Pete's Write

These are some settings I got off other posts / forums like AVS: I used a series of color slides you can download from AVS forum( Run In Images ), left my telly on with the slides running for about 80 hours, dialed in settings off AVS / CNET (I posted them earlier), adjusted for my own room conditions and I began enjoy the set. The break-in slides are to age the phosphors evenly during their most "impressionable" period. Plasma TV Break-In Break-in consists of a set of steps you should make right after you bought your plasma TV. Its purpose is to slowly prepare the TV for regular watching. During the break-in period, you will have to limit yourself a bit in regard to how you use your plasma TV. The break-in should be performed for the first 100-200 hours of operation. You can perform it exclusively or integrate it between your regular TV watching hours. During these 100-200 hours, the plasma TV is prone to accelerated burn-in because the pixels are fresh and fire at ma...

Safe House movie review Denzel Washington is the go to person for anything to do with intrigue, espionage, and action. Ryan Reynolds has begun establishing himself as a man with more than just good looks. The plot is pretty generic. A rogue agent turns himself in, with a black list of rogue agents, from a variety of agencies, who have turned bad. He is transported to a safe house, and here is where staid and bored Ryan comes in. He plays the housekeeper of such CIA safe houses. And before he knows, the team who has come to interrogate Denzel is eliminated, and they are on the run. They soon discover that it is a CIA agent who wants to kill them, and they need to keep alive, and also make sure the list doesn’t get into the wrong hands. The action is decent, although there isn’t much suspense, but if you don’t examine the plot too much, you will enjoy the ride. Forget chick factor, enjoy the plot and both Ryan and Denzel turn in their usual good performances to save a generic plo...

Sennheiser PXC 450 noise cancelling headphones review Frequent travellers spend a considerable amount of their time in planes, and if you are one of them, you will appreciate piece and quiet, which can be hard to achieve with the noise coming from a variety of sources. Sitting mere metres from a bunch of jet engines is hardly quiet and if you have a particularly chatty neighbor on the plane, that doesn't help too. If he or she happens to  snore like a rhino in deep heat, well that is going to make your flight just perfect… So what are your choices? Well you could use ear plugs, which are pretty effective but not everyone likes putting something synthetic inside their ears, and it certainly can get very uncomfortable if you are doing this for many hours. You may also wish to enjoy a movie or two whilst in the skies and the usual headphones that are issued are leaky, letting in lots of noise and don't sound good either. You end up turning up the volume and still ...

If you just bought a TV in the past few days/months/year, well good luck, your digital TV tuner is now as useful for TV as a toaster.... well at least the toaster can make toast whilst you watch telly, whereas all the tuner will do is generate heat... How will you embrace DTV? Will by then, your new telly may be due for replacement, or you can buy a set top box, yes, yet another one to add to the MIO, Starhub and whatever other equipment you have... Good luck with that new telly http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1208529/1/.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbzjzHii-WY&feature=youtu.be SINGAPORE: All of MediaCorp's seven free-to-air channels will go fully digital by December 2013. Four of the channels (Channel 5, Channel 8, Suria and Vasantham) will also be transmitted in high definition by then, while the remaining three (Channel NewsAsia, Okto and Channel U) will follow suit by 2016. The move marks another milestone in Singapore's roadmap i...

 After a bit of a search, I found a place in Copenhagen which sells audio equipment, and took a long casual walk over... KT Radio sounds like a name of a shop in Sim Lim instead of a regal old European city.. The owner is one Kenneth Malmborg, and he was warm and friendly. He was also willing to ship overseas, so that will keep your interests piqued.. He carries a variety of brands, and had the new Pansonic VT50 display as well, but the key product of interest was the Dynaudio speakers, which were produced in Denmark. Denmark has a 25% VAT and that is interesting, since you get to claim part of this back and that forms a substantial discount. The main item of interest was a pair of Confidence 1 Signature series, and the owner was offering me a substantial discount on them... Driven by some Spectral brand systems, the first thing that struck you was a certain accuracy, and a clean sound. Imaging was impressive, and there was no emphasis of any of the frequencies. ...

A long plane ride allows you to catch up on movies, especially those you won't really go out of the way to buy... This Means War - movie review This is a bromance, cum spy thriller with some comedy thrown in, and employs three rather A-list actors to help things along, but somehow it doesn't quite come together. And the fact that I am telling you this in the first paragraph of my review kind of sums up this show... Two successful CIA agents who are buddies in the field and go through thick and thin together, fall in love with the same woman and they battle it out with all they and CIA have, whilst trying to stop a German terrorist... Nothing new here, and the two adopt stereotypes of a playboy type and the other the man with a broken family who thinks he is a travel agent... throw in the girl who is out to have a relationship and toss in a German accent chap (I guess he was cheaper to hire than Arnie), and you have some semblance of a plot. They use everyt...

Journey to the centre of the earth II When the first franchise succeeds despite a hammy plot and a mostly kiddie sort of movie, what else can you you do? Well bring in The Rock. Also invite Micheal Caine for some acting gravitas and throw in the Hispanic with the hot daughter and the geekie kid and blend in some father son relationship mush... then add some outrageous animals, inversion of sizes and a little literary interpretation of some classic novels from Robert Louis Stevenson and just hope it all works... So does it? This show definitely belongs in the "suspend your disbelief" category, and so long as you keep your mind stowed away in the fridge, and let the visual cortex of your brain remain the only part that is working, then it's all good, and your kids will be eternally grateful... well if eternity lasts for two hours or so... No complaints about the action, don't ask too much about the acting, and one Hispanic girl for the love interest...

How many times has this theme been done? A smooth criminal retires only to be forced back for one last caper because he is forced to as his loved one is in danger? And how many times has Mark Wharlberg been in such crime jobs? The by the books movie features some rather solid actors, who seem to be waltzing through here just for their pay checks and adds little depth or dimension. There are indeed enough thrills and spills, but you will be best served with a rental or try before you buy for this one. Plot 2.5/5 Chick Factor 3/5 Action 3/5 Recommendation: rental

Testing your surround enveloping experience Assembled your 5.1 or 7.1 channel system? Why not put it through it's paces and see if you have built the HT system of your dreams, and more importantly, is it in the right place? The litmus test is whether you wish to and can, create a path for say, a bullet that whizzes past your ear from front to back. Movies are more than just bass (not base). So where you place the surround speakers will influence how the movie experience is enhanced by such ambient effects. - Band of brothers episode 2 - the attack on the 108mm guns - listen for how the bullets travel from side to side and front to back - Pacific - episode 1 - the Japs assault the machine gun positions in the night - again try and see if the flight path of the bullets is convincing - "9" - listen to the start of the movie, and all the little ambient noises, the clink of the metal of "9" as he awakes, then the bass which is p...

Just a few words on the surround speaker height: I previously placed my side surround speakers on a shelf, about 2m above the floor at the side of my seat. This proved to be highly unsatisfactory, as the sound traveled across the room and not to my ears. Audssey tried to compensate by turning up the level on my left side much higher but the surround effect was not enveloping. So I got rid of the shelf and instead replaced my PSB bipole with the MA RXFX, and used screws which were on the wall directly to place the speakers on the side wall, with some dampener behind it. The speaker was now about 1.8m above my floor, and I used it in dipole mode, since I was in the null area of the speaker. The other thing was that this speaker had two tweeters facing outwards, which helped the transfer of the sound from the front to rear and vice versa, which made the sound transitions from back to front and vice versa far more convincing. This doesn't mean you should rush out t...

Viral Factor - movie review A Jay Chou / Nic Tse Actioner is a great way to bring in fans of these two actors, and in Asia, there will be many even if the movie sucks. Thankfully, there is decent action, and some pretty good sound effects. But first... YOU CANNOT DO AN MRI IF YOU HAVE A BULLET IN YOUR HEAD!!! Any metallic object is a contra-indication to using the MRI and the magnetic waves will cause the bullet to oscillate, and with the hard skull around, it's like a blender in your head... and the brain contents will become a smoothie... Second, that whole bullet in the head is a copy of James Bond... Now back to the movie, and suspend the disbelief and all that... This reminds me of a 70s Malaysian show, called Empat Sekawan, where people speak Tamil, Chinese, Malay and dialects and everyone has no trouble understanding one another... Here, Jay Chou does Chinese, Nic Tse Cantonese, and there are people who speak English and it's all good... A real reverse To...

Yummy yummy in my tummy... Food Address Claypot crabs baked in cheese, Steamed Fish , Stir Fried Vegetable, Chicken Steamed with Ginger and Wine, Claypot Tofu Restoran S.K Seafood Serdang Perdana Address: just another 1 minute drive after the South City Plaza's entrance and you'll see the restaurant on your right, opposite the Plaza, at the end of the apartment block. Tel: 03-8945 6050 Hokkien Mee, Kam Heong LaLa (Clams), Deep Fried Pork With Fermented Red Beancurd (Nam Yu) Restoran Thiam Sang Taman Serdang Perdana Address: 15-1 Jalan SP2/2 Serdang Perdana 43300 Seri Kembangan  Selangor Tel: 012 311 6121 5.00pm – 1.30am S team snakehead fish(signature  dish), bak kut teh meals, Sang Yu Porridge Yap Yin Restaurant & Bak Kut Teh Address: No:1231, Jalan Sekolah,  43300, Seri Kembangan,  Selangor Tel: 03 8943 5426, 019-219 8040 11.30am – 11pm S teamed crabs, Teo Chew steam Siakap or "Barramundi", udon noodles, fried rice, stuffed t...

Flying Swords of Dragon Gate This is a Tsui Hark remake of another remake of the original Dragon Gate Inn, which was a landmark movie from 1967. The original remake, with Donnie Yen, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung was a Wu Xia classic, and got Maggie an acting award, and this was a well anticipated movie. It was also the first 3D movie from Hong Kong to the main stream, if you exclude "Sex and the Zen". Any kung fu movie with Jet Li is usually highly anticipated, and this is no except. So with potentially eye popping 3D effects, plus the spectacle of Jet Li lightning fast moves, was this a success? While, although I did not watch this in 3D, for me, any movie that relies on CGI to beef up the action, is a lost cause... CGI is a sweetener that when used sparingly, adds flavor to an action movie, but if it is the sole provider of taste, you can see the fakeness of the action like fake boobs... Age catches up with all the actors, and just as with Jackie Chan, who relied on...