Geek with Family

I stayed up until 3 a.m. Friday night running between my computer and listening rooms. I was trying to push a high bit, expanded frequency WAV music file from my Mac Mini’s iTunes to my Airport Express’s connected to my hi-fi set up. This experiment failed but I learned something that will make me pursue a new experiment that I always thought silly before.

Continue reading PSP + Airtunes + Coverbuddy = Dance Party - Update - 24-88.2 Upsampling

Popularity: 9% [?]

Curious to find any electronic mods for the Airport Express, I ran across this tip for improved iTunes fidelity on a Mac: switch your MIDI controls to 24 bits.

On a Mac, launch the Audio MIDI Setup.app from your Utilities folder. Change the Audio Output controls on the Audio Devices tab to 88200.0 Hz/2ch-24bit for all sources as in the screen shot. You can actually switch the settings while iTunes is playing for A/B comparisons.

Continue reading PSP + Airtunes + Coverbuddy = Dance Party - 24-88.2 Upsampling

Popularity: 6% [?]

I was very stressed when I decided to buy my Optoma GrayWolf 92 inch 16×9 1.8 gain projection screen. According to posts on AVS Forum I had to worry about: finding a discounted online retailer that would ship me the right product (the Graywolf has the same product number as Optoma’s white screen), the screen surviving shipping damage (large dents in the roll-up housing reported) and a horizontal line across the image area from a plastic sheet used for packing (more on this later). I’m happy to say I avoided all these headaches and received an intact screen at a reasonable price.

Continue reading Optoma Graywolf 92 inch 16×9 High Gain Projection Screen Review

Popularity: 16% [?]

I’ve been into Blade Runner since it came out in 1982. I remember the color full page ad I cut off the back of the Seattle Times Sunday Tempo section and thumb-tacked to my wall. My Harrison Ford fever was high after the Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Ridley Scott is finally releasing a restored 1992 Director’s Cut (saw it in the Fine Arts theater in Chicago) this September. Later in 2007 a "final cut" will be released in theaters and then a super-deluxe-special-edition with multiple versions of the film (now I can finally enjoy the voice-over narration again—those fly by scenes seem so empty without them)(Ridley Scott better record a commentary track too).

Variety.com - Marathon ‘Runner’: "The restored ‘Director’s Cut’ will debut on homevid in September, and remain on sale for four months only, after which time it will be placed on moratorium. ‘Blade Runner: Final Cut’ will arrive in 2007 for a limited 25th anniversary theatrical run, followed by a special edition DVD with the three previous versions offered as alternate viewing: Besides the original theatrical version and director’s cut, the expanded international theatrical cut will be included. The set will also contain additional bonus materials."

In 2007 I’ll have another two additions to my Blade Runner curiosity cabinet. The cabinet’s past and current contents: Director’s Cut DVD, VHS (permanently borrowed from some guy in high school), CD Soundtrack, S.M.H. vol. 4 (featured top anime sculptors’ diorama interpretations of the Blade Runner world—"Post Bla-Run Syndrome"), Starlog magazines, PC Game, Plager Katsumate Series-D blaster resin kit; Books: Retrofitting Blade Runner : Issues in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, Blade Runner: The Inside Story; second draft of the script, and failed attempts at making my own action figures, 1:6 scale sculptures and Hot Wheels spinners.

(Via Rotten Tomatoes.)

Popularity: 18% [?]

I never realized Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the ABC’s had the same tune until my daughter remixed them at bedtime while we rocked her to sleep.

Since she was born I’ve sung Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star whenever I put her to bed. She usually sings along. We sing it in low, high or staccato voices. A few months ago she started requesting "Eh-Bee-Thee’s?". After running through the alphabet at least twice we’d switch back to the Star song.

This month she’s really liked to mix the two songs up. I’ll start, "A-B-C-D…" and she’ll cut in "…little star…" then we’ll both "…H-I-J-K…" She thinks it’s hilarious. I imagine a smile in her mind at the improved creativity.

If my wife can hear us, she’ll tell you the song hops are never as smooth as described above. I really have to pause and think about fitting the right phrase with the coming melody. Luckily, my daughter has lots of musical and cognitive talent to spare, so she helps me out.

I wish this was a talent we could nurture and encourage in our daughter. Mash-up remixing is a dangerous talent path to pursue. By the time she wants to share her songs with the world I’m sure we’ll have the lullaby copyright police at our door.

With the collapse of the public domain do we owe performance licensing fees for singing these songs in the first place? Will her pending release of the "Alpha-Star Album" spell doom for the record industry?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Sunday night, the wife and I stayed up late to watch all 143 minutes of The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD (we’d planned to only sit through half of the movie). Distracting technical difficulties barred me from having a good time watching this Jerry Bruckheimer production based on a Disney theme park ride.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl DVD is cursed by edge enhancement. A crunchy halo surrounds Jack Sparrow set against the Caribbean’s blue skies. Every jib, mast and rope on the Black Pearl lost their fine detail under the confusion of edge artifacts.

Edge enhancement or ringing is so distracting that I am tempted to pause the movie and double check all my sharpness settings on my Panasonic S97 DVD player and Sanyo PLV-Z3 projector. The projector must have its internal sharpening turned all the down to avoid any ringing. The DVD player introduces its own edge enhancement or ghosting at its upsampled 720p and 1080i resolutions, so I watch it at 480p.

Continue reading Pirates of the Caribbean DVD Ruined by Edge Enhancement

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My CD audio set up never satisfied me. It was plagued by sibilance, congested midrange, flat imaging and boomy bass. How could I turn around this fatiguing listening experience?

Buying a new boutique CD player (an affordable Marantz CD-5001 or a not so affordable Arcam Full Metal Jacket CD36 upsampling CD player) was too obvious of an irresponsible use of my daughter’s meager college fund. The frugal audiophile (that’s me, by necessity) chisels away small chips of family savings through cheap tweaks (less than $100 flew below my wife’s radar).

How many tweaks could I try before I hit the ceiling of a price of Marantz most affordable CD Player? How many digital audio accessories would turn out to be snake oil? Would the subtle differences and gains be worth the tweaks’ cost and effort?

Continue reading 7 CD-Digital Audio Tweaks for the Newbie Audiophile

Popularity: 16% [?]

Inspired by the "Creating an Audiophile Music Server" blog, I set up a user-friendly music server that I can control from my main listening room. Using my Sony PSP as a remote, I can play, pause, skip any song on any album in my iTunes library.

Overjoyed with this new freedom of musical whim and access mixed with hi-fi, the family broke into two spontaneous dance parties over the weekend. Toddler_o_Geek loves the Jaxx.

Continue reading PSP + Airtunes + Coverbuddy = Hi-Fi Music Server Dance Party - Introduction

Popularity: 18% [?]

We bought a 2000 Lexus RX 300 SUV on Saturday. The Lexus has a factory upgraded sound system with a six CD changer in the glove compartment. On Sunday we remembered to take a CD, Decemberists’ Picaresque, with us on the short drive to the local horse farm.

In our old car (a 2004 Honda Pilot, so really newer than the Lexus) we never had too many CDs in the car because I had this great idea that we would remember my iPod (we never do because it’s always connected to me, my Mac Mini or on the night stand with drained batteries).

Continue reading The Decemberists’ Picaresque - Toddler_o_Geek Doesn’t Hate My Music Yet

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I’ve never bought entertainment software for convenience’s sake. If I try to purchase something I already own, Wife_o_Geek vetoes with, "Don’t you already have that? We need diapers." I can’t smell a dirty diaper while riding the train to work, watching Samurai Champloo on my PSP. We move out of electronics and into the baby aisle.

Why buy expensive UMDs and iPod TV Videos from the iTunes Music Store? You can rip and re-encode the DVDs you own, right? Not so fast, that’s illegal and you’ll get sued by the MPAA.

When dealing with electronic forms of entertainment you want your money to go toward improvements to the experience: higher resolutions, bigger screens, more surround sound channels, crisper and clearer, less noise, whatever. You may have a hard time paying for tiny resolution, formatted for a 2 inch screen, mono or stereo sound (Dolby Pro Logic II on headphones with some UMD titles), and compressed and noisy audio and video.

Continue reading Mobile Video Convenience versus Home Theater Quality

Popularity: 14% [?]