Posts by Stuff n Things

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  • Hard News: Catching up with the future…,

    inbuilt Freeview means you can't record it, right?

    Yes, and this is definitely something to watch out for. To be fair, though - it's not the TV's fault that your video/DVD recorder doesn't have a Freeview tuner in it. We ended up buying a cheap HD tuner box to go under the TV, which we use to record shows whilst watching something else using the TV's tuner.

    Note re Freeview: SD=satellite dish and standard definition (same quality as a DVD). HD=arial on your roof, and means scrummy high def picture.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Catching up with the future…,

    Once you trim down the rubbish, there aren't THAT many choices. I understand that retailers have been foisting a lot of TVs on NZ that the Australia market is disinterested in now that their Freeview is up and running. By this I mean power-hungry plasmas without Freeview - hardly worth paying a premium for (but fine if you can get cheap).

    For a decent TV that will last, I reckon these are your minimums:
    - It should have a Freeview tuner in it. That'll cover you for high definition stuff, and will *probably* let you use your existing arial on the roof (do you get Prime already? If so your probably ok).
    - 40in+ is the sweet spot. Sure, you can get 30 something in, but 40 just looks great and really makes you feel you've got a flash new TV. And the high-def isn't as impressive on a smaller screen.
    - Apparently you won't notice the difference between 'full high def' (1080p) and 'ready for high def' (720p) on anything smaller than a 50" - but I reckon you may as well go 1080. Actually, if you are demanding a Freeview tuner, you'll probably find its 1080p anyway (1080 and 720 refer to the number of vertical pixels).

    Once you assume that these are your minimum requirements, your options tend to be Samsung, Sony or Panasonic. There's other optional stuff (100mHz, ability to stream internet built in), but that's probably not worth stressing about.

    I looked at all this stuff about 12months ago and ended up going with a Sony 42" LCD (I can't remember the exact model number - I think it was their W series - which is second from the bottom). About $2k (prob cheaper now) and it's great. There may be better TVs out there but I don't care - it works well and I have no regrets. It feels like it will last ages and it feels like a modern generation TV. The other night I noticed that it had magically added C42 to the channel list for me - I didn't have to do anything.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Catching up with the future…,

    Can we please also get it for the Xbox 360? We've got streaming of old films already, but frankly I don't need to see Wayne's World that much that I'm prepared to pay around $6 to stream it (when it would be $2 from the video store up the road).

    Perhaps Microsoft could do a deal with Mediaworks for 3 and C4? I could totally go for a bit of the Daily Show ondemand.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Southerly: Still a Scientist at Heart,

    My memory is far from infallible, but I seem to remember that bees' vision goes into the ultra-violet spectrum and birds' into the infra-red spectrum. As a result, you can tell whether a plant is bee or bird pollinated based on whether it has blue to red flowers.

    Plausable?

    Oh, and aren't bulls colour-blind? It's the movement of the cape/picnic blanket that they charge at, not the colour...

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: How to Look Good as a Nazi,

    A lot to think about from this post - thanks to both Anke and the other commentators. Ignoring the Lincoln guys for a moment, it is a reminder the this who area is complicated - but really good at getting you to think deeply.

    The thoughts and questions that come to me as I read this are:

    I'd put money on it being no more complicated than "I've just seen Inglourious Basterds."

    Agreed.

    they're literally the kind of farm boys from New Zealand that went to fight the Nazis when it was a live issue.

    Also very true - but what does this mean? I think I need to mull over this for a while longer...

    Nazis associated with zombies/demons/epitome of evil

    WW2 involved people. The Nazi actions where evil, but if we categorise them as inhuman, we take away some of the lessons we need to learn and, in a perverse way, it almost becomes an excuse "oh, well those people were Nazis. Nazis were monsters. We're not mosters, so it could never happen here. Pass the toast."

    Great civilisations have risen and fallen. One thing we have going for ourselves is our knowlege of history. We need to use that to make sure important lessons/thoughts really are learned. But do we lose the lessons when the people who learned them firsthand are no longer around? Can a generation of people only learn certain lessons by making the mistakes themselves?

    I'm about to spend a week with the German father-in-law...

    I've encountered this Ben, but in relation to more recent events (in southern Africa).

    It's hard... As I said above, I really believe we need to learn from our history. That said, I am sad and defeatest - because I also think some parts of our social history will only really progress with time ... and the death/removal of power of participants in society who will not change.

    cheers guys

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: The Freeviewer Diaries (2),

    Burglars don't recognise its value so they leave it behind when they cart off my other geek necessities

    Seriously? Bugger. I know it doesn't make it better, but I hope the insurance train pays a helpful visit.

    A friend recently told me an unsual story about a burglary where the theives knicked the digital camera and computer, but actually took the time to leave the memory card and backup hard drive. Ethical burglary perhaps?

    My workmate would have appreciated that approach last year when his computer got pinched, along with all the childhood photos of his kids...

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Bowie for the BDO?,

    Is it just me or did they forget to overlay the green screen for the Absinthe bit :-)

    Re food in Wellington - Roxy up Cuba St (where the old Purple Onion was) does an awwwesome brunch. The coffee is also most respectable.

    No longer a fan of Fidels. I've heard way to much bad stuff about the way they treat their staff, and got sick of walking all that way to not be able to get a seat.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: The Freeviewer Diaries (1),

    When and what do I record?

    America's Next Top Model at 7pm? ;-)

    Seriously though - apparently it's at 6pm and 11pm on Monday. See here.

    I think there's a delay for Letterman, so the Friday session is probably the previous week/day's show.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: The Freeviewer Diaries (1),

    It's working! I told someone today who was looking for a cheaper DVR with takeaway ability to check out your posts ;-)

    Cool! I think the RRP of $400 is a bit pricey, but it should be possible to pick up the box for cheaper than that (I think I saw it for somewhere in the $300s at Harvey Norman over the weekend). Worst case scenario - you have a tuner box that you can attach to an old TV/VCR to pick up all the new channels.

    Incidentally, if your guy has any questions about the box, feel free to flick them my email address (I assume you can get it from my login details here) and I'll see if I can help based on my own experience with it.

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: The Freeviewer Diaries (1),

    @Russell: What Jeremey said - yes to recording in high def (I think it goes up to 1080i). It connects to the TV via an HDMI cable, but doesn't use that for recording because it has it has its own tuner.

    We actually have a new TV with a Freeview tuner in it, but it was only AFTER I bought the TV that I found out I couldn't use an old VCR or DVD recorder to record TV off it (well, you could ... but you have to leave the TV on and switched to whatever channel you want to record).

    The JC Matthews box has it's own FreeviewHD tuner in it, so I just attached a 500GB drive to it (that's over 100 hours of recording time easy) and it chugs away nicely. I think it uses a Linux file system, so you would probably have to reformat a hard drive that you've been using with your computer ... but your computer should be able to read the files. I think recordings are about 3GB per hour.

    I haven't had as many problems as Jeremey (aspect ratio is fine for me), but I have had to reboot once or twice since I bought it a couple of months ago. One big advantage is that there are devoted buttons on the bottom of the remote for the PVR functions, so you don't have to sort through too many menus to start a recording or go to your list of recordings. One nice feature is that, if you start a recording manually, it automatically grabs the name of the TV program off the EPG. Unfortunately, it doesn't do this for scheduled recordings.

    As Jeremey says, there is an EPG, but you can't use it directly for recording. I think this is the standout feature that differentiates this cheap box from the fancier (pricier) PVRs.

    It can do the timeshifting recording, but I don't see much use for this and it's probably not great for the hard drive to have it chugging away 24/7. Oh, and you can plug a USB drive into it to play pictures or music.

    Right, there ends my advertising speal for the day - and I didn't even get the box for free! What a gip... ;-)

    Wellywood • Since Apr 2007 • 50 posts Report Reply

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