Category Archives: Home Theater - Page 3

A New Decade is Upon Us

Posted by on December 31, 2009 2 comments

Happy New Year Everyone! 2010 is now upon us and I want to encourage all of your to focus on your future and find something you are passionate about. Heathaplex Vision is still an infant, but expanding everyday. In the coming year Heathaplex Vision plans to start a video podcast with all kinds of tips, installation/how-to videos, guest appearances, and just good old fashion fun with the world of tech. In addition to airing Heathaplex Vision.TV, I plan to officially launch the Heathaplex Vision Website with more features to meet your needs. I am also very excited to setup the Heathaplex Vision Swag Hut with T-Shirts, Hats, etc… There’s nothing like showing your support with some good old fashioned Swag. Might even give some away to my faithful followers. These are just a few things I plan to add to Heathaplex Vision in the coming year.

Most importantly, I want to thank each and everyone one of you who have visited my site and shared it with friends. My mission is to provide you the best content I can based on my knowledge, research and your questions, insight and needs. My passion is simple: Sharing and Caring! I want you to learn something from my site and pass it along to your friends and family. There are so many cool devices and technologies out there that it is easy to get overwhelmed. Some products are good and some are not. What matters most is that you are happy and you are taking advantage of what the tech world has to offer.

Top 5 PREDICTIONS FOR 2010: I would like to start a tradition of giving you my tech predictions for each coming year. That way when they come true I can say, “I told you so!” Realistically though, I’ll probably be hearing from you, “You were way off, pal.” Either way….here are my predictions for what we will see in 2010:

1. 3-D Capable Television Sets: There are a few out there, but this will be the year when they really start hitting the market. It won’t explode like HDTV flat screens did in the beginning because the content will take time to build, but I think you’ll start to see some affordable sets in the coming year.

2. Wireless Audio/Video Streaming: Sony already has a television that streams signals from a standalone box to the television….no wires are plugged into the television. I think this will be huge in 2010 as people cry out for Home Theater systems that are free of the cable clutter.

3. Tablet Computing: This is the year Apple enters into the ring of tablets. The rumors are already flowing with a January 26th announcement date from Apple. Just like Apple redefined MP3 Players and Smartphones with the iPod and iPhone, they will showcase a “Tablet” that puts all the others to shame and revolutionizes the market. Don’t count out Microsoft though….they will also introduce a tablet of their own.

4. E-Book Readers: Newspapers and Magazines are already prepping for the e-book revolution. According to Amazon, Kindle eBook downloads far exceeded actually book purchases over the holidays. We will see a standardized ebook format and by the end of the year, you will see a color version of an e-book reader. This will signal the end of magazines as we know it.

5. Finally, Google Navigation (with Google Maps) will appear in American-made Automobiles! My guess is that GM will take advantage with Ford already knee-deep in Microsoft services. The New Audi A8 offers an option for Google Earth Navigation and it looks amazing!

These are my predicitons for 2010. Call me a liar or jump on the Heathaplex Vision bandwagon. Bottom line folks, I want the very best for each and everyone of you in the coming year. Do something amazing this year! Reconnect with old friends, re-invest some much needed personal time with your families and look for ways to improve yourself. If you find yourself down and out in 2010, follow this bit of wisdom, as my good friend Stephanie once passed along to me when the world seemed to be falling apart around me:

“The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of you veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then – to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting” – Spoken by Merlyn in “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White.

This is going to be an amazing decade…don’t let it pass you by like the last. Do great things and continue to enhance your lives and those around you. I wish you all the very best. Happy Holidays from Heathaplex Vision.

LED TVs “ARE” LCD TVs…Don’t Get Bamboozled

Posted by on December 27, 2009 8 comments

I can’t take it any more folks!!!! I finally reached the point where I feel I must inform the masses and set the record straight about the so-called new LED Televisons. All those LED TVs ARE LCD TVs!!! Don’t fall for all the false advertising.

As I was reading this  Sunday’s Best Buy ads, I ran across a full page Samsung television advertisement showing three LED TVs on sale. No where does it mention LCD, but that is exactly what you are buying. This is why it is important to educate yourself on all these formats. You can learn all about it by ‘Googling’ it.

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. LEDs are everywhere around us and have been since the early 1960s. LEDs produce light. Traditional LCD televisions are backlit via fluorescent light which is larger, consumes more energy, and it not as brilliant as LED backlit LCD televisions. Did you catch what I said here…..LCD televisions are either backlit with flourescent light or LED light. It is as simple as that. But, Best Buy and Samsung would have you believe LED TVs are something completely new to the world of high definition televisions and even get you to pay more than double for it. Even when I visited Best Buy, the sales person couldn’t even explain what LED technology was and blindly went on to tell other customers this was new technology and different than LCD. Sorry Best Buy dude….this has been around for a long time.

There are some great things about LED that you should be aware of. First, it consumes far less power than fluorescent backlit displays. Second, the lighting is smaller, hence the thickness of televisions can be smaller, which is another major advertising plug. Third, they produce higher contrast ratios and are a bit more brilliant (black-levels are improved over traditional flourescent backlit LDC TVs), but not as good as the numbers would have you believe. Fourth, you need to understand there are two types of LED televisions: those that are completely backlit (Full Array) and those that are edge-lit. Edge-lit have diodes around the edges of the television and throw light from the sides to light up the display. They are not as good as the full backlit (Full Array), but cost a lot less. Also, Full Array LED backlit displays can turn off light to individual areas of the screen which produces more realistic black levels and better contrast rations. I highly doubt you’ll find many Best Buy reps who truly understand the difference between Edge Lit displays and Full Array displays, but you should know what you are getting into before you pay up to twice as much for an LED-lit display vs a Flourescent-lit TV.

Bottom line folks, do your research before dropping this kind of cash on a television set. All it takes is a few minutes on the web and a few Wikipedia entries to learn about the different technology on the street. LED-lit LCDs are great televisions and produce some fantastic pictures, but you’re still getting an LCD television. As a movie viewer I still prefer Plasma because of the true black level reproduction, clarity, and the fact I have it located in a fairly dark room. If you prefer LCD televisions, definitely take a closer look at the LED versions on sale. Prices will soon be dropping as people begin to understand the major differences with these backlit displays and the fact that they are still buying an LCD television set.

Happy New Year to you all!!!

Looking for a Blu-Ray Player? Check out the Sony BDP-N460

Posted by on December 12, 2009 7 comments

Sony BDP-N460Call me crazy and bias, but I do own more than one Blu-Ray player. My most recent acquisition is easily the best, standalone player in this household. Even if you are new to the world of Blu-Ray and players, you gotta check out this beauty. The Sony BDP-N460 is hands down, the best Blu-Ray player on the market right now. What makes this device so great? It’s so much more than just a Blu-Ray player. From the moment I tore this device out of my UPS driver’s hands initial power-up, I knew I had one incredible piece of electronics on my hands.

Besides playing Blu-Ray discs, DVDs, AVCHD encoded discs, photo discs…etc (the box displays too many formats to list here), once hooked up to the internet, the Sony BDP-N460 opens up an entire world of streaming media to its owner. Right out of the box, I noticed it had a USB connection on the front, which gives you the ability to show photos, listen to music, and watch movies via a thumbdrive or external harddrive. Exploring the back panel, I noticed several connections for a wide variety of setups, to include another USB port to house the memory stick required for BD-Live content. It does not have wireless built-in, but you can connect a wireless access point (by purchasing an additional device) to connect to the player in order to stream via a wireless network. I use an Apple AirPort Express to connect the device to my network. It was as easy as plugging in an Ethernet cable into the back of the Sony and into the Apple AirPort Express. No setup required! It even pulled down the latest firmware update, which is a necessity for nearly every player these days.

Let’s talk about the streaming content for a second. You can certainly connect to the big players out there: NetFlix, Amazon-on-Demand and YouTube, but there are many other sites you’ll have access as well. I can watch the most popular video podcasts on the web, play music videos, listen to music and get tips from the “How-To” channel. You could spend days watching the video content accessible through the beautiful, easy to use, award-winning graphical interface.

If you just want this player to play movies, this player will certainly not disappoint. Movies look incredible! The player has a quick-start mode, allowing immediate playback in only a few seconds. As far as background noise from the on-board fan, I could not even hear it running. For the money…and I mean very little (<$200)…this is perhaps the best Blu-Ray player I’ve come across.

Great List of Surround Sound Formats

Posted by on December 4, 2009 1 comment

For years I’ve kept up with all the sound formats. Here are a few examples of the sound formats from over the years: Hi-Fi, Dolby B and C, Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Digital Surround, DTS, THX, Dolby Surround EX….the list goes on and on. Regardless of the number of formats and compression agents, this strange language has produced some of the most incredible breakthroughs in home theater sound. Yes, I am certainly guilty of cranking up my stereo for my neighbors and friends to show off my Dolby Digital, THX Certified System during a scene from the Star Wars Pod Race, Fifth Element and especially Twister….I’ve probably done this a couple thousand times in my life (be sure the spouse and kids are out of the house…don’t want to damage those fragile ears). There is nothing sweeter than hearing an airplane fly by from left to right and actually feeling the sense to duck! This is when sound is at its best, but the terminology is certainly getting out of hand as different companies are providing better and more realistic sound compression and re-creation. So, with that being said, I would like to provide a shopping list of definitions for all of you who have ever looked at the billboard of logos near the bottom of your Stereo Receiver or perhaps give you some insight into a future purchase. This list is a current collection of digital formats you may have seen from time to time and wondered about. The following list from HiFi-Ring.com does cover the current formats found on a majority of receivers today.

Surround Sound Formats

Dolby 3-D: Incoming technology expected to come within the next year.
Dolby Digital: (aka AC-3) Surround sound technology that delivers digital audio for up to 5.1 discrete channels (Left/Center/Right/Left surround/Right surround/Low-Frequency Effects) with full frequency response in all channels (3Hz — 20kHz).
Dolby Digital EX: (aka Dolby Digital Matrix 6.1) 6.1-channel surround sound format based on Dolby Digital including an additional rear center channel, matrixed into the rear channels.
Dolby Digital Live: Real-time encoding technology that brings surround sound to interactive audio, such as video gaming and PCs. This technology converts any multichannel audio signal to the Dolby Digital format and provides one-cable connectivity between a PC and home theater systems.
Dolby Digital Plus: (aka DD+ or E-AC-3) Surround sound format with eight full-range channels encoded up to 24-bit/96kHz per channel for a bit rate of 6.144 Mbit/s compared to 0.640 Mbit/s for Dolby Digital. This lossy audio compression scheme was developed specifically for HDTV and Blu-ray discs.
Dolby Headphone: Signal processing technology that delivers 5.1-channel surround sound over any stereo headphones.
Dolby Pro Logic: The foundation of the multichannel home theater experience. This technology is based on Dolby Surround and decodes audio sources encoded in two-channel such as videocassettes, DVDs and TV broadcasts, to four-channel playback (front left, front right with center and rear-mono matrixed channels).
Dolby Pro Logic II: Improved version of Dolby Pro Logic with a more intelligent matrix decoder which offers “bass management” as well as “width”, “dimension” and “panorama” controls. The Pro Logic II expands any two-channel source audio to a 5.1-channel full bandwidth playback (Left/Center/Right/Left surround/Right surround/Low-Frequency Effects).
Dolby Pro Logic IIx: Extension of Dolby Pro Logic II, this algorithm processes native stereo and 5.1-channel content to produce 6.1- or 7.1-channel playback with rear-mono.
Dolby True HD: Similar to DD+, the True HD was also developed for high-definition disc-based media. Including eight full-range channels (Left/Center/Right/Left surround/Right surround/Left back/Right back/Low-Frequency Effects), this lossless format delivers sound that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master (24-bit/192kHz) through a single-cable digital connection for audio and video.
Dolby Virtual Speaker: Advanced signal processing technology that delivers 5.1-channel surround sound effects from just two speakers.
DTS Digital Surround: Surround sound technology similar to Dolby Digital that delivers digital audio for up to 5.1 discrete channels (Left/Center/Right/Left surround/Right surround/Low-Frequency Effects), but it can use higher bit-rate audio encoding which provides improved sound quality in theory.
DTS-ES Discrete 6.1: True 6.1-channel surround sound format where an additional surround back audio channel is discretely encoded into the DTS bit stream.
DTS-ES Matrix 6.1: Surround sound technology that delivers 5.1 discrete channels of standard DTS sound plus a sixth channel (matrixed into the left and right surround channels) of audio information to deliver 6.1-channel sound through one or two back surround speakers.
DTS Express: Previously known as DTS-HD Low Bit Rate, the DTS Express provides low bit rate audio coding for applications with 2- to 5.1-channel audio, focusing primarily on bandwidth constrained audio applications, such as Internet, broadcast audio, and secondary audio on next generation optical disc players. It’s currently used in picture-in-picture, director commentaries and other Blu-ray’s interactive features.
DTS-HD Master Audio: Previously known as DTS++ and DTS-HD, the DTS-HD MA supports up to eight discrete channels encoded in 24-bit/192kHz (Left/Center/Right/Left surround/Right surround/Left back/Right back/Low-Frequency Effects) and was developed especially for the new high-definition disc formats like Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
DTS-HD High Resolution Audio: Similar to the DTS-HD Master Audio, the HRA is encoded at 24-bit/96kHz per channel.
DTS Neo:6: Similar to Dolby Pro Logic II, the DTS neo:6 provides 6.1-channel matrixed surround sound from any stereo source.
DTS Surround Sensation: Down-converts DTS 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 -channel soundtracks to stereo while processing a realistic simulation of surround sound for two-channel equipment such as headphones and 2.1-channel home theater systems.
THX Neural Surround: Technology that provides multi-channel surround sound (up to 7.1ch) encoded within a two-channel stereo format, developed especially for limited bandwidth such as digital audio,video games, video broadcasting and Internet streaming
THX Select: (Thomlison Holman eXperiment) Created by Lucasfilm, the THX select is a certification for speakers as well as DVD/Blu-ray players which requires a 7.1 speaker configuration with two back-surround speakers engineered and designed to complement a THX Select2 certified A/V receiver. These must be designed to deliver optimal quality audio and video presentations in small to medium-sized residential rooms (overall room volume of circa 2,000 cu. ft.).
THX Select2: Certification for 7.1-channel A/V receivers designed for small to medium-sized residential rooms (overall room volume of circa 2,000 cu. ft.).

You’ve probably noticed that in order to take advantage of the formats your receiver possesses, you need to have quite a few speakers…anywhere from 5 to 7 plus a subwoofer or two. Each of the speakers creates the discrete channels of sound and all together, recreate the sound experience digitally encoded on DVDs and Blu Rays. This is a lot of information to cover and some of this is in the moderate to upper technical range, but I think it provides a great grocery list of the current lingo.As we say at the School of Advanced Military Studies in Fort Leavenworth, KS….it has been my pleasure to “drop some knowledge” on the subject of surround sound formats!

Happy Listening!!!

Reposted: 60Hz vs. 120Hz vs. 240Hz – LCD Response Rate

Posted by on November 30, 2009 No comments

Click this link for information on Response Rate for HDTVs:  60Hz vs. 120Hz vs. 240Hz – LCD Response Rate.

This is a great article I ran across from lcdtvbuyingguide.com. I’ve been talking with a number of people over the past few days about buying televisions and this question always comes up when looking at LCD HDTVs.

Enjoy!

Heathaplex Vision

"Heathaplex Vision" is Ready to Serve Your Technology Needs

Posted by on November 19, 2009 6 comments

For many many years I’ve been in to all things TECH!!! It all started with my passion for a nice sound system at the age of 12. When I turned 12 years I bought my first Kenwood receiver and a set of generic bookshelf speakers. I truly felt like a HiFi aristocrat. A year later, with money I received from selling my snowmobile I bought a Kenwood Double Tape Deck with Dolby B and C Noise Reduction. This was a top of the line piece of equipment for it’s time. Shortly thereafter, I purchased a Kenwood CD player with money I received from confirmation. This was a big decision for me since CDs were very new at the time. I debated the lack of being able to record, the initial investment, and the longevity of CD technology and based on my research made the plunge. Look at what CD technology has led to now?

Over the next few years I would add a television and a VCR and eventually take the entire system to college. My system gained a nameskae that would forever be known as the “Heathaplex.” People would ask to come by and watch a movie at the Heathaplex. I certainly had no problem showing off my system, the sound quality and the surround sound system. Over the years, the Heathaplex would grow and upgrade. I started to sell of pieces of equipment to purchase new ones. The Heathaplex would come with me to Air Force Pilot Training in Del Rio, TX to my first assignment at Farichild AFB in Spokane, WA. This is where I purchased my first projection screen televison. The Heathaplex moved with me to Charleston AFB, SC during my time as an airlift pilot and eventually to my current home in Leavenworth, KS. It was during the move that my projection television was damaged beyond repair as well as a DVD player and a VCR. Once I received replacement value for the damaged items I purchased a Plasma television and a Blu Ray player. The Heathaplex is in full effect with 7.1 THX Surround Sound and 1080p vision. In short, the Heathaplex is off the Hizzle!!!

Now you see where my passion stemmed from, but it certainly doesn’t stop there. I’ve been exposed to computers since the first grade and never passed up the opportunity to crash a computer or physically take it apart to fix them. I’ve expanded my knowledge of the various sound processing formats along with all the new media available for Home Theater and Media Centers. It seems as if my dreams of having a computer in the living room are finally coming true with the ability of my PlayStation3, TiVo, and Sony Blu Ray player all being able to stream music off my network, access the internet, stream and rent movies from Amazon and NetFlix, and provide some incredible additional content to compliment my Blu Ray discs. In short, I spend a lot of time keep up with the Tech Joneses in an effort to share this knowledge with you.

Heathaplex Vision has a simple mission: to provide you with quality home and personal technology advice. Over the years I’ve helped design home theater setups, provided computer tech support, offered ways to setup computer networks, given guided tours of the Heathaplex and the options people have in Home Theater means. There is no length I won’t go to in order to give you the best advice possible. Even if you don’t know what you are looking for….let me know your ideas and I can introduce you to what is out there. I’ve had people give me a vision and a budget and made it a reality for the best price I can find. I want this to be a simple and fun endeavor. Let me help with your technology needs.

I hope you understand my passion and why I am starting up this outlet for my interests. You can follow me here at heathaplexvision.com or on my Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heathaplex-Vision/179754316645. I also have a Twitter page at Heathaplexvsn.

Let me know what you think and please let me know what I can do to help

Enjoy!

J. Scot Heathman

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