Aora TV is Indonesia Official EPL Broadcaster 2008/2009

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Alist

EPL 2008/2009

The newcomer pay-tv, Aora TV, just claims exclusive deal with ESPN StarSport to become Official TV Station for English Premier League 2008/2009 season for Indonesia region.

If you are subscribing to Astro TV, then your option is to throw away your satellite dish and subscription, and have to switch to Aora TV station to watch world most competitive football matches: English Premier League or Sepakbola Liga Inggris as we call.

Subscription fee is Rp. 785.000 for 5 month subscription. It is expensive comparing to First Media or Indovision if you check their channel list. Aora TV has only 7 International Channels as per my writing!
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Beijing Olympic Badminton Schedule on TVRI

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Alist

Actually you can search games schedule using google and it will bring the result on the first entry. Try to enter “olympic badminton schedule” in Google search box, and this is the result:

But sadly not all games will be aired (and live) in Indonesia’s TVRI as the official channel. As Indonesians put high hope in badminton games, so don’t miss your chance to watch it. I don’t know which games will be live in TVRI, but this is the schedule I compiled from TVRI Badminton schedule programme and Olympic official site (translated: Jadwal Pertandingan Bulutangkis Olimpiade Beijing di TVRI) :

13-Aug-2008, 09.00-12.30 (continue again on 17.30-21.00),
- 09.00: Women’s Singles – Quarter-finals, YULIANTI Maria Kristin vs NEHWAL Saina
- 11.15: Women’s Doubles – Semi-finals
- 12.00: Men’s Badminton Doubles – Quarter-finals, CAI Yun / FU Haifeng vs BACH Howard / MALAYTHONG Bob
- 17.30: Women’s Singles Quarterfinal, LU Lan vs WONG Mew Choo
- 18.15: Men’s Doubles Quarterfinal, RASMUSSEN Jonas / PAASKE Lars vs MATEUSIAK Robert / LOGOSZ Michal
- 19.00: Women’s Singles Quarterfinal, XIE Xingfang vs XU Huaiwen
- 19.45: Women’s Doubles Semifinal, WEI Yili / ZHANG Yawen vs YU Yang / DU Jing
- 20.30: Men’s Doubles Quarterfinal, Markis KIDO / Hendra SETIAWAN vs Malaysia KOO Kien Keat / TAN Boon Heong
14-Aug-2008 …

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TVRI is Indonesia Official TV Broadcaster for Beijing Olympic 2008

Posted on August 8, 2008 by Alist

Hey, see these cutes figures in Google Doodle image today. They are Beijing 2008 Olympic Mascott.

Finally, TVRI – Indonesian state-owned and oldest TV channel, stood up and took responsible of airing Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. So it can claim as “Indonesia Official TV Beijing 2008 Olympic” or “Stasiun TV resmi Olimpiade Beijing 2008″, and it is always be a FREE channel.

When all other public TV stations couldn’t find commercial advantage in bidding and airing olympic games since they might be thinking about rating would be low and hard to get sponsors, this is the time for TVRI to show off as a subsidized TV station and serve for Indonesian people.

I think sponsors and advertising spots would be very few, but this is called government-subsidized and TV as social mission, isn’t it? When was the last time you watch TVRI channel? it might be a looong time ago. So this is the time for it to be back into public attention.

TVRI plans to air 132 hours worth of games, from morning, afternoon, and recap on night (I think around 9.30 after ‘Dunia Dalam Berita’). Some of them will be live broadcasted such as Boxing and Badminton games.

To see complete list of games to be aired by TVRI, you can download it from here –> Jadwal Siaran Olimpiade Beijing TVRI (PDF from tvri.co.id).

Tonight Olympic Opening Ceremony, will be held on 08-08-2008, time is 08:08 PM, will be broadcasted live by TVRI starting from 07.30PM. Don’t miss it!

Note: If you have satellite dish, you can turn into Chine state-owned channels: CCTV-1 and CCTV-2 for 24-hour olympic coverage, another one is CCTV-Olympic in which dedicated channel for it but I don’t know its frequency.

Movie Review: The X-Files 2008 – I Want to Believe

Posted on August 1, 2008 by Alist

My Rating: 8 of 10

For X-Files fans out there, I strongly recommend this movie. Don’t bother with other reviews and critics. This movie is realy an X-Files, bring back your memory of watching X-Files TV episodes, but this time in longer format. I cannot tell more about movie synopsis cause it will ruin your expectation, just sit and follow the plot.

This is a standalone plot apart from conspiracy and alien abduction, telling a story about pursuing an FBI agent that was kidnapped misteriously with help of a Catholic Father. Fox Mulder continues his quest for the truth, and Dana Scully, an intelligent physician, remains tied to Mulder’s pursuits.

It will satisfy your old school dream about Fox and Scully relationship, also suspense in its investigation as well as enough time to introduce Fox and Scully to younger generation of non X-Files tv series watchers.

Unlike the first movie in 1998 about conspiracy and some confusing plots, this movie only bring back Fox, Scully and Skinner in a simpler story, like a detective movie with mistery and suspense but starred by X-Files casts. No Cigarette-Smoking man and no Well-manicured man appeared in this movie. I guess after six year of putting this movie project in the shelf, 20th Century Fox didn’t give enough big budget for creator and director Chris Carter to shoot.

And again, just watch it.

Living in HD World

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Alist

A Samsung LCD TV and HD-Upscale DVD Player Review.

It’s been more than one month I bought a new tv set into my house. The desire to watch Euro 2008 Football in LCD urged me into electronic shop to find LCD TVs. My favourite brand for LCD TV was 3S: Sony, Samsung, and Sharp. So couple weeks before Euro cup I finally grab Samsung LCD TV LA32R81 from Electronic Store (ES), interest free for 12 month installment. The price was IDR 6,300,000 (just divided by 12 for installment), but using BCA Credit Card it gave us cash back IDR 200,000 into card account.

samsung LA32R81 Samsung LCDTV LA32R81 Bordeaux design is very excellent. It gives a bit impression of a wine glass by putting a glowing light at the bottom of the LCD screen. Contrast Ratio is 8000:1 with 1360×786 pixel resolution and it is more than enough for daily tv or dvd watch. The remote control in my opinion is too long but slim. With HDMI-CEC technology, we can control other devices connected to this LCD using TV remote. By programming the remote, we can even use this remote to control major brand VCR, DVD Player, cable box, etc. Smart enough.
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Meet and Greet with China Thomas and Uber Badminton Team

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Alist

Last night I and my wife was luckily enough gained ticket to attend meet and greet event to welcome China badminton team which will play to keep current holding Thomas and Uber Cup ( 11-18 May 2008). They come in full team lead by manager Li Yongbo, including world champions such as Lin Dan, Bao ChunLai, Fu Haifeng+Cai Yun, Xie XinFang, etc.

The event held on Sultan Hotel (9 May) attended by a hundred persons invited by China Embassy in Jakarta and sponsored by Bank of China. Pack with some local entertainments, but the rare chance was to get each player’s photograph. There was chances to play mini badminton on the stage with Lin Dan, Xie Xing Fang, Gao Ling, and Bao Chun Lai, too!

Hey, I got photo with Lin Dan!

The Thomas and Uber Cup will be aired live on Trans7 and TransTV everyday from 13.00 till night, final match will be on 17-18 May so don’t miss it. Ticket price to watch by your own eyes also affordable, from IDR 25000 (qualifying round) to IDR 75000 (final match) for normal ticket. Don’t worry if you don’t get seat on center court since entire seat in the stadium can watch matches in detail. Also don’t worry about your safety. Just have to plan where to park your car.

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Alist

Smarter Being stucked in hotel room most of my time in Papua New Guinea, I turned my whole nightlife to television. One of my favourite tv program was “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?“, in Star World channel. It was actually a Fox TV program, but for cable tv in Asia you can watch in Star World.

The setting is in a huge classroom (tv studio set), watch by many people. There are 5 classmates, each is 10 year-old boys and girls. Original cute and smart classmates were: Laura, Spencer, Kyle, Alana, and Jacob . An adult contestant bring to the show can choose classmate to accompany him to answer questions. There are 10 questions, ranging from social science, animal science, earth, grammar, 1st grade spelling, etc, all are subjects taught to grade 1 to grade 5 students in primary. Each question given will be also answered by all classmates by writing to their ‘worksheet’. From here you might think that it must be a very easy question? You’re wrong.
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