Tech Talk

[hawkingvsreeve]

Are you an Aperion fan? They make nice stuff, but it's a little too warm for me. Looks gorgeous, and I'm sure it sounds fantastic. I'm a big fan of nice, smaller subs like this.

I am a fan yeah. I have their large bookshelf model as my main L and R and they sound amazing on their own. I am just starting to piece together a home theater system.

[TheWatcher]

Well, I think my MP3 player finally bit the dust. It won't charge anymore.

Time to look for another.

Requirements:
1) MUST be able to just drag and drop files to player as USB device.
2) Needs decent capacity. Old one had 20GB, I'd like more but 20GB is still ok.
3) Multiple file format support is important, though I usually only have actually used the MP3 files.

Recommendations?

[OutOfmYminD]

Price range?

[frozen pilgrim]

Well, I think my MP3 player finally bit the dust. It won't charge anymore.

Time to look for another.

Requirements:
1) MUST be able to just drag and drop files to player as USB device.
2) Needs decent capacity. Old one had 20GB, I'd like more but 20GB is still ok.
3) Multiple file format support is important, though I usually only have actually used the MP3 files.

Recommendations?

zen x-fi.
just bought the 32 gig.
32 gigs of flash, wifi, high-end desktop gaming card quality sound, SDHC expandability, built in mic and speaker, and even comes with decent in-ear headphones with custom sizes of silicone sleeves (still using my bose triports, but still- nice bonus)

not only can you just drag and drop, you can grab music, pictures and videos in just about any format off your hard drive or the FAT formatted drive of any computer with windows media player installed over wifi from the player without touching the computer.

[TheWatcher]

Price range?

Probably $150-200.

[TheWatcher]

zen x-fi.
just bought the 32 gig.
32 gigs of flash, wifi, high-end desktop gaming card quality sound, SDHC expandability, built in mic and speaker, and even comes with decent in-ear headphones with custom sizes of silicone sleeves (still using my bose triports, but still- nice bonus)

not only can you just drag and drop, you can grab music, pictures and videos in just about any format off your hard drive or the FAT formatted drive of any computer with windows media player installed over wifi from the player without touching the computer.

Looks kind of cool. How is the battery life?

[hawkingvsreeve]

Bought a new digital camera (Sony Cybershot DSC-T77).

Should arrive tomorrow. Anyone have this model or one similar? Thoughts?

[cansei de ser sexme]

I didn't drop it or anything. I just had it in my pocket, went to go take out the trash, came back in, pulled it out, and this is what the screen looked like.





It is a 32 Gig not from the newest gen but the one before. Anyone have any idea wtf is up?

[hawkingvsreeve]

Radioactive scrotum would be my professional opinion. Hopefully you have apple care.

[frozen pilgrim]

I cann't stress enough how awesome the zen x-fi is. it's THE best sounding player available on the normal consumer market (I know the japanese and germans both have crazier shit)

[hawkingvsreeve]

Just in case anyone was wondering, the DTV conversion that was supposed to happen today was pushed back to June 12, although some smaller stations are going through with it today. If you lose channels unexpectedly, that is why.

[justinaqui]

I have a Yamaha receiver and it has a couple HDMI INputs on the back, is there any advantage to using these instead of the ones that are on the TV? I use the digital audio out from the TV, so I don't think there would be an audio quality difference? Is there something I'm not understanding?

[Donaldj]

HDMI is one cable and it also has a much higher bandwidth so it is able to carry lossless PCM and HD Dolby Digital and DTS streams. If you're just watching over the air broadcasts it's not gonna make any difference. If you're watching a Blu-Ray or something that has a HD audio source use the HDMI.

[hawkingvsreeve]

Keep in mind though that your receiver has to be able to decode Dolby/DTS HD streams to make it really worth it. I use HDMI on my receiver so that I can have one button switching between input sources being that I am only feeding the TV a single video stream.

[Donaldj]

Keep in mind though that your receiver has to be able to decode Dolby/DTS HD streams to make it really worth it.

Forgot to mention that.

[frozen pilgrim]

what I find hilarious is that even with HDMI some people can't set up a home theater. sad.

re: x-fi battery life:

excellent. I mean, it varies, obviously you're not gonna get dozens of hours when you're streaming video over wifi and downloading it to the player, or when using the external speaker at high volume, but with headphones listening to music, and the screen brightness on full, it will run all day long and eat maybe half or 3/4 of the battery.

[marooko]

they paying you, frozen?


my cowon is gonna cost 120 bones to get fixed.

[menikmati]

not much luck with technology lately huh marooko?

[marooko]

no, not really. id tell you what has been working great, but with my luck it would break.

[justinaqui]

Keep in mind though that your receiver has to be able to decode Dolby/DTS HD streams to make it really worth it. I use HDMI on my receiver so that I can have one button switching between input sources being that I am only feeding the TV a single video stream.

Reading your responses has led me to believe i did a poor job asking my question. I understand what HDMI is and how it works. I'm really asking if there is any advantage to running the HDMI signal from a blu-ray player through the receiver instead of just going straight to HDMI in on the TV and using the digital audio out. I use a spidf connection for TV audio out to receiver audio in.

Basically, I'm doing the reverse of hawkingvsreeve, everything that shows up on the TV uses the same source on the receiver. You're keeping a single source on the TV, I'm keeping a single source on the receiver.

And yes, my amp is capable of decoding DTS, digital-ex etc. I'm using a Yamaha HTR-6090 which I would highly recommend. Using the Pure Direct setting for stereo recordings (like vinyl) sounds incredible.

* 7-channel 840W powerful surround sound
(120W x 7)
* Digital ToP-ART with extremely high quality parts and devices used throughout
* Pure Direct for higher fidelity sound reproduction
* 2 in/1 out HDMI (ver. 1.2a) for handling digital signals including Super Audio CD
* Assignable amplifiers for bi-amp connection
* CINEMA DSP with 23 DSP programs
* Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES 96/24 compatibility

Edit: And THANKS for the responses

[Donaldj]

Yes go HDMI for the Blu-Ray Player. Digital toslink or coax is only able to decode compressed 5.1. HDMI allows for HD uncompressed 5.1.

[hawkingvsreeve]

Reading your responses has led me to believe i did a poor job asking my question. I understand what HDMI is and how it works. I'm really asking if there is any advantage to running the HDMI signal from a blu-ray player through the receiver instead of just going straight to HDMI in on the TV and using the digital audio out. I use a spidf connection for TV audio out to receiver audio in.

I see. Well I guess the advantage in this situation would be less cables. If you aren't using the new HD audio streams though then it sounds like your setup is just fine.

[justinaqui]

Okay, great. So I'll just rerun my HDMI sources into the receiver, then the one HDMI out to the TV. The convenience factor is kind of moot, as I lucked out and got a Logitech Harmony 550 as a secret santa gift. Thanks for the help.

[marooko]

Plasma TV's. Do you have one? have you noticed any burn in? how long have you had it?

[Sexecutioner]

Bought a new digital camera (Sony Cybershot DSC-T77).

Should arrive tomorrow. Anyone have this model or one similar? Thoughts?

i've had the T-50 for a couple years now and still love it. its the touch screen one. some people dont like that, but i find it very convenient. sure, you get smudges on the screen sometimes, but i dont really care as long as the pics come out good, and the screen is easy to wipe clean. also love how big the screen is, and picture quality is great too. i always get compliments on them. and one of my favorite things about it is the sound quality it gets while taking video...perfect for concerts. lots of digi cameras have shitty mics that cant handle the bass hits, but this sounds great. the slim size is also great for sneaking into places. my only complaint for video is that it tends to lose focus a lot, mostly during concerts, cuz i think it cant decide between focusing on the band or the audience.

[hawkingvsreeve]

I'm having an itunes issue.

So I downloaded the folders of mp3s from the P2K thread, and when I put them into a playlist, itunes rearranges them without me telling it to do so, and the order that it places them in appears to be completely arbitrary. In the folder that the mp3s are stored in they are numbered from 500 down to 001 and I would like to keep that order. I dont want to go through and manually put 500 songs in the proper order, as that would take forever. I have tried unchecking the "keep itunes organized" box as well as the "group compilations together when browsing" box in the itunes preferences but this does not appear to change anything. Does anybody know why this is happening or have a solution for me (that is not telling me to not use itunes)?

[amyzzz]

Can I just bitch about itunes and commiserate, brandon?

[hawkingvsreeve]

You are welcome to. This is the first issue I have had with it that has stumped me. I generally like it for the most part.

[amyzzz]

For one thing, I don't like that the songs I bought a few years ago from Itunes (Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel and a couple Eisley EP's) don't work on any current versions of Itunes, so I basically LOST what I paid for. I have the DM burned somewhere but I never got around to burning a CD for the Eisley stuff. UGH. Jacob told me Itunes was experimenting then and that issue is resolved now, but I am still angry about it.

[marooko]

when was the last time you took it out, bought it flowers, anything? it might just be upset.