video Archives - Tech Stuff

February 14, 2025

Well what is the point then?

When flying I usually download films and TV programmes onto my phone, so I can watch them in flight mode.

I had downloaded a film from Netflix, and on the plane I set it to play. After a few minutes whilst watching a film I had downloaded I got the following error.

You’ve reached the end of what was downloaded so far. Please connect to the internet to continue watching.

Now I was a little confused, as I was sure the film had downloaded fully. I opened the film again and checked, by moving through the file that it was all there. So I started the film again, fast forwarded to where I was. I watched it for a few more minutes. I then got the error again..

I went through the same process again of restarting the film.

After the third time, I stopped watching.

I have no idea about the error and what caused it, I have had issues before where downloads have expired, but this was the first time I had this specific error.

The whole point of downloading is so that you can watch a film without the need for an internet connection. In this instance I couldn’t connect to the internet as I was in the air.

April 3, 2024

Hotel Screen Casting

When I travel and stay in a hotel I sometimes connect my iPhone to the hotel TV via an HDMI cable and adapter. This is so I can watch something, either I have downloaded or stream from a streaming service. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t. I did quite like the idea of AirPlay Hotel, but have never seen it in reality.

Recently I was up in Edinburgh attending a conference and staying at the Moxy Edinburgh Fountainbridge and the televisions had a facility to be casted to from a mobile device. Though I have seen this on other TV menus in other hotels, it usually is a feature of the television, but not set up to be used. The functionality on the TV in the Moxy was setup.

It was easy to configure and it wasn’t long before I could cast video streaming from my phone to the TV.

It worked with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and BBC iPlayer. I didn’t try other services such as Disney+ or services from Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, and ITV.

Overall it was a seamless experience which worked well.

October 4, 2023

Edie Brickell – Good Times

I first saw the Edie Brickell – Good Times video when it was included on the Windows 95 install CD as a way of showcasing the video capabilities of the new operating system.

At the time video on a computer was something that just didn’t happen and if it did was usually as a small window showing the video, the phrase postage stamp sized video was often close to the truth. I remember been impressed with the two video files included with Windows and that I could play them on my PC. I think it was these videos that, as they demonstrated that video could be on a computer, inspired me to buy the Matrox Rainbow Runner video card so my PC could record and playback full screen video. I used that a lot for capturing video so I could play it back during Powerpoint presentations back in the latter half of the 1990s. It always bothered me that my television and video recorder could do all this video stuff, but my (much more) expensive computer was just not capable of playing video let alone capturing video. At least the Rainbow Runner allowed me to do what I wanted with standard definition video, even if a standard Windows PC couldn’t at that time.

Today my iMac is capable of playing multiple 8K videos at the same time as well as capturing and recording similar quality video. I can even stream 8K quality video from the internet. How times have changed, for the better I think. I am always impressed with how we can manipulate, edit and encode video these days.

As for the feel good song, even after all this time I still like to play it now and again, I think like any good song it stands the test of time in terms of its listenability.

July 24, 2023July 24, 2023

“Horrifying” AI Video

Saw this video on the BBC News website.

They watched Given Again, so I looked that up, as I thought that was an interesting use of AI.

Given Again from Jake Oleson on Vimeo.

I have downloaded the Luma AI app and am trying it out. To be honest with not much success and getting any results like those in Given Again. Will need to do some reading and more experiments.

May 29, 2023

Well it worked this time!

In a recent blog post I talked about the problem I had with my Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter.

I recently connected my iPhone to a Philips TV in a hotel room and attempted to play a TV show from Amazon Prime. The result was a stuttering video which was unwatchable.

I have an Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter. As well as using it for presentations, I also bought it so I could connect my iPhone to a TV so I can watch video from services such as Netflix, iPlayer, and Amazon Prime.

According to the description on the Apple website this is what it does.

Use the Lightning Digital AV Adapter with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector. The Lightning Digital AV Adapter supports mirroring of what is displayed on your device screen — including apps, presentations, websites, slideshows, and more — to your HDMI-equipped TV, display, projector, or other compatible display in up to 1080p HD.

Well for that purpose it does what it says on the tin.

The page also says.

It also outputs video content — movies, TV shows, captured video — to your big screen in up to 1080p HD. Simply attach the Lightning Digital AV Adapter to the Lightning connector on your device and then to your TV or projector via an HDMI cable.

Well yes, that is what it says, my experience is that this experience is less consistent.

So I was a little surprised when staying in a different hotel (same chain as it happens) and connected my iPhone to the Philips TV in the room and watched a programme on Disney+ and it worked just fine and as expected.

Checking back on my last experience, in the other hotel I was trying to play Amazon Prime, I wonder if that was the difference. I didn’t do any testing as I wanted to watch television. Next time I will do some testing.

May 3, 2023May 29, 2023

Trying to work out why it doesn’t work

According to the description on the Apple website this is what it does.

Well for that purpose it does what it says on the tin.

The page also says.

Well yes, that is what it says, my experience is that this experience is less consistent.

I recently connected my iPhone to a Philips TV in a hotel room and attempted to play a TV show from Amazon Prime. The result was a stuttering video which was unwatchable.

I remembered though that a few weeks back I had done something similar, but with a Sony TV and that had worked fine.

I did check online for a solution, others had experienced the same problem. The solution offered though was to use AirPlay. Great if you have that set up (which I do at home with an Apple TV). However I don’t have that setup when travelling to different hotels.

So the end result is, if it doesn’t work, I am watching video on the 6” screen on my iPhone rather than the 50” TV screen in the hotel room.

May 23, 2021

So long and thanks for all the fish

Well six months ago I subscribed to Britbox. I had BT Broadband for just under a month and got an e-mail from BT saying I could have six months free of Britbox.

Well it was bit of a no brainer, six months free for a service I quite liked the look of, so I clicked yes.

I did say in my post.

Will I renew in six months time? I think that depends on what content we’ve watched and whether they refresh the content over the next few months.

Well, here we are six months later and the answer is, will I renew, the answer is sorry no.

The main reason I am saying no is that I am not watching enough of the content to justify the subscription. It’s not that the content isn’t any good, on the contrary there is a bundle of great stuff in the service. The reality was that though I was interested in watching some of the old series, no one else in the household was interested. I don’t really have a lot of time to watch television on my own, so never got round to watching very much of the series or films on the service. In the end when it came down to it, I decided that I would not renew my subscription.

I don’t think the fact that we subscribed to Disney+ back in December has helped, as there are only so many subscription services you can afford. We also have Netflix, so in the end a service had to go, and as the only person watching anything on Britbox, that was the one that needed to go.

I might renew at some later time, but for the moment it’s goodbye Britbox, so long and thanks for all the fish.

November 22, 2020

Britbox and BT

I have had BT Broadband for just under a month now. Got an e-mail from BT saying I could have six months free of Britbox.

Actually I got a similar e-mail a few days ago, but when I clicked the link it said that I couldn’t get the offer as it wasn’t available to me.

I had considered subscribing to the service before, but didn’t want to pay for another service for things I might not watch. However all the classic episodes of Doctor Who was quite tempting. So it was a bit of a no-brainer to say yes to BT.

It was disappointing that the link hadn’t worked the first time, so when I got the second e-mail I didn’t think it was going to work, but it did. It was a seamless sign up process and then easy to download the app on the iPad and the Apple TV.

There is a good selection of content on the service, and I think we will get some benefit from the service. Will I renew in six months time? I think that depends on what content we’ve watched and whether they refresh the content over the next few months.

September 26, 2019October 30, 2023

Finished with Flixter

I have finally finished my relationship with Flixter and moved all my films to Google Play.

When I first started buying Blu-Rays I would purchase what the trade call, triple play movies these sets contain a copy of the film on Blu-Ray, a copy on DVD and a digital copy for your mobile device. Though more expensive than just buying the Blu-Ray what I did like about it was I could watch the film on my TV and then if I wanted to watch it again I could watch it on my laptop or on my iPad. With most of the films I bought the digital copy was in an iTunes format. This was fine with me as I already used the iTunes ecosystem for music and video.

So I was not happy when the film distributers changed from iTunes to Ultraviolet. I blogged about this dissatisfaction with the Ultraviolet process for getting hold of the digital copies of the films I had bought, back in 2013. The process was convoluted and initially didn’t even work for me. You didn’t even use Ultraviolet to play the video files, you needed another service (and app) to do that and that’s where Flixter came in.

I never liked the Flixter app for watching films, it crashed way too often. It never remembered where you got into a film, so you had to either start watching it again, or try and fast forward to where you had left off. In theory you could download and watch the film offline, but I found that even then the app would try and authenticate online.

In January 2018 I blogged about how I was expecting to use Ultraviolet to access the digital copy, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I got an iTunes digital copy.

I got e-mails in early 2019 informing me that the Ultraviloet service was going to shut down in July 2019. In June I got e-mails about how Flixter was going to shut down too. I was quite pleased to see the end of both Ultraviolet and Flixter.

I wasn’t going top lose my films though, as they would be migrated to another service. This has always been a concern of mine about digital copies of films, especially those with DRM, what would happen to my collection if the service stopped working? I was slightly disappointed I didn’t have any choice in which service they were to be transferred to, as I usually either use iTunes or Amazon Video. The solution Flixter had chosen was Google Play, I have a few films on that service, but I usually don’t use it.

This week I got an e-mail from Flixter which described how I would migrate my collection from Flixter to Google Play. It was a pretty seamless process and now I have a large collection of films in my Google Play Library.

June 19, 2019September 26, 2019

No more Flixter

I have never been a fan of the Ultraviolet process for the digital copies of films.

I blogged in 2013 about my dissatisfaction with the Ultraviolet process for getting hold of the digital copies of the films I had bought.

You didn’t even use Ultraviolet to watch the films, you needed to use a different service, in the UK that meant using Flixter.

In January 2018 I blogged about how I was expecting to use Ultraviolet to access the digital copy, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I got an iTunes digital copy.

I got e-mails in early 2019 informing me that the Ultraviloet service was going to shut down in July 2019. I didn’t think that would be too much on an issue as it was indicated that I would still be able to access my movie collection through Flixter regardless of the demise of Ultraviolet.

Now it would appear that with the demise of Ultraviolet that Flixter has also decided to shut up shop.

In theory I won’t lose my digital films as they will be transferred to Google Play.

I am slightly disappointed I didn’t have any choice in which service they will be transferred to, as I usually either use iTunes or Amazon Video. I have a few films on Google Play, but I usually don’t use it. Looks like I will be using it more now.