Yearly Archives: 2013

Best Bluetooth A2DP Media Receiver

I wanted to listen to music and podcasts in the car from my smart phone. My car unfortunately didn’t have the required A2DP Bluetooth capability, only the standard hands-free phone Bluetooth connection. The car did however have a 1/8″ line-in jack. A cable is always less convenient, but does provide the best possible audio connection of course.

The other issue that can occur in some cars with some smart phones is ground loop hum, hiss and whistle when a power cord and line-in cable are both plugged in at the same time to a car audio device. Sometimes a ground loop isolator will solve the problem, and sometimes it will not. Either way, you still have an audio cable to plug into your phone.

My first attempt at using a Bluetooth media connection to my line-in port, was with a Belkin F8Z492TTP Bluetooth Music Receiver. Easy to set up, and very small. It’s powered by 5 volts DC, but does not come with a 12 volt car adapter, or a USB cable. So I had to fashion my own custom USB to tiny round jack cable, to power this item in my car. But the audio quality results of the Belkin were poor. General audio quality was poor, and worst of all, vocals had very noticeable and annoying echo. Music sounds okay, not great, and the echo wasn’t obvious with music. But vocal podcasts sounded like the speakers were in a barrel.

I next tried the Rocketfish Bluetooth Music Receiver (RF-BTR212). I had the same issues with powering the device, no included 12 volt adapters or USB cables. Just like the Belkin, it used a two wire round plug. It also was powered by 5 volt DC, so why these companies don’t use a standard micro or mini USB plug for power it is strange and annoying in this day and age. So I fashioned another custom USB to round plug adapter cable to power it. Most of us are used to using 12 volt adapters with USB ports in our cars these days. And some have 2 USB ports, which is ideal to charge a phone and then power a second device like a Bluetooth media receiver.

The audio quality of the Rocketfish is night and day from the Belkin! Far superior audio quality, excellent music clarity, and no echo on vocals in podcasts. The device is about 4 times the size of the Belkin, but still reasonably small. If using it indoors with a stereo, it also has an optical out connection, which is a nice option.

Reviews often mention that the Rocketfish does not have the range that is claimed. It claimed to have a radio distance of 33 feet. Many other reviewers say they only get 6 to 8 feet. In my case I only need 2 to 3 feet. So I’m good. I didn’t test the range of mine.

I would definitely recommend this item for streaming audio from a portable unit like a smart phone, indoors or like me in the car.

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10/10.

CSS Select Issues on Android 2.3.x Browsers

While writing some cross platform Bootstrap web code for a project I am working on, I came across an obscure issue, where a select drop-down list doesn’t work on the default Android browser on Android 2.3.x.

It seems to be a known issue with some web developers, and is a bug in the Android browser code. I came across the solution that worked for me here, in tip #13.

Basically add this to the head of the form page script (Code snippet updated 2013-07-27):

<style> <!-- This style section is used to fix a bug where drop-down menus on navbars don't work on mobile browsers. -->
  select { position: relative; z-index: 999; }
  .dropdown-backdrop {
   position: static;
  }
 </style>

Leap Motion Delaying Shipments Again

The long (very long) anticipated hand gesture device from Leap Motion has yet another delay. I think it’s close to a year since I first placed my pre-order for the device. Since they first went public with this much hyped gadget, they’ve claimed how fantastic it already was, yet customers are still waiting to see a working version for sale. They’ve been vague about shipping dates for the better part of a year since they first offered pre-orders. I’ve emailed them twice in that time, and both times received polite replies with little information.

They finally offered a release date not that long ago May 13. Today they emailed pre-order customers, and pushed that date back to July 22. Personally I’ll be surprised if a device ever ships to end users like myself.

I heard that Leap Motion has recently had press releases claiming a deal with HP for their gesture technology in HP laptops. Seems consistent to me that they keep putting out new hype all the time about a device that has yet to go for sale.

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Django Unchained (2012)

DJango is a renegade slave in search of his wife during southern slavery days of America’s old west.

If you were to ask me how many times they used the “N” word (Niger) in this movie, I’d have to guess between 500 and 900 times. I’d be curious if anyone watched the movie with a clicker and counted. The use seems extreme in this day and age where it’s simply not acceptable in society, but I’m sure it was common place to use it this much back then. So I found it interesting and refreshing that they didn’t shy away from it to be more accurate for the period.

This film is long, approaching 3 hours. The last movie of this length I saw was a shiny, glittery turd known as The Hobbit. Something that was visually beautiful to watch, but a piece of crap otherwise. But Django is a diamond in the rough. A well told entertaining story that holds your attention throughout.

Being a Quentin Tarantino film, it has his typical unusual flare. That being things like excessive blood spatter, explosions bigger than life, and overly dramatic and campy scenes for brief periods. But also quality production, witty comedic moments, and a well told story.

Even if you don’t like cowboy movies, you will most likely enjoy this. It’s an action adventure movie, made during American slavery times, and even though the action/adventure takes obvious theatrical license, they seemed to make every effort to portray the life of the slaves and the wealthy with some accuracy. And this mixture makes this movie standout and fun to watch.

9/10

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Media Player Classic – INI File Issues with v.1.6.6.6957 (3975d54)

I’m one of those hands-on old fashioned techy guys. I like my traditional INI and Config files in plain text when possible. I hate the Windows registry database, which we were scammed with by Microsoft years back, but that’s a rant for another post.

Since I prefer my MPC-HC settings to be stored in an INI file, instead of the registry, I came across a bug today while upgrading the 64bit version of MPC-HC to version 1.6.6.6957 (3975d54). After the upgrade, or crashed immediately on start up.

The problem came down to this. The INI file for external filters was using INI section headers labelled like this:

[Filters003]

And apparently on a new clean v. 1.6.6.6957 install, it wants to see INI files with external filter references like this:

[Filtersx64003]

So simply adding the “64” to the INI section headers solved my problem.

Just throwing it out in there for anyone else to find with the same possible issues.

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Samsung S4 Press Complaints

I’ve been following in the release of the new Samsung S4 (SIV) in the tech news this past week. Apparently Samsung had a bizarre and uncomfortable to watch stage show, which has gotten a lot of press comments for being strange, awkward and out of date.

Not being an Apple fan boy, and falling at the feet of everything that is Apple, I personally find these comments ironic. Since some of us (non Apple cool-aid drinkers) have always found Apple press releases and stage events to be equally over hyped, bizarre, what-have-you. I can easily see how they are not exactly alike and directly comparable in style, apples and oranges let’s say. Both could be considered weird. Samsung has strange Broadway style stage shows, and Apple never talks specs, but will talk endlessly about things being magical and living in a fantasy world where only Apple exists and it’s all about Steve feeling good about himself. Neither is about the product.

My point is, the tech press has always gulped the Apple cool-aid, and kissed Jobs feet to thank him for the privilege, and now they are being hypocrites. Samsung is doing their own weird thing to get attention, and they get dumped on in the reviews. Well the joke is on the press, cause I think it was the intension all along, to get the half-wit tech press to talk about Samsung by simply being over the top in a different way than that other company. Suckers! You fell for it like lemmings just like you do/did for Apple.

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The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Hobbit, is an unexpectedly long and unexpectedly boring story. It’s by no means boring due to a simply plot, in fact it is an overly complex tale with far to many characters. So many characters, that you don’t care to associate with any of them, as no one character get enough individual screen time or background for us to become fond of.

Nearing 3 hours in length, the first hour and a half are the most painful. Which I find interesting, since that is the typical length of the average movie these days.

Aside from being boring, too long, overly complex, and no true lead characters, there are two more annoying problems with this film. First of all, the film was shot with 3D as a primary goal. I saw the movie in 2D, which I prefer. And a well made modern 3D movie should can be equally enjoyed in 2D and 3D. Far too often we have long pauses where the story and actors come to a stand still so we can watch some 3D effect. Or the action is intended solely to impress us with 3D, and when watched in 2D seems completely unnecessary. The other annoyance is the frequent and bizarre placement of extremely dry and immature British humour that pops up out of no where from time to time, totally unexpected or required for the scene.

In comparison to The Lord of the Rings, it’s also very immature, and seems written for children. Even some of the fight scenes are too much for a fantasy film. For example the goblin strong hold escape scene, reminded me of a Rube Goldberg machine, where every single piece of a extremely complex chain of events must take place perfectly for the end result. A feat that is typically impossible.

The movie is visually beautiful, and that’s all it has going for it.

3/10

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Here we have the Hobbit covered in troll snot.
Some of the excellent humour found in the movie.
And unlike the monster snot scene with a TRex in the famous film,
the Hobbit doesn’t even seem too bothered by the experience.
And a few moments later the story, magically the snot is all gone.

The Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn – Part Two (2012)

Yet another iteration of the Twilight Saga, magical realm of the vampire/werewolf three somes.

Hard to believe that this episode actually has a significantly weaker plot and script than the previous ones. The writing is on the same level as a grade 8 girl’s free form essay. While I’m watching the movie, I imagined a junior high teacher telling her students, “Your assignment for today is to write about anything you like. And it has to be about your happy place. The place you imagine when you feel sad.” And a Twilight Saga script is born!

The final fight scene violence is seriously over the top, considering the audience this movie is intended for. There be decapitations a plenty! Imagine a sick twisted little girl in a toy store, ripping the heads off every doll in sight. And you then have a Twilight rumble. And just like headless dolls, apparently headless vampires don’t spray blood everywhere, which must make the mock extreme violence okay with the ratings people. Either that, or the cash that’s pushed under their doors at night.

In the earlier movies, didn’t the vampires sparkle in direct sunlight? Ya they did. Not any more. Now they look human and older than before. But now they all have blood red eyes instead, and have to wear contacts to hide the fact.

But fear not, we have multiple happy endings, just in case you don’t feel fulfilled with the typical happy movie ending. We have several levels of ending goodness, followed by more than 10 minutes of happy songs during endless credits. They seem to want no complaints that the ending isn’t satisfactory.

Why do I watch the Twilights? I’m a sucker for vampire and werewolf movies. And I can’t help analyzing the sceptical of how successful these movies have been, when they are so incredibly bad. It’s the Justin Bieber phenomenon.

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