I’ve been using DVD Profiler for years to keep track of my DVD collection. It works great on my PC. The problem with a PC is that it’s not accessible on the go. I want to have my collection with me on the go. I don’t need any fancy features like the ability to edit or make changes to it. Just a read-only list is good enough. And now that I have an iPad, which is a great medium to showcase and browse your collection, it would be useful if you can find movies you might want to watch at the moment without having to run to your computer.
So today I went to the App store and bought the DVD Profiler for iPad version. Its design is an exact match for my needs, and then some. I sync’d it to the master database on my PC, and voila it’s done.
The Browse tab is most useful, allowing you to look up movies based on genres or rating. Want to know which movies have THX? Browse to Features. These lookup methods might alleviate somewhat the only thing missing from the app that I really wants: the ability to show the Tags and filtering based on them. I use tags to flag certain things which allow me to build complex filters, among them is the location of a movie. I know you can define a location in the Disc portion, but you know how many clicks it takes to get there? Not to mention the lack of filtering on Disc Location. Well, something for the next version I guess. For now, the work-around for me is to put the disc location in the Notes section, which shows up in the main movie page.
Now this works only for iOS, but what about Android? There is an app called Movielicious that I need to investigate.
The world is getting better every day.

After upgrading my iPad to iOS 5, boom all my books lost their covers! What’s the fix? Unsync all of them and then add them all back, taking a lot of time. Not cool.
Second problem: this might or might not be a iOS 5 problem, but I tried putting my first video into the iPad and played it with the iPad built-in Video app. In the middle of playing, I switched back to Home screen, and when I returned to the Video, it froze. Solution? Kill the app and restarted it.
Third problem: iTunes sync. Sometimes it just say that my iPad is not connected. Solution? Kill iTunes and relaunch it.
So wo says Apple sofware just works?

On Thursday night I started the upgrade of my iPad to iOS5. The process took all night, with several errors and failed attempts. It didn’t like the fact that I didn’t sync the apps from my iPad to iTunes. When all was done, My iPad now is even more friendly to use. I most appreciate the tabbed Safari (better late than never), and the multiple languages that I can now configure the keyboard with. Now I’m not sure that this is new with this version of OS, but it makes multi-lingual speakers like me feel closer to the device. Tiếng Việt, 日本語、한국 언어, wow!

Just 3 weeks after buying the ipad, the man is dead. Even my wife was shocked. I bought the ipod when it first came out and it is still running. Though not an apple computer fan, i’ ve always loved Apple portable devices: ipod, ipod touch, ipad.
He was a complex man and I don’t know enough to say one way or another, so let’s keep it to the things that I use and know.

As a follow up of the previous post, I bought an iPad with an Airport Express. Here’s what I have set up, and what remain to be done:
- Can ipad view the photos hosted on the Windows server without having to import these photos to the ipad first? I know that it can view the photos I put on my website. There are the Streamtome and Airvideo apps to try out.
- Can I print from ipad? Printopia cost money and only works on Mac. At the moment forget about this, go to your desktop and print there.
- Can I stream web music to my sound system? With the Airport Express with optical out, oh yes.
Set up is straightforward and I can stream Pandora to my receiver via optical. I already have a spare optical cable so I just need to buy an adapter for less than 2 bucks. I could stream last.fm to but the damn thing keeps crashing. Good thing I didn’t buy a subscription.

One side note: photos from my website show up so beautifully on the ipad display, and changing the orientation to get full view of the photos is quick thanks to the responsiveness of the device. This alone is worth half the price I paid for the tablet.

Say you have a home theater room, and the rest of the house.
The HT room is the static side, where you want to passively enjoy these activities: watch movies, watch tv, watch a picture slide show, listen to hi-fi music, listen to radio, listen to web radio.
On the more interactive activities, which you also want to be more mobile, you want to browse the web, browse pictures, check mail, connect to social sites.
You want to do each activity with the least amount of effort possible.
Assume you host all contents on a local Media Center server: all movies, music and pictures; all devices pull contents from here. In other words, the devices are light weight (cheaper). You also have a network that is wireless and WPA2 capable, and a wireless capable printer that can do duplex.
Here is one way to achieve the above goals:
- Media center with a tv tuner: watch movies, watch Netflix, watch tv, watch a picture slide show, listen to hi-fi music
- HT receiver: listen to radio
- Bluray player with integrated wifi: watch Dvd and Bluray discs, watch Netflix, Youtube, Hulu etc.  Listening to web radio such as Pandora is fine but not optimal because of the need to project it onto the big screen, a waste of electricity
- A tablet with wifi: browse the web, browse pictures, check mail, connect to social sites. Web radio listening is optimal if you can pipe it to the HT Receiver thru digital audio; there might be a subscription fee.
With the above setup, the clunky desktop is now dedicate to only big tasks such as editing, word processing, web publishing and programming.
And what about gaming? This should be a dedicate activity with its own corner: a game room with a 40 inch tv and a gaming system such as Xbox kinect. The xbox is integrated with your Media Center server to play contents as well. With a Gold membership you can play web radio last.fm and play Netflix through Xbox as well.
Beautiful world isn’t it?

Mark Wilson on Gizmodo has an excellent review on the 3D aspect of this movie. This is a really useful review, hitting many things right on, and expressing many feelings that I share (e.g. “Blue people? Papyrus font?? What the fuck”). I’m still a skeptic on 3D technology, it’s tiring on my eyes and I’m wearing glasses. I couldn’t have said it better, the shifting focus point is what make my eyes go blur eventually. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to enjoy 2+ hours of this movie, but I still want to see for myself. Unfortunately all the weekend shows on IMAX 3D are sold out, so have to wait a bit longer.

[Updated 9/11/2010] Waited quite a bit on this. We just watched the special IMAX 3D Edition re-release on Boeing IMAX theater last night. The only real IMAX screen in this state. Our experience turned out to be different than what Mark described in the linked post. It took a little time for our eyes to adjust to the 3D effects, but by the time the Company’s bulldozers descended upon the Big Tree for the first confrontation, I suddenly realized that my eyes have completely adjusted to the effect and we could enjoy the movie effortlessly.

A truly outstanding experience, worth the ticket price of $32.50 a pair and $6 parking.

It’s twice happened to me that I would accidentally Shift-Deleted my Pictures Library. Horror! You know how in the heat of working on your computer, you got a bit carried away and didn’t realize the image you wanted to delete, though it appeared selected, was not really selected, but instead the Picture Library was the actively selected item? Well, that happened to me today, to my horror!

I knew there is a Restore Default Libraries command in the Libraries context menu, but wasn’t sure what it would do. So I tried Panda Recovery tool to try recovering some photos I hadn’t had a chance to back up, but it couldn’t find anything in the Pictures Library. Without anything to lose, I clicked the Restore Default Libraries command, and hello, the Pictures Lirary reappeared with all my picture catalog!

Now having calmed down, and got to think about it, it dawned on me: of course, the Library is just a link to another location where the real photos are stored, so removing the Library doesn’t actually wipe out your files. Good for Windows to have it set up like this, it saved my day.

Tell me crazy, but who would buy a big external DVD burner these days? But I’m obsessed with burn quality, and my current burner, a NEC-35xx internal drive, has been a workhorse ever since I bought it 5 years ago, that I wanted to do a careful research to find a worthy successor. Talking about brands, NEC drives are now replaced by Sony Optiarc. Samsung I don’t trust, since I have a Samsung CD burner that I bought 4 years ago, have rarely used it, and it already started acting crazy, opening and closing on its own like an obsessed demon. Lite-On has built a reputation over the years, so it’s my preferred brand.

I first seriously considered getting the Sony Optiarc DRX-S70U, a sexy slim drive reviewed in details here. But it worries me that it is DVD-Video riplocked, and Sony in my experience has been strictly folowing its own standards so it might get picky on the discs and the discs might not work great on other players. So then I focused entirely on Lite-On. To me the important factors are an external USB drive for use on 2 computers, the ability to set BookType, and a separate power supply. The form factor is not a concern, since I don’t plan to take it with me anywhere. On the other hand I am a bit suspiscious on the slim models, even more so with those that draw power only on the USB channel. To me, in order to get a consistently good burn, you need a solid drive with a stable and adequate power source.

This was the first time I looked closely at the Lite-On line, and boy at first I was confused by their way of naming their products. I finally figured out that their naming convention is in the form of (e/i)HA(X)nnn, and works as follows: The e-prefix is for external, and i-prefix is for internal; the X indicates the connection type, so U must be for USB, S for SATA; the 124 is a plain vanilla burner, 224 adds Lightscribe, iHAx324 adds Smart Erase, and iHAx424 adds Lightscribe and Smart Erase.

Its form factor and its power source might contribute to its unpopularity, in addition to the fact that it’s a new drive that just shipped in Nov 2009.  I didn’t find any technical review on the net for this drive. However with what I could glean from the spec sheets, this looked like a very fast drive and the only one that met all my criteria. I went ahead with the purchase and got a unit that was manufactured in Sept 2009.

The unit is solid, beautiful, and I like to set it vertical with the included stand that is well padded and fits snugly into the slot on the unit.

The installation is simple. Windows 7 x64 lists it as an iHas424 right off the bat.

The enclosed Nero 8 Essentials is useless, since it doesn’t include Nero Burning ROM, and Nero Recode and Vision are Trial 30-day versions. So I popped in my trusty Nero 6.6 and some programs work fine, in spite of the Incompatibility Warnings. Those that work are Nero Burning ROM to burn DVD, and Nero Recode. I tried Burning ROM for make a music CD and it crashed. Nero Vision Express fails to launch. Nero Start Smart can’t launch Burning ROM successfully.

I changed the Bitsetting using CD-DVD Speed app. You can’t change the DVD+R DL but that’s OK because it defaults to DVD-ROM already.

Burning a data DVD-R takes and average of 6:30 minutes (the Acer AR3610 Recovery discs). No vibration, the noise is a soothing hum.                                              

Though this unit is not meant to be a volume driver for Lite-On like their slim lines, I’m glad Lite-On still produces quality burners like this one.

If your home theater system consists only of a TV and a home theater PC such as the Acer Aspire Revo running Windows 7, and you want a better user experience with using a mouse, then consider this Gyration GYR4101US Air Music Remote. I believe this is a strange combination of a remote, but can be quite useful in some situation. This remote might satisfy your here-and-now need, but don’t count on future expansion with it.

The bad thing about a regular mouse is that it has to stay in contact with a solid surface in order for you to control it. Now imagine you are lying on a couch or a bed watching your show or surfing the internet, you naturally need more freedom in using your keyboard and mouse. This Gyration model might just be what you need, and for a price of under $80 last time I checked. A regular MCE remote costs under $20, so at $80 you might want to know what it can do before buying, or you’ll end up overpaying for features you never use or can’t get them to work. I got mine on a manufacturer rebate, and hope I can help make your decision a good one.

First impression

It is hefty, solidly built, the buttons are rubberized and so can look a bit dirty because dust will be trapped on the button surfaces. Because it runs on regular battery, it cannot afford to light up every time you push a button, so to see the buttons in the dark there is a dedicated backlight button for that.

Radio Frequency 

This is the good thing about it: it is a radio frequency remote control, so you don’t need a line of sight to use it. Your computer can be hidden away, out of sight, and you can still control the computer. There is a pin hole under the remote and on the RF receiver to let you connect both together wirelessly. And yes, you must use the included RF receiver. My Acer Aspire Revo has RF capability too, talking to its wireless keyboard and mouse, but the remote can’t talk to the computer via the computer built-in RF receiver.

Not a universal remote

This is NOT a universal remote. Though it has buttons along the top to let you control TV, Cable/SAT and AUX (all via Infrared), I couldn’t get it to recognize and control my Rotel receiver or Panasonic S97 DVD player, both have been in used for 4 years. It could only turn on and off the Sharp TV. There is NO programming interface, it’s the ancient way of cycling through its built-in code database until you hit the right one by luck. It can learn the commands from the original remote, but in this day and age I find it to be extremely time consuming and awkward to teach each and every button a command, and having to confirm it each time. What’s more, its code database cannot be updated, so the remote is stuck in its time capsule. In short, you can forget using it to control other components. 

Air Mouse

Yes, this is the coolest feature of this remote, and is the main reason I got it. I’m not going into details how to use it, but it’s very intuitive and comfortable to use, you won’t need a manual for it. With this feature, the remote becomes a wand like a Wii remote, allowing you to control the mouse cursor on screen. Now here is the kicker: if you only do occasional typing, such as typing a URL into the web browser or entering in a Google search term, then this remote might just be all you need to use your HTPC, thanks to a Windows application called the On-screen Keyboard. Just launch the On-screen Keyboard app, and use the cursor to type. Elegant and simple isn’t it?

MCE buttons

It has most of the needed MCE buttons, just lacking a My Music button, since it supposedly has the Music control app for that, but since I don’t use that app, I wish they added just one more button for that. There is also not a My Movies button either, since this is a Vista remote, not a Windows 7 remote. It also doesn’t have the 4 color buttons commonly found on newer universal remotes like the Harmony 700 or Harmony One. No XBox 360 controlling here.

Regular Alkaline batteries

This remote uses regular batteries, there is no rechargeable capability here. Only usage will tell how long a run you will get before having to replace the batteries.

Music Control

I haven’t tried this feature, since I don’t want to install its application on my current box. What it claims to do is that you can conjure up the music player and select, play your music without having to turn on the TV, since the remote has a small screen with text-based menu to let you control your music collection, similar to an iPod Nano. I’m not sure how practical this is, and I prefer using the Media Center interface with all the nice features (cover art, song list, screen saver wall art…). With the current Media Center, why should I squint my eyes looking at a tiny text screen when I can browse and control my music via that beautiful hi-def TV? Saving energy by turning off the TV I guess is the reasoning behind this feature.

Summary

This is a peculiar remote, controlling the computer via RF, and other components via IR. This control claims 4 features and 2 of them are useless in my opinion: the Music control is not practical, the component control is limited. If you don’t need the Air Mouse feature, or the RF capability, then you’re better off getting a cheap (under $20) Vista MCE remote control with IR receiver. I wish they brought this promising design to a higher level. Imagine morphing the air mouse capability and MCE buttons with a Harmony remote and you would have the mother of all remote right there.