Toshiba threw in the towel

HD-DVD is officially history now. And what exactly does this mean for cosumers?

How To Hook Up Your Home Theater

Went to see the new National Treasure today. The movie wasn't very interesting but a short animation film before it was brilliantly funny. "How To Hook Up Your Home Theater" by Walt Disney Pictures.

You need to have the experience to setup a home theater to really feel the irony. I especially liked the surround-sourround speakers (and the subwoofer came with it, of course) and the super universal remote. You should go watch it, trust me, this animation itself is worth the movie ticket.

See a clip of it here.

Black Friday, HD DVD Format War

To say the prices of HD DVD players are dropping like a rock is an understatement. Both BestBuy and Walmart are offering Toshiba HD DVD player at $98 even before Black Friday.

If history is of any reference, the coming Balck Friday is going to mark the beginning of the end for the HD format war, with HD DVD gaining much more shelf space, despite Blu-ray being a technically "superier" format.

iPhone

How difficult is it to unlock iPhone? The start up screen says it all (Slide to Unlock, LOL).

Seriously though, when you need to utilize a buffer overflow exploit and SSH to replace system files on a cellphone, it's definitely not for the faint hearted. Here is a comprehensive guide on jailbreaking and unlocking iPhone with firmware 1.1.1 on Windows. A word of caution: the guide may not be completely up to date and, needless to say, you're risking voiding your warranty and bricking your iPhone.

it's comforting to know that in most cases, you can set iPhone to recovery mode and restore the default settings (Turn off, hold Home key and plug the USB connector. iTune will deal with the rest).

The next "Big" Flat Panel TV is ... 11 inchs

Sony will start to sell the first commercial OLED TV this december. The 11 inch TV is only 3mm thin and has a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. It has get fairly good reviews on picture quality, but the screen size is just too small.

Making Sense of the Sensor Bar

Every Wii owner would likely agree that the little black sensorbar that comes with the console is every bit as innovative and high-tech as a VR helmet: given the way Wii games are played, that sensorbar must collect various motion data from the Wiimote and transmit that back to the console. Very complicated stuff...or so I thought.

On my quest to de-clutter the wires (the wire connecting the sensorbar is the only visible one around the TV now), I came to know a really cost efficient replacement for that mighty sensorbar: two light candles... No, I'm not joking. You can read about it here. Turns out the sensorbar is no more than two light sources that the Wiimote can use to figure out its coordinate and orientation... High-tech? No, but Brilliant? Yes!

BTW, in case you don't want to leave burn marks on your TV, the wireless sensorbar is probably a better alternative.

HD-DVD Players

Thanks largely to the competition between PS3 and XBOX360, the prices of HDDVD and Blu-ray players are finally droping like rocks, with HDDVD player in the sub-$200 range. And with deals like this, my crystal ball tells me that my upconverting DVD player is on its borrowed life.

iPhone Clone

MiniOne cellphone by Chinese cellphone vendor Meizu (魅族). It has got the look and feel of iPhone, attractive features and delicious price (about $260 for the 4GB version and $450 for the 16GB version)...

Planet Earth

This is truely the best series about nature and wildlife on this planet ever made, and it makes your HDTV really worthwhile. Now I can only regret that I didn’t go for a 1080p one or I don’t have a XBOX360/PS3 lying around, otherwise I’d definitely go for the HD or Blu-ray version of the DVD sets.

I have only watched a small portion of the program (that’s why I’d have to get the DVDs) and there are already so many amazing scenes: the hunt of the Golden Eagle, the first footage of a wild Snow Leopard and the mating dance of Birds of Paradise(the blue smily face is REALLY funny).

Spoiled Gamers

Once up a time, we were happy playing games like this: Yet today, we call Games with DVD quality picture "low resolution". So what's next? The Virtual Reality Helmet? How far are we to The Matrix? And are we really heading to the right direction? Anyway, just some random thoughts while reading the history of "Legend of Zelda" series. UPDATE: Speaking of which, Shigeru Miyamoto, the designer of the series, just received Lifetime Achievement Award today on Game Developers Conference 2007.

Wii'd like to play

Finally got my hands on a Wii console at a local Target store after a week long Wii-hunt. Why would such a relatively easy to make (compare to XBOX360 and PS3 --- not saying that it's less fun though) game console still at shortage almost three months after launch is beyond comprehension. Nintendo and the speculative resellers must have got into some kind of implicit collusion: by limiting the shippment and contributing to the shortage, Nintendo could get some free marketing exposure as media report how people stand inline 6am in the morning to buy a Wii --- XBOX360 and PS3 both pulled such stunt during their releases; and the ebayers will scoop up whatever amount comes to available on retailers' shelfs, put them up on ebay and earn a hefty profit. Besides, the return policy of the retailers always serves as a put option-alike protection. It's not hard to imagine that thousands of Wii consoles are seating in the closets of ebayers as we speak. Anyway, I'm now waiting to receive the The Legend of Zelda for the real fun to begin... Here are some tips on how to locate a Wii:

• The Wii-tracker tracks the availability of Wii console and bundles (very bad deal, I have to say) on major online retailers.
• Target has been the only retailer that has a relatively steady flow of shipments. Check the availability of Wii in Target local store here (check zip code to your location).
• And this thread on Fatwallet.

PHILIPS DVP5960 DVD Player

A new addition to my home theater system. I have been looking for a decent upscaling DVD player for a while and this one definitely fits the bill on every aspect: DVD upscaling throught HDMI connection, DivX support and most important of all, a front USB port that can directly read audio and video files off a USB compitible storage device (thumb drive or external HD). Setup was far easier than I thought. I planed to connect the player with my Onkyo receiver via HDMI port and use the receiver as a HDMI switch. Base on my bitter experience with Comcast HD box (needs firmware upgrade) and Samsung upscaling DVD recorder (HDMI version incompatible), I thought this connection schema was going to be a problem. To my surprise, once everything was connected, both audio and video worked right on. I have also tried the USB interface with a few DivX videos downloaded from Stage6, no problem (the USB drive needs to be formatted to FAT first). There are sure some minor issues with it: for a starter, there is no optical audio. This might be a problem if your receiver doesn't have HDMI switching and you need to connect to TV and Receiver separately. The USB interface is rather rudimentary, file names are displayed in short format. The remote could have been made better too (again, not a problem for me as I have taught my Universal URC-300 remote some new tricks). As most of my video collections are in RMVB format (don't ask me where I got them. Coz if I tell you, I'd have to kill you ;), I need to convert them into DivX now. Here is a guide I found on internet. Now, I'm in the market for a 500GB external harddrive...

HD DVD and Blu-ray Cracked

AACS has confirmed on its website that the HD DVD and Blu-ray encryption system has been crached:

AACS LA has confirmed that AACS Title Keys have
appeared on public web sites without authorization.
Such unauthorized disclosures indicate an attack
on one or more players sold by AACS licensees...

Ironically, these formats are not anywhere close to becoming the mainstream yet, even with all the help from PS3 and Xbox360. I have always wondered why anyone would spend such significent amount of time and money in media encryption. Since the terminal decryption equipment and media are both in consumers' (hackers') complete control, it's always a matter of time before someone find a way to intercept the communication. IMHO, the right way to stop illegal copies is to make media easily accessible: if I have a legid way to download HD movie for $1 or $2 and play it on my HDTV/PC, why'd I spend 7 days to crack the system?