Tag Archive for 'TV'

Sky

Published on 26 November, 2009. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Sky Logo

Sky. If you live outside the UK, you’ll know it’s that thing above you that’s usually either blue, grey, white, or black. Water falls out of it sometimes, and other times, planes do.

Except if you live inside the UK, you’ll know I’m talking about Sky. Yes, them. So, why am I talking about Sky? Well, simple. I want to complain. I like complaining. :)

So at the moment, we have Sky’s “full” package. Which means we get all the “entertainment” packs – stuff like entertainment, documentaries, music, kids shows, news, etc. That’s the base price of £22.50 a month. Which, for the range of channels, isn’t too bad. It’s pretty much everything except movies and sports. Which we also get. Which brings the total up to £47.50 per month. Okay, so that’s expensive, but my dad loves the sports, and I watch a fair few movies, so we do use it. Then, of course, we have Sky’s HD box, with access to the HD channels…which is another £9.75 per month. So far, the total is £57.25 per month. Yeah, we’re starting to get expensive here.

Now, my parents almost always watch boring crap (I don’t have any interest in Strictly Come Dancing or Football / Rugby / etc, okay?), so I have my own Sky+HD box in my bedroom. Which means that we have a multiroom subscription (£9.75/month), and a second “HD” subscription (£9.75/month). So right now, we pay £76.75 per month. Which is US$127, CA$134, EU€85, or AU$139.

Oh, and I wouldn’t mind watching Sky News on my iPhone – Sky have an iPhone app that can do that (along with sports), which is £6 a month for non-customers…and actual customers. So you want to charge another £6 on top of that £76 we already pay? Um, no. If I buy a Slingbox, it’s more complicated, but it’ll cost the same over two years and it gives me access to ALL channels.

I would consider this to be on the high end of things – it’s a lot of money to pay for only TV (no broadband or phone), and yet…after all that, I hate the Sky+HD box. I hate their service in general. The content itself is great, but the rest of Sky….no.

Continue reading ‘Sky’

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

Published on 30 August, 2009. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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. :lol:

Optoma HD65

Published on 28 April, 2009. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Optoma HD65 - Front

A while back, I mentioned how I was amazed at the quality of one of Sony’s high-end home cinema projectors. Well, a few months later, and I decided to consider getting a projector, albeit a cheaper “low-end” 720p model. I did some research, had a look around, and decided to settle on the Optoma HD65. It seems to be the “must have” projector in the sub-£1000 market, and from what I’ve read, it’s a popular model. So, the price. It’s actually pretty good – it’s on sale for £500-700 or so, depending on where you look, and, despite loads of places being out of stock, I found 4 of them available at “LambdaTek” for £560. So, I bought one. :)

It arrived today, so I brought the box upstairs to my room, opened it, and I was pleasantly suprised. It’s quite small. The overall footprint is a little smaller then the MacBook. Like I said in that other post, I had previously borrowed a few different SD projectors from my dad’s work back in 2000, and from what I can remember, they were considerably larger. The HD65, however, is nice and small. And it’s mostly white, too, which is nice if you want it to be less noticable in a room. ;)

As for placement – most “permanent” installs are mounted on the roof. However, this poses two problems for me. One of which is that our house is rented, so we’re not allowed to drill holes in the roof, and second, the light on the roof in my bedroom hangs down quite far, so if I was to mount it on the roof, the light would block the picture. That said, I found a pretty good spot for it. My windowsill. It’s just big enough to accommodate it, and it’s a good height too – I didn’t even need to prop up the leg on the front of the projector. It also fills the projection wall perfectly, with only about 10-15cm left on each side of the picture. :D

So, as it got dark (The one downside about projectors is they need a dark room. Oh, and it’s summer time, and my curtains don’t block out any light. Fun. :P ) I hooked it up to my HTPC, turned it on, set it up (I really didn’t need to change any settings other then the zoom and focus), and put Back to the Future Part I (in 720p) on. And, wow, the picture really is good, even with an old film like BTTF. Okay, so it’s a projector, and it’s never going to beat a high end LCD TV at this price, and you need a dark room and a huge blank wall, but, honestly, it’s worth losing a wee bit of quality for the sake of having a 90″+ screen. The whole movie was so immersive, after 10 minutes, I didn’t notice anything other then the movie. It’s fantastic!

The picture itself is pretty damn good. Between the projector and my TV, there’s not that much of a difference. The TV works better during the day, obviously, but I think the picture quality on both is roughly the same at night, with one exception – the projector, with daytime scenes on movies, looks slightly more washed out, but it’s not that noticable – a minor issue. The other problem is that if you sit too close to the screen (or in my case, the wall), you can notice the individual pixels. However, if I sit more then about two meters from the screen, I can’t see them, and with this size screen…you’ll want to sit more then two meters away. Of course, this is probably less of an issue on the more expensive 1080p projectors, but for a small-average sized room, it’s fine. :)

Finally, two more complaints. Firstly, and it’s a bit irritating, is the fan noise. It’s fairly noisy when it’s on, but if you’re watching a good movie with the sound turned up, it should be drowned out. Sadly, this is a problem with most projectors as they need to get rid of the large amounts of heat that the bulb generates. Last, the grille on the front of the projector (as you can see in the photo above) gets REALLY hot during use, so much so that I couldn’t touch it for more then about a second without it burning my finger. This is, again, normal for projectors, but it means that they need plenty of ventilation to keep cool during use, and the HD65 is no exception. 8)

Overall, I’m very happy with it so far, and the picture quality is suprisingly good. If you’re in the market for a budget projector (or even a mid-range one), take a look at the HD65. With a small footprint, good looks, great picture quality, and being easy to use too, it’s a great choice and I highly recommend it if you’re a movie buff. :D

Now, the only thing I have to do is get my dad to like it. He’s very anti-projector, mainly because he’s used to the horrible quality ones they use in pubs / offices and thinks they’re all like that, among other things. I hope I can prove him wrong. :P

Hollywood makes stuff suck.

Published on 18 April, 2009. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Back in early 2006, I heard about a brand new TV series called “Prison Break”. Long story short, I started watching it, and was hooked after the first episode. The first season of Prison Break was really ground breaking, and I enjoyed it immensely.

However, three years later, and Prison Break is currently in it’s fourth season. Which is three seasons too many. See, I think Fox have gone and made seasons two, three, and four simply because they know that by doing so, they can make a profit. Season one of Prison Break was superb, the rest…not so much. It’s not just Prison Break, either. I greatly enjoyed the first season of Heroes, but I’ve since given up watching it. It just became boring and rubbish. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is an even bigger mistake – sure, it’s an enjoyable show, but if you ask me, it shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Terminator should have been kept to the four movies, and that’s it. If they make a third season, I’ll probably just skip it. I was bored for much of the second season, and chances are, the third, if made, will suck even more.

My point is, TV shows, and in many cases movies too, simply go on too long and become boring or stupid. And yet the movie and television studios keep on making them because they know they can make money off them. And I just wish they wouldn’t, or if they did, I wish they would actually make them not suck. Case in point: 24. Despite now being on it’s seventh season, it’s still awesome.

Oh, and in case you’ve not yet seen Prison Break, but want to, watch the first season and then stop. DON’T watch the other seasons. But do watch the first. ;)

HTPCv2

Published on 16 January, 2009. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

HTPC Overall

In 2007, I decided to build myself an HTPC, however it wasn’t much of a success – first of all, the case I had chosen was too wide for the cabnet where our TV was (and still is), and the BluRay drive I later got for it never worked, because it wasn’t compatible with the AMD chipset or something. I eventually sold it, and got my PS3, but it was a bit of a failure.

However, since I got a TV late last year, I decided to build myself one again, but this time, 1) it would be for my bedroom, and not the lounge, and 2) I decided to base it off an Intel CPU, and using a Shuttle SFF PC as the base. So, I went ahead and ordered the parts, one by one, and I got the last order yesterday, from Scan – the CPU, HDD, DVD burner, and a few other bits I wanted for other stuff. I was actually going to get a Pentium Dual-Core CPU, and Windows Vista Home Premium OEM, but I decided to get a more powerful CPU instead, and use the Windows 7 beta until the final version is out, and I can buy that.

I set about building it today, and, got it up and running successfully – almost. Windows 7 installed without a hitch, and almost everything worked – except for the ethernet card. Because the Shuttle has no WiFi, I *had* to get this working somehow, and the included driver CD wasn’t much help – despite including Vista drivers, it simply refused to work. So, I did a bit of Googling and found someone else who had tried Windows 7 on a similar model, with no success – however, by getting the drivers from the Marvell website, they fixed the problem. So, I did the same, and boom, it worked! I then installed my usual must-have apps for every install I do (Firefox, Wakoopa, Whatpulse, Last.fm, and Steam), and since this is the first Windows box I’ve had for a while, I installed Xfire too, since there’s no Mac-alternative for Xfire, and of course, since it’s an HTPC – the K-Lite Codec Pack. I know codec packs are generally a bit crap, but I’ve never had an issue with the K-Lite one, and it’s one single installer, so I’ve always used it.

So far, I’m pretty happy with it – it handles 1080p video no problem, and Windows 7 is very stable so far, so no problems there. I also ordered a Microsoft Media Centre Remote off eBay, so I can use my Harmony Remote with it (the remote itself includes an IR reciever, which is what I wanted). It’s not arrived yet though.

It seems that Microsoft have actually discontinued the remote, which is a great pity, because it’s a good remote overall (I had one with my last HTPC) and the only way to get an IR reciever otherwise is to order another brand remote, and all the ones I’ve found look pretty cheap – plus, only a few of them offer true Media Centre compatibility.

Anyway, the all important specs:

  • Shuttle XPC SG33G5B SFF PC
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 @ 2.66GHz
  • OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM
  • Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB HDD
  • Sony DRU-V200 DVD Burner
  • Akasa Internal Card Reader
  • Microsoft Media Centre Remote

I also had a rather clever idea – I could make my room even more minimalistic (and a bit quieter) if I put both the HTPC and the Sky+HD box into the roof – it’s cooler up there (better cooling), and they’ll be out of the way. Only, it’s not exactly easy to do this, since I would have to 1) get a power source up there, 2) get the Sky wiring into the roof somehow, and 3) route two HDMI cables down to my TV. If we owned this house, I can’t see that being a problem, since I could just drill holes all over the place, but we don’t own it, and I don’t want to make the landlord angry. I’m guessing they’ll already be slightly cross for the hole in my bedroom wall for the Sky+HD cabling, so I don’t want to make it worse. :P

Sky HD

Published on 17 December, 2008. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The BBC HD Candyman

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. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

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? :D

Swap!

Published on 10 November, 2008. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Last month, I swapped my iMac for one of Apple’s new aluminium MacBooks. I’m pretty happy with it overall.

This month, I’m swapping my Dell 2407WFP-HC monitor for a Sony Bravia LCD TV – the KDL32V4000. Reason being, I originally purchased the Dell as my main monitor back when I had a PC, and I used it for that, but on both my iMac and MacBook I wasn’t actually using it for all that much other then IRC and the few movies I used to watch while I browsed the web. So, since I’m getting Sky HD installed next month, I thought “what the hell”, put it on eBay (for £260), and I’m swapping it for the TV. Considering I was going to use it all the time with Sky anyway, and 1080p is kindof wasted for Sky, I think it’s worth it. Only issue is, I need to reshuffle my room around a bit to fit it in somewhere. :P

Sometime this month I’m also going to put my Thecus NAS on eBay – unless anyone wants it now (for £220). Reason? I’m running out of space on it (it only has 1.56TB of space), and if I sell it, I can get two 1TB Western Digital MyBooks, which also have the advantages of 1) being quiet (the fan in the Thecus is noisy, to my ears anyway), 2) more HDD space, and 3) it’s USB, so I can bypass OS X’s network file sharing, which, honestly, is horrific compared to Windows. Plus, with USB HDDs, I can swap / add to them more easily. :)