Info and forum posts by 'roughneck'

RE: TV on PC

thanks, I appreciate you both taking time out - basically don`t expect much in terms of quality, and certainly don`t waste money on a better graphics card because it won`t affect it.

RE: TV on PC

OK, took another look at this last night and can report that retail DVD playback through Neroshowcase is fine. Problem is live TV (streaming), e.g. BBC World Cup coverage. I`ve also tried other streaming sites (including prem football ones) and all have same issue. Picture is just about watchable when in a small window (say 6x6 inch) but when picture is stretched everything becomes blurred and any movement exagerates this blurring. Full screen size it is absolutely awful and unwatchable. Perhaps its bandwidth or compression or something else?

Bearing in mind you comments re. analogue to digital conversion I`ll give my neighbours Pinnacle USB Freeview dongle a go and see how that looks.

PS I have 2meg broadband connection.

Would a better graphics card improve the situation, or is the graphics card not really relevant?

TV on PC

I have 20" Philips LCD monitor which is really disappointing when I try to use it as a TV, streaming is awful, and retail DVD`s come to think of it.

Simple question: is it the cheap graphics card I have or is crap rendering of TV pictures the norm for LCD monitors not designed to be tv`s? I think mine is 8ms response, and generally a fairly good spec 1280x1024, no DVI though. Graphics card is PCI-e Saphire Radeon 300 with 128mb (ATi). PC is AMD 64 3200+ with 1.5Gig of RAM.

Thoughts welcome?

RE: region hack needed

update from me: I mailed this player to the USA and my sister in law has confirmed that it plays back pal disks on her ntsc only tv.

Just as I suspected really! Oh, and it was multi-region out of the box, though akura did email me the remote hack as well.

RE: region hack needed

that link is for the cyberhome ch 300 - and was provided to illustrate how certain players do convert. As I said, I think the Akura behaves the same. The cyberhome has been out for a couple of years but I`m guessing the Akura adv559a is fairly new - so maybe a better chipset (or the same one!).

Any comments on what the cyberhome does? Most on that link appear to think it converts.

And here`s a bunch of players that do the conversion as you watch

http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?catalog86_0.html

So why wouldn`t the Akura?

RE: region hack needed

I have the Akura hooked up to my tv, and it does exactly what I have described. The manual states under video "outputs:pal/ntsc", which I think is the key.

If you look at:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=2664&Search=Search&#comments

Basically people all over the US & Canada reporting that this player does the conversion. I think the Akura is doing the same thing, discarding the extra PAL frames and providing a very watchable NTSC conversion. When watching you can tell the difference, it`s not as smooth as PAL playback, but it`s not too bad. The disk I burned using shrink was an episode of Lost - so it would have been NTSC, and I set the region to 1 (instead of 0). It played it no problem. But as I said, I think retail disks have RCE which stop thenm playing. Again, I might be misunderstanding the international protection system here (RCE prevents disks from playing in other regions players?)

The issue for me, is whether or not it is region free out of the box, because not withstanding the RCE thingy, ideally my sister-in-law would want to leave it hooked up and play her US region 1 disks. I`ll contact Akura this week and check.

RE: region hack needed

so what makes the Akura different to the Cyberhome CH300 that can recode from pal to ntsc? If you look on videohelp and read the reports it clearly recodes. Some don`t, which might have something to do with the chipset and firmware, but he - as I said I`m no expert.

That hack dosen`t work.

RE: region hack needed

You seem to be saying that when I switch my tv to output NTSC (and the picture turns black and white for UK terrestial channels so I know it`s switched), and then switch the Akura to output NTSC signals (menu selected), then a PAL disk won`t play. Well it does. I`ve tried DVD set to Pal and TV to NTSC and it won`t play, same with other mixed variations (obviously PAL to PAL plays :) ) Bottom line is it plays when everyhing is set at NTSC.

So, as I understand it, certain DVD players, like the Cyberhome (mentioned in the link) it converts - on the fly - PAL to NTSC. Apparently the cheaper players do it by discarding the extra frames. I`m no expert but have an understanding that it can be done, JVC, Pioneer, Cyberhome, Coby - all have players on sale in the US that can do it. Look at ebay.com (US site) and search for PAL.

I do not have a region 1 disk to test whether or not it is MR out of the box. The instructions say it conforms to DVD standards and will only play region 2. I have however burnt a DVD using shrink and set region to 1, and it played it. But I think Shrink removes the protection that would stop it playing on a region 2 only box RCE?
There must be a code?

region hack needed

Hi, just bought Akura adv559a from makro - am planning to send to my sister-in-law in USA so she can play pal disks. I`ve tested by switching tv to ntsc and akura to ntsc, pla playback was pretty good. Now need to ensure it`s region free so she can play her region 1 ntsc disks. Anybody got a remore hack (have searched usual sites), or can point me in right direction?

cheers for help

ps £20, 110-240v, pal/ntsc output, nice neat and v.small player

sorry, meant to post on hardware

This item was edited on Sunday, 27th November 2005, 10:31

RE: STAPLES - Athlon 64 3200 PC £350

I called at least half a dozen stores last night and none had any in stock or expected to get them. Ones I remember calling: Merton, Staines, Croydon, Basingstoke, Ashford, Swindon......

If anybody finds more than one then please post ;)

LG Sky Remote Code here - look in..!!!

I bought one of the 32 inch LG`s from hienergy and watched with interest everybody trying to find out the remote code - and don`t think anybody actually posted one?

Apparently you need a version 4 remote (look inside battery compartment for v4), and the code is then 742.

RE: Pioneer DCS-313 anyone got one? need feedback plz

got one of these about 2 months ago m8 and so far am happy with it. The dvd player has played everything I chuck at it including dvd-r`s. I`m no expert but sounds good enough to me. Only issue I have is with playing Sky through prologic 2 and surround speakers seem pretty muffled, as if there`s some interference or something. Not sure what the problem is - maybe the quality of the signal from Sky perhaps?

Hope this helps.

SKY Codes for LG 32 inch widescreen

did anybody ever find out the code for the LG set available from HIenergy shop?