up the firmware....

since the busy times began, i didnt have much chance to play around with the sony ps3 and the rest of the video system...... but last night i told myself i MUST update the firmware, which i did .... but that was only after i caught the european grand prix on tv.....

this afternoon i was able to make my way out on time and in the evening squeezed a little bit of time to play one blueray disc.... CASINO ROYALE.....

between the 2 craig bond movies, i like casino royale over the quantum of solace......

and that one name of the bad guy..... Le Chiffre and his blood-tearing eye...... is already a classic...... maybe we all are fans of poker deep inside.....

before and after .....

now that my place is on the new EVS scheme, it's pretty easy to track the way we use electricity at home....

so this morning when i woke up, the meter was showing 10 cents per hour........

and when i switched the onkyo amplifier on to listen to the radio, it jumped immediately to 32 cents per hour........ haha

such a sucky of power is the onkyo.......... really a beast: physically and in terms of power consumption.....

to make myself feel better, i'd never checked it when the aircon is on...... hehe that WILL really make me feel guilty....

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 ....

consolidation....

found some time to rest at home.... and also took pictures of what i have done up for the living room.....

this is the frontal shot....... lcd tv is being flanked by jm lab micron carat loudspeakers..... as previously mentioned, the onkyo is so deep that cabinet doors cant be fully closed...... speaker placement is not ideal but this is a living room after all, a common place for everyone in the household.....

the micron carat sans grille..... it's a small pair of speakers, more like mini monitors..... good for voices and was used as a satellite speakers with a subwoofer system previously...... now they have been reborn for HT use hehe........ talk about recycling huh.......

the carat was designed for biwiring but the binding posts were crappy stuff (see the upper pair)...... i replaced them with vampire wire binding posts which allowed me to tighten spades or barewire tightly.....! at the same time, i also converted the spks to forgo the biwire terminals....... ah that was many many years ago......

jpw centre.......... nothing to shout about nothing to write about cos it was purchased at rock bottom prices....... a chinese chess piece was used to raise it and aim straight at my usual listening height.....

surround speakers are jm lab micron (the earlier iteration of the micron carat)............... supported by "new" speaker stands.......... very heavy very firm....... just what the speakers need... just like what a good tripod can do for a camera....

another bargain purchase........... surround rear speakers are not placed optimally and height is also compromised but gotta make do with it.... :)

last but not least......... mj acoustics ref 100 mk 2 subwoofer....... next project: to put a MK plug on my spare power cords to use on the MJ......