How to Repair a TV Antenna without an antenna installer
If after moving into a new apartment you find that the external TV antenna is not working, you may need an antenna booster power pack.
An antenna booster power pack looks like a mobile phone or laptop power pack. Also, it is easy to get the power pack confused with the antenna booster. Antenna boosters are located on the antenna mast or inside the roof.
Very often, tenants take the antenna power pack with them when they move out, sometimes mistakenly and other times on purpose. When this happens, the people who move into the aparment after them, are stuck with an antenna that does not work.
A TV antenna installer may try to persuade you to buy new antenna mounting, which often costs more than $500, when all you need is a new antenna booster power pack, which you can buy from us for $30. That’s far less than some greedy antenna installers will try and get you to pay for antenna mounting.
Even if you like to fix things yourself, installing an antenna booster power pack is best left to the professionals. This is because different antenna amplifiers require different types of powers packs. If the wrong power pack is chosen, the antenna booster may blow and the antenna may fail to work properly. If you do not know how to install antenna power packs, you should call someone that does. A qualified and experienced antenna man will be much better suited for this type of job than you probably are.
Antenna mast amplifier power pack
You can purchase antenna power packs here. We also provide fast and accurate antenna repairs or installation service if you are located in the Sydney Northern Beaches area.
New Apple iPhone 4S actually talks to you
Are you are visually impaired, lonely or just too lazy to read text on you phone? Then new iPhone 4S is the right choice! It actually answers your questions in plain English.
Never mind what patented Apple speech recognition Siri means in Japanese or in Georgia.
Power Off computer or leave It On?
Why to turn it OFF?
– Saving energy
An average a PC consumes a 200 W power wile ON – just like a light globe. Let’s say an electricity cost you 20C per KWh in Australia. You save 12 hours x 20c x 0.2Kwh = 48 cents per day if turning computer off for a 12 hours night. That is A$14.4 per month. That is ¼ of an average internet connection cost.
-Save from hackers attacks
If you worry about internet security then you already know that if computer is off it can not be hacked it or infected with malware. Nerveless a malware frequently is seeded when you are actively using computer and activated when you restart computer. So really benefits of shutting down computer for security is questionable.
Why leave computer ON? – faster torrents or large files download
If you are in Australia and downloading torrents or large files you may wish to leave it always ON.
1. Time difference. Torrents are downloaded from other torrent user’s computers. Your computer and peer computers you download movies from must be on. More torrent clients (computers) you have more torrent download speed you get. Let’s say someone seeded (uploaded) a movie in the US. More likely it will be available better at US’s late afternoon time when Americans are sitting at home with their computers on. That torrent would be better available at Australian day time.
2. Some Australian internet providers give free unlimited night traffic on limited accounts.
3. Network is less congested during the night time.
Can you trust Firefox? Data loss bug in Firefox 6, bookmarks tags deleted.
Current Firefox 6 deletes bookmark’s tags.
It took me some time to notice that I am loosing Firefox bookmarks tags. I reported bug on 2011-08-26. Status in Firefox Bugzila (bug tracking place) marked as verified and fixed (not present in Firefox 7 beta) albeit this bug still present in the current version of Firefox 6.0.2
Steps to reproduce bug:
Open All bookmarks manager – Ctrl-Shift-B
Right click on a bookmark and Cut
Move to other bookmark folder.
Right click Paste.
Result: Bookmark’s Tag cleared.
Expected: Bookmark’s Tag should stay
It is the same bug existed in Firefox 3.6 Mozilla.
By Firefox developer’s policy Firefox bug is not going to be fixed until release of the newest version of Firefox 7. That means Firefox bugs considered as ‘fixed’ when they are not.
It gives plenty of time for people ‘enjoy’ Firefox bugs and hackers to exploit published Firefox bugs.
Think before download the Mozilla Firefox, ‘can I trust Open Source software’?
Watch out for you iTunes account. Accounts hacked. Credit spent..
ITunes store users loosing hundreds from they iTunes credit or linked visa or PayPal accounts. ITunes account details changed. Apple do not admit hack but refund money. Hacked iTunes accounts sold in China.
Resolve windows error – Session “Homegroup Log” failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035
Solution:
Go to Control PanelAll Control Panel ItemsNetwork and Sharing Center. Choose homegroup and sharing options. Leave the homegroup
Why?
You probably attempted to disable Microsoft HomeGroup by changing “Home network” to “public network” in Network and Sharing Center.
It is easy to assume that if you press on Home network under Connect or disconnect headings will disconnect Home network. It does not.
Changing “Home network” to “public network” in Network and Sharing Center does not disconnect or connect anything. It is just switching off/on windows firewall rules for MS home network.
Other related errors
Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup Control Panel/Operational
GetSharingFlags failed. Details: ???
Samsung led TV UA55D8000 problems review
1. Picture does not look good on DVD or other low def sources such as standard digital TV stations. It looks like mpeg filter problem. Especially visible on moving details. TV does not have noise filter settings. This problem was obvious for my trained eye and close distance (2meters). Other people did not see the problem.
2. Big Pond Wi-Fi could not be connected from the first go, rejected password, and lost connection intermittently. Replacing BigPond ADSL WiFi router with a standard one fixed it.
3. Big Pond app and others Samsung apps hanged with the message – connectivity problem. Wi-Fi connection tested good at that time.
Solution: Firmware update. Apparently firmware on brand new Samsung UA55D8000 LED 3D Smart TV is outdated by 4 revisions.
Some apps still hang after update occasionally but not as bad.
4. Still ongoing problem as before update: can not sign-in for Big Pond movies via BigPond Samsung app in Smart Hub. Shows “incorrect password”. Same password worked via PC or T-Box, of cause. Free Big Pond movies via the same app streamed fine.
5. T-Box gives better resolution then the Samsung Big Pond app.
So it is better just use T-Box via HDMI for BigPond movies and downloads.
6. YouTube Samsung app starts with most popular (stupid) clip every time when use it. Typing something in search is extremely difficult on the Samsung UA55D8000 remote control. Better use a PC.
7. DLNA streaming from Windows Media Player works intermittent. It appearing and disappearing for no apparent reason. Movies do not play via Samsung UA55D8000, at least mp4 format from camera. I could view pictures via DNLA only. Client was not going to use this feature yet. So I did not bother to troubleshoot.
8. Connection speed of 3Mbs is not enough for watching Big Pond TV. Too far from exchange I guess (Bayview). BigPond app suggests 3.5 mb/s at leaset. Fare enough. So why BigPond sale these packages at all? With an average ADSL speed of 6 mb/s you can not watch movies online on two T-Boxes simultaneously. Especially if you have other computers in the house downloading something ( like torrents or automatic Microsoft updates).
Artificial 3D worked well. Unfortunately no 3D free to air tv programs is available at this time to test it..
Despite issues HD picture on UA55D8000 is fantastic; vivid, very bright, contrast.
Resume.
You pay a lot for the latest technology and it does not always work. I’d better wait until new features have been out for a while and all bugs fixed.
The only nice feature I liked was a Samsung news aggregation app displaying news as a running line under the picture.
After all. TV is a TV. Computer is the computer. Why join them? Need to download and watch movies on the big screen ? Put computer near TV, connect PC to TV via HDMI and run Windows Media Player on PC or get a wireless (WiFi) networked media player for a $100 or so.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is no longer supported, upgrade or download update
As of July 12th, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is no longer supported. Means you wont get any more Microsoft security updates. Update to Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) or upgrade to Windows 7 which is the fastest selling operating system in history. Visit this end of support page on Windows.com to learn more about how to ensure your PC is on the latest service pack.
download Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista Service Pack 1, 32bit
download Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista Service Pack 1, 64bit
Onboard high definition audio chips HD realtek intel and creative sound blaster comparison
| Onboard audio chips | sampling rate | introduced | Creative Sound Blaster |
|---|---|---|---|
| AC’97 | from 16-bit/44.1kHz | 1997 | |
| 16-bit/48Khz | 2001 | Audigy | |
| HD ( High Definition Audio, HD Realtek audio etc) | from 24-bit/48kHz | ||
| from 24-bit/96kHz | 2005 | X-Fi | |
| from 24-bit/192kHz | 2002 | Audigy 2 | |
| Intel HD | from 32-bit/192kHz | 2004 |
Sampling frequency most of Mp3 music, CDs is 44.1 kHz. DVD 48kHz
references wikipedia 1, 2, creative.com, Intel
Why new Full HD TV does not look good and how to fix this problem
The number, size and shape of pixels on Full HD screen optimized for maximum resolution 1920×1080. Ideally, incoming source should much the display’s native resolution. Upscaling splits source pixels unevenly. Standard definition is 720×576. 1920/720 = 2.66 … is not even. That is why standard definition DVD, Foxtel, Digital Free to Air does not look good on a Full HD screen.
The advantage of Full HD screens appreciated when watching 1920×1080 only, like Blue Ray. Not all of Blue Ray movies and players are 1920×1080.
Furthermore, in some areas, like here at Mona Vale Sydney Northern Beaches no free to air broadcasts in Full HD received at all. The maximum free to air resolution here is 1440×1080 on Gem and One HD.
This is what I get.
High Definition TV broadcasting and image resolutions in Sydney Northern Beaches
| TV channel | resolution | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | 720×576 | SD |
| 9 | 720×576 | SD |
| 10 | 720×576 | SD |
| Gem | 1440×1080 | HD |
| One HD | 1440×1080 | HD |
| SBS HD | 1280×720 | Standard HD |
| Go! | 704×576 | low def (!) |
| ABC2 | 720×576 | SD |
| 11 | 720×576 | SD |
Now look at the cheap HD screen with 1440×1080 pixels and upscaleing from a regular 720×576 definition. 1440/720 is even number. That is why 1440 screen is better for viewing DVD, Free to Air SD or HD, Foxtel standard or Foxtel HD.
Most of people do not see the difference between High Definition and Standard anyway. So TV broadcasters do not bother to invest.
To fix problem on Full HD screens you can turn on all noise and mpeg filters to max and reduce sharpness. Some Full HD TV models do have a good upscaling technique.