Archive for the 'TV’s' Category

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Engadget’s Hands-on with Apple’s new devices…

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Movies, Podcasting, Technology and TV's. Closed

Engadget were at Apple’s “It’s Showtime” press event today and they were able to get hands on with all the new releases, including the iTV prototype, which was a big shocker. Check out the links for all the juicy pictures.

2G iPod nano hands-on [link]
5G iPod v2 hands-on [link]
iTV hands-on [link]
iPod Shuffle and new headphones hands-on [link]

They all look really good, and I’m even impressed with the iTV, even though that hasn’t been officially released. I’m still not sure about the shuffle though, however I do like the nano now. I do want to try them out, but my nearest Apple store is in Birmingham and we won’t go there for no reason just to visit an Apple Store. The other one is in London, and I don’t think we’ll visit it for a while. The other ‘tech’ shops around town are pretty rubbish. They wouldn’t have the new iPods for a while. The Currys.digital shop still has the iPod nano labelled under Hard-disk player. The obviously don’t know anything, but I was amazed to see a MacBook there. I tried it out and it was very fast, I really want one now. After I finished playing with it, one of the store clerks went and started that god-awful screensaver thing they have. I hate those so much; they aren’t really going to get customers to buy the product if they can’t test it.

The iTV – Apple’s Media Center

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Internet, Movies, Noteworthy, PC, Podcasting, Technology, TV's and Wireless. 4 Comments

This is the one product which hasn’t been released, as in it is not on Apple’s website. The name iTV is not official yet, so it is subject to change. I think that is good because iTV sounds a bit plain, and similiar to Elgato’s EyeTV line of products. So people could get confused. Down to the details:

It looks like a flatter Mac mini.
No power brick, but there is USB 2, Ethernet, 802.11 Wireless, HDMI, Component and RCA jacks as well as optical audio.
Controlled via the Apple remote.
Hooks up directly to your TV, set-top box or other input device.
An enhanced version of Front Row, with windows media centre style browsing. The right hand side has menu and the left has images.
“You can do movie trailers form Apple.com right from your couch. This is big screen over the internet, live as we watch. [demo]“
Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcasts, and Photos
Coming Q1 of 2007
Works with Macs and PCs
$299

As Apple doesn’t have an official page, I’ll link you to Engadget’s live coverage of the “It’s Showtime!” event.
This certainly seems like a very interesting idea and because of the price point even more so. Now we just have to wait for it to come out, doh!
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iTunes 7 – With Movie Store!

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Internet, Movies, Noteworthy, Podcasting, Software, Technology and TV's. Closed

The new version of iTunes has a lot of new features, you can find a good walkthrough of the main features at TUAW. These are the main enhancements:

TV Shows are available in h.264, in 640 x 480 which is up from 320 x 240.
You can update your iPod from right inside iTunes now, you don’t need to go to Preferences. You can say, “I want to sync the 10 most recent unwatched episides of all my TV shows.”
You can sync content between multiple computers as long as you have the same iTMS account and both the computers are authorised.
Coverflow mode allows you to scroll through the artwork of your music as if it was on a shelf.
Music Artwork can be downloaded free from Apple, and it will fill up all the missing artwork in your library!
“Today we’re starting out with films from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax – four studios owned by Disney. Today we’re making over 70 films agvailable online today including Pirates of the Caribbean. They’ll be available the same day they’re out on DVD.“
New movies will be $12.99 if you pre-order them or buy them during the first week. Other movies are $9.99. The movie store is integrated into iTunes and you can preview new releases in album cover flow mode. They will also be at 640 x 480 with Dolby Surround Sound. Initially it will be for the US only, but it will go international in 2007.
Games for iPod are $4.99 and only work with the 5G iPod (old and updated).
A refined look with sections for music, other content, playlists etc. It is not really too big, but it allows iTunes to flow more seamlessley. You have to see for yourself, it is hard to describe.

It is available for download now. I think that’s virtually it, I’ll update it if I find anything else.

Sky HD is here…

Published on Saturday, June 17, 2006 in Noteworthy, Technology and TV's. 1 Comment

This morning I woke up at around 9:30 with a nasty headache (I went to a party last night ) and I couldn’t go back to sleep so I went downstairs. Just as I stepped into the living room the phone rang. The Sky Technician was calling to say that he’ll be here between 10AM-2PM. 2 minutes after ten and I hear a knock on the door, shure enough he was here and ready to install the high-def Sky Box. He changed the old LNB on the Satellite Dish so that you can now view one channel and record the other. He also set up the box, made sure everything was right and gave the system a spin. All in all, it toom around an hour to get everything in working order, The instruction manual says it has a 300GB hard-drive, with 160GB for personal use, but I don’t know whether that’s true or not. What would the system need 140GB for? Who cares, that 160GB is good enough for our family, capable of 30 hours of HD content storage and 80 hours of standard def.
I was amazed with some of the things it had (physically). There are 2 USB2 ports and an Ethernet port which currently can’t be used for anything, as Sky are currently planning later use for it. But here’s what gobsmacked me: a SATA port so that you can connect your own hard drive to it, if there isn’t enough space. That’s so awsome from Sky, and I can’t believe they did such a thing. The manual claims it works, but having no SATA drives at home I can’t test it out. I’ll be giving the system a fuller review later on, but the picture is so amazing. I watched the Iran vs Portugal match on BBC HD and it looked so nice; it certainly made the SD version look like toast! I’ve taken a few photos of the ‘event’ so click the link below to take a look.

Sky HD

Published on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 in Technology and TV's. 2 Comments

sky hd logo My Dad decided to jump at the chance of getting Sky HD (the first available HD in the UK – comes over satellite), and well we don’t have it yet. We should of had it on May 27th, but sadly due to Sky HD’s overwhelming popularity they haven’t been able to make enough boxes. Thompson, who I believe is maing the Sky HD’s digital receiver box, is behind on schedule for some people, as they didn’t think it would be this popular. Fingers crossed we should be watching high def goodness by Saturday afternoon, as Sky should be coming to install it Saturday morning.
At the moment there are quite few channels offering HD content but some of them are quite enjoyable (I hope). The channels are; Sky One HD, Sky Box Office HD (pay-per-view), Discovery HD, Sky Sports HD, BBC HD, Artsworld HD and National Geographic HD. I am quite keep on Discovery Channel and BBC as they host some quite popular programs such as the World Cup on BBC and MythBusters on Discovery HD. My exams end in about a week and half, so I probably will do a lengthy if not full review of the services and feeds.

Sony goes crazy: PS3 to be sold for £425 in UK

Published on Thursday, May 18, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and TV's. 4 Comments

ps3 stock photo
This time Sony has gone way over their head. I mean when I heard the price I thought that it was a joke, but no, Sony is dead serious. How can they honestly think that family’s can afford to shell out so much money for a damn console, I mean you can buy two 360 Core Systems with £11 left over! We always pay more in the UK, for everyting, because of that damned VAT (Value Added Tax – 17.5%). The pricing can be compared as follows:

For the US, they pay $599 for the ‘Premium’ PS3, which is around £316. If you take £316 away from £425 you get £109. So we pay £109 more than the US pays for the PS3.
For the rest of Europe, they pay €599 which is around £405. Take £405 away from £425 to get £20. So we pay £20 more than the rest of the Europeans.

That is the pricing with other countries, now compare it to the price of the 360 and you can see how ludicrous it becomes.

The 360 ‘Premium’ is £279. Take away £279 from £425 to get £146. The UK PS3 costs £146 more than the UK Premium 360!
The Core 360 is £209. Take away £209 from £425 which leaves you with £216. The UK PS3 costs £216 more than the UK Core 360!

See? I honestly don’t understand how they can think that people will pay so much. You can’t use the whole High-Def gaming excuse for the UK because HDTV marketshare is so low, and HD content is aswell (High-Def satelite only just launched) that the people who would want to buy it won’t be able to take advantage of the PS3′s ‘awsome’ graphics. Most people will just buy it for the games. I am a part of a few families in our town that actually have HDTV’s (our Sony Bravia can only support 720p native – 1366 by 768 resolution), and even if you do it probably wouldn’t support 1080p or 1080i natively, so it would have to downsample the image, which ruins the whole point! To top that off, a Sony rep actually says that it is a bargain! This is an outrage, people in the UK don’t think that £425 is a bargian, in fact they consider it a bloody fortune

“I don’t think it’s an expensive machine; I think actually, it’s probably a cheap machine … If you think a Blu-Ray player by itself might be GBP 600-700, and we’re coming in at just GBP 425 – it’s a bargain.“

NOTE: I forgot to mention that Sony will not be releasing a lower priced version of the PS3 in the UK. The £425 PS3 is the only version that will be available to buy. So the situation is even worse, only a high-priced PS3 of which most people won’t be able to use that 1080p resolution anyway!

E3: Microsoft confirms USB HD-DVD for Xbox 360

Published on Monday, May 8, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Technology and TV's. Closed

Microsoft has confirmed at E3 today the addon HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360. It is going to be an optional add-on that runs via the USB 2 port on the 360. Interestingly, Microsoft didn’t slag off Blu-ray saying it wasn’t as good as HD-DVD, nor did they praise HD-DVD (much) either. Microsoft calls the quality of the two formats “a wash in terms of video quality,” and they say that the main diffrerence between the two will be the price. This probably means that the HD-DVD drive will be a bargain, to convince people to buy it. Adding that to the price of the 360 and it’s features it seems a pretty good deal generally and for those who don’t want to for out the $1k for the current HD-DVD players. But how will it rival against the PS3, which will have Blu-ray built in for only $399, but that will only be out in November (unless it gets delayed ike Vista).

Xbox 360 Camera Specs Revealed

Published on Thursday, April 6, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Technology and TV's. Closed

Images have been aired on the Internet by Xbox360galaxy.com, who got their hands on a 360 Camera flier. It lists a lot of interesting specs including “gesture recognition”. The full spec is listed below.

USB 2.0 bus-powered device
Smooth, near DV quality video up to VGA 640×480 at 30 FPS
High def images: still photos up to SVGA 1280×960 (1.3Mp)
Manually adjustable variable focus: 2 feet to infinity
Field of View: 43°
On board image processor
Digital zoom, cropping
Auto exposure, white balance, gamma correction, sharpness
Long (~9 feet) cable to reach around large TVs
Includes a headset for great audio

This seems similar to the EyeToy — not the specs, but how it interacts with the games. I can just imagine feeling really stupid because I’m punching into the air! We’ll have to wait until Microsoft releases it and lets us have a go. On a separate note, I don’t really like look of the camera. It looks very 1980′s (like an old B/W tube tv).

Apple Silently Updates the 30″ Cinema Display

Published on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 in Apple, PC, Technology and TV's. Closed

30-inch cinema display spec - new I think that this update was made by Apple to compete with Dell’s UltraSharp 3007WFP which had a higher specification up until now. CNET did a review recently comparing the two, and although Apple’s 30″ Cinema Display beat Dell’s for better colour accuracy and sharpness, Dell did a good job. The Dell screen has better features (more ports and adjustability) and had smoother text production than Apple’s Cinema Display.
So what exactly did Apple change? They updated the brightness of the screen to 400cd/m2 from 270 and upped the contrast ratio to 700:1 from 400:1. Now the technical specs (apart from the ports, etc) of the Cinema Display match Dell’s 30″ monster exactly. Coincidence? I think not.

How movies are shown in the theatre

Published on Sunday, March 12, 2006 in Shorts, Technology and TV's. Closed

If you are into tech, like me, you are cursed [or blessed, depending on how you look at it] with wondering how everything works, sometimes you aren’t even able to enjoy things because you’re pondering what is going on behind the scenes. Well today I plan on answering one of your questions [if you didn’t already know] how movies are played in the movie theatre.
Being a Senior in high school I need to rack up some dough for college next year, because after all in a few months I’ll be a poor college student, so I decided to have one of the coolest jobs offered where I live, the projectionist at the movie theatre.