Geek with Family

On the heels of my AppleTV disappointment, I discover Sling Media’s new media extender: Sling Catcher, announced at CES.

Sling’s co-founder, Blake Krikorian, thinks the Catcher will succeed where all other “limited” media extenders have failed:

The Slingcatcher won’t be limited at all, he says, and will let you take “anything you have on your laptop, any type of media, any Web site, or Web-based video and project it wirelessly at the push of a button onto your television set. I can go to any site, any video content, any formatted content and get it to play on my big screen TV. That’s a huge difference between what we’re doing and what others are doing.”

via Engadget

Continue reading Sling Catcher Media Extender Cares About the Consumer

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“What’s on TV? Just about everything you’ve got in iTunes…”

Apple released the final specs on its AppleTV (formerly iTV), and I’m super disappointed.

Its hardware is impressive for a media extender:

• AV out: HDMI and Component Video, Optical and stereo RCA audio (HDMI audio too?)
• Network: Ethernet, 802.11 n a/b/g
• Storage: 40 GB HDD.
• Intel processor (video on the chip?)
• Small and slim form factor that follows the Mac Mini’s rounded corner square design and lateral dimensions

Neat, sounds like an impressive media extender that can deliver up to a 720p video signal to your home theater over a robust wireless connection. So why am I so disappointed?

Continue reading AppleTV - Too Crippled for a $300 Media Extender

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0 dBFS+.

Ever heard of the above digital audio condition? No? Me neither until I was reading a review of my Panasonic S97 HDMI DVD player by Christine Tham on Audioholics. 0 dBFS+ is illegal (in digital audio). It is a distortion of an audio signal above the absolute digital audio amplification level ceiling of 0 dB. It can hide on your CDs from the original mastering (loudness wars), appear when your digital music files are “normalized” (like iTunes’ and your iPod’s “Sound Check”) and be introduced by an upsampling DAC while converting the signal to analog.

Continue reading im in ur dac, clippin ur t00nz

Popularity: 6% [?]

We’re being invaded by France.

HCFR (named after the homecinema-fr.com forums) is a free video calibration tool for Windows. The program is developed by some French forum DIYers who designed their own colorimeter and needed software to take readings and calibrate their home theater video devices. The software also works with X-Rite DTP-94 and Colorvision Spyder2 sensors (no support for Eye One Pro yet, though there is hope as Spyder2 support was added in less than a month).

I discovered HCFR just a few days ago through this AVS Forum Display Calibration Thread. The thread is long and mostly covers discussions of Gamma calculation math, comparisons to other, more expensive, software like Calman, and users posting their results. It was very hard to find concrete answers on how to use the software to calibrate a display. Once I tried the software last night with a Spyder2, I found out why: the interface is very intuitive and it holds your hand through the process.

Continue reading HowTo - HCFR - Free Video Projector Calibration Software

Popularity: 16% [?]

Slim Device’s self-proclaimed audiophile grade network music player, the Transporter ($1999), is highly recommended by Soundstage AV’s Doug Schneider. After going over its easy set up and sonic qualities (on par with similarly priced DACs, this is encouraging to hear as the Transporter’s quality to value ratio has been questioned by other reviews and random forum posts), he proclaims the Transporter the death of the stand alone CD transport as a high end digital source:

The Slim Devices Transporter marks a shift in the way we audiophiles play music, and I believe it signals the death of the CD transport. In fact, I think someone would be foolish to spend much money on a CD transport today. Have one, yes, but start thinking about other ways to store and stream your music — such as Slim Devices’ Transporter-SlimServer solution. It’s that good — and it’s the way of the future. It just happens to be here today.

Awesome. I can stop my search for a new CD player, ignore MSNBC’s bad advice to buy an old Playstation as an “audiophile” CD player (I looked into this a few months ago and the PS1’s are hard to source and it takes way too much work to get the game machine to sound nice (and not even “audiophile” nice, just better than many DVD players and cheap CD players), this site has info on all the mods) and be satisfied with my computer music over a network player like the Transport (or my more humble Airport Express and Sony PSP set up which I still need to find a batter DAC for than my Onkyo TX-DS989 AV Receiver).

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Oyaide Carbon Fiber Wall Plate, available through Music Direct, has me scratching my head. I cannot figure out how an aluminum and carbon fiber AC receptacle wall plate can have any effect on the sound of your hi-fi.

Music Direct’s copy:

OYAIDE/CARBON FIBER WALL PLATE (Without Outlet)

Not only the coolest looking wall plate ever designed, this one has technology to back it up! The Oyaide Wall Plate Mounting Frame is milled from 13mm thick, solid aluminum, machined from a single block. Check out the picture of the rear, this is not an outer frame, but an essential part of the rigidity and resonance damping properties of the wall plate! The Carbon Fiber front panel is fully shielded, non-resonant and non-magnetic. This is the first link in your entire audio system, so don’t skimp on the A/C connection! 100% Money Back Guarantee!

Note: Although the picture shows an Oyaide XXX inserted into the wall plate, the Wall Plate does not in fact come with an outlet.

Continue reading Oyaide Carbon Fiber Wall Plate - The $200 Tin Foil Hat of Audiophile Tweaks

Popularity: 7% [?]

I knew I shouldn’t have upgraded to iTunes 7.

Now when streaming music to my Airport Express from iTunes 7 it takes forever to switch to the next song and worse it will just stop playing randomly. iTunes will actually get stuck at the 0:00 of a song and when you toggle play and pause it skips to the next song still stuck at zero. I have to quit iTunes at the MacMini to get the signal back to the Airport Express. None of the dot updates have helped.

So is my PSP/Airtunes Dance Party over?

Continue reading iTunes 7 Breaks My PSP+Airtunes Setup - Airfoil to the Rescue

Popularity: 9% [?]

Don’t feel like paying $350 for the Apple iPod Hi-Fi Powered speaker system? Make one yourself (and save $50).

Found this on Hack a Day:

This DIYer made a beautiful real oak tube mono amp and iPod dock atop a single matching speaker:

After pricing everything out, I decided to build a single mono channel to see how it sounded. $100 for the amp, $100 for the speaker parts, $100 for wood (real oak, just couldn’t use that compressed saw dust stuff). I ordered the parts and went to work. After about two weeks of working in the evenings this is what I came up with.

Though not as shiny as the Fatman iTube, this is still a cool looking project (I bet it sounds nice too) that gives the iPod some old-school hi-fi style.

Popularity: 4% [?]

My DIY acoustic panels and bass traps are a burden. They are too ugly (according to my wife, I think they're works of art) to keep in our listening room when not in use. So every time I want to begin or finish a listening session I am forced to drag the panels and traps between the utility room and the listening room. It's my cross to bear.

What if I could have the same effectiveness of the bass traps (wave absorption below 200 Hz) but in a much smaller and inconspicuous package?

Continue reading Nucore Cathedral Sound Room Dampening Panels Too Good to be True?

Popularity: 5% [?]

I am a streaming, losslessly compressed, digital audio playback evangelist. I believe you can improve upon the data that's trapped on your CD collection by ripping it to a hard drive and then playing it back through an affordable remote network device, like the Apple Airport Express or the Slim Devices Squeezebox 3. My advocacy for this method of musical enjoyment is tame and assertive when compared to Slim Devices' forum.

Continue reading Slim Devices Threatens High End Audio Establishment

Popularity: 7% [?]