Blu-ray region coding and the legacy of HD DVD

While I’m not going to launch in to a rant about HD DVD’s demise, one clear advantage it had over Blu-ray for those living outside the US was its region free approach. You could buy an HD DVD from anywhere and have complete confidence that it would work in your HD DVD player.

The same can’t be said of Blu-ray discs, which are often region coded. Admittedly, the Blu-ray Disc association has rationalised its regions – there are now only 3 regions, compared with 8 for DVDs.

As the Blu-ray vs HD DVD war was coming to an end, I wondered to myself whether the HD DVD aligned studios, namely Universal, Paramount/Dreamworks, Weinstein as well as the format neutral Warner Bros and Magnolia Studios would continue to release Blu-ray discs without region locking. As they’d undertaken to release discs with no region coding on HD DVD, why should their stance change?

For the most part, it hasn’t. For those looking to buy their Blu-rays from the US, it’s a safe bet that any Universal, Magnolia or Warner title you buy will be region free.

Paramount’s a different story however. While the majority of Paramount’s titles are region free, some of their new premium releases (Sapphire Series), and TV series are region A locked. These include:

• Braveheart
• CSI (Season 1)
• Dexter (Seasons 2-4) (a shame, frankly, as these aren't yet available in other regions)
• Gladiator
• Paranormal Activity

Dreamworks has one locked title, Minority Report.

Weinstein has also locked a few of their titles:

• Halloween (2007)
• Hell Ride
• Lucky Number Slevin

As for the studios which backed Blu-ray from the beginning, it’s reasonable to assume that one of the reasons they backed Blu-ray was so that they could region lock their titles.

The major studios in this camp included:

• Buena Vista (Disney)
• Disney
• 20th Century Fox
• HBO
• Lionsgate
• New Line
• Sony

Most of the studios in this group region lock the majority of their titles, but there are some exceptions. Disney is particularly fussy about region locking its animated classic titles such as Show White, Dumbo, Pinocchio and the like, which it releases once every ten years.

As for the other studios, most titles are region locked, but some aren’t. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern. Fox locked all of its titles until last year, when all of a sudden, a slew of region free titles has been released. Go figure.

If you’re unsure whether a title is region locked, you could check one of the many sites on the web which list the region status of Blu-ray titles.

I’ve found that the most reliable and current is liesinc. Or you can support the studios that support region free, and buy exclusively Universal and Warner titles (with the occasional Paramount movie, but not TV series(!), thrown in).

Gixen - a free Ebay sniping service

Have you ever wondered how you got beaten at the last second (literally) in an Ebay auction? How did that person get in so quickly, and at 3 o'clock in the morning?


The answer is that they're using a sniper service. There are many on the web, most of which you have to pay to use. There is a great free service however, and it's callen Gixen. To use it, simply log in using your Ebay username and password, type in the item number of the goods you want to bid on and your maximum bid, and then sit back and wait for the good news!

Gixen will place your maximum bid within 5 seconds of the end of the auction. Of course, you still might not win, but if your bid is the highest, it is almost impossible for someone to manually place a higher bid. Your chances of winning are therefore greatly increased.

Gixen is a great free service, and is very reliable. For a fee of US$6 per year, you can have the added peace of mind of using Gixen's mirror service, which ensures that your bid is placed in the event that Gixen's main server is down. Other features of the mirror service include:

• 100% reliability guarantee
  
• No ads
  
• Wider choice of snipe time choices (3,6,8,10,12 and 15 seconds).
  
• Auction end times refreshed hourly, as opposed to daily.
  
• Gixen Desktop Manager - schedule and monitor your snipes from your Windows desktop
  

For US$6 per year, that's a bargain. Of course, you can use the basic service absolutely free, no catches. Gixen is highly recommended.

Panasonic ES8243 Linear Shaver long term review

Features:

• Linear Shaver (13000 rpm)
• Universal charging (100-240 V)
• Li-ion battery
• Waterproof for wet or dry shaving
• Turbo cleaning
• Time elapsed/battery remaining indicator (LCD)
• 4 blades on foil

ES8243 in blue
LCD displays elapsed time

The shaving performance of the Panasonic ES8243 is great for an 
electric shaver. I've used electrics for over 20 years, and have tried most brands (Philips/Norelco, Braun, Remington) and this shaver is better than those in every way. I've been using it for about 15 months, and here are my impressions on its performance.


The linear motor, which moves back and forth at 13000 rpm is the secret to the shaver's effectiveness. It is simply faster than any other shaver on the market. Shaving is very close, although you might need a few passes to achieve best results. It's worth reading and following the instructions - you must hold the shaver at 90 degrees to the skin, and you should stretch the skin with your free hand to get the closest shave. This is particularly true in the difficult neck and chin areas. No other electric I've tried (with the possible exception of my recently replaced Panasonic ES8095) shaves as close in these areas. I can run my fingers across my chin/down my neck and feel only smooth skin - no stray hairs. Amazing!


I tried rubbing a few drops of King of Shaves shaving oil into my skin before shaving, and this definitely helps reduce friction during a dry shave and therefore reduces the dreaded "razor burn".
I've recently been using their Kinexium product, and this is even more slippery than the original KOS product!
It reduces friction to almost zero and helps prevent razor burn, especially on and around the adam's apple.

I've only tried "wet" shaving twice, and it was a bit slow for my liking. It works fine, but you'll need plenty of time. A "fog free" mirror in the shower would be great for this.

If you haven't used an electric shaver before, or you are switching from another brand of electric shaver, you must give your skin 30 days or so to adjust to the shaver. As the note included with the shaver pleads: "Please stick with it. It's worth it." I couldn't agree more.


The cleaning mode on this shaver is simple, effective and ingenious. I had a good look at the latest Brauns before buying this, and was initially impressed with their docking station cleaning method. Then it occurred to me, do I want to lug all this gear around with me when I'm travelling, or when I go on holidays? And how much does it cost to replace the cleaning solution?
The answers were NO, and A LOT!

With the Panasonic, you just squirt some liquid soap (or even shampoo) onto the outer foil, hold down the "on" button for 2 seconds to engage the "turbo cleaning mode" and hold it under a running tap for 20 seconds. The result - a clean, fresh smelling shaver all the time. It makes the Braun cleaning system (and that found on Panasonic's own ES8249) seem like overkill.


The shaver is not perfect however. Battery life is not fantastic - Panasonic claims a charge will last for 15 shaves (@ 3 minutes each). That might be true if you can shave in 3 minutes - I find that 5 minutes is about right for a close shave. You get about 7 shaves at this rate. This doesn't present a problem if you leave the shaver to charge when it's not in use. This is safe to do, and the battery cannot be overcharged (it's a lithium-ion battery).


The trimmer is only adequate, and is a bit too flimsy in my opinion. It does the job however.

The trimmer - it does the job

The ES8249 is an identical shaver to the ES8243, but it comes with a cleaning station. This may seem like a good idea, but you have to manually clean out the hairs from inside the shaver before cleaning, and the cleaning/drying process takes over 2 1/2 hours. The cleaning stage is also quite noisy, as the machine churns away on the shaver's blades and foil. You also have to use Panasonic's proprietry cleaning cartridges, which is yet another consumable to buy. Personally, I'd save the $100 extra the cleaning system costs and stick with the ES8243.

4 shaving heads. Well, 3 and a long hair trimmer

Panasonic advertises the ES8243 a a 4 blade shaver. This is partially true. There are 4 blade surfaces on the outer foil, but only 2 blades on the unit itself. A sprocket connects the blades to the indented middle foil, which moves when shaving. So, I guess you could give them the benefit of the doubt and say there are 3 blades. This isn't to say they're not effective, but how many blades do you really need?

The key to a smooth shave with this shaver is to run it lightly over your skin. There's a temptation to apply a bit of force, but try to resist otherwise you'll end up with some nasty razor burn. There's a lock switch on the side of the shaver which lets the entire head mechanism "float" so that you can't push hard. It's worth using this setting until you're used to the shaver.

To sum up - I think this is a great shaver, definitely the best electric model I've tried. The price in Australia is very steep - around $400.00 but it currently comes with a 60 day satisfaction guarantee, so if you find it's not for you, just send it back. Give it a try if you're in the market for a new electric shaver, what have you got to lose?

2 blades inside the outer foil

Getting more mileage from your Shure IEM foam sleeves

If you've got a pair of Shure SE series or older E series headphones, you'll know that the foam sleeves provide the best combination of comfort and isolation. Depending on your hygiene standards, you'll also realise that they get collect earwax quite quickly, and lose their "sponginess" as more wax accumulates.

Just throw them in with your wash!

The solution? Well, you could buy some more, but have you tried washing them? Seriously, just put them in a zippable washing bag, and throw them in with your delicates cycle. They'll come out rejuvenated and will be good for a few more months. Of course, they'll still wear out eventually, but you'll get more use out of them than you would have without washing.

Remember, just wash the sleeves, not the headphones!

Xbox 360 Slim and Wireless N - no 5 GHz support

I'm sorry to have to start my blog with a rant, but this sticks in my craw.
I've been using the Xbox wireless n adapter on my old Xbox 360 for about a year, and it's been great.
My wireless network is set up to allow b/g devices to use the 2.4 GHz band, and faster n devices to use the 5 GHz band. The 2.4 GHz band is rather crowded in my area, so anything that I can get on to the 5GHz band is a bonus. This includes the Xbox 360, as its wireless adapter supports both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless n bands. And it flies!

I recently had the opportunity to upgrade my Xbox to the new "slim" model. As well as being quieter, slimmer and more power efficient, it has a wireless adapter built in - with wireless n! Great, I thought. No more dongles hanging off the box, and more free USB ports.

The problem however, is that for some strange reason Microsoft decided to offer single band 2.4 GHz support only. Sure, it has wireless n, but only on the 2.4 GHz band, which even according to Microsoft's own Xbox engineering team, is not ideal, due to the aforementioned congestion issue.

Don't throw this out just yet!

Given that the Xbox 360 slim has been redesigned, why would Microsoft choose to omit dual band wireless? (The old adapter even had wireless a for goodness' sake!) Too expensive? Wouldn't fit? They forgot? Let me know what you think.

The bottom line is that I've gone back to using my Xbox wireless n adapter so that I can use the 5 GHz band. I discovered that it has little swing-out feet too, which I'm now using, because Microsoft removed the wireless connector port from the back of the new Xbox as well. Consequently, the adapter just sits on top of the Xbox, or hangs off it if you choose not to use the feet.
Don't get me wrong, the new Xbox 360 Slim is great, but don't throw out your old dual band Xbox wireless n adapter just yet.