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Few months back I had to look for a region hack for the LG RH299H. The solution was pretty simply. Go to Menu -> Settings -> Lock icon -> “00000000″ That’s it. Things aren’t always the case however. This time I was faced with LG RH399H. The Zeros hacks didn’t work, no known hack for this model. At least none I was able to find. This site however made my day. The first two hacks didn’t work. I hesitated a bit, and then decided to trust the site with my DVD Recorder. The CD Hack worked perfectly as it should.

Bookmark the site. You never know when it might come in handy.

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People who know me must know how much I adore animated movies, and every year I keep waiting for Pixar to strike me with another masterpiece. Wall-E is what I’ve been looking for since last year, and it’s coming this end of June. Looking at the release dates on IMDB however, Kuwait is still not listed!.

This is sometimes incomplete I know. But I look at Cinescape coming soon movies and I still can’t see it! I also don’t recall seeing any poster about it there. Could they possibly be missing it? Kung Fu Panda is coming one week after the US release, and it’s not a big of anticipated as Wall-E at all. Any body has some idea?

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The 67% increase in Xbox 360 sales did not save the company from reporting the 10.9% drop in net profits this last quarter, to only $4.3bn. The net revenue it self didn’t grow much either, less than 1% to $14.45bn. So the drop can’t only be blamed on the $1.42bn EU anti-trust fine.

That said, add to it the very slow growth Microsoft is getting in the online business, and to add insult to the injury, Gartner analyst have recently reported on the danger of Microsoft Windows collapsing due to it’s lack of competitiveness with the fast growing market. Come to think of it, really, for the leader in OS business, Microsoft haven’t been shaking things up at all. So maybe few years from know, Microsoft will receive door knocks by Yahoo for a buyout!

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 Upon request from macaholiQ8, I am reviewing this LCD 46″ V-Series screen from Sony. I should note that I’m not the expert in this field, but it’s mostly an end user opinion of it. Below are the specs, and my opinion along with it.
Product Name:  Sony LCD Bravia KLV-46V200A

SIZE: 46″

Supported Resolutions: 480p, 720p, 1080i - This is the drawback for HD Gamers who mostly would want to go with 1080p. Even though for me, when I tried the 1080i, I did not see huge improvement over 720p in the picture quality, and neither I noticed any problems with motion in video games. For more information about the two types, read the post 1080i & 1080p.

Input & Output Slots: The device comes with the widest range of possible options you may think of for connecting external equipments.

• Side Slots: S VHS/Hi8/DVC camcoder & Headphones. So you can easily connet your camera to play videos, or your normal definition gaming device, e.g. Wii or PS2.
• Back Slots: Loads of slots are there. Most important are PC IN, Digital Satellite Receiver, Digital Terrestrial Receiver, HDMI-IN (1 only),  video game equipment, VCR, DVD Recorder, Hi-Fi audio equipment. Mostly, you won’t miss a thing. But the problem is, this LCD screen best fits on walls rather than TV stand, and once you do so, you will have to take the screen down every time you want to put or remove a new cable. And for that, it really takes two strong men to do. Your house mate won’t help much, I had to call my brother over to the house to get it down. The other option is, if you are so skinny, and lubricate your hand with oil, you might be able to slid your hand in the back and just get the cable in. I somehow managed to do that when I couldn’t wait any longer to play PS3 using the HDMI cable :). Point being is, I guess they could’ve made the wall hanger a bit adjustable to move back and forth when wanting to connect new equipments.

Viewing Angle: 178 Degrees. I’ve heard that others in numbers outdo this one, or that Plasma has a better viewing angle. Regardless of why you may want to watch the TV from such an angle, I have my TV in the living room, lay down in my bedroom and am able to watch it crystal clear though the door. I can’t wish for more than that.

Ghosting effect: Nothing yet.

Fast motion response: This one is usually a take against LCDs, but I’ve seen movies like Blood Diamond and Flags of our Father, watch soccer games, and played hard-core PS3 games with not a single problem yet thank God. Is this where the brand comes in handy? Maybe.

Additional Equipments: Alongside the LCD screen, I got the Sony DVD Home Theater System. It’s not cheap at all, but the great thing about it is, it includes 5 DVD-Exchanger with embedded sound amplifier. Also, the rear speakers are connected to the front ones via infrared. So no wiring all across the room is needed. If you notice the small deive on top left of the image, that’s the transmitter for infrared signal.

Why did I choose it?

Going through lots of reviews and comparisons between LCD and Plasma, while numbers in general favored Plasma, I still  inclined towards the LCD. First, it does not have the Burn-In effect, and it’s much more suitable for gamers. Even though I didn’t have any plans for games at the time, I knew I won’t be able to resist for long. Second is LOVE. That’s right. You move inside the showroom, browsing tens of different screens, not even knowing the size, type, or brand of it. And you find your self suddenly standing infont of one only, staring at it. Saying, this is the one I want. I kept doing this for maybe 8 months. Everytime I enter Sony shop I stand infront of the same one. I went then to public showrooms showing different brands. I somehow found my self staring at the very same screen. It got on the nerve of all people around me. I kept saying I want it, and didn’t get it. They just shouted back, just get it “Theba7tna!”. Eventually I did.

Isn’t it so romantic? Let’s make a hollywood movie. Better than the Titanic. Point I want to make is, browse through all kinds, and see the one that you really like. The one that really catches your eyes (and fits your budget!).

Hope this little was a bit of help for some, at least MacaholiQ8. If you have specific question, please fire away.

Useful Links:

Sony Bravia KLV-46V200A Cnet Review: 9/10 on Cnet. Not bad.

LCD and Plasma Pros & Cons: Pros & Cons of both LCD and Plasma.

LCD Vs CRT:  Even though I don’t see the need to compare it to CRT, the LCD points them selves are useful.

How LCDs Work

How Plasma Displays Work

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Cinescape keeps giving people more and more reasons to abandon them. I used to go once every 1/2 weeks, now I only go occasionally just for a change. And on that occasion, I had to cancel my bank paid tickets for personal reasons. Could someone please explain this to me!

1. I already paid for this ticket, it’s not a free coupon to have an expiry date. You are keeping the money for my future use of the service.
2. Do not try to fool the minds of people that you actually can’t refund the online paid money. Knet online payment have easy way to refund the money directly to user account, and I’m pretty sure all others have as well.

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A question that confuses many when going out to buy an HDTV, be it LCD or Plasma, and is not accounted for by others who don’t know about it, like me at the time. So what the hell is 1080p and 1080i? Well, the 1080 is a display resolution (1,920×1080 pixels) in both. OK, so what’s with the p and i then? the p stands for progressive-scan, while the i stands for interlaced or non-progressive scan.

So, for now it should be clear that in terms of resolution, both types are of same image quality, i.e. they have the same resolution. And in most cases, when watching movies, you will not be able to tell the difference. But if you are a gamer, you may see some difference then. Why is that? Well, this is where the p and i come to picture. The thread over here gives good links and explains it in most easiest way for all to swallow. Basically, the progressive-scan p refreshes the whole screen once every 1/60 seconds, while the i refreshes the whole screen once every 2/60 seconds (half refreshed once every 1/60 seconds).

Since movies and TV shows are mostly shot at 24 frames per second only, the i and p usually will not make notable difference. For video games however, and this is where it hurts me, the frame rate could be 60/second, and thus the non-progressive scan will be 1/60 second behind, half screen updated only. This is what I didn’t know when I bought my Sony LCD, which I will review separately as promised, but this is like a preliminary post. Having played some games with the 1080i option, such as Assassin’s Creed, I did not really notice anything. But it’s just the bad feeling that the game could be played better elsewhere.

Some argue that the interlaced is a fallback, and a 720p screen is better than 1080i because of the frames per second refresh rate. Technically his argument is valid, but practically, I tried PS3 on 720p and 1080i, my friend told me the same, we both didn’t feel big difference.

Hope that was helpful, and for more information and sources used for this post, please visit the below links:

1080p Brief (Wikipedia)

1080i Brief (Wikipedia)

Progressive Vs Interlaced

720p Vs 1080i (Forum discussion on the topic)

1080i Vs 1080p (Cnet- You should not care so much)

1080i Vs 1080p (Home Theater Mag - Technical explanation)

1080i Vs 1080p (About.com - Similarities and Differences)

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When I wrote earlier about Laser TV, many including my self were doubting how soon this Laser TV technology can be. Well, Mitsubishi is really promising it now in 2008 on their official website. Some news say the new Laser TV is coming Q3 this year. The TV will be ranging in price between $1800 and $4700, 60″ to 73″ diagonal, and only 10″ thick! The maximum price is a bit high OK, but look at what you’re getting. The refresh rate of the screen will be 120 hz, excellent for video gaming. Just what I need :).

Popularity: 36% [?]

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