Home Theaters

                                                         

 For those thinking about following the road less traveled, and working with a more personal home theater using a small monitor and headphones instead of speakers, Panasonic has a couple of great choices.

These units provide the spacious sound that we all look for, and are made to remove that ‘action between your ears’ sound that many regular headphones have. The fact that these are wireless makes it all the more easy to forget the fact that you are listening to headphones. No wire dangling from your head and the amazing comfort of the pads means freedom to enjoy the sound at whatever level you wish, and the ability to concentrate on the movie without distraction.

Available in black and gray, these are an amazing way to have the personal home theater experience on a budget. Great stuff from Panasonic. -

The Panasonic RP-WF5500 supports 5.1ch Dolby surround sound over 2.4Ghz wireless connection. The weight of the RP-WF5500 is only 250g. Other features of the RP-WF5500 include 20 to 22,000 Hz frequency band, 30m operation range, 6 hour battery life and are available in black and white. The Panasonic RP-WF5500 starts shipping on November 20th in Japan. I’ll be watching for their appearance here, and get a U.S. price at that time.

I’ve personally owned several pairs of Panasonic branded headphones, and each pair was extremely good for its price. Panasonic makes very nice headphones for the connoisseur in Japan, and these are a sign that the line may be available here in its entirety. As nice as the selections from Audio Technica, Koss, and Sony are, more competition for the consumer dollar is always good.

For those who have the notion that two ears only need two transducers, and don’t mind wires connecting them to the sound source, Panasonic has other really nice circumnaural (closed around the ear) headphones such as the RP-HT722s, for a very reasonable price.

for $50, Panasonic makes a great set of headphones for those happy with 2 drivers, and a wired connection to the sound. These offer deluxe sound for not much money, and because the cups close you off from outside noise, provide a very personal experience.  These would be fantastic for watching HD DVDs from a widescreen laptop.

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Whether you are building an HTPC, increasing the storage of your TiVo, or building a simple media server for convenience, everyone needs lots of hard drive space.

For an HTPC or the media server, it is very nice to be able to have redundancy. Doubling the drives to have identical information in case of failure is a good thing. Everyone speaks of drive failure. Most will talk about if it happens. Those really knowledgeable will speak of when it happens.

Just last week, news of someone trying to assert a patent concerning the manufacture of hard drives came out. If the courts take this seriously, imports of drives will slow to a trickle or stop altogether.

Retailers have not gotten the word, or haven’t been paying attention, because some drives are on sale at prices never seen. Cost per gigabyte is down around $0.20, and this is for drives with long warranties, and large caches.

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Seagate Barracuda drives, 300 GB, 16 MB cache, and 7200 rpm, with a 5 year warranty. These drives work to make a killer TiVo setup, as they run relatively cool.

Fry’s has these for $59.99 with free shipping.

 

Western Digital drives, 1 TB (yes, that’s a T), 16 MB cache, 7200 rpm, SATA, and 3 year warranty. These are the quietest drives around, with astounding performance. Four of these in RAID 10 would make for a media server that can download a big chunk of the iTunes catalogue.

Best Buy has these for $279.99, and you can save shipping charges by picking it up locally.

 

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If you have a system that has run out of drive bays, a big drive, like the ones above, can be added by using an external box, and a USB 2 connection. This can be used for long term storage, or backup that should last a good, long time, provided that the drive is only turned on occasionally.

This box has both USB 2 and Firewire 400 connections, making it useful for use with a Mac, if needed. With good cooling, this enclosure works well and allows the drive to perform at top speed, unlike the many others in the same price range.

The unit is made by Galaxy Metal Gear and is available from egoodz.com, and with the use of the code ‘drop8off’ the price is $29.99, including shipping.

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Forget that stuff about being never too rich or never too thin, what they meant to say is that you can never have enough drive space!

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Lots of deals are coming around, a sure sign that holiday time is near, and spending on others, as well as ourselves is coming. Time to start taking notes, finding out what those special people in our lives are thinking about, and crunching the numbers to see what can be done about it. Let the secret Santa out for a while to look through what is offered this week.

First, let’s look at the number one item on the lists of many people.

Televisions, HD Televisions

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Syntax Olevia 532H 32″ Widescreen LCD HDTV $500

CompUSA.com offers the Syntax Ölevia 532H 32″ Widescreen LCD HD Television for $499.99. It can be shipped for $27, or picked up at a nearby store (yes, someone is till close to one)It includes 1366×768 native resolution, 1600:1 contrast, 8ms response time, up to 1080i resolution, built-in NTSC and ATSC tuners, and HDMI, VGA, component, S-Video, and RCA inputs. (although a good price, remember that this is not a native HD resolution)

Samsung 61″ 1080p Widescreen DLP Rear Projection HDTV $1749

Dataviz.com has the Samsung 61″ DLP Rear Projection, model no. HL-T6176S, for $2,299. When you put it down to purchase (shopping cart) it drops to $1,749.  This deal includes free shipping, so that’s even better. Some of the features are 1920×1080 (1080p) native resolution, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, built-in ATSC and NTSC tuners, USB connectivity, and HDMI, VGA, component, S-Video, RCA, and coaxial video inputs. (this looks like a tremendous deal, and this unit has been highly rated, and the Samsung name means quality)

Toshiba REGZA 26″ Widescreen LCD HDTV / DVD Combo $679

Again from Dataviz.com, a good deal on a unit that combines a television and DVD player. The television is HD, the DVD player, of course, is not. That still does not keep this from being a very nice unit for a den, or a bedroom. Perhaps a gift for that son or daughter who is making you very proud of their academic progress! Or a treat for yourself, in your own bedroom retreat. Shipping adds $23, and the features include 1366×768 native resolution, built-in NTSC, ATSC, and QAM tuners, and HDMI, VGA, component, S-Video, and RCA video inputs.

for your perusal :

Best Buy has 10% off selected HD televisions, but it is online only. They use the ‘put the item in cart’ method to show you the actual price, which is annoying, but there are a few deals. Also, you can save $$ by picking the items up at a store, so there is no shipping charge. (probably just as well, because the average employee at Best Buy isn’t really excited about helping the customer - still it can be a good place to obtain a deal)

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Laptops are beginning to come with HD DVD players, allowing a widescreen personal experience almost anywhere. Add a great set of headphones, and home theater is at your arm’s length.

HP Pavilion Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz 17″ Laptop with HD DVD-ROM $1300

CompUSA.com offers the HP Pavilion dv9260us Core 2 Duo 2GHz 17″ Widescreen Notebook, model RP243UA#ABA, for $1,349.98. A $50 mail-in rebate chops the net price to $1,299.98 which includes free shipping.

It features an Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz dual-core processor, 17″ 1440×900 widescreen LCD, 2GB RAM, two 120GB Serial ATA hard drives (240GB total - wow!), HD DVD-ROM drive with dual layer DVD burner, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256MB video card, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g wireless, Bluetooth, integrated webcam and microphone, flash card reader, HDTV tuner, and Windows Vista Ultimate. (this looks like a great deal, and remember, HP is one of those manufacturers who includes the XP restore disc so that if Vista totally puts you off, you can upgrade to Windows XP Pro.)

 

 Newegg has the TiVo model R54080 (a series 2 80 hour model) on sale for $170.00, which is a nice unit for time shifting, and works well for storing television and music content. With all of the new features, and the ability to expand these units, it makes a great gift for anyone who likes music or television.

Newegg has other deals for the home theater buff, ranging from a Mitsubishi DLP to Angstrom speakers, all a great prices. Because the everyday price is low, sales tend to not be spectacular looking, but are always worth a look - many times a substantial shipping fee will be saved on a sale product.

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Many of the online haunts of mine are on an off-week, or aren’t offering much to the theater crowd. If none of the above deals catches your fancy, perhaps a week of saving, in preparation for the Friday after Thanksgiving would be in order. As always, I’ll be scouring the net for the best deals on things to make our home theater experiences better! I’m sure I’ll find some more things today, so check back later, or possibly tomorrow.

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While investigating things for an upcoming list of most wanted things by most people, I stumbled upon a couple of lists having to do with the upcoming holidays. It seems that everyone becomes a religious person when presents are mentioned!

It surprised me that HDTV was at the top of both of the lists. I truly expected something with a fruit logo to be topping at least one of the lists. This tells me that market penetration of HDTV is still small, and possibly many are thinking about the upcoming deadline for analog television transmission in these United States.

while we would all like to have a projection room, with seating for 20 close friends, it just isn’t possible for most of us.

So, because many still have not made the jump, there might be some trepidation in the act of choosing what type of television, the size (both for the room and the wallet), and the capabilities of the unit chosen.

The things to know can be summed rather quickly, so without further hesitation…

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When going to buy that new television, forewarned is forearmed. It is important to know at least as much as the salesman you’ll be dealing with. 

Resolution - since coming out, several resolutions are specified by a ‘nickname’ which indicates the number of  vertical lines on the screen. 720p means a 1280 by 720 pixel screen, for true 16 x 9 ratio. It also means that the lines are drawn in one pass, or progressively, which is the opposite of the ‘i’ designator, which would mean interlaced, or that the screen is drawn in 2 passes.  The other screen size is 1080, which can be used with a ‘p’ or an ‘i’, meaning 1920 x 1080 pixels.

There are also other sizes, used less, but still counted as HD, such as 1024 x 768 and 1366 x 768. (Note that these are not true 16 x 9 ratios, so movies with standard ratios will either not completely display, or have bands of black at top and bottom of the screen).

If you choose the screen resolution based on the recommendations of ‘talking heads’ you might be disappointed. The ‘heads’ recommend that not much difference will be seen on sets of less than 40″ between 720p and 1080i. In my opinion, these are the same people who used to say they were not bothered by the Invar shadow mask support wires used by Sony in the Trinitron series of televisions. My suggestion is look at both formats on the television you will be buying. If you are happy that you don’t need 1080i, don’t worry about it. On sets above 40″, you will get it, so no decision is necessary.

Non-interlaced 1080 resolution is something you won’t see much content for right now, but if this is, to you, a large purchase that you won’t be putting in the kid’s room in a couple of years, it would be worth considering. It can add $200 to $500 dollars to the purchase, but that’s not that much over a number of years.

You don’t have to be like Inspector Clouseau, it only takes a little knowledge to make a good choice.

HDMI - this is more than a new connection method or a pain in the butt, it is also a standard that is evolving as I write this. It is not well understood by many, especially computer manufacturers. (More on that another time.) If you expect to get the full resolution of all your source materials, and don’t want to make switching the television off and on a ritual when switching inputs, make sure that the television you select has HDMI 1.3 ports.

a sports event in HD, using a moving ball, will let you know much about the quality of the picture.

Last, and most important - choose by viewing. Use a variety of material to investigate the prospective purchase. Watch a sporting event, with a ball! If you can see the ball clearly, in motion, on an HD broadcast, that is a good start. If your children will be hooking a game console up to the television, check that out - using the best quality interconnection method possible. This will be a real workout for any television, so don’t immediately disqualify a candidate if it doesn’t do well with the console. Simply remember which one of your last couple of candidates did best here, and possibly use it as a tie breaker. If you can audition at home, or have a dealer with known return policy that includes complete customer satisfaction, proceed - otherwise, ask lots of questions, and don’t hesitate to ask others where they purchased, how they felt about the purchase, and how their television has made them feel.

Class dismissed.

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Clearly concerned over the environmental problems more than other countries, Australia is planning a ban on plasma and LCD televisions, as the units are said to use more energy than CRT devices.

While this may be true for plasma televisions (I’ve done no calculations), it is not true for LCDs, when judging on an inch for inch basis. The Australian authorities must be speaking of the very large LCD screens versus the largest of what is available with CRT.

 saving energy is good, but let’s not get all Luddite about it!

It is truly commendable that those down under are thinking about the whole planet. It does seem as though another method of saving energy could be employed instead of cutting  home theater lover’s off at the knees.

this is cropping up everywhere, so can’t we trade less energy used for the washer and dryer, for more inches of television - it’s our only vice!

Worrying about efficiency is fine, but the parts of an LCD screen, or plasma, for that matter, that are the cause of waste are the transformers. The step-down variety in the LCD case, and the step-up variety in plasma televisions. It is easily seen by anyone who owns an LCD monitor for their computer that most of the energy wasted is in the form of heat, coming off the power brick. This is where the effort should be put. Higher quality parts, with tighter tolerances, and monitoring electronics to supply only current needed to the transformer is what is needed. This is not new technology, just unused in this application because parts count goes up, and there after cost to the consumer. It becomes the ‘pay-me-now or pay-me-later’ proposition.

Being sensible about this is what will get the most people to comply willingly. It’s about trade offs. When you buy those 3 movies for the family, you are helping the planet by not making 3 separate trips to the multiplex in the car, you are not wasting gas also when you order them from Amazon. The UPS carrier is going by your house anyway, and your car stays in the driveway once again.

This is just a couple of ways that money, and energy is saved. I imagine that for many Australians, a trip to the movie house could involve quite a bit of fuel. Much better to stay home with the larger television, and let the postman, or other delivery person bring the movies home.

It’s all a matter of perspective. With the right motives and attitude, it is possible to show your ‘green spirit’, be ecologically responsible, and patriotic, too!

Think globally, act locally, watch movies in your own home theater!

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Just as I was finishing up the article about TiVo and Real Networks, giving its users access to Rhapsody, I saw another, distressing article about the TiVo service.

Everyone wants one of these - even Comcast customers.

Over 18 months ago, Comcast made a deal with TiVo to bring its brand of DVR units to subscribers of its cable offerings. As anyone who has compared, for even a short while, knows, TiVo is an interface and standard that beats the competition by a large margin.

So why would Comcast, purveyors of a service that it proclaims to be the best of its kind, not want to keep the standard of quality and service to its customers above all others?

Convenience like this is only available under one name - TiVo.

The CEO of TiVo has stated his amazement at the heel dragging of the cable provider. The CEO has more than a little interest in the service beginning at Comcast. Continued delays, after the announcement of almost 2 years ago, has tended to make the company’s fortunes on the stock market slide. I’m certain that the Comcast customer base would vote in the affirmative if asked that they wanted the service, and could leave behind any other kludged methods of trying to duplicate the TiVo goodness. On the other side of things, Comcast is stating that the service, and machines, are being beta tested by its own employees.

These guys are supposed to be changing the way cable works, and the customer’s views on cable service. Why then are they dragging feet on implementation of a great service?

What is there to beta test? TiVo has worked with off-air television for years. TiVo has worked with DirecTV for years, and continues to do so with both. Other than the transmission method, which is transparent to the software on the TiVo unit, what is different about these machines? Nothing has been claimed as different. No new features; simply the ability to get the best of what timed video recording offers. Could it be that the employees are refusing to give the final word, as they will lose the free use of the equipment when the beta cycle ends?

I am obviously joking here, but there does seem to be no good reason for this delay - especially for something that’s Comcastic!

Cable television purveyors cannot afford to be too cavalier about broken promises to consumers, with HDTV over the air, and satellite television performance, both better and cheaper than most providers’ offerings. Comcast has not been doing so well as an internet service provider, so it must rely on cable television subscriptions to continue being profitable.

 

Is it Comcastic to deny TiVo goodness to your customer base?

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Hints of change were around in January of this year at TiVo, as right after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the talk was that TiVo was going to have to grow, or wither and die. Now we see by several signs that TiVo is in no danger of dying, it has forged deals with DirecTV once again, it has worked to build more value into its devices, and has now worked to bring more value to the brand, and its offered services.

 Perhaps a new heading - Watch Music Videos will be added!

In a follow up to an announcement in January, Real Networks has stated that Rhapsody music service will be available to owners of TiVo devices (no word yet on availability to DirecTiVo customers). The Rhapsody service will be available for the first 30 days absolutely free; after the get-to-know-us period the service will cost an additional $12.99 per month. The actual content will not be stored on the TiVo; the TiVo will simply act as a remote hosting device. Customers of Rhapsody currently will be able to use a home network to stream music and videos on their home network to their televisions via the TiVo device, without additional charge, and without limit. The service will be added to current boxes of the Series 2 and Series 3 types, as well as the HD TiVo units through an update process. The units will have to have a broadband connection to the TiVo in order to use the services (for DirecTiVo users, this would mean that DirecTV will have to allow the enabling of the USB ports on the DVRs, which would be a great step to show the customers good will, after the poor treatment the Murdoch folks gave them). Perhaps an inventive company can make a network interface module for these units (are you listening WeaKnees?).

Looks like the Rhapsody menu could become a submenu of your TiVo unit rather easily.

TiVo will be able to start competing with other home entertainment integration products with this effort, but still has a long way to go before removing the need, or want, of things like the Windows Media Center PC. If a cooperative effort was gained, the users could see a synergistic effect at home - perhaps someone should mention this to Microsoft (after all there was something once called Ultimate TV; it was a Microsoft - TiVo collaboration).

This is a happy guy - music on demand just made him even happier.

Because Rhapsody is a partner with MTV now, it is possible that TiVo users could be the recipients of constant music videos from that network - just like when the M in MTV meant Music, and not Money. This could help invigorate the sagging viewing numbers, and relieve the boredom of the viewers of relentless reruns of ‘Pimp My Ride’ and pitiful reality shows.

maybe TiVo will put the MUSIC back in MTV (for those who remember)

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With all the news about the problems with Blu-ray discs, Blu-ray players, and Blu-ray software for the computer, along with the ‘musical chairs’ that certain companies are playing when throwing their support for an HD format, it has been stated by several talking heads that regular DVD will be making an upswing. Those who are tired of problems, guessing which way to turn, or have decided to wait, will be buying regular DVDs in larger numbers, showing that content is king, and format is a proposition that should have been worked out already.

With that said, there seems to be a growing number of choices each week, for the past couple of weeks. It might be a coincidence, but I’d say the shelves are already being stocked for Christmas, and Santa likes that. DVDs don’t weigh the sleigh down like other gifts might.

So for October 9

Movies from the big screen

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 12:08 East of Bucharest

Starring : Mircea Andreescu, Teodor Corban

Not Rated  [2006]

This film won a Gold Camera prize at the 2006 Cannes Festival. It concerns the recollections of the Romanian country and people after the fall of Ceausescu.

 28 Weeks Later…

Starring : Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner

Rated R [2007] Available in FULL and WIDESCREEN versions

This movie centers around a viral outbreak in the U.K., and the U.S. Army going to assist. Seems to be like The Andromeda Strain, with a twist.

Allegro

Starring : Ulrich Thomsen, Helena Christensen

Not Rated [2005]

A Danish pianist returns to his hometown and finds a lover left behind in his desire for fame and recognition.

 

Black Sheep

Starring : Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason

Not Rated [2006]

Horror film concerning a genetic experiment gone bad.

 

Emmanuelle

Starring : Sylvia Kristel, Alain Cuny

Rated NC - 17 ? (I remember this as R) [1975]

A young wife begins a voyage of sexual self-discovery in this soft-core classic. Original was beautifully done, excellent cinematography for pushing the HD screen.

Evan Almighty

Starring : Steve Carell, Lauren Graham

Rated PG [2007] Available in FULL and WIDESCREEN versions

Congressman Evan is told that he must reprise the work of Noah, for the same reasons.

 

Holla

Starring : Shelli Boone, Charles Porter

Rated R [2006]

A weekend cabin stay turns out badly.

Little Women

Starring : Meredith Baxter, Susan Dey

Not Rated [1978] Originally for television, but recut as   Widescreen (2 DVDs)

Four sisters path through the Civil War

Mala Noche

Starring : Tim Streeter, Doug Cooeyate

Not Rated [1985]

Feature film debut of Gus Van Sant as director.

Man Push Cart

Starring : Charles Daniel Sandoval, Leticia Dolera

Not Rated [2006]

A night in the life of a coffee cart owner in New York, who previously was a Pakistani rock star. (who knew?)

Night of the Living Dead 3D

Starring : Brianna Brown, Sid Haig

Rated R [2006]

A 3D remake of the George Romero film. (Yippee!)

Poltergeist

Starring : JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson

Rated PG [1982]

25th Anniversary Edition of film, the house is really the star! Subwoofer Alert!

Pretty Things

Starring : Marion Cotillard, Patrick Bruel

Not Rated [2001]

Lucie and Marie are twin sisters with a love-hate relationship, their personalities completely opposite. Lucie is an extroverted pin-up model, while Marie is a quiet, reserved model of austerity. One day, when Lucie is offered an exclusive recording contract despite the fact that she cannot sing, Marie, who possesses a good singing voice, goes to Paris to perform in place of her sister.

 

Protecting the King

Starring : Peter Dobson, Tom Sizemore

Not Rated [2007]

Story based on the exploits of Elvis Presley’s stepbrother and bodyguard (and writer/director of this film) D. Edward Stanley.

 

Raiders of the Damned

Starring : Richard Grieco, Gary Sirchia

Rated R [2005]

An elite military unit tries to save a group of scientists whose helicopter went down in a wasteland occupied by the living dead.

 

Reign Over Me

Starring : Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle

Rated R [2007] Available in FULL and WIDESCREEN versions

A man who lost everything in the September 11th attacks meets up with a college friend who tries to help.

 

Rise: Blood Hunter

Starring : Lucy Liu, Michael Chiklis

Rated R [2007]

A female reporter wakes up in a morgue, finding that she is among the undead.

Roots: The Next Generations

Starring : Georg Stanford Brown, Lynne Moody

Not Rated [1979] - Originally for television (6 DVDs)

Equally epic sequel to acclaim mini-series traces African-American family’s saga from 1880s through 1967.

See Jane Run

Starring : Jennifer Clary, Joe Estevez

Not Rated [2007]

Four teenagers pick up an insane hitchhiker. (Where does he sit?)

The Sex Movie

Starring : Matthew Tyler, Mike Fallon

Not Rated [2006]

Co-workers in the adult film industry spend a flirtatious evening in a San Francisco loft.

Shanghai Kiss

Starring : Hayden Panettiere, Ken Leung

Not Rated [2007]

A struggling Chinese-American actor is forced to reconsider his roots after suddenly inheriting his grandmother’s home in Shanghai

 

Shinobi No Mono

Starring : Raizo Ichikawa, Yunosuke Ito

Not Rated [1962] Golden Oldie Alert!

Ishikawa Goemon, a young ninja, becomes embedded in a twisted scheme to assassinate Oda Nobunaga, a warlord bent on ruling feudal Japan with an iron fist. Deceit and treachery lurk around every corner as Goemon travels the countryside to complete his task of winning back his honor.

 

Surf’s Up

Starring the voices of : Shia Le Beouf, Jon Heder

Rated PG [2007] Available in FULL and WIDESCREEN versions

Go behind-the-scenes for a look at the annual Penguin World Surfing Championship, and its newest participant, up-and-comer Cody Maverick.

 

  Tara Road

Starring : Andie MacDowell, Brenda Fricker

Rated PG [2005]

Two women, one American and one Irish, agree to a two-month house exchange in order to find healing and strength through new surroundings and the kindness of others.

Taylor

Starring : Scarlett Chorvatt, Jack Scalia

Not Rated  [2005]

The arrival of a mysterious woman in a small college town ignites competition and intrigue among her new neighbors.

 

Three Days of Rain

Starring : Peter Falk, Lyle Lovett

Rated PG-13 [2003]

Six events (all related) taking place in modern day Cleveland occur over the course of three rainy days.

 

The Treatment

Starring : Chris Eigeman, Famke Janssen

Not Rated [2006]

Jake is at loose ends in NYC, and deep in psychoanalysis when he meets the enigmatic, and beautiful, widow Allegra Marshall. (sign me up)

 

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Starring : Dan Ayckroyd, Albert Brooks

Rated PG [1983]

Four small, but clever, tales in the style of the master, Rod Serling.

 

Welcome to Paradise

Starring : Crystal Bernard, Bobby Edner

Rated PG [2007]

A female minister’s faith and conviction in God leads her to the small town of Paradise, TX, where she finds a community in desperate need of direction, and the one man who just might be the love of her life.

 

Would I Lie to You!

Starring : Richard Anconina, Richard Bohringer

Not Rated  [1997]

Eddie Vuibert is a man with no job, no family and no home. One day after a fight, Eddie sees his luck turning—a rich entrepreneur from the French fashion district hires him thinking he is a Jew. Eddie lets the misunderstanding continue and enters the world of the Sephardic Jews.

 

Wrong Turn 2 : Dead End

Starring : Henry Rollins, Erica Leerhsen

Not Rated

Incredulity Alert! Contestants of a reality TV show find themselves fighting for their lives against a family of inbred cannibals who plan to ruthlessly butcher them all.

 

You Kill Me

Starring : Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni

Rated R [2007]

A hit-man trying to turn his life around gets a job in a mortuary, where he meets a woman who is a relative of one his hits.

 

Youthanasia

Starring : Shannon Lucio, Joshua Feinman

Not Rated [2005]

A young man struggles to fit back into society after serving three years for manslaughter.

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and the Television stuff :

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Bratz : Super Babyz

Rated G [2007]

A cool gadget from outer space turns the Bratz Babyz into Super Babyz who possess super powers!

 

Creature Comforts America : 1st Season

Not Rated [2007]

Short lived television series using clay-mation characters.

 

CSI : New York - Complete 3rd Season

Starring : Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes

Not Rated (Television, how bad can it be?)

The third incarnation of Bruckheimer’s successful CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise centers around a team of forensic investigators who use high-tech science to follow the evidence and solve crimes in the Big Apple.

 

Everybody Hates Chris - 2nd Season

Starring : Chris Rock, Tyler James Williams

Not Rated

Loosely based on his childhood experiences, actor and comedian Chris Rock created and narrates this coming-of-age sitcom of a teenager growing up as the oldest of three children in Brooklyn, NY in the early 1980s.

 

Girlfriends - 2nd Season

Starring : Persia White, Tracee Ellis Ross

Not Rated [2001]

Sophisticated comedy series looks at the lives and relationship issues of four women living in Los Angeles.

 

Hannah Montana : Life’s What You Make It

Starring : Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment

Not Rated (Disney Channel) [2006]

Four episodes merged into a serial, of sorts.

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and released straight to DVD :

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Mike Marino : New Jersey’s Bad Boy of Comedy

Not Rated [2007]

His stage act, a common sense guy with a Jersey attitude.

 

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Quite a selection, good for the upcoming holidays, not only as gifts, but as something to get the family, or just the adults, together to enjoy the experience. If you invite me, I like Squirt (soda) with my popcorn.

Later. 

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Many people would be building their own Home Theater PC, if it was not for the fact that hooking a personal computer to a sufficiently large monitor was always a bad compromise.

In order to have a large picture for movie and video viewing, a large monitor was needed, but what was not as apparent as the nose on your face is that fact that these large displays were operating at reduced resolutions, and produced poor picture quality when using the monitor to show data, even using a graphical operating system. Text was always larger than most would desire to keep from having the tattered look or fuzziness that increased resolution would bring.

There is also the problem with the running of things not at the native resolution of an LCD display. If a 30″ display has a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, what happens when you want to run a game at a lower resolution, for speed or simply to make it easier to use from a distance? This is where an onboard processor is employed, to help the system get things looking right, and not overburden the graphics card.

Now the Gateway XHD3000 monitor has a native resolution of 2560 x 1600, and unlike others released recently, has that onboard processor fast enough to do the scaling, de-interlacing, noise reduction, and other needed features.

This Gateway model uses a chipset from Silicon Optix, called the Realta. This is normally only found in higher priced hardware used in consumer-grade choices. This chipset is not found in similar sized products from Dell and Hewlitt-Packard.

30 inches of screen goodness, with the ability to do many things well -  expensive, but worth it. Full review.

The important specs are:

Viewable size    30-inch diagonal
Panel type    LCD active matrix TFT

High-Def support    1600p, 1080i, 1080p, 720p, 480i and 480p
Resolution    2560×1600 (native and maximum)
Brightness    400cd/m2
Contrast ratio    1000:1
Response time    6ms (gray to gray)
Colors    16.7 million
Viewing angles    178/178
Pixel pitch    0.250mm
Screen treatment    Anti-glare

Connections    Single and Dual-link DVI
HDMI
Component
S-Video
Composite
Analog (VGA)
USB 2.0 (6 ports)
Audio inputs for all video inputs (HDMI audio, RCAx4, S/PDIFx2)

Power supply    External
Stand Positioning    Stand provides swivel, tilt
Wall mount    Vesa 100MM

Audio    Full-length speaker bar standard

Lamp life    50,000 hours
Approvals    UL, cUL, FCC Class B, NOM, CE, VCCI and PSE
Weight    Monitor: 20.8 lbs. (9.4 kg)
Speaker Bar: 3 lbs. (1.3 kg)
Stand: 6.4 lbs. (2.9 kg)
Dimensions    22.24 × 17.02~22.15 × 15.37 inches
(564.8 × 432.3~562.7 × 390.3 mm)

Warranty    One year, parts and labor

All pretty good, except for that warranty - one year warranty on a big, expensive monitor doesn’t do much to engender the customer’s trust.

The monitor does provide a wealth of connection options -

and a nice screen menu system. The monitor supports Picture-in-Picture, so those inputs can allow the ball game to be windowed while composing that last minute message to the people you are begging off from dinner with.

The unit comes with its own remote, which allows a very easy switch from work settings, to video screenings, to game play.

The unit is not the best at everything, choosing instead to be well above average at most all things. Another complaint beyond the warranty could be the huge power brick that the unit comes with, which has been compared to the monster brick that is supplied with the Xbox 360, both in size and heat production. Build quality could be a little higher, but at $1700 (compare to separate work and play monitors)for such a large display, it’s not bad.

I won’t be buying one anytime soon, but many will, and that will help the rest of us, as the cost will come down as the usage goes up!

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Older players? Who are we kidding? It simply shows the pace at which some things move, and how things with electronic processors can be aged so quickly.

The titles causing problems are apparently from 20th Century Fox, including the latest installment of the Marvel Comics Fantastic Four saga,  The Rise of the Silver Surfer,

released just last week - problems already!   One thing you expect when buying a DVD…being able to watch it!

and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’.

The largest number of complaints are from owners of a second generation player from Samsung, the BD-P1200,

  and the owners are upset by this, to say the least. Citing the cost of the machine, the owners are not sure why expensive hardware did not have more protection against this apparent obsolescence. Remember also, that new firmware cannot be applied by a quick connection to the internet, like the Play Station 3.

The owners of the original dual-format LG player are having problems as well, but this seems to be less of a concern, as these machines already suffered compatibility problems on other fronts. Still, problems like this don’t make the average customer, considering a purchase of expensive and not-yet-completely-standardized equipment feel more comfortable.

Good news for Sony Play Station 3 owners,

  however, as there are firmware updates already available to remove any problem. This is not unexpected as Sony can’t really afford to alienate any PS3 customers with problems that could be perceived as something Sony should have anticipated.

Samsung and LG have committed to firmware updates that will fix all problems in the next few weeks.

Computer playback does not seem to have escaped the problem, as users of the PowerDVD software from Cyberlink have had their share of problems with playback. Upgrades for this are already available, although the upgrades don’t seem to address all of the problems encountered, making it a partial fix, which is irking many of the users.

The problems have not yet been positively identified, as there are several areas of the standard that could be causing difficulties. The current list of suspects includes the BD-J interactivity layer, and the BD+ copy protection scheme - or the interaction between the two.

Once again, copy protection problems rear their ugly head! Since it has been shown, in every circumstance of copy protection schemes used, that the protection will be defeated, it might make sense to adopt a softer stance on this - but the motion picture associations are not thinking clearly on this, alienating potential customers seems to be at the bottom of the list.

No final word is out, nor is any long time solution claimed yet. This is one of the things early technology adopters must expect. Caveat emptor.

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Since most of us are home on Sunday, for at least part of the day, and many offers tend to run from Sunday to the next, Sunday will now become the entry where I scour all the ads, doing my best to give the very best deals on things of need to anyone with any size home theater. All of the items will be available across the country, unless otherwise specified - and unfortunately, I am at the mercy of others on these items, so please, no sniveling if what is listed runs out, or is misprint. (Thanks for your understanding on this)

 

So -

Televisions

Widescreen Philips LCD TV for $1000

Costco.com offers members the Philips 42″ Widescreen LCD HD Television, model no. 42PFL5332D/37, for $999.99. (Non-members pay $50 more, or sign up for a one-year membership for $50.) With $49.99 for shipping, that’s the lowest total price I’ve seen. Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include a 1366×768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 4000:1 contrast ratio, 500 cd/m2 brightness, 8ms response time, built-in ATSC, NTSC, and QAM tuners, USB connectivity, and HDMI, component, S-Video, and RCA video inputs. Offer ends October 28.

Nice looking, fitting into most any decor (significant other approved)

Samsung Widescreen DLP Projection HDTV for $500 {Refurbished}

TigerDirect.com offers the factory-refurbished Samsung 42″ Widescreen DLP Projection HD Television, model no. HL-S4266W, for $499.99. With $167.50 for shipping, it’s $142 under the lowest total price seen for a factory-sealed model. Features include a 1280×720 resolution, 3-line digital comb filter, integrated ATSC tuner, 16:9 aspect ratio, 2500:1 contrast ratio, CableCARD slot, and HDMI, VGA, component, S-Video, and RCA video inputs. A 90-day Samsung warranty applies.

Another nice looking - room friendly design

MAG 32″ LCD Television $499.98 from 10-7 to 10-13

Staples, this week, has a new name in televisions, but and old name in LCDs, MAG, with a 32″ model for $400 less than it was yesterday - I haven’t personally seen a MAG monitor this large before, so I’d look first, but it is definitely work a look! 1366 x768 resolution, 8 ms response time (should be fine for television and almost anything else, but gamers will want to pass, it will probably not be quite fast enough)

 

Hard Disk Drives

Maxtor Parallel ATA 300 GB drive (no rebates involved) $69.98

Staples is helping Seagate move through the last of their parallel ATA drives, and so this is a great thing for you. The benefits are small, if any for SATA for most, and PATA will be supported for quite some time. 300 GB with 16 MB cache is a terrific deal at this price - it will make the storage of digital content fast, safe and easy. Pick up a couple and run in RAID 1 for that extra measure of safety - many motherboards will allow this without any extra hardware. The addition of a RAID card, if needed, is trivial. Everyone who has an HTPC should get one or more of these. — I made a blunder here - SATA models are available at the same price! Enjoy with no reservations. (if you get SATA, make sure you have power and data cables - they should be included, but no word on the box - with PATA models the 80 wire cable is included)

I own 3 of these, you just can’t go wrong here. (and I paid a little more for mine)

 

DVD Media

Sony DVD media -50 pack $12.98

Sony makes the best media of any of the names you know. Taiyo Yuden is better, but is hard to find, and almost never gets discounted. Also TDK which used to be a great choice is no longer using the same plants to manufacture the media that bears its name. Maxell makes good media, but in the drives I’ve tried tends to be a bit less forgiving-you notice this if you do a compare after you do a burn.  With Sony, you won’t be disappointed no matter what you are putting on the disk - enjoy with no reservations - this is a great price! At Staples all week.

50 pack - great deal!

100 pack - even better!  $22.98

____________________________________________________

I did not see anything exciting at Best Buy (although there is a blurb about new DVD releases on sale - take a look to see if you should make a trip there this week), CompUSA, or any of the other regular sites I check out - but I will keep checking.

As the day continues, I will add more if there is something that grabs my attention in a big way. I’m still looking for someone to have a breakout price on Windows Home Server, for those who wish to build a server for shared content - none yet, and very few places are selling it at all.

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The room, once chosen, that becomes the home theater, rarely has the proper treatments on the walls, floor, and the ceiling. By proper treatments, I am referring to sound absorbing materials that will allow the speakers to present more of the original sound and ambience, and less of the sonic signature of the room where the experience is being recreated.

There are different thoughts on sound treatments. While everyone agrees that trying to turn the home theater into an anechoic chamber is both silly and fruitless, as well as expensive, it is important to note that there are certain room attributes that need to be accentuated, and some need to be removed as much as is practically possible.

It is easy to get cues from quality theaters on setup, so that scientific principles can be followed, but scientific analysis is not needed. For example, theaters invariably have soft materials on the side walls, and rear wall. This is designed to absorb any early reflections. Early reflections are a problem because the direct sound from the speakers is what sets up the sound stage, and the ‘imaging’ that audiophiles speak of comes from the listener hearing the direct sound, without the reflected sound from the room surfaces competing and confusing the brain.

To treat walls and ceilings, an absorbent material, marketed under the name Sonex, is available for the ultimate in removal of early reflections, and can be sized for contouring the room response. Thinner tiles, with less pronounced ribbing, are used to absorb the highest frequencies.

35mm thick, this works well for ceilings and full wall covers. It is nice looking, and most significant others won’t mind the look - as long as you pick the right color - many are available.

Slightly thicker tiles are available, for more control, and are more useful when only a part of the wall is to be covered.

More pronounced ribs are better at mid frequency control.

For the really difficult rooms, or where sound control within the room is desired, along with external noise control, the thicker pyramidal shape tiles can be used, in thickness levels from 2″ to 4″. The largest of these will have sound control capabilities well down into the 2nd and 3rd octaves.

This is the big stuff. It will assert control over the most stubborn problems.

If you need real control, but no external noise abatement, or can’t stomach the pyramid form, this more sculpted pattern is available. Again - many choices of color.

For windows, covering the glass with something less reflective is important, more so on the side walls than the back wall. Heavy curtains will be helpful, but if really large glass areas are to be controlled, Sonex has flexible material, which can be hung like curtains, or embedded in a curtain.

Because this is dense, it will block light well, and further enhance the theater experience.

If, by some fortunate happenstance, your theater is large enough to have slap-echo problems, there are Sonex bass traps, designed to eliminate the problem.

Bass traps are to be placed in the corners of a room, and will control bass peaks, and slap-echo.

Most people will be dealing with a smaller room, and most will feel the need for more, not less bass. For them the bass traps placed in the rear corners of the room will help contour the bass yet allow the front speakers to take advantage of the low frequency augmentation that the corners will provide. As most know, where 2 room boundaries meet, a 3 db enhancement is provided in low frequency response, where 3 room boundaries meet (a corner), a 6db bump will be observed.

Should you, or the significant other, decide that this type of treatment is beyond what you want, there are low tech alternatives.

Thicker than normal carpet will minimize early reflections from the floor, heavy drapes will control reflections from glass, and if extended beyond the glass, will control hard wall problems. If further control is desired, a thin batting material can be employed behind a cloth-like wall covering. It will be less helpful than the Sonex, but will be vastly superior to bare, hard walls.

Remembering how the speakers need to be properly set up, and then positioning the sound absorbing, or sound controlling materials in their best places, will achieve much more of the sound field the movie production staff intended, and provide that much more of an enjoyable experience - better sound, and the satisfaction of knowing you set the room up for best sound yourself.

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(More later on room refinements, such as active equalization.)

When looking around for content to feed that shiny, bright new high definition television, it is amazing to see what the purveyors of network television throw out, expecting the new owner of the product to bite.

To a channel, the major, and not so major, networks put out the idea that we, the public, should be oh, so grateful that they are providing news broadcasts in high definition.

Of course she’s cute and perky, but do you need HD to figure that out?

Is there anything more ridiculous than thinking people wish to see the worst content available on television? What benefits does having HD for anything presented provide? Local news is usually just so much drivel, put out because the station needs to fill time, and gain advertising dollars. Could that be it? No, because somewhat disturbingly, commercials presented during these broadcasts are not coming to you in HD, making for a fairly jumpy presentation on some televisions, as they switch from HD to SD, and then back.

Going back to the news - what is there that needs to be presented in HD? The traffic jam on the freeway, caused by the overturned truck can’t really be so impressive can it? Could it be the victims of another violent crime enumerated by the plodding reporters is somehow causing the public to tune in? Anyone really interested in some blood and gore will tune into Cops, or some other exploitation-presented-as-reality program on the Fox Network.

You know you don’t need to see this in hi-def.

Is the weather map really that interesting? Can you see if the coming hail storm will avoid your neighborhood by looking at the map, presented in HD? Probably not, even if you could get Mother Nature to cooperate.

If you want hi-def weather maps, check out something on the net - this just isn’t that special, or informative.

Perhaps if they showed the storm in progress, with thunder rolling, and lightning - then that new HDTV and subwoofer would be important.

 

Sports coverage? If you were that interested, you would either go to the event, or watch it on DirecTV, or another sports network, which shows the entire event in HD. The little snippets presented on network television news can’t possibly convey enough information, or create enough joy, to make High Definition important.

Now if there was some real news presentation on television news, like a reporter in the eye of Katrina, or a reporter in the TransAmerica building in San Francisco during the Big One - that would merit an HDTV presentation.

When the Big One hits, and a reporter and HDTV crew are in the T-A building during - Now THAT’S entertainment!

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While it is nice to be able to build and buy a compact, or inexpensive system, we all lust after the best. It’s in our nature. Every American grows up to think that getting the best is first priority. For many of us, it is something we aspire to obtain, and remains a goal for quite some time.

Between the logical steps to a home theater, and the forced frugality we all experience, the soul needs to fly, and covet the best that is available…

You might have noticed I like powerful amplifiers. Powerful amplifiers are useful for more than volume levels that make the neighbors run. A powerful amplifier that is of great quality will bring out the best from all products connected to it. It may also reveal flaws in those pieces, but overall, the results will be positive.

Many years ago, the first really high quality, high power amplifier design was put out by a company called Great American Sound. The company was started by a man named James Bongiorno.

Mr. Bongiorno had quite a career going before making the move to his own company, having worked on some of the original Marantz power amplifiers, back before the name was bought by a Japanese conglomerate, and the man who owned the company was named Saul Marantz. Marantz was probably the first audio company with an eye on fidelity more than the profit line.

Bongiorno’s next designs were as part of the Dynaco team in the early 60’s. Several of those designs remain today, cherished like jewels of quality and design. The Stereo 400 amplifier was a Bongiorno design, and was the peak of excellence when offered for sale.

James Bongiorno was to go to SAE from Dynaco, where his designs were some of the best available at any price. SAE was known for high power, low distortion, and affordable price.

The designs from GAS, where he then went, are the best remembered by many audiophiles of the 70’s and 80’s. Ampzilla, Ampzilla II, and Son of Ampzilla were amplifiers that anyone who knew they could never afford tube gear aspired to obtain.

After the demise of GAS, a critical success but commercial flop, Mr. Bongiorno, after a time, set up Sumo as the place to extend his legend in the world of electronics design. Names like The Power, The Gold, The Nine, Andromeda, Electra, and Charlie - the Tuner, are well known to audiophiles of the era, and whether or not you owned any of them (as I do) you always wanted to listen to music through them.

Eventually, Bongiorno grew restless at Sumo, and left the company he started. For quite a while, he seemed to be content staying out of the limelight, sailing his boat (so we were told).

A few years ago, he started yet another company, Spread Spectrum Technologies, so that we could benefit once again from his designs.

Ampzilla 2000 is the result of better parts, now available, and the designs he has now fully realized with those parts.

Ampzilla 2000 - this is audio Nirvana, brought to you by the man who has been doing it for longer than anybody else.

Real amplifiers are HEAVY!

Quality amplifiers have BIG toroidal transformers and use HUGE heatsinks instead of fans.

The above pictures show the monoblock Ampzilla 2000, an amplifier that, unlike many today, behaves as a voltage source. It provides 100 W into 16 ohm loads, 200 W into 8 ohm loads, and 400 W into 4 ohm loads. Although not specified, I would expect it to output 800 W into a 2 ohm load before thermal shutdown. That’s power baby! It is also control. Amplifiers like this exercise complete control over the woofers of your system, providing exceptional powerful, tight, and fast bass. It is the kind of power that makes you wonder why those speakers you thought needed to be replaced, never sounded quite so good.

It’s also the kind of power that can get you into serious trouble with your neighbors - they will get mad that you’re not inviting them over to listen.

In the same manner as Krell Amplifiers, Ampzilla 2000 amplifiers will make you know why high end audio was invented, and why listening to music through a great system, or watching a great movie, knowing the sound is as it should be, is so much like a drug - you crave the fix of great sound.

Those grand of ear, but smaller of wallet will be happy to know that, just like long ago, with Great American Sound, there is a junior model, less costly, but no less accomplished. Son of Ampzilla 2000 is a stereo amplifier, with less beef, but like the stuff from Kobe, is just as fine.

Smaller output, but the Son is just as sweet to listen to as the father.