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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.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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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?

Popularity: 26% [?]

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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

Popularity: 48% [?]

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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.

Popularity: 32% [?]

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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% [?]

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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It is those sort of acts that make me regret respecting any copyrights on digital content. Region locking is the typical example. Many commercial DVDs come encoded with what’s called the Region code, restricting play of that DVD to certain regions, relying on the fact the commercial DVD Player specifications enforces single-region play only per DVD player. So if you buy your DVD somewhere, and your DVD player from somewhere else, you’re out of luck. Unless ofcourse if you don’t wanna obey by their pointless rules.

So why is that Region locking there? “The purpose of this is to allow motion picture studios to control aspects of a release, including content, date and in particular, price, according to the region. “. (Wikipedia)

Isn’t that just annoying? At a time where all those motion picture studios are at the mercy of honest people who buy the original copy for  tens of dollars, as opposed to just pirating it from BitTorrent for FREE, getting it faster, cheaper, and easier to throw away if you don’t like it, as you didn’t pay for it. Yet, they chose to have some manners and respect to the content owner, and pay them for it. Why do you need to give them another reason not to respect you, and pirate it! My story here is simple. I got The Blue Planet from Amazon, and got the LG RH299H from Kuwait local showroom. What do I find out? It’s region 2 only! Even though the seller confirmed it’s multi-region.

Ironically, even the DVD Player manufacturers are not convinced of this single-region locking at all, that they make it so simple to break this locking. So damn simple I just had to follow those easy steps the seller gave me. Those steps work for the RH299H DVD Player, and your player may be different keep in mind. You will find loads of hacks on the net if you just search them:

1. Click on the Home button of the remote control.
2. Using Left & Right arrow keys on the remote, browse to the Settings menu.
3. Move down over the Lock icon, don’t click it, just move over it.
4. Enter “0000″.

That’s it. And not only you have broken the region lock, but the player actually gives you a “Congratulations, you have enabled All Region Playback” message! So DVD Player manufacturers have made the locking to match the specs, made it too easy to break, and they’re happy you did :).

Ohh, and what did you get out of that motion picture studios? Just more hate and reasons for piracy I presume.

Popularity: 44% [?]

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Hulu is a new, long anticipated and speculated, service that have just opened to the public after months of private Beta. The site does not just offer another video streaming service, but it separates it self by offering full-length original legal content for streaming on the web. You get to watch many of your favorite TV series and movies there, without paying a single dime, and in pretty good quality too. Only thing is, you have to stream it and can’t download, which is pretty much OK with me as long as they are offering it for FREE. You do not get ofcourse latest movies, but some good movies such as Master & Commander, Ice Age, and more. Stuff that we wait for our subscription cable channels to show are not available online. The collection is not large yet, but hopefully with time, and if people respect streaming and don’t attempt to download it, the collection will get bigger and bigger. Another thing is, and here is the bad side of it, it’s currently limited to US only, but they seem to be planning on worldwide release later on as they say:

” For now, Hulu is a U.S. service only. That said, our intention is to make Hulu’s growing content lineup available worldwide”

So how is the trend and reaction to it inside the US only? Rank 5,497 worldwide, 575 inside the US, and the chart speaks for it self.

Popularity: 35% [?]

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