Category: television

Do you remember “The Screen Savers” Tv show? It is back.

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton kicked off the first episode of “The New Screen Savers” Web television show that geeks have been begging for, for more than 10 years.
As a fellow Geek myself I can not be more tech excited than this.
Here is Episode 1 of The New Screen Savers Found on the Twit Network.

Leo Laporte brought back a screen savers show called “The New Screen Savers”. Yep the show with Patrick Norton and Leo talking tech and answering questions is back. It looks like the launch was very quiet.
But we can fix that.

But who’s going to relaunch Tech Tv?
Maybe “The New Tech TV” or “Techy’s TV”
We shall see how The New Screen Savers plays out.

BTW love the way the intro works.

Actual drone playing the part of the drone.

First Week Review of Comcast Xfinity X1 cable and internet

Posted onAuthorTruXter2 Comments

I made the change back to Comcast.
I got two of the X1 boxes

I have had a week to test out the x1 boxes, here is my review of Xfinity’s X1 package.

Everything looks good. The colors are crisp. The black is a hard black, the colors are a vibrant and the whites are strong whites. You can read and see everything in the menus.
You can crank resolutions up to 1080p 16:9. but The signal is in no way 1080p. There is just no way. The images are not 1080p quality. Maybe slightly better than 720p. Which is still called 720p.
The menus on the X1 boxes are convoluted. There are barely any options or functionality. The menus load so slow. I have yet to find the channels I like, lord knows how the heck I am supposed to preprogram a show that I want to watch. You know, like on Direct tv, you find the title of the movie, highlight it and click. You get the menu … bam there it is.. Where is that option in X1? I just want my tv to automatically change to the channel when it is time. Should be simple right? All of the effort they put into looks, they could have put some into function.
but again. Did I tell you the menus load at a snail’s pace? I even tried this weird (far off in the menu) thing where you can test out options, which the menu “fast” option was off, I turned that on…  well that did squat for me. I understand the design theme with having everyone’s logo on the left for the channel but really, I bet that is what is slowing down the menu.

If you are looking for a specific channel call letters, good luck looking for the title of the channel (which is usually right under the logos), what is there is tiny. This feels more like “Hey we know you are too stupid to actually read these, so here are the pictures that represent your favorite channels”.

The truth is the X1 feels like it is a prototype for something I’ll probably have to pay to upgrade to later. or as if they did a random hat draw of crap that people like and said “Okay we will make it look like 50 of these 500 things, just make it pretty they will eat it up, so we can charge more”. Then, they did, and nothing is useful together. Or actually useful at all.

x1_ready_rebootSometimes the signal flakes out. I also get notices that the device is ready to reboot. Right when I turn the tv on. and I don’t think the X1 ever turns off. At all. Weird thing is I contacted Comcast about an issue and they asked me which cable box I was having an issue with, and I told him the bedroom, he said “hang on it is rebooting now” It rebooted….. This kind of creeped me out. Nilson family intrusion junk .
When the X1 wants to reboot, it takes about 5 minutes to complete. and nothing seems to work any faster or any better.

There is some sort of bundled thing in this box that allows me to “stream” movies. Why? Can we just call this “on demand? and not whatever they call it now? How cheesy is that? Why does the sales rep and the installer want to tell me how it is like netflix “and similar’ blah blah blah.. it is dumb, it feels like netflix menu on dial up…. I’ll have to check more into that. Right now it seems pointless.

Maybe that’s the big problem. Maybe it just needs to have a wifi adapter so it can connect to my modem, because the x1 built in modem is sucky. and might need more ram.

Then there is the low def and high def channel flip flop the x1 does.
Say I click on channel 11. Which is a local station here. Since channel 11 is in low def and there is a high def duplicate at 611, the tv automatically changes to channel 611.
Why not just make 11 high def and forget 611? or make all local stations only in the 600s or even how about this option… If the channel is in low def and in high def, the low def option disappears so that when I go back to the guide, and resume my channel flipping, I don’t have to scroll through all of the crap i scrolled through to to get to channel 11? Because just below 611 is about 200 channels in different languages that I don’t speak. Can I turn all of that off? even the channels I am not subscribed to, can I turn those off also? When that dang menu or narrative bubble pops up telling me I don’t pay for that channel, the fricken x1 locks up for what feels like an hour but is more like 2-3 seconds.

The x1 box does not turn off. I guess so they can count you as a viewer even when you are at work… or asleep.

Not happy with X1
Even the xr2 remote is dumb. The shape of the xr2. Sure the form is great in your hand, but the xr2 shape is kind of figure eight. Both ends feel exactly the same. If the room is dark and you need to turn down the volume… good luck. You’ll likely press the number 6. Why would comcast do this? Come on. Make one end feel different. And why did Comcast put the mute next to the power button? That’s just rude. I’ll put a sticker on the bottom at the back end. to prevent smashing wrong buttons in the dark,that should fix that. Prevent me from hitting the number 8 when I am trying to go to bed.

Maybe I will wait for x2 or x3 and pay for my upgrade and cross my fingers I don’t have to try and learn another piece of junk.

 

If you came here for the remote codes for your x1 box, and made it down this far, look here

Program xfinity x1 xr2 remote done easy

Posted onAuthorTruXter2 Comments

Program xfinity x1 xr2 remote done easy as I can make this.

IMG_20141013_011502I just had Comcast come and install my x1 boxes and xr2 remotes. The technician programmed one remote with 1 tv easily. The Comcast technician had a bit of trouble with the other remote.
The tv that the Comcast guy had trouble with is a spectra 32 inch tv.
I googled like crazy for a good while before I found the instructions I need for this remote. Since the instruction pamphlet only had 5 codes and I tried them all. I was worried. But here is how I got my xr2 remote to work with my spectra tv.

Bottom left tiny button says “set up”
Press and hold the set up button until the all power button lights up and then turns green.
Once that happens
Start tapping the channel up button.
Took me about 30-35 presses of the channel up button before the remote went through the codes and found a suitable remote code for my spectra tv. Some tvs probably take less or more.
When the xr2 finds the right code the tv will shut off. At that moment do not press the channel up button again. In fact do not press any button except the set up button. Just press the set up button one time. After that just press the all power button. The tv should come back on. Test the xr2 remote by turning the volume up and down and power the tv off and back on.

You should be good.
If the code doesn’t work right start over. There may be another code built in made for your tv.

Curved Screen Televisions

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

curvedtvLet’s be rational about these Curved Screen Televisions.
We just changed the fricken aspect ratio. To go from large in the center to stretched to the side. Now people want to make the center skinnier and the outer corners wider.

One of the issues with CRT televisions, is that your display measures within the curve of the glass too. If you break the glass out of a 50 inch CRT television you get less than 47 inches of actual viewable area. and well from the looks of, you will have to measure the curve of these too.

Look, the 3D Televisions flopped (except of course for the few hundred people who invest tons of money on a t.v. and have to upkeep with the glasses instead of face denial) you’re pretty much going to be the same dude.

They will not change the format that all of the stations broadcast. They can not. So the weird distortion you will notice in the images, will be there for greater than the life of the t.v. you will be buying. You do remember back when television stations would broadcast and you just had to deal with the fact that the center section of the screen on your “wide screen t.v.” was squashed. This lasted for a good five years. Now all of the television stations are broadcasting in a flat, even thickness signal. Well you are about to see little fat people in weird wide rooms, forever. Once you notice it, you can’t un-notice it.

Can you imagine how this will look on your wall? Or how often it will get bumped into?
You’ll have to put the tv in the corner of the room again.

Direct Tv Experience 1 week after Comcast

Posted onAuthorTruXter

If you haven’t been following the site, I left Comcast a week ago and moved my Television to Direct Tv.

Seeing that I now get 720p resolution on Direct Tv for two televisions at $33 a month, as apposed to 480i resolution I was getting with Comcast for some very basic 70 channels or so for $88 a month one cable box and a modem. I am very happy with my Direct Tv Satellite receiver. Rain has not been an issue. And there has been a bad storm. BAD storm.

I am so far, very happy with Direct Tv’s  picture on one tv, but not very happy on the other. The smaller Tv in my bedroom has the crummiest picture ever. Of course the smaller television has a higher resolution and an all together better built flat screen that the television in the living room. So there is something wrong with that box. I assumed it was because that Tv Tuner doesn’t have an HDMI connection on the back, and the rca wires supplied are very thin and cheap. Probably should give a shot with some of the rca jacks I have in the electronics closet.

The tv tuner in the living room, just got a software patch and slowed it way down. In fact, the box gets super hot now. So switching to and from the guide or menu. Takes a few seconds to load. Same with changing channels. So if you just got your tuner box and get a notification about a software update, and your Tv tuner is already kind of warm, you might want to reconsider accepting that software update. It just turns the blue section into black gloss. I haven’t noticed any new features. I may search for a way to role back to the old software.

direct tv bill

Direct tv bill

Loving the remote options. Favorites custom and favorites custom 2 menus. Lets me split content type channels, and lets me filter out channels that I am not paying for with a “Channels I Get” option in the menu when you hit the “info” button and look in favorites area. These are options that Comcast never gave. Here’s what I got with Comcast cable box. Not a whole lot going on there.

No WGN Chicago, but I do get two BBC America channels.

I have never really used anything but cable and local broadcast. This is my first Satellite receiver. Loving it. Except the big bolts they put through my roof to fasten the dish to my roof.

I score the Direct Tv service:
Ease of use: 9/10
Resolution : 8/10
Look : 10/10
Cost : 10/10
Channels : 9/10
Signal : 9/10

Total score: 9/10

Not fit

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Well someone reported this page weirdly to Google. So to comply. I have removed the content.

I am not out to cause any issues.

 

but here is what Google said was the issue

Violation explanation
​

FORMAT MIMICKING: Publishers may not implement Google ads in a manner that disguises the ads in any way. For instance, publishers may not format neighboring content to look similar to the ads, or make ads look like games or forum posts. More information about this policy can be found in our help center ( http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1346295#Formatting_content_to_mimic_ads ).

How to resolve:

If you received a notification in regard to page content, please either remove the content from your site or remove ads from the violating pages. If you received a notification in regards to the way ads are implemented on your site, please make the necessary changes to your implementation. We will automatically review the site again after 72 hours. You do not need to contact us if you make changes. Please be aware that if changes are not made within the required time frame, ad serving will be disabled to the affected website listed above.

Additionally, please be aware that the URL above is just an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of this website or other sites that you own. To reduce the likelihood of future warnings from us, we suggest that you review all your sites for compliance. For more information regarding our policy warning notifications, visit our Help Center: https://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1378153&ctx=topic.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Funny part of this, those were not Google advertisements.

They were Lynkshare advertisements, and it was done well within Lynkshare policies. but….. I don’t want to lose my Adsense account.

I never pretended to be anything nor did I say anything that would have been implying anything. I said something like, I like these people I like their products so I have registered with them to advertise on my website, and the products even go together . It was a Roku box, and netflix. Roku is made so you can get netflix on your television that doesn’t have the apps built into it. Maybe it was the title of the page saying something about deals or whatever. Google doesn’t even offer the advertisements for those products. Their single product advertisement system is being shutdown because it flopped. So… what the heck???

Maybe I should just take their advertisements from this site completely. Probably the safe bet.

Sceptre 32 inch TV Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter


I have the 32″ screen sceptre television. 720p resolution. Presets for picture temperature are either very dark or very white washed or low color. After a bit of manual adjustments, the picture is near flawless.
3 hdmi connections on the back, 1 usb connection. All of the typical rca jacks.
Usb connection is for usb storage drives. Sorry only mp3 and photos. Wont play video.
Screen sizes are normal, zoom,stretch and cinema. Cinema is zoomed way in. Most of the image does not fit in screen are. Its like being zoomed in on 1/4 of the video.
Zoomed mode, zooms in too far also, just not as bad as cinema. Stretched, basically stretches the images to fit the width of screen area. Leaves black bars and middle of viewable area distorted from stretching. Though the manual says the outer edges will be stretched looking.

but. When you have the image set at the default original setting where you have black bares on left,right,top and bottom, your video will be at the highest resolution that your tv can display . So if image quality is your goal…..

bottom left button on the remote is one of the first buttons you should push. hit that three times if you want out of the dark, energy efficient mode. top right button, hit that twice. These are the defaults that I found most bearable with the lighting in my house. I still made manual changes.

The audio through the built in speakers, far above and beyond what I expected. This beats the LG tv I have for comparison. (specs to come in other posts).
External speaker sound, again above what I expected. This is while selecting between 2.1 surround, and 5.1 surround sound.

Overall weight of the sceptre 32 inch tv, a lot lighter than my 19 inch lg monitor and slightly less weight than my 32 inch lg television. Weighs less than 5 lbs. Or at least feels that way to me.
Assembly of the factory stand, very simple. Wall mount is 200mm/200mm and again very simple. For this, there is an extra backing piece you find in the box. I saw mine and was certain the manufacturer goofed and gave me an extra back for a some remote that didn’t get packaged. No worries, this backing is for the lower section to cover the hole when you removed the stand. I chose not to use the wall mount, Since I am in a new house and I really do not want holes in my wall. I may want to relocate that television some day, and would be stuck with holes. So um…. no thanks.
Use of local tv through antenna (had to purchase one) images are amazing. Now that is true high def at it’s finest, if this is an option for you, I recommend it. Highly recommend it. Full screen at default settings with high crisp images.
Signal through local cable, not using the cable box, well there are hundreds upon hundreds of channels that can be received. The Hd channels are of no quality comparison to local broadcast.
Pretty much the same if you use the cable box, you just have to find channel 3 and let the cable box do all of the work for you.

Ratings of Sceptre 32 inch TV
image quality in default 8/10
image quality at full zoom 7/10
audio on board 9/10
Audio through external speakers 10/10
ease of install 10/10
image set up ease 7/10
Broadcast signal image 10/10
Look of the tv (physical appearance) 9/10

Full review rating/score (based on TruXter Tech Review’s unprofessional opinion) 8/10

 

 

Update 12/28/2011

Lately I have noticed a weird noise when the  tv warms up. and then again when it cools off. Sounds like the plastic is snapping.

Update12/5/2012
But still. Bang for buck, this is a great T.V. . One year later and this t.v. is working like it was brand new. Speakers are good with no buzzing, no dead pixels, no off coloring. The t.v. is in great condition.
Menu is a bit slow. Especially selection reception resolution. That’s a tad frustrating. I haven’t found anything about upscaling so. I am not sure it does this. The popping I posted about earlier, seems to have stopped for a good while now. wasn’t a loud pop, more like a surprising crackle.

Streaming Media Package

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Ever just want to watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it? I do. I fell in love with Joost when it came out. Then some comic company or what ever that was, bought out Joost and crushed it. During that same time, HULU came out and became a sensation instantly. Forever I have been looking for a Hulu app for android. Haven’t found that yet.
Netflix, well netflix has been around for a good while now. I have not yet used netflix for anything. Simply because I haven’t see anything on their site that I wanted to download, that I couldn’t already get at HULU or Redbox. If redbox would stream, we are looking at a whole new mess.
Don’t get me wrong, netflix is an innovation and creativity that moves us into another direction, and I am thankful for what they are doing. Maybe I have just been using their site wrong? Do they have more than 50 movies? because that’s about all I see there. And they are all low budget films that I find. Why would I want that?
but if you are a Netflix user then My latest sponsor is going to be a treat for you. how about a device that you plug directly into your Television set, and connect to your internet connection, and get streaming videos from netflix,hulu,amazon,last.fm and other stuff.
Roku + Netflix = Instant Movies on your TV.Starting at $59.99 with 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.
I looked on their site and a lot of the stuff they list, kind of looks like a double listing of the same thing, just with the word “pro’ added to the end. Yeah that kind of makes my eye twitch.
But still the whole concept is pretty cool. If your tv can’t already do all of this. Many kind of can already. but again, if you don’t want to spend $700 on a 46 inch tv that can stream media from the internet, then get the roku box. If you don’t already have a netflix account, then you may as well go ahead and open the link I have over there on the side bar (the red ad that says netflix) in another tab and get that ready. Can’t hurt to set up for the free trial they have. and if you see they have more than 50 videos, tell me how the heck you found them.
The roku box comes in three flavors right now HD $59,XD $79,XS $99. Great prices. No clue why you would want anything other than the $59 player. For $100 it better comes with a TV tray and a remote.
From the look of the device, The roku box is small enough to fit inside a hollowed out grapefruit. That’s a kind of small. The look of the Media Streaming device is pretty slick. Currently the only color is black. I am sure it will come in other colors, once everyone knows that apple wont sue people for creating anything remotely close to their inventions. Oh hey I know what it looks like. The smokeless ashtrays of the early nineties. Just without all of the ventilation around it.
Looks like you can get all sorts of Media streaming to your TV. They call them channels, hmm I dunno, sounds more like websites to me. But currently it looks like about 12 “Channels”. This is a great way to watch internet videos you normally watch on your computer, straight through your tv.

Cisco Xfinity RNG100 Cable Box

Posted onAuthorTruXter4 Comments

A short Review of the Cisco Xfinity RNG100 Cable Box.
Had my Cisco Xfinity RNG100 Cable Box installed now for about 2 weeks. The Comcast guy did not leave a manual with the cable box. So figuring the cable box out has been an up hill against the wind battle.
My first warning is if you are going to move your Cisco Xfinity RNG100 Cable Box around at all, turn the tv off. The power cable on this cable tv tuner is so tiny and easy to pop out, you will get loud static the instance the power connector is pulled out.
Once the cable box tv tuner gets disconnected, There really isn’t much clue as to when it finally comes on. So hitting the power button just leaves you confused and missing your favorite show. So far the only thing I have found to do is leave the power plugged in and walk away for about 5-10 minutes. Next I hit the power button and wait another 2 minutes and then do it again till the dang thing comes on. If you just power the cable box down, it turns on fast. But a full shut down with no power is a whole different beast. Leaves you in the dark. The favorites option labeled as “favs” allows you to makes more than one set of favs. I have no idea how many is maximum amount of channels per list, I barely got 9 in my list before I gave up because it took about 45 minutes. That was just list one. I tried making a second list later, but only got one channel in the list after about 15 minutes of messing with the remote. I can not get the favs to list 2 yet so I can easily get to that channel. So I just hit 444 then channel up or channel down and that takes me near the channel I want. I am afraid to memorize any channels, since Comcast has changed the channel line up like 7 times in the past ten years. If you have been dialing the same channel for two or three years and then bam it changes and then a month later changes again, you kind of give up.
For me, the usb connector on the front, does nothing, I guess it’s for wifi because it does nothing to a thumb drive that has videos and music on it. I tried hooking a computer to the usb connectors, thumb drive and an external hard drive. SQUAT!
Not amused.

Zane Savage on Apple TV

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Makes Sense to me.

Zanesavage | September 01, 2010

“

This device is a DOWNGRADE for anyone who currently owns an Apple TV. I like the price, I just don’t like the hardware.

”

Very Well put.
I like my media I want my media.
Least they can do is sell some of the New apple tvs come with multiple usb ports, That way you can watch home videos without needing yet another device hooked up to your television.
It looks cool. The concept is good. but the full end delivery is not up to my likings either.
Maybe they should call it the mini or the “budget apple tv” Wait, net flicks on apple???
but they don’t let anyone on their stuff right? Apple is screwy and it trips me out what mac people think is acceptable.