DLNA not a panacea, codec must match

I'm still learning about DLNA at least the important bits.. one is that I believe DNLA is just a analogous to a highway. You have to determine if you have a vechile capable of getting on it. If you are a pedestrian or say ride a bike you won't be getting on that highway.

The following is from a samsung manual but gives you an idea of what you have to be prepared for. it is NOT plug in play you still need to check your codec's to insure that it's compatible on your device you wish to display. If it's computer it's unlikely an issue but if it's a TV (a samsung in this example)

You'll need to find something that reads the headers to give you an exact idea what codec i could be (one for audio and one for video) but there are hundreds of codec's out there.

Be sure what you get into.. especially when you've made a digital library.

a codec identifyer can be found here: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/codec-video-identifiers

DLNA continued.. it seems that DLNA componentry is mainy meant for library to device items. Not necessarily streaming. you can't stream live streams from a computer to a DLNA device. You can purchase appliances that can stream slacker and Pandora but good luck finding one that is based on the computer.

http://www.digitalversus.com/tv-television/dlna-standard-real-mess-a971.html

live audio to dlna http://www.sdstechnologies.com/ for 40$ for 3 licences
http://tversity.com/
http://twonky.com/

TV's Cross border savings (CND/US)

Because of the size I've never considered lugging one of these around but because of the prices and relative stability of the electronic product I'm getting closer to purchasing one. The key here is the more inconvient you make it the more you save. Sometimes it's not worth it..

Warranttee's may be only US.. if it breaks you have to take it back over the border (unless it has Canada/US) (samsung there is North american Warrantee)
Going through the border and dealing with taxes is inconvient
You will pay the local taxes (unless you physically shop at a state that doesn't have local tax) Oregon isn't that far is it?
Will be subject to many taxes/tariffs..

If it's not made in Mexico/US/Canada (likely Mexico) it will be charged a ~5% (samsungs are made in Mexico)

HST of 12% will be added when you go over the border (HST is said to be removed at some point into the future and will go to PST levels of 8%?

a simple example for a samsung:

Locally for a 

PN59D6500 1899*1.12=2126.88 Local BC authorized dealer, full warrantee maybe even in house service depending who you buy it from.

online in the us it's roughly 1500USD + taxes and tarrifs
 

1500+1500*0.085+1500*.05+1500*.12+1500*.07=1987.5*

.085 state tax

.05 state tax (may be removable if it's made in US/Mexico)

.12 BC HST tax soon to be 7-8%

.07 luxury tax but there is some talk this doesn't exist

*I'm reading that tax /tarriffs are comulative so it's technically being taxed twice.
*don't forget the exchange as it's no longer at par (anywhere from1-5%)

You need to decide if that's worth it.. could be 105-250 savings.. that's assuming it doesn't ever break.

In the future the savings could increase to 521.88 if you can order it from Oregon, buy a mexican made panel,not pay local WA tax, Pick up in WA (or drive down) wait till HST is revoked and GST is only added.. but again assuming it doesn't break.

BTW: If you can diggle with the price point and get it lower than your 2 day maximum 700$ you can get awy from not paying any tax/tarrif if that's the only thing you bought.

BTW: it's important where you live as well, resident, if you are in Alberta you don't pay taxes but must show principle resident there.

http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1090958--roseman-some-black-friday-bargains-have-no-warranty

Your TV vs the Internet

If you watch tv in Canada be prepared to pay for it. the normal paradigm shouldn't really apply anymore.

So much is available through the internet and so called 'grey area' if you don't need to review a preset whatever selection as provided by your provider of Shaw or Telus.

When it comes to digital services always remember that bandwidth is meant to generate income and the provider will find a way to compress more channels in the air of providing you a better experience.

Cable has more bandwidth then the varient of VDSL, but IPTV technically uses more bandwidth for what you are likey watching because it's only showing what needs to be shown.

Cable will continue to compress and make your 1080i  (or usually much less) picture which takes about 29.9 Mbit per second uncompressed likely uses only a small fraction of that in actualy bandwidth.

Clear picture per channel is never guaranteed. If you were a past or current provider of satilite digital you got a good view of what 720p was (dvd) and if you have uncompressed OTA HDTV signals in your area then you can see how good a signal can be.

On the flip side.. If you really don't care how clear things are the net is a relatively good choice. If I like a movie/tv series I get it on DVD or Blu-ray if it's available otherwise it's just more economical to go through another way.

Which brings me to internet..

Shaw really squeezes you here the current plan of 45$ doesn't give you much for that you get 10Mbit down and .512Mbit up with a cap of 125Gb.. recently shaw has upgraded the upload side to 3Mbit but you'll need to change out your modem. So if it works well we are at par with Telus.

Telus (non optik) is roughly 39$/month for 6Gbit it gets more expensive to 25Mbit for about 54$ (I'm a little unclear which is optik but I believe the 15 or 25Mbit plans are optik TV only. Optik TVas far as I can tell is required if you want the higher speed so your cost jumps to 75$ a month.

Telus has more of an edge when tocomes to upload speed, Shaw has much better download speeds as you can get up to 250Mbit if you are willing to shell out 140$ a month for it.. about 30 less if you can live within the cap of 1TB which you can technically download in roughly 42 hours.. With all the Torrents etc that one could have and if you were  properly prepared you could download a lot in that time.. but will have huge issues with mananging TB's of data (assuming you like digital libraries etc)

If at all possible do a combination of internet and OTA Signals. If you need to be served all the channels you will simply have to pay a lot for it.

Cell networks

North American signals (850MHz and/or 1900MHz)

Rogers GSM/HSPA/HSPA+/LTE
Fido GSM/HSPA/HSPA+
Bell/Telus CDMA/HSPA+/LTE
Virgin GSM/CDMA
Koodo CDMA/GSM
Catr wireless (part of Rogers)
Mobilicity (AWS, with bands 1700/2100)

Wireless / Cable Speeds.

HSPA+: 21 Mps theory max (I get about 7-8Mps )

LTE: 150 Mps theory max (10-35Mps typical)

802.11n 25-33 Mps (300Mps theory max)

802.11g  20 Mbps avg

802.11b  5.5 Mbps avg

10 BaseT 10Mbs theory max

100 BaseT 100Mbs theory max

Gigabit 1000 max 890Mbps (up to Hard drive limit)

The thing they don't really tell you is that Theory max really is just a theory, you have overhead / convert to Bytes.. (divide by 8) your Mbps doesn't look as nice. Generally you get about 50% of the maximum rating assuming you haven't already maxed out your channel or the technology like a celluar antenna is within decent range and isn't overloaded with people just like you.

Also keep in mind it's not only download speeds you want.. it's upload speeds and they are typically horrible even in wired situations..

because of the new broadban abilities it's recommended that you use this http://www.terago.ca/speed-test/Default.aspx as it's capable of up to measuring 100MBit.. (like you can afford that lol)

to give you actual bandwidths that can be expected by various technologies.

http://web.forret.com/tools/bandwidth_real.asp

I'm a Canadian

Something to note that although many of the things I say are local specific meaning that there are certain legal/technology limitations that I must accept as a Canadian.  These are:

We are metric (although imperial measurements still weighs heavily on many things)
CableCARD's don't exist in canada (and doubtful that it will ever be)
We have a Celluar Mobile monoply among 3 big players and they know it.
We are not the US, (obviously) but it's important to understand when importing things from the US
Like the US we normally use UMTS/HSPA 850MHz and/or 1900MHz for a cellular services
110V if you want to be picky and that's also a US thing

Camera resolution(Megapixels)

There was a huge push a few years ago indicating the quality of a camera by the # of pixels. Today's camera's hover around 10-25Megapixels and pointless attribute unless you have very specific reasons (likely bad ones).


Know that if you generally only make 5x6 prints @ 300 DPI using a Dye-sublimation printer (not a consumer level inkjet) printer. you only need :



300dpi x 5 inches = 1500 pixels
300dpi x 7 inches = 2100 pixels.
1500x2100 pixels ~= 3.2 megapixels


This essentially means that you could leave out 70% of your picture (called crop) a standard photograph and still get a decent print.

If you never print or intend to print you can go even smaller..

Even with your fancy HDTV is 1080p resolution or a measily 1920x1080 or =~ 2 megapixels

The thing to look for is how good those pictures look, under low light, how sharp it can be, how vibrant the colors are. That is what you can pay a mint for.

One thing that your pocket/DSLR camera won't do is make the composition or how a picture is received by the eye. That is entirely up to you and takes skill.

Give a so called crappy camera to a professional photographer they can likely make the most of it. Put a poor photographer with a Lecia M8 I doubt it will help much.

Welcome,

This is in fact a public yet private space. I have a love hate relationship with technology, consumerism so my future posts will reflect that.

What you read here is my opinion on various technologies that I'm waiting for and or want to spit on because of the fact that consumers are not really informed. I'd like to change that in my own way.

I often say to people to ask happiness is not the goal of life as it is fleeting. I realize in myself I have desires to acquire things for no other reason then to consume and in a way say that I've got a real bargain.

As we make choices in what we consume we are in many ways continue to be the part of the problem, in terms of the environment and even the surroundings that you may or may not want, this also includes what we do with our minds.

Contentment is my personal goal be it in the simple environment one creates or a convoluted one that many find ourselves trapped in.

I share my little slice of insight to all things ConsumerIT in hopes that you can make an informed decision and know what you are really buying.