Technical Demo Problems

Recently I joined a group of people where one person tried to connect a computer tablet to a large-screen television for a presentation. We all took our seats while the person tried to get things connected but it took awhile. I have been in that situation many times and the one thing I discovered is that if I am alone, I have a much better chance of getting things to work. When there is a crows present, I can't figure it out.

Seeing the struggle, I offered to go get a cable to directly connect the tablet to the screen. I walked out of the room and that is all it took for the presenter to figure things out. Once that happened, another person came to find me to let me know that things worked and we could begin.

Sometimes having someone offer to help is all it takes to figure things out on your own. When I find myself in a similar situation, I get distracted by all of the people in the room and forget even the simplest technical details. I have to consciously tell myself to take a breath and think through the problem. Then I will remember a simple detail that causes the trouble to disappear and technology to start working again. Hopefully this trick will work for you should you find yourself trying to troubleshoot something with distractions. 

Daytime Television Blows

Last night I got a nasty case of the stomach flu. I woke up every 90 minutes to empty my stomach contents. Fortunately towards the end of the night, my stomach would cramp up, waking me, but I didn't need to go pray to the porcelain god. I think my body recognized I didn't have anything else to expel. I ended up staying in bed until 8am, which is late considering I usually get up at 6am. When I finally did wake up, I didn't feel like doing anything and so I turned on the television to see what I could find on broadcast TV. From the title of this post you can tell I came away disappointed.

When all of the streaming services became ubiquitous, I cancelled my cable subscription and increased my Internet speed. Now I really only use broadcast television to watch the nightly news every evening. Being too lazy to look for something to watch online, I cycled through the normal TV channels. Some of them had local news shows and others had national morning news shows. None of them interested me. I looked at a few of the public broadcasting networks and again came away disappointed. Ultimately after 30 minutes I turned off the TV and headed to my office to read e-mail.

I did the bare minimum e-mail for work and attended an hour-long meeting that got shortened to 15 minutes when I explained I spent the night with the stomach flu. Then I headed to my TV room to watch what I wanted in the comfort of my soft-padded-leather couches. While I could watch shows coming over the airwaves, I also had all of my streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and even YouTube. I entertained myself while eating a very soft and bland breakfast without the hassle of channel surfing. After about an hour and seeing that all the food I ate stayed down, I ate some grapes and yogurt as my energy is low and my stomach empty.

I have not really watched daytime-broadcast TV in about a decade and I have to say I haven't missed much. It is filled with the same programming I used to hate when I stayed home from school because of illness. Fortunately we have many more entertainment options and are not stuck watching VHS video tapes with their lousy 320x240-pixel resolution. Technology really does make being sick easier to deal with.

Not all Televisions are Created Equal

Before starting this posting, I want to reiterate that I work for Sony and we make televisions, very good ones. Unfortunately that means they are expensive compared to other brands. So I will refrain from comparing brands and use general information that applies to all manufacturers.

Before the advent of flat television displays, the Sony Trinitron televisions set the standard for picture quality thanks to patented technology. Then people ditch relatively small and cumbersome tube TVs for flat LCD, LED, and Plasma televisions. Sony lost a significant portion of their industry dominance. With most televisions being made in the same factories it has gotten hard to tell the difference between the many different brands. Furthermore, brands that didn't exist back in the Trinitron days, such as Vizio, now seem ubiquitous. How do you know which TV to buy?

It is important to remember that not all televisions are created equal. As you research which one to buy, pay attention to features and specifications to ensure you get what you want. I'll illustrate with my last television purchase. Sony has several levels of models irrespective of size. It doesn't matter if it is a 55-inch or 85-inch, there are differences between the different models. There is also different technology such as LED vs. OLED with the later producing a higher-quality picture. Unfortunately OLED also comes with some downsides and so it is important find out what they are and make sure you can live with them.

To simplify things, let's focus on LED technology with a resolution of 4K. Sony has models in their value line (because nobody likes to use the word "cheap"), mid-level line, and high-end. Given just that information, everyone wants the high-end. That is until you look at the price tag. Then that value line starts looking pretty good. That is what I decided when I bought my last television. I have a home theater and have the space for an 85-inch television. I bought the cheapest one from Sony made even cheaper because I got a huge employee discount. I didn't do any more research than that: price.

When I went back to Sony, I started working with the consumer electronics arm of the company and discovered why the mid-level and high-end lines cost more. Furthermore I discovered I really didn't want the value-line, I wanted the mid-level or high-end. The picture quality is significantly better and I will leave it up to you to research the differences between the specs. My oldest son profited from my research and recently picked up an 85-inch mid-level model. His picture quality is significantly better than mine.

This is where it is great to go into a Costco or other electronics store to compare the picture quality of the various models. When you read about specs, you don't think you will notice a difference. If you order online, your new TV arrives and you think all is well. Then you get the chance to see the difference and it has you questioning your purchase choice.

I'm not going to throw away a perfectly working 85-inch 4K television and so I will live with my purchase. Should someone offer to buy it or should it break in any way, then I will be sure to look at specifications much more closely and not base my decision solely on price. Anyone want to buy an 85-inch TV?

AirPlay: Sharing Your Screen on Your Television

My wife and I had a rare moment last night with some unscheduled time. Rather than waste it, I told her I would teach her something new. In the end, I learned something new.

Lately my wife has been waking up early to exercise before heading off to the law firm where she works. As it is early in the morning, she likes to log in on her computer and exercise with some pre-made videos that she pays an annual fee to access. A few days ago she asked how she can connect her computer to our large television. Last night I figured I would show her.

My usual method for connecting a computer to our TV is to use an HDMI cable and plug it into our receiver. There is a nice HDMI outlet on the front of the receiver which makes it very simple. I grabbed a cable that connects to her laptop only to discover it wouldn't work. I had a cable with a display output that fit her MacBook Air. That is not the same as an HDMI cable so it didn't work with the receiver.

Interestingly enough, the solution was staring me right in the face, literally. There is a sticker on my receiver that says it is capable of AirPlay. I had never used it before but knew it is used to transfer computer displays to televisions. I turned on the receiver and television. Then I went into my wife's System Preferences on her computer. There I selected "Displays." In the bottom-left corner is a pull-down list that says: "AirPlay Display:" with a selection of "Off." I opened the pull-down list and saw my receiver listed by its model number. I selected it and was given a 4-digit code from the television to enter on the computer. Once I entered it, the computer display was mirrored on the television.

As AirPlay is from Apple, I looked on my iPhone and saw that I could transfer the display from my phone to the TV. That got me excited. I hoped I could play games from my phone on a larger screen. Unfortunately that is not the case. I can display photos or play videos on my television from the phone but not use the TV as a second screen.

This morning my wife got up and headed down to the TV room to do her morning exercise. Normally I can keep sleeping and not notice she is down there early in the morning. The high-end surround sound system woke me right up. I'm glad she figured it out.

Getting the Most out of my PlayStation 5

When I first got my PlayStation 5, I kept it on my desk in my home office as I used it for work. Now that I am no longer working for Sony Interactive Entertainment, I have moved it into my theater room. I now have it connected to my brand-new 85-inch television. Unfortunately it was not as simple as plugging it into my TV as I had to also connect it to my surround-sound system.

Yesterday I posted about the importance of refresh rates and why 120 frames per second or Hz is significant for the latest televisions. I want to preserve the high refresh rate from my PlayStation 5 and that just isn't possible if I plug it into my current television receiver which is then connected to the TV. My receiver only supports 60 Hz at 4K and I do not want to spend money replacing it right now. I probably will in the future but for now I want to keep using it. So how do I keep the high video quality and also keep the high sound quality?

I can't take full credit for this as my oldest son helped me figure it out. The solution is to use the audio return channel or eARC HDMI output from the television. The high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) has been around for over 15 years and has evolved to allow for various scenarios like this. When I set up my PlayStation 5, I plugged it directly into my new television using one of it's two HDMI 2.1 interfaces. The second is used to connect the TV to the receiver. Now what happens is the picture and sound are sent to the television from the PS5. The sound is then sent back to the receiver for that shake-the-neighbors experience. HDMI works both ways so that any devices connected to the receiver use that same HDMI interface into the television.

One would think that with a PS5 I wouldn't need to connect any other device. It streams video, has a DVD drive, a Blu-ray drive, and can play 4K Blu-ray disks. I also have a PS4 Pro connected to a PlayStation VR as well as an old VHS video cassette player, from Sony, of course. The moment you connect your PS VR to your PS4, you lose the ability to play games in 4K without having to swap cables. Rather than deal with that, I just kept my PS4 Pro and use it with my PS VR. I also use it to play video games with my grandson and keep a healthy mix of age-appropriate games loaded on it. As for the VHS tapes, their quality is really horrible even with 4K upscaling. You never know when you may need to watch an old video though.

My son and I connected everything and then started watching Return of the Jedi on Disney+. While we enjoy the movie, we wanted to make sure the sound and picture were in sync. After all, nothing ruins the experience of a movie when you hear an explosion before you see it. The lip movement not matching the dialog can also be really annoying, which is why I prefer subtitles to dubbing for non-English movies. Fortunately both the TV and the receiver have mechanisms for delaying one or the other. In my case, the sound led the picture. I went into the receiver settings and added a 10ms delay. That improved things somewhat but wasn't perfect. I upped the delay to 20ms and everything synced perfectly. If it had been the other way around and the picture led the sound, I would have added the delay to the television.

Once we got the timing worked out on the PS5, I had to go in and check it on the PS4 and VHS cassette player. The PS4 is in sync but there is a 20ms delay on the VHS. I can turn off the delay setting in the receiver when I play video tapes to solve that problem. As I doubt I will watch a lot of VHS tapes, I'm fine not worrying about it. I can probably set custom parameters for each device and save them to the receiver but am fine with how things are set up now.

Should you find yourself with a new PS5 and an older receiver, just connect it directly to the television. Then use eARC to pull in your surround-sound receiver. You may have to adjust some settings but once you get it set up, you will be amazed at the quality.

The Importance of Television Refresh Rates

My new 85-inch television is awesome! Friday night we got everything configured correctly and then watched the latest version of the movie Dune. Having read the book and also having met Frank Herbert when I was very young, I am always interested in any movie about it. I have to say that this movie did not disappoint. It is very methodical in the storytelling and does a great job sticking to the book, at least as how I remember it. Should you wish to see the movie on HBO Max like I did, make sure you see it on a really large 4K television and also have an awesome sound system. I don't think my subwoofer has had that much of a workout since I bought it many years ago. If your house isn't rattling, your sound isn't loud enough.

One of the things that makes my television so great is its high refresh rate. Understanding the importance of refresh rate is very important to know why I setup my home theater system the way I did. So let's begin.

In the early days of movie making, industry pioneers discovered that the human eye sees pictures in motion at 24 frames per second. That means if you are shown a series of pictures at less than 24 per second, they will look like individual pictures. If you are shown at 24 or higher, it will look like smooth motion. Up until recently, all movies have stuck to the 24 frames per second refresh rate.

When television came along it used alternating current for power which, in the United States, is regulated at 60 Hertz or cycles per second. Rather than come up with complex circuitry to match the movie frame rate of 24, the engineers just divided frequency of the input power by 2 and set the television frame rate to 30. Besides 30 is more than 24 and shouldn't be noticeable to the viewer right? For the most part, that is true but it does create some difficulties when encoding a movie to be shown on television.

Now let's add video games and computers to the mix. The original home computer monitors were just televisions. As higher-end graphics cards and monitors emerged, 30 frames per second was no longer the best picture you could get. Kids raised on television could tell the difference between 30 frames per second and 60. Given about 5 minutes watching the two different signals, most people can and they prefer the higher frame rate. It actually turns into an advantage for those playing video games and so console makers started increasing frame rates. The current generation of video game consoles like the PlayStation 5, support 120 frames per second.

That higher frame rate comes in handy for video enhancements. My old 3D television used the higher frame rate to show the left-eye image followed by the right-eye image in the next frame. The glasses you wear block the right-eye image in the left eye and the left-eye image in the right. So even though the TV is showing the movie at 60 frames per second, you are only seeing the movie at 30 frames per second. If you want to see the movie at 60 frames per second, the TV needs to bump up to 120 Hz.

There is also another very important reason for having higher frame rates. While working on the PlayStation VR, we discovered that virtual reality glasses need to have the highest frame rate possible. VR allows you to move your head around and a low frame rate introduces lag into the picture. If you move your head slightly, the image doesn't quite match with what you see in real life. This induces motion sickness. We knew we were getting the right frame rates when we could do a short demo to a room full of executives and nobody threw up.

High frame rates are now very important at amusement parks. A few years ago, I attended a developer's conference put on by Sony PlayStation. One night we rented out the Hogwarts section of Universal Studios in the Los Angeles area. With only a few hundred people in the park, we had no lines and could ride the Hogwart's Castle ride over and over. If you have never been on it, it is a giant VR ride coupled with a roller coaster. Unfortunately they use a very low frame rate and most people are rather sick after the first go around. I rode it 3 times in a row and came very close to blowing chunks. I don't normally get motion sick as I am a sailor and have even sailed a boat from Hawaii to California through 2 hurricanes. When I get sick, that is bad. Several other coworkers were not so lucky and spent part of the night hunched over garbage cans clearing their stomachs.

Television frame rates keep getting higher and higher and there is a reason for it. As we enhance our entertainment experiences more and more, our televisions will need to keep up. Now if we can just get our high-end amusement parks to keep up, we won't find ourselves with motion sickness.

Time For a New Television

Monday was my last day working at Sony PlayStation and I wanted to maximize my discount on Sony items before I left. So on Monday last week I ordered a new 85-inch 4K television. It arrived today. My previous one was only 60 inches and so I am now doing a lot of rearranging to make room for the new toy. Getting a much larger television requires a lot of work.

I waited around this morning for the television to arrive. Once it did, I just moved it into the house so I could plan out the next course of events. My old TV stand fit the 60-inch model perfectly but won't work for the 85-incher. I did an online search and found a stand that I liked at Ikea for a reasonable price. I drove down there and picked it up. Then I brought it home and put it in my home theater room and waited for some help to arrive before assembling it.

My oldest son came over after work and we moved the old TV into my bedroom so it is out of the way. Then we removed the old stand so we could build the new one. The build process went amazingly fast as we made sure to follow the instructions carefully. That is the trick behind assembling Ikea furniture: carefully following the instructions. Next we put the new television on the stand. Boy is 85 inches a lot of screen real-estate. It took awhile to plug in the PS4, the PS5, and the audio system. Once we had everything put together we tested it by logging into Disney+ on the PS5 and watching the first 8 minutes of "Return of the Jedi" in 4K.

There are still a few bugs to work out but I will take care of that tomorrow. My PS5 runs 4K video at 120 frames per second but my audio receiver can't handle that. To get around the shortcoming, we connected the PS5 directly to the TV and then run the sound back to the receiver. There is a bit of a delay between the picture and the sound but it should be fairly easy to fix with some setting adjustments. I'll work on that tomorrow.

So far I am very impressed with the new television. For the past few years I have felt that my 60-inch TV has gotten too small. I also like the added definition of 4K as the picture looks incredible. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the old stuff. Let me rephrase that: I need to figure out how to make my old television fit in my bedroom without upsetting my wife or buying any  more furniture. I'll be sure to report on the outcome.

More Monitors or More Screen Real Estate

This morning as I rode my bicycle, I thought back to an experience I had with one of my Electrical Engineering professors. A group of us were talking about the rapid advancements of computers and a new interface had just been announced that allowed you to watch television in a window on your computer. I thought it was great as you could work on your computer and watch TV at the same time. My professor remarked, "Why? Just get a TV and put it next to your computer."

He was right as this was back in the days when most computer monitors could only display 640x480 pixels, which is about the size of a regular NTSC television picture. While I had a more advanced computer that could display 1024x768, it could only do so with 16 colors per pixel. To get more colors, I would have to reduce the screen resolution. Furthermore the price of card for the computer came in at around $500 while a new television only cost around $300.

Fast forward a few years and I remember attending one of the last COMDEX shows in Las Vegas. I stopped by one of the Linux booths and they had 3 monitors built into a single unit. Of course it required that you have 3 VGA outputs on your computer to run all of the monitors but I thought it was spectacular and wanted one badly. Unfortunately it was cheaper just to get 3 monitors and I could not justify the extra cost. Consequently I never added the necessary hardware to my computer and continued running with a single monitor. By this time, resolution had increased to 1280x800.

At around this time, my primary computer became a laptop as I spent a lot of time traveling. The standard laptop resolutions seemed to be fine and I didn't really worry about needing more screen real estate as there is only so much space on an airplane. During this time you can guess that I traveled a lot.

Eventually I moved into more of a development role and worked on a project that needed a second monitor. Rather than fall back to the default monitor size of the day, I splurged and picked up two 1920x1080 monitors and put them side-by-side on my desk. I really had to clean a lot off so they would both fit. I also had to get a new computer with dual monitor outputs to drive both displays. I enjoyed having all the extra space.

My dual monitors lasted for quite a few years. They worked well and I discovered that I could keep them both filled with information to help me in my work. Of course technology continued to progress and so when the price of 4K (3840x2160 pixels) monitors dropped to where everyone could afford them, I jumped at the chance to get one. They are the equivalent of having four 1920x1080 monitors grouped together. It is the monitor I am using right now and guess what? I have the entire screen filled with 10 different windows. I also have a second computer with the laptop screen and a third 1920x1080 monitor. Both of those screens are also filled.

I guess the whole point of this post is that the answer to the question posed in the title is, "Yes," for both. You can always use more monitors and more screen real estate. At least I can.

My 5 Minutes of Fame

Last October I received an e-mail from my marina on the Great Salt Lake. A local outdoor television show wanted to experience sailing on the Great Salt Lake and asked for someone to take them out. I responded that my wife and I could go out that week with the film crew and hosts. I assumed that there would be a lot of sailors who would also jump at the chance. Little did I know that we would be selected.

We met the husband and wife hosts at the marina that Saturday morning along with their family and the person who would capture everything on camera. Having that many people on the boat makes for a crowded experience but we made it work by spreading people throughout the boat. At first the wind cooperated in the sense that it started light so nobody got scared. Then as the sailing continued, the wind built to the point where we had an exciting day that didn't get scary.

As quickly as it started we finished our sail and the day came to a close. We had a great time and I think the hosts had a fun day of sailing. While they mention that in the television episode, they said the same thing when the camera wasn't rolling. For those that are interested in watching the video, it can be found on YouTube and gives you an idea of what it is like sailing on the Great Salt Lake.

Maintaining Your Electronics

Yesterday I brought a pair of skis into the shop to have new bindings mounted for the upcoming ski season. I own about 7 pairs of skis already and so you are probably wondering what is special about these new ones. I am trying out a new ski binding that works well in the resort but can also be used efficiently in the backcountry. Needless to say I am getting pretty excited about the upcoming ski season, especially since it snowed at my house on Sunday.

This morning I started going through my e-mail and saw an article about the Pieps DSP Pro changing from transmit to search or off modes. For those that don't know, Pieps is a small transceiver (both a radio transmitter and receiver) that is used to help find someone in the event of an avalanche burial. I use a different brand from BCA that I love and so I am not worried that I need to replace my transceiver. I still read the article. Basically there is a faulty switch caused by not properly maintaining the equipment. That is a polite way of placing blame on the user instead of the manufacturer.

This brings up the point of what the proper maintenance is for all of your electronics. Do you know what that means for you? When I received my new avalanche transceiver, I read through the very short manual but now don't recall anything about regular maintenance. Considering the thing may someday be the difference between a bad day and a downright tragedy, I may want to reread the manual. I do know that my avalanche air bag is due for maintenance and will be doing that in the next week or so.

What about other electronic devices? Should I be worried about my computer? My mobile phone? How about any of my PlayStation consoles or televisions? Ultimately most of the electronics I own will never be used to save a life. The only exception might be a mobile phone. If my television stops working, I can repair it under warranty or get a new one. While it may seem like I am miserable, I won't be dying any time soon.

So how do you maintain a mobile phone? Fortunately it is something you use every day and so it is easy to see if it is working correctly or not. If it stops working, get it replaced immediately. Some things to look at are cracked screens and bulging battery compartments. Older rechargeable batteries can start to swell and may need to be replaced. If you are up to the task yourself there is a great Internet resource called IFixIt.com. I am a huge fan and just used one of their battery kits on my wife's MacBook Air. I also used them to help replace the screen on her mobile phone when it had a crack that caused it to stop working correctly. 

If you have any electronic device that is used to save a life, please pay attention to proper maintenance procedures. That helps to ensure it will work when you need it. Oh and don't buy any Pieps DSP avalanche transceivers no matter how good the deal may seem. After today's article people will be dumping them in favor of a different brand or newer model.

Content is King

The new video streaming service "Disney+" recently launched. This afternoon I looked at Disney's stock price and it rose $10/share. Coincidentally I looked at Netflix stock and it dropped $10/share over the same period. You have to wonder if there is a correlation.

I currently don't have any streaming video subscriptions nor do I plan to sign up for any but I have to admit that if I did, I would start with Disney+. Why? They have the most content I am interested in watching. If you look at my movie collection at home, I have a ton of Disney movies. Not just the animated ones but also most of the Marvel and Star Wars collections.

So what is Netflix going to do? Well I have to recognize that Netflix is fairly nimble and has done a great job at adjusting their business strategy based on market changes. I think they will be able to come up with content through their own efforts or through acquisition. There should be a lot of companies merging content in the near future because it doesn't make sense to subscribe to CBS's streaming service and then pay more money for NBC's or a number of other smaller providers.

Today at the office we had a discussion about who is signing up for Disney+ and if they are ditching another streaming video service. Everyone that is signing up for the new service is cancelling something. My own son sent me a message saying that he was getting rid of Netflix for Disney+.

I will be interested to see how Disney+ changes the video streaming market and hope that is spurs collaboration among the smaller players. That is probably the only way some of them will survive.

Are There Benefits of Video Games?

This week I have been spending a lot of time playing video games in the evening. I got to a point Monday night and had to ask myself if I was having fun or just killing time. To be honest, I really felt like I was just killing time and felt like I could be doing something more productive. It turns out I wasn't making any progress in my game and when I figured out what I was doing wrong, it became much more entertaining. However it got me thinking about if there are any benefits of video games.

Video games have been a part of my family since I was very young. My Dad had a DEC PDP-11 computer installed in our house and I used it to play a Star Trek game when I was about 10 years old. There were a few other games but Star Trek is the one I remember the most. Later we had an Atari 400 computer and it had the arcade version of Pac-Man. My dad wanted to know if there were any benefits of video games and had a hypothesis that they could help you read faster. He used Pac-Man to test it. Every so often an item appears in the Pac-Man maze and if you eat the item, you score points. The first item is a cherry and it is worth something like 100 points. The more points an item is worth, the faster everything goes. The nice thing about the Atari 400 version of Pac-Man is that you can choose which item you want to appear in the maze without having to start with the cherry. That means you could set the game to the "key" or highest level and everything moved amazingly fast.

My dad would bring in a bunch of kids from the neighborhood and time them reading several pages out of a book. Then he would have them play Pac-Man at key level for 30 minutes followed by having them read different pages out of the same book. I forget the exact numbers but there was a significant increase in reading speed for everyone my dad tested. My siblings and I used that as justification for playing more video games.

Now I find myself wondering if there are more benefits to playing video games. We all have only 24 hours in a day and I would not recommend spending all of that time doing one single thing. I know that after a busy day at the office I just want to relax. In the past I have watched television or read a book. I still enjoy reading and have been keeping that up. I have completely given up on TV though. I figure that replacing television with playing video games is a fair trade. Am I wrong? Comments welcome.

I Finished Playing a Video Game

One problem with working at a video game company is that there are a lot of different games to play. That makes it tough to actually finish one as I often get bored with one and move onto another. Well this evening I actually finished playing Bioshock Infinite. There was a driving force to finish the game as another coworker just finished it and wants to have a conversation about it with others who have completed the game. Everyone in the office has been waiting for me to finish so we can talk about the ending. I can't say I was surprised as I figured it out before I got to the end of the game. Tomorrow should be fun at work though as we can finally have this long-anticipated conversation.

Finishing a game comes with a huge sense of satisfaction. It also comes with a bit of sadness as now I won't know what to do with my evenings. I have replaced all television and movie watching with game playing. Now what am I going to do with my evenings when I am alone on the boat in California?

Fortunately there are a number of video games to choose from. My own library is quite full of games that I own. There are also a whole group of games that I have started but never had the patience to finish. There are also a number of games I have that are still in the plastic shrink-wrap. Then there is even a larger of inventory of games in the game library at work. Finally there is the video game I have been writing over the course of several years that is actually getting close to being done. Of course I could also take a break from video games and do other things.

Off to College

It is Labor-Day weekend and a lot of college students are headed off to school if they are not already there. My oldest son packed up this morning. My wife and I helped him load his car and it was funny to see the things he is bringing. His school is less than an hour away and so he didn't need all of the normal things most kids bring. For instance, all of his ski stuff is still at the house because he won't need it until almost next semester.

It didn't take too long to load his clothes in the car. It was everything else that took a while. The bulk of the things he is bringing are electronic items. While most kids are happy with a laptop, my son has two: one for work and his personal computer. I know that when I headed off to school, I brought a lot of books. My son had two. He put them next to a three-foot stack of video games and his DVD movie collection, which made for a hilarious picture. He also is bringing a second computer monitor and laser printer. Then there is the PlayStation 3 to play all of his games on.

Fortunately we didn't have to help him load his 40-inch television as that is already down at school. His older sister and her husband have been borrowing it during the summer. They will be sad to give it up but knew he would want it back.

I do confess that I am worried about my son at school this year. He only has three semesters left but his packing list looks more like he is an entertainment major instead of a computer science one. Hopefully he doesn't let all of his electronics distract him from his studies.

3D Television

Two years ago I purchased a new television for my bedroom. I picked up a nice 32-inch HDTV from Sony at Costco. It was a nice purchase that increased my old bedroom TV size quite a bit, yet small enough to hide in a cabinet when not in use. We got so accustomed to watching the new TV that it was only a matter of time before I replaced the family one. That time came a few months ago and it has been nice.

I can't remember the year I bought my Hitachi Ultravision, but it was probably close to 15 years ago. I picked up a bunch of speakers and a really nice Pioneer receiver at the same time. I put everything together in my family room and had a THX certified theater in my house. I probably would have replaced the TV a while ago if I didn't worry about all of the other audiovisual equipment as well.

Finally I decided to replace both the TV and the receiver as everything is now moving away from RCA jacks and going towards HDMI connections. My experience with the TV in my bedroom had me looking at Sony products and I decided to get one of the R550 televisions capable of 3D. I also picked up a nice receiver with a ton of HDMI inputs. It arrived on a Friday and I had it all set up before going to bed.

I had resisted getting the movie Avatar on DVD or Blu-ray until I got a 3D capable television. So the next day, I hit the local discount store and picked up a Blu-ray copy that was way overpriced. I have to say that it was spectacular. Not wanting to buy another expensive movie, I downloaded Jack the Giant Slayer from Sony's PlayStation Network for $5. The movie was only mediocre, but the 3D effect made it well worth my time to watch.

Yes, I will admit that 3D is a gimmick. However I have to say that I really enjoy watching movies in 3D. I even turned on the simulated 3D while watching Chasing Mavericks and the waves were really spectacular. Considering that the price difference between a 60-inch television with 3D and one without is only $200, I highly recommend spending the extra money. I also recommend Sony's R550 series as they use the same passive 3D glasses that you get at the movie theater. The only problem is that you may never want to leave your home again.

A Break from TV

This weekend I have a guest from Japan visiting me in Utah. He came for business last week and has business at our offices next week. Rather than get stuck in San Francisco over a long weekend, he asked if he could come skiing with me in Utah. Seeing as I had already invited him when I was in Japan, I was more than happy to host him this weekend.

I didn't watch much TV when I was in Japan because I didn't understand anything being said. There is only so long that you can watch people on the screen speaking a different language before you get really bored. Rather than subject my guest to a similar fate, we have all gathered in the living room this evening and are reading, working on the computer, or playing hand-held video games. I have to say that I don't miss television.

This has me questioning the future of TV. While I don't plan to toss my idiot box out the window any time soon, I may rethink my cable subscription. Why pay a fee every month when I could pay a fraction of the cost and get better service. After all, most networks allow you to watch recent episodes of your favorite show at the time is most convenient for you. If I want to watch a movie, there are a number of services that offer downloaded or streaming content via the Internet. Perhaps I should look into replacing one of my current televisions with one that has built-in Internet features. In the past I haven't given an Internet capable TV a second though, but maybe these electronic companies are onto something.

My New Years Resolution

Christmas break is over and now I find myself back at work in San Francisco. That means I don't have as much time to play video games and I have to admit that I am a little sad about that. The last couple of days of vacation, I picked up my PSP and was having fun playing some new games I got for it. Luckily the PSP is small enough that I can throw in my suitcase and cart back and forth between Salt Lake and the Bay Area.

Last night, I got back to the boat after a full day at the office and watched a little television while I cooked and ate dinner. Then there was nothing on that I really wanted to see so I did something new: I turned off the TV. For about two years now, I have gone back to the boat after work and wasted my time in front of the idiot box. This year I have decided that I want to watch a lot less television. When I turned it off last night, I had three hours of free time to do whatever I wanted. I turned on my computer and spent time working on one of my many projects.

I find it interesting that I spent my Christmas break playing video games instead of watching television in the evenings and that seems to have broken my addiction to the various shows I felt the need to watch. Now I have a lot more time for other things and I feel like a new man. See, there is a benefit for video games. At least there was for me as your mileage may vary.