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Sunday October 19, 2008

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Tech News

Talking about the New Unibody Macs.

Milled out of a single block of aluminum, no buttons on the track pad - sort of. The Trackpad acts like a button. There’s a 4 finger gesture feature of the track pad as well,sort of like when you use the iPhone. Leo’s not comfortable yet with it, but in time he’ll get used to it. Says it’s an impressive machine.

A shock, though, Apple has dumped the firewire on the lower end Macs. :( Firewire is for the higher end MacBook Pros. Apple says that consumers are now using USB 2.0 camcorders. Leo disagrees with this as he uses tape based camcorders like the Canon HV20. So, it’s disappointing that Apple has abandoned Firewire, especially when it’s much faster for doing external hard drive storage.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott Wilkinson is in studio all day today to answer your home theater questions.

Joanna Cazden, VoiceofYourLife.Com.

Scott’s wife, Joanna, is a speech therapist who uses technology to help people with their speech patterns. It wasn’t until technology allowed for close up study of vocal chords did advancements in speech therapy really take off. Video Stroboscopy uses a video camera to watch the vocal chords move in slow motion.

What was once thought to be a nerve reaction, was actually done by Airflow supported by those nerve endings, which causes the vocal chords to move like “flapping in the breeze.” In fact, the vocal chords and our mouth acts much like the hollow chamber in an guitar.

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Hour 1

Q John, Los Angeles, CA - Where is the Blackberry Bold?

John says the Blackberry Bold is all over Europe. Why is there a delay here? Leo isn’t sure why RIM is holding off here in the States. Leo says you could buy one in Europe if it’s unlocked and then put a SIM in it. But the good news is, that the word on the street is that the ship date for the Bold is October 27th.

Should John wait or just go with the iPhone? Leo loves his iPhone, chiefly for the Apps store. The touch screen though, is rather clunky compared to the keyboard for the Bold. Leo is going to hold judgment until the Bold ships. But don’t forget the Android G1 from T-Mobile. Very similar to the iPhone, but with a keyboard. It’ll also be wide open so there will be hundreds of applications. But the word on the street is that the G1 may have been rushed out to the market, which is seldom a good thing.

Q from the Chat Room - How do you compare TVs in a Show room?

Go somewhere like Magnolia to see the TVs in better room conditions and not on the bright showroom floor. Bring your own DVD (Scott brings Stargate: Continuum or Master and Commander) and ask the salesman to play it. If you have enough time, ask if you can adjust the TVs to tweak it? Turn it from Dynamic to Movie (check picture mode in the settings menu).

Digital Video Essentials has a test disc which has a bright white test loop which will setup the plasma screen and eliminate the image retention before it can happen.

Q Ted, Los Angeles, CA - What’s happening to Blu-Ray?

Ted decided to wait until Christmas to buy Blu-Ray. But he’s stunned at the costs still. Is the time right to buy in? Scott says the prices are starting to plummet. There’s an Olevia Blu-Ray for $229. Panasonic has one for $299. Leo says the Blu-Ray market is suppressed. Thinks that it may not take off as people have decided that regular DVDs are good enough for the price. And there isn’t a lot of Blu-Ray content out there right now and it seems the studios aren’t in a hurry to release them. HD Downloads like from Vudu, are getting very popular. All this making Leo to suspect that Blu-Ray could get eclipsed by whatever comes next (4k, perhaps?).

Scott isn’t sure he agrees with that. He cites long download times, DRM problems, and it doesn’t look as good as Blu-Ray. Leo says that Blu-Ray may end up being a high end domain for videophiles.

Q Jeff, Corona, CA - Concerned with Net Neutrality

What candidate supports what? Obama seems to have a solid grasp of net neutrality and says his supports an “open internet.” He went to Google and gave a speech on the issue. John McCain’s support is against Net Neutrality, saying we should let the market and technology solve the Net-neutrality issue.

Popular Mechanics “Geek the Vote” has both candidates positions on science and technology, including the Net Neutrality issue.

Jeff also says that Apple Mighty Mouse is great for video editing.

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Hour 2

Q Patrick, New Jersey - Mac Troubles

Patrick has both a G3 & G4, using Tiger and a Windows keyboard (huh?). He’s having trouble deleting several Gigs of songs out of iTunes. Then, his hard drive crashed.

Leo says that Apple is moving on from the PowerPC platform and is cutting off older users. Leo suspects that this may be part of the problem. You can get a replacement hard drive from Apple. And there’s no copy protection on OSX, so you can get a friend’s OSX disc and reinstall it. Better yet, upgrade to Leopard. Move old system folder to previous system folder and then install.

Q Kevin, Valencia, CA - Mitsubishi L 52″ 149 series review?

Kevin wants to know the downlow on the Mitsubishi L 52″ 149. Scott says this LCD uses “beam steering” on it’s lower speakers. A simulated surround sound effect that Scott says is rather impressive if you have a room with walls that can bounce the sound off. Unfortunately, the TV itself isn’t very good. Look for the review next week at Ultimate AV Magazine. Scott says a better choice is the Samsung 650/750 series TVs. His favorite. The Pioneer Kuro is also one of his favorites.

Q Chip, Bakersfield, CA - Keeping his HDTV future-proof

Chip is worried about losing resolution and content with HDPC DRM. How to extend the life of his older HDTV. Scott suggests upgrading the receiver to make it HDMI switchable. You can also get an HDMI to DVI converter. But he also thinks that going component is more reliable, can use in longer distances. There are AV receivers at under $600 which have that option.

Chip also has a smart phone question. Thinking the iPhone 3G. But what about the Blackberry Storm? Chip loves the apps store for the iPhone. Leo thinks that since the Storm is Blackberry’s first touch screen, it won’t have as many apps. Though many will port their apps over, no doubt. In general, however, the apps for the iPhone are superior. Go the iPhone.

Q Colleen in the TWIT office - Projector HDTVs?

She’s just moved into a huge loft with little windows, so it’s dark. She’s thinking about going projector. Good idea? Scott says it’s a good idea, but it will scale and not “anti alias.” It’ll be as bright as possible, which isn’t as good as a dedicated home theater projector - which costs about $2K. But that doesn’t include a screen - which can be quite costly. But the advantage is the screen size - you can go over 100″. A good screen controls how the light is reflected back to the audience. There is a special paint you can get called “Screen Goo.” It can be used to paint a wall for projecting. But the downside is that walls tend to be textured. But using the Screen Goo will improve projection quality.

Q Barbara, Toluca Lake, CA - Backing up ITunes

Two different choices - backing up everything (ratings, play counts, lists etc) or just backing up the library. You can import your library, or, if your music is on an alternate drive you can point to it.

Here’s a little secret. If you lost your songs, you can go to Apple and beg for them to be restored. They will then allow you to redownload them. It’s a one shot deal, but all isn’t lost if you’ve bought a ton of music and lost it to a hard drive crash. Just be humble and hat in hand.

Q Ethan, Riverside, CA - Audio Quality with the PS3

He bought a PS3 for the Blu-Ray player. But there’s problems with the Audio Quality. It can’t send the bit streams of Dolby or HT3. The PS3 wants to decode the digital audio to 5.1 instead of the DVD player doing the decoding. Which isn’t too bad. Scott says Ethan shouldn’t worry about, since only those with “golden ears” would notice any difference. In fact, the difference is largely theoretical.

Q Gene, Putnam, TX - Digital audio tranmitting

What’s better, coaxial, optical, or HDMI? Coax and optical will not carry the advanced codecs. HDMI will carry the video and audio in one cable with high resolution, lossless master audio. The Coax and optical are older connections which don’t have the bandwidth for lossless audio.

Why is letterbox still an issue video wise? Because the screen on HDTV has an aspect ratio of 16:9. Most movies are shot in a wider aspect ratio (2.35:1) than that. As such, even though widescreen TVs were designed to show movies, they’re still not wide enough! As such, letterbox is still the order of the day if you want to see everything.

There is a 2.35:1 TV by Runco out on the market. It’s an in-wall TV that costs over $10,000!

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Hour 3

Q Bob, Encino, CA - MacBook security

Bob got his MacBook stolen. Got a new one and is concerned for security. New Laptop Lojack? For the Mac is a program called “Under Cover.” It’s $50. The software runs in the background and causes the laptops “phone home” with where they are. Under Cover also takes a picture of who’s using the stolen laptop and sends them every six minutes with the IP address. It immediately notifies law enforcement. Pretty cool, but the real question is, what is the success rate?

Q Scott, Palo Alto, CA - Power tails go both ways?

Power tails plugging into a computer. Leo says that they rare usually “keyed” to go only one way. It’s designed to prevent reverse polarity plug-ins. So be careful which way you plug them in. Look for a cut corner on both the plugs and the power tail. And don’t force it in.

The Red wire goes toward the IDE port. THE RED WIRE!

Q Randy, Costa Mesa, CA - Widecreen movies cutting vertical

Why do widescreen movies cut off the vertical? Leo thinks there’s something wrong with his TV settings. Check to see if you’re not in “zoom.” What you want, according to Scott, is aspect ration (may be called Picture Size, Natural/Full, Zoom 1 or Zoom 2). Ideally, you want the setting that says “just scan,” or “dot by dot.” It’ll map pixel by pixel. The problem, as you can tell, is the nomenclature is all over the place from model to model.

Q Dave, San Diego, CA - Greatest DVDs of all time

Only about 20% of those greatest are available to Blu-Ray. Is it worth buying into? Yes. OF course. The extras are wonderful in Blu-Ray along with the movie. Amazing. But extras depend on studio to studio. They can put all the extras onto one disc. There’s a ton extra space there. But, so far, the bonus features are hit and miss. Some studios don’t give it, some do and in full HD. You wanna beat downloads, Studios? GIVE THE EXTRAS. It’s what got people to buy DVDs in the first place.

Q Lynn, Torrance, CA - Concerns about security on LAN when PC asleep.

Don’t worry. You’re fine. Press escape on boot up, change the wake on LAN setting.

Q George, Toronto, CAN - Building a Home Theater PC

Leo used to advocate it for it’s educational value of how a PC works. But he’s now saying that PCs are just too cheap and you get support with it. So why bother?

George has built one anyway, but his Yamaha Amp with HDMI causes all settings to go out of wack, the resolution gets terrible. If HDMI is HDMI, why is that happening with the Amp involved? Scott wonders if the motherboard isn’t compliant with HDMI, or that the HDPC copy protection is preventing full resolution. This is one of the problems with HDMI and roll your own computers. The Amp may be rejecting something the TV likes. Or vice versa. It also illustrates Steve Jobs comments “Blu-Ray is a bag of hurt” pertaining to PCs.

See you next week!

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