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In: Home Theater
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I just read the The case against 1080p article on cnet by David Carnoy. I think the article offers pretty decent commentary on side-by-side viewing comparisons of 720p and 1080p flat panels. However, the article states that it “isn’t the most scientific test” and that “At larger screen sizes, the differences might become somewhat more apparent, especially if you sit close to the screen.” Kudos to the author for pointing these out; I’ve addressed these issues in this post, which explains when and why 1080p (and 1440p) are important. I’m particularly impressed that the cnet article references the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), stating the theRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 16 Comments

Disclaimers: First of all, this project discusses extracting the audio from DVD Video discs, not DVD-A / DVD Audio discs. DVD-Audio discs use an advanced form of encryption than cannot be digitally extracted / ripped. Extracting / ripping may be a violation of local laws. These instructions should only be used for content you own and it should only be used for personal use only. Overview: You think to yourself “why purchase both the CD and DVD of a concert when the DVD contains all the audio you need?” Since you purchased the audio on the DVD, it makes sense that you would copy audioRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 102 Comments

Overview: This page describes the most accurate way I know to extract and preserve the data from an Audio CD (compact disc). Two steps are necessary to get the best possible audio quality: Bit-perfect audio extraction from the CD Lossless compression of the extracted audio This 2-step process involves a lot of steps that most people would consider unnecessary. However, if you want to preserve and archive CDs by the most accurate means possible, this may be the page for you. NOTE: If you are not an audiophile and just want to use a lossless format, you probably will not be able to tell theRead More →

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In: Automotive, Home Theater
With: 6 Comments

Last night, Nicole and I had several friends over and we wound up watching The Sentinel. The movie was not all that great but what I found even more distracting was the rattles in the room generated by the substantial bass of my subwoofer. I was probably the only one in the room that noticed or was disturbed by it, but so what. So today I’m identifying the offenders in the room. I know the door covering the equipment rack is rattling and there is a light fixture in the ceiling rattling as well. But both rattle at different frequencies and it’s a pain toRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 1 Comment

Last week, Sonos released software revision 2.0. This is the third time they’ve released an update in the ~1.5 years I’ve owned one. What impresses me most is that I’ve made requests in their user suggestion forum and they have implemented many of them. Customers speak and Sonos listens. Too bad more companies are not like this (I’ve been complaining to Philips about their omission of ProntoProNG button backlights for a couple of years now and no change.) One of the coolest new features is integrated Real Rhapsody Service. Previous support was barely functional – it used a networked PC running Rhapsody as an intermediary.Read More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 1 Comment

I no longer subscribe to any magazines that offer reviews of home theater-type equipment and I don’t generally read online review sites either. Why? Because, I’m sick of reading worthless and inaccurate information and that doesn’t help me pick a product and understand its limitations. I’m convienced the only way to get a useful opinion is through aggregation of forum posts, where multiple individuals can give multiple opinions to allow once to reach their own, overall consensus. This methodology is reinforced by the book The Wisdom of Crowds (Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few) by James Surowiecki. Paperback link, Audio book link .Read More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 1 Comment

Great, after spending hours and hours ripping almost all of my DVDs to my server, I find a firmware patch that allows my DVD drive to read movies at about 10 times the speed.  Apparently there is a RipLock feature on most DVD drives that prevents high-speed reading of DVD movies.  I guess this is great if you're watching a movie, because the drive is spinning very slowly, but not when copying.  AnyDVD has a feature to slow down a drive in software, so if I really wanted it slow during movie playback, I can easily set it back to "slow" that way. Anyway, hereRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 0 Comments

The story in question: "The DVD War Against Consumers" on BusinessWeek.com David H. Holtzman of BusinessWeek: You need to do some more research. This guy has no idea what AACS does and I'm surprised this article was even published.  For starters, he needs to go to wikipedia.com and search for AACS . It has nothing to do with downscaling non-HDCP video outputs.  It is an advanced content sharing system that enables the exact functionality he is championing. It allows users to distribute the content of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray disc across multiple devices for personal use.  These copies are encrypted, so they can't be shared widely on downloadRead More →

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In: Events & Travel, Home Theater
With: 3 Comments

As soon as I walked into the theater and glanced up at the trailers on the screen, I knew that I wasn’t watching film.  I immediately suspected that I was looking at the output from a digital projector. Digital projection was first introduced in many cities a few years earlies, but not in Indianapolis.  I wondered how digital would compare to film and if it really was an enhancement or just a method of lowering distribution costs.  Make no mistake, the image is superior to film. What I immediately noticed was the vivid colors on the screen.  Images were more saturated without being over-saturated.  IRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 102 Comments

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve build a media server to store all of my music and movies for playback throughout my house. I decided to store everything the original, lossless format. This means that music is stored at full CD bit rate, and more significantly, movies are backed-up with all menus and extras in the original file format. Although I could save a bunch of space by compressing everything to a different format, I want to keep everything in the original format. The drawback is that this requires quite a bit of disk space, more than I originally anticipated. I justed addedRead More →