Multimedia kiosk internet access at KLIA for free?

Dear readers,

I was waiting around for some guests to arrive at KLIA some time last year, when I decided to experiment with one of the Multimedia kiosks located just near one of the entrances. Here's what I found.

 This is a photo of the main interface that greets the user if the user wants to try and get Internet Access.

 I clicked on Google, to try and see if Internet Access is indeed free. A pop-up window promptly appeared, informing me that I need to insert some cash or swipe a credit card in order for me to experience Internet Access at this Multimedia Kiosk.

 That's fine, perhaps I shall surf for some information regarding KLIA instead. How many of us know much about our favourite Malaysian airport anyway?  I clicked on the Leisure tab shown in the photo above, to discover what opportunities for Leisure are available in KLIA.

I saw that KLIA offers the above depicted services. OK, let's try Business Centre. A predictable service offered for the many business travellers out there.

 Lo and behold, I saw a link to a website down at the bottom of the Business Centre description page. A thought crossed my mind, "What if I clicked on the available link here? Would it take me to the internet? Would my access still be restricted only to information regarding KLIA?" I clicked on it.

 A Google page came up! That's nice. So Google is telling me that the link I clicked on just now is no longer available. Go ahead and try the link I showed in the photo on your desktop browser or mobile device. I just did, it showed the exact same 404 error today as it did that day. 

But wait! A Google page came up...to get to Google would mean that I got through to the Internet somehow and the Internet (Google that is) responded in kind with the 404 message. Could it be that I'm already experiencing Internet Access, but without paying by cash or credit card?

 What should one do to test whether one has a reasonably good internet access? There's nothing like streaming videos off the Internet, I guess. I went to youtube and it's just as depicted in the screenshot above.

 Perhaps one of the more interesting videos or music videos at that time was 'What does the fox say?' So I tried that.

 Yup, no problems whatsoever playing back that video.

 

And as depicted in the slightly zoomed out screenshot above, all video surfing activities were conducted on RM00.00 credit. Well, it was just 1 video, but hey :)

What do you think? Are multimedia kiosks still needed in this day and age of mobile/on the go, computing? Or are they mere relics of a bygone era? Should people even be charged for Internet Access nowadays when there are entire countries that provide Internet Access for free to its citizens? Some for free since as far back as 2003.



Does KLIA have Free WiFi you ask? Apparently they do offer free WiFi. Enjoy!

3D HFR Screening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug! + Dolby Atmos!

Hello all!

I managed to catch a screening of the 3D HFR ATMOS version of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug last night at GSC One Utama. GSC OU (specifically Hall #3) is the only cinema hall in Malaysia that currently offers the Dolby Atmos experience.

What is this Dolby Atmos anyway?  Feel free to click here to learn more about it. A probably easy to spot difference between the current conventional speaker system with this Atmos system is that there are now speakers located above the audience in the theatre! In a nutshell, Dolby Atmos endeavours to give the audience an ever more immersive movie-going experience.

Interested? So now you know what it is, and where you can catch a movie using this particular sound system, but what's the cost? I do not believe that GSC offers the Dolby Atmos experience at a premium over the conventional 2D experience, currently. I paid RM19 to watch the 3D HFR ATMOS version last night, and you would have to pay RM14 (which is essentially minus the RM5 cost of renting the 3D specs) for the 2D ATMOS version. These prices are only from GSC, mind you. If you want to compare prices between GSC and other cinemas, by all means, go ahead, but as I highlighted earlier, the HFR (feel free to read up on my experience of an HFR screening here) and ATMOS experience is currently only available at GSC. Kudos GSC :)

With the logistics out of the way, what was the Dolby Atmos experience like? It was an "ear opening" experience, by all means. Of course just before the feature presentation, Dolby had to show off its Dolby Atmos demo showcase so that the audience is made aware of the impending new experience. This demo will pan the sound not just around the audience (considered so 'yesterday' now) but above them and across them as well. The demo essentially thrusts the audience in the middle of a maple (?) tree in the autumn season, so as you are moving in the tree, you hear the rustling of the leaves as the fall off the tree. I thought it was a good showcase but I was left thinking perhaps they could have done better; what better super surround sound experience would you like to hear? Sound off in the comments, please. Personally, I thought maybe being in a water element might be more realistic. Perhaps standing in the rain in a city with the various cityscape sounds going off around you?

Anyway, on to the feature presentation; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and its Dolby Atmos experience. I recall very clearly a scene where the camera was looking down on one of the movie's protagonists and this camera was actually offering a viewpoint of an assailant (think Orc). So in this scene, the protagonist (perhaps it was Legolas?) would we looking up ready to fight the Orc which was going to jump right onto him. Since we were the audience, and we were looking at the protagonist, the sound of the Orc's battle cry would rightfully, in conventional cinemas, come from behind the audience, but instead, the film makers are now able to project the sound from the speakers located above the audience, which more accurately places the sound versus a conventional sound system. It makes sense, right?

Other than the above standout scene, I had trouble pinning down any more benefits from the Dolby Atmos system. Could it be that the movie simply did not take full advantange of the hugely improved soundscape potential? Or perhaps I was too engrossed in the story of the movie to actually notice what was going on sound-wise?

Feel free to watch a Dolby Atmos screening of a movie; Hobbit or otherwise and leave your comments on how it sounded to you!

Gravity in IMAX 3D at TGV One Utama

Hello,

I would just like to rave that I liked the IMAX 3D presentation of Gravity at TGV One Utama (OU). It was an experience unlike any I had before. I would credit this site that I visited just before deciding on IMAX 3D or "plain 'ol 2D" (my default standard now) and I am indeed eternally grateful. And you will find that there are other sites that recommend watching Gravity in IMAX 3D; e.g. See ‘Gravity’ in IMAX 3D or forever hate yourself. You can count on my blog promoting Gravity in IMAX 3D as well!

For whatever reason, the 2310hrs slot that I chose on a week night did not have many takers (duh!), so I was able to comfortably choose a dead centre seat (at least it seemed like dead centre to me) in the ~7 month old TGV IMAX 3D theatre. Side note: apparently there were a couple of bloggers who were invited to attend the launch and I could count at least 3 local bloggers who blogged about the launch, interesting.. 

I was a reasonably frequently visitor of the TGV Sunway Pyramid IMAX theatre but after experiencing the OU IMAX experience, I will definitely put OU as my default option for IMAX presentations now. I will tell you why.

First of all, the TGV ticket purchasing experience was pleasant enough. It is good for the consumer (that's us) that GSC and TGV took different approaches to the ticket purchasing experience. They differ in the sense that

1. GSC would like the consumer to be a registered member in order to be able to purchase a ticket; try going to this GSC E-Payment link and you would be greeted with a members only notification, whereas
2. TGV is flexible enough to allow ticket purchase without ever logging in.Of course, the consumer would still have to provide some personal details like Name, Email and Phone, not to mention your post code in TGV's case.

As with the 'standard/normal' ticket purchasing, the ticket is sent to an email address of your choosing and you would have to print it out for proof of purchase. I do not think there's an option for you to just show/flash a 2D barcode, ala GSC.

I do like the option to just flash a 2D barcode at the scanner though..but that's just me.


Secondly, the cinema itself, though perhaps on the darker side, does offer up pretty decent popcorn combos. I actually wanted to try the Royale Popcorn Double Crunch but that was already sold out at 2300hrs. Since it was already quite late in terms of the cinema's business hours, I am not sure whether they ran out of that popcorn just in time with the cinema's last movie(s) or whether the Royale Popcorn was indeed a bestseller. For what it's worth, the waiter did say it was popular.

Nevertheless, I managed to snag the next best popcorn (I think it was the standard popcorn available) and mineral water combo (let's all live slightly healthier lives, shall we?). The popcorn did have good texture and taste and kept me coming back for more. I was impressed. I do not have the figures on how much it set me back though.


Tickets got us inside the theatre, popcorn and water in tow, so the following comments would be regarding the theatre hall itself. Spacious. Seemingly more available seats when compared to its TGV Sunway Pyramid IMAX equivalent. No complaints here.

Next, the sound quality. I could probably sum it up as 'great'. The surround worked well, with the sound of whizzing objects (think space station in trouble and you get the idea) being articulated well enough through the hall's speakers to make the Gravity experience more believable. Dialogue was crystal clear. I think the dialogue being conveyed clearly is important, because I do not recall reading subtitles in this IMAX presentation, or others before it for that matter.

The video quality. My, my, this is indeed the standard for IMAX 3D presentations specifically, as well as for 3D presentations in general from now on. Period. It captures as close as possible the feeling of being in space, and an astronaut confirmed this right here too: Real-Life Astronaut Weighs In on ‘Gravity’. I even felt queasy during some scenes, but again, every person has different biological characteristics so you may not feel the same as I did, but to feel as if you are rotating in space along with the characters is definitely an experience not to be missed.

With my video quality comment above, consider this posting done and dusted. In summary, if you've ever wanted to feel like you were in space, an IMAX 3D presentation would probably be your cheapest entry to the experience. No kidding.

That said, I believe the movie and movie Cineplex industry should probably 'gravitate' towards these 'Gravity' kind of movie-going experiences in order to continue being relevant in today's home theatre in a box, home theatre on your PC, etc generation. The movie-going experience MUST continue to be an experience that enthrals its moviegoers, otherwise, we could just sit at home and wait for the movie to be available via our favourite movie subscription channel and watch it on our big screen TVs with 5.1 or even 7.1 surround sound in a sound padded room...


Thanks for reading!

3D HFR Screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Dear Readers,

I did manage to catch a HFR 3D screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and this time I was in seat from the beginning to the very end. In case you are wondering; no, there aren't any special scenes after the movie credits.

In any case, the difference between the IMAX 3D presentation and the HFR 3D presentation was immediately apparent. I was amazed at the stark difference and once again, my jaw dropped in wonder at how one movie could have such different presentations in circulation. In the IMAX 3D version, the scenes were actually blurry. The details in the visuals not as sharp. I was quite surprised at the quality of the IMAX version actually. Could it have been a poorly done IMAX version? I do not have the facts on this. The HFR 3D version, on the other hand, had sharp visuals all the way, which is what I expected from an IMAX 3D version in the first place!

As someone who first sat through the "less than ideal" version, I can fully appreciate the detail in the HFR version. If you watched the HFR version straight away, I would like to think that you would still be able to compare the visuals of previous movies that you have watched, with The Hobbit in HFR. Yes, I state HFR without the 3D because I am confident that the detail is apparent even in the 2D version. Though, I am not sure if there is a HFR 2D version available here in Malaysia. An analogy of my experience that I wish to convey to you, is similar to watching the standard presentation of a movie; that is, in its analog form without any 2D or 3D or anything added to it. Yes, I mean that grainy film quality. Keep that visual in mind and remember how you felt and what you saw when you stepped into a digital 2D presentation with all its quality and detail. That is the difference that you can expect when you go for a HFR presentation. It is another step forward but I also saw the visuals that probably made some reviewers or critics state: "looks like a video game" and "feels like watching it in the studio", "it looked fake" You would have to first experience HFR by yourself and see whether you like it or not.

To me, the HFR presentation is definitely the way to go when watching The Hobbit. I highly recommend it, borne out of my personal opinion and taste of course. The visuals were sharp and the motion blur was indeed reduced. You could really start to comprehend all the action scenes and further appreciate the movements of the characters, from both the virtual and real actors.

Here's looking forward to the next movie in HFR..any idea what movie that might be?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in IMAX 3D

Hi Readers,

I am glad to report that I just came back (relatively) from a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in IMAX 3D at Sunway Pyramid. I can say I had my mouth open in amazement for a good duration of the movie, right up till the end. I did not have the best start to watching this much anticipated movie; I walked in a few minutes late, I have no idea how late. Suffice to say it was still during the 'prologue' sequence, so I hope not too much was missed, but I am the sort to watch a movie from the very start to the very end, so I am actually planning on watching The Hobbit again!

It wouldn't be smart to watch at the same place, now would it? So that set me off on a journey. The journey to find the best Hobbit experience. But what triggered me to actually yearn for a better experience? It would surely be because I found something lacking in the screening that I just sat through. After all, if one were fully satisfied, and the 'thirst' is quenched, why would one still ask for more?

What I found lacking was the much talked about 48fps that The Hobbit was shot in. You will find more explanation on this here. Feel free to use Google to find out more, if you so desire. I accept the fact that perhaps I was a little too confident that the IMAX 3D experience would have been the best experience with regards to 'new technology' pioneered by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit's director. I should have done more research. Also I assumed that all versions of The Hobbit would feature the 48fps, or to use the official term, High Frame Rate (HFR).

It turns out I was wrong. The IMAX 3D version that I watched lacked the clarity that I was promised by the hype surrounding the HFR version of The Hobbit. I knew straight away as I sat in my seat that I wasn't going to get the much talked about HFR in this sitting of The Hobbit. I was disappointed but thankfully the movie was good enough to whisk me away on its adventure. That said, I would be reminded from time to time that I wasn't watching the much touted HFR version by the many action scenes presented throughout the movie. Yes, the motion blur was there (supposedly reduced or eliminated by HFR) and very noticeable in the action scenes.

Anyway, it just gives more to aspire to in the 2nd screening. And that leads to the question, "Do Malaysian cinemas even offer HFR?" I immediately sought out the answer to this question. On the way to finding out the answer, I 'dropped by' IMAX's website to find out whether what I just watched was actually in HFR. I had to verify, because one can never be too sure of oneself. I could be wrong. Perhaps the HFR didn't offer much improvement over the standard feature presentation? But I was proven right. Apparently, there is IMAX, IMAX 3D and now, even IMAX HFR 3D. Click here to read more on this. That article on IMAX's website lists down the IMAX theatres around the world that are screening the HFR 3D version of the film. And sad to say, Malaysia was not on the list, folks.

With no IMAX HFR 3D option here, unless we travel down to Singapore for a screening (Congrats Singaporeans!), we would have to take IMAX out of the IMAX HFR 3D equation, which just leaves us with HFR 3D. Again, we have to ask ourselves, is such an experience available to us Malaysians?

Once again, I journeyed to find out. It wasn't a long journey. Google now lists down the movie screening times for you as you type out the name of the movie that you would like to catch, and after I typed out "The Hobbit" (it works even without the quotes, try it), the following options appeared underneath:

See showtimes for (3D), (2D), (HFR 3D), and (IMAX 3D)

So Google tells us that there is in fact a HFR 3D version of the movie being screened in Malaysia. And where would we be so lucky to be able to catch it, you ask? Well here you go, but do feel free to look it up yourself. Clicking on the HFR 3D link yields the following result:

Golden Screen Cinemas - Signature Gardens

Golden Screen Cinemas - Pavilion KL

I tried many times to see if there were more than the 2 given options, but I was unsuccessful. Please do update me if you, dear reader, have found anywhere else that screens the movie in HFR.

So the standard procedure now applies. Select a suitable cinema, with a suitable time and purchase the ticket (probably the most painful part nowadays as ticket prices seem to be on the up, why is that? Anyone know?) and once again, look forward to a new experience. Hopefully.

It appears that while TGV has gotten its hands on exclusive rights to IMAX in Malaysia, GSC is the first to pioneer HFR. Competition is a wonderful thing, and it is the customer that benefits in the end. Till after I catch the HFR 3D experience...

My Unifi installation experience

Finally, after Unifi promised me that my area would be covered by Unifi by the end of 2010, they came to install the service. Yes folks, it was a long wait. But let's see, sometimes things are worth waiting for, no?

Below was my chronicle of the installation 'milestones' on Evernote. Do check out Evernote for your note-keeping, checklist making, idea-jotting purposes. Since I don't really have that much time; as you can see, the last time I posted on this blog was in Dec 2010, I am just basically copy pasting from my Evernote, starting below:


The Unifi guys arrived around 1008hrs but it was raining. They discussed how they would proceed with the installation but due to the rain, they said they are unable to proceed as yet. So they opted to wait out the rain in their van. I offered that they could wait it out in the house but they declined. They are both Muslims so I am unable to offer them any food/drink either way.

1022hrs : still waiting but don't hear the rain so much from within the house so maybe they can proceed soon :P

1032hrs: Wow, they started to take down their ladder from the van, looks like they will proceed. Nice~ :D

1042hrs: began routing the black cable (that will go from the point outside the house to along the exterior of the house)

1210hrs: Everything is installed with minimum fuss. But just getting it to work now. They said something about there might be a "mismatch", so waiting to see how they deal with it. :P

1230hrs: The problem was solved by 'cleaning' the fibre optic cable that connects to the modem. They told me to test the internet and it resulted in a very respectable 5.02Mb/s download and 4.89Mb/s upload speed! w00t! Great news indeed. Then I had to test the IPTV and the video did seem to be a bit jerky, though, predictably, he said it would clear up. I've got all the channels on HyppTv on offer for free for 1 month. Will see what I do with this particular service later on.

The phone worked well enough too.

They left shortly after. So all in all, it only took 2 hours' work! Fantastic :D

Proof of the bandwidth obtained, as reported by speedtest:

One of my good friends suggested I do some real world tests like multiplayer gaming and torrenting to justify switching to Unifi. Certainly exciting and useful if we have such data to refer to. Will keep you all posted, thank you for reading!

Feel free to figure out how fast you type!

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