Random Ideas

• I'm trying out twitter on the blog for a short while. #
• Just solved my unlubricated rubik's cube in 31.69 seconds! #
• Tales of Vesperia PAL is out today! Just a few more weeks before I can try it. -__- #
• Pondering about quick and dirty algorithms for calculating regressions. #
• Time to try out the Sims 3 and find out what's changed. #
• The Sims 3 is better in every way than the last one – but I don't really play The Sims. #
• Time to go dig out old Sword Fantasy notes. Believe it or not, they were made when I was 13 – and they're still valid in today's world! #
• Still can't find those damned notes! Where the heck are they? #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

There's a new crazy trend in Malaysia. Since now large LCD TVs are cheap, and they're about the only thing selling well, everyone is stocking and selling these HD ready TVs. People are buying them although here in Malaysia – we don't have HDTV signal (not yet). It's fine if you're viewing over-the-air broadcasts (we probably won't be getting digital signal for another 2 years) – but most of them are rubbish at handling lousy input.

A lousy input a lot of people know as: ASTRO satellite TV. That's not to say they haven't been working at getting a HDTV version of the satellite decoder out – but I think they're not that far behind. Even in Australia, where free channels have gone HD, the cable is still mostly SDTV.

As many people who are using a HDTV will testify, there's a lot of problems that can show up strangely on cheaper HDTVs (not sure about expensive ones, since I can't afford one). First, there's ghosting. I can assure you, it's not the screen's response time at fault. Then, there's also the JPEG-like compression blocks (which didn't show up before). It's a combination of bad input, deinterlacing methods and god knows what else. It's not just the ASTRO box which is at fault – it's just one of many.

How do I know it's not the screen's response time? For one, I have current generation consoles which output at 720p and 1080p – and I can assure you, ghosting will be something I'd be unable to bear during gaming. How do I know it's a combination of the input and video processing methods? For one, piping ASTRO through RF cable – actually improves the situation somewhat – although it shouldn't. S-Video doesn't help on my particular combination of decoder and TV. (Don't think that I don't have good cables. You would be surprised at the cables I have.)

Why am I blaming the ASTRO box when it could be just the TV's bad handling of input? My DVD player and PS2 don't suffer the same problem – so it's obviously at best, a combination of the two.

I've decided to take a chance and upgrade to WordPress 2.8. As with just about every other time I've done it, please tell me if you find any bugs and problems.