KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The vaccine that Larry Mathews is getting won't protect him from the flu. That's OK — the stakes are far higher than that.
He's hoping the shots will prime his immune system to fight the aggressive cancer that has invaded his brain. If it works as he wants it to, his body's own killer cells will mop up malignant cells that surgery, radiation and chemotherapy couldn't eliminate.
For decades, scientists have been trying to create vaccines like this to recruit the body's immune system to destroy cancer cells the way it wipes out foreign viruses and bacteria.
After many false starts and premature promises, it appears that their research is beginning to pay off.
In late April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first cancer vaccine, Provenge, that can modestly extend the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer. Several major insurance plans and Medicare claims processors in some parts of the country, including Kansas and Missouri, already have agreed to pay for the costly treatment.
Mathews is taking part in a preliminary clinical study at St. Luke's Hospital on a brain cancer vaccine developed at the University of Kansas Medical Center. A larger two-year study aimed at gaining FDA approval is planned to start this fall.
Worldwide, scientists are working on dozens of vaccines against melanoma, breast cancer and cancers of the lung, colon and pancreas.
Researchers can cite anecdotes of cancer patients given months to live who have survived 15 years or longer after receiving vaccines. But so far, conclusive evidence from large clinical trials is scant.
Even so, experts anticipate that several cancer vaccines could prove effective enough to gain FDA approval in the next four or five years.
The goal for vaccines is to train the immune system to recognize ways that cancer cells differ from normal cells and motivate it to attack.
By trial and error scientists have identified targets on cancer cells, called antigens, that the immune system can identify as different from normal cells. They also better understand components of the immune system that recognize antigens and alert the immune system's killer cells.
Vaccines represent a major shift in thinking about how to treat cancer, said James Gulley, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute. Conventional cancer therapies aim toxic drugs and radiation at tumors, but can harm other tissues and cause nausea, fatigue, hair loss and other side effects.
Vaccines narrowly target the immune system. Side effects — fever, chills, soreness at the injection site — typically aren't much greater than what you may get from a flu shot. But getting vaccinated can take much longer than a flu shot.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
anamorphic or not anamorphic?
Now that I have my widescreen TV, I'm having a penchant on seeing how my DVDs look on it.
Some of them didn't look very good at first because I had my DVD player still set up to 4:3 and when the TV zoomed the picture it wasn't very clear. Now that I have set it to 16:9, they look better (if not really good).
I have a few that are non-anamorphic that don't look that great when zoomed (or in "full" mode), so I actually prefer watching some of these unzoomed.
I don't know if this applies to every single DVD, but so far the way I figure out if a DVD is anamorphic, is that the picture looks squished vertically (black bars on sides) when Wide Mode is Normal. When I switch Wide Mode to Full, then the picture uncompresses and the black bars on the sides disappear. The height of the picture remains the same.
If the DVD is non-anamorphic (or full screen), the picture looks in proportion in Normal setting.
I have a few DVDs that even though they're anamorphic, the picture looks a little too blurry in full mode and I actually like to watch these with the picture a little smaller with the borders all around. (Or maybe it's just my eyes.)
With an non-anamorphic DVD, you do this by just watching in Normal mode. With an anamorphic DVD, you can do it by setting the DVD player to 4:3 with the TV in Normal mode.
I assume none of this rigmarole is needed with a Blu-Ray disc.
***
So far I have found the following DVDs are non-anamorphic:
Wing Chun (Tai Seng, HK Legends version is anamorphic, come on Dragon Dynasty?, wow selling used for $59.85 on amazon.)
Mortal Kombat (which also looks really dark, Blu-Ray release 8/31/10 in Canada)
Armageddon (Criterion edition) but looks pretty decent from a distance
WarGames (the 25th Anniversary edition is anamorphic)<!-8/26/10-->
Fist of Legend (Dimension) / Dragon Dynasty version is anamorphic <!- 8/26/10 -->
Enemy of the State / there's a newer special edition that is anamorphic / I was watching it because it was on FX earlier that day. I noticed the actress that played Will Smith's wife, Regina King, looks like Michelle Obama (or vice-versa) especially with the similar hair-do. Also in the movie, Scott Caan now of Hawaii Five-O fame. I see he was also in the Ocean's Eleven, etc. films. I never noticed. I also notice that this came out the same year (all the way back in 1998) as another Bruckheimer production, Armageddon (see above) <!- 11/5/10 -->
[4/10/11] My latest non-anamorphic DVD, Die Hard 2. Picked this up from Blockbuster Salt Lake which is going out of business. Well, I guess it's viewable assuming you don't mind watching it as a smaller picture on 4:3. Or zooming it with the bottom half of the subtitles off the screen. Good thing it was only 90 cents. Checked my copy of Die Hard. It's anamorphic, so it's the later version. [swapped it on swapadvd]
[9/5/11] Since Army of Darkness happened to be on Spike-TV, I dug out my Army of Darkness DVDs. The old Universal version is wide-screen, non-anamorphic. The old Anchor Bay version has both full-screen and wide-screen presentations and is anamorphic. The Anchor Bay bootleg edition is wide-screen only and is anamorphic.
The advantage of Universal version (the one with the chainsaw cover) is that it has sub-titles. I think that's why I bought it. The advantage of the old Anchor Bay version (the one with skeletons on the cover) is that it contains a behind-the-scenes featurette). The advantage of the "Official Bootleg Edition" (the cover looks like a paper bag) is that it has commentary from Bruce Campbell and Sam & Ivan Raimi) and includes footage that was later edited out. The Anchor Bay versions also include the original ending (I think as an extra in the old version).
Looking at AOD DVD fanatic webpage, I have the first, third, and fifth DVD's mentioned. The latest DVD version mentioned was from early 2003. So no mention of the Blu-Ray version. The Blu-Ray "Screwhead Edition" would evidently give the best picture available along with the sub-titles. Maybe that'll be my next purchase (or swap).
***
[9/1/10] Hooked up my Toshiba DVD-Recorder to the Sony TV via HDMI (the first time I've ever used the HDMI cable, since I never had an HDMI display device before). The DVDs seemed to looked even sharper (from a distance, looks pretty block up close) and seemingly less strain on my sensitive eyes.
Tried a non-anamorphic DVD and couldn't it get in the right proportion - looks too fat. Discovered that I have to change the resolution to 480p on DVD player. Any signal 720 or higher and the Sony interprets it as a 16:9 signal and stretches the signal. Either that or the DVD player is stretching it to 16:9. Same thing for full frame DVDs too.
... Found the solution. Need to set the HDMI mode on the DVD player to 480p [press the HDMI button on the remote and the setting changes on the little DVD player display]. The TV then interprets it as a 4:3 signal.
So I tried that with my non-anamorphic Armageddon Criterion edition. The picture had borders all around, so I had the TV zoom it. Looked pretty decent while sitting far away. Not that good when looking close. But that's pretty much true of all standard-def DVDs on a big screen TV. [2/28/11 - trying it now on my Panasonic plasma. The picture actually looks pretty decent. I think this TV does a better job upscaling SD pictures.]
***
[9/20/10] Here's a problem I noted when playing back my Three Stooges volume 6 DVD on my Toshiba DVD-Recorder on my new Panasonic 42" Plasma. When I play it via the HDMI interface, the picture plays back on full mode with the edges of the screen stretched to the edge of the screen. So the picture is out of proportion. However when I change the TV format to 4:3 the picture just cuts off the edges to 4:3 so the picture is still out of proportion, just cut off. Oddly when I play it back via the composite interface on 4:3, the picture shrinks to the proper proportion rather than cut off. Well I suppose any 4:3 picture would be non-anamorphic and not hi-def anyway. And they assume that anything played through the HDMI wouldn't be 4:3. Which very simply is just plain wrong.
I'm wondering though if it's a problem with my DVD recorder or the TV.
The four screen format modes are explained here. But no mention of the cut-off problem.
Wait, I just read what I wrote in the previous entry (on 9/1/10). OK, try setting 480p on the DVD player. (So it looks like a "problem" with the DVD player, not the TV.)
Some of them didn't look very good at first because I had my DVD player still set up to 4:3 and when the TV zoomed the picture it wasn't very clear. Now that I have set it to 16:9, they look better (if not really good).
I have a few that are non-anamorphic that don't look that great when zoomed (or in "full" mode), so I actually prefer watching some of these unzoomed.
I don't know if this applies to every single DVD, but so far the way I figure out if a DVD is anamorphic, is that the picture looks squished vertically (black bars on sides) when Wide Mode is Normal. When I switch Wide Mode to Full, then the picture uncompresses and the black bars on the sides disappear. The height of the picture remains the same.
If the DVD is non-anamorphic (or full screen), the picture looks in proportion in Normal setting.
I have a few DVDs that even though they're anamorphic, the picture looks a little too blurry in full mode and I actually like to watch these with the picture a little smaller with the borders all around. (Or maybe it's just my eyes.)
With an non-anamorphic DVD, you do this by just watching in Normal mode. With an anamorphic DVD, you can do it by setting the DVD player to 4:3 with the TV in Normal mode.
I assume none of this rigmarole is needed with a Blu-Ray disc.
***
So far I have found the following DVDs are non-anamorphic:
Wing Chun (Tai Seng, HK Legends version is anamorphic, come on Dragon Dynasty?, wow selling used for $59.85 on amazon.)
Mortal Kombat (which also looks really dark, Blu-Ray release 8/31/10 in Canada)
Armageddon (Criterion edition) but looks pretty decent from a distance
WarGames (the 25th Anniversary edition is anamorphic)<!-8/26/10-->
Fist of Legend (Dimension) / Dragon Dynasty version is anamorphic <!- 8/26/10 -->
Enemy of the State / there's a newer special edition that is anamorphic / I was watching it because it was on FX earlier that day. I noticed the actress that played Will Smith's wife, Regina King, looks like Michelle Obama (or vice-versa) especially with the similar hair-do. Also in the movie, Scott Caan now of Hawaii Five-O fame. I see he was also in the Ocean's Eleven, etc. films. I never noticed. I also notice that this came out the same year (all the way back in 1998) as another Bruckheimer production, Armageddon (see above) <!- 11/5/10 -->
[4/10/11] My latest non-anamorphic DVD, Die Hard 2. Picked this up from Blockbuster Salt Lake which is going out of business. Well, I guess it's viewable assuming you don't mind watching it as a smaller picture on 4:3. Or zooming it with the bottom half of the subtitles off the screen. Good thing it was only 90 cents. Checked my copy of Die Hard. It's anamorphic, so it's the later version. [swapped it on swapadvd]
[9/5/11] Since Army of Darkness happened to be on Spike-TV, I dug out my Army of Darkness DVDs. The old Universal version is wide-screen, non-anamorphic. The old Anchor Bay version has both full-screen and wide-screen presentations and is anamorphic. The Anchor Bay bootleg edition is wide-screen only and is anamorphic.
The advantage of Universal version (the one with the chainsaw cover) is that it has sub-titles. I think that's why I bought it. The advantage of the old Anchor Bay version (the one with skeletons on the cover) is that it contains a behind-the-scenes featurette). The advantage of the "Official Bootleg Edition" (the cover looks like a paper bag) is that it has commentary from Bruce Campbell and Sam & Ivan Raimi) and includes footage that was later edited out. The Anchor Bay versions also include the original ending (I think as an extra in the old version).
Looking at AOD DVD fanatic webpage, I have the first, third, and fifth DVD's mentioned. The latest DVD version mentioned was from early 2003. So no mention of the Blu-Ray version. The Blu-Ray "Screwhead Edition" would evidently give the best picture available along with the sub-titles. Maybe that'll be my next purchase (or swap).
***
[9/1/10] Hooked up my Toshiba DVD-Recorder to the Sony TV via HDMI (the first time I've ever used the HDMI cable, since I never had an HDMI display device before). The DVDs seemed to looked even sharper (from a distance, looks pretty block up close) and seemingly less strain on my sensitive eyes.
Tried a non-anamorphic DVD and couldn't it get in the right proportion - looks too fat. Discovered that I have to change the resolution to 480p on DVD player. Any signal 720 or higher and the Sony interprets it as a 16:9 signal and stretches the signal. Either that or the DVD player is stretching it to 16:9. Same thing for full frame DVDs too.
... Found the solution. Need to set the HDMI mode on the DVD player to 480p [press the HDMI button on the remote and the setting changes on the little DVD player display]. The TV then interprets it as a 4:3 signal.
So I tried that with my non-anamorphic Armageddon Criterion edition. The picture had borders all around, so I had the TV zoom it. Looked pretty decent while sitting far away. Not that good when looking close. But that's pretty much true of all standard-def DVDs on a big screen TV. [2/28/11 - trying it now on my Panasonic plasma. The picture actually looks pretty decent. I think this TV does a better job upscaling SD pictures.]
***
[9/20/10] Here's a problem I noted when playing back my Three Stooges volume 6 DVD on my Toshiba DVD-Recorder on my new Panasonic 42" Plasma. When I play it via the HDMI interface, the picture plays back on full mode with the edges of the screen stretched to the edge of the screen. So the picture is out of proportion. However when I change the TV format to 4:3 the picture just cuts off the edges to 4:3 so the picture is still out of proportion, just cut off. Oddly when I play it back via the composite interface on 4:3, the picture shrinks to the proper proportion rather than cut off. Well I suppose any 4:3 picture would be non-anamorphic and not hi-def anyway. And they assume that anything played through the HDMI wouldn't be 4:3. Which very simply is just plain wrong.
I'm wondering though if it's a problem with my DVD recorder or the TV.
The four screen format modes are explained here. But no mention of the cut-off problem.
Wait, I just read what I wrote in the previous entry (on 9/1/10). OK, try setting 480p on the DVD player. (So it looks like a "problem" with the DVD player, not the TV.)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
my new HD TV on Oceanic cable
Got rained out at tennis. Wound up at IchiBen with Lori, Cathy, Bob. Somehow I mentioned getting a new TV and we wound at Wal-Mart and I walked out of there with a Sony EX4/40 TV. I was going to get it at Costco, but it was $20 cheaper at Wal-Mart. It was the last one and had a hole in the lower side of the box, but I chanced it.
Bob hooked up the stand but had trouble with the last screw. Turned out the screw was stripped. But it seems to be sturdy enough. Lori put the batteries in the remote. Dunno what Cathy did. I was feeding Kimo.
I wanted the Sony brand because I knew that Sony could catch HD channels on Oceanic without needing a cable box (because I had set Sony's up for BettyN and the Fongs). I know some other brands could too, but I knew of other (Non-Sony) flat screen TVs that could only tune in the analog channels (because I tried them). (Probably because they were older models, but maybe not).
Anyway, cross fingers and auto-tune. It found 26 digital channels, 7 of them in HD (KHON, KITV, KFVE, KGMB, KHNL, KHET, and oddly MSNBC). One good thing about this Sony is it tells you what kind of signal it's picking up. NTSC (analog), digital SD (480i), and hi-def. I was surprised to see it picked up both 720p and 1024i signals.
Here's the digital channels it found after scanning (and what I believe are Oceanic's corresponding digital channels), plus the resolution of the hi-def channels. The non-HD channels are all in 480i.
46.3 KHON HD (1003) 720p
46.4 The CW Network (93)
77.3 NewsChoice (112)
79.1 PBS Kids Hawaii (443)
79.10 Event Prevues (?)
83.3 KHNL HD (1008) 1080i
94.101 Prevues (?) (I briefly got the picture then it blanked out)
94.102 Games? (433?) (there was a game in progress, but later it blanked)
103.250 SURF (250)
103.1107 MSNBC HD (1107) 1080i
112.353 blank?
113.698 New Tang Dynasty (698)
114.2 KITV HD (1006) 720p
116.1 KGMB HD (1007) 1080i
116.4 Digital KIKU (89)
116.5 Digital KBFD (82)
117.3 Digital KHON (none)
117.5 Digital KFVE (85)
117.6 Digital KITV (86)
117.7 Digital KGMB (87)
117.8 Digital KHNL (88)
117.10 Digital KHET (90)
118.1 KFVE HD (1005) 1080i
120.12 KHET HD (1010) 1080i
121.10 Digital HSN (152)
0 SportsChoice (200)
The next day, MSNBC disappears and so does New Tang Dynasty. And the Games and SURF too. On the other hand TEC appears (actually it disappeared later, then reappeared again).
[8/24am] Scan again. REELZ appears. And SURF and the Game channel reappears. Then comes the morning and REELZ and Games disappear, though SURF is still there so far.
Wondering why my so-called anamorphic DVDs don't fill the screen with black bars all around both horizontally and vertically. Light bulb. Set DVD player setting to 16:9 from 4:3. Yeah, much better!
[9/3/10] Ah, here's the official digital lineup from Oceanic. My KHNL HD 83.3 disappeared. I noticed the signal has been spotty in the past and now it's just plain gone. Well, hopefully it'll come back.
[11/11] My latest scan now shows the following channels:
46.3 KHON-HD
118.1 KFVE-HD
116.9 KITV-HD
116.1 KGMB-HD
118.3 KHNL-HD
118.12 KHET-HD
46.1 KPXO-HD
46.4 CW-SD
49.1 OC12-HD
122.11 1420 AM (radio)
***
[9/1/10] Decided to trade in my DVR for a hi-def DVR (Cisco Explorer 8300HD). Was considering cancelling my digital variety pack. But when the lady checked, she said I'm getting a special deal and my cost would actually go up! Well, that's what she said. So I'm keeping it. Got a new remote, though she said the old one would work. But I told her it was kind of worn out. (Some of the buttons, like the pause didn't work well.) So I got a new one. And they gave me an HDMI cable too.
Hooked it up via HDMI. Looks pretty sharp. My eyes still get a little sore, but they used to get sore at my old TV with the color turned up too much (come to think of it). They did get sore watching the 27" flat screen Sony I found on the side of the road. It was a little blue. Maybe it's Sony.
Now considering trading LCD for Plasma. But I dunno. The pros for plasma: viewing angle, motion handling. Pros for LCD: does better in daylight. And I see now that this Sony is "only" 60 Hz.
But every time I think of returning it, I see a nice super-clear, super-sharp, hi-def picture (the Sony does have an awesome hi-def picture) and think wow, how can I give this up? I'm not so impressed with the sharpness of the plasmas I see at the store. But they probably look fine if I'm not too close.
Anyway, couldn't find the code for the remote (which looks like the Atlas OCAP 5) to control the Sony. The code at urcsupport didn't work. So I did a code search and it worked at about the fifth or sixth try. Checking the code, it turns out to be 1-1-0-0.
And, ah, here's how to turn on closed caption when using HDMI (on this box anyway). It's just one of the settings you can access by pressing the settings button on the remote control (couldn't get the on when mute option working though).
[9/3/10] Panic. I was going to compare the HDMI picture with the composite picture on my DVD recorder. But couldn't get a picture on the composite despite some mad swapping of cables, even trying it with my Apex analog TV. I thought the DVD-recorder might have busted. But then I remembered I had set the setting to progressive. I hooked up the HDMI again and turned off the progressive. OK, it works now!
My eyes seem to ache with the HDMI hookups. Maybe it's just too sharp. I'm trying to turn down the backlight and sharpness. Maybe a little better. I dunno.
[9/5/10] I'm not getting a couple of HD channels I'm supposed to get, most of the time. The picture is blank when I tune them in. Specifically it's HTRAV (1325) AND HHIST (1327). The problem is the signal is marginal. The cable box is hooked up to a two-way splitter with one cable going to my mom's bedroom and the other cable going to the cable box. (And in fact it's split earlier with a three-way splitter with one end going to my bedroom and another going to the patio.) If I bypass the splitter and put the cable directly to the cable box it works. And in fact if I unscrew the other cable on the splitter, that works too.
Funny though that HHIST works if I use the Start Over function and watch from the beginning. HTRAV doesn't have the option.
So I guess I'll have to unscrew the cable when I want to watch those channels. Another option is to get a signal booster. Or maybe a low-loss splitter might work?
***
[9/12/10] Well I decided to return the Sony TV to the WalMart on Keeaumoku. It just so happened that Chelsea was there and took my return. So no problem.
Not sure what I going to buy to replacement. Either a Panasonic plasma. Or maybe the Vizio 37".
Anyway, reprogrammed the Oceanic remote back to the old TV. Followed the instructions on the back of the remote
1) turn device on
2) press device key (TV, DVD, etc.)
3) press and hold SETUP (LED blinks twice)
4) Press 9-9-1 (LED blinks twice)
5) Press POWER key
6) Press CH+ repeatedly until device turns off
7) Press SETUP when device turns off
(For more support, go to www.urcsupport.com, actually the instructions are here)
The Apex turned off pretty quickly, like on the fourth or fifth try. The Panasonic turned off quickly at first but then didn't work. Had to try again and it took like 90 tries before it worked.
Checking the code (page 14 of the instructions), it's 0650 for the Panasonic TV.
***
[9/16/10] Went down with Donna to Costco and picked up the Panasonic 42" Plasma TV (model TC-42PX24). It barely fit in her car. Good thing I didn't try to pick it up in my car. The other thing it's quite a bit heavier than the LCD. The box says 30 KG which is 66 pounds.
Hooked it up and didn't really like the hue. I guess it was too warm. I set it to cool and it looked better. However I think the "cool" setting is more harsh on my eyes.
My eyes seem better but still seem a little fatigued. I do think SD looks better on the plasma. There's not quite as many functions on the remote but I guess it's OK. And when I auto-scanned, I caught more channels than on the Sony. Like the Science Channel for example. We'll see how long they stay on. KHNL-HD (83.3) didnt catch at first. Then had a weak signal. It finally came in when I disconnected the cable going to mom's room.
Next to hook up the cable box and DVD player.
[9/17/10] Hooked up the cable box and watched Knocked Up (the rest of it) on DVR. It was in HD but was blurry. It's my eyes that were blurry. My eyes got sore. So that was discouraging. I think it could be the TV color, but maybe it was because I was straining my eyes trying to focus on the HD picture. I can hope.
I'm looking at the TV in the daytime now and the picture is awfully dim. Switched to standard picture and it has a lot more contrast and looks pretty good. Actually really good when I went to hi-def. But we'll see how the picture looks at these settings in the evening. My eyes don't seem too bad in the daytime. Again we'll see this evening.
And now in addition to HKHNL, HTRAV, HHIST not working (most of the time), HNGEO not working either :(
[9/18/10] put on the Planet Earth DVD and it looked pretty good on the big screen. Maybe I'll keep it.
It's now morning. The picture in the early morning still looked pretty good but as the morning went on the picture went downhill and I switched from "custom" back to "standard" (which has the C.A.T.S setting on) and it looked better. So apparently I'll have to use "standard" during the daylight hours and "custom" during the evenings, nights, and early mornings.
The HD channels that were blank last night are working this morning. We'll see how long that lasts.
Was watching some Dude Where's My Car on FX HD and the picture looked too green to me. Adjusting the tint didn't do much. Now I'm having second thoughts about keeping the TV.
I do like the plasma though as I think SD looks better on it and I don't notice the picture washing out when viewing at an angle. I think I may take a second look at the 37" Panasonic plasma that I saw at K-Mart. It did look quite good with the hidef signal when I saw it. Especially compared to the 42" Panasonic on display which looked pretty crappy with an SD feed from a DVD player.
Don't see any listing for the Panasonic 37" at kmart.com. I did find this favorable review (for the picture) of the Panasonic TH-37PD25UP. But this looks like an older review considering the TV had only one HDMI input and the Sharp LCD (to which the Panasonic was being compared) had a DVI input. Plus the street price was $2600 for the Panasonic and $4000 (!) for the Sharp.
Amazon has a listing for the Panasonic TH-37PX60U which gets 4.5 stars. But the reviews are dated 2006.
Looking at the Panasonic site, I don't see any listing for a 37" plasma. I did find my current TV, model TC-42PX24. (Now I'm wondering if the TV was actually a 37" plasma at KMart. I'm pretty sure I did.)
[9/18/10] After voting, I went down to KMart to take a look. No wonder I couldn't find it on the internet, it was actually a LCD TV, no plasma. Model number TC-L37C22. Rates 3.5 stars at Amazon (3 reviews: 1 5-star, 1 4-star, 1 1-star [bad support]). What sounded impressive to me was that it boasts of a 178 degree viewing angle!
Well, since it's not plasma, I guess I'll keep the 42". [For now.] Truth to tell, when I came home and looked at the football game in HD, it looked pretty good. Maybe it helped that I changed the setting back to cool? [For now.] I think if I saw this picture at the store, I'd actually be kind of impressed.
[9/21/10] More messing around with the TV. Finding the "cinema" mode (with the color tweaked down a bit) gives a pretty nice picture during the day. But it depends on the channel and show. Now watching the TB-NYY games on MLB in the afternoon. I'd have to say it's close to a perfect picture (for my eyes anyway).
[9/21/10] Here's an interesting article on how to adjust your picture (linked from Misconception #5 of Nine Common Misconceptions About Plasma TVs). All this time I didn't know that contrast is actually the white level.
[9/22/10] more messing with the TV settings. There are four main picture settings: vivid, cinema, standard, custom. And they are all different (duh). By that I mean even when I set the contrast, brightness, color, sharpness to the same setting, the picture looks different. The problem is even after I have the settings to where it suits me, the picture becomes different at a different time of day and on a different channel. Well, I like to play with the TV anyway...
[10/2/10] Trying out Donna's Toshiba 40" TV on hi-def. I like the color better. Doesn't seem too harsh like the Sony. Or too greenish like the Panasonic plasma. But my eyes still get sore. Maybe the TV needs more adjustment. But more likely it's me since this is the third TV that makes my eyes tired/sore. (And I remember my eyes tend to get sore when looking at big LCD computer monitors -- I'm still using old CRT monitors.) It doesn't seem as bad when watching standard definition. Maybe the hidef is forcing my eyes to focus. Lowering the contrast and color (like my CRT) seems to help. But too much and the picture don't look too great. Now considering returning the Panasonic. And considering the 37" Panasonic LCD. Or maybe an edge-lit 120 Hz Vizio.
Hmmm. Maybe my eyes don't like the CCFL? If so, maybe LED is better?
*** [4/11/12]
Unplugged the cable box last night and did a new scan for channels. Some of the free HD channels have changed. Here's some of the new lineup:
48-1 KGMB-HD
48-4 DKIKU
48-5 DKBFD
48-9 KITVHD
49-1 KFVE-H
49-3 KHNL-HD
49-12 KHET-HD
51-1 OC SPORTS
78-21 KBS-WORLD
The following remain the same
46-1 KPXO-HD (Ion)
46-3 KHON-HD
46-4 CW-SD
Ah, I see the channel changes reflected on the website. Apparently they changed them Monday.
***
Plugged back in the cable box so I could watch the Knicks-Bucks on ESPN-HD. And, hey, TNT-HD, TRAV-HD, HIST-HD are back. I had lost the signal a couple of weeks ago and was going to call Oceanic about it. But I guess maybe I just needed to unplug the cable box.
*** [5/5/12]
Last night I noticed I lost ESPN-HD in addition to TNT-HD and a bunch of other channels (like USA-HD, etc.). Tried unplugging and replugging in the cable box. Tried having them resend the signal. Nope. And noticed that some of the lower channels were fuzzy (like channels 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 or most of them). So it's probably a weak signal. Called Oceanic and they were busy. Finally managed to get a callback from (I think) the mainland and I could barely hear her. She suggested I swap the cable box. Then I told her about the weak signal on the TV not on the cable box. She resent the signal. Nope. Finally she decided to schedule a visit from a tech. Channel 12 isn't working either, let along 1012. At least ESPN-HD is working again for now.
[Maybe I will swap the cable box, but I want to watch the shows that's on my DVR. Specifially Hachi. But I haven't watched it all this time. So maybe I should just get the DVD. I also have Avatar but I'm sure it's going to be on cable again. And the other one is the Dallas-Knicks game with Jeremy Lin. I've seen it, but I want to record it. Well, we'll see if the signal gets better in the next few days. There was a guy installing cable at Amy Pang's house a couple of days ago so I wonder if it's related?]
OK, early in the a.m. most of the channels are now working. It's down to TNT-HD, TRAV-HD, HIST-HD. And oddly OC-12, even though OC-12 HD (1012) is working. I'll probably try another reset to see if it takes this time..
[5/6/12] unplugged the cable box this morning and plugged the cable directly into the TV. Then about 1:00 PM plugged back the cable box. Hey, it's working! We'll see how long it lasts this time.
[5/14/12] TNT-HD is spotty, but TRAV-HD and HIST-HD seems to be working most of the time now. The TBS-HD signal doesn't seem to be that strong since the picture has been breaking up once in a while.
Bob hooked up the stand but had trouble with the last screw. Turned out the screw was stripped. But it seems to be sturdy enough. Lori put the batteries in the remote. Dunno what Cathy did. I was feeding Kimo.
I wanted the Sony brand because I knew that Sony could catch HD channels on Oceanic without needing a cable box (because I had set Sony's up for BettyN and the Fongs). I know some other brands could too, but I knew of other (Non-Sony) flat screen TVs that could only tune in the analog channels (because I tried them). (Probably because they were older models, but maybe not).
Anyway, cross fingers and auto-tune. It found 26 digital channels, 7 of them in HD (KHON, KITV, KFVE, KGMB, KHNL, KHET, and oddly MSNBC). One good thing about this Sony is it tells you what kind of signal it's picking up. NTSC (analog), digital SD (480i), and hi-def. I was surprised to see it picked up both 720p and 1024i signals.
Here's the digital channels it found after scanning (and what I believe are Oceanic's corresponding digital channels), plus the resolution of the hi-def channels. The non-HD channels are all in 480i.
46.3 KHON HD (1003) 720p
46.4 The CW Network (93)
77.3 NewsChoice (112)
79.1 PBS Kids Hawaii (443)
79.10 Event Prevues (?)
83.3 KHNL HD (1008) 1080i
94.101 Prevues (?) (I briefly got the picture then it blanked out)
94.102 Games? (433?) (there was a game in progress, but later it blanked)
103.250 SURF (250)
103.1107 MSNBC HD (1107) 1080i
112.353 blank?
113.698 New Tang Dynasty (698)
114.2 KITV HD (1006) 720p
116.1 KGMB HD (1007) 1080i
116.4 Digital KIKU (89)
116.5 Digital KBFD (82)
117.3 Digital KHON (none)
117.5 Digital KFVE (85)
117.6 Digital KITV (86)
117.7 Digital KGMB (87)
117.8 Digital KHNL (88)
117.10 Digital KHET (90)
118.1 KFVE HD (1005) 1080i
120.12 KHET HD (1010) 1080i
121.10 Digital HSN (152)
0 SportsChoice (200)
The next day, MSNBC disappears and so does New Tang Dynasty. And the Games and SURF too. On the other hand TEC appears (actually it disappeared later, then reappeared again).
[8/24am] Scan again. REELZ appears. And SURF and the Game channel reappears. Then comes the morning and REELZ and Games disappear, though SURF is still there so far.
Wondering why my so-called anamorphic DVDs don't fill the screen with black bars all around both horizontally and vertically. Light bulb. Set DVD player setting to 16:9 from 4:3. Yeah, much better!
[9/3/10] Ah, here's the official digital lineup from Oceanic. My KHNL HD 83.3 disappeared. I noticed the signal has been spotty in the past and now it's just plain gone. Well, hopefully it'll come back.
[11/11] My latest scan now shows the following channels:
46.3 KHON-HD
118.1 KFVE-HD
116.9 KITV-HD
116.1 KGMB-HD
118.3 KHNL-HD
118.12 KHET-HD
46.1 KPXO-HD
46.4 CW-SD
49.1 OC12-HD
122.11 1420 AM (radio)
***
[9/1/10] Decided to trade in my DVR for a hi-def DVR (Cisco Explorer 8300HD). Was considering cancelling my digital variety pack. But when the lady checked, she said I'm getting a special deal and my cost would actually go up! Well, that's what she said. So I'm keeping it. Got a new remote, though she said the old one would work. But I told her it was kind of worn out. (Some of the buttons, like the pause didn't work well.) So I got a new one. And they gave me an HDMI cable too.
Hooked it up via HDMI. Looks pretty sharp. My eyes still get a little sore, but they used to get sore at my old TV with the color turned up too much (come to think of it). They did get sore watching the 27" flat screen Sony I found on the side of the road. It was a little blue. Maybe it's Sony.
Now considering trading LCD for Plasma. But I dunno. The pros for plasma: viewing angle, motion handling. Pros for LCD: does better in daylight. And I see now that this Sony is "only" 60 Hz.
But every time I think of returning it, I see a nice super-clear, super-sharp, hi-def picture (the Sony does have an awesome hi-def picture) and think wow, how can I give this up? I'm not so impressed with the sharpness of the plasmas I see at the store. But they probably look fine if I'm not too close.
Anyway, couldn't find the code for the remote (which looks like the Atlas OCAP 5) to control the Sony. The code at urcsupport didn't work. So I did a code search and it worked at about the fifth or sixth try. Checking the code, it turns out to be 1-1-0-0.
And, ah, here's how to turn on closed caption when using HDMI (on this box anyway). It's just one of the settings you can access by pressing the settings button on the remote control (couldn't get the on when mute option working though).
[9/3/10] Panic. I was going to compare the HDMI picture with the composite picture on my DVD recorder. But couldn't get a picture on the composite despite some mad swapping of cables, even trying it with my Apex analog TV. I thought the DVD-recorder might have busted. But then I remembered I had set the setting to progressive. I hooked up the HDMI again and turned off the progressive. OK, it works now!
My eyes seem to ache with the HDMI hookups. Maybe it's just too sharp. I'm trying to turn down the backlight and sharpness. Maybe a little better. I dunno.
[9/5/10] I'm not getting a couple of HD channels I'm supposed to get, most of the time. The picture is blank when I tune them in. Specifically it's HTRAV (1325) AND HHIST (1327). The problem is the signal is marginal. The cable box is hooked up to a two-way splitter with one cable going to my mom's bedroom and the other cable going to the cable box. (And in fact it's split earlier with a three-way splitter with one end going to my bedroom and another going to the patio.) If I bypass the splitter and put the cable directly to the cable box it works. And in fact if I unscrew the other cable on the splitter, that works too.
Funny though that HHIST works if I use the Start Over function and watch from the beginning. HTRAV doesn't have the option.
So I guess I'll have to unscrew the cable when I want to watch those channels. Another option is to get a signal booster. Or maybe a low-loss splitter might work?
***
[9/12/10] Well I decided to return the Sony TV to the WalMart on Keeaumoku. It just so happened that Chelsea was there and took my return. So no problem.
Not sure what I going to buy to replacement. Either a Panasonic plasma. Or maybe the Vizio 37".
Anyway, reprogrammed the Oceanic remote back to the old TV. Followed the instructions on the back of the remote
1) turn device on
2) press device key (TV, DVD, etc.)
3) press and hold SETUP (LED blinks twice)
4) Press 9-9-1 (LED blinks twice)
5) Press POWER key
6) Press CH+ repeatedly until device turns off
7) Press SETUP when device turns off
(For more support, go to www.urcsupport.com, actually the instructions are here)
The Apex turned off pretty quickly, like on the fourth or fifth try. The Panasonic turned off quickly at first but then didn't work. Had to try again and it took like 90 tries before it worked.
Checking the code (page 14 of the instructions), it's 0650 for the Panasonic TV.
***
[9/16/10] Went down with Donna to Costco and picked up the Panasonic 42" Plasma TV (model TC-42PX24). It barely fit in her car. Good thing I didn't try to pick it up in my car. The other thing it's quite a bit heavier than the LCD. The box says 30 KG which is 66 pounds.
Hooked it up and didn't really like the hue. I guess it was too warm. I set it to cool and it looked better. However I think the "cool" setting is more harsh on my eyes.
My eyes seem better but still seem a little fatigued. I do think SD looks better on the plasma. There's not quite as many functions on the remote but I guess it's OK. And when I auto-scanned, I caught more channels than on the Sony. Like the Science Channel for example. We'll see how long they stay on. KHNL-HD (83.3) didnt catch at first. Then had a weak signal. It finally came in when I disconnected the cable going to mom's room.
Next to hook up the cable box and DVD player.
[9/17/10] Hooked up the cable box and watched Knocked Up (the rest of it) on DVR. It was in HD but was blurry. It's my eyes that were blurry. My eyes got sore. So that was discouraging. I think it could be the TV color, but maybe it was because I was straining my eyes trying to focus on the HD picture. I can hope.
I'm looking at the TV in the daytime now and the picture is awfully dim. Switched to standard picture and it has a lot more contrast and looks pretty good. Actually really good when I went to hi-def. But we'll see how the picture looks at these settings in the evening. My eyes don't seem too bad in the daytime. Again we'll see this evening.
And now in addition to HKHNL, HTRAV, HHIST not working (most of the time), HNGEO not working either :(
[9/18/10] put on the Planet Earth DVD and it looked pretty good on the big screen. Maybe I'll keep it.
It's now morning. The picture in the early morning still looked pretty good but as the morning went on the picture went downhill and I switched from "custom" back to "standard" (which has the C.A.T.S setting on) and it looked better. So apparently I'll have to use "standard" during the daylight hours and "custom" during the evenings, nights, and early mornings.
The HD channels that were blank last night are working this morning. We'll see how long that lasts.
Was watching some Dude Where's My Car on FX HD and the picture looked too green to me. Adjusting the tint didn't do much. Now I'm having second thoughts about keeping the TV.
I do like the plasma though as I think SD looks better on it and I don't notice the picture washing out when viewing at an angle. I think I may take a second look at the 37" Panasonic plasma that I saw at K-Mart. It did look quite good with the hidef signal when I saw it. Especially compared to the 42" Panasonic on display which looked pretty crappy with an SD feed from a DVD player.
Don't see any listing for the Panasonic 37" at kmart.com. I did find this favorable review (for the picture) of the Panasonic TH-37PD25UP. But this looks like an older review considering the TV had only one HDMI input and the Sharp LCD (to which the Panasonic was being compared) had a DVI input. Plus the street price was $2600 for the Panasonic and $4000 (!) for the Sharp.
Amazon has a listing for the Panasonic TH-37PX60U which gets 4.5 stars. But the reviews are dated 2006.
Looking at the Panasonic site, I don't see any listing for a 37" plasma. I did find my current TV, model TC-42PX24. (Now I'm wondering if the TV was actually a 37" plasma at KMart. I'm pretty sure I did.)
[9/18/10] After voting, I went down to KMart to take a look. No wonder I couldn't find it on the internet, it was actually a LCD TV, no plasma. Model number TC-L37C22. Rates 3.5 stars at Amazon (3 reviews: 1 5-star, 1 4-star, 1 1-star [bad support]). What sounded impressive to me was that it boasts of a 178 degree viewing angle!
Well, since it's not plasma, I guess I'll keep the 42". [For now.] Truth to tell, when I came home and looked at the football game in HD, it looked pretty good. Maybe it helped that I changed the setting back to cool? [For now.] I think if I saw this picture at the store, I'd actually be kind of impressed.
[9/21/10] More messing around with the TV. Finding the "cinema" mode (with the color tweaked down a bit) gives a pretty nice picture during the day. But it depends on the channel and show. Now watching the TB-NYY games on MLB in the afternoon. I'd have to say it's close to a perfect picture (for my eyes anyway).
[9/21/10] Here's an interesting article on how to adjust your picture (linked from Misconception #5 of Nine Common Misconceptions About Plasma TVs). All this time I didn't know that contrast is actually the white level.
[9/22/10] more messing with the TV settings. There are four main picture settings: vivid, cinema, standard, custom. And they are all different (duh). By that I mean even when I set the contrast, brightness, color, sharpness to the same setting, the picture looks different. The problem is even after I have the settings to where it suits me, the picture becomes different at a different time of day and on a different channel. Well, I like to play with the TV anyway...
[10/2/10] Trying out Donna's Toshiba 40" TV on hi-def. I like the color better. Doesn't seem too harsh like the Sony. Or too greenish like the Panasonic plasma. But my eyes still get sore. Maybe the TV needs more adjustment. But more likely it's me since this is the third TV that makes my eyes tired/sore. (And I remember my eyes tend to get sore when looking at big LCD computer monitors -- I'm still using old CRT monitors.) It doesn't seem as bad when watching standard definition. Maybe the hidef is forcing my eyes to focus. Lowering the contrast and color (like my CRT) seems to help. But too much and the picture don't look too great. Now considering returning the Panasonic. And considering the 37" Panasonic LCD. Or maybe an edge-lit 120 Hz Vizio.
Hmmm. Maybe my eyes don't like the CCFL? If so, maybe LED is better?
*** [4/11/12]
Unplugged the cable box last night and did a new scan for channels. Some of the free HD channels have changed. Here's some of the new lineup:
48-1 KGMB-HD
48-4 DKIKU
48-5 DKBFD
48-9 KITVHD
49-1 KFVE-H
49-3 KHNL-HD
49-12 KHET-HD
51-1 OC SPORTS
78-21 KBS-WORLD
The following remain the same
46-1 KPXO-HD (Ion)
46-3 KHON-HD
46-4 CW-SD
Ah, I see the channel changes reflected on the website. Apparently they changed them Monday.
***
Plugged back in the cable box so I could watch the Knicks-Bucks on ESPN-HD. And, hey, TNT-HD, TRAV-HD, HIST-HD are back. I had lost the signal a couple of weeks ago and was going to call Oceanic about it. But I guess maybe I just needed to unplug the cable box.
*** [5/5/12]
Last night I noticed I lost ESPN-HD in addition to TNT-HD and a bunch of other channels (like USA-HD, etc.). Tried unplugging and replugging in the cable box. Tried having them resend the signal. Nope. And noticed that some of the lower channels were fuzzy (like channels 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 or most of them). So it's probably a weak signal. Called Oceanic and they were busy. Finally managed to get a callback from (I think) the mainland and I could barely hear her. She suggested I swap the cable box. Then I told her about the weak signal on the TV not on the cable box. She resent the signal. Nope. Finally she decided to schedule a visit from a tech. Channel 12 isn't working either, let along 1012. At least ESPN-HD is working again for now.
[Maybe I will swap the cable box, but I want to watch the shows that's on my DVR. Specifially Hachi. But I haven't watched it all this time. So maybe I should just get the DVD. I also have Avatar but I'm sure it's going to be on cable again. And the other one is the Dallas-Knicks game with Jeremy Lin. I've seen it, but I want to record it. Well, we'll see if the signal gets better in the next few days. There was a guy installing cable at Amy Pang's house a couple of days ago so I wonder if it's related?]
OK, early in the a.m. most of the channels are now working. It's down to TNT-HD, TRAV-HD, HIST-HD. And oddly OC-12, even though OC-12 HD (1012) is working. I'll probably try another reset to see if it takes this time..
[5/6/12] unplugged the cable box this morning and plugged the cable directly into the TV. Then about 1:00 PM plugged back the cable box. Hey, it's working! We'll see how long it lasts this time.
[5/14/12] TNT-HD is spotty, but TRAV-HD and HIST-HD seems to be working most of the time now. The TBS-HD signal doesn't seem to be that strong since the picture has been breaking up once in a while.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
huge ice island can't be stopped
STOCKHOLM – An island of ice more than four times the size of Manhattan is drifting across the Arctic Ocean after breaking off from a glacier in Greenland.
Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes — and any collision could do untold damage. In a worst case scenario, large chunks could reach the heavily trafficked waters where another Greenland iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912.
It's been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires, heat and smog in Russia and killer floods in Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked last week — creating the biggest Arctic ice island in half a century — may symbolize a warming world like no other.
"It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo.
[via bdparts]
Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes — and any collision could do untold damage. In a worst case scenario, large chunks could reach the heavily trafficked waters where another Greenland iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912.
It's been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires, heat and smog in Russia and killer floods in Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked last week — creating the biggest Arctic ice island in half a century — may symbolize a warming world like no other.
"It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo.
[via bdparts]
Thursday, August 05, 2010
copy and pasting protected pdf
Once in a while, I get a pdf that I am unable to copy and paste to a document, since they protect it.
Now I see (from frwr_news 2010-08-02) there's a site that can convert pdf to word format, called pdftoword. I got a feeling it also might not work with protected documents, but I think I'll try it next time.
The creator of the website, Nitro PDF Software, also has some other neat-sounding free utilities. Haven't tried them out yet though to see how good they are.
[9/12/10] OK trying it with the EMC Annual letter which I can't copy and paste. Not getting anything via email.
Got nothing back to my hawaiiantel account, so submitted with my gmail account. Got this back. "The file you submitted is copy protected and could not be accessed." I.e. no use to me. So much for Nitro.
Went back to Simpo and it worked OK in this simple case.
***
3/23/12 - had the same problem with the Howard Marks memos. They were protected so I couldn't copy and paste in the usual way. However I found this website called pdfunlock that can read the protected document and spit back it as unprotected. I must say it worked quite well in this case.
[12/17/15 - you can tell they're protected because it says "secured" at the top of Adobe Reader.]
[6/10/15] In the same vein, this pdf utility called PDF Shaper (via frwr-news) looks like it could be handy. Among its functions are to extract text, encrypt and decrypt pdfs. Maybe I'll try it the next time.
What I have been doing lately is to upload to google drive then copy and paste from the uploaded file. It doesn't work all the time and you still have to format out the hard carriage returns. But it's better than typing. I forgot all about pdfunlock.
[4/29/17] Couldn't copy and paste Spetrino's newsletter The Dividend Machine. Adobe reader it's secure. Tried pdfunlock. Says it's not protected. Wound up having to upload the document to google docs and copy and paste from there. It doesn't copy and paste very well with hard breaks for each line and a blank line between each line. But it's better than having to type the whole thing.
Now I see (from frwr_news 2010-08-02) there's a site that can convert pdf to word format, called pdftoword. I got a feeling it also might not work with protected documents, but I think I'll try it next time.
The creator of the website, Nitro PDF Software, also has some other neat-sounding free utilities. Haven't tried them out yet though to see how good they are.
[9/12/10] OK trying it with the EMC Annual letter which I can't copy and paste. Not getting anything via email.
Got nothing back to my hawaiiantel account, so submitted with my gmail account. Got this back. "The file you submitted is copy protected and could not be accessed." I.e. no use to me. So much for Nitro.
Went back to Simpo and it worked OK in this simple case.
***
3/23/12 - had the same problem with the Howard Marks memos. They were protected so I couldn't copy and paste in the usual way. However I found this website called pdfunlock that can read the protected document and spit back it as unprotected. I must say it worked quite well in this case.
[12/17/15 - you can tell they're protected because it says "secured" at the top of Adobe Reader.]
[6/10/15] In the same vein, this pdf utility called PDF Shaper (via frwr-news) looks like it could be handy. Among its functions are to extract text, encrypt and decrypt pdfs. Maybe I'll try it the next time.
What I have been doing lately is to upload to google drive then copy and paste from the uploaded file. It doesn't work all the time and you still have to format out the hard carriage returns. But it's better than typing. I forgot all about pdfunlock.
[4/29/17] Couldn't copy and paste Spetrino's newsletter The Dividend Machine. Adobe reader it's secure. Tried pdfunlock. Says it's not protected. Wound up having to upload the document to google docs and copy and paste from there. It doesn't copy and paste very well with hard breaks for each line and a blank line between each line. But it's better than having to type the whole thing.
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