It’s running Ubuntu 12.10 server edition and works incredibly well. I have transmission installed with a web interface. So I can add and manage my torrents through the web browser and schedule them to run at night. It’s also running a samba share so I can access my media from my various devices inside and outside of the house. I’m also running the usual Apache/PHP/mysql stack for development and work projects.

Out of the box it’s passively cooled and uses around 15 watts when running on the supplied 12V 3A adapter. I added a 12V computer fan (the motherboard already has a header) which consumes an additional 1.5 watts. While it may not be necessary to add a fan, with our extreme temps in Manila, I decided it would be safer to add one.

I’d previously tried using a netbook as a home server but it died after just a few days and no longer powers up. I’ve tested the charger and battery and they’re operating as normal. Netbooks aren’t really designed to be left running 24/7, especially under heavy load. So I’d recommend getting a mini pc like this and perhaps suggest adding a fan just to ensure the board is kept cool.

Performance wise I’m very happy with this machine. It’s obviously not going to match up to a modern quad core heavy duty server but for the average home server it’s extremely powerful and I’ve yet to come anywhere close to eating up even 50% of the CPU/RAM.

I had originally planned to buy the parts separately and build the system myself. Unfortunately none of the major stores had the atom motherboards in stock so I’d have to buy from Sulit and the sellers prices were too high. I’d have paid more to get less. So I decided to buy this ready made system.

I checked BayanDSLs Facebook page and there were a number of other people complaining about the same problem, so I’m obviously not alone.

I emailed BayanDSL with a copy of the screenshots I’ve put on this page. Their response was basically that I should only expect 2Mbps to sites hosted within the Philippines (basically none). However, this still doesn’t ring true because I DO get 2Mbps internationally, but only at off-peak hours.

“Thank you for the provided test samples. Having checked the test samples these are all conducted via international servers. Please be advised base on your package we do not have direct peering going to the international servers you want to be connected.”

So what do I get for my P1,999 a month from BayanDSL?

• 2Mbps to servers within the Philippines at any time of day
• 2Mbps to international servers (US/UK/Europe) after midnight
• 1Mbps (Max.) 9am – 6pm
• 0.5Mbps (Max.) 6pm-11pm

UPDATE: How I fixed my connection

I finally found out how to fix my connection! It turns out that BayanDSL started using a special ASEAN range of IP addresses which are configured terribly behind a number of NAT layers. I told BayanDSL that my modem IP and public IP didn’t match and that port forwarding (accessing my computers from outside my network) wasn’t working. To fix the port forwarding issue they had to take me out of that ASEAN range and back onto their standard network. This fixed port forwarding AND my painfully slow internet.

Why you shouldn’t use Speedtest.net

One of the first thing BayanDSL will ask you to do is perform a speed test on speedtest.net with the Quezon City server selected. There’s two reasons why this is an unreliable way of measuring your connection.

1) Selecting the Quezon City server will direct your speed test to speed.skyinet.net which is hosted within BayanDSLs own network here in the Philippines. So of course you’re going to get a blazing fast speed to that server. You should be testing against servers in the UK/US/Europe since that’s where most websites are actually hosted.

2) ISPs are known for traffic shaping or enforcing “quality of service” rules. For example they may slow torrents but increase the bandwidh available to Skype and regular web surfing.

Speedtest.net works by providing ISPs around the world with special image files (e.g. http://vega.skyinet.net/speedtest/random750x750.jpg) to host within their network. Your browser downloads those images and the time taken is measured to work out how fast your internet is. The problem is that ISPs put rules in that prioritize any request for these images. So while you might get 200Kb/sec while running the Speedtest.net app, you’d only get a fraction of that if you tried to download a different file from the exact same server!

Speedtest.net Vs. Real world download

To demonstrate my point about ISPs shaping our traffic to make our speedtests look better than they are, I downloaded the speedtest.net image file from Comcast Atlanta server and then downloaded a random file from Linodes Atlanta server (content delivery network). As you can see, I got a blazing fast 230Kb/sec when downloading the speedtest.net image file but a poor and more realistic 16Kb/sec when downloading a random file from another server in the same city. To show that Lineodes network is fast, I also downloaded the file from a server in the UK, which was pulling the file at over 1 meg a sec.

Downloading the speedtest.net image file from a server in Atlanta

Downloading non-speedtest.net file from a Linode server in Atlanta

Downloading the same Lineode Atlanta file from a server in the UK 

Real world download speed test

A better way to speed test your connection is to try download files from various servers worldwide. Since most sites are hosted within the US/UK/Europe, it makes sense to speed test against files in those territories. You should try a regular download and then also a download with a manager which can open multiple sockets at once (for example DownloadThemAll or InternetDownloadManager).

Ideally you should test against files which are hosted on Content Delivery networks, since these hosts have a lot of bandwidth and wont get slowed down by a lot of users testing against them. Lineode have servers in Tokyo, London, Newark, Atlanta, Dallas, Fremont and Cachefly have a very fast delivery network with 10/100Mb test files. There’s also ThinkBroadband in the UK with various file sizes on different ports.

Ping Test

BayanDSL will recommend you ping google.com, this is fine but again it’s not the best test case. Google operate one of the largest sprawling worldwide networks so generally you’ll have an amazing ping to them even if your connection is performing badly. You can ping test against them as a reference but again I recommend you ping against UK/US/Europe servers for a more ‘real world’ test. For example you could ping bbc.co.uk, reddit.com, facebook.com, flickr.com.

Ping BayanDSL (Philippines)

Ping Google (Anycast IP address, sending PH users to Hong Kong data center)

Ping Hong Kong

Ping Taiwan

Ping Canada

Ping Seattle

Ping UK

Your average monthly speed with Youtube

If you browse Youtube while logged in, it will aggregate your average speed over a month. You can see this by going to http://www.youtube.com/my_speed

I watch quite a lot of videos on Youtube so for me it’s a good way to get an idea of the kind of speed my 2Mbps connection is actually giving me. As you can see from the screenshot, my 2Mbps connection from BayanDSL actually averages to 1.17 Mbps, nearly half the speed of what I’m paying for. Which means a lot more waiting around for videos to buffer.

Conclusion

The rough conclusion is that even when you can show Bayan that your connection is crawling like a tortoise, they won’t actually do anything about it. They’ve oversold their capacity and their network can’t handle the traffic at peak times (evenings and weekends).

They’ll tell you that their only agreement with you is to offer your agreed speed to sites hosted within the Philippines.

They’ll tell you to speed test against a server here in the PH, which is absolutely pointless because none of the sites you intend to visit will be hosted locally and we already know that Bayan have more than enough local bandwidth, the problem is that they don’t have enough international bandwidth to handle the amount of customers they have.

Basically it’s a scam. It’s like paying p1,000 for gas at Shell and then they only put in p700 because they don’t have enough capacity for all their customers.

For those who dont know yet, the BT SmartTalk app basically turns your smart device into a landline telephone. Whatever calls you make from your smart device (over wifi or 3g/4g) are handled and billed the same as if you were making them from your landline. That also means that you can make use of any plan you’re signed up to. For example, you might have the BT anytime which lets you call any landline, 0800, 0845 or 0870 anytime of the day for Free. That same plan would apply to any calls you make from the SmartTalk application.

Being in Manila, I had a hard time getting BT SmartTalk installed on my phone. They’ve restricted the app download on the Apple store and Android play store to UK only. It’s quite hard to get around these country checks and unfortunately just swapping out your sim or going through a proxy doesn’t get the job done.

Fortunately I was able to find someone online that was kind enough to install the app to their phone in the UK and then supply me with the APK file. I installed the app and talked a family member in the UK through the registration process where BT call your landline with a pin number and then call your mobile with a secondary pin. The setup was pretty quick, taking about 5 minutes.

The app works wonderfully and gets a big thumbs up from me. Calls connect quicker than Skype and it’s a delight to know they’re costing absolutely nothing since they’re already covered by my families BT plan (BT AnyTime) in the UK.

This could well signal the end of the ‘Its my turn to use the phone’ household squabbles. Your kids can each install the BT Smart Talk app onto their phone or other smart device (ipad, ipod touch, android tablet) and are able to call out at the same time, using either wifi or 3g/4g.

Review video

What is my outgoing number?

When setting BT SmartTalk up on your smart device, you need to register a mobile phone number. When calling out using the app, this mobile number is the one that will be given to the person you’re calling. So people will think you’re calling them from your mobile phone when you’ll really be calling them from BT Smart Talk.

My landline has free calls after 7pm / at weekends / all the time, what about the app?

The app works the same way as your landline. If you have free calls on your landline then you have free calls from the app. Just remember to use wifi to avoid any data charges or eating up your monthly 3g/4g allowance.

Can I make a call from my landline and smart device at the same time?

Yes! You can make calls from your landline, ipad, phone, android (etc.) all at the same time. You can infact have as many as 5 outgoing calls at any one time, all benefiting from whatever BT plan you’re signed up to.

Can I call my own landline from the SmartTalk application?

Yes, you can!

Can I make calls while I’m abroad or on holiday?

You can! Just connect to any wifi hotspot and you can use the app just as though you were in the UK. Call your friends and family at your normal rate (or free if you have a calling plan) rather than paying high roaming charges. Just be careful to use wifi rather than your phones data (3g) connection since your mobile provider would likely charge you a tidy premium for using internet data outside of the UK.

Can I take incoming calls? If someone calls my landline, will it come through to the app?

No. The Smart Talk app is for outgoing calls only.

The official MiLight bulbs are LED and come in two flavours - white or RGB (color changing). The bulbs are actually radio controlled, with the wifi bridge acting as a middle man, converting UDP packets sent over WiFi to radio signals. This is essentially how the Philips Hue system works too. The system can control MiLight bulbs, generic 2.4ghz LED bulbs and 2.4ghz LED strip lighting.

Demo video

Out of the box, the lights can be controlled from any iDevice – iphone, ipad, ipod. The Wifi Bridge can act as a hotspot that you connect to, or it can join an existing wifi point.

Syncing the Bulbs to the wifi bridge

The instructions on syncing the lights with the wifi bridge are quite confusing. For those who are still trying to work out what to do; you need to turn the bulbs off and then connect to the wifi bridge from your iDevice. Once connected to the wifi bridge, run the controller app and swipe 3 times to the right until you get the RGB controller on the screen. Now turn the bulb on and press the S + button within 3 seconds. You can do each bulb individually, so you don’t need to run around trying to turn them all on at the same time.

Connect the MiLight WiFi bridge to existing WiFi Network

The biggest question everyone has is whether the MiLight Bridge can be set to connect to your existing wifi network instead of acting as a hotspot. Surecart told me it could be done but couldn’t tell me how and the instruction booklet doesn’t mention it. After some playing, I worked out how it was done.

Connect to the MiLight bridge wifi and then open your browser and go to http://192.168.1.100 and enter the username admin and password 000000

Set work type to Sta
Change SSID to the name of your existing wireless network
Set encryption to whatever encryption your existing wireless network uses
Change key format to ASCII
Enter your wifi password in the Encryption Key box
Click save
Un-tick DHCP Enable and enter the following into the boxes below (or vary for your own router settings)
Fixed IP Address: 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway Address: 192.168.1.254
DNS Address: 8.8.8.8
Click save
Click system in the left menu bar
Click Restart System

Wait a minute for the MiLight bridge to join your existing wifi network. You can confirm it worked by reloading http://192.168.1.100 . If the bridge is unable to join your network (for example if you enter the wrong encryption password) then it will become unavailable and you’ll need to reset it with a pin pushed into the reset hole on the side of the bridge.

Technical

Nearly all of the generic LED lights out there that use 2.4ghz can be operated from the same remote control. Thats why the MiLight system is able to control MiLight bulbs, generic LED bulbs and generic LED strips. This makes the system far more expandable and cost efficient than the Philips Hue.

The official Mi-Light RGB bulbs are 6W. There’s 15 surface mount LEDs within the bulb with a predicted lifetime of 50,000 hours. They can operate from 86V to 264V making them compatible with mains power in pretty much every country. The bulb case is made of aluminium (acting as a heat sink) and has a slightly frosted ABS cover.

Out of the box, the MiLight system is only controllable from an iDevice. I wanted to control the lights from all my devices, not just my iDevice.

I used WireShark to sniff the packets being sent between my iPad and the MiLight WiFi bridge. I determined that the iOS app sends UDP packets to the WiFI bridge and the WiFi bridge then sends radio signals to the bulbs. With a bit of effort, I was able to determine the hex commands to turn the bulbs on, off, brightness up, brightness down, control preset modes and the full range of 255 colors.

I made a simple web interface using a HTML/JS frontend and php backend. I’m now able to control the lights from my laptop, Android phone and even my raspberrypi. Aside from the standard controls, I’ve also set the lights up to act as a sunrise alarm, gradually brightening over the period of 30 minutes to wake me up more naturally each morning.

Making your own app or using generic home automation software/apps

If you’re looking to create your own app, here are the codes for the various functions. You need to send them as HEX UDP packets to 192.168.1.100 port 50000

Commands must be sent as hexadecimal data!

Commands for color changing bulbs
Turn bulb on: 220055
Turn bulb off: 210055
Turn brightness up: 230055
Turn brightness down: 240055
Mode up: 270055
Mode down: 280055
Speed up: 250055
Speed down: 260055
Color selection: 20[xx]55 (where [xx] is a value between 0 and 255, converted to hex)
Commands for white only bulbs
I don’t have any of the white bulbs but fortunately a couple of readers (Adam & Dave) sent the codes in to share with everyone.

Turn all bulbs on: 350055
Turn all bulbs off: 390055
Turn brightness up: 3c0055
Turn brightness down: 340055
Make light warmer: 3E0055
Make light whiter: 3F0055
Turn Zone 1 on: 380055
Turn Zone 1 off: 3B0055
Turn Zone 2 on: 3D0055
Turn Zone 2 off: 330055
Turn Zone 3 on: 370055
Turn Zone 3 off: 3A0055
Turn Zone 4 on: 320055
Turn Zone 4 off: 360055

Android app

Update: There’s now an official app available for Android users. The app is near enough identical to the one on iOS and works perfectly. Go grab the android wifi controller app.

Generic home automation apps on Android

I received an email from Dave asking if he could use his existing home automation software to control the bulbs. He also suggested some existing android apps that are used as generic remotes for home automation. Pretty much any app or software capable of sending hexadecimal data via UDP packets should be fine. As a demo, I’ve used s-remote on Android to control the bulb. (It’s easier if you sync your bulbs using the official app first.)

Windows Application (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8)

I’ve made a simple Windows application (created in VB6) that allows basic control of the MiLight Wifi Bulbs.  It should work on any version of Windows from XP up to the latest Windows 8. You need to be connected to the same wifi network as the controller box and set the IP address within the application. You can see a demo of the application below, you can download it here. (It’s easier if you sync your bulbs using the official app first.)

Power usage

I measured the RGB bulb and wifi controller using a watt meter. This gives an accurate reading of how much power the equipment takes to run. Using these numbers, you could work out how much it costs to run these devices. They’re very low power.

The wifi controller uses 2.3 watts

The bulb set to white (be selecting mode 1) and set to full brightness, uses 7.7w

The bulb set to red and set to full brightness, uses 3.6w

The bulb set to purple and set to full brightness, uses 3.8w

The bulb set to blue and set to full brightness, uses 2.9w

Bricked wifi controller

I’ve encountered a couple of people who’ve managed to get their wifi controllers into a non-working state while trying to set them up to join an existing wifi network. They’ve reset them several time but the controller is still not outputting an SSID. If you’re one of these people, then I have a solution for you.

The wifi controller box uses the TLG10UA03 module from Huada Electronic Design Co., Ltd (HED) which is described as ’802.11b/g wireless card with UART interface/TTL/external antanne/ AT+ compatible’.

The solution requires this piece of software (manual included) and a USB-TTL module (around $8 in most countries). After buying your USB-TTL module, install the supplied driver.

Next pop open the wifi controller box using a flat head screwdriver, there are no screws to undo. Inside the case you’ll find two boards, a large one with a smaller one plugged into it. The smaller one is the wifi module and should be unplugged from the larger one. Connect the USB-TTL cable to the wifi module and plug the USB-TTL into your computer. Run the UART-WIFI.exe application and follow the onscreen options to reset the module or to simply modify the existing wireless settings.

This is a bit hands on but it will allow you to get a non-broadcasting wifi controller back up and running.

‘wifi Controller 2′ vs ‘wifi Controller’

The ‘wifi controller 2′ app is a great improvement over the original controller app. They’ve fixed some layout issues when using the app on an iPad and added support for multiple wifi controller boxes. The original app could only control one controller box and it had to be using the default IP address, this was a problem if you’d set the controller box to join your existing wifi network – thus changing the default IP address.

Unfortunately it’s still not possible to change RGB (color changing) bulbs independently using just one controller box.

Control RGB bulbs individually from one wifi controller box

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to control the RGB bulbs independently from one wifi controller box. This is an annoying failure and it seems that it should be technically possible. A bulb can be paired to a specific controller box. Meaning that if you had 2 bulbs and 2 controller boxes, you could control those bulbs independently. There should be a way to have the controller box ‘act’ like two boxes and pair to the bulbs independently. I hope the firmware of the controller box will someday be tweaked to support this feature.

Sample setup in house

David sent in this cool video showing the MiLight bulbs setup in his house. He’s controlling them from an Android tablet.

Alternative to Philips Hue

The first thing many people will ask is whether these are a true alternative to the Philips Hue system. The first big pro of the MiLight system is that it’s significantly cheaper. The Milight WiFi bridge and 3 bulbs will cost you around 53 pounds, while the Philips hue bridge and 3 bulbs will cost you 180 pounds.

The Philips Hue bulbs consume 9W but don’t specify how much is for the LED and how much is overhead. The MiLight bulbs consume 7.5W and specify 6W for the LED. So the Philips hue lights are likely to be ever so slightly brighter.

The Philips Hue iOS app is far better than the one supplied with the MiLight. Philips have also setup a resource center for developers to interact with the lamps. The MiLight has very little documentation and absolutely nothing for developers. However, I was successful in reverse engineering the app and bridge.

At the moment, I can’t work out how to control MiLight bulbs individually and am not sure whether it can even be done. The Philips Hue allows control of individual bulbs out of the box.

The MiLight system can be expanded with official bulbs or any generic 2.4ghz RGB bulb or 2.4ghz LED strip lighting. The Philips hue system can only be expanded with official Philips bulbs.

Review of SureCart.com (also trading as easybulb.com)

As mentioned above, the only UK distributor of the MiLight (as of Dec 2012) is SureCart.com. I paid 10 pounds delivery charge and the bulbs turned up a week later. That’s an extremely slow delivery time for such a high delivery charge. The images for the full MiLight starter kit show a handheld remote control, however that’s not actually included in the kit. I’ve been trying to call SureCart for over a week on a landline number but it gets redirected to a mobile phone answering service. So my first encounter with SureCart hasn’t been overly positive.

Update: Since this post, I’ve found that SureCart actually offer better deals on their eBay listings. Not only is it cheaper (inc. of postage) but they also include the remote control when ordering from their eBay ads.

The MiLightBulb or MiLight is also sold under the brand of EasyBulb, iBulb, LinkUP and Kepsun.

What I ended up with is a sunrise alarm that is brighter than most options out there and a completely network controlled lightbulb that can be turned on/off and dimmed to various brightness levels through the browser.

Demonstation Video

Note: I plan to reduce the noise of the system by blocking up the sides of the wooden bridge holding the servo.

The major complaint about most sunrise alarms is that they’re simply not bright enough to create the desired effect. There are some good options available from Philips, although they’re a bit pricey. So I wanted the option to use a regular bright bulb that you’d use in a lamp or ceiling fixture.

High Voltage AC scares me (rightly so), so I wanted to go with an off-the-shelf solution for lighting the bulb. I bought a dimmer switch, a pvc junction box and a wired lamp holder – the total cost was P600 ($15) and I had it wired up for free by an electrician friend.

I made a wooden platform which holds the dimmer box in place and supports a small servo motor above the dimmer knob. The servo horn is glued in place with the dimmer knob. The servo is controlled from a Raspberrypi which I already run 24/7 as a local server. For my original Pi based prototype, I used some code from frank-buss.de and then after trying several other options for controlling Servo motors from the Pi, I settled on ServoBlaster.

I created a script which runs on a cron every morning and turns the light on at 8am and gradually gets brighter over the next 30 minutes until the bulb is on full brightness. That was great and satisfied my original aim. But then I thought about taking it a step further and creating a basic web interface to control the light at other times.

I made a simple web interface using HTML/jQuery for the frontend and PHP for the backend which passes commands to ServoBlaster. This allows the light to be switched on, off and set to various brightness levels through the browser.

Original Arduino Prototype

Latest design – 3rd Revision

This design uses a micro water pump, plastic tubing and a small water resistent travel case. The total cost comes in at under $5 and the whole device can be put together in about 15 minutes. Two holes were drilled into the top of the case for routing the tubing. A soldering iron was used to melt a small slot into the plastic closure for the power cable to exit. Due to the smaller water container, the cooling effect lasts for about 30 minutes before the water needs to be replaced. 3rd Revision in action:

2nd Revision

One of the major hurdles I had to overcome was finding a water pump small enough to make my idea portable and power efficient. After much searching, I finally struck gold with a ‘Zen Garden’ desktop water fountain. The device sits on your office desk and circulates water through the garden. I was able to remove the water pump and use it on my project. I’ve used a hand soap bottle as my water container. The cap of the bottle was modified to route the incoming and outgoing water pipes and the power connector for the water pump. You wear the plastic tubing around your neck and down the front of your core body. Once the power is applied, the pump immediately starts circulating water around the tubing, cooling your body and absorbing your excess heat. The constant circulation ensures that the excess heat of your body is immediately mixed with cooler water. You can increase the cooling capacity by adding ice cubes. After a couple of hours, the water will have warmed up – at that point you simply pour the warm water away and refill it at your cold water faucet. 2nd Revision in action:

Original/Proof of concept

In my original version, I used copper tubing, some sheet aluminum, a fish tank water pump and some plastic tubing. The copper transfered heat (or cold) very well and acted as a great heat sink but the aluminum produced a poor thermal transfer. The whole device is quite bulky but does provide good cooling and a high capacity, meaning the water/ice can last up to a whole day.  

You’ll need just minimal parts for this project. The chances are you already have enough things laying around the house that could be used. I used a small 5V 1W fan that was removed from a broken laptop, a piece of sponge and an old plastic case which housed a refrigerator deodorizer.

Your power source will depend on the fan you’re using, I’m using USB power, or specifically a USB portable battery. Electricity and water don’t always play well so don’t try this with a regular 110/220V house fan!

The basic idea is for the intake of the fan to draw air through a wet sponge, cooling the air as it passes through. I based my design on the ‘handy cooler’ which can be bought on eBay for under 10 GBP (16 USD).  Watch the video below for a hands on demonstration.

Problems as a buyer

Sellers list items that they don’t have in stock. You waste load texting or calling them only to be told the item isn’t in stock.

Sellers post misleadingly low prices on their ads but when you contact them they quote a much higher price and say that they’ve simply forgotten to update the advert.

Many of the sellers I’ve experienced have been extremely lazy.

Problems as a seller

Many people ask for meetups and say they’re a sure buyer but then cancel at the last minute.

People text asking about things that have already been explained or written in the ad description.

No matter how many times you write on the advert that the item is still available, you’ll still get several texts a day asking if the item is available.

I’ll update this list as and when things pop up.

The launch hit a hiccup with the site telling potential buyers that stocks were not available. This was quickly fixed and everyone was given the chance to order 1 or 2 units. With shipping starting from $30-$38, some people bought 2 units to benefit from a shipping discount.

Is this going to be a raspberry pi killer? Doubtful. The board is more expensive, the shipping is higher and feature wise it’s very similar to the Cyclone Nano - which hasn’t exactly rocked the world.

This original model is the APC 8750, featuring a VIA 800MHz Processor, 512MB DDR3 RAM and 2GB NAND Flash. It can output at a resolution of up to 720p (HDMI/VGA). The HDMI will carry video and audio (2 channel). There’s 4 USB 2.0 ports onboard which can be used to provide wifi to the board with a compatible Realtek usb wifi stick. You can extend the memory by use of an external usb harddrive or microSD slot (built in slot). If you don’t want to add wifi then you can use the onboard 10/100 ethernet.

The original model ships with just the board and power supply. No case is included. It runs Android 2.3 (on the internal 2GB flash memory). While the APC Via doesn’t officially support any other OS than an edited Android 2.3, they say that the hardware is unlocked. So fingers crossed we can get Linux running on this!

What do we get in the Philippines?

Newest movies – Yes! Sometimes they’re released here even earlier than the U.S!

Powerful clear sound systems? Yes! We get a nice booming base that shakes your seat and crystal clear audio making every word perfectly easy to hear.

High quality screens - It’s hit and miss! There are a few cinemas that excel; the IMAX screens obviously can’t be beaten and the newer 2D digital screens are an improvement on older screens. But the quality can vary hugely between these newer ’2D Digital’ screens and slight blur or grain isn’t that unusual.

Enjoyable experience – Rarely! I’ve experienced Cinemas in the US, UK, Hong Kong and a few other countries. Where are the worst audiences? The Philippines! Here’s a usual experience of going to see a movie in the Philippines:

• Take your seat and cross your fingers that the people next to you and behind will stop talking when the actual movie starts

• Movie starts and people are still talking with their loud voices, no attempt to whisper. This will continue throughout the film

• 15 minutes into the movie and an usher will come in waiving a flash light around, showing late people to their seats. The usher has no regard for the people he’s blinding with his flash light and the people who turned up late will have no care for the fact that they’re blocking everyones view and will take their time sitting down before joking and laughing about how late they are.

• 30 minutes into the movie and you will start to see peoples cell phones being waived around as they check their Facebook, send a few texts and just go from menu to menu for no reason, simply because they can’t keep their attention on the movie. This will continue throughout the movie.

So you’ve paid your money. They’ve got the new film, they’ve got a somewhat quality screen (depending on location) and they’ve got the great sound system. But you can’t possibly be sucked into the film because of the constant talking and distracting cell phone screens! It’s a complete waste. The frustration builds up and the enjoyment of the movie quickly plummets.

What I’m about to say isn’t snobbish, it’s simply a fact. The cheaper the ticket, the worse the audience! If you pay 120 peso for your ticket, expect lots of talking, people joking around and laughing with each other and a LOT of cell phone screens pulling your eyes away from the screen. Pay 400 peso for an IMAX ticket or something like Ultra 7 and the experience is a lot more tolerable. There will still be the odd person using their phone and having the occasional loud chat, but it’s no where near as bad.

I can’t think of any circumstances where these people can honestly believe that what they’re doing is okay. If the 20 people around you are sitting there looking at the screen with nothing more than the occasional whisper to their friend, why do you think it’s acceptable for you to talk in a loud voice to the person sitting next to you? Why do you think it’s okay to start texting or checking your facebook and distracting everyone behind you with the bright screen of your phone?

There are of course many viewers who are just as annoyed as me, and they have the social skills to realise what is and isn’t acceptable. But there are just too many people that ruin the experience. I usually watch 2 to 4 movies a month at various different cinemas around Metro Manila and I’ve yet to view one where I wasn’t annoyed by someone chatting away loudly or a distracting cell phone screen a few rows ahead.

I’ve finally had enough. I won’t continue to pay for an experience that results in so much frustration.

The movie companies moan that pirates are taking their profits away. To a degree this will be people who simply refuse to pay for a movie. But on the other side, you’ve got people who are willing to pay for the movie but don’t want the terrible experience that goes with it.

You can setup a digital projector and 120″ screen in your home for under 40,000 php. Since you’ll be sitting closer to the screen, the quality and perceived size will actually compare to that of the 2D digital cinemas anyway! But if you want the newest movies when they come out, you only have two choices – go waste money at the cinema or download/buy an illegal copy. Give us another option!