Duronic Mini HDMI Switcher

The Duronic HDMI Selector arrived this morning so time to give it a try...

According to the box, the HDMI switch auto switches up to 3 HDMI devices but just in case you have 2 or more HDMI devices on at the same time it comes with a handy remote control that you can use to manually select the HDMI device you want to view.  Failing that, there is a Select button on the HDMI Switch itself that cycles through the 3 different connections.

It supports full 1080p my TV is only 720p so I wont see the benefit of that.  There is a place to plug in a 5V power supply but it doesn't come with one as it's not required for it to function.

There isn't a built-in infrared port, instead you have to plug the enclosed infrared lead in to a port on the side of the HDMI switch.  This means that you can hide the HDMI Switch and the ugly looking wires behind your TV set and just have the infrared receiver on show which makes the place look a lot tidier.

I purchased this switch from Amazon and paid £9.99 + £3.73 delivery for it which is right within my budget (I didn't want to spend any more than £15).  Some people on Amazon were selling this for £19.99 and this is a Sale price as it once was £29.99!  It's a nice device but certainly not worth £19.99 let alone £29.99 - especially when you can get a gold plated version (without a remote control) for £8.99 with free delivery.

At £19.99 - £29.99 I would only give it 2-3 stars but as I only paid £13.72 for it I will give it 4 stars.

Raspberry Pi As A Media Centre Review

It might not be Christmas Day yet but I already have a parcel to unwrap thanks to CPC and the super fast delivery by Royal Mail!

My Raspberry Pi that I ordered from CPC on Sunday has arrived so I now need to get to grips with it so I can set it up to be a Media Centre to play all my media files on my TV.

The first thing I did was to download NOOBS (New Out Of Box Software) which has the RaspBMC option in it which is the software I am using as my Media Centre - it's basically an open source application called XBMC that has been configured to work on the Raspberry Pi.

After downloading the NOOBS file I followed the installation instructions and downloaded, installed and run the SD Formatter utility and formatted the SD Card I ordered using the FAT system.

I then extracted the NOOBS file I had downloaded on to the root of the SD Card and then popped it in to my Raspberry Pi and then turned it on by connecting it to the USB slot of my HP MediaSmart Server.

Winmau Lakeside World Championship Edition Darts Set Review

I've always wanted to learn to play Darts but I've never managed to get around to it.  Today I had an urge to give it a try so I had a quick look online to see what shops on the 'High Street' sold them so I could pick one up today (before I changed my mind) after searching around I found that Argos was pretty much the best place to shop.

After looking at all the options I narrowed it down to either the Winmau Blade 4 or the Unicorn Eclipse dart boards, but which one is best?  What a minefield that is!  After reading reviews on the internet I found that for every person saying the Blade 4 is the best there was another saying the Eclipse was the best - so at least I had picked the two most popular ones at least.

I decided to look at the different accessories that you can get with them as I wanted to hang it on the wall and as a beginner I'm more than likely to miss at some point so I need some sort of surround etc. to minimise damage to my wallpaper.  After looking at all the different options I decided that the Winmau Lakeside Word Championship Edition Darts Set was the right one for me as it includes the Winmau Blade 4 dartboard, two sets of darts and a deluxe cabinet to hang it on the wall with.

After reserving it online I popped down to my local Argos store and purchased the set and brought it home where I spent the next 20 minutes hanging drilling holes and hanging it on the wall.

I have to say though, first impressions are that the finish of both the dartboard and the so called 'luxury cabinet' are pretty poor.