Watched Casino Royale last night. It was the 2006 version, not the original!
The good thing was that it played back without a glitch from beginning to end unlike the two LoveFilm rental discs. I am now convinced that the problem is with the way rental discs differ from retail discs so I have sent back the LoveFilm discs again.
The Casino Royale disc threw up another issue though. It features a BD Live feature which accesses stuff from the Internet. I connected the Internet but the disc told me that there was insufficient disc space to download the content. This bit I do not understand. For a start, what if my Blu-ray player were just a player and not a recorder? There would be no storage or disc space at all so how would there be any space for the download it wants to perform? My Blu-ray machine is a recorder and there is over 18 hours of free space left which is surely enough to download several full length feature films. I need to find out exactly what it wants to download and why it thinks there isn't enough space - maybe it wants an empty SD card in the slot - or a USB stick?
I'll just have to read the instructions if all else fails.
Update:
Read instructions, inserted SD card - it worked but it is rubbish. Took ages to download content and the content was just trailers which took even longer to download. Not impressed.
Looking on Amazon now for some bargain basement Blu-ray retail discs.
Update - best value offerings on Amazon:
Matrix Trilogy in a boxed set for £16.99 making each individual film about £5.70 each! I've only got one of the three on DVD so this seems a good buy.
Harry Potter films 1 - 6 for £32.99
Wallace and Gromit - Complete Collection - £9.93
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Blu Ray play?
How do you solve a problem like this. Here's my Blu Ray story so far.
Received a rental copy of 'Sunshine' from Lovefilm.com and settled down to watch it on Wednesday evening. About an hour in and the picture started to freeze, jitter and generally play up. It got to the stage where it was impossible to watch any more so we stopped it, ticked the 'damaged' box and sent it back. Lovfilm to their credit, sent another copy straight away, along with the next film called 'Into the Blue'.
Wanted to be sure the first problem was a 'one-off' so stuck in 'Sunshine' and played it through. It had playback problems just like the previous copy so I switched to the other one and the same problem happened with that too.
At this point I thought it must be the Panasonic Blu Ray recorder at fault. I sat up for hours trying the same two discs over and over, looking up fault reports on the Internet and trying ordinary DVD discs. Eventually I managed to get the machine to update it's firmware from 1.2 to 1.3 and then went to bed.
This morning I checked the two discs again - still the same faults. I took them to a friendly PS3 and tried them in that - they worked fine so I concluded that it must be the machine and started proceedings to try and sent it back to Amazon where it came from.
I then tried Thompsons of Great Baddow and they were very helpful. They suggested I turned it off at the mains and then reset, and also to try a lens cleaner in the machine. Sam had done some serious dusting all around the TV in the week and we thought that may be what the problem is. I went straight to Thompsons to buy the lens cleaner and I took the rental discs along to try on their players - just to see.
They hooked up another Panasonic Blu Ray player and we tried the 'Into the Blue' disc. To my dismay, the same problems happened, in the same places only worse than at home. We then tried it in a Sony player and the same thing happened although not quite so pronounced. I had to get home but was now totally confused - is it the discs or the player or both?
We went to collect some 'pre-recorded' Blu Ray discs and I am now spending the afternoon playing them to see if this is an issue about rental discs and the way they are created. I'm 30 minutes into the BBC epic 'Planet Earth' at the moment - no glitches at all so far. I have 'Bleak House' and 'Casino Royale' still to go through after the other 4 discs in 'Planet Earth'.
The only conclusion so far is that the PS3 is a fantastic Blu Ray player which starts very quickly, whizzes through chapter points and plays the discs faultlessly, even these rental copies. Mr Thompson suggested that PS3s may well have additional error correction in them to cope with the rougher treatment they are expected to get being a games machine and not a standard home player destined to sit in a rack and stay put.
I have a suspicion that rental discs are cloned for the rental market and maybe more prone to errors and dropout than the proper retail versions. My next step is to try and find someone who can lend me a copy of either 'Sunshine' or 'Into the Blue' so I can directly compare and see what happens. I'm thinking of asking on Freecycle to see if anyone is willing to lend me the discs for a few days and let me take them back again. Otherwise, I may have to buy them!
Into the Blue - £8.73
Sunshine - £9.97
Still got to try resetting to factory settings and cleaning the lens but based on the experiences in Thomsons, I don't hold out much hope that this will make a difference.
Update: 4.30pm
After a few hours of 'Planet Earth' the first three programmes have played without a hitch and the menus are very quick to navigate too. However, I have noticed that there is some digital interference on some of the shots. Typically on fast tracking shots from a helicopter which is following a subject like the wolf hunting or the birds flying. It isn't much but there is a very small amount of digital 'wobble' just after the animal being tracked. /next question then - is this on the disc (probably not) or is it the limitation of the player, the HDMI lead or the TV? Maybe its even more complicated and its an incompatibility issues but both the TV and the player are Panasonic manufacturered in the same production year. I think I'll be taking a trip back to Thompsons for a more details look at these discs on other equipment.
Received a rental copy of 'Sunshine' from Lovefilm.com and settled down to watch it on Wednesday evening. About an hour in and the picture started to freeze, jitter and generally play up. It got to the stage where it was impossible to watch any more so we stopped it, ticked the 'damaged' box and sent it back. Lovfilm to their credit, sent another copy straight away, along with the next film called 'Into the Blue'.
Wanted to be sure the first problem was a 'one-off' so stuck in 'Sunshine' and played it through. It had playback problems just like the previous copy so I switched to the other one and the same problem happened with that too.
At this point I thought it must be the Panasonic Blu Ray recorder at fault. I sat up for hours trying the same two discs over and over, looking up fault reports on the Internet and trying ordinary DVD discs. Eventually I managed to get the machine to update it's firmware from 1.2 to 1.3 and then went to bed.
This morning I checked the two discs again - still the same faults. I took them to a friendly PS3 and tried them in that - they worked fine so I concluded that it must be the machine and started proceedings to try and sent it back to Amazon where it came from.
I then tried Thompsons of Great Baddow and they were very helpful. They suggested I turned it off at the mains and then reset, and also to try a lens cleaner in the machine. Sam had done some serious dusting all around the TV in the week and we thought that may be what the problem is. I went straight to Thompsons to buy the lens cleaner and I took the rental discs along to try on their players - just to see.
They hooked up another Panasonic Blu Ray player and we tried the 'Into the Blue' disc. To my dismay, the same problems happened, in the same places only worse than at home. We then tried it in a Sony player and the same thing happened although not quite so pronounced. I had to get home but was now totally confused - is it the discs or the player or both?
We went to collect some 'pre-recorded' Blu Ray discs and I am now spending the afternoon playing them to see if this is an issue about rental discs and the way they are created. I'm 30 minutes into the BBC epic 'Planet Earth' at the moment - no glitches at all so far. I have 'Bleak House' and 'Casino Royale' still to go through after the other 4 discs in 'Planet Earth'.
The only conclusion so far is that the PS3 is a fantastic Blu Ray player which starts very quickly, whizzes through chapter points and plays the discs faultlessly, even these rental copies. Mr Thompson suggested that PS3s may well have additional error correction in them to cope with the rougher treatment they are expected to get being a games machine and not a standard home player destined to sit in a rack and stay put.
I have a suspicion that rental discs are cloned for the rental market and maybe more prone to errors and dropout than the proper retail versions. My next step is to try and find someone who can lend me a copy of either 'Sunshine' or 'Into the Blue' so I can directly compare and see what happens. I'm thinking of asking on Freecycle to see if anyone is willing to lend me the discs for a few days and let me take them back again. Otherwise, I may have to buy them!
Into the Blue - £8.73
Sunshine - £9.97
Still got to try resetting to factory settings and cleaning the lens but based on the experiences in Thomsons, I don't hold out much hope that this will make a difference.
Update: 4.30pm
After a few hours of 'Planet Earth' the first three programmes have played without a hitch and the menus are very quick to navigate too. However, I have noticed that there is some digital interference on some of the shots. Typically on fast tracking shots from a helicopter which is following a subject like the wolf hunting or the birds flying. It isn't much but there is a very small amount of digital 'wobble' just after the animal being tracked. /next question then - is this on the disc (probably not) or is it the limitation of the player, the HDMI lead or the TV? Maybe its even more complicated and its an incompatibility issues but both the TV and the player are Panasonic manufacturered in the same production year. I think I'll be taking a trip back to Thompsons for a more details look at these discs on other equipment.
Thursday, 5 August 2010
A very Special Special
David Cameron's live Q&A session in Hove today.
I Read with delight that Sussex Police webgirl and Special Constable extraordinaire, Christine Smith a Special Constable with Sussex Police managed to get the vital role of the Special Constabulary on the map today.
"A question from a long-serving special constable, who gives 800 hours a year on top of a full-time job. She's telling Cameron that this role should be recognised. She wants to know how the government intends to involve people like her in the planned reforms of the special constabulary. Cameron asks for a round of applause for her 800 hours of service. He says special constables are part of the police family. On some nights, you need extra officers on the beat, and he wants her to contact his police minister, Nick Herbert. Our lady is not having it. She's had difficulties getting her views across, despite all the experience she has to offer. Cameron promises to get her email address, and promises her an audience with Herbert in the next few weeks. Result."
From Guardian.co.uk
Fantastic result Christine. Here is a Tweet from Nick Herbert MP shortly afterwards:
@sc2221 Well done on your question to the PM today! Look forward to meeting up and talking about boosting the Specials - huge opportunity.
 |
| Special Constable Christine Smith |
"A question from a long-serving special constable, who gives 800 hours a year on top of a full-time job. She's telling Cameron that this role should be recognised. She wants to know how the government intends to involve people like her in the planned reforms of the special constabulary. Cameron asks for a round of applause for her 800 hours of service. He says special constables are part of the police family. On some nights, you need extra officers on the beat, and he wants her to contact his police minister, Nick Herbert. Our lady is not having it. She's had difficulties getting her views across, despite all the experience she has to offer. Cameron promises to get her email address, and promises her an audience with Herbert in the next few weeks. Result."
From Guardian.co.uk
Fantastic result Christine. Here is a Tweet from Nick Herbert MP shortly afterwards:
@sc2221 Well done on your question to the PM today! Look forward to meeting up and talking about boosting the Specials - huge opportunity.
Monday, 2 August 2010
V Festival success
http://www.vfestival.com/
Today we launched 5 pages of advice and tips for people who are coming to enjoy the V Festival in Chelmsford this year. Nicola has done a fantastic job in gathering together all the content for these pages including an excellent video which is now also available on www.youtube.com/essexpoliceuk
The key to the success is due to Nicola's efforts to liaise with the V Festival promoters and getting our first tweet about the pages retweeted on their channel and also their Facebook page. @vfestival has about 13,000 followers and their Facebook page has over 106,000 fans. Because www.vfestival.com promotes their twitter channel on their homepage, our tweets are also showing up there too.
In just 6 hours, we have exceeded the visits to the Essex Police homepage with nearly 2,000 visitors. It is clear that the path to extending our message is to target relevant social media communities. The next step is to step into the heart of social media and get involved in the conversations rather than just firing in corporate messages from the sidelines.
The whole team is excited by this success and is keen to move forward.
www.essex.police.uk/festivals
The key to the success is due to Nicola's efforts to liaise with the V Festival promoters and getting our first tweet about the pages retweeted on their channel and also their Facebook page. @vfestival has about 13,000 followers and their Facebook page has over 106,000 fans. Because www.vfestival.com promotes their twitter channel on their homepage, our tweets are also showing up there too.
In just 6 hours, we have exceeded the visits to the Essex Police homepage with nearly 2,000 visitors. It is clear that the path to extending our message is to target relevant social media communities. The next step is to step into the heart of social media and get involved in the conversations rather than just firing in corporate messages from the sidelines.
The whole team is excited by this success and is keen to move forward.
www.essex.police.uk/festivals
Saturday, 31 July 2010
A day of npwmg stuff
I have spent the day trying to sort out various online bits and pieces for the National Police Web Managers Group. Although I'm not there yet, I now have a website, blog, group, twitter and email set up. I need to regroup tomorrow and work out security and permission so the right people can access and contribute and the wrong people are blocked.
Thats it for now - any feedback welcome via Twitter @beaker9.
Thats it for now - any feedback welcome via Twitter @beaker9.
Live Meetings
Just read that Nick Herbert MP is doing a live online Q&A session on www.number10.gov.uk on Monday Aug 2, 2010 at 11am, discussing 21st Century Policing. They will be using www.coveritlive.com
I tried out one of these online meetings which was hosted recently by Whitbey neighbourhood police officers. They ran it as a live text only meeting but Cover it Live can also support video and audio live meetings too. As the Home Office are using it, I think it is likely to be a good candidate for a system which we could use for a national live meetings system. Does anyone know of any other similar live online systems which could offer a good environment for public consultation. Maybe there are free alternatives? Google Wave look tantalizingly useful but I've not yet had time to understand exactly what it is and how it works. Likewise, Google Talk with the audio and video add ons could also be useful. Skype seems to have a '5 users at a time' limit and then there are all those other IM offerings too. I think we should experiment with some of these services with a view to finding something we could use to develop a live public chat/video/audio service to be used alongside a public meeting or as an alternative.
I tried out one of these online meetings which was hosted recently by Whitbey neighbourhood police officers. They ran it as a live text only meeting but Cover it Live can also support video and audio live meetings too. As the Home Office are using it, I think it is likely to be a good candidate for a system which we could use for a national live meetings system. Does anyone know of any other similar live online systems which could offer a good environment for public consultation. Maybe there are free alternatives? Google Wave look tantalizingly useful but I've not yet had time to understand exactly what it is and how it works. Likewise, Google Talk with the audio and video add ons could also be useful. Skype seems to have a '5 users at a time' limit and then there are all those other IM offerings too. I think we should experiment with some of these services with a view to finding something we could use to develop a live public chat/video/audio service to be used alongside a public meeting or as an alternative.
The Times - three great articles you must read
The Saturday Times has done a great job this weekend on the 21st Century Policing paper, smartphone apps and The Big Society.
21st Century Policing - article page 22 by Sean ONeill
"Police shake-up is tackling all the wrong problems"
Does the Big Society exist? Yes (but only in Windsor) - Weekend pages 8&9 by Tanya Gold
"I do not find a single person, big or small, who knows what the Big Society is or where to find it"
The man who mistook his wife for an app - ideas/technology, the review - page 4 by Hugo Rifkind
"'Half a kilo of ham, please,' I say into my Motorola. "Thomas Aquinas?' my phone says"
All very good. Recommended reading this weekend.
21st Century Policing - article page 22 by Sean ONeill
"Police shake-up is tackling all the wrong problems"
Does the Big Society exist? Yes (but only in Windsor) - Weekend pages 8&9 by Tanya Gold
"I do not find a single person, big or small, who knows what the Big Society is or where to find it"
The man who mistook his wife for an app - ideas/technology, the review - page 4 by Hugo Rifkind
"'Half a kilo of ham, please,' I say into my Motorola. "Thomas Aquinas?' my phone says"
All very good. Recommended reading this weekend.
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