Samsung Blu-ray Blues

Do you really want to know?? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Before launching into blu-ray, I’d like to mention my visit to Borders music the other night. When the store opened in 1996, it was a “happening place”. It featured a café with live music, free massages, reading stations and best of all -- a store overflowing with books, music and magazines. As I looked it over recently, I could see large areas of empty space. Other areas were occupied with greeting cards, toys and iPod accessories. It’s probably a sign of the times -- “dead tree media” (see my previous blog entry) is losing a lot of its panache. I hope that Borders holds on -- I like my fun, alternative reading space. I wonder if people realize what we lose if we close all the libraries and book stores.

On a not-unrelated topic, I’ve noticed that the hit count for my own blog is woefully small these days. When I began this enterprise in 2005, I had high hopes for a big readership, and I felt like I lots to say. I find myself running on a quarter tank now -- low on ideas and inspiration. I’m hoping that something pulls it out of the fire, but otherwise I may go on a long hiatus. I noticed that my facebook page which I barely maintain or modify gets quite a few more hits than my blog. That’s funny in a way, but also another sign of the times. OK -- enough with morose musings, today’s topic is blu-ray.

BLU-RAY

Blu-ray is an optical disc technology which provides 10 times the data storage of a standard definition DVD. A shorter wavelength blue-violet laser is what gives the technology its name. I finally gave in to my curiosity and purchased a Samsung blu-ray device this weekend. I was also drawn to the fact that it offers wireless connectivity to Blockbuster, Netflix, Pandora and YouTube. My experience was pretty terrible, let me count the ways….

NO, NO, NO NET -- My internet experience hit an immediate brick wall. I have high-speed DSL and a wireless router that works with countless other devices in my house. Samsung requires a special Samsung wireless adaptor to connect via USB. That part was omitted from the blurb on the carton. I have a special Ethernet adaptor (called MacSense) which lets you adapt a wireless signal to your Ethernet port. This kept getting ’gateway ping’ error on the network test.

THE EYES DO NOT HAVE IT -- My middle-aged eyes can’t tell any difference between blu-ray and standard definition; they look the same to me. What’s all the hype about?

THOSE DAMN BLACK BANDS -- I *still* get letterbox format with black bands at the bottom and top of my HDTV screen. I hoped at the very least that blu-ray would eliminate that.

HDMI SWITCH -- I purchased a new HDMI switch for hooking multiple HDMI devices to a single TV. It’s extremely flaky and seems to confuse both the Apple TV and the blu-ray box. My only current workaround is restarting or rebooting devices -- hardly a push-button convenience.

MACSENSE-LESS -- Using my MacSense Ethernet adaptor (mentioned above) with the Samsung appears to have messed up the settings on the MacSense --now it doesn’t work with anything else. It took me 2 days to figure out how to program it 1 year ago.

PRICE NOT NICE -- I spent $169 on this box, on Saturday. 12 hours later , Best Buy had a Sunday flyer with the price dropped down to $149. I ran to the store to recover @ $21 -- at least they offer a price protection plan for people vigilant enough to read the Sunday fliers.

In sum -- I went out of my way to spend too much money to get something that didn’t work as I thought, and additionally sabotaged another device that had been working well. It knocked me out of action for most of a weekend day, and as of this writing still doesn’t do much.

There you have it -- a weekend of failing blogs, flailing book stores and Samsung blu-ray that gave me the blues. It’s enough to make me glad that tomorrow’s a work day.


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