World Cup Coverage
June 10, 2010
Where ever your allegiance lie in the coming weeks, despite your apparent dislike for soccer, most people will at one stage or another sit down to watch some World Cup soccer.
It will be everywhere, and I mean everywhere, for example RTE 2;
- will start Friday at 1pm showing the opening ceremony.
- at 3pm South Africa v Mexico
- at 7pm Uruguay v France ( you have to hand it to them )
Then Saturday;
- coverage starts at 12pm.
- at 12.30pm South Korea v Greece
- at 3pm Argentina v Nigeria
- at 7pm England v USA
- between the 3pm game and the 7pm game there’s the Saturday game, just for those who need their GAA fix.
The pattern continues up to Sunday the 11th of July, although the last 2 weeks will have significantly less matches on. Along with RTE, BBC and ITV will have similar coverage.
Below are the web pages from each of the major TV network which are dedicated to the World Cup. If your looking for a well laid out calendar chichi out the BBC one, it’s the easiest to read at a glance. The last link is an interactive chart that once you place your mouse over the; team, date stadium or group, it shows you the relevant match date and time.
Sky World Cup home page
Sky World Cup calendar
Interactive World Cup calendar
So lastly it’s important to remember, Football is not not a matter of life or death, it’s much more important than that.
Sky 1TB box
May 7, 2010
As some of you may have heard Sky is releasing a 1TB Sky+HD box. This is supposedly available in the UK at the moment and while we see the box on our Internet Card Order system, we have not seen supply of the boxes. See below for an article from last January when it was announced in the UK.
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2010/01/28/skyhd-1tb-box-stashes-240-hours-of-hd-video/
Sky Anytime
May 6, 2010
While browsing lately I came across this article, it’s basically about a new Sky Anytime feature that opens up the complete Sky catalog of programming by connecting the Sky box to a broadband connection via the Ethernet socket on the back of the box.
http://electricpig.co.uk/2010/04/29/sky-anytime-vod-service-incoming/
While I admire and applaud steps towards Video On Demand I’m left pondering how we are going to get a customer to connect their box to an RJ45 cable when most don’t want to connect their box to a phone line? I think a wireless add-on will be the way to sell this.
DoorSpEYE
April 23, 2010
About a year ago a family friends house was burgled. He had a CCTV system which we had installed for him and due in part to the evidence from this system the offender was caught. The intruder in question actually walked by a camera which was positioned at the front door. While this particular CCTV installation was expensive to install it now more than ever provides a sense of security for the owner of the house.
Since then there has been some other minor incidents and some vandalism in the area and while my mother lives quite near I thought a similar system would add an element of security for her. A traditional CCTV system which you see in small shops and business would not really suit, mainly as the cost of such digital video recorders are prohibitive when all you really want to do is see who’s at the door before you open it.
For a while I experimented with cheap cameras and the like but never found anything to give an acceptable picture quality. In the last year technology advancements have resulted in recording units and cameras with high quality optics falling in cost which meant the raw materials were there to put a systems together which is within the reach of most pockets and provides a quality picture.
I started by asking what part of your house do you most need to see? The answer was simple, the front door. Straight away there was a problem, traditionally coax cable is used to transmit a video signal from a camera and that needs to be coupled with a power lead. This combination of wires are unsightly and are not always easy run. Wireless would not work as there were too many walls in the way and with wireless doorbells and wireless internet the chances of interference were too high.
I needed a cable that was discrete. A traditional telephone wire is small, easy to clip and easy hide along the skirting board. With existing technology it is possible to transfer video and power down a telephone line without interference. So I tucked behind architrave, clipped along the top of skirting, dropped behind presses and ended up with a barely noticable cable run from the front door to the TV.
The result was a system that allows my mother to switch to a specific channel on her TV when a knock comes to the door and see who is there before opening it. Next I needed some way of recording.
Photo from the recorded unit.
I’ve since found a supplier that has a simple and cost effective recorded that takes a photo every time someone walks into view of the camera. The photo is recorded onto a digital camera card and can be viewed on the TV, taken from the unit and viewed on a computer or brought to you chemist and have specific photos printed.
The photos are not always perfect, you need to take some time in positioning the camera to get an optimum view. If you are trying to catch too much you won’t get any detail, so a bit of experience here helps. Since I set the recorded unit going there is a cat that 3 to 4 times a day walks past the camera leaving me with 20 to 30 photos daily, at least I know the system is working!
While happy that my mother now has an added sense of security I immediately saw an opportunity to try market this system. So after some direction from the local county enterprise board we’re in the process of launching the DoorSpEYE camera system.
The price range is within most households and we’re starting with demos at local based Community Alerts. I might be biased but I feel this is a good product, at a price range everyone can afford.
Further details can be seen in our CCTV section.
The Dangers of 3D TV
April 16, 2010
Before you splash out on a new 3D TV consider you and your family’s safety! Is you TV near a stairs? Are there cables or other dangers near where you have your TV. Samsung, who will be releasing 3D TVs in the coming months have set out some safety notices to bear in mind when viewing 3D TV.
The Business and Leadership website have a great article on it here, with a link to the Samsung recommendations.
Some of my favourite ones are; no drinking and watching 3D TV, has anyone told Sky this? DO NOT place you 3D TV near stairwells, balcony or cables. No cables may be a problem! But the one that I’ll warn everyone who gets 3D TV is that if you suffer from convulsions you should stop watching TV.
Sky HD
April 15, 2010
You wouldn’t believe the amount of calls we do to people who have a Sky HD box but are not watching HD channels in HD.
To view HD broadcasts in HD quality you need 3 things; firstly a HD TV. Secondly, some form of HD broadcast. The HD broadcast can come in the form of a Sky HD box, a Free to Air HD box or a BlueRay player. ( Some computers and media streams also transmit in HD. ) The third item needed is where most people running problems, you need a cable connection capable of carrying a HD signal, typically a HDMI lead.
We see a large amount of customers who have scart and HDMI connections between their HD box and TV and are viewing HD programming through their scart connection. Since scart connections are not capable of carrying HD signals these people are looking at HD broadcasts in standard definition.
All Sky boxes and almost all DVDs and VCRs have a feature that activates the AV channel on the TV when switched on. So what is happening with the Sky HD box is that as you turn it on the box sends a message to the TV via the scart connection that there is signal on this connection and the TV turns on this channel. The TV will bypass the HDMI connection in this case and show the AV, standard definition channel. There is no need to use a scart cable to connect a HD box to a TV as the HDMI cable will carry the standard signal as well as the HD signal.
The BBC technology website wrote a great article lately on the same subject, which can be found here.
Streaming Audio Part 3
March 10, 2010
My Squeezebox Duet arrived just before Christmas and during my few days off I set it up. I decided to go all out and purchase a NAS drive to store my music and personal files on, so I had a double system to setup. The NAS is a Synology DS109 and is connected to my broadband router via a CAT5 cable. Setup was straight forward and within in minutes I had found the software for the Squeezebox on the Synology website.
My one hitch was that I needed to upgrade the firmware in the NAS before I could instal the Squeezebox software. Once done I booted up the Squeezebox. The Duet consists (as the name suggests) of two pieces, a hub which connects to your HIFI and delivers the audio, and a remote unit which has an iPod like wheel and a nice colour LCD screen. The hub is connected to the HIFI either via an optical cable or a standard stereo RCA lead, the controller then connects to the hub wirelessly. Once I had inserted my wireless access code into the controller I was setup and ready to go. I had about 10 albums loaded on the Synology and all in all I was playing music in 10 – 15 minutes.
As I said earlier I already have a mysqueezebox.com account and have saved my favourite radio stations in this account, including a few subscription ones. Once I had the my account username and password entered is pulled all the content in seamlessly. My only complaint would be due to my broadband speed there is some lag between me inputting the commands on the remote and the relevant changes happening in my online account. This seemed to be more prevalent if I’m playing something from the online account, but as I said I do suffer pretty slow broadband speeds.
At this stage I’ve transferred all my music to the NAS drive and find myself listening to albums I forgot I had. My wife uses it but tends to use the Internet Radio feature more than the MP3 player. If I had one complaint it would be that browsing my music collection using the small screen on the Duet controller is cumbersome. I’m a causality of iTunes, where I expect to be able to see vast amounts of information on one screen, the Duet is simply too small to browse a large music collection.
I still need to set up my podcast subscriptions…
Channel 4 “This programme is not available”
February 25, 2010
Have you ever switched over to Channel 4 and found a blue screen with the message “This programme is not available.” Firstly don’t worry this is not an error message, there’s nothing wrong with your box. Channel 4 simply does not have permission to show certain programmes in Ireland before the Irish networks do, so they simply block the broadcast to Irish subscribers and display the “not available” message.
Take “The Sopranos”, Channel 4 had the rights to broadcast in the UK but RTE had the rights to show this in Ireland. So when Channel 4 broadcast the show the night before the scheduled RTE broadcast they blocked the broadcast in Ireland by showing us the blue screen with the message “This programme is not available” during the scheduled time.
This only becomes an issue when you take time out and sit down to watch a show but find the dreaded blue screen message. There is a relatively simple work around to this that should take you no more than 10 minutes. If you go here you can find a step by step guide to tuning in other channels on your Sky box. Then tune in Channel 4 using the free to air frequency;
Freq: 10714
Polarity: H
Symbol: 22000
FEC 5/6
Once done, be sure to save your selection. Channels saved in Other Channels can be found by pressing the services button on your remote.
The next time you then sit down to watch something on Channel 4 and get the “not available “ message simply press services, select other channels and watch it.
Sky drop the Sky+ box.
February 19, 2010
At the start of February Sky took the step all of us were expecting for a long time, they decided to phase out one of it’s boxes. What no one expected is that the box would be the much loved Sky+ box. Since the 1st of February Sky are no longer selling Sky+ boxes, this doesn’t mean that you cannot get a box with a built in PVR ( Personal Video Recorder ) but that box will be a HD box. You cannot get a standard box as a standalone box, meaning that you can get the standard box as a 2nd box, i.e. Multiroom, but not as your first box. The end result is that the starting point for Sky is a HD capable box with a built in PVR.
Sky are selling the Sky+HD box either with or without the HD subscription, therefore if you want the Sky+ features but not the HD features, you get the HD box but you do not have access to the HD channels. If you want the HD channels you get the same box with both the Sky+ features and the HD channels enabled. Sky have, for this month anyway, decided to give the box away free and charge €30 for installation…that’s only if you subscribe to the HD channels.
Sky’s charges have always been confusing but this, “with or without HD” option has added further problems to the pricing conundrum. Below is a list of the most popular options with the cost being the full cost of box and installation.
New Customers
Sky with HD channels €30
Sky without HD channels €79
1x HD box with HD channels and 1x Standard box €30
Existing Customers/Upgrade
Sky with HD channels €60
Sky without the HD channels €159
HD as a 2nd box with HD channels €30
2nd box without HD channels €79
“Goodbye old friend”
Just remember that for each box you add HD channels to there is an extra charge of €15 per month, and if you add HD as a second box you pay €15 for the HD channels and another €7.50 for the second box.
There’s no doubt that Sky+HD is a fantastic product, the picture and sound quality is second to none, sports take on another dimension and the Discovery and National Geographic Channels are simply amazing to watch in HD. A lot of customers I speak to complain that the extra €15 per month is just a bit too much, I think it’s well worth it but ultimately the customer will decide…don’t forget Sky 3D is coming later this year, just to confuse you even more.
Streaming Audio part 2
November 25, 2009
The Squeezebox Radio arrived yesterday, and straight away all work was abandoned to tackle the setup.
The Squeezebox range need a piece of software called SqueezeCenter running on a computer or on NAS (Networked Attached Storage) where you store all your music. This may sound a bit complicated for some but to be honest it just sounds a bit daunting if you’ve never done it. Squeezebox also allows you to setup an online account, called mysqueezebox.com which among other things, allows you to arrange internet radio stations in a favourites folder, log on to 3rd party add-ons, such as MP3 Music Locker, to keep our music files stored online. Your Squeezebox then logs onto this account and has access to this information.
My setup was aided by the fact that we already had a Squeezebox running in the office, with the SqueezeCenter software installed on our NAS. The unit was up and running after 5 minutes, I simply plugged in the power and input the key for my wireless network. It immediately recognised the music library on our office NAS and on my laptop, which also had the software running on it. I was playing MP3s within that 5 minutes. The large rubber knob on the front can be used for all navigation, other than volume, and this makes shifting through the music files a breeze. Next I input my logon details for mysqueezebox.com and immediately the box showed me my favourite internet radio stations. All in all the setup was painless and over too soon for me. I enjoy the geeky setup process.
The unit sits on a display cabinet in our showroom and is the main radio for that office, most of the time it plays a mix of internet radio but from time to time it’s used for some new MP3s that one of us have added to the music folder on our network. My one complaint with the setup is that once you add MP3s to the music folder you need to do a manual rescan of the folder for them to show up on the device. There is probably some way to set a daily rescan I just haven’t found out how to yet.
Unfortunately I’ve just found out that the Squeezebox Touch I ordered will not be in stock until the new year. This unit was to be installed at home so being the impatient type I may change this to a Squeezebox Duet.
Next I need to see can it pick up my podcast subscriptions.
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Contact Dalton TV
DTV Audio Visual LTD
t: 056 777 1900
f: 056 778 9601
e: info@dtvav.ie