February 10, 2025New York StateComments Off on FA Cup 5th round draw LIVE: Start time and stream FREE as Man Utd and Man City learn opponents during One Show – updates
THE FA Cup fifth round draw is here – but there are some notable absentees!
February 10, 2025New York StateComments Off on Fire Sticks, Netflix and even regular TV ruined by FIVE killer settings that make your picture awful even on posh models
DON’T let a few rogue TV settings ruin the quality of your picture.
Even if you’ve forked out thousands on a very posh television, your movies and shows are still at risk of looking very dodgy.
SamsungEven a top 4K telly can show a bad picture if you use the wrong settings[/caption]
The Sun has rounded up five essential settings that you’ll want to check to make sure that you’re not sabotaging movie night – no matter if you’re using an Amazon Fire TV Stick, watching Netflix, or just browsing through Freeview channels.
ENERGY SAVER
Most modern TVs will come with some kind of energy-saving mode. It’ll probably be helpfully named Energy Saver.
This is a great mode that can slightly reduce your energybills, but it often comes with a catch.
Usually Energy Saver will make a change to screen brightness, dimming the overall picture.
For a start, it’ll mean that the picture is dark, which makes it hard to see what’s going on.
You’ll probably find that contrast is reduced, colours look less vivid, and the picture is overall poorer.
After all, many TVs are marketed on how bright their screens go. It can make a huge difference to how your picture looks.
So if you’re watching something important like a top Hollywood flick, keep energy saver off.
You can always switch it back on for regular telly.
MOTION SMOOTHING
Another setting you’ll want to look out for is Motion Smoothing.
It might also be called Motion Interpolation, Smooth Movement, or something very similar.
Video on your TV is a series of images shown very quickly. The speed at which it can show a new image is called the refresh rate.
A refresh rate of 60Hz means that your TV can update the picture on the screen 60 times every second.
But Hollywood films are often produced at 24 frames per second, which creates a mismatch.
We’ve come to know and love this effect over the years, giving the movies a cinematic feel.
However, some TVs use Motion Smoothing to insert fake frames based on computer guesswork – bringing 24fps footage up to 60fps.
Naysayers argue that this creates a horrible “soap opera” effect for movies, and top Hollywood talent like Tom Cruise, Martin Scorcese, and Christopher Nolan have all urged people to avoid the feature.
So if you’re watching a proper movie, try turning Motion Smoothing off.
LGTry turning off settings with “Motion” in the name to fix the issue[/caption]
What is 4K, Ultra HD and UHD?
Here's an easy guide to what 4K means...
4K, Ultra HD and UHD are all different names for the same type of TV screen. 4K refers to the number of pixels on your TV screen – or the “image resolution”
The pixels are the tiny dots of colour that make up the image you see on your telly. A pixellated image is one where the pixels are really obvious, because there aren’t many. But images with lots of pixels – like a 4K movie – generally look sharper and clearer
A true 4K screen has 4096 x 2160 pixels. That means on your TV screen there are 3840 pixels across, and 2160 pixels vertically. That’s roughly 8.3 million pixels on the display in total
4K gets it’s name because it’s got four times the number of pixels as a standard Full HD TV
Full HD (or 1080p) screens have 1920 pixels across, and 1080 pixels going upwards – for around two million pixels in total. So 4K just means your TV has many more pixels on the screen compared to a more common Full HD display
Ultra HD, or UHD, is basically the same as 4K. If you buy a UHD telly in a shop, you’ll be able to watch 4K content on it with no bother
But there is a small difference. Almost every TV you ever buy has an aspect ratio of 16:9. That means for every 16 pixels horizontally, there are 9 vertically
True 4K footage doesn’t quite fit in with that ratio, so you won’t often find TVs with 4096 x 2160 pixels. Instead, to fit with the 16:9 ratio, most 4K TVs will have 3840 x 2160 pixels instead
If it doesn’t make sense, grab a calculator and divide 2160 by 9. Then multiply it by 16, and you’ll get 3840. That’s the aspect ratio working its magic. So when you see an Ultra HD TV, it just means it’s a 4K image with slightly fewer vertical pixels
If you try watching a 4K video on a non-4K TV, the video will still play – but it won’t be in 4K quality. To watch a 4K video in 4K quality, you’ll need to fork out for a 4K TV. Similarly, if you’re watching standard or HD footage on a 4K TV, it won’t magically become 4K quality
Some TVs promise “4K upscaling”, which converts your standard or HD footage to near-4K quality. This works by using software to guess what colours would fill the extra empty pixels missing in HD footage, and then filling them in. This creates a 4K-like effect, but it’s not true 4K
ASPECT RATIO
Aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height of the image on your screen.
For instance, a 4K movie has 3,840 pixels on every row and 2,160 pixels on every column going across the screen.
That works out at about eight million pixels overall, for exceptional detail.
The aspect ratio for standard 4K is 16:9. That means that for every 16 pixels on a row, there are nine pixels in the column.
This determines the shape of the footage that you’re watching.
But if you’ve got the wrong aspect ratio set on your TV compared to what you’re watching, the content might look squished, stretched, and can even have entire chunks cut off.
Thankfully it’s very easy to adjust aspect ratio in your settings.
Often it’ll be done automatically – but it might not work properly sometimes, especially if you’re streaming from other devices.
SamsungLook for Aspect Ratio or Picture Size settings on your TV[/caption]
Manually checking the correct aspect ratio for each TV show and movie could quickly get tiring.
So instead, try just eye-balling it.
As you flick through the aspect ratios, one should stick out as looking just right. No cut-off footage or wide, stretched bodies.
And if you really can’t tell what looks right, you could just Google it and set the correct aspect ratio.
VIVID
Another setting to watch out for is something called Vivid.
Whether this looks good or bad will probably depend on what you’re watching – and how your TV maker has set the feature up.
Vivid is a type of picture mode that will change settings on your TV to make the image look, well, more vivid.
But sadly this often means just cranking the saturation up – that’s the intensity of colours.
LGVivid can make a TV show or movie pop – but it might not always look the best[/caption]
Some saturation can make a movie’s colours pop, but it can quickly look gaudy and artificial.
So try turning it off to see if you prefer it. You might find that movies and TV shows look much better with Vivid switched off.
Be aware that many TVs have a Dynamic mode that automatically changes settings for you. So that can also be to blame for dodgy colours.
SHARPNESS
Finally, there’s Sharpness – a common setting that makes it very easy to mess up a TV’s picture.
Sharpness is meant to control how defined the edges of objects look on your screen.
It’ll enhance the edges so that they look sharp and clear, which can be useful.
But if you set sharpness too high, you’ll begin to notice a lot of “noise” on the screen.
These are strange artifacts that your TV churns out because it’s trying to add edge detail that isn’t there.
SamsungMake sure that you don’t have your TV’s Sharpness setting raised too high[/caption]
And with sharpness set to very high levels, it can totally ruin how your picture looks.
So keep sharpness nice and low – and if you really want to increase it, do it by a little at a time to see how the changes look.
February 10, 2025New York StateComments Off on Burned, chained & hung by feet…Horror details emerge about freed Israeli hostages as Trump calls treatment a ‘holocaust’
ISRAELI hostages have been chained, gagged and burned by Hamas thugs in a horrific campaign of abuse.
Innocent civilian captives are also being hung by their feet and starved while held in Gaza.
APIsraeli captive Eli Sharabi was freed on Saturday after almost 500 days[/caption]
APOr Levy being interviewed by Hamas onstage[/caption]
APOhad Ben Ami looked gaunt as he was released[/caption]
Furious Donald Trump said the latest hostages freed under Hamas and Israel‘s fragile ceasefire deal “looked like Holocaust survivors”.
The US president said he was losing his patience with the deal after seeing footage of Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, who appeared gaunt upon their release.
Hamas terrorists brutally dragged more than 250 hostages back across the border during their October 7 attack.
Now, almost 500 days on, the last hostages are finally being released and laying bare the shocking treatment they have received and witnessed.
Sharabi, 52, Levy, 34, and Ami, 56, said they had been forced to go days without food and were often only given a single rotten pitta to share.
Israel’s health ministry said they were suffering from “severe malnutrition” and had lost significant body weight.
Barbaric Hamas brutes also only let them relieve themselves twice a day at specific times, Channel 12 news reported.
They were also cruelly interrogated by Hamas fighters, who burned them with a white-hot, unidentified object.
Levy said he was held in the tunnels for the majority of the time, and was only allowed to show every few months – spending 491 days barefoot.
He reportedly told his family: “I was bound in a dark tunnel, without air, without light.
“I couldn’t stand or walk, and only toward the time of the release did the terrorists remove the chains and I learned to walk again.”
He also described depraved mind games Hamas thugs subjected hostages to, by telling them they would be freed soon.
Warped Hamas terrorists tried to give hostages more food in the days before they were finally released in a last-minute attempt to improve their health.
President Isaac Herzog branded the emaciated state of the hostages as “what a crime against humanity looks like”.
He said: “The whole world must look directly at Ohad, Or, and Eli— returning after 491 days of hell, starved, emaciated and pained — being exploited in a cynical and cruel spectacle by vile murderers.”
Those released told how Eliya Cohen, who remains in captivity, has had a bullet wound on his leg since the October 7 atrocity that still hasn’t received proper treatment.
He has also been chained up throughout, and has been given very little food or daylight.
APEli Sharabi before he was abducted[/caption]
APOr Levy before he was taken hostage[/caption]
APOhad Ben Ami is a father-of-three[/caption]
Cohen was held in the tunnels with Sharabi, Levy and Ami – making his mother fear for his life.
She told Israel Hayom newspaper seeing them left her unable to sleep and added: “You understand they are suffering a holocaust.”
Alon Ohel, another hostage, meanwhile has been bound, starved and given no medical attention for shrapnel in his shoulder, arm and now partially blind eye.
His heartbroken Idit Ohel mum said: “I can’t understand it. I don’t think there’s a single mother who could handle her son being hungry, hungry for food, and held in chains for so many days.”
She added: “Everything you can see that Eli and Or went through, Alon is now experiencing.”
Hostages previously released outside the latest deal also gave distressing accounts.
She said: “I was alone, chained by the ankles with a metal shackle, unable to move, and forced to beg to use the bathroom,’ she said.
“I was sexually assaulted by the Hamas terrorist who guarded me. He forced me into the shower, following closely with his gun aimed at me.
“His heavy breathing and predatory stare were terrifying… I was powerless to stop it.
“I had no one to comfort me and had to ‘behave’ for the man who had just violated me in the most horrifying way.”
GettyArmed fighters in one of the underground tunnels in Shujaya neighborhood of Gaza City[/caption]
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what that terrible man did to me, but I keep reminding myself that I am free now and that he can’t hurt me again, ” she added.
So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be released have come home, as well as five Thai hostages who were returned in an unscheduled release.
In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of prisoners and detainees, ranging from prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks to Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.
But Hamas has accused Israel of dragging its feet on allowing aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the agreement, a charge Israel has rejected as untrue.
In turn, Israel has accused Hamas of not respecting the order in which the hostages were to be released and of orchestrating abusive public displays when they have been handed over to the Red Cross.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said it would not let the dire condition of Levy, Ami and Sharabi “pass without response”.
It comes as Trump has said he is “committed to buying and owning” the Gaza Strip and relocating the two million Palestinians living there.
He today insisted Palestinians wouldn’t have right to return to Gaza under his plan for US “ownership” of war-torn territory
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have hit back at plans – but Netanyahu praised his proposal as “revolutionary”.
February 10, 2025New York StateComments Off on Inside Unforgotten’s Sinead Keenan’s famous family – from EastEnders husband to Peaky Blinders brother
UNFORGOTTEN was last seen on air in 2023 but the brand new sixth series returned to our screens this week.
The episode saw Sinéad Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar both returning as their characters DI Khan and DCI James as they investigate cold cases and unsolved crimes from the past.
PAUnforgotten was last seen on air in 2023 but the brand new sixth series returned to our screens last night[/caption]
Like previous seasons of the hit ITV drama, viewers can expect grisly murders and complex storylines as the pair work closely to uncover the secrets of the past.
Sinéad, 47, is an Irish actress, who is also recognised for her roles as Farrah Phelan in Fair City and werewolf Nina Pickering in Being Human.
However, what viewers might not realise is that Sinead didn’t start of wanting to be an actor.
The 46 year old who was born and raised in Dublin, and the eldest of three children, instead wanted to be a lawyer.
She attended University and graduated with a degree in sociology and history.
As a child, she loved the US legal drama Matlock, but as she got older she realised that she actually just wanted to play the part of the lawyer, not be one.
Earlier career
BBCShe played Nina in the hit drama Being Human[/caption]
Her first role was in 1999, when she was cast as the teenage girlfriend of Cillian Murphy in the film, Sunburn.
After this, she played the character Farrah Phelan in Irish soap Fair City for a year.
She left Fair City amid fears of becoming type-cast and moved on to film the movie On the Nose with Cracker actor Robbie Coltrane.
Her nexttelevision role was as Lisa Cassidy in short-lived Irish sitcom The Cassidys.
She then appeared in numerous tv hits including Murder City, Taggart and Doctors, before landing the role of Kelly Hawkins in ITV’s Moving Wallpaper.
Following this, the actress played Nina Pickering in Being Human and had guest roles in Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Silent Witness, and David Tennant‘s final episodes of the science fiction show Doctor Who.
In 2021, she starred in the two-part BBC One drama Three Families, which focused on abortion in Northern Ireland.
Famous siblings
AlamySinead Keenan and her sister Grainne Keenan arriving for the ITV Palooza[/caption]
However, Sinéad isn’t the only actor in her family because she also has famous siblings, Rory and Gráinne, who are also highly successful in theatre, television and film.
Gráinne has worked alongside Glenn Close in the film The Wife and starred with Adrian Dunbar in the thriller Blood.
She also appeared in the Martin Freemancomedy Breeders and starred alongside her sister Sinead in Unforgotten as her on screen sister Debbie.
Their brother Rory has also worked extensively in theatre and film and had roles in Peaky Blinders, War & Peace, Birdsong, and The Guard.
He is married to actor Gemma Arterton who portrayed Bond Girl Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace and spy Pollyana Wilkins / Agent Galahad in the action war film The King’s Man.
Meet Cute
RexShe met her husband twenty years ago when they were acting in a play[/caption]
Sinéad met her husband, TV director Chris McGill, twenty years ago in a lovely meet-cute that could have come right out of a rom-com movie.
They were in a Royal Shakespeare Company production in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
‘We were in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was playing Hermia; he was playing a fairy! He was the understudy Lysander to my Hermia,’ she told The I.
February 10, 2025New York StateComments Off on Luke Littler names darts Mount Rushmore including former world champion on hiatus after missing out on PDC Tour card
LUKE LITTLER has revealed his Mount Rushmore of darts.
Littler, 18, has taken darts by storm since bursting onto the scene at the World DartsChampionship in 2023/24.
PALuke Littler has revealed his Mount Rushmore of darts[/caption]
RexLittler’s mentor Phil Taylor was the first name on his list[/caption]
Rival Michael van Gerwen was another name in his top fourSportsfile
However, after becoming the world champion in 2024/25, Littler has now lifted the lid on who his idols of the sport are.
Speaking on the Huw Ware podcast, Littler was asked for his top four players of all time.
The Nuke replied: “As a fan, obviously, Phil Taylor is at the top.
Meanwhile, Van Gerwen had a similar dramatic entrance to the darts scene as Littler.
The Dutchman was a three-time world champion before Littler even became a pro.
But Mighty Mike is now one of Littler’s biggest rivals, and placing him on his top four shows the immense respect Littler has for Van Gerwen.
Fellow Dutchman Van Barneveld is in the twilight of his career by his own admission.
But the 57-year-old is a five-time world champion – four-time BDO and one-time PDC – and rightly has a spot among the legends of the game.
The final name on Littler’s list, Lewis, is on hiatus from darts.
The 40-year-old said he was taking an “indefinite break” due to personal reasons back in 2023.
And following the two-time PDC world champion’s inactivity, Jackpot lost his Pro Tour Card at the end of 2024.
On the podcast, Littler was also asked how he spent his 18th birthday.
He said: “Very good. Just went bowling with my friends. Just played a few games of bowling, a few games of pool and then went home. I pre-planned it.
“Obviously, it was a Tuesday, so it was a half-priced drinks.
“A week before, I went in to the ten pin and I said, can we get birthday at 8 o’clock? And then there was like two-end lanes.
“So I said, I want the end two lanes for 8pm. They sorted it out. We were out of the way.”
RexFive-time champion Raymond van Barneveld was the third name on Littler’s Rushmore[/caption]
GettyAdrian Lewis was the last name on the list despite losing a his Pro Tour card[/caption]
Luke Littler prize money breakdown
Here is all the prize money Luke Littler has won so far after being crowned 2025 PDC World Darts Championship winner:
World Championship 2025 – £500,000
World Championship 2024 – £200,000
Grand Slam of Darts 2024 – £150,000
European Tour – £91,000
Player Championships events – £71,500
Players Championship final runner-up – £60,000
UK Open 2023 + 2024 – £17,500
World Matchplay – £10,000
World Grand Prix – £7,500
European Championship – £7,500
(Unranked) Premier League Darts – £315,000
TOTAL: £1.43 million
Premier League Darts 2025: Dates and venues
Night 1 – Belfast: Humphries beat Dobey 6-1 Night 2 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow – Thursday February 13 Night 3 – 3Arena, Dublin – Thursday February 20 Night 4 – Westpoint Exeter – Thursday February 27 Night 5 – The Brighton Centre – Thursday March 6 Night 6 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham – Thursday March 13 Night 7 – Utilita Arena, Cardiff – Thursday March 20 Night 8 – Utilita Arena, Newcastle – Thursday March 27 Night 9 – Uber Arena, Berlin – Thursday April 3 Night 10 – AO Arena, Manchester – Thursday April 10 Night 11 – Rotterdam Ahoy, Rotterdam – Thursday April 17 Night 12 – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool – Thursday April 24 Night 13 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham, Thursday May 1 Night 14 – First Direct Arena, Leeds – Thursday May 8 Night 15 – P&J Live, Aberdeen – Thursday May 15 Night 16 – Utilita Arena, Sheffield – Thursday May 22 Play-Offs – The O2, London – Thursday May 29
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