LG 50PK250 (50″ Plasma TV): Short Review (Updated)

Last week bought LG 50PK250N (N in the end stands for Nordic – it is same as 50PK250 with addition of DVB-C receiver). It is a 50″ Full HD 600Hz plasma TV set with DVB-T/C tuner, two HDMI inputs and two Scarts. It is energy efficient, with max 190W power consumption that can be further reduced by few different energy saving schemes (intelligent sensor, minimal, medium, etc.).

So far I like it very much – picture is sharp, even on SD TV channels, it is not heating the way old plasmas were, and user interface is rather usable, and I do not see any burn-in or “ghosting” issues. Yes, it does not have any multimedia and/or networking functionality, but for me these were non-requirements as I am using my company’s media center which does much-much-much more than any TV in the market can offer in this field (see ClaroVision for more info).

At this moment I can say only three negative things (all of them minor):

1. I did not manage to calibrate the screen the way I wish yet – white tends to be too “shiny”. I guess I can improve the situation a bit, but, on the other hand, it is probably stupid to expect super-duper picture quality from a 699€ TV (that is how much I paid for it in Gigantti; it was an offer, and now they are more expensive), especially that this issue is not really that bad.
2. TV channel switching is rather slow, especially on paid channels – it can take 3-5 seconds easily, sometimes more. I wonder how that fits into NorDig requirements of 1.5 sec for FTA channels? :)
3. There are some annoying usability things with the input switching – I can imagine a bit simpler user interface, both on-screen and remote control, for switching between integrated DTV and e.g. satellite receiver.

All in all, it is a great TV for a good price, and I can definitely recommend it! (with a note, that you should consider if 2 HDMI inputs is enough – for me it is).

UPDATE (2010-09-07) Still very happy about the TV. There is no picture ghosting/burn in whatsoever. Colors are mostly great, except for white – it is too “shiny” and white object lack details, but it is not too critical, at least for me. Automatic light sensor is sometimes (e.g. in the early evening) changing energy parameters up and down, which could get annoying, but it is easily “fixable” by selecting some energy saving profile manually.

Apple’s New “Miracle” :)

Never understood people that buy all the inferior Apple-made stuff, especially taking into account its price/quality ratio. On the other hand, everyone is free to buy whatever he wants, as long as he is not trying to convert me to his religion. But this post is not about these people! :) Instead, it is about Apple’s latest über-device called iPhone 4, and Apple as a company.

(NB It is all based on “hearsay”, I do not own any Apple products, and never will!) iPhone 4 is simply fantastic! It features super-duper-mega-resolution display (with yellow spots though), fantastic new glass design (that tends to scratch easily on the back side, and to break on the front), and cool metal border around it that works as an antenna for both GSM/3G on one side, and WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS on the other side. For those that have not heard about it yet, the phone has one major issue (in addition to those enumerated above :) – if you keep the phone in hands, signal reception quality drops drastically or even disappears completely. Likely reason is that hands are normally a bit moist, and when you keep the phone in hands you are bridging/short-circuiting both antennas with the known result. Now Apple came with the official answer that says:

Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

Ha-ha-ha-ha!!! Hilarious! Brilliant! Fantastic! I would add “and avoid doing any phone calls”! :)

There is also an email answer from Steve Jobs on the link above. I think it is fake, but then my own experience in communication with Apple (that is a topic for a post of its own) suggests that it as well might not be – for me it seems that Apple employees, starting from Steve Jobs and all the way down, are kind of arrogant a$$holes (a fish rots from the head down?).

I wonder what all those Apple-zombies will say now?! :) Wait! Let me guess! Hm… “Oh! It is by design! Look at this fabulous screen! And its black glass! Oh! And I look so cool with this precious beauty in my hands! Everyone is just envious and tries to cast shadow on this god-given company and its heavenly products!” Ha-ha-ha-ha! :)

Have fun! Ja hyvää Juhannusta kaikille! ;)

UPDATE Just think this picture taken during Medvedev’s visit to Apple is so funny!

(for those who do not understand Russian, the top picture says “Hey… the signal is lost…”, and the bottom one says “This way it won’t be!”)

UPDATE 2 And one more picture:

(it says “I have invented the device that fixes the antenna bug… also one can catch a fish using it!”)

Hotfixes for WPF Memory/Resource Leaks

There are three Microsoft hotfixes (967328, 967634, and 981107) that address WPF memory and resource leaks in .NET 3.5 SP1. Two of them are included in .NET 4, but 981107 is not and it is not clear when it will be available for it.

How to Enable Using the Binding Builder in WPF and Silverlight Applications

In VS2010, when the Data Sources Window is used to generate the UI, the generated XAML injects design-time information so that the Binding Builder can be used to create bindings for the UI controls. But if your application was written in Visual Studio 2005 or 2008, or you used the XAML Editor, the Designer or Expression Blend without the Data Sources Window, your coding style is to assign the DataContext in code and not data bind to CollectionViewSources in your XAML, then you won’t be able to take advantage of the new Binding Builder. How to Enable Using the Binding Builder in WPF and Silverlight Applications by Karl Shifflett to the rescue – it demonstrates the simple requirements to enable you to use the new Binding Builder in a variety of scenarios like the ones mentioned above.

Object Mentor

Finally I am back! :) Last year or so I was really busy working on our product, but now we are basically ready, and I can spare more time for “hobbies”.

So, today I found Object Mentor and its blog. There are plenty of articles on agile, TDD, good software design principles, C++, and many-many other topics. Definitely worth following…