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Home > Retroist Podcast > Add Intros and Trailers for a more Cinematic Home Movie Experience
Podcast: Retroist Podcast
Episode:

Add Intros and Trailers for a more Cinematic Home Movie Experience
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2024-11-20 11:00:45
Description:

Last year I wrote about the album, HBO: Music Made for Television. I had been searching for the album for a while, and when I finally found a copy posted online I was thrilled. The music on the album, which contained music from HBO bumpers and programming in the mid 1980s was the soundtrack for home my movie watching experience growing up.

A few years ago, I found a movie on YouTube that had been recorded off of HBO that still had the original HBO movie intro. The one where the camera zooms across a cityscape before launching into space to encounter and enter the HBO starship. It brought memories flooding back. Especially those of hearing the intro and trying to get my snacks ready before the film started.

At this point, I realized that this is something I would enjoy having at the start of all my home movie watching. But I didn’t want to jump between videos or make a playlist every time I planned on watching a movie. Lucky for me, I discovered a feature in my Plex Media Center that lets you choose what sort of pre-roll you would like to run before you play a movie.

I went to YouTube and found the best quality version of the intro and downloaded a copy using yt-dlp. I put it in my media center (Plex), changed my setting to also include the playing of a trailer, and hit save. Now whenever I want to watch a film, I get to see a great trailer reminding me of another movie I have in my collection, and then get transported back to the 80s with the HBO intro.

You could of course include whatever you want as pre-roll. If you are skilled enough, you could even make your own videos and brand your home movie experience as your see fit. This might seem like a minor thing, but every time I hear that music start, I rush over to the couch with the same anticipation I had as a kid. I love it.

(If you have retro finds you would like for me to share, I want to hear them. What old useful website are still lurking on the web? Some old TV show streaming online? Old tech being brought back? Let me know.)

ONE COOL VIDEO

The HBO Space/Starship intro was groundbreaking and extremely popular at the time. To toot its own horn, HBO released a Behind the Scenes making of the segment in 1983. I remember watching, and even recording and re-watching this when I was a kid. I was fascinated by the craft and creativity that went into making it. Even after all these years, I find it enjoyable to watch.

TEN THINGS RETRO
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