Posts by Aidan
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Chasing the Trans-Pacific Express, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Got the ad-skipping feature working too and as for transferring you can set it up to do that automatically, it can also transcode to other formats like DivX or Xvid.
Which goes to show how wrong-headed the Freeview restrictions are. The technically inclined can circumvent them, and it is people like me old Mum who can't buy a simple product for a reasonable price.
My Mum can't really justify the expense of a PVR, and she would be incapable of using it. I only recently found out how she uses her VCR. She only records shows when she is going to be out for the evening, or if she is at home and doing something else. She pushes record, and lets it record for the length of the tape, or pushes stop if she comes back before the tape is finished but the show is over.
Her ideal would really be a PVR capable TV, as it would mean one less remote and not having to change inputs. Failing that a simple HD set top box with the option to record out the USB port would be ideal. She doesn't even need the damn EPG, but no one is bothering to import these cheap (sub $100) boxes into NZ because of the Freeview licensing and lack of an unencumbered EPG.
UPDATE! Woo hoo! It looks like these cheapie AKAI boxes work if the country is set to France (must be a similar channel layout to NZ).
Anyone had any experience with this?
-
I don't think it is true that MPEG4 is a problem. I gave links to two set top boxes here in aus ($55 and $69) that both support MPEG4.
The problem is they have no incentive to add the necessary logic to support the NZ channel layout as there is no freely available EIT EPG. They could sell an essentially crippled set top box, but how are they going to market that?
Freeview in NZ only has the MHEG5 EPG, as it claims this is a usability issue. It wants to be able to present the same EPG view on all boxes to ease the transition. That may be a laudable goal, but really the MHEG5 EPG is about control. Only Freeview certified boxes have access to this EPG, so they can determined what they are able to do, e.g. no, or limited, ad skipping, no transferring of recordings etc.
The experience in Aus has been that Freeview branded boxes offer LESS than non-freeview and have not been embraced. The market has been flooded with cheap (not great quality ...) HD set top boxes and PVRs and the prices have tumbled. This is good for the consumer.
-
MPEG4 is pretty much standard now (I'm guessing the chipsets are all just MPEG2/4 compatible).
Exhibit #1 $70 HD MPEG4 set top box with USB record (and media player!)
Exhibit #2 $300 twin tuner 1TB HD PVR
Exhibit #3 $59 HD MPEG4 set top box with USB record
Exhibit #4 $249 Dual Tuner 500Gb HD PVR
I have contacted a couple of vendors to see if these things will work in NZ (want to buy one for my mum) but so far no luck. It isn't the MPEG4 specs, but the channel layout and spacing. This is a trivial thing to support, but with the lack of an EPG, and no freeview branding, I guess there is no real market for them to bother adding that functionality.
Pity eh?
-
Same old drum, but lack of an unencumbered EPG (EIT) has really stuffed the NZ market.
Here in Aus I can buy an HD set top box with PVR/recording abilities for $70 (needs an external drive or flash disk) .
-
The squealing from squeamish arab league countries is likely a butt-covering exercise to distance themselves from images that prove unpopular among their populace.
Grain of salt.
Witness the difference between the public pronouncements and the private conversations with respect to Iran as revealed by Wikileaks. Nothing can be taken at face value.
-
OnPoint: Pay Attention, in reply to Keith Ng,
This stuff is MAD arbitrary.
No different to any internet filter/firewall. Witness the stupidity of the Australian internet filter blacklist, which contained legitimate businesses, including a dentist! The fact that it was leaked to Wikileaks just reinforces how important wikileaks could be.
I've been behind a DOE firewall in the US. The stuff they block is just weird, and it comes up with an ominous "You have attempted to access a blocked site. This has been logged". I can do without that shit thank you very much.
-
Speaking of FTA TV, I've been wanting to get this off my chest for some time.
The lock-up of digital FTA TV in NZ is bad. Bad for the consumer and bad for FTA TV (although maybe they can't see that). The Freeview EPG requires expensive licensed set-top boxes and places ridiculous restrictions on TV manufacturers.
Case in point: my family buy my mum a spanky new digital TV for her birthday. Sweet! I set it up for her, but what? Where is the low-quality composite video out from her TV that I can plug into her VCR, so she can record shows when she is out of the house? Gone? Yeah, well Samsung have never been that keen on them, and most other manufacturers seem to be ditching them.
No matter thinks me, I'll pop down to Dick Smith's and get a cheap HD set top box with USB recording (and a flash drive or small hard drive). I knew I could get something like that for A$90 in Aus. Not in NZ. You're up for $200+, and it seems most don't support external USB recording. The TV only cost $550 FFS.
I could bring a cheapy HD set top box from Aus but it seems that the "free" EPG is not properly populated, only the proprietary, encrypted Freeview EPG. This is bogus.
Lobby for a properly transmitted EIT EPG so that cheap generic set top boxes, PVRs and media centres can work in NZ. It is in FTA TVs best interests, even if they don't know it.
-
I hate "Bubby" even more, to refer to the children. It always makes me think of Hugo Weaving in Bad Boy Bubby.
Granted, he does look similar, but the male lead in Bad Boy Bubby is Nicholas Hope.
There is an awful lot of middle class angst in this thread. When my wife and I were planning to get married (no we weren't engaged, no we didn't have an "engagement party") we got no end of grief from the shacked-up couples we knew. WHY?! They'd ask.
We ended up being "radical" by getting married. WTF?!
-
Ah, I dont want to be seen to stick up for this dick-head, but I'd presume if that was not correct, the immigration department (or whatever it's called) would have brought this up at the time of the court case, and he wouldnt have been discharged without conviction?
I guess I was thinking of matters that might not have been known at the trial. False ID can be used for a lot more than just travelling to Bail incognito.
-
Very pre-meditated. And all along knowing that none of it was legal
And we've only got his word that he never used it.