Errr - No...

Spotted on Flickr...

Përshëndetje snow******!
Now you know how to greet people in Albanian!

I think it'll need a little more than the letters...!

M.

Panasonic Viera TX-P37X10B 37" Plasma TV

I've been very sceptical about flat screen TVs.

Whilst I've wholeheartedly embraced flat screen computer monitors, I've never yet seen a flat screen TV that I think compares (in SD viewing) with a traditional CRT TV.

However, our 28" JVC widescreen was obviously coming to the end of its useful life and a business trip to the US persuaded me of the virtues of HD TVs (with the right quality signal), so I started looking around.

I returned a few times to the Panasonic TX-P37X10B, because of the high refresh rate and plasma virtures, but it wasn't until I saw one alongside LCD TVs in a local Panasonic shop that I was sold.

One TV in the shop stood out as sharper, clearer and more realistic in colours and it was the only Plasma TV in the shop.

I don't have HD (I don't, and probably won't for some while, have a Blu-ray player or an HD TV receiver), so SD quality (especially for sports like Motor Racing and Skiing) was very important to me.

We get most of our TV via Virgin Media cable and the picture quality, viewed from across the room, is very good. Up close it's not as a good as the CRT, but it's still much better than any LCD flat screen I've seen.

DVDs look pretty good too and watching Blade Runner on the BBC recently highlighted the richness of the picture - I watched half on my Sharp LCD TV and half on the Panasonic and the richness and contrast of the Panasonic was so much better than the Sharp as to be beyond compare really.

There is no ghosting on sports broadcasts (I watched a repeat of the Goodwood Revival coverage I had seen previously on my JVC TV and it looked amazing!) and general programmes and films look equally good.

The TV itself is pretty good looking too, with a nice gloss black surround (I almost got the slightly cheaper matt black one, but I glad I didn't) and the sound's ok (I think sound wise the JVC was better).

The feature that lets you view images from a SD card is rather good and photos look excellent - A neat way to show your friends and family your latest photos.

There are plenty of options for connecting DVD/Bluray/AV receivers and games consoles (even PCs) to the TV, but so far I've just used the SCART connections.

Amazon list the inputs as :

CI (Common Interface) yes
VIERA Image Viewer yes (JPEG playback)
HDMI Input 3 (1 side, 2 rear) [ver. 1.3 with x.v.Colour]
Composite Video Input AV3: RCA phono type x 1 (side)
S-Video Input AV3: Mini DIN 4-pin (side)
Audio Input (for Video) AV3: RCA phono type connectors (L, R) (1 set, side)
Component Video Input RCA phono type x 3 [Y, PB, PR] (rear)
PC Input Mini D-sub 15-pin x 1 (rear)
Audio Input (for HDMI, PC, Component) RCA phono type connectors (L, R) x 2 sets (rear x 1 set, side x 1 set)
21-Pin Input/Output AV1: AV In/Out, RGB In, Q-Link (rear) / AV2: AV In/Out, S-Video In, RGB In,
Q-Link (rear)

So, is there any reason I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend this TV?

Well, partly because of the sound quality, partly because I can't really comment on the HD quality and partly because I still don't believe that flat screens are a match for the old CRT TVs for SD viewing.

I purchased my TV from Richer Sounds (the ever helpful Guildford branch), who matched the best online price and provide a 5 year guarantee on all their items for 10% of the price (much cheaper than anyone else!).

Overall, I'm very pleased with this TV and don't think, for SD viewing anyway, that I could've got a better quality picture in a flat screen TV.

Update January 2025 : Remarkably this still our main TV - Other modern flat screen technologies have caught up with (maybe even surpassed) this old plasma TV over the years, but it still delivers a great picture, with solid blacks and really sharp images in SD (yes, there are still some channels only in SD) and HD (up to 720p anyway). The large frame of the plasma screen means it occupies the space bigger screens (42"+) need now and once in a while it seems to lose the green colour, easily fixed by switching the TV to standby and back. I sometimes think of replacing it (my elderly mother has a 50" LCD TV which delivers a good picture in HD, but, possibly because it's so big, still looks poorer in SD), but it still seems superfluous!

Snow!

Of absolutely no interest to anyone really, but we got snow in the south of England today - A rare occurrence.

I went to Belgium yesterday, supposedly for a meeting in Antwerp, but got no further than the Autoroute between Brussels and Antwerp as we were halted by snow (A RWD BMW 1 series and snow are not a great mix, but my RX8 is no better, so is sitting on the drive today!).

Today, I awoke to this:




Lovely! :)

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 (PC)

I bought Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare a couple of years ago and was, frankly, blown away by the outstanding graphics (even on a fairly low end PC), exciting and involving narrative and intense gameplay.

I've been through the game a few times, although my few forays online have resulted in intense frustration as I was repeated killed without even having a clue where the opposition was.

I was, therefore, looking forward to Modern Warfare 2. The trailers looked good (more of the same, but MORE somehow), but the initial release price put me off (COD4 still sells for more than I paid for it - Around £15) and I imagined it would be some months before I got hold of a copy.

A chance offer of a big discount (£25 off!) changed that and I soon had COD : MW2 on my PC and was ready to go.

The PC version of the game installs Steam which forces regular updates and downloads - I could do without this personally. Some say this also means that you cannot resell the game if you tire of it, a big negative in my view (especially at the high initial purchase price) if true.

Although very much the same kind of experience there are actually a number of things I don't enjoy as much about MW2 as I did MW.



First off the colours sometimes seems a bit too vibrant on my PC (see the photo in the boat for a good example).

The washed out colourations of COD4 were different and lent the game a different feeling, but the new games is too bright for my eyes at times. This might be an issue with my oldish graphics card, but it was a negative (albeit a small one).




On the positive side, the graphics are still grand, detailed and wonderful (more on that later, though) and the performance is still outstanding even on my AMD2 PC - this is no gaming Monster PC - except on the ultimate detail settings (and you don't NEED that to enjoy the richness of the games graphics, although it does reward you if you have a high end PC and graphics card).



Secondly the game seems more manic than COD4. There's still a narrative of sorts, but it feels less convincing and coherent and the action is unrelently 'press-on', which means all too often that you can't take in the rich and amazing vistas on offer - You are rarely rewarded (except with a lot of blood spatter) for stepping back and considering the situation and the lean option has been removed, which means cover is strictly on or off and often stepping out from cover will get you killed instantly.

The game also seems rather easy compared to the original. On the Regular setting I often found levels where I really struggled in the original game (I'm not a gaming hotshot!), but I found no such challenges in MW2. Some list the Favella level and the Burger Bar level as challenging, but aside from a few brief delays (especially in the Favella) I encountered little to stop my progress through the levels and the time it takes to play through all the levels in the game seems much less than to play COD4:MW. It took me around 10 hours to complete the game (over a couple of weeks, but I've heard people claim to complete it in 6 hours).

Some of the levels seem to be almost lifted directly from TV programmes or films (Generation Kill - see image below - or Red Dawn viewers will spot the obvious influences), whereas the original game seemed, on the whole, more, well, original...



The controversial "Terrorist training" level is a bit distasteful, but you don't have to shoot civilians (I didn't, but most people I know did!) to get through to the point where the security forces engage you. That said, if shooting people in a computer game is really going to upset you, you're unlikely to buy MW2 and it does come with a prominent 18 rating (in the UK at least) and you can choose to simply skip the whole level at any point during or before it.



Finally, the end of the game is a little disappointing - the speed boat chase is out of character (a bit like a rubbish first person driving game on a console) and the final scenes involve little or no skill or control and the denoument is really just a, frankly, silly rehash of the original game's ending.



That said, the end does leave the narrative suitably open-ended, if a little obviously erring towards a "Soldier of Fortune" kind of plotline.

Overall, Call Of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 is more of the same, but somehow less...

If you have COD4:MW then you'll probably enjoy MW2, but if you only buy one of the COD : MW games make it the original and save yourself a few quid.

Handy for Bracknell

I was recently sent details of this flat, 'local' to Bracknell.



Interesting to see that it's a few miles outside the town centre...

XMI Xmini II Travel Speaker

I was watching Channel 5's "The Gadget Show" one evening back in the summer and they ran a Top 5 on travel speakers for MP3 players.

Some of the units didn't really fit the description 'Travel Speakers' for me, being too large to slip in a pocket or hand luggage, but a couple (the winning Altec Lansing Orbit and the XMI Xmini) caught my eye as I sometimes travel on business (and once in a blue moon for pleasure) and liked the idea of listening to music in my hotel room, without needing to wear earphones.

Although the Orbit won, I discounted it for three reasons. Firstly it was a little larger than the Xmini, secondly it needed batteries and thirdly it was about twice the price of the Xmini.



I looked around and found that the Xmini II had been launched to replace the reviewed unit and bought one from AdvancedMP3players.com for £20 (Amazon are selling them for £14 as I write this).

It arrived while I was working in France, but, as luck would have it, my family came over to spend a weekend, so I took delivery whilst on a business trip. The perfect testing scenario.

The packaging was quite bulky, but the Xmini II is just an 60mm ball, whilst closed down. The finish is mainly matt black plastic, but there's a splash of red which is the speaker cone.

The speaker comes in a small carry pouch which won't protect it against impact, but does protect it from scratches in your pocket or bag.

To use it, you twist the unit's top and bottom and it pops open to reveal a concertina section which makes the speaker about 80mm high.



The, rather short, audio lead is built into the Xmini II's base, so you don't need to carry a cable and the speaker. It simply plugs into the earphone socket on an MP3 player.

There's a power switch which illuminates a small blue light (quite a bright one, so you're unlikely to forget to turn it off at night if it's in the room you sleep in!) and a dial to turn to adjust the volume(you just see the edge, so push one way to increase the volume and the other to decrease).




Obviously the Xmini II doesn't work by magic. Inside there's a rechargeable battery (they claim 12 hours continuous use which seems completely believeable), which is charged with any mini-USB charger (thoughtful as everyone seems to have something with such a charger).

So, it's a neat gadget and looks good, but can a tiny ball deliver anything but a thin, tinny sound?

Happily yes!

Clearly it can't compete with decent speakers on a hi-fi unit, but it's surprisingly clear, deep and rich (not always three elements that even big speakers balance correctly) for the tiny size and I've used it many times, often for hours on end, without finding the sound disappointing or tiresome.



My very initial feeling was that the sound was a little tinny and quiet, but after some adjustment of the volume of the speaker and MP3 player (and the Cowon iAudio 7 has a very good graphic equaliser too) I was able to get a great sound that didn't sound at all thin in even large hotel rooms.

I suspect, too, that the units need a few minutes playing time to free up properly after shipping.

A neat feature, which I've yet to try (even though I bought my daughter one as well - she uses it at home mainly) is that the Xmini IIs can be 'buddied' together to provide more sound as there is an output socket on each unit. This won't give true stereo, but is said to greatly increase the volume and power.

For £15 or so, the Xmini II is a brilliant little gadget that brightens up those dull evenings in business hotels.

One of my best 'gadget' buys ever!

Bob Dylan at the O2, London - April 2009

Back in April, I got offered a ticket to see Bob Dylan at the O2 in London (formerly the Millenium Dome)

I was interested to see the Dome and Bob Dylan.

Getting there was a bit of a pain as the Jubilee Line was shut, but I managed it and settled into my seat.

I wasn't that far from the stage, in the first raised row directly facing the stage, but it was pretty hard to make out details of people on the stage and, truth be known, I couldn't swear it WAS Bob Dylan on the stage, so God only knows how little those at the back of my section of seating or high up in 'the Gods' could see.

Bob's band looked very Blue Grass crossed with ZZ Top, but they seemed a competent bunch. Mr Dylan (Let's assume it was him) came on wearing a big white hat, but didn't acknowledge the crowd then or at any time during the concert. OK, maybe "Hello...errr....London!" is a bit a cliche, but I can't help thinking this distance contributed to my feeling about the whole evening.

The first song was, just about, recognisable as Maggie's Farm, but from the outset it felt like he wasn't really taking it seriously and was singing in a rather mannered way (a bit like a high pitched, nasal drunken slur) for his own amusement.

He continued on through the set, which a scan on the internet suggests was as below, in the same way.

Maggie's Farm
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Things Have Changed
Chimes of Freedom
Rollin' And Tumblin'
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
'Til I Fell In Love With You
Workingman's Blues #2
Highway 61 Revisited
Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Po'Boy
Honest With Me
When the Deal Goes Down
Thunder On The Mountain
Like A Rolling Stone

Encore:
All Along The Watchtower
Spirit On The Water
Blowin' In The Wind

One or two were quite good (Things have changed stuck in my mind as good as did Highway 61 revisited), but often the songs were barely recognisable (All Along the Watchtower is a favourite song of mine, but it was barely recognisable and Like a Rollin' Stone almost passed without me realising!) and the performance was either terrible or terribly mannered.

I've read a couple of reviews in the press about this event, one said pretty much what I have and the other said we were honoured to be in the presence of a God like genius.

Not being a Dylan fan, I felt a bit cheated (although I didn't really begrudge the face value I paid for the ticket) as if he'd had all the fun at our expense.

Some big screens and some acknowledgement of our presence would have made it feel that Bob wasn't just going through the motions up on stage, without really wanting to perform for the audience (which I suspect might have been exactly the case).

I certainly won't go and see Bob in concert again, but I can say I did.