Oct 05 2012

Disney Nature – African Cats review

Several months ago, Amazon had a “Deal of the Day” for the four-pack of Disney Nature’s films, which included the Blu-Rays for Earth, Oceans, Crimson Wing, and African Cats. At the time I didn’t have a Blu-Ray player–heck, I didn’t own a television–but I thought that the price was far too good to pass. Now that I have a television and Blu-Ray player, I decided to use African Cats as the first viewing, and I was completely blown away!

Disney Nature - African Cats

The picture quality (commonly known as PQ on fora about Blu-Ray and AV equipment) was absolutely incredibly on this release from Disney Nature. The audio quality is not really something that I can adequately judge, as I am just using the built-in speakers on the television. Though they are decent enough, I’ll leave audio quality reviews to those with appropriate sound systems.

African Cats, which is narrated by the fantastic Samuel L. Jackson, follows two different cat families–a pride of lions, and a family of cheetahs. The portion revolving around the lions focuses on a particular pride led by Fang, and their constant territorial battle against Kali and his sons for the land that they call home. The other consecutive storyline follows Sita, a single mother of five cubs, and their struggle to survive in an environment where threats are present at every turn.

Like the other offerings from Disney Nature, African Cats tries to balance information and entertainment value, and I think that it does so quite nicely. There are informative narrative blurbs, panoramic views of the savannah, cute shots of the cheetah cubs play-fighting with one another, and some scenes that tug at the heartstrings as Layla (the mother figure of the lion pride) recognises that her health is quickly fading. Overall, I found this film to be one of the best yet from Disney Nature. Though there are some violent scenes, they are to be expected in a documentary about wildlife, and should not deter you from watching it with the family.

Filled starFilled starFilled starFilled starFilled starFilled starFilled starFilled starUnfilled starUnfilled star

Cheers,
Zach

Oct 04 2012

Omnimount Echo 50LE media table

This past month, I decided that it had been far too many years since I have owned a television. Though I don’t really watch any TV programmes, I am a film buff, and would like to watch them on something other than my monitors. Even on Dell UltraSharp U2711s, it’s just not the same. Anyway, I’ll review the television in another post sometime soon.

I quickly realised, though, that I would also need to purchase a stand or table on which the TV could sit. Being a minimalist, I was looking for something that was rather unobtrusive, and that was devoid of any gaudy elements. I searched on a bunch of different sites, but couldn’t find anything that fit the bill. Then, I found the OmniMount Echo 50LE. It could accommodate up to a 50″ television (in width, so really a 55″ would be just fine), it was low-profile in both terms of height and depth, and it was essentially elemental. It was also available in an espresso colour, which I actually preferred, but the majority of my furniture in the sitting room is black.

In terms of build quality, this stand is the exception to the rule. Despite not being real wood, both the quality of materials and the craftsmanship are outstanding! It took no more than 30 minutes to assemble, and there were absolutely no problems with the assembly. After a quick polishing with a rag, it was ready to go. I decided to put a piece of black vinyl under the television stand, so as to not scratch the table underneath it.

Overall, I would say that it has the following pros and cons:

Pros:

  • Beautiful glossy finish that isn’t highly reflective
  • Outstanding craftsmanship and build quality, especially for the price of under $200 USD (~€150)
  • Easy assembly
  • Low-profile design that doesn’t draw attention away from the television
  • Nice bottom shelf for components

Cons:

  • Could be ever-so-slightly taller (maybe only 5cm or so)
  • Glossy finish does bring out fingerprints and dust

I really had to reach to find some cons with this unit, and would highly recommend it for someone with a minimalist approach to furniture, or someone who is trying to make the most of a small room.

Cheers,
Zach

Oct 03 2012

Zoom 5341J cable modem

After moving back to the midwest United States, I was immediately reminded of the frustrations of dealing with the primary cable internet provider–Charter Communications. They offer fairly good speeds, and when considering the price, the performance-to-cost ratio is outstanding. However, the reliability of the service leaves a lot to be desired.

One of the primary problems when I lived here before was the really poor modems (and corresponding Charter-infected firmware) that they provided. Never fear, though, as I came back with my own modem… or so I thought. Apparently in June of 2012, Charter announced that customers can no longer use their own modems. So, with my service came a free lease of a Cisco DPC3010. Not a bad modem, barring the firmware that Charter has loaded onto it (which eliminates the administrative login credentials, and thus, one can’t look at the logs). Though there is a user account for logging in (Username: chtruser Password: charter), the administrative functionality has been removed. The modem, however, (and again, likely the fault of the Charter firmware, and not the Cisco modem itself) refused to channel bond on downstream (upstream bonding is not yet offered). As a result, my downstream speeds were abysmal by comparison to the rated speeds.

After arguing with the customer service team at Charter, I finally convinced them to provision my modem. I have a Zoom 5341J modem, which is a nice, affordable modem that supports up to 8 bonded downstream channels and up to 4 bonded upstream channels. Within its administrative interface, it also features information regarding the lock status, modulation, channel ID, frequency, power, SNR, and (un)correctable errors. The modem also has a hidden menu which can only be accessed by going directly to the URL:

http://$MODEM_IP/RgEventLog.asp

replacing $MODEM_IP with the actual IP of the modem (which by default is 192.168.100.1, resulting in a full URL of http://192.168.100.1/RgEventLog.asp). This page shows all of the events in in the SNMP log, which is highly valuable information if you want to actively monitor your network status.

In any case, the new modem with the stock firmware (unmodified by Charter) is working beautifully with four bonded downstream channels (the maximum for my package). I strongly recommend the modem for its reliability and price point.

Cheers,
Zach