Sean's Tech Stuff

Time for a restart!

2009-08-05T22:06:00.002-04:00

After over a year of neglect I figured it's time to jump start this blog back to life. I've got so much to talk about, smartphones, new OSes, MacBooks. netbooks, etc. Now to just spend the time and do it...

How to get a HD-DVD Player for $20

2008-04-11T19:01:00.001-04:00

I know what you're probably thinking, why would I bother getting a HD-DVD player now that BluRay is the HD format winner? For those of you who don't already know, HD-DVD is like the Betamax of our time. It's a new format for hi-definition DVD movies that has now been abandoned by all that used to support it.

So that being said, here's the story. I wasn't actually looking for a HD-DVD or BluRay player, simply because I couldn't justify the cost. Instead I'd been keeping an eye out for an upconverting DVD player since the DVD player I had was old and only played most DVDs if you asked very nicely and polished the DVD to space telescope optical quality.

The thing is, even upconverting DVD players are a little pricey (around $100) if you want decent quality, and they don't actually play any HD video, they just make DVDs look better on a HD TV.

Then I had a idea. Since HD-DVD players function as upconverting DVD players on the side, maybe with the format war over I could pick one up for cheap? Plus you get the added benefit of being able to burn HD-DVD content to a regular old DVD-R and play it in full HD quality. This would be great for our wedding video which was filmed in HD. So I took a drive by the local Best Buy and found them being sold for $89. Pretty good but still not an amazing deal. However I asked around and managed to find an open box item for only $69. Now that's a price I could handle, so I went ahead and picked it up. Plus it still had the 2 free HD-DVD movies thrown in which made the deal even better.

I got it home, plugged it in, and of course the DVDs look a nice and sharp. Then I through some wedding video on a DVD in HD-DVD format and wouldn't you know it, it played in full glorious quality. Sweet!

So where does that $20 come from? Well 2 weeks ago I noticed an add on the Best Buy website. Since they were feeling sorry for all of those poor saps who spent tons of money on a now obsolete HD-DVD player, they were offering a $50 gift card for simply showing a receipt that you bought one after some date in January. I figured there's no way I could qualify for this since I paid so little to start with. Well, as it turns out, Best Buy put no other limitations on this program. So I walked in, presented my $69 receipt, and received my $50 gift card. Now that is a deal!

Via Rail Wi-Fi Leaves a lot to be Desired

2008-04-11T18:29:00.002-04:00

I'm actually on a train right which runs between Toronto and Windsor. I'm connected to the internet using Via Rail's in train wi-fi service. Sure that might sound pretty cool, but in reality it's like being connected to the internet via pigeon. I take a packet, print it out, tie it to the foot of a homing pigeon, and wait for the bird to arrive back with the reply.

Seriously, it is that slow. I decided to try a test; disconnected from wi-fi and then connected through my cell phone using bluetooth. Huge improvement in speed! If it wasn't for the fact that some Rogers accountant started foaming at the mouth as soon as I did that I would have stayed connected, but my bank account can't handle the per kb charges.

So back to Via Rail's painful wi-fi. I don't know how they can actually charge for this service and I don't think I'll be paying for it again. I know it must be tricky getting wireless internet to a moving train, but unless you can do it with some reliability there really is no point at all.

What I've learnt about HD camcorders

2008-01-18T13:43:00.000-05:00

I recently had the need to buy my very first camcorder. Of course being the techny guy I am I already knew a fair bit about them, I was familiar with the media choices (DV, hard drive, DVD), the format options (standard, HD 1080i, HD 1080p) and the benefits and challenges associated with each.

In the end I decided on the Canon HG10, a high definition 1080p capable (24 fps) camcorder which records to a 40GB hard drive. During my initial research it had great reviews and I managed to find an excellent price (by Canadian standards) on one at the local Best Buy. Plus it uses the new "standard" for HD video, a format called AVCHD. More on this format shortly.

Of course the first thing I wanted to do after getting it home was learn as much about the features as possible. I quickly recorded some video, plugged it in to the computer, and started to figure out how to best transfer and edit the video.

Here's where I really started to learn about the AVCHD format and what it's all about. As it turns out, AVCHD is not THE standard but one of two standards, the other being HDV. And it turns out that AVCHD vs HDV camcorders are related in a minor way to the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war. This is because AVCHD is almost identical to the video format used by Blu-ray and can be played on Blu-ray players without re-encoding, wheras HDV format, while not the same as HD-DVD, can be natively played on HD-DVD players (from what I understand so far anyway).

Does this even matter? Well yes and no. The camcorder is hard drive so the video format used internally really makes no difference. However once you get the video on a PC this is where the challenge comes in. If you just want to view it or transfer it to DVD for playback in Blu-ray... no problem. If you want to actually do some editing so that viewers don't have to sit through the entire 2 hours it took to capture your kids first steps, well that's another issue. As it turns out the AVCHD format is just starting to make it's way into video editing suites, and many of the very popular ones (e.g. Adobe Premiere Elements) doesn't yet support it. And when you finally do find software to support it, the format is extremely alogorithm heavy which means you better have pretty high end PC with bucket loads of memory sitting around, and even then expect to leave your video processing over night.

As it turned out I had just recently purchased the latest version of Nero 8 Ultra Edition which actually does support AVCHD. The only problem is when I make the AVCHD format video and try and transfer it back to the camcorder, the transfer program crashes. Not a good start. So I have to make it in MPEG 2 and use the camcorder software (which not surprisingly is borderline useless) to convert it to AVCHD and then transfer back to the camcorder. Of course I have to transfer it back to the camcorder because as of yet I have nothing else connected to my TV capable of viewing HD videos I've created (my only other HD device is the cable box).

OK now it may sound like I'm complaining about the camera and I'm not, I'm only complaining about the format and I suspect some of these issues will be fixed over time. The camera is actually great and does have excellent reviews. The ONLY real complaint I have about the camera is the jerkiness of video in 24 fps mode (1080p). You can find a great review and explanation of the issue here.

So, bottom line, would I recommend this camera? Yes and no. Yes if you don't mind beeing bleeding edge and have patience for the software to catch up. Otherwise, go get a HDV camera (the Canon HV20 is highly rated) and you'll probably be off to a quicker start.

Apple brings sexy back... again

2008-01-16T12:05:00.000-05:00

OK, so there has already been much love for the newly announced MacBook Air and for good reason. It is definitely one slick piece of laptop, mind bogglingly thin and a healthy dose of Apple user friendliness.

Now the skeptics, and I'm sure there are many, will of course have the usual complaints. Technically there's not much new, some specs are a little short (e.g. small hard drive), no optical drive, no swappable battery, etc, etc. The thing is this all misses the point. The point is Apple has again done what they do best, which is taking existing technology and making it sexy and easy to use. So sexy, in fact, that millions of people will absolutely have to have one. Sure you can buy a Windows laptop with the same or higher specs for far less money, but you won't be able to show it off at the nearest Starbucks with that same sense of pride (and slight snobbery). And the fact is most normal people (myself excluded of course) could give a rat's behind what the technology is under the covers, as long as it looks cool and works well. You'll be guaranteed that all the same Hollywood crowd that had to be seen with an iPhone last year will be seen with the MacBook Air this one.

I for one think it's great, the more Apple computers out there challenging the Windows dominance, the better for everyone. And one day I might even be able to afford one!

And the other big Apple announcement of course was the new movie rental service through iTunes and Apple TV. Many people have been waiting for the online movie rental business to really take off, it seems like an inevitability after all, but as of yet it hasn't hit the mainstream. With Apple having every major studio on board and with their ever-so-user-friendly devices, this has as good a chance as any of succeeding. And I'm sure the execs over at Netflix, with their new online service (partnering with LG), are feeling the heat.

Before I go one little rant... So Apple stuff is supposed to be all user friendly and it just works. But yesterday I went to update my fiancée's iPod Touch with the latest firmware and software add-ons for the new applications. Unsurprisingly it required an iTunes update, which quickly caused iTunes to crash, prompted me with a reboot, and then attempted to show me a license agreement as the system was shutting down. Luckily it came back up and worked, but still a disappointment! Ah well, they can't be perfect all the time...

MacWorld 2008 prediction

2008-01-15T11:14:00.000-05:00

MacWorld 2008 kicks off in 40 mins from now and I have one and only one prediction:

An updated iPhone with more memory, HSDPA (3G) support, and 2-way video chat to other iPhone users AND iChat/AIM users.

See a live report of the keynote at Engadget.

Update: So I was wrong but there were a lot of very cool new announcements. Will blog about those shortly.

Who Am I?

2008-01-14T12:46:00.000-05:00

So you're probably wondering who the hell I am and what kind of kind of expertise I have to comment on the world of technology. Well first off, and let's get this out the way early, I'm no expert. In fact the closest I get to being professionally involved in technology is the fact that I evaluate much of it for corporate use. So much of what I write on this blog will simply be my own amateur view of what I think about some new technology and how it relates to the real world. i.e. It's my opinion not yours so feel free to disagree!

That being said I do have quite a few years of "playing" with cutting edge consumer technology both professionally and privately. Here are just a few examples:

I tested the very first production IBM tablet computer. it was crap
In 2000 I wrote an proof of concept web app to run on a Palm VIIx (a precursor to the current smartphone craze). It could view very simplified web pages over a very slow wireless network.
I have an obsession with wireless technology. In 1994 in high school I was the only one with a pager. In 1995 when I started university I had an old car phone. In 1997 I was one of the few kids on campus with a "mobile" cell phone (can you imagine a college student without a cell phone now?). In 1999 I was using a GSM phone in the UK and texting like mad, before anyone in North America knew what a text message was.
I use Bluetooth to surf the web from my PDA via my cell phone using GPRS (and now HSDPA). I've been doing that since my first Canadian GSM phone in 2003 (Nokia 6810i). And Rogers still hasn't dropped data rates since then!
I'm obsessed with display technology. At 16 (in 1991) I knew the difference between active and passive matrix LCD displays. I started following OLED news in 1997, even before the LCD craze took off.
I dabble in programming but nothing serious. I also do a little bit of web development and sometimes make money at it.

So that's a quick list of some of my tech cred. If that's not enough for you then. well. stop reading!

And finally, the reason I started this blog is a way to vent my thoughts on tech. I use it and help other people use it all the time and sometimes I just need a way to get my thoughts out. Whether anyone else cares, who knows.

Thanks for stopping by!