Info and forum posts by 'powerlord'

This user hasn't used our main site yet, so has no main account at present.

Joined on: Wednesday, 3rd November 2004, 11:47, Last used: Thursday, 20th July 2006, 12:14

Access Level: Mostly Harmless

About this user: ff

This user has posted a total of 22 messages. On average, since joining, this user has posted 0 messages a day, or 0.02 messages a week. In the last 30 days, this user has posted 0 messages, which is on average 0 messages a day.

Recent Messages Posted:

RE: makro: 42" plasma swisstec 499 + vat

yeh mate, I quite agree ( I have a 42" hdtv hitachi), but when they have connected a crappy coax feed from sky to the tele, that doesn`t tell you a lot, so you work with the tools available... bringing the menus up at least give you an idea for contast/colour balance/etc if it was getting a decent clean rgb signal into it.

stu

makro: 42" plasma swisstec 499 + vat

In my Ipswich Makro on saturday.

this is a nonHD plasma. Picture quality very good though (brought up the on screen menus to get an idea of sharpness, etc)

they were down to only the display model left, but I suppose other stores may have more.

Seemed a bit of a bargain to me.

stu

RE: Top Laptop

I`d urge u to have a look on Dell`s site.

There TFTs are miles ahead (in resolution and brightness) than most other laptops.

And the spec is usually far better than anything in the shops and usually includes decent graphics cards for gaming.

acers on the other hand...I`ve had 3 and all of them were s***.

just my 2c.

stu

Konica Minolta 2300DL colour laser printer: £149 at staples

Typical init... I buy the 149 quid Tally 8800 job mentioned on the forum.. go to
staples for sone printer paper for it when it arrives...

and they have the Konica Minolta 2300DL for 149 quid.

this seems to be less than half price of anywhere else.

AND its `best budget buy` in computer shopper, etc.

AND consumables are half the price of the Tally job.

AND it does 2x the resolution.

so...good buy for someone. not me :-(

this is Ipswich staples by the way just in case its a special offer (though not labelled as one). And I checked on the website, and there is no mention of the printer at all on there... so dunno if its nationwide.

RE: Tally Genicom 8008 Colour laser with free extra black toner £149.99 delivered.

ah. sorry, good point.

well, bottom line is you might need to cut/melt a hole to fill them. it can`t be any worse than that.

http://www.refill-toner.co.uk/

say they don`t do the ML-2700 at the moment, but it`s probably worth a go at getting a kit when they run out IMHO.

Once they`re empty, what have you got to loose.

Anyway, ordered one. Free black, means its a decent bw printer anyway for not much more than a network bw one.

stu

RE: Tally Genicom 8008 Colour laser with free extra black toner £149.99 delivered.

cool. and as its the same as the brother one, I suppose you can use cheapo toner refills like:

http://www.bsprintcartridges.com/asp/brother_ink_refill_kits.asp

?

stu

RE: Which printer to buy?

yup. agree with LW, canons are great. must have `sold` about 15 of the all in ones in last 3 years..MP200, 360, etc.

cartridges: black: 1.50, colour 2 quid from phoenix or svp or ebuyer, etc.

Mine is a 2 1/2 year old MP200 all in one. same cartidges as the latest ones use. If it ain`t broke, don`t fix it.

never ever ever ever needs `cleaning`. keeps going long after lights say inks low.

epsons I`ve had block up all the time and need `cleaning` pi55ing away half your ink..then there is the stupid chipped cartridges, etc, etc.

quick, and photo quality is pretty damn good. ok not as good as latest epsons, but this only matters if you look at your photos from 4 inches away.

best printers in the world. still recommend them all the time.

stu

RE: Dvd recorder with divx play back at under £100

yup, though it`s worth stating that divx is just a video codec (like xvid and other mpeg compatible formats).

It does not describe the sound coding.

Most hardware divx players will play mp3 coded soundtracks as well as adpcm ones.

However for 5.1 surround you need to code up as ac3.

I don`t know if the hardware players play ac3, but I doubt it.

stu

RE: BT Mobile Network Offer!!!

I`m sitting here with a BT Mobile sim in my phone. It`s an unlocked phone and is connected to T-Mobile.

You can confirm this by looking at GPRS connection settings for example too..t-mobile ones work with bt-mobile.

But as you point out, they now appear to be using voda for new connections (mine is a contract started last sept).

So, I stand corrected! Damn shame I`m on t-mobile now then as they don`t have fecking internet GPRS only WAP whereas vodaphone does. buggers.

stu

RE: BT Mobile Network Offer!!!

BT Mobile uses T-Mobile as it`s supplier, not vodaphone.

(muddying the waters, BT (the company) use vodaphone for their staff`s mobile handsets which might be where the confusion comes from).

RE: 28" Widescreen TV bargain at Asda

I got one for the same price a month ago.. can`t remember the make.. some chinese no make anyway.

excellent picture. I just use it with my media centre in the conservatory and the picture is excellent. far better than I expected (and I wasn`t expecting much...have a hitachi plasma in living room). well worth the cash.

RE: Very cheap Audiobook

I`ve read this. It`s no Harry Potter or Subtle Knife.... boring as hell to be honest, but did make it to the end. can`t recommend it.

RE: Cheap Progressive Scan / Component DVD Player - £29.99

Progessive Scan:

For a start, if you`ve not got a projector, plasma or LCD forget about it. It`s not relevant to you.

Basically progressive scan de-interlaces the picture. Without going into loads of details PAL is 50Hz, 25 fps. However this is transmitted as 50 fields. sequence is.. one field frame is sent (just odd lines), the one field frame (just even lines).

Overally, you get 25 `frames` a second.

Progressive scan, blends the 2 fields into one frame and just sends the one frame. However this only makes sense if you are sending it to a device that actually displays the image as one big frame.

CRT TVs are all non progressive. They draw even lines, then odd. Some do a 100Hz mode and claim some sort of progressive support but its all nonesense really.

LCD and plasma (and LCD projectors) don`t work the same way. The picture is don`t built up by an electon gun doing odd and even lines... it`s build up in computer memory effectively and then all switched on at once.

Most plasma have inbuild progressive scan functionality that performs the same job the DVD player does anyway, however the DVD doing it can sometimes be better depending on the chipset it uses.

Whatever, to get a progressive signal out of a DVD player it will be at a different frequency from the normal PAL signal. It therefore can only be sent over component (yc, etc not RGB), or vga.

So again, if you have a TV, forget it. If you have an LCD or plasma but can`t output true component or VGA, forget it.

stu

RE: Canon PIXMA iP1000 Colour Photo Printer £ 32.99

I have an MPC200 (same printhead and ink cartidges). I recommend them to all my friends (like MP360 now). Must have `sold` about 10 so far.

They are all excellent printers and as stated, cartidges cost buttons.

The print quality from mine (same as this one) is excellent with the right software (easyphoto) and the right paper.

Definately recommend them.

stu

RE: 40GB Pocket PVR.

personal experience of similar ones (before I went for archos). reading the in depth specification will confirm it.

stu

RE: 40GB Pocket PVR.

for 69 quid more you could have a pda gps which would do it for real...

As for this PVR, it`s very limited in what it plays. It can`t play divx really (it recodes it). All divx files on the net have mp3 sound nearly. This won`t play any of them.

This also means the sound with video is either rubbish or takes up loads and loads of space. For example you`ll find a crappy quality video recorded with it will be 4X the size of one encoded on a PC in divx with mp3 sound.

Personally I`d pay the extra 60 quid or so for an archos gmini400. Actually I did :-) Had one for 6 months now. different league really.

stu

RE: BT BROADBAND cheap as chips - check it.

Do you actually get 2M download speed though (around 260K/bytes per second) ?

I`m with Zen on 1M. Zen only have a 25:1 contention rather than the 50:1 most places have (including BT).

I`d be interested to know actual download speeds. I ALWAYS get 130K/bytes per second with Zen. never a problem. never reduced. I just wonder if BT is anything like as good...

stu

RE: Mothersday - Flowers

you might want to try flying flowers (www.flyingflowers.com).

I`ve used em for years. They are reliable, quick and cheap.

And their orchids come in a polysyrene box, etc so protect them.

stu

RE: PVR-A1 Media Centre around £80

yeh but av420 doesn`t do mp3 encoding, so your recorded stuff stull takes up loads of space.

Personally I don`t find it an issue. With a decent PC, you can rip a 2 hour DVD to divx in about 30 minutes. So it takes 1/4 of the time it would to record over video in on the av420, the quaility is much better, no problems with macrovision protection, AND takes a fraction of the space (about 1/4 of the space... good viewing on archos is about 2-300 meg an hour).

I`ve seen them for 200 on ebay. I got mine 6 months ago for 230 from mp3players:

http://www.mp3players.co.uk/site/uk/archos_gmini_400.html

stu

RE: PVR-A1 Media Centre around £80

these are terrible. I got one 4 or 5 months ago with a 1 gig card.

recording on it is a waste of time as an hour of video takes 600 meg.

playing back stuff is a waste of time as you need to use asf format which no one supports. The app that comes with it is buggy as hell and crashes all the time.

The screen is rubbish, the controls are rubbish.

mp3 doesn`t even support tags.

stay well clear imho. by the time you add a 1 gig card it`s up to 130-150 quid.

For <200 quid buy an archos gmini400. I did. night and day. plays every video you through at it.. 20 gig harddrive, etc.

stu

RE: Inflatable portable speaker system for £2.99

I have a set of these. They are total crap imho. seriously bad. a set of pc speakers for 3 quid from ebuyer.com are far far better. (actually ebuyer to a set with subwoofer for 12 quid which are excellent).

RE: Epson CX6600 at www.simply.co.uk

To add my 2c, IMHO I wouldn`t touch an epson with a sh*tty stick.

Go for a canon every time. The all-in ones are excellent, like the MP360, etc.

I have had one for 2 years and recommend them to all my family and friends. They never block up (like the epsons do all the time), and generic cartidges can be had for buttons (2.50 black, 2.50 colour).

They last for ages...no rubbish chips in them. When the printer thinks they are getting low, you can keep using them until they ACTUALLY do run out.

Even with canon ink they usually come out at about the cheapest ink jet you can buy. With cheaper cartidges, it costs buttons.

That and the fact it just always works first time... no manual or automatic `cleaning` cycles pi**ing away all your ink either.

Quck, good quality, very quite. low maintainance and a company that does not try to rip you off with ridiculous ink prices and `smart cartidges` all the time. top marks to canon imho.

stu