Wow it sure is windy in Melbourne

This morning I was woken up by the sound of the wind howling outside my hotel window and the constant rattle as the window frames flex under the pressure.

It's so loud it's making hard to get back to sleep at 3am in the morning!

There is the possibilty that there is going to be some rain with this wind later in the day so It might be a bumpy flight back.... probably not as bumpy as this flight in Japan

Will we surpass the current HD format's

As with every technology we're always striving for improvement over the last iteration. AV technology is no different manufacturers release new models with support for more advanced features, at the very least, every year. For HD visual formats there is an obvious limit, our eyes ability to capture the level of detail. In some cases we've reached that limit with current 42" screens at reasonable distances for 1080p content. Already however they are talking about 1440p as the next level of displays. The question is whether we are increasing the output simply because it's possible. Even SD content from DVD can look stunning on screen sizes up to 90". Admittedly at that size there is a noticeable difference up to 1080p but can the same be said for the jump to 1440? Also many homes have yet to adopt digital tv capable of even 576p. HD TV or recorded formats have barely made an imprint on a market that is heavily dominated by dvd is the HD market killing itself off by trying to expand the format further than most consumer will ever notice? I fear that the push for higher and higher resolutions will see HD go the way of the elite audio formats of DVD-A and SACD.

Bits and pieces.

I didn't really have a topic to blog about but i was looking for something to do while i had a coffee so here it is.
After seeing Howl's moving castle on the weekend i've been searching for Spirited Away but it's been hard to find.
Our trip isn't far away now and it's getting really exciting. Unfortunately the work i need to get done before i go keeps increasing. I'm getting very close to a two to one ratio for work days vs days left.
In the technology stakes it looks like some of the theorists on who will win the hd format war have switched camps. Partly driven by the decision of some studios dropping their support for bluray, the availability of cheaper players and sony's failure to implement their big online content draw cards. Personally I think the format war is turning many potential buyers away. Typically i'm an early adopter, I had considered the purchase of a hd dvd player, but the chance of the format disappearing means i'll hold off. Bluray players are too expensive to consider first gen (or even second gen) knowing that it will eventually be cheap. I imagine there are many other consumers in the same boat. The faster a format is chosen the less likely it is that both formats will whither away.

Early at the Airport again

Yet again I've made it to the airport before the Security gates are open.

Yesterday I came to the realisation that there are only 2 more weekends before we go on holidays... With all the flying I'm doing at the moment I don't think I'll be looking forward to the flight, but at least I'll be used to it.

Today I'm off to Adelaide again followed by a trip to Melbourne for the rest of the week. Adelaide is a pain to get to from Brisbane the first flight is at 6:30 and gets to Adelaide at 8:50. The next flight out is at 8:15 but doesn't get into Adelaide until 12:50 as it goes via Melbourne. So even though my meeting isn't until later in the day... I still have to be at the airport at 5:30.

On the weekend we finally got around to watching Howl's Moving Castle. In fact it was the DVD that noticed the decline of the Toshiba, fortunately the Pioneer played the disc with no troubles, in fact the images were just gorgeous. Watching the movie was like watching the pages of a beautifully illustrated story book unfold. I would highly recommend the movie to anyone, whether you've every seen an anime film before or not.

Interstate peak hour.

The worst and best bit of working interstate is getting home. On Friday afternoon after work you just want to be home or out to Friday night socializing. The reality is a long and slow cab ride trip, followed by a long queue to check in, sitting in the lounge waiting for you delayed flight (which is usually longer than normal because of weather or what ever reason your flight was delayed in the first place) waiting in a huge cab queue because all the cabs are out picking up your friends who've been out after work before you can get home. Fortuneately i've finished all those step and an on the final run home to what's turning into a very social weekend.

Another Trip to Melbourne

This week I made it back to Melbourne again for a quick 2 day visit. I did get to stay in one of my favourite hotels, The Royce. Named after the Rolls Royce dealership that used to be on the site. It's a fabulous hotel with a brilliant interior design and extremely well appointed, to the point that every room has a 42 inch plasma.
On the downside for this trip though was my laptop backpack gave up the ghost.It's served me well, I bought it back at my last job when I was riding to work and needed some way to get my laptop to work. So about 4 years of hard service is pretty good from any laptop bag. My booq bag has only just managed to last 2 years.
I'm writing this in the cab as I'm travelling to work and I just saw someone riding a segway to work... OMG! I just couldn't get my phone out in time to get a photo.... I wonder if is name was Gob?
So after that little segway (gee I'm witty) I'm going to have to track down a new laptop back before I fly back. Hopefully I can find one with a built in laptop sleeve as well.

The weather down here as been quite un-Melbourne, despite a little chilly its been fine and sunny. I even had lunch outside alfresco style yesterday it was so mild. Today it's currently 12 degrees but I think in the sun it will probably warm up a fair bit.

This has possibly been the longest Cab ride I've ever had in Melbourne, I'm not sure if the traffic is particularly bad or the hotel is just in a bad spot to get out of but I've been in here since 8:35 and I've only just made it to the freeway. At least having my laptop charged and good wireless broadband coverage means I can actually get something done while I'm sitting here (I'm at my small talk limit for a Cab ride... I can only really do it for about 40-45 mins)

Well I should probably get back to some really work.

Knapppstein Winery Dinner

Last night we attended a winery dinner at Eve's on the River. I'd never been to one before so it was a bit of uncharted territory for me. The format entailed a differing wine served with each course of the meal to showcase the winery's wares. I was expecting the serves of the wines to be a small half glass to sample but the staff were more than helpful in this department continually checking back and topping off and refilling. As a result before we'd sat down to the entree i'd already had 2 glasses and on food as all the starters were seafood. Adds a few more glasses and a course of food everyone was quite happy and getting into the spirit. It was a great night and i'll certainly be on the look out for a few more!

File and Media management week.

This week(end mostly) has been spent finalising some Media management options for all the DVDs and Game disks that I have scattered throughout the house and trying to organise the files in my PVR a little better.

First of all, the media. A while ago Amyo put me onto the Delicious Library. It's a great application for storing all your media from books to dvds.

Catalog, browse, and share all your books, movies, music, and video games with Delicious Library.

Get your Mac, a webcam, and Delicious Library and rediscover your home library. Just point any FireWire digital video camera, like an Apple iSight®, at the barcode on the back of any book, movie, music, or video game. Delicious Library does the rest. The barcode is scanned and within seconds the item's cover appears on your digital shelves filled with tons of in-depth information downloaded from one of six different web sources from around the world.

One of the best features is the ability to add all your titles to digital shelves so they are easy to find. The borrowing engine is very powerful yet surprisingly easy to use with reminders when your items have been out for an extended time.

So far I've managed to catalog 4 of the 10 shelves of DVDs and most of the games which equates to about 212 DVD titles. Unfortunately the system I was coming from wasn't supported in the import function so the update of purchase specifics is making the process a little longer.

The second project on the go is a Media manager for the Topfield PVR. The PVR itself is great but one of it's weaknesses is file management. I have a spare PC at the moment (since Ness upgraded to Photoshop Elements in her iPhoto library) that can be used to integrate. The issue is finding the right tool, there are a few around the front runner is ToppyPC. I did some testing last night and think it will be the tool of choice, now all i need to do is find a EPG to run with.

Happy Birthday CD

Today is the 25th anniversay since the CD was born...

It's amazing the facts that you can discover when you're sitting in an airport lounge for 4 hours. There have been all sorts of flight delays today in Adelaide which added to the fact my flight was at 7:45 has contributed to my long stay at the Virgin blue lounge. Fortunately a change of clothes and a shower has made me feel much more like a human being.

I've been surfing the web and catching up on some work bits and pieces but the time hasn't exactly flown by. I had an ordinary nights sleep and have struggled through the day. On the up side most of the hard workshoping was done yesterday and today wasn't too stressful. I am looking forward to a nice nights sleep at home.

Too Early!

Well it's already 5:41 and I've been at the airport for 40 mins!

I'm off to Adelaide for the next two days and check in took for ever this morning. An enourmous tour group slowed up the bag drop off a little. There is scariest thing on TV at the moment. Some scary American early morning show with a segment on "Wigs for Dogs" it's really too early to digest that.

The pioneer pulls through!

The Pioneer has settled in well to the system and although we only managed 1 DVD for our movie session (damn wii tennis and your greatness on a projector) it has been a success.

First thing I noticed with the DV-S969AVi was how configurable the output settings are. I could (and may yet) spend hours configuring the picture output alone. The other thing that is noticable is the level of player. I could configure the audio settings to a level where my amp could no longer decode them. The player is pretty huge as well, compared to the Toshiba it's a mammoth.

The pictures are ourstanding from the player, I think with a bit more tweaking, however, they could be even better.

Pioneer DV-S969AVi Unboxing

The DVD has landed... (almost)

I took the plunge and picked up the Pioneer DV-S969AVi DVD player. I found a review with all the good news on the audio resolution of the player. Now all I have to do is get it home and hook it up... lucky tomorrow is a holiday

Doovde sourced

It seems that i find the best technology bargains when I'm out travelling. This trip to Toowoomba lead to the discovery of a flagship Pioneer DVD player at kept than a third of the retail cost. Stay tuned for some updates when i get it home.

It's finally ended...

My long running battle to complete all the quests in Puzzle Quest has finally ended.. Late on Wednesday night I finished all the side quests and the Final battle and it was done. It's lucky that the game doesn't have a counter because I would have clocked somewhere over 80hours. Now I'm free to move onto some of the back log of DS games I have at the moment. Next on the list will probably be Children of Mana, although I'm thinking about trying another genre for a bit.

Trying to do some riding

I've managed to get some time in the office for the end of this week so i'm going to try and do a bit of riding. It's been a long time since i've done the ride to work but hopefully i'll have a little more time where i can fit it in.

Not much to report...

Apart from being back at work I don't have much else to report. The weekend, even though it felt really busy, I didn't really get up to much. Friday night we went for a quiet Pizza Caper's dinner at Tom and Susan's and they introduced us to this new show from the US called Burn Notice.
Most of Saturday was spent moving bits and pieces of furniture around. Some of the stuff in our place we no longer wanted around went to the dump and we picked up some more storage pieces. It was very satisfying throwing the couch into the Pit at Nudgee! Yesterday was just a precession of Singing, Soccer, Singing and taking the car back that did all the transporting (thanks Dad, it's not like MinX is much of a couch transport option). In the end I didn't get around to a single bit of gaming or movie watching.

Tonight I do aim to rectify this with, at the very least, watching (possible the best ever) Top Gear episode and after that might flick on a DooVDe. (On Doovdes) I'm still looking for a replacement DVD player with HDMI since the Toshiba has started playing up. Some discs it's stopped recognising all together, some it simply pauses every 10 secs and others play without a hiccup. The front runners are the Pioneer DV-696 and the Yamaha DV-659. The Yamaha is the choice from a matching point of view but the Pioneer does get some great reviews, and I would consider the Onkyo DV-SP404 after the great success with my last Onkyo (which the Toshiba replaced).

Well that's about it for this post, I'm off to work for the day... more on the DooVDe player hunt later....

Back at work

After being sick for the better part of this week, I finally made it into the office today.

Fortunately it was a fairly cruisy week this week so I didn't have too much stress easing back into it. Not a lot of other news to report. There haven't been many new games that have been interesting enough to pick up so I'm back to some old favourites.

One of the things on the horizon is a new DVD player as the Toshiba is playing up more and more as the days wear on. It would be better if it just didn't work rather than picking and choosing.

I'm back to singing this week too after a bit of an absence with work travel and sickness.

A bit over a month to go until our trip away... I guess we'll have to start getting read to go!