of the onset of the Dark Ages than the collapse of Rome itself.

Indeed, the destruction of Alexandria's library was a major factor to cause the onset of the dark ages. Dark Ages that, imo, became inevitable by Scipio's utter destruction of Carthage and its global navigation knowledge.

[Minimalist]

Ave! Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Numantinus!

The man who ended the Carthaginian curse on the West.

[dannan14]

i think you just have a weak video card RS.

No, dannan. This was recorded 30 years ago. The highest (TV/CRT) resolution at the time was VGA = 640×480. If you 'spread' that resolution across a screen that's capable of, say, 1920x900, it gets very fuzzy. Even today's greatest video card can't make a 640×480 resolution look sharp on today's 13" screens or bigger. A pixel is a pixel.

RS, i wrote that AFTER watching the video on my 23" widescreen. The difference in clarity between fullscreen and the embedded video was barely discernible. And no, it was not recorded at 640x480 it was recorded in analog, which is why a decent gfx card and monitor can still play it well.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Got to admit I watched it on last year's MacBook Pro at 1920x1200.

Apparently

is not enough.

[dannan14]

dunno, *shrug* maybe your eyes? Worked great for me. My specs are just a little above that