Lost

[Crisp_Rapper]

We still have absolutely no idea what the "monster" is as such, after 2 1/2 seasons.

the black smoke thing that busts trees and eats people? i came in here to ask about that.

[ascender]

That's part of the problem they now face though, there's so many story arcs and characters to serve, that time will start to move slower than ever if they are going to fill us in on even half of the storylines. Of course, its not a problem if you want the show to run and run, but I think it does mean that answers to much of the mysteries are a long way off for us.

Apart from the original characters, you've got the others, the "new" original characters who appeared from nowhere and also the few characters in the real world who were waiting for the shockwave thing to go off so they could try and find the island. Add all those in and you're looking at a good few years of programmes!

I have to say, I enjoyed the Desmond flashback episode. I've been largely critical of the flashbacks, but this one worked for me. Maybe its because the character is just more interesting than some of the others. But as i said earlier, Desmond's ability opens up a whole new story arc which has the potential to be huge.

So would people prefer to have some closure on certain things before the show moves on, or just hope that everything will be answered at some point in the future? Its a lot of faith to have in the producers as there must be hundreds of unanswered questions already.

[Jebus]

Kotatsu, don't you find the quality loss a little too much to bear with winAVI? I had problems with it myself, artefacts etc. Might try again though.

I have a Vista PC, it didn't work with XP and it doesn't work with Vista for me, even the latest transcode 360 version doesn't work for me

It just says exception blahblah, cannot transcode this file.

Ascender, god yes I'd prefer some closure. They made a big deal of the numbers last season and now they've chosen to forget them to introduce yet more story arcs to an already convoluted plot.

[Kotatsu Neko]

There is a little quality loss sometimes with WinAVI, but it's rare and 720p encodes look fine on my HDTV through the 360. Better than fine, they look rather nice and a lot better than regular DVDs or broadcast TV. I'm sure Lost would look even better in 1080i on SKY HD, but I refuse to give any money to Rupert Murdoch.

I set the quality to 100% and use WMV9 encoding if memory serves.

[Jebus]

Sorry to continue derailing the thread slightly but have you got a link to the codec that lets winAVI convert it? I can watch x264 on my pc but winAVI won't convert it...PM if you want, ta! I thought it was best to use WMV8, but I'll try 9.

For the record I have SkyHD, I've not watched Lost or 24 (I can't wait a week for a new episode etc and prefer to watch at my leisure). It IS good, but nowhere near the quality of HD-DVDs even at 720p I watch them at.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Someone on here told me what to install, but I have no idea who it was now. I think it might have been one of those codec packs you can get from free-codecs.com. You could try looking for one which handles H.264/MKV/AC3 type stuff I guess.

[figflair]

Can I ask what episode we are up to this week and where is the best place to download episodes from? I watched the first 6 episodes but missed a few weeks and I'm not sure where it is up to?

[MonkeyWrench]

It's up to episode 7 and you'll just have to find somewhere to download it yourself, as we can't post links or anything here.

[Pavey]

8 - Flashes Before The Eyes.

[Spatial]

Just watched it on Sky - a crazy episode and a few things have left me puzzled.

Why is Jim Robinson from Neighbours playing Penny's dad all of a sudden? One thing Lost has been good at until now is keep even the bit players exactly the same.

So Desmond is having

->Open Spoiler<-

premonitions that relate to Charlie - I get that. But if that's the case how did he know about Locke's speech? That had nothing to do with Charlie.

Unless he literally knows everything that will happen from this point on - which again doesn't make sense as he went back in time and not forward?

Gargh!

[C']

Jim Robinson played Penny's dad in series 2.

[Spatial]

Did he? I thought it was some old(er) fat(er) bloke? Never mind then, that's one mystery solved

[C']

I really enjoted that last episode (especially the part with the woman in the jewelry store).

Felt very Matrixy though.

I get the impression the black smoke was involved in Desmond going back in time.

[Concept]

The sound of the black smoke can be briefly heard as he wakes up. They've left it open (as they always do on Lost) to leave doubt whether he's been infected or manipulated by the Black Smoke (the woman could quite easily have been it in his dream considering it has the ability to appear as people to the characters in their sub-consciousness), or if he's really experienced flashes of the future and the past.

Until the latest episode I would have put money on Desmond being the black smoke, considering it can appear as people.

[D J Kix]

->Open Spoiler<-

Going back to a past character, I reckon Libby was also one of the manipulated, like the jewellery store woman - It would explain why she just gave Desmond the boat so that he could crash on the island & save the world, etc.