Tag Archive for 'HD'

Xbox 360 Super Epic Elite Pro Core 250GB Monster Special Limited Edition Video Games Console with Free Bonus Special Edition Forza 3 Game and Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City. Oh, and it’s black.

Published on 8 November, 2009. Closed Tags: 360, Console, Entertainment, Games, HD, Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360.

Okay, maybe the title was a tad long, but hey, it works.

So, yesterday, I went to Game in town and picked up the Xbox 360 Elite Forza 3 bundle (which has 2 controllers, a 250GB HDD, and of course, Forza 3), as well as GTAIV: Episodes from Liberty City (which is a standalone game, with the two GTAIV expansion packs). I’ve previously owned two Xbox 360s – the first one was in Australia, which I had to sell (it RRoD’d), and the second one was here in the UK – which I liked, but it was somewhat noisy, and I didn’t really play all that many games on it back then. Anyway, the 360 has since had a revamp (NXE), and now has a lot more titles which I’m interested in playing, so I decided to buy one again – however, the main factor that made me buy it was Forza 3 and the GTAIV expansion packs.

So, I now own one.

Except, a problem. Due to cost cutting by Microsoft, the component AV cable is no longer included (why not, MS?), and instead, there’s a cheap-o composite cable (the one with a single yellow RCA jack for video), and that’s it. Which is somewhat of a problem, because I want to hook it up to my projector. I could use HDMI (which I will eventually), but the projector doesn’t have anything to do with the audio, so it’s just ignored – and for some stupid reason, the composite cable that’s included with the 360 is too large, and blocks the HDMI port. So right now, I have two choices:

Use HDMI to my projector, and have no audio. The upside is it’ll be HD, but the downside is, I won’t be able to hear anything.
Use composite video to my projector, and use the stereo RCA jacks for audio (I’m using my PC as an amplifier at the moment but in the near future I’ll be getting an AV Receiver for switching the 360, Sky+HD box, and PC, into the projector’s one HDMI jack). The downside for this is that it’s horrible SD video, but the upside is, I can hear everything.

So of course, for now, I’m sticking to SD video. I’ve ordered one of those HDMI breakout cables for optical audio off eBay, which should arrive soon. Once it’s here, I can use the HDMI port for HD video, and the RCA or optical jacks from the cable for audio. Perfect.

Finally, the gamertag I signed up for is WilliamTM UK. The reason for this is simple. I’ve sort-of adopted the nickname “WilliamTM” around the web, so I’ve decided to use it on the 360. The only downside is that my original account that I created in Australia is WilliamTM – and Microsoft won’t allow you to change the account’s country (which you need to do in order to use a UK credit card). So, I’ve now got WilliamTM UK, which is my UK gamertag which I’m now using.

One day, I might try to change the old gamertag to something else, and then change my UK one to WilliamTM, but I’m not doing it yet, for two reasons. One, it would cost about £14 worth of MS points to do so, and two, I’m not sure if it’s possible to change your gamertag to a previously used one. If I can confirm that with MS, I might do it, but until then I’m not going to do so.

So anyway, that’s enough about that. Again, if you want to add me, please do.

Oh and finally, if you’re wondering, no, I’m not selling my PS3. And yes, I did swap my bedroom TV for the Xbox 360 – I really didn’t use the TV for all that much other then some SDTV off Sky, so I’m not really going to miss it that much.

Windows XP? DVB-T? I have a solution!

Published on 30 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: Computers, DVBT, DVBT2, Freeview, Harsh, HD, Operating System, OS, OTA, Over the Air, Television, TV, Windows, XP.

Windows XP, and DVB-T. Two things that have been hanging around for a bit too long.

So, first up, Windows XP. Microsoft have been trying to get consumers and businesses to switch to Windows Vista and Windows 7, but they’ve been unable to get people to fully switch over. So, here’s an idea. Roll out a critical update that displays advertising and banners all over the operating system that pretty much says “Get Windows 7 now”, and then just completely drop support for the OS entirely. Don’t issue any patches, don’t offer support, just forget about it. Oh, and while that’s happening, do the same with Internet Explorer 6. And IE7 too, while we’re at it.

Next up, DVB-T. The UK uses DVB-T for the whole Freeview system (free-to-air digital TV), and has done since it was invented. The problem is, DVB-T is MPEG2, and it’s not very efficient. While DVB-T can cope with MPEG2 HDTV (Australia, for example, broadcasts SD and 720p/1080i HD channels over DVB-T), it only works when you have a small amount of channels, due to limited bandwidth. In this case (as far as I know), Australia only has about 15 channels in total, five of which are HD. The UK, on the other hand, has about 60 or so SD channels, all of which use DVB-T / MPEG2 – hence why there aren’t any HD channels available yet, because there’s no room.

However, the plan for launching over-the-air HDTV in the UK is to switch over to DVB-T2, which uses MPEG4 – meaning that, eventually, all the SD and HD channels can be broadcast using this system, and they’ll all be able to fit, as there’s plenty of bandwidth. The problem is this:

6A.2 However, viewers would need to buy new receiving equipment to access any services using the new standards. With 25m DTT set-top boxes or integrated digital televisions already installed, there needs to be a compelling consumer proposition to drive take-up of the new equipment – and migration of the platform over time to the more efficient standards.

Source: Five’s Response to Ofcom’s Second Invitation to Apply for DTT Multiplex B Capacity (PDF file).

So basically, the entire UK has DVB-T set top boxes, all of which would need to be replaced with DVB-T2 set top boxes to receive HD and (maybe) SD channels in the future. Again, I propose taking the same approach. Just cut off the analogue and DVB-T signals completely, and simply stick to DVB-T2. Considering a Freeview (DVB-T) box can be picked up for as little as £15 now, I’m sure DVB-T2 boxes can be made fairly cheaply, so it shouldn’t be that hard to switch over at all.

Oh sure, both solutions are pretty harsh, but come on. It’s almost 2010, and we’re talking about technology that’s over 8 years old (for Windows XP) and 12 years old (DVB-T). “Phasing them out” isn’t really going to work, considering how hard Microsoft have been trying to do it with XP.

HTPC Upgrade

Published on 29 May, 2009. View Comments Tags: Computer, Entertainment, HD, HTPC, Media, PC.

I don’t seem to have much luck with silence. The PC that I built back in 2006 was incredibly loud, due to both the power supply and graphics card fans being very noisy ones. Then, when I switched to an iMac last year (and, after, my MacBook), my room was suddenly very quiet – both machines are absolutely silent, and I rarely hear my MacBook’s fan unless the CPU is at 50% load (or more) for a while. However, when I decided to build an HTPC earlier this year, I chose to build it into a Shuttle SFF case. Bad idea. The CPU fan on the Shuttle wasn’t too bad, but the power supply was noisy as hell, which is not what you want when you’re building a PC designed for watching movies on.

So, a few weeks ago, I decided to do an upgrade. Simply put, I sold the Shuttle case on eBay (annoyingly, for only £120), and instead purchased an Antec 300 case, a Corsair HX520 modular PSU, a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4550 silent GPU (all new), and a Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 from Fr3d (used). The motherboard finally arrived today (after a week in the post, stupid Royal Mail), and I built the machine this afternoon. Finally, I booted it up to install Windows 7 and…wow. What a difference. You can hear it, but it’s pretty much silent compared to the horrible Shuttle. Finally, some peace and quiet again. I might just leave it on 24/7 like I was going to do with the Shuttle.

I’ve come across a few problems though – nothing major, but they’re a bit annoying. Firstly, because I have five HDDs (160GB for the OS, 3x1TB drives for storage, and a 500GB drive for overflow), the case is, well, a mess. I like to keep it as tidy as possible, but when you install 5 HDDs, the mass of SATA and power cables is a bit much. Without the HDDs, it’s a lot tidier, but as it is, it’s messy. However, I’ve tucked as much of the cables away as I can, so the airflow is pretty good and there’s plenty of room inside.

Next, because Antec insist on putting the space for the PSU at the bottom of all their cases, the 8 pin ATX power supply cable is too short to be neatly tucked away, so next time I purchase something from or visit OcUK, I’m going to pick up an extension cable for it.

Finally, I ran out of SATA cables and SATA power cables, so I’ve ordered some extras off eBay. Corsair, in future, please include more SATA power connectors. 4 is not enough!

So, overall, I’m very happy with the improvements, and I’ve got a pretty decent HTPC built now. In fact, later this year when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is released, I might actually get an LCD, powerful GPU, and use it as a gaming machine too.

(Oh, and finally, the photo at the top was taken before I put the CPU cooler, SATA cables, and SATA power cables in. )

11 Features That Sky+HD Should Have

Published on 6 March, 2009. View Comments Tags: BskyB, Entertainment, HD, HDTV, James Murdoch, Media, Satellite, Sky, Sky HD, Television.

Sky HD, for those who don’t know, is the UK’s largest subscription TV provider. Similar to, say, Dish Network in the US, it provides HD and SD satellite TV for a monthly fee, and has all the usual channels you’d expect, such as entertainment, news, sports, kids, music, and so on. Anyway, Sky themselves offer three set top boxes:

Sky Digibox: Provides basic viewing-only access to Sky.
Sky+: Provides viewing of Sky channels, but adds an internal HDD so you can record and timeshift programs, and has two tuners so you can record one show while watching another…or record two shows and watch a previously recorded show.
Sky+HD: Same thing as Sky+, but with an HD decoder too.

All three boxes share the same EPG (Eletronic Program Guide) software, which, while it’s a decent and easy to use design, it’s showing it’s age now, is severely in need of a makeover. However, Sky have announced a makeover of the EPG for the HD box only, which is great news…when it’s out. It’s almost a year since they announced it, so hopefully it’ll be out soon.

Anyway, enough of that. This post is about the features that I wish the Sky+HD box had. So, on with the list.

eSATA HDD: The box has an eSATA jack on the back, but at the moment, you can’t use it for anything. Why not? The box has a stupidly small 320GB HDD (of which 160GB is reserved for Sky’s Anytime service), so why not open that up like the US services allow, and let me plug in my own 2TB drive? The current box, if you full it with HD movies, lets you have about two pages of programs, and then the HDD is full! In fact, this is perfect – put a 320GB minimum restriction on external drives, and then keep the internal HDD for Anytime, and use the eSATA drive for recordings!
USB Port: Again, this isn’t used for anything so why not let people use it for HDDs too? Or, just leave it unused, since eSATA is far better for HDDs.
New EPG: It’s already been done by Sky, so WHEN are we getting it? (According to Twitter, it seems to be out on Tuesday the 10th of March, actually. Fingers crossed!)
HD Swap: It’s a descriptive name for it…and I think it’s would be a useful feature. Basically, the Sky box should be able to detect when you’re watching something in SD (such as Nature’s Great Events) on, say, BBC1, and see that it’s being broadcast at the same time on BBC HD. It should then pop up a suggestion saying “This program is in HD! Switch to the HD version?”, and you can choose if you want to switch or not. This could be made even better by having two more options in the settings – first of all, a setting to automaticially switch over to the HD version without asking you, and secondly, the option to map the HD channel to the SD channel number (quick example: set the box to switch to 4HD whenever you type in “104″, since 4HD’s quality is much better then the non-HD 4…even on SD channels.
Commerical break skipping: Windows Media Centre already this this feature. It would have to be mapped to an existing button on the remote (I considered double-tapping “Play”), but it would mean you could skip forward a specific time (instead of fast-forwarding) so as to bypass the ad breaks. Again, this could be an option that you can set in the settings, allowing you to change how far forward it goes, say, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, or 240 seconds. I suspect this would cause quite an uproar from the broadcasters though, so it’s probably unlikely this would ever happen.
Shared DVRs: The ethernet port on the back of the Sky+HD box is unused, so, this would be a great feature for it. As long as all the Sky+HD boxes are on the same gigabit ethernet network, allow them to share their programs with each other. I’m not sure how well this would work with HD programs, or even SD programs (though you could perhaps buffer them, like YouTube does), but if it works well, why not allow the Sky+HD boxes to share their content? For example, if I record the cricket downstairs, on our main TV, but my parents then watch something else on that TV, I should be able to watch the football, stored on the TV downstairs, from my TV upstairs. I believe you can do this already with AT&T Uverse in America.
Pizza ordering: TiVo can order Dominos pizza, so why can’t we?
On-demand internet TV: This may be a little harder to implement, but the technology itself is there (the H264 decoder(s)) – allow the Sky+HD box to use the ethernet connection to connect to the internet and download TV shows such as Revision 3′s Tekzilla. This would, of course, be trickey to do due to the codecs needed, but I’m sure if Sky crammed ffdshow or similar into the box it would work for most video podcasts/internet shows. In terms of adding shows, this could be done via the Sky website, or something similar.
While we’re on the topic of internet TV…YouTube? I’m sure it can’t be that hard. Other devices can do it, so why can’t Sky?
Remote Record v2 (which the Sky+ box could do with as well): The current method of remotely recording programs is rubbish, if you ask me. You can either do it using Sky’s flash-only website (which won’t work on the iPhone, because, well, it’s Flash), by text (which I’ve never bothered to remember how/what to do and where to send it to), or via their Java app, which, annoyingly, works on only a few handsets. Also, setting it up is a nightmare, and you have to record things at least 30 mins before they start. The NEW remote record, however, should have both the website, using both Flash (for PCs) and non-Flash pages (for stuff like the iPhone), text, a Java app that works on all phones, an iPhone app, and finally, setup an official API for it so other people can code apps and so on for various devices. Setup should be made easier – you should simply have to enter your viewing card number on Sky’s website, then enter a code on the box itself if necessary, and that’s it. Simple. Oh, and finally, I’d like to be able to choose which box to send it to if you have two HD boxes.
CSS: What is CSS, you ask? Cascading Style Sheets. Oh yes. I think it would be amazing if you could go onto Sky’s website, input your own CSS (or user-submitted CSS), and be able to customize the colours of the EPG yourself. Again, this would send itself to your box using the ethernet jack, over the internets. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

So, those are the features that I wish Sky+HD had. Most of them should be easy to implement, and several of them are already available in the US and on other platforms. If Sky added these features (oh, and Sky News HD too please! ), Sky+HD really would become the best HD service available outside the USA.

Opinions?

I really want a Sony Bravia VPL-HW10

Published on 29 December, 2008. View Comments Tags: 1080p, Cinema, Entertainment, HD, Home, Projector, Sony, Theatre.

I’ve always liked projectors since I first got to use one back in 2000, during the Sydney Olympics. My dad was given permission from his office at the time to bring home one of the work projectors over the weekend. Actually, he managed to bring home several different models over several weekends, and (bear in mind that this was 2000, when we still had a CRT TV, and a VCR) I hooked it up to the VCR and fed the video output into the projector. It was incredibly immersive watching the Olympic games on a massive screen, and I also hooked up a friend’s PS2 to one, and played GT3 on it. It was impressive driving around on a huge screen, and I became hooked. However, I’ve never actually owned a projector because they cost so much, and the price of bulbs is quite a lot.

Now, bear in mind that the projector that I used back then had either a 640×480 or 800×600 resolution (I can’t remember exactly, but it was one of those), and was designed for office work – plus, this is almost 9 years ago, so the technology has come forward a lot in the time. However, you still need to spend a lot of cash to get a decent unit, even now, in 2008 (well, 2009, since it’s a few days away). I’ve seen a few displays of projectors in stores, but I’ve only ever seen one HD projector in action – a 1080p Sony Bravia model at my local Sony Store last year (2007), which at the time cost a whopping £7000. The quality was stunning though, when showing a BluRay disc, and I felt even more compelled to want one. But seriously, 7 grand? No thanks.

I often read Engadget HD for news, and noticed that Sony have recently released a new model, the VPL-HW10, which is a full 1080/24p projector, and you can get it for as low as £1500-£1800. I know that’s a lot of money, especially for a TV (of sorts), but bear in mind that our 40″ HDTV cost close to £1000 last year, and even Sony’s high end 52″ LCD TVs cost between £1200 and £3000. So, such a good quality projector that can probably give an image double the size of a 52″ TV, and for £1500 is a pretty damn good price in my eyes. Plus, after seeing a blog post by someone who actually purchased one, the photos he took of the projected image are, simply put, jaw dropping. I’d say that it actually looks BETTER then our 1080p TV does, and that’s saying something, especially considering our TV is on the higher end of Sony’s mid-range TVs, and that I’m only saying that after seeing some still photos. I’ve not seen this thing in action at all. Take a look, and have a read of the article:

Take note, especially, of the photo of Cristian Bale driving the Lamborghini. You can see pretty much all the detail there is to see. I seriously am impressed, and I really, really, seriously, badly want the Sony VPL-HW10 projector. Now all I need is a way of aquiring that amount of money, and getting my parents to say yes to putting one into our lounge.

Sky HD

Published on 17 December, 2008. View Comments Tags: Entertainment, HD, Install, Sky, Television, TV.

Last Friday, on the 12th of December, I had Sky HD installed in my bedroom. I had actually booked it over a month before – Sky had an offer in October for a £75 Sky HD box with free installation (if you’re doing multiroom, otherwise £30 installation), so I decided to go for it and get it installed. Obviously they’re busy, as they didn’t have a single day available for installation during November.

I previously had ghetto-Sky HD installed in my bedroom using a Firewire based DVB-S2 tuner, however since my MacBook has no Firewire, I sold it, and decided to get the cheap Sky HD box. Anyway, a technician arrived on Friday (and, I will add, he looked suspicously like Hamish Blake, which was weird), and got to work. First of all, he drilled a hole in the wall downsairs, next to the master phone jack, and installed a wire going outside, up the wall, and into my bedroom. For those who don’t know – the phone line is used for ordering pay-per-view programs on Sky, as well as to make sure you’re not giving the box to a friend to use. If you take out a multiroom subscription, you’re essentially getting a second box for only £10 more a month. Presuming you have two HD boxes, Sky don’t want you giving that second box to a friend so you can both have the full Sky package for a total of £77 per month – because if you EACH take out Sky, it’s a total of £114 a month (for two HD boxes with all programming).

Of course, there are a few ways you could get around this. If you’re sharing it with your neighbour, you could simply give them the box, and run the telephone wire from your house into the box. Unless Sky actually came and checked, they wouldn’t know any different, however if they did find out, I can imagine you’d get your service cut off or you’d be fined, so…don’t try it.

Anyway, back to my box. The installer guy then removed the old satellite cable to my bedroom, which I had had installed last year for my ghetto-Sky-HD solution, but it was only a single feed, so he replaced it with a dual-feed cable. He also replaced the LNB (the thing on the end of the stick attatched to the dish), as it was looking a little worse for wear from the sun. I also suspect he did it because when he pulled the cover off to access the jacks on the LNB itself, the cover itself snapped in half because it was so brittle from the sun. Anyway, he came back inside, did a few tricks on the box, and within about half an hour, it was up and running with Sky HD!

It’s pretty much the same thing that we’ve had downstairs for the past year, so I’m not going to go into any detail, but I must say that the box itself is nice and quiet – it’s an “Amstrad” branded box, whereas the one we have downstairs is a Thomson box which I purchased off eBay last year. The one downstairs is okay, but it crashes sometimes (I generally have to do a hard-reset about once a month), and the fan inside it basically never stops, and hasn’t stopped since I upgraded the HDD inside it with a 500GB drive last year. It’s also quite a noisy fan, so you notice it when you’re watching TV, even with the volume turned up a bit. I’m tempted to butcher the box a bit to fit my own quieter fan, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, because I’m not sure if the box would work with the fans unplugged. If you unplug the CPU fan header on a PC, it complains, and I can imagine the Sky HD box would do the same.

I’m not that fussed overall about it though, as you do get used to it after a while. However, I’m very pleased at how quiet this new box is, as it’s in my bedroom and I like to sleep in a *quiet* place.

Anyway, that’s all up and running and I’m very happy with it so far, and I’m even happier at the fact that Sky switched MTVN HD on yesterday, so there’s FINALLY some good quality HD music showing. Well, there’s not that much at the moment but I’m sure it will get better after a while. I wish all the channels would go HD, even if they’re just showing SD material – the difference between the SD music channels and SD content shown on MTVN HD is amazing, since they absolutly kill the bitrate on SD channels, sadly. You can especially see it if you switch between Channel 4, and Channel 4 HD, during the 7pm news. The HD channel looks loads better, despite it still being SD.

In other news, I finally upgraded to WordPress 2.7 on here and several other places that I manage (with a little help from kudos, because I always break something). Also, I’m going to London for a couple of days from Saturday, to see the Stereophonics live at The O2. As usual when I go to London, I’ll most likely have both my iPhone and laptop with me, so I’ll still be reachable. Just maybe a bit slower at replying. In preperation of the trip I also decided to pick up a cheap laptop slip-case-thing for my MacBook, as I don’t really have anything else that’s good for transporting it in, other then a messenger back which is 1) designed for 15″ laptops, and 2) missing.

Anyway, this post is too long, so that’s it for now.

HTPC

Published on 23 November, 2008. View Comments Tags: Centre, HD, HTPC, Media, PC, TV, Vista, Windows.

I’ve been considering building an HTPC again (I used to have one for the TV downstairs, but I swapped it for a PS3 which I use a lot more often). The reason for this is because since I have a TV in my bedroom now, I want a way to play DVDs and downloaded TV shows on it. I am considering getting a BluRay player, but I think I would use the HTPC a lot more, and I can always use my PS3 downstairs for BluRay, or get a BluRay player at a later date for my room.

Anyway, I’ve poked around a few forums and so on, and I think this would form an ideal one – I can put it in the corner of my bedroom, it’s small yet powerful, has an HDMI output, and should be able to handle 1080p video playback perfectly, on Vista Home Premium (which I’d need another £75 for an OEM copy).

Shuttle XPC SG33G5B (£246.74)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 @ 2.50GHz (£68.14)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 250GB HDD (£37.59)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 RAM (£25.84)
Pioneer 20x DVD±RW SATA DVD Writer (£19.96)
Total cost: £408.83 (£399.84 if I pick the components up from OcUK)

I think this would make a very solid HTPC, as it’s both powerful and small, and, while it is a tad pricey, it shouldn’t need upgrading for at least another year, if not more. I could maybe bring the price down a bit if I used a cheaper HDD, less RAM, or a DVD-ROM drive, but the price difference would be about £20-30 total anyway so it’s not really worth it. Also, if I added a mid-range graphics card at a later date it could probably handle a few games, too, such as Half Life 2, and maybe Call of Duty 4 at a low resolution.

I did consider an Apple TV instead, but the lack of format support put me off it – most of my movies and TV shows are HD, but they’re mkv files, which, as of now, I don’t think any stand-alone device can play without modification, plus you can add software at any time to a PC to make it even better.

So, anyway, I’m hoping to maybe ask for that for Christmas. I think it would make a pretty good HTPC. Comments?