Resident Evil 5 - screen tearing fix (Xbox 360)

Like many others, I've been looking forward to Resident Evil 5 since being introduced to Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube! I bought it last Friday (the 13th - ooh, scary!) and have been enjoying it ever since.
The graphics are, in the main, great, but there's one big thing that spoils it for me. Screen tearing. And judging by the number of results when I google for it, it's bothering quite a few other people too!

What is screen tearing?
It's what you get when your TV is trying to display two frames at the same time, overlapping each other. It manifests itself as a jagged line, which stretches across the whole screen and is most noticeable in fast-moving action.

When does it happen?
For me, it only happens in Resident Evil 5, and only when displaying in 1080p (on either 50 or 60Hz). It's most noticeable in some of the (frequent) cut scenes, but also while playing the game. It only seems to happen in the Xbox 360 version of the game.

How can I fix it?
You can't fix it per se, at least not unless Capcom release a patch, but what you can do is implement a work-around. In the Xbox Settings, under video, you can set your console to output at 1080i or 720p (assuming your TV/monitor supports this). This results in a minor decrease in graphical quality, but not a noticeable one (at least for me), and removes the tearing completely!

Further background...
Does this happen on the PS3?
No - the PS3 uses a technique called V-sync (vertical synchronisation) to stop the issue at the expense of showing fewer frames per second. Personally, I would love the option to turn this on on the Xbox - even just to try it out!

Has this problem been around for long?
Well, some people noticed it in the demo (myself included), but put it down to the fact that it was pre-release code. So it's been around for a while.

Is 1080i better or 720P?
Well, its down to preference. 720P is better for faster moving games. 1080i has fewer updates per second, but is at a higher resolution, so looks nicer for still objects.
I have read that the Xbox 360 mainly outputs in 720P anyway and scales-up to other resolutions, but haven't been able to verify that.
It could well depend on your display - my TV has 1920 x 1080 pixels, so at 1080i there's a 1-1 mapping, which means it looks great. At 720P, it would be scaling some of the pixels so it might not look so fantastic. Your display might be different.
Personally, I haven't decided yet! I'd advise to try both

What other games does this happen in?
I haven't noticed tearing on any of the other games I've played on the Xbox 360. I've heard that Dead Rising had it (another Capcom game), and maybe Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare (GRAW). I have GRAW, and haven't noticed it, but that may be because it doesn't display at 1080p, or maybe it's just more noticeable in RE5.

Why does this happen in RE5?
Well ... lazy programming/product quality. The console is being pushed past its limits in terms of how much graphical information to process, and as a result has not finished processing one frame before another comes along. However, other games have comparable graphics in 1080p without screen tearing.

Is it still worth buying Resident Evil 5?
Hell yeah. Look around for the cheapest price though. It was available for £29.99 (UK) but now the cheapest is £32.99.

Taskbar shows in full screen applications

I have a few applications that show the Windows taskbar when they are supposed to be running in full-screen. A couple of these applications are VLC media player, and Hauppauge WinTV.

I'm running Windows Vista (Home Premium), and have found a couple of workarounds, like auto-hiding the taskbar, or running the programs in a compatibility mode, but these solutions are not ideal, as they either compromise other functionality, or I have to switch them off again afterwards.

The under-lying problem seems to be a bug with Windows (possibly just Vista, possibly other versions too) where if you are running in Large Fonts mode (i.e. DPI-scaling is set to a non-standard value), then the call that gets by certain programs to put the application in full-screen mode does not hook into the functionality to hide the taskbar.
I can "prove this" by setting my DPI-scaling to standard (96DPI), rebooting (changing the DPI-scaling requires a reboot annoyingly) and then observing that full-screen mode (e.g. for WinTV) hides the taskbar ... and then changing it back to 120DPI (large) and doing the same - the taskbar is not hidden.

I did look briefly into how to file a bug report with Windows, but 10 minutes of Googling left me without many options (install Microsoft OneCare or pay $35 to report the issue over the phone - no thanks!).

One interesting thing is that although some applications display this behaviour, not all do. So Media Player Classic displays in full-screen correctly, where VLC does not. I can watch full-screen television in Windows Media Center without the taskbar, but not in WinTV.

I may look further into it later. Perhaps I can use the SysInternals Process Monitor to figure out which Windows API call is being used and figure out a way to patch it. Then I can try to badger someone at Microsoft to listen. Most likely I'll keep using the work-arounds and being mildly annoyed about it every time that I have to...

How do you check the cost of a BT call?

(For anyone reading this outside the United Kingdom, this doesn't really apply - it's only for UK telephone users on a British Telecom line!).

I recently had to make a call to an 0844 number to renew some insurance. I looked it up on SayNoTo0870 and obtained the equivalent national prefix number (0292 something), but wasn't sure which would be cheaper.
I found this tariff guide on the BT website, which mentions that 0845 and 0870 numbers are free for me at weekends. 0844 numbers are generally cheaper than 0870 numbers, so I thought that the 0844 number might be best.

Well, it turns out I was wrong, and I was charged 47 pence for a 10 minute call (grr!). I found this out not by waiting for my bill, but by using a technique I found on this page.

Basically, by entering a special code into the phone before the number you're calling, the call is made and you are immediately called back by the telephone exchange with the duration of the call and the cost.
The code is: *40*number#
(where number is the actual number you are calling - e.g. 084400000000).

This service appears to be free. There are a number of other "access codes" for BT exchanges listed on that page, most of which cost money. I guess there's a chance that even this service costs money, since the list is over 10 years old!

Where can I buy the Medion Akoya P7300 PC?

Short answer: you can't!

Long answer:
I'm in the market for a new base unit. I'll be attaching it to my LCD TV, so I don't need a monitor, but I do need HDMI. I'll be using it for multimedia and a bit of programming, which might extend to some 3D stuff if I get around to it. So I've started to look around to gauge prices. I found a deal on HotUKDeals that looked perfect:- The Medion Akoya P7300 from Aldi at £499 - then reduced even further to £487 in line with the recent VAT cut in the UK.

As noted in the comments on HotUKDeals, it's a very good deal. In terms of a pre-built PC with a 3-year warranty, the next nearest competitor is about £100 - £150 more! For me, it ticked the boxes on 4GB memory, 1TB hard disk, built-in TV card, reasonable (although not fantastic) graphics card, 64-bit Windows option, and the quad-core processor could come in handy for experimenting with writing parallel-programs. The full specs are here.

However - the problem is that this PC is only available in one place (Aldi stores) and they sold out of all stock in less than a day. In fact, because of people crafty enough to start queuing at 7:30am, some stores didn't even have enough stock to supply everyone in the queue so they had effectively sold out before they opened!

One of the HotUKDeals forum members, exile, wrote to Medion to ask if they would be selling the PC from the Medion online shop (or if any other retailers would be selling that model) and received this disappointing response:

"Dear Medion Customer,
Thank you for your message.
Unfortunately the P7300D is exclusive to Aldi and therefore won't be stocked by our webshop I'm afraid.
We will have a similar spec PC out mid-end of January, but I don't know exactly when or at what price.
I can only suggest that you keep checking back on the webshop for this PC becoming available.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Kind regards
Vicki"

There is another Medion PC available for a similar price from Tesco, which has the advantage of a Blu-ray drive, but falls down on the graphics card, memory, and slightly on the processor. It may or may not come with a 3 year warranty. I'll probably give that a miss for now.

So, I'm going to keep my eyes and ears open, especially in the post-Christmas sales and see what comes up ... and I will use the specs of the Medion Akoya P7300 to compare the prices of any deals that do come up. I'll keep an eye on HotUKDeals and also AVForums, where I found a lot of useful links to companies that build and customise desktop PCs.

Failing that, I may attempt to build my own PC, but I just know I'll buy the wrong PSU, wrong case or break one of the components!

Good luck!

Update:
Medion have now released two similarly-specced PCs, the Medion Akoya P7316D at £499 (plus £4.99 shipping) and the Medion Akoya P7321D at £529 (plus £7.99 shipping).
Here's a comparison of the three models (as of 5th March 2009) ...

	P7300	P7316D	P7321D
Availability	None	Through Medion Shop	Through Medion Shop
Price	£487	£503 shipped	£537 shipped
Processor	Intel Q8200	Intel Q8200	Intel Q8300
Processor Speed	Quad 2.33Ghz	Quad 2.33Ghz	Quad 2.5Ghz
Memory	4GB DDR2-SDRAM	4GB DDR2-SDRAM	4GB DDR2-SDRAM
Hard Disk	1TB	1TB	1TB
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600 GT 512Mb	NVIDIA® GeForce® GT120 1024Mb	NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500 GT (256/512Mb?)
Optical drive	DVD Rewriter	DVD Rewriter	DVD Rewriter
Windows	Vista Home Premium	Vista Home Premium	Vista Home Premium
Warranty	36 months	12 months	12 months
Other	Digital/Analogue TV tuner		Possibly no HDMI port

The bundled software seems the same, as does the number of USB ports, audio ports, etc, etc.

In my opinion, the original deal is still the best of the 3!

Why is everyone so excited about the new Microsoft Patch (23rd October 2008)?

This afternoon, techy web-sites like The Register started reporting about a new Microsoft Patch to be released outside the normal patch cycle. It was to be released at 10am PST, which is 6pm British Summer Time (7pm European Standard Time).

This is very unusual, and has only happened a couple of times in the past few years. Some people reported that their companies had been phoned by Microsoft and warned to apply the patch! So what is the vulnerability that this patch addresses, and why is it a big deal?

That's reported here in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 (Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958644)).

The detail says that a malicious user could create a specially crafted RPC* request which can allow remote code execution. It lists the versions of Windows affected - and it's pretty much all of them (Windows 2000 and above, right up to Vista).

So how does this affect you? Well, it means that someone could take over your PC entirely without you knowing anything about it.

Most vulnerabilities rely on users doing something - clicking on a link, downloading something, etc. This one is different - far, far scarier - because the user does not have to do anything - the attacker can get access undetected.
A very real possibility is that someone will write a worm (like a virus, but nastier) that will use this vulnerability to spread. So even if someone doesn't attack your machine directly, a worm from any number of infected machines can infect your machine - and you are then in trouble!

They could capture your internet banking details, they could email all of your contacts, they could use your machine to try to hack into a government network (all of these are real attacks that have happened in the past).

So, where possible, I suggest you patch your machine immediately!

Update: I notice that some sites are reporting that the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild. They do not say in what way, but it does mean that you are even more likely to be attacked.

*RPC means Remote Procedure Call and is a technology that underlies Windows' networking capability.

Why are people searching for "vn b m gn mbnmncbm xbc bcv 0 vfkmjirhtfnkj nb b x bmnx bv"?

I have no idea. But Microsoft's AdCenter seems to think it's an excellent phrase to advertise against!
(According to The Register)

Mario Kart Wii - how do you get 3 stars? (part 4)

Update: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

I'm actually running out of advice now! Please bear with me if you already know any of the advice in the tips below. I hope I still have some surprises up my sleeve!

Marv's 14th tip - you can sometimes avoid a blue shell
Don't get too excited by this one, but it is possible to occasionally avoid a blue shell. However, in 99% of cases, you are screwed.
The main method of avoiding the blue shell is to be going through a cannon, which obviously only works on those courses with a cannon/"big jump" (DK's Jungle Parkway [I think], DK Mountain, DK Summit, Maple Treeway, etc). This is difficult to plan - by the time you hear the dreaded blue shell warning siren, if you're not about to go into the cannon anyway, you'll be hit! It's nice when it happens though.
You can also avoid a blue shell by jumping off the track into space or deep water on those levels that have them. This generally wastes more time than it saves, so is only really worth it if you're playing against a friend and want to deny them the satisfaction of actually hitting you!
There is a way to avoid a blue shell on-demand, but you have to have at least one boost mushroom. Since I'm assuming you'll be in 1st place for most of each race, getting a boost mushroom is tricky. I guess if you find yourself further back in the pack and get a mushroom, it might be worth holding onto it for a while.
Assuming you manage to get a mushroom, the idea is to use it as soon as the blue shell stops moving around your vehicle and starts to dive down. There are various videos on Youtube, including this one. Apparently, the time-frame for using your mushroom is longer than in Mario Kart DS. I tried this method once, accidentally using two mushrooms instead of one, and did manage to escape unharmed. Good luck!
(You can also avoid a blue shell if you have an invincibility star, I believe - and possibly a bullet-bill. I have a feeling that a mega-mushroom won't help. All of these are power-ups you are unlikely to have in 1st place!)

Marv's 15th tip - hang back slightly on the first course
The further back you are in the pack (i.e. the worse your position), the better power-ups you will get. This isn't much use when your aim is to get to 1st place and stay as far in the lead as possible. However, there's one occasion in each Grand Prix where you can't help being further back - when you start your first race.
So, rather than trying your best to get to the front of the pack, you can fight your way forward, but only to something like 6th - 2nd. Stay back until you go through the first set of question-mark blocks. As soon as you are past, start playing harder to get to first place. With any luck, you'll have picked up a better power-up than if you'd been in first place when you collected the question-mark block.
There are some courses where this works better than others. For example, there are courses where the question mark blocks are quite close to the starting line, and it's difficult to get to the front anyway. Those courses are good candidates for this tip. However, there are other courses where you have to drive for a fair stretch before you get a power-up, and still others where there is a good opportunity for over-taking and getting a good lead. On those courses, this tip isn't so useful.
You can also use this to your advantage if you are hit by a particularly nasty set of items and end up in 2nd-or-worse place. Hang back just slightly to get, hopefully, something like a star or 3 mushrooms to help you back into 1st with a decent lead! Be wary, though. Sometimes you'll get something like 3 green shells, which isn't really worth hanging back for!

Marv's 16th tip - use drafting
Like some of the other tips I've written, this is one from the instructions manual, but one that many people aren't aware of.
Not to be confused with drifting, drafting is a technique you can use where if you are driving (closely enough) behind another character you will see wisps of smoke/steam/who-knows from your vehicle; you will also get slightly faster. If you manage to stay directly behind that vehicle for long enough, you will see a sort-of white tunnel of air wisps, which gives you a further speed boost, and normally means you can knock the car in front out of the way!
This is mostly useful at the beginning of the first race, if you do want to take the lead quickly. Also if you happen to fall behind. It's probably worth knocking the vehicle in front if you can - any extra distance you are in front helps!

Marv's 17th tip - stay on the main part of the track
Again, this might be obvious, but it might not be! There are many places where you can take short-cuts, some of which may look very inviting. In general, however, any short-cut that means you'll be driving off the main part of the track may well slow you down enough that you will lose more time than you gain.
For example, in Delfino Square, there's a little alley you can take after the small bridge and before the big rainbow lifting bridge. But if you take this short-cut, unless you have amazing power-slide turbo skills you get slowed down massively by the mud.
You can take these short-cuts if you manage to snag a mushroom (or a star if you're very lucky!), as long as you aren't planning on saving it to battle a blue shell.
Other short-cuts may be less drastic, but still slow you down - driving over grass, sand and water is generally slower.
There are shortcuts, however, which do save time - like on Wario's Gold Mine. The difference there is that the road surface does not slow you down (in fact, there are boosts) and so, as long as you don't hit anything, you can shave valuable seconds off your time!
If you want to know which shortcuts are good, I would recommend downloading the world champion records for each lap (ignoring any shortcuts that use mushrooms) or hitYouTube and look for good times! Do bear in mind that some vehicle/character combinations will be better at some shortcuts than others.

Marv's 18th tip - be lucky! Or patient...
No matter how good a driver you are, sometimes you just will not be able to win. I recently played through the Special Cup and was hit by no less than 6 blue shells onBowser's Castle Wii . And that was on 50CC! While I managed to grab 1st place, the amount of time I had spent catching up meant that I didn't get a 3 star rating.
So ... accept that sometimes you will be unlucky, and sometimes you will be lucky. If the same thing happened every time you played a GP, it would be boring anyway!
If I have a bad race in the middle of a GP, I normally tend to continue, reasoning that getting practise in the remaining races is no bad thing. However, if my first race goes badly, I do occasionally throw in the towel and start again!
Remember - the important thing is to have fun.

Well, that's me done for now. As you may have noticed, I'm running out of information that I can pass on, so this might be my last post. Thank you for reading, and thank you for your comments! If you guys 'n' gals do have any other questions or comments, please feel free to add them, and if I get enough stuff together, I might do another post. There's also a chance I might scour the web for more information to put here!
I did contemplate doing a breakdown of how to play each race, but that would be quite time-consuming, and I'm not sure how useful it would be! Again, if any of you are stuck on a particular track or GP, let me know and I can create a sample breakdown or two.
Good luck, and enjoy yourselves. Hope to meet some of you on WiFi at some point!