Oberkommando

I concur with the Oppo Blu-Ray player recommendation. They are available in Thailand here.

http://www.piyanas.com/shopping/product.ph...451〈=th

Someone in another thread recommended a Western Digital Media Player for that purpose.

They are selling in Panthip Plaza in Bangkok, there's even a Western Digital outlet in there now. Around 4,500thb for the base model WD TV media player and an exorbitant 6,900thb for the WD TV Live media player, which also connects to the net or LAN.

A Media Centre PC on for example Windows 7 will give you a really nice interface and should play anything you can download.

Cost a fortune, not to mention they are large, cumbersome and invariably ugly. Not for a techno-phobe either as they tend to be rather complicated. I have one but I rarely use it now I have the WD TV media player as I find it far too much hassle to boot up and operate.

I download or extract to USB HDD, plug it into the WD TV media player which is connected to the TV by HDMi and press play.

Haven't found a file format it wont play yet...

Earmarked a Sony 32" 550A model and wonder if anyone has any thoughts on it,s performance please ?

Samsung make all the Sony panels now.

IMO Samsung are way ahead of the competition when it comes to LCD and LED.

If plasma then I would consider a Panasonic or Pioneer.

I am learning about downloading movies...guess you can get HD ones on there...just need to figure out how to get them to my TV

You need a Media Tank, which is a device that will stream all of your downloads direct to your HDTV via HDMi. They are selling the XStreamer, Popcorn Hour and the WD TV models in Panthip Plaza in Bangkok now. Extortionate prices as usual though.

Why should we not forget it was an extremely popular policy amongst the electorate? What does it matter? It's not the electorate with the responsibility of making these decisions. It's not the electorate that is voted into leadership to make the right decisions on behalf of the country. It's not the electorate that is privy to all the information required to make critical decisions.

The electorate should have voted Thaksin's party out because of such abuses. The fact that they didn't in subsequent elections speaks volumes, wouldn't you agree?

The electorate certainly does have a responsibility to elect a leadership based on that leadership's decisions.

Thus, as Thaksin's popularity grew after his 'War On Drugs' we can deduce that it was the right decision based on the Thai peoples' positive reaction to it.

Of course if you are firmly in the camp that believes the Thai electorate have no such responsibility to have an opinion or even a vote then you will be pleased that we have a party running the country with no mandate from the people and a drugs problem that is now arguably more out of control than ever.

Can you elaborate please? I was in the UK for 2006 World Cup, and I'm planning on buying a large LCD tv for next years competition. Perhaps I'd be better off buying an air ticket!

Pointless buying it as Thailand won't be broadcasting in High Definition.

Good for Blu-ray, XBox360, PS3 or h.264 though.

In 2006 the coverage was pathetic, it was on terrestrial TV so no alternative English commentary unless you paid hundreds of thousands of Baht for the privilege (a complete rip-off considering all the international football feeds broadcast in Thailand have English commentary tracks by default) and they promised to screen every minute of football live (they were trumpeting this at ever opportunity), a promise they broke on a number of occasions, most memorably during an England game when every terrestrial channel switched to an honorary boat parade on the Chao Phraya.

Don't expect it to be better this year, their last attempt severely impaired my ability to enjoy the event.

The Elite Card wasn't Thaksin's fault. He was just exhibiting a trait common in most, if not all Thais, in that their opinion of their country and what it offers is far over-valued and beyond the reality.

Of course if you can trouser a few billion along the way then good luck to you, just spare a thought for the poor mugs that bought it, by falling into the same trap that the Thais are brainwashed into believing every day of every year. They should have known better.

Caveat emptor, a fool and their money, etc...

It was badly run, poorly marketed and doomed from the get go, but the real reason why it failed is as it stands Thailand simply isn't worth the money they were asking for it and punters voted with their feet and didn't buy it.

I usually save my drunken vomiting for the back of one of the local tuk-tuks.

2,000 were Vios models, 1,300 the Yaris

Same model. The Vios is just a rebadged Yaris Sedan for the Thai market.

and would the already packed streets be able to take all these new cars in ?

The roads are already way over capacity. There's approximately 700,000 new vehicles on Thai roads every year and minimal investment in infrastructure.

There are also a few lefties who dont really like Thaksin but they never manage to explain how they reconcile their left wing ideals and pro-human rights positions with supporting a movement to return without any snaction whatsoever Thailand's biggest human rights abuser in decades.

There have been far, far worse human rights abuses going on throughout the last few decades, Thaksin's sanctioned war against drugs certainly not the worst of them.

Important word: sanctioned.

Not condoning it, merely setting the record straight, and let's not forget it was an extremely popular policy amongst the electorate.

“When you promote people who have connections but no ability, initially it’s OK

I wonder how he figures it is ok initially?

Surely if people are promoted that have no ability it is to the detriment of the company straight from the get go.

I suspect he's said that not to offend one of the very influential people that have previously benefited from TG's nepotism.

I refuse to fly them ever since that guy was arrested for LM on arrival in Bangkok for not turning his reading light off while flying First Class.

Were any of the Thai Police that were caught misappropriating funds for Tsunami victims and aid punished accordingly?

Or were they just moved to inactive posts and the whole disgusting affair swept conveniently under the carpet?

Likewise with LCD/Plasma TV's, when you look inside a lot of unbranded sets they're the same/similar to branded ones. Quite a few cheaper sets sold in the UK have Samsung a chassis inside.

Samsung only make certain sizes of LCD panels 40" or 46" among them. I believe they make panels for Sony, but acknowledge they keep the best panels for themselves. If it is a 42" or 47" size then it won't be made by Samsung, but perhaps their competitors LG/Philips.

You get what you pay for though, and if you buy a non-branded model you will get an older panel that is nowhere near the spec of the current range of branded models.

I've never seen a DVD player for sale in Thailand that plays x264. If anyone knows of one, I'd be grateful to hear about it.

A DVD player is a standard definition device therefore will not be able to process HD file content. All DVD players do now is 'upscale' standard definition content for viewing on HD screens. It is still standard definition though.

I built an HTPC with a Pioneer Blu-Ray and 1TB HDD to handle all file formats. Cost more than I wanted to part with but ensures I never have issues and can watch x264 through HDMi.

So some groups in and out of military and some pirates preyed on refugees,

doesn't mean a generally ineffective government condoned it,

just didn't have the organizational integrity to stop it.

The Thai government at the time officially supported the Khmer Rouge; militarily, diplomatically and financially.

They also backed them for a seat in the UN.

They gave refuge and training to Khmer Rouge fighters that fought a guerilla war against the Viet Namese from Thai territory.

It was the Thai military that was wholly responsible for the Preah Vihear Massacre also, not pirates or "some groups".

Just setting the record straight, as your post is far from the reality of the situation at the time.

Sorry for straying back off topic. The knowledge of SEA history can be appalling on this forum at times.

You are trying to paint it like a large group of masked and armed individuals arrived at the airport and pushed their way through and started setting up roadblocks, hindering people from reaching their check-in ques in the hall etc - that is not how it went down and we could see it basically live on TV when it happened, if you remember. I'm sure someone with more time on their hands will dig through the Thai Youtube submissions and find some good clips showing just what kind of people that was the brute of the sit-in in the airport and what kind of non-danger the normal tourists inside it was in.

I am not trying to "paint it" anything.

How it went down was the paramilitaries arrived, set up roadblocks across the main thoroughfares and then the yellow shirts arrived and set up camp outside the terminal building. I witnessed them setting up those roadblocks with my own eyes. Not second hand on TV, nor on the internet, but with my own eyes as I was at the airport that day.

This is absolute fact, despite your best efforts to try and deny it.

As I have already pointed out, the armed and masked men arrived before the main group of protesters, and were largely in control of security throughout the operation.

If you think old women and kids with hand clappers could have organised, planned and carried out such an operation that you will see on YouTube, as well as the beatings, intimidation, vehicle spot-checks and even murder that went down during the occupation then you are sadly mistaken.

I also found a grocery store very similar to Foodland in Thailand (I think the name was Lucky Foodmart or something like that).......great cheese and meat products (and better bread than you find in Thailand).

2) virtually everything seems more expensive in Cambodia than in Thailand (no idea why)

Better bread is available everywhere, even on the street from only 2000 riels.

Bayon Supermarket on Monivong has arguably a better selection of Western food items than Foodland or Villa in Bangkok and they are cheaper from my experience. Wine in Cambodia is far cheaper than in Thailand. Bottle of 2005 Mouton Cadet 350thb ($10) in Cambodia. In Thailand the same wine is 1,200thb down from 2,500thb when it was first imported.

Beer and Western food is cheaper in Cambodia and better IMO. You can have a decent steak in a French restaurant for $12. Simply not possible in Thailand. Anchor beer is better than any Thai beers and is $1 a can.

If you are craving Western stodge get yourself to the Green Vespa. Alan's menu is fantastic. Hope he's still open.

I remember thinking at the time that they were official security forces, such was their style of attire and appearance.

When I went to recover my car from the car-park several days later, the same groups of men were controlling vehicles entering and exiting through the roadblocks, however at this time they were accompanied by women with hand-clappers, albeit quite far behind the front line.

You give other possible reasons why the airport could close, in a vain attempt to justify the actions of a paramilitary takeover of an international airport.

Ridiculous.

Your description of mostly middleage women and kids with hand-clappers as para-military is indeed ridiculous.

The "middleage women and kids with hand-clappers" arrived well after the paramilitaries had blockaded and already taken control of the airport.

I should know, I drove past them into the airport as they were setting up the road blocks and there weren't any women and kids amongst them. There were however, young, fit men dressed in camo and dark clothing, armed with sticks and poles, and wearing masks and balaclavas over their faces.

Get your facts right please.

yes - and you make sure you actually know what you were looking at too!

I know exactly what I was looking at, and it was a group of men dressed as paramilitaries setting up roadblocks on the roads entering the airport.

There were no yellow-shirts present until the airport was secured by these guys, then the main crowd of the PAD marched in.

I flew out to Phnom Penh on Air Asia FD3616, one of the last flights to leave that day.

Maybe people like yourself should just not bother to comment on things they know absolutely nothing about, especially when confronted with first-hand eyewitness accounts?

You give other possible reasons why the airport could close, in a vain attempt to justify the actions of a paramilitary takeover of an international airport.

Ridiculous.

Your description of mostly middleage women and kids with hand-clappers as para-military is indeed ridiculous.

The "middleage women and kids with hand-clappers" arrived well after the paramilitaries had blockaded and already taken control of the airport.

I should know, I drove past them into the airport as they were setting up the road blocks and there weren't any women and kids amongst them. There were however, young, fit men dressed in camo and dark clothing, armed with sticks and poles, and wearing masks and balaclavas over their faces.

Get your facts right please.

:/

Was it a [school or private] mini-bus? The article is unclear

The article is perfectly clear, it was a modified pick-up truck.

Quite probably driving far too fast with people in the back. Too many of these modified pick-ups are unsafe and not roadworthy as well. Incidents like this highlight just how dangerous the roads in Thailand are and how little responsibility and care is taken, countrywide, and on a daily basis.

Driver training and education is a priority in Thailand, however without proper enforcement of the laws reducing Thailand's road death toll is impossible.

Everyone knows who has it, there were videos of her wearing it at a public function.

Cannot discuss it here though.

The Thai Police at the centre of things as usual; torture, theft, murder, even killing a 14 year old boy and trying to pass it off as a motor accident to cover their tracks.

Who is to be sued if the airport is closed due to weather conditions - poeple lose out on businesstoo!

Airports are insured against those types of things.

You give other possible reasons why the airport could close, in a vain attempt to justify the actions of a paramilitary takeover of an international airport.

Ridiculous.

Laws are no good without proper enforcement.

For goodness sakes, if you really want to have a discussion about Thailand's involvement in the Khmer Rouge atrocities then open another thread.

It is called education Moonrakers. Staying informed. I didn't want to have a discussion on this topic, nor to sidetrack, but it seems some posters are in complete denial of Thai history during this period, but are happy to accuse and denounce Hun Sen, while not in possession of all the facts, or any, for that matter.

This is an interesting article from 1993.

"Although Pol Pot is now reported by intelligence officials to divide his time among camps in western Cambodia, the 65-year-old rebel leader is believed to enjoy an open invitation to visit Thailand, where he lived for several years after he fled from the invading Vietnamese Army in 1979.

The Thais provided him with a compound, known by the Khmer Rouge as Camp 87, near the eastern Thai border town of Trat."

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/19/world/po...?pagewanted=all