EyeTV Netstream DTT: A first look

With my parents moving into the house there have been some rethinks around how my media is distributed around the house (something I've talked about at length here over and over and over again).

The biggest thing was trying to get commercial TV everywhere (not that I really watch that much) with only one antenna point in our master bedroom. With so many iDevices and two AppleTVs in the house the logical solution looked like the EyeTV Netstream DTT.

In reality is hasn't been so perfect though. The setup was quite easy although it failed to work on my G5 iMac (not a show stopper I know but a little annoying) and the installer disk didn't actually work with the Netstream, you had to download a different EyeTV app from the web. Once those hurdles were done though it wasn't all smooth sailing.

I've had nothing but reception issues with the unit. First off I must say that my current Panasonic plasma is running on a $5 set of bunnies ears without a hiccup. The Netstream by contrast can't seem to get more than about 29% even plugged into an external antenna.

One thing that has helped was moving it a long way from my time-capsule with which it doesn't seem to have a good working relationship.

To be fair when I can get enough reception to get a picture it works brilliantly streaming wonderfully to my iPhone/iPad and laptops. I can even airplay it to the AppleTV and the ability to convert to iTunes is very handy. With that said though, with so many receptions issues I'd have some serious second thoughts about adding this as a DVR solution.

Another Movie for the Collection

Over the holidays we started trying to get through our movie collection. Having the little one around means that getting the movies is pretty hard, and even hard if you're there to pause if someone needs some attention. We got through Wall-E (on BluRay) on Xmas day and since then we've been working the Harry Potter Series (on HD-DVD). We've watched the first 4 and have the Order of the Phoenix to go.  I think it's the most movies we've watched in a long time

We have another one to add to the collection today, Earth (on BluRay). Ness entered me in a competition a few weeks ago and to our surprise the spoils turned up today!

How you know tech is integral in your home...

Warning: this post may contain references to Zachary
This morning as we were trying to comfort and cuddle Zach back to sleep we were surfing for something to watch. (A. for entertainment but also B. because Zach is much easier to settle with noise going on)
After the great match in the EPL the other night we stumbled across another match and I heard Ness say something I though she would never say... "Eiw, it's in SD (SD => Standard Definition)" this is on top of her earlier confession that FoxHD should be from consolidated revenue not solely a tech purchase. This should make future HD tech upgrades easier to get by the board... I just hope the board doesn't read this :)

And because I put the disclaimer in I may as well make it worth while!

From Zachary Day 2

From Zachary Day 2

From Zachary Day 2

More early morning browsing....

Not quite as early as usual but heres a few jems of the morning...

Roman this one's for you..."Pew, Pew!"

This is just a litle odd.

What We Learn From Living Out Of A Suitcase from Apartment Therapy Main..

Stylish Parisian Studio Tech Tour

Pyroblazer for Wii

Miyamoto Scrutinizes Mario, Zelda, Hails Portal

Again... weird
Obama, Palin coming to Mercenaries 2 DLC Pew Pew!!!

High-def audio wiring guide removes the mystery

Yes Ben, He does cry...

It's not quite 4am but there seems to be a trend in these early morning posts....

Zach has been a great baby today, but between his last 2 feeds has been upset. We think he had an upset tummy - perhaps being confirmed as his nappy gets changed now. He did manage to throw up on my side of the bed tonight while being comforted by Ness ... I think it was a conspiracy.

In other news, the new Dell monitor arrived today. It looks very schmick, and if you wanted a single monitor/tv option it would definitely be on the list. It's Full HD and comes with a HDMI port (and at the time of purchase an HDMI Cable). Of course, I will hold back from making that recommendation until I'm sure it doesn't go the way of the laptop ... At the moment all it's managed to do is make a very very pretty digital photo frame. I'll put up some unboxing photos tomorrow.

In other news, Zach is part of a news.com.au "baby boom". Are we the next baby boomers?

(sorry for all the baby post but the 3 hour feed cycles limit the amount of non baby stuff.... and he's a bit adorable, I should probably order one of these though )

Bad TenHD!

I've been waiting for the 4th season of Battlestar for months... I've been waiting so long that I held off watching the last episodes of season 3 so I wouldn't get stuck on the cliff hanger... The great news is that the 4th season has started again on TenHD, the downside is there is not one bit of advertising to say it was coming up. The only reason I know was I just chanced a search on the Foxtel EPG and discovered it was showing... To my horror though I've missed the first episode..

The other big news is that the seasons of BSG are now on iTunes (of course only up to season three).

I think I'm going to be on the search for the first season.

Ah the airport....

Well I'm back at the airport again... and I'm pretty tired today. Last night I had to have an MRI (as a follow up from my recent hospital visit). They run them suprisingly late (my appointment was at 8:30pm) which unfortunately leads to late finishing times about 10:30pm last night. This would have been fine if I wasn't already flying to Sydney today. I've got a serious case of the yawns as a result this morning.

The whole MRI thing is pretty cool, just not exactly a riveting experience for the patient. Being so late at night and not being able to move at all made it quite hard not to dose off....

I'm considering another shipment from Amazon this week. One of my favourite cartoon series as a kid, ROBOTECH, has a new series (the Shadow Chronicles) and it was released on Blu-ray this week. There are a few other titles I've got on my wish list at the moment so I might have bundle up a few others with it... you know, to save on shipping obviously.

On the whole "buying DVD/Blu" thing I must admit that since we've got Foxtel HD+ with the ability to download HD movies on Demand the need/urge to buy hard copies of shows is really reduced. Admittedly you don't get the TrueHD sound formats but the difference in cost is hard to ignore. Even compared to renting the convenience of just clicking "Watch" rather than jumping in the car is a huge bonus.  This compined now with Apple's announcement of TV shows in HD I can't see my DVD collection growing at the same rate as it has in the past. I will still get the movies that I will watch more than once (probably lump a few Pixars into that) but I won't be rushing out to buy a title just because I missed it at the cinema. This may of course mean that I may at some stage add an AppleTV to the current setup but that won't be for quite a while yet.

Well even after all that ranting my plane still isn't boarding... oh well looks like I'll have to wade through a few more articles on Google Reader.

Foxtel one month in.... and on the go....

So we've had Foxtel and the iQ2 for about a month now and I've recently discovered a feature that would have been enough to make me buy it on it's on.... Remote access!


Not only can I access the iQ2 and add programs to record from the pretty intuitive web interface I can also download an app for my phone (which of course I've done) and add programs to record on the go... anywhere... now that is useful.

HD+ has landed....

Yesterday, after not much of a wait at all, my new Foxtel HD+ service was installed. The new HD Sport Services are great. It was a little bit of a let down though seeing an NRL match in HD on Foxsports to follow it up with SD for the origin but I'm sure Channel 9 will be on the bandwagon soon enough. ESPNHD is one of the best HD channels though... After origin I was watching the NBA playoffs just because the picture was so good. I would have to say that some of the HD Content even looks better than some of the HD/Bluray Disks I have.

The iQ2 is also a great little device. It has one of the best interfaces of a STB PVR that I've used. My favourite feature so far is the ability to pick up another channel to record without having to change channel you're watching. During the Origin we realised that I hadn't put in a reservation to record Spicks and Specks or The Gruen Transfer. I simply had to scroll to the ABC channel in the preview panel and hit the record button. The Series Link option for the recording looks like a great idea I'm yet to see it in action though so I can't really say how well it works.

I'm off to Sydney today (I know, just for something different) and I've set up quite a few things to record on the "Series Link" option (the idea being it will record all the entries of that show when ever they appear). So we'll see how well it works (although I did notice that the "Series Link" option isn't available for the Free to Air HD channels)

HD is on it's way....

I took the plunge this week and put my order in for the new Foxtel HD service. I've been tossing up whether to get a new HD PVR but decided that the offer on the PayTV service was the way to go.

They new system has the iQ2 at the heart which is based on the platformed used by Sky in the UK.

The Delivery of the system is next Wednesday just in time for the next State of Origin match.

Contemplating a new PVR

So it's probably not much of a surprise to anyone that I was contemplating an upgrade to my PVR at some stage. The Topfield PVR5000t has been great over the years but it's limited to SD and doesn't have HDMI support. The trouble with choosing a new PVR is finding something that has the same level of features as my old Topfield hasn't been easy. Yesterday, however, I got an email that made me rethink my strategy just a little.

Foxtel HD+ was launched yesterday to those who'd signed up at their site and I got an email outlining the pricing plan and offerings for the service. The box itself is based loosely on the Sky+ box in the UK which gets rave reviews from the likes of What Hifi (it's probably also the reason that for the most part the new HD content is from UK Channels).

The pricing is by no means cheap but when compared with the price of getting a new HD PVR (~$1000) it's not completely hideous. I'm not sure if I'll jump just yet and by the looks of the reports it could be a long time coming if I do....

A post for a Monday morning

Well we’re back at Monday again and I’m back on a plane, this post comes to you from 8900m above sea level (well technically it was written at that altitude but obviously I won’t be posting it until we land... we still don’t have Wifi on planes just yet). Yesterday was a bit of a role reversal for travel, Ness was off to a conference on the Gold Coast so I was the one staying home (well at least for one night) and bidding farewell. Being at home on my own I spent some quality time with the projector and settled in with a movie on the big screen. I’m still wading through the huge list of HD and BluRay titles that I’ve been accumulating. The new setup has made a substantial difference to the performance of the Sub. It’s now in the middle of the front 3 speakers directly under the sub and up against the brick wall. The deep bass is now much more integrated with the rest of the front stage and delivers the music aspect of soundtracks better than ever before. Explosions still have their same usual punch and deep rumblings as before, something the system never really struggled with. The best bit about the whole thing though was I got to use the projector in complete darkness something that doesn’t happen too often, no matter how good their ambient light performance, it always feels a bit more like a cinema when it’s just the light bouncing back off the screen.

We took the C4 for a drive on the weekend and will now be picking it up on Saturday. It was a bit of a shock going from MinX to the C4 but it was a really comfortable ride and the glass roof is just great.

We also started stage 1 of Paris preparations for the nursery. Although there isn’t anything that looks like a nursery, we’ve started relocating the study into other rooms of the house (or other people’s houses as the case may be. The iMac has found a new home on the Transformer bed and the gaming station is going to be relocated around the arcade table. The ‘Library’ as it’s now called has had the bookshelves rearranged and consolidated.

For those who are interested (probably no one but it helps pad this post) we’re now at 12600m above sea level.

As this is turning into a weekend update here’s the rest of our weekend, Friday night we went to Salon for a bon voyage dinner for Tom and Susan before they headed on their 6 week holiday. We went to Salon because Tom had missed out on the Slow Cooked Beef dish at my birthday party. So we had a bit of a Spanish style dinner with a Pork Belly, Slow Cooked Beef and Wild Boar dish. After one bite of the beef, though, Tom was hooked. We cut a deal with the girls and traded sweet desert for beef desert. Best Desert EVER!

More Region hacks

Inspired by the region hacking of the hotel player in Sydney (and the discovery that although my LG BH100 will play all region Bluray discs it will only play Region 4 DVDs) I had a bit of a play around with the settings. There isn't a hack posted anywhere but I tried some of the hacks from other players and I found how to get to the EERPOM Settings for the BH100.
Turn the player on (with no disc in)
Press PAUSE, 1, 4, 7, 2
and Voila!

The values displayed are

41 55 00 8D 00 05 00 50

I'm assuming I'd be able to change the region codes from here but who knows which one. I haven't tried changing anything yet for fear of bricking it. I'm hoping to find a few other peoples settings (from other regions) to see if we can figure out which value does which.

A couple of weeks worth of posts....

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted and a combination of guilt from Ben and a few others has let to a triumphant blog return...

The biggest news item of the fortnight is I had my birthday. I have a few photos courtesy of Tom... I was really sick in the week leading up to my party so I was lucky to make it. I had a great night though and it was fantastic to get everyone together. Ness has been a bit annoyed that my present is late but it has really drawn out the surprise... I did get some great presents though... even Amazon managed to mail me a present of about 16 HD&Bluray titles I'd been waiting on.

Being sick was a bit of a double edge sword, I did manage a week at home and not traveling which did lead to completion (at least rescuing of the princess) of Mario Galaxy, but on the down side my project (in Sydney) has taken a nasty turn and it's not the most pleasant place to work at the moment. As a result I'm back to the weekly flight to Sydney (coincidently I'm blogging from the Virgin Lounge in Brisbane... again).

I have started a new DS game which is likely to turn into an obsession (as all the previous titles in the series have). I finally got around to picking up the new Advance Wars title, which will not only have a great single player campaign, but now features online play which means I can waste away hours and hours battling it out.

It's a long weekend this weekend so I'm looking forward to 3 days not in Sydney and probably a bit of gaming thrown in. Ness picked up a Cricut on the weekend and is planning a mammoth session with it on Friday so I may just have to entertain myself with some DS time or the other current obsession of Battlestar Galactica. While I was sick I manage to knock over all of the First and Second Season. I ordered a copy of the bridging season Razor which turned up from (trusty) Amazon on Friday.

Region Free....What's it worth?

How much is too much to pay to discover if my player is Region Free. According to one of the forums the early firmwares of my player allowed all regions to play. The trick is no one seems to know if that's for sure or if they have locked it down....

The Curse of the Golden Flower is $14.95 on Amazon... is that too much?

Of course if it is region free... Blu ray discs suddenly become a lot cheaper.

Back to Sydney.....Again

Well, as you can tell from the title, I'm off to Sydney. Not much else to report except I'm really busy... Stupidly busy in fact.

I'd post more but it's all work related...

Oh and I got more HDs in the mail... (again not a big surprise)

Is it worth getting old movies in HiDef?

On Thursday night while we were waiting for a table, we were talking about whether you'd notice the difference in quality of old movies on the new HiDef formats. Specifically we were talking about films like Casablanca, which is a classic among classics. There is no argument that it's a great film but would something that old really benefit from a 1080p transfer. Yesterday when I got home some of my Amazon shipments turned up among them was Enter the Dragon, definitely more cult than classic but it was interesting to see just how it held up more than 25 years after it was shot.

Apart from the shots having a very 70s feel about them, the general presentation of the film was outstanding. It looked really crisp and the colours were bold and vibrant, the production values were not as high as a more recent film but it still presented better than a lot of dvds.

It still remains to be seen how this would look on something like Casablanca but I guess that will only be decided if I bite the bullet and order it from Amazon.

Early flights are good for some things

Yes I'm back at the airport again, I'm off to Sydney for the rest of the week. As a result I was up fairly early (and unsurprisingly on the net) which meant I could catch a few more of the HD sales early and pick up some titles before they sell out.

I hadn't been buying DVDs for a while (mostly because I was holding out for the high def formats) but with all the HD sales there has been a bit of a flood and my HD library has grown very quickly.

Well my flight is boarding so that's it until Sydney.

Finally some time at home

I had a short trip to Adelaide this week, which is ending in some welcome time at home for the first time in a little over 3 weeks. I've got 6 days in a row in Brisbane which hasn't happened since at least Christmas and some time in June before that. As a result I've tried to cram about 6 weeks worth of catch up in one weekend so there isn't going to be too much time for relaxing but it will be great to see everyone.

There have been a few more HD DVD sales this week, not least of all the EzyDVD beat the bomb sale this week which saw a few more titles make their way into my collection.

I've still be on the look out for a new DS but I haven't really made many inroads. There are a few new colours around Japan and the US that I'd like to get my hands on but none of them have turned up here. In fact most places here have been sold out (or offering pink models).

Back on the Adelaide trip for a bit, last night I went out for dinner and stumbled across a noodle
place that would do traditional Malay or Thai dishes with Kangaroo meat. I was determined to have something with the 'Roo so I asked for a recommended style. They came back with the Mango Coconut and it was fantastic. I'd never thought of having Kangaroo in a stirfry dish but it was great.

A very cold day at the cricket

It was a very bumpy ride in to both Melbourne and Hobart last night. I also had to run between gates once my flight landed (45 mins late) from Sydney. The ride was so bumpy it's the first time I've ever felt sick on a plane.

The other fun part was the rain in Hobart and the long walk to the terminal, with no aerobridge.

Today we went to watch the Domestic One Day Cricket final in Hobart between Tasmania and Victoria. It didn't really feel like a summers day in the cricket, despite the 35+ temperatures in Brisbane we were lucky to break 15 in Hobart, the wind was a bit of killer as well.

There was some good cricket, lots of wickets falling made for an exciting morning session. There was a bit of rain in the second session and when it came to the big rain delay we called it quits and headed home to watch the end of play

Cricket in Hobart

The game came down to the wire with rain shortened rules and wickets falling very fast with the wet pitch.

Only 3 off the last 2 overs seemed an easy target but 2 quick wickets made it a nail biter. But the number 11 survived to put Birt on strike for the final over and edge the first ball to win.

My HD-DVD collection is also growing with Valavien tracking down a HD sale at Video Ezy and picking up some more cheap titles.