Sony sez: IR is dead... Long live Bluetooth!

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 11 Oct 2006 05:07 pm

Are you referring to multichanneling talez? Because everything else in FTA standard is pretty good, compared to say europe.

You could argue too that foxtel has been a huge fuckup, FTA constantly screws over FTA viewers by holding onto rights for shows/sports they never show and force paytv users to wait for something they should have access to now.

mech · Post by **mech** » 11 Oct 2006 05:39 pm

lestat wrote:I'm still trying to see what real benefits a bluetooth remote offer over a IR remote? People that need all in one remotes already have them and they work fine with existing equipment. A remote is a remote in the end, could explain why i don't see any push from ce companies to incorperate bluetooth remotes in their devices.

I just see ps3 using a bluetooth remote just because they already are using a bluetooth receiver and wanted to save cost on having to include an IR port.

Are you kidding me? Remotes without line of sight requirements would be fantastic.

And lestat, Foxtel's been a nightmare, they're cramming so much shit down their "digital" service that everything is 576i, and barely anything supports the 5.1 option. Barely anything is widescreen too. It's woeful. Apparently they might support hi-def in the future, but I'll believe it when I see it, wish they'd just junk some of the more useless channels and give us a quality upgrade now.

Some Rugby games I've seen have almost been unwatchable the quality is so bad...

westical · Post by **westical** » 11 Oct 2006 06:13 pm

The quality of Rugby games is indeed attrocious.

Talez · Post by **Talez** » 11 Oct 2006 07:00 pm

lestat wrote:Are you referring to multichanneling talez? Because everything else in FTA standard is pretty good, compared to say europe.

You could argue too that foxtel has been a huge fuckup, FTA constantly screws over FTA viewers by holding onto rights for shows/sports they never show and force paytv users to wait for something they should have access to now.

Mutlichannel, datacasting, forcing true HD rather than this 576p.

And we are so far behind. Freeview in the UK kicks the living shit out of anything.

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 11 Oct 2006 07:42 pm

Mech wrote: Are you kidding me? Remotes without line of sight requirements would be fantastic.

That’s about the only advantage I could see too, but honestly how often is line of sight a problem when you’re sitting in front of your tv anyways.

Mech wrote: And lestat, Foxtel's been a nightmare, they're cramming so much shit down their "digital" service that everything is 576i, and barely anything supports the 5.1 option. Barely anything is widescreen too. It's woeful. Apparently they might support hi-def in the future, but I'll believe it when I see it, wish they'd just junk some of the more useless channels and give us a quality upgrade now.

Some Rugby games I've seen have almost been unwatchable the quality is so bad...

Yes foxtel quality is shit, but my biggest issue with the service is the fact FTA stations get first dibs on shows, they get the rights to shows but don’t show them or put them on stupid times. Foxtel eventually gets it but 12-18months later. That and the number of ads on the service is ridiculous.

Talez wrote: Mutlichannel, datacasting, forcing true HD rather than this 576p.
And we are so far behind. Freeview in the UK kicks the living shit out of anything.

Unfortunately 20mbits doesn’t go too far, so it was one or the other, multichannel or hd. The government chose hd, 7 were the ones that pushed for 576p after their push for multichannel fell flat, channel 7 is the big offender when it comes to bullshit hd, 9 and 10 are generally pretty good. BTW I love how they call it freeview when the government comes around once a year and charges a tv tax for it. Also we had hd way be the uk got it. It’s only now that some hd is being made available to freeview. But that was one of the biggest issues for us, since we went the hd route first, there were hardly any dvb-t hd boxes on the market.

Basically both FTA/Paytv are in a sad state in this country just because the government won’t let either service compete with each other.

Talez · Post by **Talez** » 11 Oct 2006 08:57 pm

I still maintain that if the government weren't such shitheads and allowed multichannel we would have had 50% of the populace on digital TV in 2001 just through 24 hour streaming of the first season of Big Brother.

selfish · Post by **selfish** » 11 Oct 2006 09:38 pm

Cletus wrote:In the end,anything that can use a remote comes with one so why does it all have be the same?

fucking EXACTLY

who here [that matters*] cares?

*anyone who spent over $30 on a remote control officially has too high a cash-to-brain ratio

mech · Post by **mech** » 11 Oct 2006 11:57 pm

Only someone without much cash would have a go at people buying universal remotes.

My Harmony 880 is fantastic. 9 remotes are now just 1. Makes everything so much neater, easier and just plain better.

unfnknblvbl · Post by **unfnknblvbl** » 12 Oct 2006 12:31 am

lestat wrote:Yep mech to replace the battery you need to open up the casing. Ipod rechargeable battery fiasco mk2 here we come. Obviously sony is expecting users to rebuy their controllers every 2-3 years.

Pat · Post by **Pat** » 12 Oct 2006 03:40 pm

mech wrote:Only someone without much cash would have a go at people buying universal remotes.

My Harmony 880 is fantastic. 9 remotes are now just 1. Makes everything so much neater, easier and just plain better.

They are very nice by all accounts. Compared to the cost of a worthwhile HT setup, the cost of a universal remote is negligible anyway. No excuses not to have one IMO.

Out of interest mech, is yours a 'learning' remote?

mech · Post by **mech** » 12 Oct 2006 05:01 pm

Yeah, except you usually don't have to do anything, it can connect to the internet and download all the codes you need. So easy to set up it's ridiculous.

And yeah, my remote probably cost 3% of my total HT setup, and makes things so much easier it was worth every penny.

selfish · Post by **selfish** » 12 Oct 2006 11:36 pm

mech wrote:Only someone without much cash would have a go at people buying universal remotes.

Yes, I am a student. Yes, I have little money. Regardless, people spending obscene amounts of money on tvs and the like still grosses me out a bit - over-consumption taken to the extreme.*

I'm not sure if that was an attempt to have a dig at me for not being cashed up, but it was rather dismal - picking on someone because they have less money than you is just about as pathetic as you can get.

* In case you can't tell, yes, this is what is known as exaggeration.

Sonic Jam · Post by **Sonic Jam** » 13 Oct 2006 12:19 am

It's about as pathetic as picking on someone for having more money than you and spending it how they want, wouldn't you say?

How much is an obscene ammount of money btw? I don't consider spending a few grand on a quality display that you will look at for thousands of hours to be something that should gross a person out.

vision · Post by **vision** » 13 Oct 2006 09:20 am

Bluetooth remotes FTW. There needs to be a wireless standard which removes line of sight and I don't see anything else standing on the wayside ready to go.

It's so buggy and unsupported so far because of crap implementation by companies that get into the hands of consumers. When done right (like Sony will), it will work beautifully. It needs further backing from companies like this.

How cool will it be being able to use your controller for your PC as well? What about in-car gaming systems? Not having to plug it in anywhere and having it "just work" will be great.

I am sure that universal remotes will include Bluetooth once the next home theatre company jumps on the bandwagon with Sony.

mech · Post by **mech** » 13 Oct 2006 09:29 am

selfish wrote:
mech wrote:Only someone without much cash would have a go at people buying universal remotes.
Yes, I am a student. Yes, I have little money. Regardless, people spending obscene amounts of money on tvs and the like still grosses me out a bit - over-consumption taken to the extreme.*

I'm not sure if that was an attempt to have a dig at me for not being cashed up, but it was rather dismal - picking on someone because they have less money than you is just about as pathetic as you can get.

* In case you can't tell, yes, this is what is known as exaggeration.

No, it's what I think is the case here - you're having a go at people because you can't afford something yourself. I didn't have much cash when I was a student either. But why have a go at someone who DOES have the money to spend on these things? It doesn't make sense. I don't have a go at someone who, say, buys a Porsche. I can't afford one myself, but I'm not going to go "fucking hell mate, that's over-consumption in the extreme, you don't need that." It's his money and his choice, why's it bother you?

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 13 Oct 2006 09:36 am

I can see where selfish is coming from, tv's and home theatre is getting a bit ridiculous these days, it feels like a pc now, where the display you buy is outdated in 2-3 years due to some new video standard, technology.

Nearly 4 years ago i spent 9k on my plasma and it's outdated, no 1080p native res, no hdmi, no 1080p video support. Even the dell i bought not long ago is outdated because it lacks hdcp/hdmi etc. no hdmi 1.3 deep colour support.

Home entertainment tech is moving at such a high pace, they're already showing 2160p displays now, 1080p is outdated already, we have laser tv's etc. It just feels like one cannot invest in home theatre gear anymore with the knowledge you'll be covered for 5-10 years.

mech · Post by **mech** » 13 Oct 2006 09:43 am

Well, my universal remote is going to keep working with all my equipment for the foreseeable future (one bluetooth remote doesn't mean I have to go rid of it yet, and all my other equipment will be around for a while), and my TV still looks awesome even though it's a CRT and a few years old now...

At any rate, I feel like I've definitely gotten my money's worth, and that's the important part. Everything gets superseded eventually, it's just whether you got decent use out of it or not.

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 13 Oct 2006 10:08 am

Everything gets superseded eventually, it's just whether you got decent use out of it or not.

TV's and stereos used to have a long life, we had pal/ntsc video standards for some 30 years. You bought a tv and generally it would last for 5-10 years and it all just worked.

But now you look at it, there are all sorts of different standards to confuse consumers, they keep coming up with new ones, hdmi which i find worrying can be incrementally upgraded, which means even the latest 1.3 hdmi sets will be screwed in terms of future support for say 2160p etc. Same thing is happening with audio and surround sound. mp3/aac/wmv and all the digital rights crap, then you had DD+/ TrueHD DD, DTS lossless, 24bit uncompresed pcm etc. Home Theatre has become pc like, where you have to be switched on to follow all the new standards and you kidding yourself expecting for your equipment to last 10 years now. It's like a pc where every 2-3 years you gotta look to upgrade otherwise you really get left behind.

mech · Post by **mech** » 13 Oct 2006 10:21 am

You're not forced to upgrade anything though lestat, that's the thing. And I'm still using both my older TVs, one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom. When I upgrade my lounge TV I'll probably sell or give away one of my old ones and down the hierarchy it goes. What's the problem?

Talez · Post by **Talez** » 13 Oct 2006 10:23 am

mech wrote:You're not forced to upgrade anything though lestat, that's the thing.

What about Dead Rising?

selfish · Post by **selfish** » 13 Oct 2006 10:30 am

mech wrote:No, it's what I think is the case here - you're having a go at people because you can't afford something yourself.

Bullshit. Regardless of how much money I have, it's all just getting a bit fucking crazy.

It's not you specifically, but just our culture in general - one where spending and consuming more than we really need to is smiled upon, even encouraged. It's been this way for a while, but we'll see how far we can keep going like this...in terms of television, surely we'll reach a point where it's good enough, and further development isn't worth it - you could argue that, for the average joe, we reached that point with dvd.

It'll take some kind of paradigm shift like that from video to dvd to get everyone to upgrade to HD. But i guess that's just it, instead of a shift to something totally different, HD is just an "upgrade". Like the way plenty of people get along fine with 1Ghz processors and dialup, I don't think we'll see a massive change until a long time after they stop selling SD tvs.

GreyWizzard · Post by **GreyWizzard** » 13 Oct 2006 10:35 am

I think 6 guys break dancing sold HD DVD for me

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 13 Oct 2006 10:36 am

My problem mech is too many stupid standards being introduced and people can't invest in a good setup and be future proofed like they used to be.

When invested in my tv, 1080p/hdmi never existed. The industry was united on 1080i/720p. That was meant to be the standard to carry the torch from good old ntsc/pal. Now with hdmi and it's 1.x incremental update potential, all that is in the bin. It's annoying and frustrating, you spend your hard earned money with the intention you should be covered for a standard and they go and screw you over and push a new in. Sure tv's will improve over time, but the video standards and interfaces shouldn't be incrementally upgraded like they want to do. It's just turning into the same bullshit we have to deal with on pc's.

Oh that 720p/1080i tv we sold you 2-3 years ago that we said was a hdtv, well it really isn't 1080p is "true hd". I'd just like to see some stability in video standards, something we can bank on for longer than 18-24months. I can see them doing the same shit with bluetooth, due to it's flexible profile nature, it's easy to introduce remote profile 1.21 to screw over 1.1 profile users, they can keep changing the standard and make it a stupid moving target like it is with video at the moment.

DjBigK · Post by **DjBigK** » 13 Oct 2006 10:51 am

Selfish

Just a bit of an over-reaction because someone has a universal remote control isn't it?

I also have a Harmony 880, and I can tell you that it is awesome. It replaces a metric shiteload of remote controls for me. Everyone that has used it has been in awe of it.. want to watch a DVD, press Watch a DVD, and everything starts up for you, want to watch HD TV, press watch HD-TV and it all starts up for you. It's ridiculous how good this thing is, I didn't appreciate how bad it was before with so many remotes until I got the Harmony. Now, I won't look back. It makes everything so much easier, and faster to setup. If you have a decent HT setup you should have a Universal remote.

I also aree with Mech in that technology isn't really moving so quickly, that everything becomes horribly outdated in a matter of 2 years. Seriously I've had my TV (a HD CRT) for a couple of years now, and nothing I see on the market now makes me want to go out and buy a new set (at the sam size.. tho' I wouldn't mind going to a 50inch HD Plasma, but TBH that size is just too big for my lounge room). The same with my receiver.. it does 7.1, but I only have it setup for 5.1. Not enough DVDs/sources take advantage of 5.1, and in my relatively poor accoustic environment some of the advantages of the extra speakers would be lost. If the 360 HD-DVD player will output HD DVDs in 720p/1080i over component (as Lestat advised it does) then I am set for the next big move to HD. Any resolutions higher than that, at the screen size that I have (36") would be almost negligable anyway, assuming you don't sit a metre away from the set.

Talez · Post by **Talez** » 13 Oct 2006 10:51 am

lestat wrote:Cry cry cry! My perfectly usable 3 year old gear isn't bleeding edge anymore!

Fixed.