It's been a couple of days since I got my new home cinema set, and there are several annoyances with remote controls.
My old home cinema components were also from Pioneer, so I guessed that the new remotes would be similar, but boy I was wrong. The new remote for the AV receiver has about 10 times as many buttons, with every at least 2 functions per button. The remote for the Pioneer DVR-545 lacks several key buttons on the remote;
- numeric keys for zapping
- buttons for going fast forward and reverse
- Audio and subtitle selection
If you need those controls (and I need them a lot), you have to slide the remote open, and use a SHIFT button to alter in movie settings (like the subtitles). Why not place these buttons on the surface? So newer doesn't mean better IMO
My latest DVD Harddisk recorder is a
Pioneer DVR-545H. Since these things are still region locked I needed to do some searching on how to get the thing region free. In my early DVD years (when a simple DVD player costed about 700 euro), I bought lots of DVD's from Amazon in the USA. The reason for buying them at Amazon was that the prices were much lower, and they had a bigger collection to choose from.
Every DVD player I bought afterwards had the possibility of making it region free. Mostly by a hardware modification, or with a hacked firmware. My latest acquisition had the possibility to make it region free by sending an infrared (IR) signal to the player/recorder
All you need is a PC/Laptop with an IR out. On
this page, you can get a '
kit' which makes your DVR-545H region free without hacking the firmware or making hardware modifications. Just one click on your laptop, and your Pioneer DVR reboots, and is region free.
Note that the page is about another DVR from Pioneer. The nice part is that Pioneer standardizes their recorders, so it works on most of them.
So again, no need to 'backup' my DVD collection to remove the region coding.
And before I forget to mention it....
Use it at your own risk!!.
My new home cinema set arrived today. Earlier I mentioned that I'd probably get me the
Philips 42 inch TFT, but after seeing lot's of those screens work, I decided to get a
Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000 (1080p). With a new screen, I also needed a new Home Cinema Receiver. This became the
Pioneer VSX-2016AV-S. Together with a nice
KEF iQ7 speakerset, and an active Klipsch subwoofer.
Oh my god, this setup rocks....
The great thing about the current game consoles is that people who have (owned) an older version still can play their games. most XBox games run on the XBox 360. Nintendo also offers great backwards compatibility on their Wii.
Sony has to be the one company who differs. The current PS3 (sold in the US and Japan) offer backwards compatibility with PS2 games (to some extend). The PS3 which will be available in Europe will have a different 'engine'. This means that
backwards compatibility is much less.
Way to go Sony. This means that the current PS2 owners have to keep their PS2 as well....
I'm stil in the orientation phase in deciding which console (Xbox360, Nintendo Wii or the PS3) I should buy, when I get my new HD-TV. I guess that PS3 is dropping a few places with this strategy, cause older games come cheap and can still offer lot's of fun.
AppleInsider reports that it seems possible to
upgrade the older Apple Intel MacBooks (Pro). This is good news, because my MacBook Pro doesn't have the 802.11n adapter. The only problem is that I need to get the WiFi module from a Mac Pro system.
I hope that these modules will become available for the older MacBooks (Pro). Cause this is the only thing keeping me from upgrading to the new
Apple Airport Extreme.
I have the
'manual', now I need the hardware to replace it....
It has been a couple of days since I received my
new Dell 24" widescreen TFT monitor. I must say that this is probably one of my best purchases in the last couple of weeks :-) . The desktop is huge. Lots of windows, and still there's space to put more stuff on it.
Besides the large screen (1920*1200), it has USB, 7-1 cardreader and 5 or 6 video inputs (I lost track counting :-) ).
There is only one regret..... I should have bought two
Today I ordered a new Dell 24inch TFT monitor for my main PC. I currently have a 19inch Sony (1280*1024), and the new 24inch widescreen monitor has a lot more desktop space, which comes in handy when you work with lots of open programs.
The main reason for buying was that Dell had a special discount till the end of Februari 2007 (nearly 300 euro's off). The secondary reason was that I wanted to treat myself for my upcoming birthday :-). This evening I was surfing the net, and ended up on the US website of Dell, and saw the prices there.....
just take a look at the pictures, and explain the difference to me (I know that you have to add sales tax in the US, but that's not what I'm pointing at).
US Dell Website
Dutch Dell website
Within the next couple of weeks, I need to pick a new lease car. It's probably gonna be the new
Honda Civic 1.8 Executive (black). I just hope that they have some sort of iPod integration for this car.
Anyone any info on that? It's got to be integrated or something, because the audio system is integrated into the dashboard, so it's not possible to place a 'stand-alone' car stereo in the car with iPod support (e.g. the
Alpine car hifi components :-P).
Blu-ray HD is falling behind on HD-DVD. Why? Well, it seems that Sony (the 'owner' of Blu-ray HD technology)
doesn't allow porn on Blu-ray discs.
The first porn titles are being released on HD-DVD, and we all know what that means.... (remember VHS versus the superior Video2000 or Betamax), and as a matter of fact, the Internet got its boost from the online porn business.
Byebye Blu-ray, and hello HD-DVD
Well, Steve Jobs introduced the
Apple iPhone at MacWorld 2007. The new phone features:
- Phone (duh)
- Internet
- 4GB or 8GB iPod with all the usual iPod features (and widescreen!!!)
- POP3 and IMAP mail support (free push-IMAP with premium Yahoo accounts)
- All touchscreen, no 'normal' keyboard or stylus.
- Runs on OSX
- Available in Europe 4th quarter 2007, and will probably cost around 500 euros
Well, I know what I want for X-mas this year :-D
UPDATE: I just saw the actual keynote, and I must say that the iPhone is really impressive. Can't wait till x-mas...... must have.... NOW!!!!
