Finlux 32FLD882H - brief review

This will be really short, since it really does not deserve more.

TV broadcast programs become more and more redundant with time and for me they are already old story (official local news are the only get my serious attention). Anyway, the point is that we needed a simple LCD TV to replace my old and bulky 28'' CRT TV.

We bought Finlux 32FLD882H on sale because of the price and couple of obvious features. Before you start searching for the specs - save your time - it doesn't worth it. If I have to buy it again (even cheaper) probably I would not do it.

Pros: (only in comparison to my old CRT)

• VGA and HDMI inputs, (DTV that is a standard nowadays, not an advantage)
• The best of all - AVL (Automatic Volume Limits). It normalizes the sound level, so the abnormally loud commercial breaks are just leveled down!

Cons: (taking into account that this a cheap TV-set)

• Very bad picture quality.
• Sound that does not sound stereo at all...
• Humming noise - this is really bad! Can't believe it that someone can make TV that is not quiet...
• The first labels from the remote control start to peel off on the second day!?
• bulky remote control (not that I use it anyway...) 
• No support for DTVB-C (Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable) - there is only support for DTVB-T ( - Terrestrial)
• many more...

Overall assessment: BAD! Perhaps, sale price is the only reasonable price for this TV... If you are serious about LCD TV - wake up, you are in the wrong section in the shop...

Update 20.01.2013: To be completely fair, 2 years later the TV is working just fine without any problems or hassles. It feels like money well spent for what one gets.

Select wifi channel in a crowded neighborhood

It seems that this will become a routine task for me.

Recently, I was suffering from serious network speed deterioration. I use an 802.11g wireless router to connect my computers and mobile phone to internet. As it turns out, there are about 24 wireless access points "visible" from my computer. Earlier, an year or so, I have easily selected channel 11 since most of my neighbors were using the default channel 6. Anyway, a quick check with NetStumbler reviled the horrible situation - all of my closest neighbors were using channel 11 - same as me...

Well, it was looking quite OK to move back to channel 6 since that channel looked least crowded and with the weakest signal. I did it.

Today, I have tried another tool inSSIDer that again reviled  a horrible situation. My neighbors were using routers that span over 2 channels, and the first program showed only one of them. After reconsideration I have moved to channel 4 - you can easily see the reason for that on the screen  snapshot  (the bold red curve is for my router). It could be particularly bad. Apparently one of my neighbors delivers stronger signal than my own router located in the same room as the computer... 

It is obvious that I will need to check the frequency spectra quite often... and inSSIDer will be the best tool for that.

Update: There is one more complication. Newer routers can also automatically select the best channel(s) that make my efforts useless. It seems that the easiest and better solution is to upgrade my old router, in other words, buy newer.