Efficiency

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just installed Samsung’s new top of the line 64 inch plasma. Looks like it’s a pretty good TV, but the reason I’m writing this is simple: I did it all by myself, fairly easily. This mighty beast, even though the biggest in Samsung’s range, only weighs 36.2 kilograms with the stand attached. They are getting lighter and lighter. I’ve always in the past had to have someone at the other end even for a 60 incher.

Posted in Equipment, Testing | Leave a comment

Canberra ‘Elite’ Cabs

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Here’s a message that I tried to submit to Canberra ‘Elite’ Taxis this evening:

Yet again the web booking system will not work for me. I enter the details, get the confirmation page, press confirm and a new page appears (http://www.canberracabs.com.au/resultShow.php?BookingSummary=1), but no confirmation is provided. If I click on ‘Modify Booking’ it responds that no booking was found. This is both Internet Explorer and Chrome.

Also, why is the booking telephone number nowhere to be found on the website?

And now your system is returning an error message when I try to submit this!!

Uggghh!

Posted in Admin, Rant | Leave a comment

Nicole Kidman, Grace Kelly, hmmm

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

It seems that a movie about the great Grace Kelly is being made. This covers a year in her post-Hollywood life.

It will be interesting to see how it goes. She is being played by Nicole Kidman. I think Kidman is a truly great actress, but she is kind of recognisable. She looks young for her age, but at 46 she’ll be playing a 33 year old. Also a challenge I imagine.

I hope it goes well.

Princess Grace, played by Nicole Kidman

Posted in Cinema | Leave a comment

Momentarily Spooky

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Week before last Samsung did its 2013 TV launch. Included was its 85 inch 4K model, which it’s treating like a super custom install. They’re produced to order, you get free ‘Evolution’ upgrades for a few years and a tech to install it. Price: $40,000. Real Rolls Royce stuff there.

But what’s that ‘Evolution’ thing? Well, since last year, Samsung has offered on some of its TV models ‘Evolution’ upgrades. That is, there’s a section at the back in which a module can be placed that upgrades all the ‘Smart TV’ stuff, including the processor. This year gets quad core, so whack the $299 Evolution upgrade in and you have 90% of this year’s model. The styling is unaltered, but you get the full suite of network stuff with the new layout, the new support for voice commands, and some part of the motion capture control system (the built-in camera on last year’s TV is lower resolution than the new one, so the full performance of the new model can’t be expected).

That’s where things got spooky at the launch.

I was wandering around the various models and exhibits on display, enjoying a beer and snacks courtesy of Samsung, when something very strange caught my eye. It was on one of two 2012 Samsung 55ES8000 TVs (the company’s then top of the line models). The left hand one was as delivered last year, while the right hand one had the Evolution module installed, showing how the TV was now almost the same as the new model.

Here’s the old TV with the upgrade module:

2012 Samsung 55ES8000 with 2013 Evolution module installed

As you can see, this is a clear reorganisation of the old one, shown here:

2012 Samsung 55ES8000 sans Evolution module

So what was spooky? Look at the bottom left of the picture immediately above, last year’s TV. Here it is in detail:

2012 Samsung 55ES8000 sans Evolution module, closeup

Hmmm. I must admit there was a moment of confusion. Strange thoughts fluttered through my mind. Had the TV scanned its environment and somehow found my phone? What was going on?

Fortunately the obvious explanation soon came to me.

This must have been the specific TV I reviewed last year. When you’re using the Smart TV stuff you have to create a user ID which is normally keyed to your email address, as is so often the user ID deployed these days. It seems that the TV had never been reset since that review.

I know, I should have done it myself. But up until now I’ve had a general policy of not resetting TVs. The reason is that some years ago an equipment distributor queried whether or not I had actually reviewed their product. The reason for that was because I pack these things up with considerable care. The stuff I review is worthy of respect. Apparently in this case it was with so much care that they suspected that I’d never taken it from the box.

So I like to leave TVs tuned to the Canberra TV stations as evidence that, yes, I have actually used them. But I may have to do a factory reset henceforth, just in case someone else is able to use my login details to draw on an online media account to which I subscribe.

Posted in Equipment, Firmware, Fun | Leave a comment

Say no more

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

From the marvellous XKCD:

Posted in Fun, Video | Leave a comment

The end of a mini-era

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve been doing a column in The Canberra Times for fifteen years. Today is the last one. The paper is now owned by Fairfax, a company which seems to be trying to tighten its belt, so from now on the content I provided will be sourced from within the wider company.

It’s kind of amusing. I took the opportunity to write a little about the changes in consumer tech over that time. The paper selected for the pull quote the following:

The future will, I’m sure, be interesting. But one thing I have learned this last 15 years is that while I’m good at explaining what is, I am no better than anyone else at guessing what is to come.

And speaking of modern tech, I wrote and posted this from within the waiting room at a dentist where my daughter is being treated.

Posted in Admin, Misc | Leave a comment

M-Disc

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

M-Disc logoI’ve replaced the aging Blu-ray drive in my computer with a shiny new LG one. Amongst other things, this one burns Blu-ray discs rather than merely reading them. And, I see from the LG website, it also supports the new 128GB BDXL format.

But on the front was something I’d never heard of: M-Disc. A little googling around revealed that this is a new write-once recordable DVD technology that involves making actual pits in the recordable material, rather than simply changing the reflectivity of dies. The advantage is longevity. They say that these are good for a thousand years and impervious to UV, light and temperature (within reason I imagine). They are 4.7GB capacity.

It seems that you need a special drive to burn them, but once burnt they are compatible with all DVD drives.

Wikipedia says that a Blu-ray version is on the way.

I see that the M-Disc people are selling blank discs from their website. Surprisingly, and pleasingly, they are not insanely expensive: $30 for a pack of ten. Pretty good value if they really are good for a thousand years.

Posted in Blu-ray, DVD | Leave a comment

Ho Chi Cruise

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Strange habits that I have, last night I was watching the very fair and even-handed 1969 documentary short 79 Primaveraseras. The title translates to ‘79 Springs’ or perhaps ‘79 Seasons’, and concerns the life of Ho Chi Minh, former North Vietnam head honcho who had then recently died. I know it was very fair and even-handed because it is a documentary, and documentaries are always fair and even-handed, and even more so because it was made by noted the filmmaker Santiago Álvarez, who was in good standing indeed in Cuba.

What particularly caught my eye, though, was this: what was Tom Cruise doing at Ho Chi Minh’s funeral?

Tom Cruise at Ho Chi Minh's funeral?

Tom Cruise at Ho Chi Minh's funeral?

Posted in Fun | Leave a comment

It ain’t all that hard

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Shock Entertainment has sent me a number of concert Blu-ray discs that it distributes here, mostly from Eagle Entertainment. One I’m presently gathering tech info on is ‘Supertramp: Live in Paris 1979′.

Great sound: 24 bit, 96kHz in two channel LPCM or 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio, 126 minutes of great stuff.

But when you get to the end of the main title — which is properly presented at precisely 24 frames per second, rather than the more common Americanised 23.976fps — there’s an FBI warning against piracy. This, irritatingly, is presented at 1080i60. My projector takes about ten seconds to resynch to a different frame rate. I get the impression there’s something in the 21 second title that contains the FBI warning, but I miss it because of the resync.

Would it be too hard for Blu-ray producers to put content like this at the same frame rate as everything else?

Posted in Blu-ray, Music | Leave a comment

Digital radio for the sticks?

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Commercial Radio Australia is today launching a ‘national information campaign’ with advertising on 200 regional Australian stations to get people to pushing for the roll out of digital radio in the country areas. Sounds like a good idea to me. There’s a website to go with it: www.wewantdigitalradio.com.au.

I’ve just gone there and signed the petition, which also generates a form email addressed to your local MP, which I sent.

Of course, even though Canberra is regional, we are getting much of the digital radio service. But much is not all, it is only on a trial basis, and it is still quite low powered (3kW) with no provision for retransmission or repeaters. So rolling out fully to regional areas ought to mean better, richer digital radio in Canberra as well.

Because the fact is, it sounds so much better than AM and even FM radio it’s not funny.

BTW, it seems that Universal is launching the Blu-ray version of The Birds as a standalone (previously it has been part of a Hitchcock collection). I’ve got a test pressing here to giveaway. No box, no label, Australian postal address only. First to ask in comments.

Posted in Digital Radio | 2 Comments