Just as I wrote the article about everything working so well with my new Bluray-capable laptop and my Samsung TV, I actually stumbled over a problem that I didn't notice much at first or didn't investigate:
When watching movie-material over HDMI, I sometimes have "ghosting" issues. It only seems to happen when I use HDMI, and is most noticable when playing video-files with alot of dark areas. I'm not sure what the reason for it is or what component is responsible, but I will keep investigating.
It could be a number of things: the TV itself, maybe the HDMI-cables, the A/V receiver, the laptop's graphics card, etc.
The same videofiles play fine on the internal laptop-display and on an external TFT monitor hooked up over HDMI->DVI. So I kinda doubt it's the player software itself, probably not the gfx driver either - unless it has special options / handling of HDMI-signals. That could be the case of course, considering HDCP and all.
Right now my guess is that it's the TV though. Probably not even a fault or error, but rather simple a setting-issue or a slight incompatibility with the HDMI-source. I'm still hoping that I can solve it by switching off all the "image-enhancement" options of the TV. I tried a few of those already, without any success though.
Another reason might be the HDMI-connection. I don't know if cable quality has an effect or not, but I will try using a different HDMI-cable and omitting my A/V receiver and connect the laptop with the TV directly. At least it will give me an idea where the problem might be.
Another cause could be frequency/synching issues. I was happy to see that I could set 1080p/24 as display mode and it even worked on my TV, but maybe that's a problem nevertheless. BUT: I already tried other 1080p outputs, both 60hz and 50hz, with no noticable difference.
Ohwell, what can I say... "nice new digital world!"? or perhaps my usual complain: "Why can't things simply work?"
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Friday, September 19, 2008
Top Gear
I'm by far no car-enthusiast. Well, I'm a guy and thus cars do have some fascination of course but I never been interested too much in cars - I don't even own one. Never have.
That doesn't mean however that I don't like the Formula one or similar events. And if I get to drive, I like driving fast and sportive. And even though I'm not too much into very realistic driving-games, I like the action-packed ones - as long as they are fast and give you a nice impression of speed, like the "Burnout"-series or the recently released "Grid".
So a while ago, a friend sent me a link to online-streams of a british tv-show called "Top Gear". And I loved it! I also remembered another friend mentioning stuff from that show too. I love the way the show is designed. The moderator-trio with their teasing is very entertaining and funny - and it doesn't matter to me how much of it is staged or not.
And what's surely not staged is the guys' genuine love for what they are doing - you can't fake that, not for 11 seasons - and the honesty they show when testing cars or taking sides in discussions. It's the kind of attitude you easily are missing these days in many aspects of (work-)life. Sometimes I wish people would simply say what they mean and really think, no matter if it's "politically correct" or not.
That doesn't mean however that I don't like the Formula one or similar events. And if I get to drive, I like driving fast and sportive. And even though I'm not too much into very realistic driving-games, I like the action-packed ones - as long as they are fast and give you a nice impression of speed, like the "Burnout"-series or the recently released "Grid".
So a while ago, a friend sent me a link to online-streams of a british tv-show called "Top Gear". And I loved it! I also remembered another friend mentioning stuff from that show too. I love the way the show is designed. The moderator-trio with their teasing is very entertaining and funny - and it doesn't matter to me how much of it is staged or not.
And what's surely not staged is the guys' genuine love for what they are doing - you can't fake that, not for 11 seasons - and the honesty they show when testing cars or taking sides in discussions. It's the kind of attitude you easily are missing these days in many aspects of (work-)life. Sometimes I wish people would simply say what they mean and really think, no matter if it's "politically correct" or not.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Avatar finale
After waiting a long time, there are finally new Episodes of Avatar out. And the finale of the Avatar-show! I don't know if that month-long delay was planned or the result of the writer's guild strike, but I'm glad the show came to a conflusion now. And I liked the ending. Nothing too surprising, but definitely a worthy ending to that amazing show!
I wonder if there will be more episodes coming out - or spinoffs, but I hope they won't get too greedy and keep bringing out new episodes in the future. The show was nice the way they did it, and the story was designed well. It's always best to stop when you're ontop... but it's also hardest.
I wonder if there will be more episodes coming out - or spinoffs, but I hope they won't get too greedy and keep bringing out new episodes in the future. The show was nice the way they did it, and the story was designed well. It's always best to stop when you're ontop... but it's also hardest.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
I knew it! They still got it!
So they did it! And I can proudly say I didn't doubt they would. The german soccer team defeated Portugal, one of the favorites of the tournament and now they themselves are favorites for the title suddenly.
And what a victory it was! I believed they would win the match, but I thought even if they got better than they have been the last two games, they still would need luck. But what they showed us was incredible! They played amazingly! With so much passion, joy and sovereignty! It was so much fun just watching them play... combinating, rushing, forcing forward... and scoring goal after goal! 3 of them!
The match got tight in the end again, but they were victorious in the end - and they absolutely deserved to win! The portugese were good, but we were better!
Man of the match was Sebastian Schweinsteiger, who scored one goal and assisted on the other two. You could see he was hot and eager to compensate for getting that red penalty card 2 games ago. But it wasn't him alone who played exceptionally, it was the whole team. Actually, I wouldn't even call it exceptional since that implies they were playing above their skill limits... which is definitely not true. Ever since the world cup 2 years ago, all of Germany knows what these guys are capable of. And in this match, they simply reminded the whole country: "Yeah, we still have what it takes! We're still that good!"
... I'm glad I didn't doubt them. And after that game, I know noone else will - even if they shouldn't win the title. Thank you, guys!
And what a victory it was! I believed they would win the match, but I thought even if they got better than they have been the last two games, they still would need luck. But what they showed us was incredible! They played amazingly! With so much passion, joy and sovereignty! It was so much fun just watching them play... combinating, rushing, forcing forward... and scoring goal after goal! 3 of them!
The match got tight in the end again, but they were victorious in the end - and they absolutely deserved to win! The portugese were good, but we were better!
... I'm glad I didn't doubt them. And after that game, I know noone else will - even if they shouldn't win the title. Thank you, guys!
picture taken from and © www.spiegel.de
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
with 121 km/h into the quarter-finals!
So they did it today. And I didn't doubt at all that they would. The german soccer team beat Austria 0:1 today and thus moved on to the quarter-finals. I didn't like the game too much and I think the germans could play alot better still, but I'm happy and proud nevertheless. And Kudos to Michael Ballack, our captain, who scored the winning goal... and what a goal it was! His free kick went straight into the upper right of the goal, with a speed of 121 km/h! Impossible to catch! Wonderful to look at, such force, such precision!
Even though I also was shocked about what our team showed the match before this one against Croatia, I didn't like all the negative and bad comments and reports by all the wanna-be reporters and specialists. Yes ok, they did play badly, but they admitted it and we all know they can do alot better! I'm glad they showed more today, but I also agree after today that there's still room for improvement - and there has to be, because our next opponent won't be as easy to beat as Austria.
image © www.spiegel.de
Thursday, June 5, 2008
DVB-T - the "almost everywhere TV"
Yesterday I got my antenna to install for using DVB-T on my Samsung TV. I do have analog cable but that one looks crappy. I hardly ever watch tv but I thought for the European Soccer Championship I definitely want to have a nice, clear and crisp widescreen-picture. So since my Samsung has a DVB-T receiver built-in, I got an antenna for a few bucks to try that one out. I heard lots of things about DVB-T so far, many of them not really positive. Too few channels, quality-issues due to low-bandwidth, bad availability...
Most of those didn't matter to me. After looking up info on the internet, I knew that quite a few channels are available where I live, more than enough for me and including the main 2 ones I need for the soccer broadcasts. The quality definitely is the main issue for me, since my tv is quite big and I want the picture to look good on that one, without noticeable artifacts...
Lets get the obvious things out of the way: Setting up the thing was quite easy. And I got most channels right away. The quality was ok, but did vary quite a bit since some channels don't have a lot of bandwidth. The ones with enough data-rate did look quite good though, given you didn't sit up close to the TV - definitely an improvement over the analogue input, but no competition for digital cable (DVB-C) or satellite (DVB-S). But quite satisfying.
"The first" being last?
The two programs I needed for the soccer broadcast were the main two german channels "Das Erste / ARD" and "ZDF", meaning "the first" and "second german broadcast". Of course, those are supposed to be all up on top of the availability-list for the broadcast signal. Strangely enough, I realized later that I was missing "Das Erste". The channel search of my DVB-T tuner didn't find it. Consulting google again, I found that it should be broadcasted on channel 06, but my tuner didn't let me select channels that low - it always started at 21.
The solution was to re-select the initial Plug'n'Play setup of my tv and specifically select "Germany" as country, since the built-in tuner uses that country setting to determine the correct channel-layout and the broadcasting-frequencies. It turned out my TV was set to "Great Britain", probably because I wanted to have english language in all menues. I can't recall specifically setting that country though during the very first setup after installing my tv. Ohwell, after changing that, the tuner did search those low channels too, but "Das Erste" still didn't show up...
It turned out that channels this low use quite low frequencies - close to VHF-range already. My antenna had troubles getting a good signal for those frequencies at my place. I managed to set it up in a way now that I get reception, but the signal strength still is quite low compared to the rest of the channels I have... those all are around 70% to 80%, while "Das Erste" is at 20% max. I'm glad I got it to work, but I couldn't help and wonder why such an integral channel got assigned to such a low frequency-range. My antenna was supposed to be a quite good one, but from what I read online, receiving these low channels is alittle more trickier.
All in all, I'm quite happy with DVB-T though. The antenna I bought can be mounted inside and outside and I'm happy to see that I have the same signal strength inside my living room, so I don't have to place it on the outside. I connected the TV's optical out with my surround-receiver. I didn't get to test Dolby Digital yet and I realized that sometimes my audio stopped but I'll investigate that further. I'm sure I'll get over these obstacles too. I do like the built-in program guide and a few additional features.
But there were times yesterday while installing it when I couldn't help but think "Why can't things simply work?" I use that phrase alot... it seems like no matter what I do, something always doesn't quite work the way I want it to. Do I really have such high demands?
Most of those didn't matter to me. After looking up info on the internet, I knew that quite a few channels are available where I live, more than enough for me and including the main 2 ones I need for the soccer broadcasts. The quality definitely is the main issue for me, since my tv is quite big and I want the picture to look good on that one, without noticeable artifacts...
Lets get the obvious things out of the way: Setting up the thing was quite easy. And I got most channels right away. The quality was ok, but did vary quite a bit since some channels don't have a lot of bandwidth. The ones with enough data-rate did look quite good though, given you didn't sit up close to the TV - definitely an improvement over the analogue input, but no competition for digital cable (DVB-C) or satellite (DVB-S). But quite satisfying.
"The first" being last?
The two programs I needed for the soccer broadcast were the main two german channels "Das Erste / ARD" and "ZDF", meaning "the first" and "second german broadcast". Of course, those are supposed to be all up on top of the availability-list for the broadcast signal. Strangely enough, I realized later that I was missing "Das Erste". The channel search of my DVB-T tuner didn't find it. Consulting google again, I found that it should be broadcasted on channel 06, but my tuner didn't let me select channels that low - it always started at 21.
The solution was to re-select the initial Plug'n'Play setup of my tv and specifically select "Germany" as country, since the built-in tuner uses that country setting to determine the correct channel-layout and the broadcasting-frequencies. It turned out my TV was set to "Great Britain", probably because I wanted to have english language in all menues. I can't recall specifically setting that country though during the very first setup after installing my tv. Ohwell, after changing that, the tuner did search those low channels too, but "Das Erste" still didn't show up...
It turned out that channels this low use quite low frequencies - close to VHF-range already. My antenna had troubles getting a good signal for those frequencies at my place. I managed to set it up in a way now that I get reception, but the signal strength still is quite low compared to the rest of the channels I have... those all are around 70% to 80%, while "Das Erste" is at 20% max. I'm glad I got it to work, but I couldn't help and wonder why such an integral channel got assigned to such a low frequency-range. My antenna was supposed to be a quite good one, but from what I read online, receiving these low channels is alittle more trickier.
All in all, I'm quite happy with DVB-T though. The antenna I bought can be mounted inside and outside and I'm happy to see that I have the same signal strength inside my living room, so I don't have to place it on the outside. I connected the TV's optical out with my surround-receiver. I didn't get to test Dolby Digital yet and I realized that sometimes my audio stopped but I'll investigate that further. I'm sure I'll get over these obstacles too. I do like the built-in program guide and a few additional features.
But there were times yesterday while installing it when I couldn't help but think "Why can't things simply work?" I use that phrase alot... it seems like no matter what I do, something always doesn't quite work the way I want it to. Do I really have such high demands?
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