Video Compression Testing: x264 vs x265 CRF in Handbrake 0.10.5

From goughlui.com 6 years ago in Blogs

Having played around with video since I had a few multimedia CD-ROMs and a BT878-based TV tuner card, video compression is one area that has amazed me. I watched as early “simple” compression efforts such as Cinepak and Indeo bought … Continue reading →

Articles from Gough’s Tech Zone

Site Update – Problems with the Back End!

From goughlui.com 2 years ago in Blogs

A quick update to let everyone know that since my changeover to SSL, which seemed initially promising, various cracks have suddenly appeared which have now rendered the site administration rather problematic (e.g. random 404s, request loops on a number of...

Teardown: A Sick Cooler Master SickleFlow X 120mm Green LED Fan

From goughlui.com 4 years ago in Blogs

It hasn’t even been a year since I built my new workstation and already, something seems to be amiss. Lately, it seems I haven’t been sleeping so well, because there seems to be an angry beast in my room. “Grrrrrrrrrr...

Visited: ElectroneX Expo (5-6th September 2018)

From goughlui.com 4 years ago in Blogs

Every two years, the ElectroneX Expo comes to Sydney. This expo is like a trade show for those involved in electronics design and assembly with a number of stalls from relevant vendors, free talks and is held in conjunction with...

Tech Flashback: Western Digital Raptor/Velociraptor Hard Drives

From goughlui.com 5 years ago in Blogs

When it comes to computer memory, the tiers of storage always end in mass storage as being the system bottleneck. Hard drives, colloquially referred to as spinning rust, were the dominant technology for the vast majority of computers from the...

Tech Flashback: BenQ DW1640 DVD±RW Drive Specialties

From goughlui.com 5 years ago in Blogs

The final part of a series of postings about the BenQ DW1640 DVD±RW drive looks at some of its other special features and explains why I’m so fond of this particular drive. Quality Testing When users burn recordable discs, they...

Tech Flashback: BenQ QSuite v2.1

From goughlui.com 5 years ago in Blogs

One thing that made owning a late-model BenQ DVD recorder worthwhile was the decent writing quality it had out of the box, along with the amount of tweakability the unit had. Knowing what I know now, an earlier Plextor drive...

Repair: BenQ DW1640 DVD±RW Drive Tray with Chinese Belts

From goughlui.com 5 years ago in Blogs

In an era where IDE and DVDs have been left behind in preference for SATA and Bluray, it might seem strange that I’m choosing to repair my retail BenQ DW1640 DVD±RW Drive. Like many optical drives of any vintage, the...

Tech Flashback: Telecom Australia 600-series Adapters & Extensions

From goughlui.com 5 years ago in Blogs

In the present day where landlines are a dying breed and mobile telecommunications has become ubiquitous, the beige-cream coloured Telecom Australia 600-series socket remains a common sight in Australian households. While I have no idea when the 600-series socket came...

Review, Teardown: LaCie 2200mAh Promotional Power Bank

From goughlui.com 5 years ago in Blogs

Earlier this year, I attended the SMPTE exhibition and was lucky enough to receive a power bank as part of the bag of goodies that I snagged, thanks to LaCie and Silicon Memory Technologies. As a result, I thought I’d...

Tested: Fake(?) Motorola ED30 Battery for Moto G (XT1032) 1st Gen

From goughlui.com 5 years ago in Blogs

The Motorola Moto G was quite a popular “value” Android smartphone. It had a good value-for-money factor, and as a result, it became the phone of choice for my Dad who was an “intermediate” user that didn’t demand the power...