Technology

An archive of blog entries about media gadgets and technology.

Tuesday’s news of regrets

19 February 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Doctor Who

Film

Technology

British TV

  • Beeb to offer shows via iTunes

US TV

Review: Big Finish downloads service

18 February 2008 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Fingers crossed, I’ll be giving both Bride of Peladon and Catalyst a listen this week, which might mean I review them as soon as… next week.

However, I thought I’d draw your attention to a couple of things first. Number one is that Big Finish now has a podcast. It’s a little bit cringeworthy, but it’s worth listening to since you do get advance information and behind-the-scenes explanation. Most notable in that is the first podcast, in which Nick Briggs explains the rationale behind the pricing structure of the downloads service. Did you realise, for example, that the US pricing of downloads is about $7.99? If you can follow Nick’s reasoning for that in comparison to the £12.99 charge for the UK (which appears to amount to “they’ve been paying over the odds for ages now, so now it’s the UK’s turn”), you’re a smarter person than I.

It’s also got a blog (of sorts. Guys, have you heard of comments? Permalinks?) which occasionally turfs up a bit of news, too.

I’m also producing the next run of Doctor Who Companion Chronicles, which has been a fantastic experience. I’ve chosen the companions and the writers and come up with eight (yes eight – you heard it here first) stories that I hope will please others as much as they please me. Oooh, I wish I could reveal more. I wish I could tell you who is flying into the country in May to return as a character that was such a pivotal part of my childhood but, sadly, for now you have to guess. Likewise I can’t reveal which one star from the last series is coming back this year.

Let the guessing on that one begin.

Over the weekend, I decided to give the downloads service a try, just to let you all know what it’s like. Here were my experiences…

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Friday’s creeky news

8 February 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • Burn Gorman hints at Doctor Who monsters (or people) visiting Torchwood

Commercials

British TV

US TV

High def on your high def tele when you don’t have high-def boxes

5 February 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I don’t have a high-def Sky box. They cost £250 or something and you have to subscribe to Sky’s high-def service which cost £10 extra a month, last I looked.

I don’t have a Blu-Ray player. They’re at least £250 still and I’m not wasting my money on the ever-so-dead-but-doesn’t-realise-it-yet HD-DVD format.

But I have a high-def tele.

That’s not good, is it? So how can I get a high-def picture on my existing content?

Okay, it’s not quite fully high-def, but since my AppleTV produces a high-def picture, if I record stuff with my PVR and export it in top quality to my Apple TV, it turns out to be a lot better than the quality from my regular Sky box.

Just thought I’d share that with you.

Technology reviews

Review: Sony Bravia 26″ and EyeTV 3.0

22 January 2008 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Sony Bravia

The New Year brings with it many things, and technology updates – once the Christmas bills have been paid off – is one of them. As it happens, I’ve updated two things: my TV and Bastard, my PVR. I haven’t updated to Sky+ because while I’m just about okay with paying £99 for a new box, I draw the line at paying £60 to have some bloke turn up with it and plug it into an aerial socket.

Anyway, I, in common with a sizeable percentage of SE London, judging by

  1. the number of nice people down at the recycling centre bringing in old TVs and giant cardboard boxes marked “Sony Bravia”
  2. the number of not-so-nice people who have left old TVs and giant cardboard boxes marked “Sony Bravia” lining most of the pavements in the neighbourhood

have bought a Sony Bravia. The reasons for this are threefold. Firstly, my clapped out 28“ Matsui CRT widescreen TV that I bought in 1999 was starting to do an odd thing to the picture. Mathematicians call it an affine transformation, Mac users call it the ”Dock Genie“ effect – everyone else, particularly in SE London, just calls it ”f*cked“.

Secondly, Sainsbury’s have been selling 26” Sony Bravias for £349. They don’t deliver, so that saves them from WEEE – the gits – but it does make it all a bit cheaper. Everyone else appears to have been going for 40“, but we wanted something smaller than before and less power hungry, so 26” works out well.

Thirdly, the adverts have claymation bunnies in them.

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