The hunt for an UHD (4K) television (LG 49UH600T)

We've been staying at our condo in Mandaluyong City for a year now. And all that time, we just had one 32" Hisense HD Ready (720p) television in our room.

Thirdy was attending Kindergarten near our QC house last year so we didn't need a second tv for the living room at that time.

But starting this month (June 2017), he'll be staying with us in Mandaluyong during weekdays, so we need a second TV for him and Tita Fe in the living room already.

I've been planning to get a TV that's around 55 inches. Our unit is small so it'll look huge. I was torn between getting an Ultra HD (4K) or just a Full HD (1080p). My hard factor is the price. I don't want to spend more than 30,000 pesos.

Per usual, i did my due diligence. First is to check with OLX.ph, to get a rough estimate on the available TVs and their prices.

I didn't want to spend too much, and the last TV that we bought was the HiSense brand we have for our room. We bought it last October 2016 for around 11,000 pesos and I haven't experienced any issue with it.

It's a Smart TV and uses Opera App Store for it's application. It supports Netflix and has even a dedicated button. The pre-installed Youtube app also functions well. There aren't that many apps you can get from the Opera Store but I barely use the Smart tv functions as my main PC is connected to it (as well as my Xbox One).

The Hisense 55" UHD model is around 30k at Cash N' Carry in Makati. That's for cash  payment or straight credit card transaction (no installment/layaway option).

The 55" Full HD model (55K220, which is a larger size version of the 32K220 that we own) is around 24k. So a difference of about 5 - 6k.

I did some quick compare for LG and it's about 3k more expensive than the Hisense counterparts. Not bad.

Next step was for an actual look of the models. Since we live beside a mall with my go-to Applicance store (Robinson's Appliances), I went there and checked on the Hisense displayed units.

The 55" Full HD models cost around 27k with cash/straight CC payments (3k more than Cash N' Carry). I could go and buy at Cash N' Carry instead of Robinson's Appliances once I decided to buy.

I can buy cash, but I prefer an installment plan. I just don't want to part with 30k in cash when I can do it gradually across several months especially if it's 0% interest.

I looked at the other models from the other known brands (Samsung, LG, and Sharp) but didn't bother with the other ones (TCL, Devant, etc) as I've read some bad feedback from them back when I was looking for a bedroom TV. Nothing stood out at that time.

Next was to decide on whether to get a Ultra HD or settle with Full HD.

One thing to consider is that 4K content isn't that widely available yet. 4K bluray discs are available, but you need a player for that. And those are expensive right now.

You can stream with Youtube and Netflix, but you'd need a fast internet connection. Definitely, not viable right now. Downloading them is possible, but each movie is about 50 gigabytes compared to a small 1080p video of around 4gb, or a raw ripped Bluray copy around 25gb. With hard drive prices still expensive, you won't be saving a lot of 4k videos on your PC or portable drives.

However, I did read that UHD (4K) tvs, can upscale lower resolution videos (the standard 480p, HDReady 720p or FullHD 1080p) that they will look better than on lower resolution TVs. So getting a UHD TV now even with little 4k content available will still be a better choice. As you have a future proof TV. You just need to wait for cheaper Hard drive prices or faster and cheaper broadband connection.

After thinking about it, I've decided on getting a UHD TV.

I did some research on Hisense UHD TVs. Most of them are pretty good considering the price. Still, I'm a bit apprehensive about getting a Hisense TV for 30k.

For a 32" at 11k, it's ok. But for 30k, I would like a more well known brand, even if Hisense is already the 4th largest TV maker in the world.

So I again checked OLX.ph for a UHD TV from japanese and korean makers. I found out that the 55" variants are out of my ceiling of 30k.

But I did find a few models within my price range, but a tad smaller. There's a 2016 49" model (49UH6100) from LG that's being sold for around 29-30k. The 2017 version (49UH6500) is around 33k.

Samsung's 49" UHD model is around 35k. But there's a 49" Curved model being sold at Lazada.com.ph for only 30k with free speakers.

It looks enticing, but I'm not sold on curved displays. I think it's a bit gimmicky at that size especially since you'll be watching it from a distance. And I have a feeling that replacement display panels will be prohibitively expensive. So i'll stick with flat displays for now.

I did find a Sharp 50" model at around 30k as well. It's a smart TV using Android TV (Lollipop).

Samsung uses their own OS, Tizen. Unfortunately, it's not that mature so I assume there isn't that many applications you can use. LG uses WebOS.

Now Android TV opens up a lot of possibility given the large library of Android apps. However, you can always buy an android TV box or an android stick with any TV now. But it does save you at least 2000 pesos.

However, I did read that Hisense owns and manufactures Sharp TVs now. So you're just basically buying a rebranded Hisense TV. You'll probably be just as good as getting a Hisense TV and just get an android stick/box if you've outgrown the apps from the Opera store. You'll probably end up doing that in a few years once Android TV lollipop gets old for the newer apps. Android fragmentation. Read on it.

By this time, I think I've settled on the LG 49UH6100. It's a year old, but that's ok. Nothing significant with the 2017 version over the 2016 one. It's smaller too, at only 49". But hey, maybe 65" will be cheaper after a few years.

Now it's time to look where to buy one.

Robinson's Appliances offers it for 32,500 for cash/straight CC payment. Cash N' Carry has it for 30k cash/straight cc payment. Automatic Center at SM Light doesn't have it any longer.

I checked Saver's appliance store in at Visayas Avenue, and it's tagged as 39k despite an ad in OLX.ph saying it's only 31k for the same terms. I was advised by the olx seller to go back and look for him. But i thought I might just get one from Robinson's Appliances as it was closer and I could have it carried over to our condo unit on the same day without paying for delivery charges.

The TV model's cheaper at Cash N' Carry by around 2,500, but it's a bit far.

We also checked Western Appliances at P.Tuazon Avenue as I saw their FB ad for a 'bagsak presyo' sale all weekends of June. But when we got there, I was disappointed.

Basically, their SRP for the TV's was the price they had when they first came out. And then they say that they drastically reduced the prices. However, even at this 'reduced' prices, other stores still sold them a lot lower.

Today, 2017/06/18, at around 4pm, we decided to drop by an Abenson's store in Greenhills on the way to Mandaluyong from QC. Chea remembered the time I asked her to visit that branch when I saw their ad about open box/display items.

Good thing that we did. They were having a flash sale today.

We saw that the 49UH6100 was being sold at around 36k for cash/straight payments. Disappointing at first.

We spoke to one of the agents, and I mentioned that Robinsons' was selling it for 32.5k on the same terms. The agent said that he could try and make it available for 36k, but for 3 months installment.

Chea and I then checked if we took the 32.5k straight CC with Robinson's and then transferred it to a 12-month installment plan with another card with the typical interest charges. It came out around 34.8k.

Chea showed the computation to the agent and said that it will be cheaper for us if we went with Robinson's. Not to be outdone, they made some calls and asked their bosses (we were talking to a sales manager already) if they can offer it lower. Chea said we could get it for 35k at Robinson's on a 12-month installment plan based on her computations.

35k is 5k more than my original price limit. But the only way I could get it at that amount was to buy it on cash terms from Cash N' Carry.

While the sales personnel was talking to his boss on the phone, I went around, and saw some display units being sold on the other side of the store. There were some pretty nice options there.

I saw an LG 49UH600T model being sold for only 26k. I was surprised at the price. It was probably an earlier 2016 model used as a store display.

The 10k difference is definitely tempting. Yes, it was WebOS 2.0 as compared to the 49UH6100's WebOS 3.0 platform but I thought, i'd probably just use Youtube from the available apps. I'll primarily use cable TV with it since it'll be for the living room.

It doesn't have HDR (High Dynamic Range) unlike the 6100 model, but it's something I could live with at the moment. It's not a deal breaker for a 10,000 peso difference. I'll probably upgrade the TV 5 years down the line, and it'll be one of the features that I'll be looking for aside from an OLED screen.

Another upside of the newer models is Trumotion or the greater than 120Hz refresh rate. A faster refresh rate makes movement shown on the tv a lot smoother. It makes movies looks smoother. The faster refresh rate is something you'd appreciate especially with playing action games or watching action movies on the TV.

That's something I would like. But again, will I pay 10k pesos more for those feature? Probably not. Unless it came with an OLED panel.

The sales agent checked how long it was on demo mode, and it showed to be just around 50 hours. He was surprised. He said we were buying a display unit that was just turned on for a total of about 2-3 days, so it was practically brand new.

The agent asked if we wanted it on installment plan, and he was able to get it for the same price of 26k stretched for 6 months.

There were a lot of other deals for store display TVs and some of them are pretty good. But Im glad that we decided to drop by Abenson's around Greenhills. And it's always a good choice to bring Chea when shopping. She always gets the best deals.

If we didn't decide to get the 49UH600T, we would have gotten the 49UH6100 for 35k on a 12 month installment.

A little bit of patience goes a long way.


Update: It's almost 6 months to the day that we bought the TV. So far it's working pretty well.

There are two features that I love about the TV. Smartshare and WiDi.

Smartshare is their app that allows the TV to connect to DLNA devices. These are network devices that can share their media content. Using smartshare, i can connect to the shared files I have on my PC. It allows me to watch the movies on the TV from my pc. My PC has about 5 hard drives on it, ranging from 1.5TB to 3TB, and it's mostly Movies and TV shows. So I can watch them on the living room while my PC is in the bedroom.

It works well for 1080p files, but I can't make it work for the 4K movies I have.

Another is WiDi or Wireless Display and Miracast. WiDi allows your device that has this feature to cast or stream it's display wirelessly to the TV. Using it, I'm able to project my phone (Xiaomi Note 4X) onto the TV wirelessly. I can do the same thing with my laptop that has WiDi.

So I can now project my laptop display onto the TV without using HDMI cables. I can watch movies on the TV now with another option aside from SmartShare.

There are other few apps on the LG Store, but I barely bother with it anymore except probably Netflix. But the app is bad as it gets stuck buffering. So I just use Netflix on my Xbox (I transferred it from our bedroom) to watch on the big TV, although i mostly watch in the bedroom TV.

I have a few 4K content now, and it's on a USB hard drive attached to the TV as it's hard to stream it wirelessly over the network.

The visual details are there, but I do feel like I'm missing out not having the HDR and the Trumotion features. But at least, I'll have something to look forward to when I upgrade the TV in a few years.

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SerendipiTV: A Toshiba TV Tale

Around the time Thirdy had turned two years old, he was spending most of his waking hours watching movies (Cars, Frozen, and Planes are his favorites) and tv shows (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) on our lone TV in the house.

He gets to watch whenever he wants, especially when he flashes that winsome smile and those googly eyes and says "movie". And since my htpc is connected to our lone TV, I'll drop whatever I'm doing, let him watch a movie or two, and just wait for him to fall asleep or get bored to have my chance to go back to whatever I was using the TV for. So I've been planning for months on getting another television so I don't have to lose out to my son.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been doing my due diligence by checking the price of 32" LED TVs online. I usually check sulit.com.ph (now olx.ph). I'm planning to put in our room, so I thought 32 inches was just the right size. I trimmed down my option to an LG 32LB551B TV. It was a 2014 model, so it's slimmer and more power efficient. It wasn't a SMART tv (meaning you could access the internet on it) nor it was 3D. I felt I didn't need those features, since we had our smart phones and tablets. It did, however, have USB media playback so I didn't need to attach it to a media player to watch movies on it. There were other brands and models, but this was the cheapest being sold at 13,980 pesos by, surprise!, Sights and Sounds.

Sights and Sounds is an AV shop at Shangrila Mall well known in the online AV community (mostly in www.pinoydvd.com). I've read that they don't have their shop in ShangriLa anymore, but they do CODs. We've bought several LCD TVs from them already (2 Toshibas, 1 Panasonic and 1 Skyworth. Our Samsung lcd tv, we bought from Listening in Style, also in ShangriLa) and have never had a problem with any of them.

After checking out olx.ph, I went to pinoydvd.com and asked for a recent quotations on TVs from online sellers there, including Sights and Sounds.

For the last few days I looked at the prices of the 32" TVs and was leaning towards getting the LG, until I started thinking of getting one that's around 39" - 42". They're a bit big for our room, but I was thinking of moving the old TV (37") to the bedroom, and putting the new one in the living room. I originally planned of only spending 14,000 pesos on the new TV, but if I could find something around 18,000 pesos, I thought that the extra 7" inches (at least) would make it worth the additional cost.

I saw a Samsung UA39FH5003 being sold online at only 17.5k, and a Toshiba 39P2300VP at the same price. I kept the seller's numbers for reference so I could call them when I decide to get a tv this weekend.

Then there was a seller on PinoyDVD, selling a MyView 42EX100 tv for only 16,000 pesos. I was sorely tempted, but was still hoping for a japanese or korean branded television. I did some forum searching on feedbacks for the MyView brand, and I found out that some had either run into problems during the first few months, or worse, just after the 2 year warranty had just expired. Ouch.

Today, September 20, 2014, a Saturday, I asked Chea if we could finally buy a TV. Plan was to check with Robinson's Appliance store in Novaliches since they really have good discounts (we bought our Samsung Inverter refrigerator there at a discounted price and with a free juicer). After that, check out Saver's Appliance store at Wilcon City Center in Visayas Avenue. If we couldn't find anything by then, we'd regroup, consider our options, and decide tomorrow.

I first texted the online seller of the Toshiba 39" TV if we could check out their units at their store. Unfortunately, we were told they were sold out. I asked about their 32" variants, but didn't get a reply.

We then headed out to Robinsons' Appliance store in Novaliches. There was a Toshiba 39" TV there being sold for roughly 16,000 pesos. The caveat was that it was the last unit from their stocks and was a previous model. I was thinking of getting it, but was told that it only had 1 year left on it's warranty. I didn't want to risk it, but again, it was tempting.

We saw the Toshiba displays, and was drawn to the 2014 models. Their 32" model, 32P2400, was being sold for about 15k, but was at a discount, and was now going for 13,200 pesos. I looked it up online, and saw that it was being sold at roughly the same price at Cash n' Carry Makati. Since that was a bit far, it made sense to just get it from Robinsons'. They also had the 40" variant, discounted to a price of 18,990 pesos. Again, the same price at Cash n' Carry, but cheaper than everywhere else.

The sales personnel also tried to sell us on a 40" Sharp TV. Again, at a 'discounted cash price' of 18,990. There were other 32" models from Philips, Sharp, Samsung, etc all around 14k. We decided to check out SuperSaver, before making a decision. We could always come back the next day.

On our way to Saver's, i texted the online seller of the 17,500 peso 39" samsung tv. I asked for the warranty length. The seller replied with a "1 year". It looks like I have to settle for the 32" TVs, since I set my limit to 18,000 pesos for the TV we're planning on getting.

Saver's Appliance Deport was a disappointment. The Toshibas, LGs and Samsungs were expensive, at least 2,000 pesos more than what we saw at Robinsons'. Dejected, we then decided to head over to Divine Word Columbary to visit my brother.

After the visit, Chea was thinking of heading home since it was already around 5:30 pm, and we still had to buy dinner for my dad. I asked that we hit one more appliance store. We decided on Trinoma, since it had Anson's , Western Appliance, and a few more appliance shops there.

We always parked near the side exit of Landmark at Trinoma, so our first shop was Anson's. We went in nonchalantly, not expecting anything, when I laid eyes on a Sharp 40" TV on display. A big sign displayed the price of around 26,998 pesos. That was expected. But then my eyes focused on the paper taped to the bottom of the price, it said , "30% discount, 16,198". I think i blinked several times. Was that correct? A 40" Sharp TV for ONLY 16k? I had to holler over to Chea who had already moved a few meters away to the LG displays. When she came back, we asked a sales personnel if the price was real.

The display that started it all.

We were told that it was the sale price for using a Metrobank credit card. My heart sank. We didn't have a Metrobank credit card. I got preapproved for one, even had the card delivered to me, but I chose not to keep it when they asked me to pay an annual fee a year later, even if i never used it. Not to mention it was a pain to pay for a Metrobank credit card, since some bills payment centers didn't accept payments for them.

Another Sharp TV with a sharp discount (pun intended). 

Another one. Man, these Sharp TVs are heavily discounted than the other brands. 

We did a look around and saw several TVs with unbelievable discounts. On our way out, we passed by a display of Toshiba TVs. The same models we saw at Robinsons' were also on sale. The 32" variant was on sale for only 11.6k pesos if using a Metrobank credit card, and 13,000 pesos if paying with cash.  The 40" variant was on sale for 16.3k pesos if, again, using a Metrobank credit card, and 18,500 pesos if paying with cash. This was the cheapest price for the Toshibas on a cash basis, so i was thinking of already getting one. I was pondering of just getting the 32" and be over with it. Unfortunately, there was an elderly couple who looked like they were getting the 32" TV, which the sales guy said was the last unit left. Oh well, looks like I'm gonna go over my 18,000 peso budget for the 40incher.

Caught our eye on the way out.

Still, we opted to go down to Western appliances to compare first. The 40" variant was being sold for 19,200 pesos. And if we had it delivered, it would cost another 260 pesos. And the earliest we could get it was Tuesday.

LG 42 inch LED TV. Nope, not a 3D Smart TV. Still, for only 19,500 pesos, you can't go wrong.

So we went back to Anson's and decided to get the 40L2400VP model. We had one unit moved over to the testing area so I went with it. My mom, Tita Fe, Thirdy and Chea just waited among the Toshiba displays and seemed to start a conversation with the elderly couple who bought the last unit of the 32" variant (they actually bought 1 pc of the 32" variant, came back and bought the last one after telling a niece or nephew over the phone about it, and then decided to buy a 40" variant also).

LG 42" 3D TV. Still not Smart though, but only for 24.5k pesos. 

LG 32" Smart TV. 

Chea then approached me and told me that the couple was willing to buy the TV for us using their credit card, and we'll just give them our cash. So instead of paying 18,500 pesos to Anson's, we would be paying the elderly couple, 16,500 pesos, or around 200 pesos more than the Metrobank sale price. I said yes of course, so after waiting for a few minutes for the wall bracket, we were heading home  with a brand new Toshiba 40L2400VP that only cost us 16,500 pesos.

We ended up buying this. Hooray!

This is why I always love having my wife around when buying stuff. She's amiable to most folks, and could charm her way to discounts or freebies, and this time, to a big discount of 2,000 pesos via strangers we've only met that day, and only conversed with for a few minutes.

It was truly, serendipity for us. We waited a few months before deciding on getting the tv today. Then we didn't immediately decide on the TVs in Robinsons' despite them being fairly cheap already. I also didn't bite on the 39" Toshiba and the 39" Samsung TVs, that were both on a 1 year warranty only. We also didn't plan on going to Trinoma, but it was a spur of the moment thing. And then, having that couple at the exact time and place, when we were finally getting the TV. When we started to head off to Western, they were actually just getting back to get the last 32" unit, and decided to stay longer to get a 40" unit, that by the time we got there, they were already in the process of getting their receipts signed.

So here's to luck, and even to God, I guess, for this amusing turn of events.

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Return to Gilmore (A journey of two laptops)

For those of you who live within Metro Manila, I'm sure you're familiar with places here that are hubs for one thing or another. If you're a gear head, then it's Banawe Ave in QC or Evangelista Street in Makati for you. If it's textiles, it's Divisoria. Flowers? Dangwa. And if you're into computers, there's no better place than Gilmore Avenue in QC.

I learned about PC Options in Gilmore way back in the late 90s. It was the only computer shop back then. Over the years, several computer shops started their business there and became successful enough to open several branches all over the country. From a single building hosting PC Options, several more sprouted along Gilmore Avenue and even along the other nearby streets that it has become the de facto place for all your computer needs.

So when my mom wanted to have my niece's laptop fixed, the first place that came to my mind was Gilmore. There were a few shops in Gilmore I.T. center that repairs laptops.

The last time I went to Gilmore was sometime last year, when my main desktop PC / HTPC (home theater pc) died and i went to buy a replacement. So my mom, my dad and I headed to Gilmore yesterday (January 18, 2013, after dropping by at Divine Word Columbary first) and I was planning to head straight to Gilmore I.T. center, but even before we got out of the car, there were several guys asking us if we wanted to have our laptops fixed. I guess they saw the two laptops in the backseat (I brought my brother's old powerbook to get a replacement power adapter).


While my dad waited for a parking space, my mom and I decided to follow this guy who offered laptop repair services. We went around the corner back to Aurora boulevard and headed away from Gilmore for about 50 meters. I was surprised to find another building housing several computer shops, but mostly they specialized in repairs rather than sales. Based on the addresses plastered on some of shop signs, the place is called Gilmore Area, Valencia 4.

Digital Workz. The first shop we went to. Should've skipped them.

The guy referred us to a repair shop named Digital Workz. My mom explained that nothing displayed on the laptop screen. They told us that it will take an hour and about 2500 pesos. My mom was surprised at the price, so she agreed to have it fixed there. As per the policy of most of the repair shops, if they can't fix it, we won't have to pay. And if they do managed to fix it, then it's a steal. My niece asked around some of the repair shops she found, and they quoted her about 4,000 pesos and above.

Now, I'm an electronics and communications engineer by education, and I'm a software developer by profession, so I do know a few things around computers more than most people and i found the price and the time to fix it a bit iffy.

I guess they primarily say boastful things to encourage the client to have business with them. So the price is probably the cheapest they'd ask of you, and the hour is the fastest turn around they'd say. But once they get to look at the laptop, that's the only time they'd truly know what the problem is, and how much it would actually cost. And there's a pretty good chance that they're pulling a fast one.

Take my niece's laptop for example. The LCD on it doesn't display anything although the laptop has power, as the led indicators are on. You can't say that it boots up, since there is no display. A computer does not boot up if the processor or motherboard is defective, and sometimes even the memory. Since i can't check the processor or memory as I don't have spares lying around, there's still a chance of checking if it's the LCD. Most laptops have video out connectors (vga/hdmi/etc) to connect to external monitors. If it's a bad lcd screen, inverter, etc, there would still be a display to an external monitor, unless it's a bad video card/chip. And if that's the case, 2500 pesos is already cheap to get those replaced. But back home, I already tested the external display when I connected it to one of our LCD TVs that had a VGA port. So the laptop powers up, it seems to be booting as the indicators were blinking, and there's no display on an external monitor. So it's likely a bad video card/chip or a board level problem.

Which is why it made me think that these guys are trying to hoodwink customers when they quoted a price first. You can get the memory, hard drive, inverter, connectors, other easily replaceable parts, and even the LCD screen for less than 2,500 pesos depending on your laptop. And if you don't know anything about computers, then you probably don't know that most laptops won't boot up if defective hardware like memory and a hard drive could prevent your machine from booting up. And sometimes, when it comes to memory modules, all you have to do is clean the contacts with a plain old pencil eraser. So just imagine, if your main problem was dirty contacts, you'd be paying someone 2,500 pesos to rub a pencil eraser on the memory modules.

I'm even thinking, that once they found out that the problem is with a defective replaceable part, they'd quote a replacement part on top of the 2,500 pesos they've initially asked you for. So if it's a broken memory module, they might ask you to buy a replacement for them and I'm thinking that it's not honestly priced. A 2nd hand 4 gigabyte (standard for current laptops) memory modules can be bought for less than 1,000 pesos. So if they don't even quote that price on top of the 2,500 pesos service fee, that's still at least a 1,500 peso profit.

If you don't know these things, there's a big chance you're getting ripped off.

While waiting I looked around for a replacement charger for my brother's old Apple Powerbook G4.  Now like any smart buyer, I did my research first. It's rare to find any new and original power adapters for sale for a laptop last manufactured on 2006. You can only find replacements and I searched them online. I opted not to buy anything that requires shipping from outside the country or even within. There's a big chance that they're defective, and you can't replace them if they fail within the warranty period without spending for the shipping.

So I looked diligently for Philippine sellers that were willing to meet up or pick the item up at their place. My condition was that we should be able to test the power adapter with the laptop. The cheapest I could find was 1,500 pesos and was willing to meet anytime. I agreed to buy the power adapter, and we decided to meet at Trinoma at around 6pm, in a Starbucks where they have power outlets.

While looking around, I found a couple of shops that had 2nd hand adapters, only, they sold it for upwards of 1,800 pesos. Of course i found it incredulous so I declined.

I went back to Digital Workz where my mom was waiting, and asked if they had a powerbook G4 adapter to test if the laptop would turn on as I wasn't sure that it was the only problem. They said yes, so I went back to the car to get the powerbook.

When I found my dad I asked him if he wanted anything to eat as it was about 4pm, and he's used to taking merienda during that time. Shakey's was no longer at the Gilmore I.T. center, replaced by the new convenience store The Family Mart, which seems to be popping up everywhere (there's quite a few already in Ortigas). Even the big PC Express store was replaced by a Mini Stop and a drug store I think.

There's a chinese deli around the side of Gilmore IT center, so I brought my dad there. He settled for a meat bun, so we went back to the car where he ate his merienda, and I picked up the laptop. On the way back, several guys were again hustling me (which i think is the correct term at that time, instead of being hassled) for laptop repairs. I tried to ignore them, but then there was this guy who stuck to me all the time, and he introduced himself as the one who brought us to the repair shop earlier. I tried to ignore him, as I already knew where to go, and it irked me that he needed to escort me all the way back. It seems to me that he's earning for every client he walks to the repair shop. It irritated me because he had nothing to do with what I was planning this time around. I know that he's just trying to earn money, but you have to remember, whatever the repair shops are paying him, is mostly likely being taken from you.

When I got back to the shop, the guy then acted like he was again referring me to the same shop. Turns out that they didn't have the correct power adapter, as they only had the magsafe adapters for the newer apple laptops.

A little bit later, my concerns were affirmed. They could not repair my niece's laptop, so they referred it to the adjacent shop. It seems that their method of repairing, is replacing all of the replaceable parts and checking if that worked. So imagine that, 2500 pesos for troubleshooting, and if they lucked into a bad replaceable part, they'll just replace that and ask you to pay 2500 (for a part that most likely sells for less than 1,000 pesos) or more, if they can convince you that the part is more than 2500. This is likely, because we were never told that if a part needed to be replaced, that the 2500 was not enough to cover it.

Motherboard repair. Looks promising.

The next shop over looked like they could do a board level repair (like replacing chips on the motherboard as well as reballing for ball grid connections) since they have a few equipment there, not to mention that I saw this guy soldering something on a laptop's main board. So this one shop made me ease up a bit, since it looks like they know what they're doing.

The hustler then spoke with guys at the other shop (PBM Computer Repair Center, I think), and I overheard the hustler saying Digital Workz couldn't fix it, explained the problem, and then said that the agreed price was 2500. So the guys at PBM  took the laptop, but had to put it aside first as they were still working on a couple of laptops.

The hustler, again asked me to have the powerbook looked at by the PBM guys. I then explained to him that I just wanted to check if the powerbook was still working by testing it with a power adapter. If it wasn't I'm willing to have it checked, but not agreeing to have it repaired. Apple laptops are notorious for expensive and hard-to-source parts and I'm not willing to spend more for an old laptop than the power adapter. PBM did have the correct power adapter, and the powerbook turned on a few seconds after it was connected to a power source.

The hustler then pestered me for a few minutes trying to convince me to buy the adapter for 1,800. I told him that I already had a seller I was meeting later, and I was getting it for 1,500 pesos. He then asked the shop owner if they could sell the adapter to me for 1500, to which he reluctantly agreed. Again, the hustler kept trying to convince me to get the adapter already, saying we're already there, and the warranty's good for a few months (I was barely listening) and they'd replace it if it failed within the period. He seriously ticked me off, and I felt harassed. I then spoke in a strong voice that I had already made a promise to buy from the other seller. Just to get him off my back, I gave him the smallest bill on me (50 pesos) and told him it was for testing the laptop using their adapter. He took it and left.

The other laptop repair shops.

It was already 5 pm that time so I texted the seller of the power adapter that I might not make the 7 pm meet up. Around 6 pm, it was the seller's delivery guy who texted me and we agreed to move the schedule, to about 8 pm.

By that time, my mom had a chance to chat with some of the employees of one of the shops. I won't mention which one. We then got a clearer picture of how things worked around there.

The non-technician employees were mostly helpers. They're the ones who got ordered around to pick up supplies and whatnot. They get paid about 300-350 pesos a day, with free lunch.

Now the hustlers, they were different. They were paid 400 pesos a day to loiter along Gilmore Avenue to look for potential customers. They also get paid for every successful referral to a shop. The pay is different depending on how much the shop earns from servicing the laptop. So that 2500 we were supposed to pay? At least 500 of it goes to the hustler.

So if you're like me (or my mom who's the one footing the bill) who works hard for every centavo, that 500 peso commission is just too much.

I will pay for the cost of the replacement part, I am more than willing to pay the services of the technician, and I am willing to pay a little money as profit for the owner, but I'm never one who likes to overpay, especially for a service I've never asked for in the first place. Now, if you're reading this, and you want to get your laptop repaired, just ignore everyone and head straight to a repair shop.

Around 6:30 pm, the PBM tech still couldn't fix the laptop (I saw the guy replacing the processor with another one and it still won't display anything), so we agreed to be back for it on Monday. So we headed back to the car where my dad was waiting.

When we got there, my dad started telling us what happened to him while he waited in the car. He said he was inside the car eating his meat bun, when he felt that the car rocked a bit. He looked to the passenger side of the car, and saw a car with its door open with an old lady getting out, while clutching a baby. It seemed that the old lady was too concerned with the child that she didn't realize she bumped my dad's car with their door.

My dad got off, concerned that the lady was having a hard time getting out that she'd hit the car again with their door. My dad approached the driver, who seemed to be her son, and told him that it looked like their door's edge, hit my dad's car and there were a couple of small dents. The guy grumbled that it couldn't have been his door, since that it would mean that his door's edge should have gotten dented as well. Which is pure BS of course, since that part of the door is the sturdiest.

Now my dad is a pacifist, he doesn't like confrontation. So he didn't say anything more, but the old lady started yelling and badgering my dad, saying all sorts of things, like maybe my dad rocked his car on his own. The old lady kept at it for a while, and his son left to whatever shop he was going to. My dad just moved away from the old lady who still kept at it.

By the time we had arrived, they were already gone. The other people who was hanging around the area, spoke up and told us that they saw the whole thing and they said it was really the other party's fault, and they did hit my dad's car with their door. My mom told my dad that it was fortunate that she wasn't there or there'd be a bigger commotion.

I don't like confrontation as well, and I get that from my Dad. That's because I'm hot headed, and I have a short fuse when it comes to family, which I got from my Mom. So I try to avoid confrontation as much as I can. Just thinking of it really pisses me off. My dad's 68 yrs old, from his account, the old lady was around her 50s, and her son mostly likely in his late 20s or early 30s. Now to gang up on a near 70 year old guy who was by himself, who wasn't looking for a fight and was just trying to prevent getting his car hit again, is extremely low. I'll leave you guys to whatever karmaic system your religion has, if you actually practice a religion to begin with.

We then headed to Trinoma to buy the power adapter. I was asked to meet at a Starbucks near J CO Donuts and Mang Inasal. But when we got there, there was no available wall socket to test with. I found one outside of Mang Inasal so we tested there. The laptop turned on, so I paid the guy and then went back to the car.

Liempo!

I think this was a buco pandan drink

We decided to have dinner at Trinoma and headed to the LandMark food court. We ate at Chuck's Steaks ( I actually ate here a few weeks back, it was the weekend before January 8, as I was looking for a gift for my wife, I'll blog about it another time). I ordered Liempo with Java Rice, since I ate the Porkchop with Egg previously. My dad ordered the T-bone (he just loves those), while my mother ordered Chicken from Jollibee.

After the meal, it was already past 8pm, so we headed back to the car and went home.

Update:

The repair shop couldn't fix the laptop either. It's a graphics chip problem and they can't source it from their suppliers. So I guess that laptop's just good for scraps then. Oh well.

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The Long Search for a Sound bar - Part IV (JBL wins)

For the past several months (heck, years even), I've been looking for a sound bar for my htpc (Home theather PC, which is basically a personal computer attached to a television).

My old htpc / fileserver used an HDMI cable to output video to my tv. It was able to pass through audio using the same cable as well. The problem was that the tv speakers left much to be desired. You had to crank it all the way up, and still at times couldn't hear the dialogue from some movies. Music never sounded full enough, without that bass.

When that pc broke down, I assembled another, this time with a system unit running on just 50 watts. Unfortunately, it didn't have the same pass through technology on my old unit. So in order to listen to music and watch movies, I just used an old pair of desktop speakers.

Using speakers, I could now listen to music even without the tv on. Unfortunately, the speakers were tinny, so everything sounded bad. It was tolerable to some degree, but again, it didn't have the power to fill up a small living room like ours.

There was always an option of getting better computer speakers. I could even get a decent home theater speaker set up. But i dont have the space for big home theater speakers, and the patience for cluttered cables even from small PC speakers. So the best option for me was a sound bar. A definite upgrade from TV speakers, less the clutter.

Since my last search for a sound bar speaker last October, I've decided to put it off for a while and wait what Thanksgiving sale in the U.S. could offer me. I've been doing online shopping for years and having it shipped here to the Philippines. And for the last four years, I've been buying items at heavily discounted prices during Thanksgiving sale via Amazon. I'll blog about that on another time.

I waited until a few days before Thanksgiving and started to look around Amazon for a good deal. I also checked out Slickdeals a couple of weeks leading to the holiday.

I managed to find a few decent sound bars at roughly 99usd. There were a few well known brands around that range, give or take a few dollars. There were several less popular brands at even half the price, especially when Black Friday came around.

At about 100 - 150 usd, you can even get more than the entry level models that came with subwoofers, wired or otherwise. Some even came with bluetooth. For 6,600 pesos, those are definitely a steal, especially when the basic system here already sells for about 5,000 pesos.

There were models from Philips, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Sony being sold at half their price which when bought here, would actually cost thrice or even up to 5 times as much.

JBL for the win, baby!

While browsing slickdeals for soundbars a day or two before Black Friday, I saw an entry about JBL sound bars. It seems that some of them were already being sold at Brick and Mortar stores (term to refer to actual physical stores to differentiate them from their online counterparts). The entry level version, SB100, was being sold for 99 us dollars.

I checked via Amazon, and it was still going for about 150 US dollars, although the item page listed a discount of 89 dollars (down from SRP 239 usd).

I've seen that particular model being sold in the Philippines via some online websites for about 11,000 pesos which was the cheapest. I saw one at S&R being demoed and it sounded spectacular. I wasn't going to buy one for that price, but at 150usd (around 6,600 pesos), it was a steal. But if you factor the shipping price (based on the box dimensions, I was thinking about roughly 4,000 pesos), you'd be better off buying it here, save on the wait, and you could still get warranty and services support.

So i just placed the item in my online shopping cart, and hoped that it go down to 100 usd. If you factor in the shipping, it would probably total to around 8,000 pesos, which would be 3,000 less than the cheapest one you could find locally.

Still, there was an LG sound bar being sold already locally for 5,500 pesos. The next cheapest sound bar was around 8,000 as well. I was thinking I could get one already sans the months of waiting. If I ordered online, since it was near Christmas, I was thinking I'd likely get it by the middle of January.

A better option was to get the other models with the subwoofers being sold at 100-120 us dollars. But with the additional size of the subwoofer, the shipping cost would raise the costs beyond what I'm willing to pay for a subwoofer.

I was originally eyeing the cheap 3 thousand something sound bar from Philips, but which required me to buy a DAC for 800 pesos. So that would end up costing me 4,000 pesos already. Or the 5,500 sound bar from LG, which had the RCA inputs, but was readily available. I was thinking if the additional 2 - 3 thousand pesos would be worth it. Based on what I've heard during the demo, it definitely was.

So I decided to wait. If at any time it went down to 100 dollars, then i'll go for it. If not, I'll just go for the other ones that do. I'll look for better options than the one being sold for 5,500. Worst case scenario, I'll just go back to Robinson's Galleria and buy the one I've eyed there.

JBL SB100. Fresh from the box.

I didn't have to wait too long though, as a few hours before Black Friday started, the JBL SB100 went on sale for 99.95 usd (roughly 5,000 pesos with sales tax and shipping to my courier, who would in turn ship it to me here in the Philippines which I would have to pay for). As these sales were unpredictable (due to availability of stock) I immediately checked out the item for payment. In as short as 5 minutes, I already paid for it, and just waited for the confirmation email.

The rest of the 2013 Black Friday sale saw other sound bars (not JBL makes though) being sold at roughly the same price. Some had the subs, but I never felt the need for it as im not a heavy bass type of guy. Still, I felt the JBL was worth the price of 8,000 including shipping here to the Philippines).

I also took the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday to snatch a few more things on discount, unfortunately, I missed out on the 99usd xbox 360 sale (these are still being sold for about 12,000 pesos in the Philippines for crying out loud).

I did manage to buy 2 sets of Calvin Klein clothes, a Nautica shirt and a Micros short for Thirdy, a logitech wireless keyboard for myself, a Kenneth Cole leather wallet for Chea, 4 PS3 games for a co-worker of mine and a Rubbermaid closet kit that I've been eyeing for several months now (unfortunately, it wasn't on sale at the time, but they're not available locally anyway).

The reason I ordered the other smaller items, since they were on sale, any savings I got, went to the shipping. So even if the shipping costs me about 3,000 pesos, it practically paid for itself as the other items would be put in the same box as the sound bar for shipping. The Kenneth Cole wallet only cost about 1,300 pesos. If i bought it locally (if it was available), would probably be sold at 2,000 pesos at the cheapest. So with that savings, it means I have 700 pesos that can now go to the shipping. The CK apparel set for Thirdy cost about 700 pesos each. Locally, that would only buy you the pants.

So the savings I get from buying the smaller items, are actually paying off the shipping costs from the US to the Philippines.

Now, the hard part is the waiting. Usually, it takes a few days to have the items sent out by Amazon to the courier that I use. But since it was a record breaking Thanksgiving sale that year, I was expecting it to be delayed a bit. Then you have to wait for the courier to receive all the item, pack it in boxes, and then ship it here to the Philippines. Usually that would take another 4 weeks, and if you get lucky (I'm being sarcastic here), your package gets held up at the US customs for checking, and/or get held up again at the Philippine customs.

Anyway, at about 10 am on February 1, 2014, I received all of my Amazon ordered items at home. This was the first time I had packages shipped directly to my house. I used to have these things delivered at work. But I ordered big items that I didn't think would fit in the backseat of our car. So i opted to have them delivered to our house in QC. It was good that I did too as the boxes were big (two of them) and were heavy (especially the closet kit). Not to mention, I was able to receive it on a Sunday as they received the items in their warehouse on a Saturday. I didn't have to wait a day or two.

My two packages. The box lying flat on the ground contains the speaker.

Since it was my first time having it delivered to my home, I was worried they wouldn't be able to find my address. But the delivery guys managed to do so on the first try, and they didn't even need to call me. Some times, they don't get to deliver the packages on the first attempt, so they'd go back to their warehouse and try again the next day or so. And since I saw on Saturday night that the boxes were unloaded in their warehouse, I was hoping they'd deliver it the next day that I decided to stay in for the day. Fortunately, they did deliver it and I was at home to receive the packages.

The main box taken out of the shipping box.

A remote control and a 3.5mm to RCA cable.

TOSLink cable for optical in/out

Manual. There's a PDF version online if you ever lose this one.

After signing and taking pictures (as evidence that I received the boxes), I started unpacking things (took a video of it too to make sure that I received everything in the box, which I did).

The soundbar with its packing materials

The sound bar was inside a bigger box, along with the smaller items. I originally wanted the courier to pack everything inside the sound bar box itself and remove some of the packaging inside. But I guess they decided against it, fearing it would break the sound bar without the packing materials inside.

The sound bar itself.

As it turns out, the sound bar didn't use RCA ports but rather a 3.5mm jack as a line in port. The 3.5mm to RCA cables included was for attaching the cable to RCA jacks on your tv. Since my htpc didn't have RCA plugs, I had to rush to the nearest hardware store (Ace Hardware in SM Novaliches), to buy a 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack.

Bracket if you ever need to mount it on a wall.

Bottom of the sound bar.

I tried it in, but couldn't get it to work with my htpc's rear audio panel, whereas the front panel worked immediately. Playing some songs, it sounded absolutely wonderful, especially coming from a pair of plastic desktop speakers.

A closer look of the connections. The power switch and plugs are on the left. On the right, you have a 3.5mm jack, a mono plug for an optional subwoofer, and the optical output.

It took me a while to configure things on my htpc, so I could get audio from the rear panel (I wanted the cables tucked away discreetly).

After that, I tried out a few songs and a couple movies, and I just fell in love with what was coming out of the sound bar. Everything was clear, especially some ambient noises with movies. There was enough bass especially for music. I haven't tried to crank it all the way up, so  I don't know how loud the sound bar could go, but I was able to turn it up to the level I wanted.

The only complaint I could think of was there wasn't a display that would show if I had turned up the volume to the maximum already. Looking at the manual, there isn't anything in there addressing the same thing. I was at least hoping that the volume buttons on the sound bar would turn a certain color if it reached the maximum or minimum settings. No such luck.

The 32 inch long sound bar speaker against my 37 inch LCD Tv

Anyway, the JBL SB100 sound bar sounds great. It's definitely an improvement on the TV's built-in speakers. It only has two connections (analog line in and an optical in) so that's a negative somewhat. But then again, a sound bar really is just designed to be connected to a single source, most of the time a television. If you have an AV component, this isn't the speakers you'd attach them to. With the additional audio in, you have an option for another video source like a blu ray player, a game console, or in my case, an htpc.

Another con would be the price. It's pretty hefty at 8,000 pesos (including shipping). But if you buy it locally at about 11,000 pesos, then it becomes impractical. You could get a 5.1 or 7.1 system for the same price or less on a basic home theater system (the ones that come with a cd, dvd or bluray player) or a somewhat premium PC speaker system.

But since I got it practically at 5,000 pesos (with the shipping cost covered by the savings I had with the other items), it's worth every peso. The sound is absolutely wonderful, and everytime I listen to anything come out of it, I am just amazed at the premium quality of the audio.

Hopefully, this will last me a few years. By that time, I might be thinking of getting a better home audio setup so I could listen to music stored on my htpc anywhere in the house.

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The Long Search for a Sound Bar - Part III

October 13,2013, we brought Thirdy down from Antipolo after a three week stay at his grandparents.

I wanted to drop by Robinson's Galleria since there was a sale coming up (October 15 - 20) and I wanted to see what sales they already have. Honestly, I haven't been inside Robinson's Galleria for so long despite me working just a few buildings over near El Pueblo.

I was with Chea and Tita Fe (and Thirdy of course) when we went through all the floors, nooks and crannies of the mall. They've expanded and rennovated through the years, so there were quite a few areas that were new to me.

I wanted to look through the electronic shops in Galleria for a sound bar. So from the parking, there was an Abenson's so we checked that first. There was this really big home theater with about 4 floor stand speakers that I think were about 5 feet high, a subwoofer, a center speaker, and a floor standing control panel. It was tempting at only 12,000 pesos, despite it being a 2007 model.

I did a google search just now, and the model looks like the Samsung HT-TWQ120.

I wouldn't mind this 2007 model

I was really sorely tempted about this. I'm not an audiophile, but this looks like it will pack a lot of punch. The control panel is also touch digital.

Unfortunately, it's a bit bulky. We live in a small house so I don't think I'd have enough space to put these in. Not to mention, there will be a lot of wires going around, which is why I wanted to go with a soundbar, which just needs two.

The sales guy who was attending to me, tried to put the model down saying it was a 2007 model, but still, I thought it was a steal at only around 12k.

Anyway, we left and did all the floors of Robinson's Galleria. We spent most of the time looking at some women's shoes (Chea and Tita Fe mostly) and some kiddie stores.

We spent a lot of time at a MotherCare shop since Chea bought Thirdy some clothes, and her other godchildren as well.

Thirdy was his usual hyperactive self, so I had to chase him around the store. It's good that the place is a bit spacious, and there were a lot of aisles to get lost in, so I had to keep Thirdy near all the time. The sales people were very helpful and attentive, so it's always a pleasure buying from their stores.

I forgot to take a shot of the store since I was holding Thirdy most of the time, but here's a shot of the paperbags. How about a little love for the dads out there?

A shot of an OshKosh store. We used to come away with something whenever they're on sale, but not this time.

We passed by a Robinson's Appliance Center, so I went in for a quick look. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found inside. They had about 6 models of soundbars, the largest collection from all the electronics and appliance shops I've visited.

They had about 2 LG models, and 3 Philips models and even a Promac, which only cost less than 2,000 pesos. I was actually tempted to get the Promac brand just so I could finally own a soundbar. But then again, I thought I should check if it's cheaper to get it from the store, or order the same models online, such as from Amazon. I think I could wait a couple of months more before finally getting one if it means I could get a better option.

We were getting hungry by then so we decided to look around for a place to eat. Since we were nearer to the top floor, we decided to check out the food establishments there.

At the far end, we found Sci Fi cafe. We decided to eat there since it was new to us and I don't think there are other branches we could try out. It's rare enough as it is that we go to Robinsons' Galleria so it's unlikely that we'll get another chance to try it out.

Oooh. Bright lights.

After our late lunch, we decided to head home to get some rest.

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Goodbye BayanDSL

I mentioned here before that I've been with Bayantel Broadband Internet since the early 2000s. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I think it's been 10 years or so since we've subscribed with them.

Through the years, it was mostly a positive experience for us. We've had problems with the connections, but the technical support has mostly been stellar. It was rare that we had a downtime that lasted for more than 2 days. Whenever we called, a technician would drop by within the day (if you called early) or the next day.

In the last two years or so, other Internet Service providers, stepped up their game, and offered faster internet packages at roughly the same price.

Despite that, I've decided to stick with Bayantel for my DSL. I was at the 1mbps plan, and i consistently got 80-100% of the speed during the day, and after 10pm, I get speed boosts up to 1.5mbps.

But since a few months back, it became hard to resist the other competitors' packages. PLDT really stepped up with their new plan, especially the 1699 plan (phone was 700, dsl was 999 i think) which had connections up to 3mbps. The tech forum I frequented, had members who got upgraded already by PLDT and they consistently hit 3mbps on their downloads.

And here I was paying 1399 for 1mbps. Just 300 pesos more and I could be getting thrice the speed of what I'm getting with Bayantel. But then, the only way I could get in on that, was by subscribing with PLDT and that would mean I would be getting another landline phone which I don't have use for. I was determined to keep my Bayantel landline number since it's been with us for more than a decade.

So I decided to stick it out with Bayantel. I'm thinking Bayantel would try to stay relevant by trying to match PLDT's packages.

And matched they did. About a couple months back, Bayantel came out with a new set of packages, which included a plan 1799 (400 for the phone + 1399 for the dsl) with speeds up to 3mbps.

New packages, baby!

By then, I was seriously considering upgrading to the plan. PLDT was still cheaper by 100 pesos, but they're notorious for having inept CSRs and their technicians usually take a week or more to get around to your place once you report a problem. So I thought that 100 pesos was a small price to pay for having a faster turnaround on problems.

But I was also paying for the internet plans of my wife's iphone, and for my mother and father's tablets as well. And I was planning to finally get a data plan for my own phone. Here I am, a very senior software developer and I don't have access to email and skype when I'm mobile. Paying a total amount upwards of 3000 pesos (including my wife and parents' plans) for online access seemed impractical for me. The sense of practicality I got from my dad put up a psychological barrier that I couldn't seem to cross.

So I held back a bit on applying for the 1799 plan. It wasn't really a priority.

And then, about a couple of weeks back I got wind of Bayantel's newer packages designed to entice new subscribers to sign up (it was most likely that they were hemorrhaging clients with PLDT's aggressive push with better packages and PLDT Fibr). The 3mbps plan was now only 1499. Just 100 pesos more than my current plan and 300 pesos cheaper than rival PLDT.

1,499! What are you waiting for?!

A lot of the forum members I've been conversing with who were also Bayantel subscribers jumped on the plans. It was the perfect time. So i plunged in as well.

Bayantel upgraded my plan on October 10, 2013 while I was at work. So I was excited to get home that day.

As soon as I got home, I whipped out the trusty internet browser and checked my speed at speedtest. It hit 2.6mbps on my first try. Pretty good, since that was more than 80% of my subscribed speed.

I then proceeded to start my downloads with my favorite bit torrent client. It was then that my enthusiasm got tempered. My speeds maxed out at 40kB/s (or roughly 0.4mbps). So i tried downloading several files at the same time.

The logic is quite simple: Downloading several files should aggregate to your maximum download speed. So if your files are downloading at, say, 1mbps, and your subscribed burstible speed is 3mbps, then by adding more downloads, it will add to the current 1mbps download rate, until you hit your maximum rate.

Unfortunately, it never did. No matter how much more files I tried downloading, the download rate hovered from 0.4 to 1mbps.

So i did what I usually do: call 411-2000. I got a CSR on the other end, explained my problems and he gave me a problem ticket. He asked me to do some screen captures and send them to their email. Which I did the next day when I arrived at work.

On the same day, a technician arrived. They tried fixing it, but nothing came out of it. Technicians came again a couple more times the next week, but nothing worked.

I had a feeling that Bayantel was throttling my downloads, since when it's past 1am, the download speed shoots up to about 2mbps or so, and then plunges when it's about 10am.

Some people would say that it's likely the files that I was downloading, didn't have enough seeders. So I then decided to use a different ISP connection to download the files.

I tethered my PC to my wife's Iphone 5, and the torrents started downloading at speeds of 5mbps and above. When I connected to Bayantel again, the rate plummeted to anywhere from 0.4 to 1mbps. So that was it, the straw that broke the camel's back.

Almost everyday since I got upgraded, i emailed them with screenshots of my download speeds. But in all honesty, I wasn't expecting it to improve anytime soon. It wasn't from some misguided belief that bombarding them with emails would speed up the resolution. This was for me. This was my way out. Proof that they never gave me the speed I subscribed to.

To be fair to Bayantel, some of the subscribers I've spoken to, don't have the same problems that I have. So I guess it depends on the area. I live in the part of QC that's basically a Bayantel franchise area (back when they subdivided the country into service zones to remove PLDT's monopoly and help the other startup competitors get on their feet). So it's safe to assume that the area's already congested.

So it was over for me.

Two more technicians came yesterday (10/19/13). One in the morning (who changed wire connections from the post to the terminal on our house's exterior) and another in the afternoon (who changed connections on the posts along the road to our house). It didn't improve the speed at all. I actually felt bad for the technicians who had to brave the heat, and had to carry and climb ladders around.

So that night, around 8pm, I arrived at Bayantel's branch at SM North Edsa Annex building. In less than 10 minutes, I took a number, went to a representative, signed a small piece of paper, and had my Bayantel DSL subscription of 10 or so years cut.

 I felt nostalgic about it, truthfully. So i walked out after and lamented on it over a quarter pound burger and fries.

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The technologies that I love : Wireless Fidelity

I'm a fairly techie person. Having owned my first x86 PC back in 1996, and getting on the Internet around 1997, I have always tried to keep in touch with all the latest tech news and gadgets and if able, own some of them.

Ever since I got on the Internet, our main problem was that we could only access it from our PC. And since we only had one PC and one modem attached to it, we had to alternately use it. And with 2 other siblings sharing, it was such a pain waiting in line to get the chance to go online.

Back then, I didn't know anything about networking, and I never occurred to me to set up one at home. I always thought you only did that for businesses. Especially since most networking equipment you needed might have cost an arm and a leg during the early 2000s.

But after getting broadband internet at home around 2003 (geez, has it been that long? That means Ive been a loyal BayanDSL user for a decade!), my soon to be brother-in-law (who's a Network Engineer then) introduced me to the wonderful world of Home Networking.

He gave me a Linksys WRT54G and connected it with our dsl modem. It's a router that has 4-wired ports for use with ethernet cables, and wireless-G for use with wifi-enabled gadgets. And my life has never been the same.

Having wifi, allowed us mobility. We no longer needed to connect a wired cable from our laptops to the router just to be able to access the internet. Having wifi-enabled laptops allowed us access the internet all at the same time. I could bring my laptop from our living room, to my bedroom without having to disconnect and connect cables. When I cooked, I could bring the laptop to the kitchen and look up the recipes online.

And that was when you can only access the Internet on PCs. But with the introduction of wifi-enabled phones and tablets, it literally changed my world.

Now I can access my stored files on any of my PCs and laptops from my phone or my tablet. I can listen to music, look at pictures, watch movies that I stored on my media server, anywhere inside the house and even a few meters outside. I no longer need to sit in front of a PC. I could be lying on my side on my bed, stand outside the gate, or even inside the bathroom and still be able to do anything i want because of my wifi setup at home.

You were no longer tied to a router via a network cable. Everything's wireless. And my tech life is just getting better.

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The technologies that I love : Broadband internet

I first got online around 1997, just several months after my parents bought us our first computer. My siblings and I were in university, and it was the opportune time to get on the computer age bandwagon.  Granted it was just  a Cyrix 686 based personal computer , it still opened a new world for us: encyclopedias on optical discs, document creation without the need for Liquid Paper, and what nots.

And then, my brother got his hand on a modem, and our world changed again. Suddenly, the entire world was within our fingertips. Internet, we have arrived!

Back then, our 14.4kbps modem was top of the line. It was enough to get on BBS, FTP sites, and a few websites. It was more than enough to send out emails, chatting, research and downloading pictures. It took several more months before the advent of MP3s and P2P. The Internet finally became cool.

Still, we were stuck with dial-up even a few years after I started working. We could still make do with 56kbps speed for chatting, browsing, e-mailing, downloading music and other small sized files. I still lived with my parents and siblings in the same house, we only used one computer, there was really no reason to get broadband internet for our house. No reason at all.

That was until BitTorrent came. That was before WiFi.

It wasn't Friendster. It wasn't Multiply. It wasn't Myspace. I was happily content with my computer on it's 56kbps internet bandwidth. But BitTorrent changed that. And WiFi.

You see BitTorrent as a P2P protocol allowed you to download a file from several sources or peers. Not just a single server. The more peers sharing or seeding that file, the faster the download. Although you're limited to your download bandwidth.

With host servers serving up that file, several downloaders will have to share the bandwidth of that server. So even if you have a broadband connection, your download speed will still be limited to the server's shared bandwidth allocated for you. Not with BitTorrent.

I remember I was at work when I was seriously thinking about calling up our telephone provider about that internet subscription. I was actually up the previous night thinking long and hard about it. We already had the phone line, and were paying monthly dues. All i needed to do was pay an additional 900 pesos for a 2 year lock in plan and I would have unlimited broadband internet. I called the next day after lunch. And i cant live a day offline ever since.

You see, whereas before, it took minutes for pages to load properly, now it took only seconds. Whereas MP3 files took me minutes to half hours to finish, it now only took a fraction of that. And this is the best part that i like: whereas it took a day for 800 Mb files, it only took 4 hours or less. (It actually takes it about 10-20minutes at my wife's Antipolo house because of the 3Mbps connection there).

And those 800Mb files? They're movies. And I'm a movie buff. To be able to get my hands on all the movies, past and present, especially the hard to get ones? It's bliss. I don't have to go to the local video stores and be frustrated with them not having copies of movies I'm looking for.

And now? I'm actually collecting HiDefinition movies now. 720p and 1080p formats. And collecting them is bearable despite their sizes ranging from 4 Gigabytes to 30 Gigabytes. They're visually stunning.

And then you can watch streaming videos over at YouTube. You can have a decent video call via Skype. You can remotely control your office computer from home. All because of broadband internet.

Now imagine if the Gbps connections of the future arrive at our doorstep tomorrow. Imagine the possibilities.

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