**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Thu Jan 08 02:59:57 2009 Jan 08 03:19:49 ahh, hi, using ice Jan 08 03:20:12 mine was meant to be same, but I had to always ask someone to renew it each new year Jan 08 03:20:44 I figured after 4 or 5 years of it, and with their very cheap offer recently, I would finally join the ranks of those that pay for it Jan 08 03:21:18 rwhitby: ping Jan 08 03:21:43 so you're paying now? Jan 08 03:21:47 yep Jan 08 03:21:50 first year Jan 08 03:21:59 mine just automatically renewed each year, up until 1 jan 2009. Jan 08 03:22:21 every year previously my freeby renewal ran out and had to ask one of the coders to renew it Jan 08 03:22:48 apparently their system wouldn't allow more than a years "grace" on an account?? Jan 08 03:23:10 wonder how mine went for a couple of years at least with no problems .. Jan 08 03:23:24 dunno, maybe you dealt with a different person in a different area Jan 08 03:23:48 I think peteru__ got me hooked up initially - I didn't talk to anyone at anytime myself. Jan 08 03:24:18 I guess now I'm fully on the BW I gotta start paying for it. Wish I'd taken out that deal before Christmas now ... Jan 08 03:24:27 i was dealing with Peter Vogel originally, and then when he left, one of the coders I worked with with Peter. This was for the original TF5000 TAP stuff I started working on, but told PV that I wasn't a prof. coder and to find someone who could actually code. Jan 08 03:25:07 the nice thing about ice is that if you pay for a year, it extends whatever you had another year Jan 08 03:25:53 so I extended my freeby access to 2010 some time (I guess my free access wasn't from Jan 1 in other words) Jan 08 03:26:24 and also at the same time added 3months to it with my voucher in my Wiz box that I had never bothered using previously. Jan 08 03:26:36 ah, I can use that voucher :-) Jan 08 03:26:44 now, where did I put that .... Jan 08 03:27:24 I guess I could have gotten more years out of ice before requiring to pay, but it is almost chicken feed amount now :-) Jan 08 13:31:32 Hmmm. Interesting. I've head two or three developer accounts that were also not meant to expire (ever) and they have been marked as expired. Jan 08 13:32:27 delayed response by a bit there :-) Jan 08 13:33:33 I haven't really had much to do with IceTV for quite a while now. I don't plan on subscribing to their service since I don't think they offer anywhere near the value that I'd expect. Jan 08 13:34:02 Of course, my expectations are based on what I designed in the first place and in that department IceTV failed me miserably. :-( Jan 08 13:34:08 Unfortunately it is the best of a bad bunch for epg though... Jan 08 13:34:28 Ah, yes, I was out all day auditioning TVs. Jan 08 13:34:39 and it isn't the epg that is the valuable thing for me, it is the timers i generate from it Jan 08 13:34:53 well, they generate for the Wiz, I generate for the 5K Jan 08 13:35:34 Had an opportunity to check out the 55" Series 9 Samsung and 55" Sony XBR45 series Jan 08 13:35:57 does the 9 series finally have active LED backlighting? Jan 08 13:36:10 I was disappointed with the Sony price/performance ratio. Jan 08 13:36:40 yeah, the sony is like a generation behind the samsung for about 2 generations ahead of price :-) Jan 08 13:36:49 On the other hand, the picture quality on the Samsung is pretty nice, as is the styling of the unit, but their firmware is so "Korean" :-( Jan 08 13:37:45 Yes, Series 9 does the LED backligthing with local dimming. Seems to work well enough. Jan 08 13:40:21 the thing that swayed me over a year ago was seeing scrolling credits on a movie (SD mind you), the samsung and sony were the only LCDs that weren't juddering like buggery Jan 08 13:40:41 Reading some of the menus and error messages on the Samsung was like looking at the Toppy or Beyonwiz. "Unsupported format" and other terse messages with dubious grammar. Red "verboten" signs flashing up in the top right corner when you press certain buttons on the remote. It just felt so unprofessional in terms of a polished CE product. Jan 08 13:43:30 i never use the menus in mine, set and forget (have the 2 or so generations older M series) Jan 08 13:49:42 Ah, the motion plus mode. Not sure if I like it or not. While it improves 24p frame rates, it also introduces weird artifacts in scene changes. I found it was almost tolerable at LOW but medium and high modes were bordering on the offensive in most instances. Jan 08 13:50:06 nope, not running it, still way more like crt than some of the other junky lcds Jan 08 13:50:32 i hate the artifacts from that movie plus/motion plus junk! Jan 08 13:51:03 not to mention that things look mega weird at higher than 24/25fps rates... like a 50fps handicam view Jan 08 13:51:37 I was hoping that the media player would cope better with the files I brought. The only sample it would recognise was a 1080p MPEG-2 TS file and it got the aspect ratio wrong. Jan 08 13:51:46 lol Jan 08 13:51:54 ditching the pvr altogether hey Jan 08 13:52:07 Mind you, the Beyonwiz can't keep up with the frame rate of the 1080p file. Jan 08 13:52:16 actually, didn't i read somewhere recently that you said it ran linux? Jan 08 13:53:19 I was hoping that the Samsung TV would complement the Beyonwiz and deal better with the HD media that BWiz is struggling to play well. Jan 08 13:53:57 Yeah - I pulled down the firmware image and did some digging. The firmware shows heaps of potential for the TV. Jan 08 13:54:43 Unrealised potential. Jan 08 13:57:21 anyway, bed is calling Jan 08 13:57:27 see you Jan 08 13:57:40 I think I'll buy it. In a number of ways it sucks a lot less than the Sony and at 66% of the cost the picture is better. Jan 08 13:57:46 Night. **** ENDING LOGGING AT Fri Jan 09 02:59:57 2009