Tag Archives: hdmi

Roku2 XD

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I just picked up the new Roku2 XD. Best Buy had them in already and thought it would be a great replacement for my Apple TV2. I’ve had my ATV2 since it became available and at first I thought it was a great device. After a few weeks of use, I changed my mind. I don’t rent or purchase movies from the Apple Store and in order to stream my own content I’d have to import the video into iTunes and keep my computer on. This made my NAS box with DLNA capability useless. So I pretty much paid $99 to stream Netflix because that’s all it can do in my household.

Roku came out with their second version, the Roku2. Roku was the other device I thought about getting instead of the ATV2. What made me get the ATV2 over the original Roku was its size and the fact that most of my computers and devices at home are Apple (at that time). I wish I had done more research but oh well. Now that I have the Roku2 XD, it has been great and impressive. For me it has been a better device than the ATV2. Here is a short list of what my Roku2 can do that my ATV2 can’t.

  • Supports 1080p
  • Steams Amazon’s Video on demand
  • You can listen to Pandora
  • You can add channels and they are a lot

The channels are easily added and if you’re familiar with the Wii and its channels, it is set up the same way. You browse and install/add. There is no way to shut off the device. You just have to set the screensaver timer and that’s it. From what I heard the power consumption is very low. According to their website, it uses only 2 watts while streaming video.

Check out my unboxing video and a quick physical comparison to the Apple TV2.

Merry Christmas 2008

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Christmas has come and gone and I am a year older. Unlike the Christmas I’ve celebrated in the past, it’s been 2 years in a row that I wasn’t in the Philippines. It such a different way of celebrating there. I feel it’s more festive and fun especially with Abby’s family. I just buy a lot of toys for myself to fill in the gaps.

This year I decided to jump in to the Blu-ray world. I’ve been trying to decide between getting a PS3 or a stand-alone player. I ended up getting a Sony BDP-S350 a couple of weeks ago. Spending the extra $ for a PS3 didn’t make sense since I won’t be playing any games. I did however like the wireless connection but it isn’t worth the price difference. This player is great and the quality of Blu-ray is phenomenal. So during the past week I’ve been buying a lot of movies on DVD and BD. Here’s a list of stuff I recently got.

  • The Wire: Complete Series (DVD)
  • Voltron: Volume 6 (DVD)
  • House of Flying Dragon (BD)
  • The Road Warrior (BD)
  • The Clone Wars (BD)
  • Charles In Charge: Season 1 (DVD)
  • Eagle Eye (BD) – I picked this up today at Best Buy. It was advertised to be released on December 30th. I don’t know why they had it for sale along with Resident Evil: Degeneration.
  • 3:10 To Yuma (BD)
  • Rambo (BD) – The newer one
  • The Forbidden Kingdom (BD)
  • Cloverfield (BD)
  • Sleepy Hollow (BD)
  • The Italian Job (BD)
  • Shooter (BD)
  • The Dark Knight (BD)
  • Hancock (BD)

If you haven’t seen a good demo of Blu-ray, I highly suggest you look for one. Most of the store demos I’ve seen were using TVs that didn’t have a good Hz. I noticed certain parts of the movie (usually when there’s a lot of rapid movement) speed up and slow down. I asked a store associate at Best Buy about it and they told me it had something to do with the TV’s refresh rate. Not sure if this is true but it sound like it made sense – I mean I’m no HDTV expert. Also, don’t bother with the expensive HDMI (HDTV is worthless if you don’t connect using this) cables. I picked one up from Fry’s – 10ft v1.3B for $20 – elsewhere they’ll run at least $8. It works fine.

I just want to thank my mom and mommy (Abby’s mom) for hooking me up with most of those movies. Abby also got me another pair of Wallabees (brown suede ones) – very nice.