Posts by Simon Brown

NHS IT: what went wrong, what will go wrong

Am i the only one wondering how overly complex this thing is?

Am I the only one wondering just how many kitchen sinks have been thrown into the spec of what should be a relatively straightfoward system?

DVB-H is the official mobile-TV standard

Surely there's an easier way

Do we really need a specific DVB format for mobile phones?

Surely it would be simpler to create a suitable chip to go inside mobiles that can receive and decode current DVB-T broadcasts?

French court says non to pre-loaded Windows on Acer laptop

Re: Andrew Bush

"The whole point in not bundling the OS is the imbalance between the OEM cost and retail boxed price. There should be no difference in price between these two other than the packaging/distribution."

You are incorrect here. The reason why the OEM version of the OS is cheaper is because when you buy the retail version the extra cost gets you a certain number of support calls with Microsoft. With the OEM version the system builder will be the one providing the support and so they add that cost on to the PC/laptop as they see fit.

Legal threat to 'Green nuke' consultation

Brent Spar

You only have to look at the Brent Spar fiasco to know that you can't trust Greenpeace's claims

Euro consumers favour plasma over LCD

Take it with a pinch of salt

Given that this comparison seems to have been sponsored by the plasma manufacturers I'll take the results with a pinch of salt. I'd like to see the results of a truly independent study where it has been verified that the TV's had all been set up with equal care

All TV types need properly calibrating when you get them out of the box, not just LCD. And the truth of the matter is that lots of people don't know (and worse, don't care). I've been in people's houses where they had quite expensive 32" CRT's and they had clearly never bothered to set colour, contrast and brightness as the picture just looked unnatural. Likewise you can't just stroll into Currys or Comet and judge the relative merits by what's on display there. Chances are the sets haven't been set up properly and are probably all being fed from the same RF feed.

Regarding Sky not being the best thing to use when demoing TV's - well it is the best thing to use if that's what you watch most. Any set should look fabulous if you're feeding it a CGI movie by digital connection as there's seldom the amount of image noise that trips up TV processing that you get from film derived sources.

I wouldn't hold my breath for HD CRT's - you'll probably have to go through dozens of sets to get one with decent geometry, regardless of how good the picture is otherwise, and you're always going to be limited as to the maximum screen size.

HD TV, without the monthly fee

Can't pick up Sky HD on this surely?

Your article says that "... you still won’t get access to all Sky’s HD content, unless you have a subscription."

Surely in actual fact the only way you will (legally) get access to Sky HD content is via a Sky HD box - Sky still haven't licensed their encryption for use in anything other than their STB's. Unless the Reg knows something we don't...?