Part I: The Samsung DVD Player
Regular visitors to the Saltwater abode in any of London, Sydney or Singapore will recognise the view above, currently best seen from the big couch in the lounge room. For others a little explanation may be required, the TV is the Philips purchased in London going on ten years ago now, and still going on strong despite being shipped from London to Sydney and then from Sydney to Singapore. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes any day now, and when it does will likely perform some kind of burial seeing as its been such a good servant over the years.
A bit harder to see on the shelf underneath is the just-over one year old Samsung dvd player, the HT-E5500 model for the technically minded. I'm not a very happy camper, or at least wasn't, because it had a mind of its own for a while and would keep changing the source even when we weren't using the remote. So when watching TV, it would suddenly decide we wanted to watch a DVD, and then open and close the tray for us. Nice one. At other times when watching (ahem) downloaded tv programmes from back home, it would suddenly stop playing and think we wanted to listen to the local radio (not f*cking likely in Singapore). In short, watching anything on it was impossible as it would cycle through various sources every ten minutes or so.
After doing some research, it turns out the thing has a touch screen sensor on the front display (who knew), and in climates where its regularly warm and humid, like Singapore, issues arise. The model is clearly unfit for sale in the tropics, unless they've done something to fix more recent models. Mine being just out of warranty period meant I had to take things into my own hands, so got into the unit, then unplugged the ribbon cable for the touch sensor. Its been a few days since and so far so good, problem solved. So thanks Samsung, for managing to build a unit that almost got thrown out the window after almost being outlived by a Philips TV by a factor of almost ten to one, because its not designed for tropical climates.
If anyone is looking for the how-to guide on how to unplug the touch sensor, the forum post here has the detail in easy to follow steps.
Part II: Watching the World Cup in Singapore
As magnificent as it is that the DVD player has been fixed, don't get too excited just yet. With the World Cup just around the corner many are wondering where they'll be watching, but here in Singapore the decision is made much easier as the local subscription (assuming you don't already subscribe to their overpriced football channels) is an eye-gouging SG$112.35 (approx US$90) for the tournament. Ouch. Never mind that most of the games this time round will take place in the middle of the night, Singapore time.
Better luck next time, football lovers.
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