CarltonBale.com

4k resolution flat panel televisions, such as the LG 84LM9600 84″ LED LCD, are now available and potential buyers are wondering if the extra resolution is worth it. In some cases it is, but in most, it’s not.  The details below can help you decide. What Exactly is 4K Resolution? Existing HDTVs max out at [...]

Western Digital MyBook Elite external hard drives use hardware-based encryption chips to (optionally) encrypt drives using 256-bit encryption. This is OK for security, but horrible for data recovery.  It is impossible to access (decrypt) the drive if the enclosure circuit board fails, even if the drive itself is fine.  For this reason, I highly recommend [...]

If you want the absolute best sound quality from your digital music files, they need to be bit-perfect rips from CDs stored in a lossless compression format. I recommend using dBpoweramp Music Converter (dBmc) to do this. This page describes how to configure dBmc (version 12 or 13)  for the most accurate bit-for-bit perfect backup [...]

I’ve been an iPhone user for almost 2 years and have resisted hacking it because it provided almost all of the functionality I needed. In fact, that is still the case, but I finally was pushed over the edge when I needed an Internet connection for my computer for 5 minutes and wound up driving [...]

I was performing a search on Google Images and noticed a picture of my flat panel TV install, which I detailed in this post. The funny thing was that the image wasn’t hosted on my server. I was surprised that the installer not only was using a copy of my image, but was also claiming [...]

The Album: For the past couple of weeks, I anticipated the arrival of the latest Dave Matthews Band album: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. For the first time since I was in college, I sat down in a dark room and listened to an entire album, start to finish, with no interruptions. For the [...]

I’ve created stand-alone clips for demos in my home theater.  Instead of switching discs and skipping chapters, I’ve created/edited video files that are stored on my media server and played-back using a Home Theater Personal Computer. I think the ideal demo scene is comprised of the following: lots of action some setup before the action [...]

I’ve been a TiVo user since 2001 and I’ve owned 7 TiVos. It’s a great product because it is extremely easy to use yet offers an impressive array of features.  However, I think TiVo can offer even more functionality without compromising, and perhaps improving, the simplicity of the user experience.  Here are my ideas: Seamless [...]

I purchased a MSI Wind netbook (i.e. small, cheap laptop) for my wife to use as her personal surfing-the-internet device. Overall, I’m very pleased with the performace and size, making it perfect for casual use.  Here are my pros and cons lists: Pros: Small Size: I knew this was going to be a tiny little [...]

I received an e-mail from Netflix today informing me of yet another price increase, due to the fact that I rent Blu-ray movies. I was paying $11.99 for 2-discs-at-a-time and 4 rentals per month. And this did include the Watch Now online viewing. But over the past few months, Netflix removed the Watch Now from [...]