* Posts by Rick Connolly

2 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Feb 2008

Belkin Powerline HD Gigabit mains Ethernet adaptor

Rick Connolly
Unhappy

Had to return this gizmo

I was hoping this device would give me better connection between my cable router and several devices using 802.11g. Only one plug near the devices would receive any signal, and that was slower than 802.11b. Other outlets were unable to connect. The only time I got anything approaching higher speeds was when I plugged the two Belkins into a single extension cable.

I'm in the US so I'm using 120V, 60Hz, but that shouldn't make a difference. Perhaps having Monster power conditioners plugged into the wiring caused the problem, but the earlier 100 MHz versions seems to work well in the same environment.

I ordered directly from Belkin, and to their credit, they accepted returns with no hassles. The CS staff was aware that the devices would not work well in some loations, but the only way to determine that is to buy them, plug them in, and see what happens.

Netflix falls in behind Blu-ray

Rick Connolly

Dropping HD-DVD doesn't seem to make financial sense

I have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players, so I'm neutral on the "which is best" wars. But, Netflix currently allows users to specify either format in addition to standard DVD, and lets one chose among available formats when ordering.

Netflix is well-known for the variety of films, including many that never seem to hit the shelves of big-box retailers. I wonder why the company has concluded that it's a drawing card to carry these seldom-rented DVDs but not HD-DVDs.

The software's already in place to allow their selection and I'm sure that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are simply filed as another SKU in their warehouses.

So why do you think Netflix is dropping HD-DVD from the lineup? As I mentioned, since the software and storage systems are already in place it seems a trivial matter to continue stocking and shipping them. And, I suspect, they have a far greater selection rate than many of the DVD titles carried in their catalog.