Niki Dinsey on... whatever

Welcome Back

I’ve been thinking for a while now that I will start updating this blog again.

Dear Internet. Its been 10 months since my last blog post. I promise to use November 2011 wisely blogging on important topics like mobile applications and such.

 This is my challenge, should be fun!

Niks

Living with an Acer Aspire Revo…

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while now, I brought a Revo about 6 months ago and have been using it as the “Kitchen PC” ever since.

I’ve not made many major configurations to the machine since purchase. It still run’s Windows 7 OS and I’ve not modded the network card or installed an external wireless antenna, even though I would say wireless signal is the device’s biggest issue.

I’ve found the wireless card is very inefficient, even sitting right next to a router, it’ll still only get bizarrely 4 bars maximum. This has a knock on effect as to the way it’s being used.

The whole point as I see it about having a Revo computer is to serve content from either a central server (in our case the HTPC in the living room), or to stream content available from the web. This is while it’s ideal as a Kitchin, Bedroom or living room computer.

The device works well when delivering low bitrate content (mp3, 320/480 etc.) but goes into proper meltdown if you try anything higher. This is kinda frustrating, I’ve tried The Matrix I have in 1080p super-goodness and in all honesty it trys really really hard to play the movie, but when it comes to scenes say like the lobby shoot-out, it’s like watching “bullet time, in bullet time * 10” the bitrate just can’t keep up.

It’s strange, as you would think this would be the same with HD content from sources like the BBC iPlayer’s HD service, but alas.. these just don’t play at all unless you directly wire the device into the router.

Now I’m done with the crappyness for a moment, let me tell you about how useful a device like this can be. The answer: Boxee. What an amazing application this is. It turns the whole computer into a HTPC style super device and it’s causing a few waves in the states as to how online content is actually being delivered to people’s TV’s rather than just their computer screen.

With Boxee, firstly you arrange all your sources for music, television and movies and let the software just kick it.. 2 hours later (I have a lot of content), it’ll ask you to identify everything it could not auto-detect. Which in my case was less than 5% of the 4TB of content held around the house.

So once you’ve setup your sources, Boxee is excellent in providing online links to episodes of TV programs you’re interested in, but don’t currently have locally. If you’re American, this is awesome as Hulu and Fox Online will provide all the content (ad spliced) available for streaming. If you in the UK however… non of this content will play, you suck, period.

Well almost :) As with anything techie, there is always a solution.. in this case it’s VPN. Now depending how flush you are you could fork out for a US geo-located server, which acts as a proxy and VPN. My preferred solution is to buy a subscription to a geo-located VPN service. These have been designed mainly to get round China’s firewall and other such nasty stuff, but they also act as a great way to bounce content from one location via another if you get my meaning.

So, if you’re thinking about buying a Revo. Or any other (non-Apple) based nettop here are my top five suggestions:

1. If you’re going wireless, don’t place the nettop too far from the router as the signal sucks ass
2. If number 1 isn’t an option, either buy a router repeater, direct wire the device or upgrade the nettop’s wireless card
3. Don’t worry too much about changing the OS, Win 7 rocks in this environment
4. Install Boxee and use the device as an extension of your telly
5. Make sure the device is shareable with all your other fixed and mobile devices so you don’t have store the same content on different machines

In conclusion, the nettop is Ace(r), you can VESA plug it straight into the back of your fancy LCD TV and enjoy all that Internet goodness via your HDMI link.

Image nabbed from http://www.testfreaks.com/desktop-computers/acer-aspire-revo-r3600/

If you’re like me and already have that solution, then the nettop acts as a great accompaniment to your existing home theatre solution.

3D Movies increasingly becoming a fad - Fact

Personally, ever since Real D movies started to hit the cinema screens, I’ve been quite a sceptic. I’ve seen quite a few, Monster’s vs. Aliens being the first and then Avatar, Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, Alice in Wonderland and finally for me was Clash of the Titans.

Out of all the films seen in 3D, it’s sadly true to say I’ve been totally underwhelmed by the “added” experience Real D is supposed to provide.

The effects it provides seem quite flat and “layered”, like you would see looking at a magic eye picture. Mostly the 3D is managed on only two levels; foreground/background, which leads to lots of dialogue type scenes where one character is sitting closer to the screen than another.

I’ve also found it difficult to make-out fast moving scenes, especially when small objects are subjected to 3D layering on screen; Alice’s scene with some small rocking-horse insect/bug type creatures were almost impossible to make out.

I’m told it’s due in the most part to adding the 3D layering post-production. Which is why out of all of the movies I’ve seen, only Avatar seemed to provide real extra experience when viewed in 3D due to being produced from the get-go 3D, it really shows.

My real scepticism comes from the following, monetary reasons:

1. Movies in 3D are harder to pirate
2. You have to pay extra to even with an “unlimited card” it’s an extra £1.50 per movie
3. You have to buy the glasses, if you haven’t got/remembered you’re existing plastic Thunderbird-style pair
4. They (Hollywood) can use it as a gimmick to up-sell movies that are utter drivel (Step UP 3D - 4.4/10 on IMDB & The Final Destination - 4.9/10 on IMDB to name a couple)

So after seeing Clash of the Titans, I made the concious decision to stop watching movies in 3D. But the cinemas are still make it difficult (mainly for the reasons above).

We took the family a couple of weeks back to see Toy Story 3 at Cineworld Didcot. Can you believe they only had one showing on a whole Saturday in 2D? Where at the same time they were showing the movie in 3D over two screens 10+ times.

I have to say, although Toy Story 3 is obviously a great, moving, flick. Seeing it in “normal” mode vs. 3D made absolutly no difference to our experience and from now on I’ll be opting for the 2D versions of all films.

It seems I’m not alone in this revolt, there’s been increasing stats on the interwebs backing up the fact that 3D movies are a fad and starting to wane in popularity.The following graphic has been taken from The Wrap, a Hollywood blog site.

There are some truly dire movies in that chart, The Last Airbender - 4.4/10 on IMDB is the stand out train wreck of a movie, take this classic line: “I knew from the moment you were born, you were would be a bender”.

But check out Toy Story 3 for-instance, one of the biggest releases of the year and there is a marked drop in attendance with the T-Bird goggles on.

It seems, at least some of Hollywood are getting the message.

Reading this article in the New York Times: Resistance Forms Against Hollywood’s 3-D Push it would show that a lot of directors and produces have had enough of the the whole 3D thing and are starting to push back:

“Out of 450 people surveyed, 450 don’t want 3D for ‘The Hobbit,’ ”

From the same article you see:

• Inception’s excellent director Christopher Nolan, stipulated that his movie must not be made in 3D.
• JJ Abraham’s Star Trek did $350m bucks in 2D
• Even newer films like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World all have dropped 3D from the production schedule.

So in conclusion, I’ve had it with 3D, there is no way I’m watching or paying for another film in this format, let’s just hope the rest of the world catches on soon.