For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the TWiT Netcast Network

Saturday August 02, 2008

«Previous Show

Next Show»

Show Audio

Edited Audio
64kbps MP3	16kbps MP3

Tech News

Monday, a federal judge will rule in RIAA case.

The RIAA has sued 20,000 people over alleged music piracy. Jammie Thomas, single mom drew a line in the sand and was found guilty after a five minute jury deliberation. Now, a federal judge will consider on Monday whether to overturn the verdict.

Leo’s testing the The Eye-Fi

The Eye-Fi is an SD card with built in WiFi. He’s testing out the 2GB ($229) does geotagging and uploads pictures to webservers like Flickr or through hotspots.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Leo’s in studio guest today is Scott Wilkinson!

Talking about THx sound system certification for theaters and now homes. Scott talks about video calibration and the training he received from Lucasfilm to learn how to do it.

The key is how good a TV can produce black. If it does a great job with blacks, then it’ll have no trouble with any other color. And the irony is, calibrating any TV will allow it to view colors almost as accurate as any $5,000 HDTV. Digital Video Essentials can help the home user to achieve about 80%. The problem is that out of the box, TVs are adjusted for the showroom floor and are usually too blue and too bright.

There are two certifications for video calibration. THx certifies professional video calibrators (thus, why Scott was in their training) and ISF. You want to look for these certifications to have confidence that your pro video calibrator knows what he’s doing.

Recorded music in 9624 sampling. (96 KHz, with 24 bits) And some believe that only analog can give you true representation. Can anyone really hear the difference, probably those with “golden ears.” But most don’t.

The Chat rooms are peppering Steve about brands. How are 2nd Tears? The Olevia 4727i has great detail. But Syntax-Brillian is on the ropes financially. Vizio’s are impressive in the plasma category, but their LCDs need work.

Prices. Should people wait? When do prices go down? Well, there’s no rhyme or reason to it. Depends on retailers more than the manufacturers. Should people buy now or wait? Well, if you need a TV now, it won’t perform less when something new comes out. So waiting doesn’t really matter. If you need a TV, go ahead buy it now.

HDTVs need to be smarter. It would be cool if you could PIP and have the internet at your command to learn more about what you are watching. Steve also says the ability to “click it and buy it” would be an important addition as well.

---

Hour 1

Q Jason, Santa Clara, CA - Can you automate music synching from network?

Has a networked music library that he can see thru iTunes. He wants to synch all his songs on his laptop wherever he goes and if he makes a change, he wants them to be automatically synched.

Leo recommends synchronization software. Synch Toy is good for a Windows machine and perhaps if your MAC is on the network, it could work. For Mac, ChronoSynch. It’s not free, but it’s a great program. rsync, is already on the Mac, but you need to write a Unix command to work it right.

Scott wonders about the DRM issue on this. We hate DRM. Apple’s DRM allows authorize up to five copies of iTunes to be played. So it shouldn’t be much of a problem there.

But Leo recommends using Amazon’s Music store as there’s no DRM to contend with. ITrax is another option - lossless recording that’s DRM free.

Q Mark, Los Angeles, CA - Good antenna for new digital converter box?

Having a good antenna is a great way to get digital TV. Best solution is a YAGI “on the roof” antenna. Weingart is a good indoor UHF solution.

Make sure it’s properly pointed. If you’re in marginal area for analog, digital channels will be much less forgiving. Leo recommends AntennaWeb.org. Enter your zip and they’ll tell you what stations you can get, the best antenna to get and how to orient it.

Mark has also lost his printers in XP! Losing printers is very hard to diagnose. Leo calls it one of the “black arts” of computing. Leo thinks Mark has lost his “print spool.” Why? Who knows. But a simple reinstall will solve it. Then, run Check Disk or SpinRite to make sure your hard drive is healthy.

Q Chatroom: KWHEASY wants to know what tuner card is best for HTPC.

Leo recommends something from Hauppauge. Scott says in the home theater realm there aren’t many out there, but they will be doing an article on that at UltimateAV Mag soon, so stay tuned.

Q Peter, Van Nuys, CA - AVS for the Mac?

Peter just made the switch and is concerned that he’s naked on the net without a Mac AVS. Intego is one of the best, but they aren’t free or cheap. ClamAV is a free one, but it doesn’t look for MAC viruses, just Windows viruses on the Mac.

Bottom line is that there’s really no MAC virus out in the wild and nobody is really out there writing them. And those who write PC viruses don’t really know how to write a MAC virus. So there’s little to worry about.
The best thing is to practice Leo’s Six Rules for Safe Computing.

---

Hour 2

Q Alex, Canada - Windows equivalent of iMovie?

Alex is ten and edits his family’s home video! Cool, eh? But he’s beyond Windows Movie Maker and wants to know if there’s a Windows equivalent to iMovie? Leo recommends Adobe Premiere Elements. Import, edit, titles & transitions and even burn to DVD. About $80.

Q Captain Steve, San Diego, CA - The origins of THx.

Captain Steve learned while touring USC with his son who’s planning to attend film school. Steve follows up with the story. Turns out that while George Lucas named THx after his first main film THx 1138, there was also an audio engineer who went to work for George who invented the switchover circuit that makes THx possible. His name is Tomlinson Holman.

Cue DEEP NOTE, please.

Q Ryan, Whittier, CA - Is DLP a good HDTV?

He’s worried about the bulbs burning out. Well, Samsung uses LEDs now that avoids that. Luminous uses what’s called FLAT LITE, which are VERY bright and can give those projector bulbs a run for their money. Advantages are that they last ALOT longer, use up less energy and are cooler. They also pulse faster in the color wheel, so you lose the “rainbow artifact.”

Q Chris, OClaire, WI - Home networking with HDTVs

Wants to use his TV on his network. Steve says the SONY Bravia has the Bravia Internet Video Link. It’s a dongle with an internet video link.

Pioneer is the Home Media Gallery which grabs pictures off your computer network.

Q Richard, Sterling Heights, MI - Wants to calibrate his HDTV himself.

Steve says you can do it yourself if your geeky enough. HDTVs come in dynamic mode, but you want your TV calibrated into Movie Mode. Avoid game mode unless playing games. As for user mode, only if you plan on using Digital Video Essentials in HD, a Blu-ray DVD which will have test patterns that will teach you and help you to get the TV dialed in to look as good as it can.

But he firmly believes that it’s worth the $200–300 to have a professional calibrate your TV. You’d be amazed at the difference after wards.

Q John, Lakewood, CA (Chatroom) - Is Best Buy’s calibration a good idea?

Yes, they’re certified by ISF so they know what they are doing.

Q Jonathan, Columbus, OH - Can’t connect his G4 wirelessly after upgrading.

He has intermittent connection issues after upgrading to Leopard. Go to both Low End Mac and Every Mac on how to use newer OS’s with older Macs. Try another login and see if you can. Also, do a clean install. It may be that the install didn’t go well the first time.

---

Hour 3

Q Lee, West Hills, CA - Problems with his iPod Touch.

His iTouch won’t work with a docking station. And Apple doesn’t seem to care. The volume puts out about 20% noise at low volumes - very annoying. Even hooking to the line-in causes the EMI.

Leo wonders if the WiFi is causing the issue. Try turning it off. Lee says it helps, but doesn’t get rid of it, and he believes the circuitry is simply noisy. Sounds like a design flaw and maybe the iPod Touch isn’t the device you want to dock and Leo suggests not buying a touch unless you want it mostly for video.

Q Rick, Orange, CA - Bought the digital/analog converter.

Couldn’t wait for the voucher and bought the Magnavox model. Loves it. Says it works great. Far better picture than analog.

Q Steve, Knoxville, TN - What main brand HDTVs do you like or not?

Westinghouse - Not half bad. Phillips - Uh,no. Toshiba - Excellent. Samsung - Excellent. Steve REALLY likes them. Epson front projector - He likes. Mitsubishi really likes it.

Q Dave, Lancaster, CA - Viewing distances for HDTV

Google “Viewing Distance Calculator” to find it. CarltonBale.com has a spreadsheet you can download to calculate the best distance/angle. You want your viewing angle to be between 30–40 degrees to get the best experience. A 40″ display will put you about 5–6′ away.

Q Tim, Ontario, CA - Question about Dolby 7.1 speakers.

Bought a Sony STR 7.1 Dolby AV receiver. Do the rear surround speakers really matter costwise? Frankly, no. There isn’t any 7.1 content available so you can “cheap out” on the rear surround speakers. But ideally, you want your speakers to be “tonally matched.”

How are the Polk RTA9? They’re great. PSB speakers are great. Sunfires are good. There’s a lot of variety. Is there a future to 7.1? Steve doesn’t think so. There’s no content that uses those two extra channels and it has to be synthsized by the receiver. So, he thinks 5.1 is good enough to give you the optimum experience and anything beyond that is overkill.

Q Steve, Santa Monica, CA - Will Calibration extend the life of Plasma TV?

You bet. Plasmas are set too bright for the showroom floor and calibrating it for a lower setting will extend the life of your screen. Is $225 a good price? It’s a great price if the calibrator is certified. But you can calibrate your HDTV first by using the Digital Video Essentials DVD. Click on the Amazon link above.

Q Bill, Winnetka, CA - Ripping LPs

Bill wants to know if his turntable will work with a preamp or does he need a USB turntable? Steve recommends getting an outboard preamp since Bill’s turntable is really nice. The USB turntables usually have lesser quality needles, etc. and as such, having a nicer interface is a better way to go. And you’ll save money too.

---

«Previous Show

Next Show»