Home Cinema Photos (More)

I fired up the projector last night with the sole intention of getting some nice screen shots taken from various DVDs to show off the quality of my budget set-up. First DVD up was "Training Day" but as I hadn't seen it in a while I soon forgot about taking pictures and lay back to enjoy the show. I did get one shot off which you can see below (click on image to enlarge). "BOOM, Dawg!"


For maximum quality the DVD is hooked up through Component Video with Progressive Scan. Pretty good, eh? Remember that image is a 72" diagonal. Now, to get the picture I had to switch off the flash, which gives a false sense of the darkness of the room. Even in the bedroom, at night, and the curtains drawn the projector throws out a fearsome amount of light which illuminates the room to a certain extent. To prolong the life of the projector bulb I'm running it in "Low" mode but as you can see the picture is still very well lit. I do want to redecorate the room with darker walls and ceiling to minimise light reflection, add new curtains with proper blackout material, tape up all the LEDs and maybe go for a light grey colour paint for the screen to improve the blacks. Its important to bear this in mind when viewing screen shots from projectors as they won't show the true light in the room at the time.

The following screen shots were taken yesterday afternoon (curtains drawn, overcast day) with the Freeview box hooked up to the projector through a RGB SCART cable. Again, with the flash off you get a false sense of the darkness in the room. I need to adjust the colour profile for the projector when running through the Freeview as the colours (particularly the reds are bit too much). Obviously, I can't pause the TV, so a lot of smearing from motion will be evident which you don't get when viewing.


All in all a fantastic picture for the cost of the set-up. Roll on the World Cup... woof!

Update: Actually, having looked at Denzil on a couple of different monitors I have to say this is actually a pretty fair representation of the quality we see live in the room. My main computer monitor must be set a bit too dark. Best thing to do, pop in and see it in the flesh if you're in the area :)

Home Cinema Photos

The screen as viewed from the bed (click on image to enlarge). That's a 72" diagonal with 16:9 aspect ratio that is. The front left/right and centre speaker match well with the proportions of the screen.

The projector mounted to the ceiling (click on image to enlarge) with the cables taken up through the roof space and down through a built-in wardrobe back into the bedroom for minimal visual clutter. The ceiling mount gives the impression of the projector floating in space. Noise from the fans isn't too bad and when you're engrossed in a film you tend not to notice especially now I've got the surround sound kit set up.

When it's dark I'll take some photos of the projector in action to gauge the quality of the projected image. I love my Home Cinema :-)

George Best

The death of George Best will, I'm sure, be greeted with many column inches in the press, hours of TV coverage, heated debates in pubs up and down the country. Some of what's said will be favourable to the football legend that was/is George Best and some will be less than kind to the alcoholic waster that was the man. To those people I have only one thing to say. You will never know or understand the pressures under which he lived from the moment he left Belfast as a young boy to his death at lunchtime today. The media scrumb outside the hospital was an all too typical sight for George during the past 42 years of his life.

For me I take pride in the fact that a young boy from Belfast turned out to be the most naturally gifted footballer of his generation (which straddled the golden age of football) the world had ever seen. Genius with a ball at his feet, yes. Drunk, womanising waster, yes... and I doubt he'd have changed a moment of it.

Favourite George Best quote: "Geoff Thomas? Isn't he the player who can trap a ball as far as I can kick it?" Yes, I know there are a million Best quotes better than that one but it's so unusual in that Best was never arrogant about his genius, but that quote is quite arrogant and I like that.

Home Cinema

The home cinema project is drawing to a close, and the results are pretty spectacular considering the costs involved even if I say so myself. First, lets look at the components I chose to install in our bedroom for that real cinema, big screen experience when viewing DVDs and a low cost solution for football matches and TV dramas.

Projector: Toshiba TLP-ET1
Cost: £380
Supplier: www.oyyy.co.uk

Surround Sound: Sony HT-SS600 AV Amp+5.1 Speaker Package
Cost: £163
Supplier: www.homecinematv.co.uk

DVD Player: Targa DP-5100X
Cost: £50
Supplier: www.ebay.co.uk

Other hardware purchased included 5m component video cables, 10m SCART cable to connect the projector to the existing freeview box, and a universal ceiling mount all secured from eBay for a cost of approximately £40. For a screen I've just painted a 72" diagonal sized white rectangle (16:9) on the wall with a 2" border of matt black paint. Looks well smart, woman friendly and gives a good picture too. I may go for a better DIY screen at a later date.

The DVD player was selected as I wanted a machine that would read absolutely anything... PAL, NTSC, multi-region, branded/unbranded, DVD+R, -R, RW DivX, xVid you name it this thing reads it with no quibbles. According to the experts on the avforums this is the one and I'm very pleased with it as, so far, it's played everything flawlessly.

The projector is mounted to the ceiling with all cables hidden in the ceiling above (roof space) and explains the need for the long cables to track everything invisibly. The power cable was made at work. All together very smart and all for a total cost of £640. Very much chuffed. Next post I'll show some photos of the set-up in action.

Apple iTunes Music Store

Bought my first ever track from iTunes at the weekend for the princely sum of £0.79. Very easy (too easy in fact) as all your payment details are held in your account info it's just a matter of selecting the track and clicking download. No messing with credit card numbers etc. Anyone who sits down at my computer could happily fill their boots at my expense.

Anyway, very slick, updates the song to the library and adds the artwork for you. The song was "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush from her 1989 album "The Sensual World". Lesley wanted it after being used as the title music for an ITV drama a couple of weeks ago ("Walk Away and I Stumble"- typical girlie, weepy love story thing). Good value if you're only interested in one song, just be careful what buttons you click.

Smoking Ban

Went out to the pub on Saturday night for one of Lesley's workmates who is emigrating to Australia in a couple of weeks. This is probably the first time in three years I'd actually been in a pub as with the ME/CFS I didn't have the will, energy or desire to go out plus my body couldn't tolerate alcohol (I don't drink at all now).

I was struck by the amount of people smoking in the pub, certainly a majority across all ages. It was totally horrendous, clouds of noxious fumes billowing around, eyes stinging, clothes stinking... horrendous. As a result I'm now firmly in favour of a Government enforced smoking ban in public places. Previously, I wasn't fussed and worried it was yet another example of the nanny state and the politicians looking to stick their nose in peoples' every day lives. But now, ban it as soon as is humanly possible. Lesley, a smoker, even commented the amount of smoke was uncomfortable and would have no complaints if she'd to nip outside for a fag like she does when at home.

No more havering, BAN SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES, NOW.

Robbie Williams

Talentless wanker? Oh yes. I just don't get Robbie Williams, a complete arse who can't sing, play an instrument or write a song. What is he good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again.

Pre-menstrual girls and post menopausal women make up 99.9% of his fan base, blindly following his latest warblings and poncing about the stage looking like a twat. Ultimate showman? Oh please, give me a break. Crashing and burning horribly live in front of millions at Live8, when he made an excruciatingly piss poor attempt to get into Fern Cotton's pants, still makes me howl with laughter.

And so it came to pass that I found myself in front of the computer, bleary eyed, yesterday morning. Under strict instructions from she who must be obeyed I wasn't to even consider failing in securing as many tickets for his Hampden 2006 gig as possible. I didn't fail... I got one, ONE f*cking ticket for an eye watering £51. Lesley says she'll still be going and not even her mother sobbing on the end of the phone is going to stop her. Me? I'm up for selling it for as much as I can possibly screw out of some tone deaf, deluded fool (and there's plenty about).

Health Update 45

Not very well at the moment. A potentially fatal dose of "Man Flu" has me firmly in it's grasp. Ever since I started taking my multi-vitamins, Evening Primrose oil and Cod Liver Oil supplements (about 18 months ago) I've been pretty free of the unmistakable symptoms. Lesley, the worlds worst nurse, is tending to my dying moments with all the care and tenderness of (insert your own description here). Women just don't understand.

Tesco DVD Rental (Update)

My 21 day free trial finishes tomorrow and I'm happy to continue to use their service at a cost of £7.97 per month. Over the past 21 days they've delivered 5 DVDs to my door. The speed of service and turnaround has been excellent (hats off to our much maligned Postal System as well).

Lesley usually posts the returns on her way to work and every time they've been acknowledged as delivered the following morning. Upon receipt of a return the next DVD from your list is automatically sent out that afternoon, and without fail has been delivered to me the next morning. No complaints.

I've toyed with the idea of subscribing to their top plan which for £13.97 a month allows you to have 3 DVDs at a time. There's over 100 titles in my selected rental list to get through so that'll take some time. I reckon that on the 1 disc at a time plan (£7.97) you should, quite comfortably get 7 DVDs a month (allowing for weekends when there's no post and without taking the piss (i.e ripping and returning the DVD on the same day;-)).

Give it a go, 5 DVDs for nowt can't be bad. Remember though that my experience is based on relatively old films, I don't know what the service would be like if you expected, say, Star Wars III to drop through your letterbox on the day of release.

Health Update 44

Hey, hey, hey... still here, just a little bit less of me than before. My low fat diet seems to be working now as the weight is starting to shift, thankfully.

All told I've lost around 1.5 stone since I hit rock bottom back in August. A very slow rate of weight loss but that's the best way to keep it off for good without really dieting. I don't count calories, I don't go without, I just watch the amount of fat in my food, piece of piss.

Hopefully my next set of Liver Function results will show the fat reduction in my diet has reduced the Enzyme levels of my blood.