Murtaza's Technoblog

Introduction

Recently, Sony released a movies store on their Playstation 3 where you can buy or rent the latest and not so latest movies. I was able to test this service out just recently and here is my review of it.

Pros

• Easy, inexpensive delivery service
• Integrated into the PSN store without an additional download
• Has both HD and SD movies for people with not enough download limit
• Movie rental service is convenient
• Decent video and sound quality

Cons

• 5.1 channel surround sound is not activated by default
• HD movies are not 1080p

Review

I rented three movies, Surrogates, Invictus and 2012. I found the delivery method was easy but on my 2Mbps connection, the movie took about 8 hours to download which is a bit of a pain. This means you have to plan ahead of time. Conveniently, Sony does give you an option to play the movie while it is downloading but the download is so slow that it will keep pausing the movie. Read more…

Sorry about not updating the blog in ages. I have been extremely busy. So, I thought what better time to make a new post than on the introduction of a new Apple product. Quite frankly, I thought the iPad was a bit of a disappointment to me personally and I have to say that i was expecting big things of the iPhone 4. However, I believe this new product is just trying to play catchup with its Android counterparts for this generation. Yes, Apple has added over 100 new features to iOS 4 but none of them are truly revolutionary.

Take this quote for example of Apple’s website:

“People have been dreaming about video calling for decades”

My first reaction to seeing this on Apple’s website was to burst out laughing. You have to have been living under a rock for the last 6 years to not have noticed that most new phones have video calling capabilities. As well as this, FaceTime can only be used on WiFi between two iPhone 4s. The chances of the person you want to call being on a WiFi network with an iPhone 4 is astronomically low. Why wouldn’t you just use Skype? Read more…

Introduction:
Denon has recently released an iPod dock for all of their products including radios and receivers. This iPod dock not only allows you to listen to music from your iPod but also allows you to view videos and photos. Your iPod can even be controlled with the remote control included with your receiver.

Pros:
-Easy to set up
-Lots of features
-Can watch videos and photos from your iPod
-Can control iPod with Denon remote
-Available in black and white to suit your iPod
-Works with iPhone

Cons:
-Menu system can be difficult to navigate
-Can only listen to music with iPhone
-Expensive

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Pros

• Great Sound
• Upscales video to 1080p
• Lots of inputs

Cons

• Flimsy, hard to use remote
• Difficult set up
• Auto calibration microphone didn’t work
• Generates lots of heat

Overview

The Denon AVR-1909 or 786 as it also known is an excellent receiver. Once you get it running it performs really well.
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Overview:

The Sony Bravia XBR45 range is one of the best TVs on the market. Despite its high price tag, it offers black levels better than any other LCD TV on the market and even better than some plasmas’.

Pros:

• Excellent black levels
• Brilliant feature set
• Attractive design
• Lots of inputs
• LED backlighting
• Made in Japan
• Powerful speakers

Cons:

• High price
• Remote is too long to use comfortably
• Sony logo backlight can be distracting (can be turned off)

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