Most Epic Commercial–The Drama Button

For the launch of TNT channel in Belgium they placed a big red push button in the middle of a square with a sign saying “Push to add drama”.

MBC HD Joins Abu Dhabi TV Network

It looks like you don’t need a dedicated Technosat reciever do get MBC’s HD channels anymore. The Abu Dhabi TV Network just added the MBC package to their list of channels. Not sure how much you have to pay to get though. But that beats the stupid exclusivity that Technosat had that made no sense.

You can check you subscription and add the package by following this [link]

No 3D For Me

Got a new TV a few weeks ago, I was looking to upgrade my 46″LCD with a 46″ LED. I was exclusively looking for a LED screen with no 3D support as I refuse to support this stupid gimmick.

My first destination was X-Cite at the Avenues mall, I was surprised that they hardly had any 46″ TV’s at all in their collection. so I went to Carrefour and there I found my next TV, the Samsung UA46D5500RR. A LED with no 3D support. But they didn’t have any in stock other than the one on display which they refused to give me a discount on, which was puzzling since it was an “open box”  product.

I have no idea why I walked back to X-Cite and asked them about that specific model, to my surprise the guy tells me that they do have it but its not on display. Its not on display so that they can clear out the old stock they’ve got. But he told me that I can purchase it and they can have it delivered to me in a couple of days. I immediately agreed and it was delivered as scheduled.

The TV is great, it has both allshare functionality that allows you to stream from other Samsung devices, say the Galaxy S II, to the TV wirelessly ala Airplay, but it won’t work for me as I am not running the stock rom on my SGS2 . It also supports a number of video codecs to be played back via USB like MKV,MP4 and AVI just to name a few, in HD as well.

Discovery Channel Tries To Pull A Fast One, Busted

In the above video clip from Discovery Network’s show Sons of Guns. the challenge was for the female to fire a Desert Eagle hand gun. A really powerful hand gun that not everyone can handle. But clearly on the 1:28 mark you can see clearly that the Desert Eagle is now magically transformed into a Beretta.

A lot of respect is lost Discovery, A lot.

The Dragons Were Not Real – Game Of Thrones

A look at the visual effects that made HBO’s Game Of Thrones the success that it is. Special effects came a long way in the last few years, its getting harder and harder to distinguish reality from fiction.

New TV Series: Suits

Suits is another TV series that had it’s pilot episode air recently. After just watching the first episode I fell in love with this show, it’s a mix of Boston Legal (one of the best TV shows ever created) and House M.D.

In A Legal Mind, one of Manhattan’s top corporate lawyers (Gabriel Macht) sets out to recruit a new hotshot associate and hires the only guy that impresses him – a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout (Patrick J. Adams). Though he isn’t actually a lawyer, this legal prodigy has the book smarts of a Harvard law grad and the street smarts of a hustler. However, in order to serve justice and save their jobs, both these unconventional thinkers must continue the charade.

The show is highly recommended and is just released with episode 2 airing next thursday.

New TV Series: Falling Skies

A new TV series premiered a few days ago. Falling Skies is TNT’s answer to AMC’s The Walking Dead. But instead of zombies the bad guys are aliens. The show is produced by Steven Spielberg.

The chaotic aftermath of an alien attack has left most of the world completely incapacitated. In the six months since the initial invasion, the few survivors have banded together outside major cities to begin the difficult task of fighting back. Each day is a test of survival as citizen soldiers work to protect the people in their care while also engaging in an insurgency campaign against the occupying alien force.

After watching the first couple of episodes I was impressed.

New TV Shows

There have been a lot of TV show cancelation lately, some of them were not bad. I also didn’t have time in the past few months to watch all the series I usually follow.

I downloaded a bunch of new shows and watched at least a few episodes from almost all of them. here is the list:

• An Idiot Abroad (2010)
• Body Of Proof (2011)
• Blue Bloods (2010)
• Breaking In (2011)
• Breakout Kings (2011)
• Camelot (2011)
• Community (2009)
• Detroit 1-8-7 (2010)
• Drew Cary’s Improve-A-Ganza (2011)
• End Game (2011)
• Game OF Thrones (2011)
• Justified (2010)
• Modern Family (2009)
• Outsourced (2010)
• Sherlock (2010)
• The Borgias (2011)
• The Event (2010)
• The Killing (2011)
• Treme (2010)

Abu Dhabi Premier League Online

I subscribed to Abu Dhabi’s online subscription since I didn’t want to put another receiver under my TV and it not as convenient as having a card that you can take with you anywhere. And because I spend most of my tie on my laptop or PC it was a no brainer.

I used the website on many occasions. I subscribed saturday before the games but the account activated the next day (or late in the evening the same day not sure) and managed to watch the extra-long highlights of the yesterdays matches which were 45 mins long so you don’t miss a thing.

As for live viewing I watched Chelsea vs West Brom, Liverpool vs Arsenal and Man U vs New Castle all were great. And if you have a the bandwidth for it the quality automatically adjust (ala Netflix) to some very nice looking video.

Whats missing though is the short highlights that has just the goals, they might be there but I haven’t looked thoroughly enough and the ability to change the commentator language, from what I can see at the moment there is no why to do that at the moment.

Abu Dhabi online subscription is highly recommended even if you already have bought the receiver due to its shear and utter awesomeness

The Watching Some Pilot Episodes

Yesterday, I watched 2 pilot episodes for both a new and an semi-old show. first I saw Covert Affairs from the producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Bad Boys, Pirates of The Caribbean, Gone in 60 Seconds). The Show first aired less than a month ago and the pilot was available for free at the itunes store and I decided to give it a go.

The show was stupid and pathetic, I wont even watch it during the summer when its considered to be TV’s dead season. There’s no way I’m spending time on a stupid show like that.

Next was watching a relatively new show (its 3rd season just finished airing). Breaking Bad is about a Chemistry teacher that his life gets turned upside down when he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and decides to deal meth to provide for his family.

This series looked very good and I’m definitely going to watch more of it.