thinking of bluray....

amazon is having a sale for bluray discs........ up to 50%!

and i am cracking my head over which ones to order..

in the end, nothing worthy of consideration haha......

ok saved my dollars......

key is: buy what you need, even in a sale.........

i was at the hugo boss boutique and most of the items are at 40% off....... but as i suspected, most are of the bigger sizes...... :)

unless you are thinking of buying a suit, if not dun bother......

dun do the sony

if you are tempted by newspaper advertisements for the sony bluray player at 299 or 399, DUN DO IT...!!!

this model (300) is obsolete and retailers are clearing old stock so dun be fooled........!!

personal decision

after thinking through carefully, i wont be selling my sony ps3 game console any time soon........

major reason? haha i am facing a personal credit crunch so i will put off an unnecessary purchase for the moment.......... moreover, the panasonic bd-55 may be in singapore very soon........ so let's wait......

anyway how much can i ask for my 1 year old ps3? S$350? S$400??..... in this way i still need to pump up some cash for a replacement bluray disc player...

but somehow i cant resist the big ticket purchases...... OUCH.....

today's task

i woke up early this morning.......... but it's a saturday, oh come on, i should have slept till noon time........ i am always a sleepy head....... too little sleep is not a good thing......

since yesterday, the onkyo 875 was back to its original resting place..... last night i tried the reon settings but i need more time to ascertain its effectiveness ......



but since i was up early, i might as well use the time i have to finetune the audio and video setup........ before i started, i re-read the instruction manual for the mj acoustics subwoofer......

using the bluray disc of cai qin's concert, i fiddled with the pic settings until i was satisfied..... full HD 1080p is really sharp........... click on the below pic for to see it clearly...........

i will spend more time to check on DVD and starhub cable tv settings in the afternoon.......

back breaking

ok finally my onkyo amplifier is back from its service....... i.e. to update the firmware and DSP..... and it celebrated its 1st birthday at hwee seng (the local agent) tada!!

now this amp is ssoooooooo bloody heavy that i opted to pay 30 dollars for the 2-way transport than to carry it to the service centre...... i'll probably break my back halfway there... haha

let me warn you...... dun try to carry it alone........ it's not worth the try.....

and so the beast came back with a ver 1.07 firmware, the very latest i believe.......

after dinner, i spend a good part of the evening re-connecting everything......... speaker cables for 7 loudspeakers, hdmi cables, component video cables, composite video cables, audio cables, subwoofer cable, RF cable blah blah blah...........

the most difficult part is actually to carry the amp into the tv console........... sigh soooooooo heavy........

i knew all the settings will be gone but i was lazy to record it down on paper.......... no matter what i had to re-setup the amplifier and loudspeakers.........

slow but it was pretty fun to do it again........... just to relive the experience ...

after an hour or so..... everything was done....... AHHH it sure feels good to have you back my baby....... and thank you hwee seng for the good job.....

i only wish that the firmware can be upgraded in a easier manner........ maybe like the sony ps3?

new kid on the block - palladine

i received a brochure from carrefour on its latest discounts and promotions......

and then i saw..... palladine has a new bluray player at S$499!!!! however, details are a little sketchy right now..... can it send the encoded audio in bitstream format? does it have 7.1 audio outputs??

but i think it's the most affordable BD player in the market right now...... which is a good development cos we need to create a critical mass for all the BD products ..... more demand more volume means more supply which will lead to more affordable prices....

no point buying imported code 1 dvds......... the prices of these are often too close to BD movies.... and once u experience the glory of full HD 1080, there is no turning back....

did i say i am sending my onkyo 875 for firmware upgrade this coming week? well tuesday is the 1st year anniversary of the onkyo and mj subwoofer....

time really flew past ....

samsung bp-1500 and milk

ah just to clarify why is the samsung listed at S$599 in my earlier posting.........

it's actually priced at S$699 at harvey norman but since there is a S$100 voucher thrown in, the effective price is S$599.....

furthermore, it comes with a free hdmi cable......

a reasonably good deal....... right?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

saw a recent advertisement about high calcium milk............ even if the content of calcium is many times higher than "normal" milk........ what makes you think the human body can absorb all of it..????

so is high calcium milk REALLY beneficial? i have no idea at all...........

pls consult your doctor.... if not, normal milk will do....

today's problem

ok today's problem is:
should i get a new bluray disc player??

right now i am using a sony ps3 for bluray movies............. as i dun game, the ps3 is solely a BD player and nothing else...................

i bought it a few days after it was released in singapore......... cost me S$559 a year ago







goodie points:
wifi enabled - able to download firmware updates easily
regular firmware updates
large storage - ready for BD Live with firmware update
onboard decoding of HD audio formats to linear PCM
fast loading time
able to surf internet
able to function as a computer

baddie points:
DVD region locked - code 3 only
higher power consumption than other BD player
unable to output HD audio formats as bitstream

i love the ps3 for what it is........ however the main ass is my onkyo AV amp cant flex its muscle cos the ps3 cannot output HD audio formats as bitstream........ i would wanna at least have the chance to try things out......

so i could perhaps sell the ps3 for S$350? ............ and top some cash to buy newer BD players such as these:

sony s350, now at S$699........




this is very new to the market.......... and is able to send bitstream of HD audio formats to your fav AV amp......... however, there is onboard decoding........ if u need that feature, then stay with the ps3 haha..... or the s550 at S$999..........

samsung 1500, now at S$599




i saw this last week........ and was very tempted to buy at this lower price........ however it's so plasticky that i feared for its life, hehe....... for the S$100 savings, i can buy 2 BD movies..... so i am keeping my options open........

reviews are generally positive and it is able to pass HD audio as bitstream.......... and not to forget, it has an ethernet port.........

panasonic bd30 at S$799??

this is also a profile 1.1 compliant BD player..........

IIRC, this player does not have a ethernet port........ so firmware updates can only be done through a CDR file..... abit troublesome if you are spoiled by ps3 and its user-friendliness....

all are pretty promising based on specs.......... so which one is suitable.....???

let me think about it..... :)