OPPO DVD Tray Repair

Recently, I ran into a bit of trouble where my OPPO DVD player would not open/close the DVD tray. When listening to the player while pushing the open/eject button I could, sometimes, hear a bit of rubber making a stressed sound - like rubber on rubber. That said, I could never recreate the situation consistently as I would sometimes hear a noise but mostly no sound would be made at all. After that, I searched the OPPO support pages but didn’t find any information related to this issue so fired off a quick email explaining the issue to OPPO support and this is what I got back:

1. Disconnect the DVD player’s power cord from the power source for no less than 15 minutes.
2. Ensure that the tray is not sticking to the front of the tray opening by running a small flat object along the entire edge of the tray.
3. Gently shake your DVD unit.
4. Reconnect the power cord.
5. Press Eject. If the tray does not Eject, make any note of any mechanical noises.
6. Press Eject and press in the tray.
7. Press Eject again.

I had disconnected the power before but had never thought of shaking the unit (which, yes, I was surprised to see as an instruction). When shaking the unit, I grabbed the left and right side shook it in both a vertical and horizontal pattern. Upon reconnecting the unit, the DVD tray would open and close again. BTW, I do want to mention that I had upgraded the unit to the latest firmware.

Anyway, I thought I’d pass this along in case anyone was experiencing this issue because I’m not accustomed to shaking my HiFi equipment for solving issues.

XtremeMac iPhone Sportwrap

A while back, I wrote about purchasing and using the
Belkin Sport Armband for the iPhone. It was a terrible purchase, unfortunately, but I got my money back. I then continued my quest to find a product that could hold to rigors of my physical excursions.

The answer: XtremeMac iPhone Sportwrap.

I’ve had this sportwrap for several months where I have gone jogging, bumped into walls, etc. and am happy to say that this sportwrap shows no signs of tearing or breaking down. Although it is speckled with paint now, the iPhone remains unscathed.

If you want a dependable sportwrap and protective cover for your shiny iPhone, then I recommend checking this out.

iPhone 2.0 Issues

Merlin Mann recently wrote an article recently about iPhone 2.0 Glitches. I would have to agree with that list of issues but I have a few more to add to the list:

• E-mail Evaporation - I am a heavy OmniFocus user and one of the things I find myself doing often is capturing new tasks that I need to work on when away from the office (as set via the OmniFocus mail preferences). Now, when writing a new task using the Mail app on my iPhone, the app and message will evaporate after hitting the send button. Great, now instead of making better use of time, I’m wasting it. I’ve not seen other apps do this…yet.
• Podcast/Song Resume - I easily consume over 10+ hours of news and information on a weekly basis (especially now that I have been painting on the weekends). When I’m working out on the elliptical machine in the morning, I’m watching video. When I’m doing other house tasks or tooling in the garage, I’m listing to the my podcasts. Prior to version 2.0, I could pause a song or podcast midstream and resume it later. Not any longer. I can only do that with video now. Bah!

The other issues, you can read about on Merlin Mann’s site, especially about all apps being much slower to use. I’m still using the orignal iPhone and not the 3G phone but it sounds like it doesn’t matter which phone you are using, 2.0 is much slower.

Apple TV 2.0 does not support full HD resolution

© Apple

If you have been following the MacWorld hype this week, you will have noticed that the Apple TV has been improved and reduced in price. Some improvements include wireless connectivity, updated user interface, ability to rent and watch movies, etc. It is a great device with plenty of bells and whistles in both hardware and software.

However, it still misses the mark. By taking a close look at the Apple TV Tech Specs you will see that maximum resolution is 1280×720 pixels at 24 fps but the specs for HD video is 1920×1080 pixels at 24 fps (although it can go as high as 60 fps). If you care about getting the maximum benefit out of your TV and movie watching experience, then this is not the device for you. Nor is the storage space (160 GB maximum) as you’ll need over a terabyte in storage if you have a decent movie collection, let alone storing TV content, downloadable media, or your own home videos.

Food for thought.

Screen Size and Viewing Distance Chart

For those home theatre enthusiasts who might want information (or a reminder) on where you should place your seating relative to the size of your display, the following chart will be of some help:

(click to view)

Additionally, if you once enjoyed The Perfect Vision, check out the chart in Issue 79, Page 31. It doesn’t provide a breakdown of resolutions like the one above but is a handy reference for screen size and viewing distance.

Playback Magazine

© Playback.

Playback, if you haven’t heard, is a new magazine that used to be known as The Perfect Vision. While The Perfect Vision was a paid subscription, Playback is free. Unfortunately, you have to subscribe via e-mail to be notified of new issues despite the fact that there is a syndicated feed for the site that would be just as applicable for notification.

You can view past issues via the online reader (which is a bit laggy) or you can download an .exe file for Windows or .dmg file for Mac OS users. Cumbersome, yes, but I suppose one can’t complain when it is free to use.

MacBook Pro Memory Upgrade

My 4GB of Crucial Memory arrived in the mail today and I promptly went about installing it:

(click to view)

Installation was a breeze and took very little instruction. Of course, if you need steps, you can easily consult the manual that ships with the MacBook Pro. I would warn that you should have a precision screwdriver set around before attempting to install as you’ll have trouble trying to unscrew the super tiny screws to the memory casing. I ended up using a #0 Philips head screwdriver:

After the install and powering up the MacBook Pro, I was greeted with increased memory stats via the about dialog:

Here is a view via the Activity Monitor:

(click to view)

For the curious, the full stats on the Crucial Memory I ended up using is:

• Module Size: 4GB kit (2GBx2)
• Package: 200-pin SODIMM
• Feature: DDR2 PC2-5300
• Specs: DDR2 PC2-5300, CL=5, Unbuffered, NON-ECC, DDR2-667, 1.8V, 256Meg x 64

I’ve always used Crucial Memory in the past for the custom machines that I have built with great success. It looks like the quality continues with the Mac but time will tell.

Apple AirPort Extreme

Introduction

The following showcases some of the best features, in my opinion, of the Airport Extreme in case you are in the market for upgrading your network.

Feature Highlights

• Supports 802.11n WiFi technology.
• Has one WAN port and three LAN ports.
• Has one USB port that can be used to connect a USB Hub, printer, or external hard drive.
• Plays nicely with the iPhone by easily switching from the EDGE network to your WiFi network upon detection.
• Compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.

Setup

Setup is a breeze as you only need to install the AirPort Utility software (discussed further below) and follow the wizard prompts. Afterwards you can enter manual mode to access the advanced features of your AirPort.

AirPort Utility

The AirPort Extreme comes with an easy to use software application called: AirPort Utility. Below is a screenshot of the application running on my Windows machine:

(click to view)

This application has all the advanced features necessary for setting up your wired and wireless network. For example: WEP, WPA, and WPA2 (personal and enterprise) security, port mapping, MAC address filtering, IP pass through, remote WAN access, etc. The thing I like the most is the ability to attach multiple USB devices to the AirPort. For example:

(click to view)

Notice, in the diagram above, that there is a USB hub which then has a USB printer and external hard drive attached to it. By keeping these devices connected to the AirPort it then becomes much easier for all computers on the network to access these devices 24/7 without requiring a dedicated computer to be always running and sharing the devices.

Tips & Notes

• A good USB hub to use with the AirPort is the D-Link 4-port USB 2.0 Hub. No software drivers required (if drivers are required then you are buying the wrong hardware).
• In order access a printer connected to the AirPort you will need software drivers that support Bonjour networking and are compatible with the various operating systems on your network.
• Bonjour networking not only allows you to easily connect to USB hard drives and printers but you can apply password projection on your hard drives and even allow remote access via the internet to your USB devices. Install the AirPort Disk Utility software on each machine to make this happen.
• It is a shame that the AirPort Extreme does not support the eSATA interface because USB 2.0 starts to suck when dealing with large amounts of data on the network.

Belkin Sport Armband for iPhone

I recently went shopping for an iPhone armband and ended up buying the Belkin Sport Armband for the iPhone. After jogging on the first day of using the armband I discovered that the entire side of the armband that holds the iPhone was split at the seam! Here are a couple pictures to help illustrate:

(click to view)

I am just glad that the phone didn’t slip out and break on a rock. Needless to say, you probably should mark this product off your shopping list. Luckily for me, Belkin customer service was kind enough to refund my money.

Tags: iPhone

iPhone 1.1.1

While some are hacking the iPhone, I am playing it safe and decided to install the latest 1.1.1 software update on the iPhone. My favorite feature from the update is the ability to double tap the Home button to resume playback of music. Previously, you had to unlock the phone or use the mic tap from plugged in headphones (which I have written about here).

Below is a shot of how the iPhone behaved before the software update (first picture) and a shot of how the iPhone behaves now that the 1.1.1 software update is applied:

(click to view)

As you can see, there is no need to unlock the phone to resume playback. Sweet!

For more details about the 1.1.1 software update, go here.

Tags: iPhone