Tag Archives: gadgets
Gadgets

PS3 Optical Digital Audio Cable

By on Monday, February 1, 2010

Finally got an optical digital audio cable aka TOSLINK cable to connect the PS3 to my budget audio receiver, a Samsung HT-Z320 home theater. Supposedly this should give me 5.1 audio. I plugged in the cable and configured the PS3 sound settings->audio output settings. I selected optical digital as the connector and selected Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, AAC, PCM 2.0 44.1KHz, and PCM 2.0 48KHz (selected by default, can’t be deselected) output formats.

But for some reason, some movies had no sound. On thing I noticed is that these movies all have AAC audio. I checked the specifications of the HT-Z320 and indeed it doesn’t mention AAC. Just DTS and Dolby Digital. Well, like I said, it’s a budget audio receiver. So I unselected AAC on the PS3 and tried playing the movies again. Voila! I now have audio!

What happened is that since AAC is not checked, the PS3 automatically converted the AAC data to PCM 2.0. And from PCM 2.0, the HT-Z320 can convert it to 5.1 audio via Pro Logic II. Not as good as true AAC 5.1 I’m sure. But certainly less expensive which is fine enough with me.

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Gadgets

WDS: Bridging Wireless Networks

By on Saturday, January 23, 2010

I had my PS3 and Linkstation on a wired gigabit subnet because I wanted the PS3 to be able to stream HD content from the Linkstation. But I also needed the PS3 to have Internet access and the Linkstation to be accessible by wireless devices.

First, I tried connecting my Huawei D100 router to the switch but it couldn’t find any HSDPA signal. Sun’s signal is still spotty and weak in some areas and finicky elsewhere.  So I guess the D100 has to be in the bedroom where the signal is strongest.

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Gadgets

Buffalo LinkStation Live

By on Sunday, January 17, 2010

I finally got my LinkStation back from the shop. Only, it’s now a Linkstation Live. Here’s how it happened: A few months ago my CD-R King HDD enclosure died when it suffered a workplace accident. To replace it, I bought a Buffalo LinkStation Pro. But after a only few months, it conked out (Lesson Learned: Do not store important data in these unreliable drives!).

Fortunately,  it was still under warranty so I asked James to return it to the shop for repairs. After a few weeks, the shop told us it can no longer be repaired and that they’re sourcing a replacement unit. After a few more weeks, they still couldn’t find a replacement unit. After repeated phone calls by James, they eventually decided to replace with the newer LinkStation Live.

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Gadgets

Sony Playstation 3 Slim

By on Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I was a gamer not too long ago. I played a whole gamut of games from classic arcade games like Pac-man, Space Invaders to classic PC games like King’s Quest, Karateka, Prince of Persia, to the modern FPS, RPG, and RTS like Doom I/II, Duke Nukem, Quake I/II/III, Unreal, Command and Conquer I/II, Red Alert I/II, Warcraft I/II/III (and DOTA), Diablo I/II, Starcraft, I even played an MMORPG: Ragnarok (yesh!). But I guess work and studies plus an underpowered laptop put all that to rest.

With the series of holidays coming up, I wanted to have something to while away the time during the occasional respites from attending to Jeanne (and to a certain extent Michelle). Aside from watching movies, what’s better than being part of those movies, in an interactive way i.e. games, right?

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Gadgets

Sun Broadband Wireless

By on Friday, September 25, 2009

Michelle and I finally decided to subscribe to Sun Wireless Broadband. We were quite reluctant at first because of all the horror stories about wireless Internet access. Not just about Sun but also Globe and Smart. In fact, I think Smart Bro started it all, the horror stories.

But recently, there have been better feedback about Sun’s product to the point that people are even saying that Globe and Smart is a waste of time and money. That’s a big turnabout since Sun is really notorious for their poor signal and poor interconnection (but I’m sure it’s not entirely their fault there). And although the horror stories are not completely gone, we decided to take a leap of faith and get one.

Of course, we chose the no commitment option: Buying the modem for less expensive promo price of P1,595 (instead of the overpriced P1,895) and getting the unlimited account for P799 a month. The transaction was reasonably fast and painless. I guess they were eager to make a sale. We filled up two forms (one for the account and one for the credit card billing) and then were given a Huawei E1550 HSDB USB modem. After a short tutorial where the only thing I really heard was about some 24 hour activation, we’re off.

So after getting home,plugging in the USB modem, installing the built-in software, and waiting the requisite 24 hours, here we are surfing wirelessly.  And the speed was a miserably slow 150Kbps or so. There are times when it struggles, and there are times (early in the morning) when it’s pretty fast but it’s usually just around 150Kbps. So I guess some of the horror stories are true.

But still it’s not too bad for unlimited wireless for P799 a month. Of course, I definitely want Sun to fix and improve it. Who doesn’t, right? I hope Globe and Smart wake up from their stupor on their self-imagined laurels and goad Sun to fix and improve. And they should all have service level commitments. But for now, Sun is it.

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