Here are two screen photos of some cover art. Same TV. Same graphic embedded in the same MP3 file streamed via DLNA from the same Android phone. The only difference was which DLNA client device was producing the on-screen display:
You’ll have to read the next issue of Sound+Image to find out which clients produced which image.
Just a quick note on cheap HDMI cables. I’ve previously ranted about the unfortunate fact of expensive HDMI cables being sold in consumer shops, the outlandish claims so often made for them.
A while back I purchased from The Cable Connection a bunch of cables, including a ten metre HDMI one plus a 5 metre one plus some shorter ones. The cost of the ten metre one? Just $49.95 (one of my other ten metre cables retails for about $700!).
As it happens I for the moment have a full 4K system — UHD TV
, Oppo Blu-ray player with 4K upscaling and home theatre receiver with 4K passthrough and upscaling. Which makes for an opportunity to test out the cables. 4K worked fine via 2 metre from Oppo to the receiver and thence via 5 metre cable to the Sony 4K TV. The signal was 24p.
All cables were low cost ones from TCC. I switched to a ten metre TCC cable from receiver to TV. Still perfect performance. The Oppo wouldn’t upscale 1080i60 to 4K at 30p
, which is the highest bandwidth signal the TV is capable of accepting. But the receiver could, so I put on a 1080i60 Blu-ray disc and had the receiver upscale it. Still perfect performance at 4K and 30p.
Don’t get ripped off on your HDMI cables.
Here’s a little video I did a couple of months ago on Apple’s Podcast app , and how poorly it performs. Speaking of poor performance, mine is pretty clunky. But I did it the easy way , using a smart phone and uploading it from there with no editing. (And no script
, or even planning. Duh!) Then I couldn’t find it. It turns out that it is set to ‘Private’ by default when you do it the way I did.
Anyway, here it is:
I’ve just started doing a review of the new Panasonic premium Blu-ray player
, the DMP-DBT330. $299. Interesting inclusion in the accessories (I confirmed that it’s listed in the manual as part of the official accessories): a HDMI cable. Nothing fancy, but who cares.
That means that anyone who buys this player isn’t stuck for another $50 for a ridiculously overpriced HDMI cable which is all that’s normally on offer in the chain consumer electronics retailers.
Well done Panasonic.
A while back I expressed hope that with After Earth M. Night Shyamalan might be on the comeback trail.
No such luck. When I checked IMDB a couple of days ago it was 5.8 I think
, on about 1,500 votes
, which is mediocre. As I write now it is 5.1 on about 2,600 votes, and seemingly headed into horror land.
Oh well.
Modern technology, powered by Gracenote, makes things easy. Oppo BDP-103AU Blu-ray player is the source
, and it presents the data derived from Gracenote. (TV is Samsung’s great 64 inch plasma).
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.
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!
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.
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:
As you can see, this is a clear reorganisation of the old one, shown here:
So what was spooky? Look at the bottom left of the picture immediately above
, last year’s TV. Here it is in detail:
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.
