A great extension for Firefox – BumbleSearch. Can easily switch off shopping results from a Google search, search other sites from the same Google search page and also cross search ebay, Amazon, Digg etc. Can turn on search highlighting which makes finding info on a page very easy. Also has some sidebar note capturing functionality which I don’t use. Well worth installing.
Month: June 2006
Sky HD – One Week Later
Still loving it. World Cup has been brilliant and BBC really are showing the way with their broadcasts. Been impressed with the cricket as well so looking good for Premiership next year. Was getting used to the picture quality and switched the TV on for the Brazil game earlier this week. It looked awful – pixelly, low detail, lack of colour. I was so disappointed and thought the BBC were maybe using different settings for their admittedly test HD service. I then realised I was on BBC1, not the BBC HD channel. Switched over and normal service was resumed – moments like that really hit home the difference in quality.
There are however some firmware issues. Had the video stutter twice now after watching a recording which is easily solved by powering the box off and on. No Sky+ failures yet but the time does drift on these boxes – about a minute a day. I’m sure a future firmware update will resolve this but in the meantime…
- Select Services from remote
- Then press 4, 0, 1 and then Select to enter the Installers Menu
- Select the Planner Rebuild menu option (number 7 and NOT number 8 which will wipe your recordings)
- Housekeeping should then start and once complete power down the box
- Press Sky or the power button to bring the box back on.
For me not a big deal especially when I look at the picture quality I’ve now got. Loving Sky+ also – so easy to use and totally changes how you use broadcast television. Should have bought it years ago.
Picasa Web Albums
Google launched Picasa Web Albums last week which allows you to publish your Picasa managed photo’s easily to the web. I was interested as I use Flickr for my web albums and my local photo management is poor – would Picasa sort out my local and web needs?
Even though Picasa is beta software the Picasa Web Albums are officially a ‘test’. Already trying to differentiate from Flickr Beta and Gamma. Once you sign up it’s then easy to publish photo’s from Picasa. Select a photo or album and load it into the Photo Tray. Then select Web Album to load whatever has been added to the Photo Tray.
The options on uploading are fairly limited. You can create a new album or add photo’s to an existing album. You can add a description or add location (for Google Earth integration which is really smart). You select the quality of the picture you want to upload and then finally whether the pictures are public or private. The uploading then takes place in the background allowing you to continue using Picasa.
Once uploaded you can easily see your gallery at picasaweb.google.com/username (mine’s here). Compared to Flickr there are some obvious disadvantages. No concept of tagging or groups and hence a real lack of community unlike Flickr which uses these features to drive the website and share your photo’s with other like minded groups. Picasa album functionality is also basic – can view a slideshow and change order but that’s about it – feels very old school compared to Flickr but that’s really just styling that could be addressed through time. There is nothing similar to the Flickr Organize features at all.
For free Picasa will allow for 250Meg of storage – if you take a lot of photo’s this will go quickly. For $25 a year you get access to 6Gig of storage. It’s not clear if that is the maximum amount of storage or whether you get an additional 6Gig every year. Flickr doesn’t limit storage but upload bandwidth. For free you are allowed to upload 20Meg per month and are limited in the amount of sets (albums you can create). There are also adverts. For $25 a year you get a 2Gig per month upload limit, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth and sets. No adverts either. For my requirements Flickr wins hands down.
Flickr also allows 3rd party access via API’s which means external apps and companies can access your photo’s (with your permission) to create print albums, allow for easy access from phones and other applications etc. Google doesn’t have anything like that at the moment although you can order prints from Picasa with ease.
If you use and love Picasa for local photo management then Picasa Web Albums will be a good solution as like most Google online offerings it is simple to publish and easy to use. Flickr is far more feature rich though and makes sharing and also finding photos easy. I also like the number of apps that now link to Flickr. Picasa Web Albums looks to be more expensive than Flickr while offering less. It’s a shame there is no way to use Picasa and publish to Flickr instead as on this showing I can’t see anyone wanting to move from Flickr to Picasa Web Albums.
HDMI Switchbox
Just when you though it was safe to throw away scart switchboxes as you move to hi-def you soon realise that most HD TV’s come with only 1 HDMI socket, 1 DVI socket and a component socket (although most new TV’s now come with 2 HDMI’s at least). Not much when you think of the multiple HD sources that you could have. To get round this little issue I plumped for an Octava 5 way HDMI switchbox. This works really well as a pass through device and gives long term expandability for any future HD devices I may add.
It allows for 5 HDMI/DVI sources to be connected and so far with my two sources it’s worked with no issues. Although it auto switches it also supports Infra Red selection of an input which is useful feature to have. If you do want one I can highly recommend The Media Factory who answered all my queries and also delivered promptly. Will definitely use them again. Worth noting that the Octava was pretty cost effective when compared to other HDMI switchboxes on the market at the moment.
Also worth considering is the Octava switchbox that also allows for multiple optical inputs – very handy if your amp is low on capacity. Ultimately the switchbox is more expandable and cost effective than upgrading your amp which looking at today’s market will give you one extra HDMI socket which really isn’t enough.
Sky HD – Initial Thoughts
It finally arrived late yesterday – Sky HD. I’ve only watched a few HD broadcasts so far but I’m very impressed with HD and also the upscaled SD transmissions via the new Sky box. The box itself looks great and is pretty quiet – nothing to trouble you while watching and only a slight noise when recording and the TV is off which is only to be expected.
The BBC HD channel is the most impressive. Clips from Planet Earth are amazing and like others have said the HD adds real depth to whatever you are watching. I’ve not had time to take some photo’s yet but from the others I’ve seen on the web they don’t capture how much of a difference HD can make.
World Cup broadcasts have been superb – no motion blurring and just so much detail compared to the SD channel broadcasting the same game. No Dolby Digital 5.1 which was supposed to be part of the HD broadcasts. I guess it still is a test service for the BBC.
Sky Sports cricket was looking superb in HD also. Sky One HD was a bit iffy – mostly upscaled stuff that wasn’t true HD and it showed. Discovery and National Geographic were also very good.
The box has been reliable so far apart from one instance – I watched a recording and then switched back to normal viewing – the video seemed to stutter every 3 or 4 seconds. Switching the box off and on resolved the problem so it’s probably a firmware fix that’s required to resolve that and other issues that folk have – crashing boxes etc.
Sky+ functionality works like a charm. It’s great to be able to pause, rewind live TV and something I should really have bought in to a long time ago. I also notice a big difference with the upscaled SD channels. Doctor Who looked far superior than it did over Freeview. No macro blocking and a really clean picture which wasn’t something I expected.
If you have an HD television then this is THE broadcast step change you’ve been waiting for. The difference between SD and HD is quite marked and is certainly clearer than DVD. Well done to Sky and Telewest for getting HD out there – I’m still peeved that NTL are stating that it’s 2007 before they will have an HD solution. Poor. My TV is only 32inch and I can see a big difference with HD. Given that larger TV’s highlight the issues with SD material more than a 32 inch box is a no brainer that HD will look great the larger your TV is. Highly recommended although there will be hardware issues (early adopter tax) and a lack of HD material compared to SD. The later will only improve over time (Ryder Cup in HD – woo hoo) and hopefully the former will be resolved with timely firmware updates. Right – back to the World Cup.
Its Begun
World Cup 2006. What an opening game. Attacking play, six goals, two screamers (floaty ball blamed already), Wanchope showing how bad the German defence really is – woo hoo. One of the more enjoyable opening games which I hope sets the scene for the next month or so.
The BBC HD service has also proved to be good according to AVForums…just hope Sky turn up at some point tomorrow and this time they can actually fit a dish. And provide a working box. And get my subscription up and running.
360 Dashboard Update
Finally the update has been released. The full list of what has changed can be seen in this MS article. Notable features for me are:
- Can now boot to dashboard rather than auto launch game
- Background downloading. Download up to six files in the background. Playing online game switches off downloads smoothly with them resuming as soon as the game is finished. Playing video during download caused some slight stutter though. Game playing was smooth though (Table Tennis and Geometry Wars tested).
- Music you select to play now works from dhas to game and vice versa.
- Forward and reverse in video’s. At last!!!
- Marketplace now easier to navigate
Also good was how quick the update was to install. The blades are also quicker to animate. Negatives – DVD playback still poor but maybe I’m expecting too much and/or comparing to far superior source so looking for more.
Garden Blitz
What a lovely day spent outside. Weather has been great and the garden looks a whole lot better now that the grass and hedge have been cut. Bit of weeding too and some watering as the ground was bone dry. Flickr set now up.
The table and chairs outside make a big difference – like a new room has been added. Yep – Shakeel was right for once 😉
As the outside was tidied it was only right that the desktop had a summer feel too. Aerial Windowblinds theme and Fantasy Island background – and nothing else completes the clean look.
