Downloading, its becoming a big deal

Hi all you blog fans out there. I want to talk to you about physical storage media. This is things such as CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray and gaming formats. I draw attention to this as I try to clean my room then realise I have loads of storage media taking up the shelf space. Do I want to get rid of this? It is something of a possibility but not something considering seriously. I, like so many others like to have a physical collection. There is so much emphasis on downloading nowadays. We can download films, music and even books now, is there any point in physical media? Yes there is, as a collection makes you feel like you’ve achieved something. A collection of MP3s on a computer however is a collection but is a different kind of collection.

Plus at least once we’ve had enough of a physical item, we can sell it. You buy a downloaded item and you’re stuck with it for the duration, unless it’s rented from a service. I actually believe the rented films on the internet are a great idea. The idea is you download a film for a certain amount of time, then delete when you are done. This saves the old hassle of fines for late fees at Blockbuster.

As usual with my articles, I want to draw attention to the cost of downloads. I could buy an album for £3 in HMV on a CD. Then I go on itunes and the same album is £7. What makes this happen? It is not as if you are paying for any extra packaging like back in the vinyl days. Those days you had a full vinyl cover with gatefold sleeve, lyric sheet and mostly beautiful artwork. That is worth the money, paying £7 for 12 files isn’t. Films are a different matter. You can rent a film on the PS3 for £3.50; you have to pay a little bit more for a rental at Blockbuster.

So anyway, I want to end this post before it turns into a longwinded discussion. They say one day everything we consume will be available for download. I hope this never comes to pass, as otherwise things could get very complicated. Someone could have their collection wiped from a hard drive which isn’t functioning properly. If we are to one day have everything on download, we need to make sure it is viable and that it functions, meaning it will be a long time before it ever comes to fruition. Please comment if you think physical media is either a waste of time or perhaps something we should hold onto!

TV Series - length differs!

Hey all, apologies for not posting yesterday, was busy! So I have been thinking about what to post here. Sometimes I find it difficult to think about what to write about here. As has been said in my previous posts, I’ve been following the new comedy series “Episodes”. This is a series which is being broadcast on Showtime in the US and BBC in the UK.

It runs over 6 episodes, the amount usually made for the average series in the UK. The Americans have series of over 24 episodes. It made me wonder why the Americans run things for so long. It might account for they have many channels and have many hours to fill. It is generally true that the UK series tend to run longer but still have fewer episodes overall than foreign series.
Let’s take an example, Fawlty Towers ran for 12 episodes over 2 series. Friends, by its second series, had just over 40 editions. Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, an Australian series, had 39 episodes by the end of its first series. If anyone knows why series in different countries run for different lengths, please let me know.

Now that TV series are available on DVD and Blu Ray these days, you can pick full series really cheaply. I find that American and series from other countries are generally better value than those of the UK. One series of classic sitcom Desmonds, containing 6 episodes from the first series, costs just over 5 pounds on Amazon. Skippy, the previously mentioned series, costs around 7 pounds if you look in the right place. It is amazing how the price is virtually the same but the amount of episodes is so much more. I guess it is down to the individual. If they really like the show, they will be willing to pay money for it to see it.
Anyway, this is a post today, but will be sure to write more articles as soon as I can. Please leave comments if you have an opinion on any issues raised in my articles.

BBC Iplayer - How On Demand Is It?

Hi there out in Blog land. I’m sure there are many people out there who use Iplayer, the BBCs catch up service powered through the internet. We could never have done it back in the dialup days. It would have been very slow and of very poor quality. Now in these days of Broadband and very fast speeds, we can get our programmes we missed from the BBC at very fast speeds.

We can even access programmes on the Wii and PS3, meaning we can watch them on our televisions, great stuff. I find Iplayer and other related services are great for when you’ve missed a show you really wanted to see. I’ve been watching Episodes, the new comedy series starring Matt Le Blanc. There was one week when I missed an episode, so had to go on Iplayer to see it. The loading speeds take a bit of time depending on your internet connection. It doesn’t matter how long you wait really, it is all convenience at the end of the day.

Where can this technology go from here? Well it can go onto function on many different platforms in the future. We are already seeing it on Freesat but you have to be connected to the internet to access it.
I’m currently in the middle of watching Home Improvement, the 90s Comedy series starring Tim Allen. It got me thinking that maybe one day we will be able to get any show ever made on demand. We’ve already seen this through 4OD but it is not comprehensive enough a catalogue to be really on demand.

Anyway, I shall end this post, thanks for reading!

Ebay - A good way?

Hi there. I want to talk to you about Ebay and the process of shopping online. Wow I sounded like Jon Bentley then! Do you remember a time when the world wasn’t obsessed with Ebay and internet shopping? I certainly can. You can get almost anything on there now. You can get many things, whether you want clothes, a DVD or even a new car. The issue is, most of the time you are buying from everyday people. Not everyone is honest out there. I’d had many happy purchases with Ebay, but I’ve had some bad ones too. It really can go either way.

Like you can have issues where you can receive an item and it doesn’t work. I’ve had this; you need to ask for a refund. Most of the time, the seller will be happy to give you a refund. I’ve had cases where the item doesn’t turn up at all. I can admit this was my fault as I had recently changed address and although my Ebay address was right, the Paypal address was the old one. Many people get caught out with this. Sellers tend to send to the Paypal address, so it is advisable to make sure its all up to date. Don’t want the new tenant seeing a new blouse you bought.

As I said before, Ebay can be a wondrous thing. Anything is possible. The same can be said for the more conventional internet sellers such as Play and Amazon. Both have features which allow you to buy from normal people, most of the time at a reduced price. Instead of paying £5 for a book, you pay £3. The only problem with this is that they charge you for posting. If you are buying from Amazon themselves, they will offer you free delivery but naturally this will take longer to arrive. The prices on these sites are generally cheaper than the high street stores. Something costing £30 in HMV will be almost half that online. It may strange that it is a much higher price but many things need to be taken into account such as the cost of running the store etc.

So what is it about Ebay which makes millions of us buy from there? I think it may be a case of many different things. We know it can be cheaper to buy from other people as opposed to bigger companies. For some of us it is more convenient to do so. Maybe there is something which is not available anymore commercially that some lucky person might have. I’ve been known to get many vinyl’s of obscure records for the use of my radio show. Many of the older gaming consoles have their old games on there. Although some of the rarer stuff tends to be way over the originally intended price.

There is a saying that when you buy from a situation like Ebay or a car boot sale, you are buying someone else’s problem or someone else’s rubbish. This is true in some ways, but sometimes you just got to take the gamble!

Windows 98 - The Operating System of wonders!

Hi there once again readers. Hope you are enjoying reading my daily blogs focussing on Media based subjects. In this blog, I want to carry on the technology theme by focussing on what I think is one of the best operating systems Microsoft has ever produced. I am talking about the legend that is Windows 98. Just to backtrack slightly, I need to explain about Windows 95, the one before 98. It was a revolution when it first came out. I remember around the time I first saw it, the layout and functionality was excellent. Maybe as technology goers, we are impressed if something new comes on the scene. I certainly was when I realised this new computer thing takes music CDs! I was impressed to see video playing on the computer! I think the Windows 95 installation disc had Buddy Holly by Weezer on it, my first encounter with compressed video. Sure, the video had noticeable pixels, and the sound was ultra compressed, but I was impressed all the same! All seems a bit primitive in our age of MP3s and Youtube generated content but this was truly amazing back in 95. In addition to this, it had the DOS operating system under it. To me, this meant one thing, GAMES! There are still plenty of games out there on the platform; it’s a shame Windows 7 doesn’t take them.

Then along came Windows 98. This was more impressive. More functionality and more scope for going on the internet, back in the days when all there was available was a dial up connection. Is it just me, or did you think that this operating system could do no wrong. There was literally nothing wrong with it, the odd crashing during a game but that was a hardware issue. I used to, and still do, play a lot of DOS games on the system. I think Theme Park is a main one which is still played regularly.

Once 98 had come and gone, along came a succession of systems, predominately Windows XP. Sure it looked good, it worked well on the internet and it played more up to date games but I always had a few issues with it. I found it used to take an age to start up and shut down. 98 used to come on like a flash and switch off almost as soon as I pushed the button. Suddenly my DOS games wouldn’t work anymore, well not properly anymore. I needed to download DOSbox to be able to do anything. It worked but it is a lot of fuss just to play Astro Fire!

Nowadays Microsoft doesn’t support Windows 98 anymore, which is a shame. What I have to consider is when my old Packard Bell PC decides to pack up, I just go on Ebay and buy another for peanuts. It is only a Pentium 2 with 100mb of ram and a 3DFX Graphics Card, but it does things my newer computers doesn’t do. The issue with the modern PCs is that they don’t run every piece of software ever made. I have software designed for Windows 3.1 that wouldn’t work properly under some of the new ones.

Once again I feel I should end this rambling post. I would like to know your opinions on it. So please feel free to comment at the bottom.

Television Blog, A blog about.... Well, Television

Hi there and welcome to the second blog! I hope you enjoyed reading the first one. I know there were a few minor contradictions there but they will be sorted in time, maybe a follow up article. Anyway, when thinking about Blu Ray, I got to thinking about the television, one of the biggest inventions in technology history. Remember those big TVs we used to have, the ones with the catheray tubes in them. The early ones were big boxes in the corner of the room that would not last very long until they broke down. Having to mess around with aerials because the picture would have lots of snow on it and you couldn’t see John Craven’s stylish haircut.

We have certainly moved on from those times. In recent years, since the dawn of the digital age, our televisions have gotten smaller and are able to produce better quality images. In going from analogue to digital, we’ve gone from dots to squares. That snowy picture now turns into squared junk. Whether this is an improvement or not is up for debate. We went from the old style television to the LCD and Plasma screens. Initially watching an LCD screen of around 19 inches is like watching a computer screen, until you eventually get used to it. A difference between a computer screen and a television screen is the annoying light at the front. At least on a computer you can switch it off. Some TVs don’t have that function then you get a major glowing light in the room when it is dark!

Not only have our televisions improved, the channels which are received have gotten more in number. Whether the quality of the programming has become better is debatable, but the technology has gone on leaps and bounds. The use of Freeview, Sky, BT, Virgin and Freesat has opened up a world of possibilities to the viewer. Although unfortunately a lot of the time, there is hardly anything to watch. Freeview used to be home to many odd channels, such as ABC1 but as soon as that moved to Sky, it went downhill and inevitably, ceased broadcasting. Whether it is the use of an aerial, which is a lie really as you need a digital one to pick anything up in decent quality or a dish, there are plenty of channels and shows out there to be discovered!

Televisions are also a lot cheaper than they used to be. Hundreds, even thousands for a small box is no longer the case. If you are not bothered on the make of the TV, you can get a 19” for just over £100. What we have to remember is, the more established makes of television are going to be more money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the image or quality of the product is any better than a cheaper model. Currys’ own brand, Logik gives off a good picture, I highly recommend them if you are on a budget. The only issue I’ve found with looking at these TVs is the constant reminder you need HD. In looking at the smaller TVs, they have HD in them but there is something which might catch you out. The top HD setting is 1080p, but some TVs only go up to 720p. Most would say this doesn’t matter as you wouldn’t notice the difference anyhow, but why would they be limited? Maybe it’s a technological thing, maybe those little TVs are not capable of such high resolution.

When looking for TVs, there are so many options. You have to consider the side ports, things like scart, HDMI and AV sockets. Make sure you get as many scarts and HDMIs as you can. It can get irritating trying to connect an adapter to plug them all in, it just looks messy. I’ve also tried disconnecting and reconnecting scarts for when I use certain machines but this is not the way to go as either scart socket in use can get worn out.

So I feel the need here to wrap up this pointless article as I could go on about television. Maybe a blog post in the future, focusing in more detail on certain aspects! Anyway, time to go fire up the DVD player!

Why Blu Ray?

Hello all out there in Media land. Media is a dominating force in our world. Everything has some kind of Media link to it. Newspapers, Radio, Television and Cinema are the main culprits here. It’s a massive industry as I have discovered in my 5 years of studying the subject. I plan to look at elements of the industry. Whether this may be Television, Music or Film. I might have seen a film yesterday and I want to tell you all about it. I might have seen another reality TV show and want to complain to you how much reality is poured down our throats each year. It’s basically a blog like every other blog. We start out hoping to get some kind of recognition and then….. Nothing happens. Hopefully I can be proved wrong in due course of time!

So anyway, the first blog here, I want to talk about the invention of Blu Ray. We all know what Blu Ray is, a disc which supposedly allows films to be in higher definition than a standard DVD. It all sounds like an amazing concept until you look at the image. To the eye, there isn’t really any noticeable difference unless you have a standard image next to it to compare to. Many of us have bought into this thing, hoping our film watching days will be brighter.

What we fail to realise is that the cinema has a much higher resolution than Blu Ray or DVD, as it is showed to us on a film format and not digital. I’m personally waiting for the day when Blu Ray rules all and then they realise not everything can be high definition. For example, Charlie Chaplin movies, made in the early 20th century, surely they can’t be improved anymore. Its silly really. I suppose a consolation would be that Blu Ray players are capable of playing DVDs, which is a bonus. This means I will be able to keep my collection when the Sony based format takes over everything!

Another aspect of a Blu Ray is the size of the disc. I don’t mean the literal size, I mean the amount of information which a single disc can hold. Its something like 25gb as opposed to 4gb on a standard DVD. That is impressive to say the least.

One bug I have found with these discs is the price. WOW, £25 for one film, that is amazing, NOT! I mean, why would someone pay these over the top prizes for the sake of a bigger resolution. For those looking for the same films, can buy the same film on DVD for under £10. Or if you are not fussy, like me, you can pick up a VHS copy in a charity shop somewhere and enjoy. If you want the supposed Blu Ray experience, I guess you could try searching on Ebay. I’ve found loads of cheap Blu Rays to start off my collection, Lethal Weapon anyone?

This brings me to my last point, the cost of the players themselves. I was quite surprised in research that Blu Ray players are rather cheap now. You can pick one up from Currys for under £100. This is impressive as the only way to get Blu Ray at an affordable price previously was the Playstation 3’s capability to play them and that set you back £300 or more. Hopefully these will start to come down in price, and perhaps get smaller. I was amazed that a new one was this little box which would fit nicely in my row of gadgets, unfortunately a budget means a massive great box that takes over the area!

So to round off, I still get out VHS tapes now and again, as I do DVD. I can say I’m perfectly happy with that. But there is something about Blu Ray, which makes me think, what will I get out of it? I have yet to discover this, but I’m sure I will one day! One day I will find a happiness with Blu Ray, hopefully its one day soon!