Product: Yoostar Entertainment System, for PC only
Features: The software and equipment lets users insert themselves into short movie clips -- such as "Forrest Gump," "The Godfather" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" -- with the original actor removed from the scene. Includes a Web cam, portable green screen and stand, remote control and software that includes 14 movie scenes. Users can purchase and download additional scenes at Yoostar.com.
Price: $169.95; extra scenes cost $2.99
Ups: It's really simple to setup and start recording. The script appears on the screen, and the software shows you where to position your head and camera so it matches well with the scene.
Downs: Green screens are very sensitive to shadows. If the lighting isn't perfect in the room, you'll get a green hue around you or any shadow -- and fussing with lighting can get aggravating. Plus I had trouble making my skin tone look correct. I needed to stick a white piece of paper in my shot to get the correct color. There's no way to control the camera's auto white balance settings manually.
It feels like a rip off when they charge $2.99 for some scenes that only last 20 seconds. New scenes are added over time, but I'm not very impressed with the selection -- and the best movies don't have many interesting clips to play with.
I tested a beta version and downloaded updates, but I found it to be lagging and glitchy now and again, and sometimes I had to rerecord some scenes. I also had problems downloading scenes. I would pay for scenes and some would never download.
But the biggest downer of all is that you can't save these clips to your computer. All you can do is upload them to Yoostar.com.
Bottom line: I can see this as being fun for kids, but for me the novelty wore off pretty quickly.
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