It’s been a year since I bought an LCD TV (LG 32LB75) that is capable of accepting 1080p input (HD ready 1080p). However, I’ve only used my LCD TV for viewing SD TV and videos. Well, I’m not ready to invest in Blu-ray or Sky’s HD services now. I thought about trying upscaling (I know it can never be as good as true HD) options until I decide to go down the full HD route and had my eye on Oppo, but Oppo was beyond my budget. Then, while skimming through the electronic products section on Amazon, I came across the the Cyclone Micro HD HDMI 1080p Upscaling Multimedia Player Adaptor selling for around £25 and having rave reviews. So, I purchased the Cyclone Micro just before Christmas 2009. Images of the front and back covers of the Cyclone Micro packaging box are given below:

Being so cheap for what it claims to offer, I did not have much expectations from the Cyclone Micro. All I wanted was a quick, easy, cheap way of viewing my DivX and Xvid videos (purchased via Graboid). Well, I have been impressed so far. The Cyclone Micro is a little gadget (smaller then my BlackBerry) that has adequately met my requirement for playing Xvid video on my LCD TV. All I do is download an Xvid video via Graboid, store it on my 8 GB SanDisk USB Flashdrive, stick the flash drive into the Cyclone Micro, connect the Cyclone Micro to my LCD TV via a HDMI cable (only an AV cable comes with the Cyclone Micro, so you’ll need to purchase an HDMI cable separately if you don’t already have one), switch on the Cyclone Micro and select the HDMI Input source on my LCD TV. When done, the Cyclone Micro home menu is displayed on the screen. Using this menu, I select the video I wish to watch and voila! The Cyclone Micro comes with a nifty remote control, loaded with adequate controls like play, stop, forward, rewind, zoom and volume. You can also select your upscaling resolution. By default, the first movie played with my Cyclone Micro used DVD resolution. Then, when I selected 1080p as my default resolution, the video was noticeably different (higher quality). So, the Cyclone Micro does improve video quality with its upscaling (not out of this world, but great enough for such a cheap product!).

I haven’t experimented using my Cyclone Micro with other video, audio and picture formats, but so far, for my requirement of playing Xvid videos on my LCD TV, I believe that the Cyclone Micro has given me bang for my buck!

If you’re a movie buff and want quick and cheap (not free) access to loads of movies (even HD movies) and don’t want to risk torrents, then graboid video is well worth a try. I’ve registered for Gold Membership ($14.99 for a month allowing 50 GB of movie downloads) for a month to check it out. Graboid does not host any videos but link you to internet video sources that comply with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). As per the Graboid website, they’re legal (since they’re not hosting videos and allowing uploads). Also, I  couldn’t find any websites claiming that Graboid is illegal or that Graboid is in trouble with the MPAA and other relevant authorities.

Most of the videos (movies and TV shows) on Graboid are good quality Xvid videos, but Graboid also links you to HD videos (720p/1080p). You can either stream or download the videos.

So far, I’ve downloaded a few Xvid videos and watched them on my LCD TV using my Cylcone Micro – no issues and good audio/video quality. I’ve only had an issue with a 13 GB HD movie (1080p) download and the Graboid forums indicate that the long filename for that movie could be posing a problem (now liaising with Graboid support to give back my 13 GB bandwidth!).

Some movies may be distributed in more than one file (e.g. more than one CD). Recently, I purchased a movie in Xvid format which consisted of two parts (two Xvid files). So, here’s how I joined the files to generate one Xvid file and viewed the entire movie in one go:

STEP 1: Download and install an Xvid codec

Xvid is a video codec library for the MPEG-4 standard. I downloaded an Xvid codec here.

STEP 2: Download and install (extract) VirtualDub

VirtualDub is a free video capture/processing software for Microsoft Windows. You may download VirtualDub here.

STEP 3: Start VirtualDub and load the video files

Start VirtualDub (   ) and load the video files as follows:

To load the first video file, click File –> Open video file on the Menu bar or type CTRL + O.

To load the remaining files, add them one at a time by clicking File –> Append AVI segment on the Menu bar.

STEP 4: Configure Audio and Video settings

For video, click Video –> Direct stream copy on the Menu bar.

For audio, click Audio –> Direct stream copy on the Menu bar.

STEP 5: Save the joined video file

To save all video files as one joined file, click File –> Save as AVI on the Menu bar, choose a filename and save.

Problem:

HPjmeter 4.0 console does not launch after installation on Windows. When trying to launch it, the Command window briefly appears and then disappears without launching the console.

Background:

HPjmeter 4.0 console, a component of HPjmeter 4.0, is used to view performance data and analyze profiling and GC log files for a JVM. HPjmeter 4.0 console, being developed in java, can be executed on any platform supporting Java. However, the console is currently compatible with only JDK 5 and JDK 6. When you launch the installer (hpjmeter_console_4.0.00_windows_setup.exe), it will first scan your HDDs for installed JDKs and I guess it will pick up the first JDK it finds (see screenshot below).

I have both JDK 1.4.2_11 and JDK 6u17 on my HDD. Although only JDK 6u17 meets HPjmeter 4.0 console’s requirements, the installer selected JDK 1.4.2_11 (must have found this JDK first!) and completed the installation. Well, the installer will not even tell you which JDK it has found and used for the installation. You can determine this information only by checking the hpjmeter.bat file in the bin directory within the installation directory. The JDK used by the installer will be the value of the variable JM_JAVA_HOME in the hpjmeter.bat file. So, for my installation, JM_JAVA_HOME indicated that HPjmeter 4.0 console was using JDK 1.4.2_11, thereby not meeting the software requirements.

The HPjmeter 4.0 console installer should either search and select only a compatible JDK or prompt you for the location of a compatible JDK if it cannot find one. Although the installer isn’t too smart, the product (HPjmeter 4.0) is a very good and robust performance analysis tool for JVMs.

 Solution:

Ensure you have a working JDK 5 or JDK 6 installation. Ensure that the value of JM_JAVA_HOME in the hpjmeter.bat file is the location of the JDK 5 or JDK 6 installation.

Root Cause:

HPjmeter 4.0 console installer detected and used an incompatible JDK during installation. Currently, the HPjmeter 4.0 console is compatible with only JDK 5 and JDK 6.

NOTE:

(1) The solution above describes a successful problem-solving experience and may not be applicable to all problems with similar symptoms.

(2) Your rating of this post will be much appreciated. Also, feel free to leave comments.

Problem:

Solaris hosts indicate high cpu utilization caused by Sun’s CST (cstd.agt) and Net Connect (srsproxy) processes.

Background:

Configuration and Service Tracker (CST) and Net Connect are tools provided by Sun Microsystems for proactive system management at a customer site. The software processes launched by these tools run on SOlaris hosts and regularly send data to Sun Microsystems to enable Sun to track system availability and performance and continually improve Sun’s products and services. cstd.agt and srsproxy are processes belonging to CST and Net Connect respectively. While there have been problems/patches for CST and  problems/patches for Net Connect related to high cpu utilization, note that both these tools have reached their EOL and Sun no longer supports them. Instead, Sun has replaced these tools with the Services Tools Bundle (STB).

 Solution:

Remove CST and Net Connect software from your Solaris host(s) or replace CST and Net Connect with STB.

Root Cause:

CST and Net Connect have reached their EOL and are no longer supported. Hence, using them could lead to high CPU utilization problems.

NOTE:

(1) The solution above describes a successful problem-solving experience and may not be applicable to all problems with similar symptoms.

(2) Your rating of this post will be much appreciated. Also, feel free to leave comments.