BestAdvice AudioVideo

With the holidays coming up, many people are looking to replace their old televisions with new flat panels, and many HDTV owners are simply wanting to upgrade to a larger size. In order to make shopping easier for you, we have listed some key facts on LCD displays and TV/monitor resolution from Samsung to help you choose the best television for your lifestyle and budget.

1) Which resolution is better for viewing HDTV and do all TV displays have the same resolutions? Read more

• Full HD is 1080p (p for progressive), but there are other resolutions for “hi def.” A display is considered “hi def” if it is wide screen and in either 720p, 1080i (i for interlaced) or 1080p format. All flat-panel display technologies have these hi def resolutions, including LCD, plasma, and DLP.
• The best HDTV viewing is at 1080p, which is available with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players as well as XBOX 360, Playstation 3 and other gaming consoles. However, hi def TV programming is broadcast at 720p and some 1080i. Both 1080i and 1080p (1920 pixels by 1080 pixels) provide a distinctly sharper picture with 1080 lines of vertical resolution rather than the 720 lines that appear with 720p (1280x720 pixels). For context, standard TV has about 480 lines of resolution.

Thanks to advances in modern audio and video technology, more and more people are becoming home theater enthusiasts. And while some home theater system owners approach their systems as if money is no object, this is certainly not an option for most would-be home theater owners. Luckily, the recent advances in technology have also made home theater equipment even more affordable, allowing even those on a limited budget to buy a powerful home theater system as long as you know what to look for.

There are several things you should consider once you decide to buy a home theater system, especially on a limited budget (around $1000 or less). Since this is a popular price range, there are several options to choose from for each of the components you'll need to purchase. The goal is to have a system that gives you great performance, several steps up from the typical "home theater in a box" but still taking up minimal space. We'll take a look at the components you'll need and some considerations you should keep in mind. Note that since we're working with a $1000 or less budget, we'll leave out the television for now and assume you're using your current TV in the meantime. Read more

Do you want to make the most of your iPod? The tips below are provided by author Michael Miller from his new book iPodpedia: The Ultimate iPod and iTunes Resource.

AVERAGE CONSUMER TIPS
1. Rate Your Songs
The song rating feature is one of the most underused features of iPod/iTunes -- even though it's quite easy. While the song is playing on your iPod, press the center Select button three times, then scroll the Click Wheel to add or subtract stars. Press the Select button again when you're done. This not only changes the rating of the song on your iPod, but also the rating in iTunes -- when you next sync your iPod, that is.

2. Rip a CD Directly Into a Playlist
Here's a bit of a time saver. If you have a new CD that you want to rip to hard disk and also add to a pre-existing playlist, you can do the ripping and adding in a single step. Just insert the CD into your PC's CD drive, select all the songs on the CD within iTunes, and then drag the songs to the desired playlist in the Source pane. When you start the rip, the CD tracks will be automatically added to your library and to the selected playlist, all in a single step. Read more

Many manufacturers pack hookup cables in the carton with consumer electronic audio video equipment. These inexpensive cables are commonly referred to as "courtesy cables." They are included by the manufacturer as a courtesy to the purchaser in the case that the unit was purchased from a retailer who did not place a high degree of importance on the interconnect cables. It can be compared to the spare tire included on many rental cars. They are "courtesy tires" meant to get you to a repair station not to go 50,000 miles. Read more

Courtesy cables can be detrimental to today's high-performance audio and video systems in many ways. The major problem they can introduce into the system is an intermittent signal path usually caused by a poor connection at the connector. The connectors on "courtesy cables" are molded-on plastic. The internal connection of the center conductor to the center pin of the connector is usually crimped. The crimping process is not always consistent which can leave the connector in a semi-connected state. Slight movements of the connector can cause the audio or video to cut in and out or worse cause a catastrophic failure of an amplifier or speaker system. The plastic used in molding provides no shielding of the signal at the connector. This leads to the second major problem with "courtesy cables", poor shielding.

Modeling, the Boundary Effect, Soundstage, etc

In the last installment we learned that room dimensions call out resonant modes that can influence the bass response of a room. We learned that is impossible to avoid them, but that they can be controlled. There are three things we should incorporate into the design in order to accomplish this goal: (1) room dimensions that distribute the modes evenly; (2) incorporate appropriate acoustic treatments; and (3) place speakers and listeners in areas that will not exasperate them. Understand that room dimensions will have an audible effect on frequencies around 300 Hz. and below (the lower half of a piano), but acoustic treatment and speaker/listener location can affect all frequencies. In order to better understand this, try a simple experiment: While talking out loud, gradually walk into the corner of a room and notice how resonant your voice becomes. This is frequency reinforcement of room modes and reflections. Try pronouncing “shshshshsh” into the flat palm side of your hand while slowly bringing it up to your nose. What you are observing is the tone changing because of the sound reflecting back and interfering with the original sound. These are constructive and destructive phase anomalies- the same principle experienced with the low frequency room modes, only at higher (shorter) wavelengths. Read more

As energy prices continue to rise, consumers are expected to take a financial hit this summer.

Think about it this way ... Some new big screen TVs can use as much energy each year as a new refrigerator, dishwasher or clothes washer -- roughly 500kWh/year. Add up the 3.4 million new TVs purchased every year and by 2010 there will be more TVs than people in the U.S. The national energy use for TVs will increase by more than 50% by the end of the decade. Here are 5 Ways to Save Energy: Read more

(Why it Matters to the Bottom Line)

Did you know that the room dimensions of your home theater determine how accurate your bass response will be? The room actually has more influence on the signal at low frequencies than does any good speaker design. In the last segment we talked about theater size and how budget, number & type of seats, performance and noise control may influence the final size of the room and how those issues have to be personally prioritized. In this installment, we’ll talk about room dimensions in respect to performance. Read more