Digi Bay: 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Sunfire Subwoofer Junior

Specifications:
Drivers: One 7" Active, One 7" Passive

Amplifier: 1,500 Watts

RMSMFR: 22 Hz - 100 Hz

Variable Low Pass: 35 Hz - 100 Hz

Variable Phase 00 - 1800

Size: 9" H x 9" W x 9" D

Weight: 26 Pounds

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Yamaha HTIB

For those who love HT but don't know how to set up or how to best match to get best sound quality.. HTIB is the best way..

There are good HTIBs, but finding one is a crapshoot. It’s like wandering out into the streets of a strange maze-like city, selecting a restaurant at random, and hoping for the best. Much like any consumer, that’s the position I placed myself in when I reviewed the Yamaha YHT-591 All-in-One Digital Home Theater System, as the box refers to it. Feeling slightly guilty that I don’t review enough HTIBs, I arbitrarily picked this one and served as your surrogate. Here’s what I found..

The One-Box Solution The YHT-591 comes in a single large carton. It includes five slim speakers, a subwoofer, and the HTR-6240 A/V receiver. The AVR comes from Yamaha’s relatively unsung value line, where it sells separately for $380. In most HTIBs, the speakers and AVR are designed to go with each other exclusively. Since you can purchase the AVR alone, presumably that’s not the case here. Yamaha says that more intrepid users can experiment with different speakers as long as they have a minimum impedance of no less than 6 ohms and power handling of up to 105 watts. You can adjust the minimum impedance in an advanced setup menu for either 8 ohms (the default setting) or 6 ohms (which Yamaha recommends for other speakers).

With a footprint of less than 4 by 5 inches, the speakers won’t overwhelm your living space with bulk. Somewhere in the Far East, a manufacturer of 2.25-inch paper-coned woofers is very happy. The front speakers use four each, and the surrounds use two each. Yamaha wisely invested in a 0.75-inch silk-dome tweeter for all five speakers. As I later discovered, this system has a smoothness that’s surprising in an HTIB with a three-figure price tag. The enclosures are made of good, solid, vinyl-clad fiberboard, so cabinet resonance is likely to be minimal compared with similarly priced products with plastic enclosures.

The speakers include keyholes for a quick-and-dirty mounting job and threaded inserts for something fancier (Yamaha doesn’t include wall-mount hardware). For freestanding use, the horizontal center comes with two rubber pieces that serve as a cradle. The left and right satellites include a 7-inch base, which reconciles its tiny footprint with its 17-inch height. A plastic piece that’s slightly smaller than the speaker enclosure’s footprint fits between the speaker and the base. This gives the whole thing a floating appearance when it’s assembled. Even when assembled, the satellites aren’t tall enough for floorstanding use, but they would fit nicely on a long knee-high cabinet, presumably surrounding a flat-panel TV. There’s nothing comparable for the surrounds. Presumably, Yamaha believes you’re more likely to hang them.

The subwoofer has a 10-inch driver on the front and, interestingly, a port on the right side. I don’t recall seeing this kind of asymmetrical side-ported sub before (perhaps I should get out more). If you place the sub along your theater room’s side wall, as some experts recommend, be certain that the port has sufficient clearance. Given the smallness of the woofers in the other speakers—just 2.25 inches, which means the bass extension is likely to be quite limited—I placed the sub below the center speaker, where it could operate to a somewhat higher frequency and fill in the lower part of male voices and other upper bass effects.

The sub has a volume knob and high-cut switch on its back panel. The latter serves as the only crossover control on the sub itself—it doesn’t have any other crossover or phase controls. The high-cut has two positions, and the sub’s manual charts their rolloff. One reduces sub output above 70 hertz, while the other reduces it above 100 Hz. Yamaha recommends the bottom position for “optimum tone balance,” but it allows the higher one to let the sub deliver higher bass when the limited extension of smaller satellites demands it.

Yamaha made an interesting ergonomic choice with the HTR-6240 A/V receiver’s front panel. To select your source, you must use the two small buttons toward the bottom. The four larger Scene buttons above them select frequently used inputs and associated soundfield options.
Connectivity options are minimal, but they’re shrewdly chosen for the most part. They include four HDMI inputs and one output, and the receiver decodes lossless surround (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) from native bitstreams. The HDMI version is 1.3c, which is functionally equivalent to the more common 1.3a standard. Component inputs accommodate two additional HD sources, with another output. S-video is absent, but it’s not sorely missed. Composite video supports up to five legacy sources, which should be sufficient for most users. It also includes an iPod docking jack on the back and a headphone input and stereo mini jack on the front.

Although the receiver has five amp channels, it supports 7.1-channel surround decoding, and it includes a line output for the back-surrounds. It might be easier to just buy the step-up model YHT-791, which has seven amp channels and associated speakers. However, I don’t think back-surrounds are worth the extra two hundred bucks, unless you’ve got a huge room, and in that case, you shouldn’t be buying an HTIB.

Many HTIBs come with precut cables that are often color-coded to match the speaker terminals. This one comes with a single length of skinny wire. When I divided it up, I found I had enough for the surrounds (about 25 feet each) and for one of the front speakers. Other cables in my collection filled the gap. Even for a small room, the supplied cable isn’t sufficient to do the job, and at 24-gauge, it’s pretty flimsy. But don’t regard this as a deal breaker. If you buy the system, plan to invest in a couple of rolls of cheap generic speaker cable. A 50-foot roll of 16-gauge goes for about 10 bucks on Amazon. Don’t worry, anyone can cut and skin wire with a cheap tool from the hardware store.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Budget Home Theater Setup

When AV Interiors paid a visit to engineer Jeremy Kipnis’ house, this is what they found. Called the Kipnis Studio Standard, it uses nothing but the 'Budget' components, to making it probably the best HT setup with the budget...

So what’s in there? Too much, really, so here are a few highlights: an 18′ screen, a 4K Sony SRX-R110 digital cinema projector which upscales HD-DVD and Bluray outputs and 16 (sixteen!) 18″ subwoofers.

The whole rig can pump out a total of 11, 315 watts, ranging from a rumbling 10 hertz right up to an inaudible 100 kilohertz. The budget to setup this HT is estimated at around six USD..:)

Wow.. BUDGET SETUP Right....hehehehehe...

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

LG 42PQ30R (42-inch plasma)

TV type: Plasma

Diagonal screen size: 42 inch

Aspect ratio: 16:9

Additional features:
Onboard MP3/JPEG via USB; 1080p24 input-ready; Simplink (HDMI-CEC); dual HDMI 1.3 terminals.

Dimensions (HxWxD): 656.7 x 1031 x 80.8 mm

Weight: 22.7 kg

Audio:
Surround effects
SRS TruSurround XT.

Total output power:
10W x 2
Video
Video input
VGA, Composite video, Component video

Contrast ratio: 2000000:1

Additional features:
1024 x 768 resolution; 1500cd/m2 brightness; HD-compatible.

Friday, June 5, 2009

NEC's LED/LCD Monitor

Most flat panel displays, otherwise known as LCD monitors, use fluorescent backlight to provide illumination for their screens. But NEC has a new way to provide backlight, using light emitting diodes, or LEDs, evenly lighting the screen of its 2180UX-WG display. Although its decidedly high-end price of $6,500 will scare away most consumers, seasoned professional content creators whose lifeblood is accurate color will be delighted to see the precision with which this product can reproduce more colors than anybody?s ever seen on a monitor. NEC sent us a prototype of the 2180UX-WG for this First Look.

The first question I had when I was unpacking this 21.3", 20.5 lb. monitor was, why? Aren?t flat panel displays with fluorescent backlights good enough? We?ve tested some spectacular-looking monitors here at the Midwest Test Facility, with ultra-sharp screens and lightning-fast refresh rates. Those monitors are perfectly suited for almost all the work we do here. But there?s one area where they aren?t perfect, and that is in accurate color reproduction. That?s where NEC has figured out how to make LED backlights that emit the perfect color of light to render colors more accurately than any monitor has been able to do thus far.

Another reason NEC began developing this LED backlight technology was because of environmental considerations. Mercury is present in fluorescent backlights, and some regulations in Europe and California are beginning to restrict shipment of products that contain that heavy metal. NEC?s thinking is that if for some reason a country or a larger region were to prohibit shipment of products containing mercury, the only kind of flat panel display that would be possible would have to use LED backlights. In case a regulation like that becomes law, NEC is ready.

Beyond those environmental considerations, NEC?s engineers realized the need for more accurate color reproduction, no matter what type of monitor was being used. The result was this LCD technology lit with LEDs, the first computer monitor using this technology, and certainly the first with this level of color accuracy. NEC is aware that, at these prices, this technology will first be used by a niche market, realizing that average users probably don?t have a need for this level of color accuracy. NEC made this first LCD/LED monitor for those who focus on high-end 3D modeling, scientists, astronomers and graphic designers, and it?s also targeting the medical, broadcast and digital film markets as well.

NEC?s route to color perfection is done with 48 LEDs, strategically placed across the back and top of this monitor (see graphics beow). Using over a billion calculations, NEC engineers picked the 48 LEDs that would match the same color spectrum. The result is a complete lack of hotspots, where when we looked at the monitor using the DisplayMate (a special standardized script of test graphics specifically designed to evaluate all kinds of monitors and projectors) white and gray screens, the display was evenly illuminated from one edge to the other.

Another advantage of using LED backlights is that they last a lot longer than standard fluorescent lamps. The particular LEDs inside this monitor will last 100,000 hours, compared to the 30,000 to 50,000 hours of ordinary fluorescent lamps. That would equal more than double the average lifespan of a typical flat panel display. NEC also says its display is more stable than most conventional monitors, and where some monitors require graphic artists to calibrate their display once every hour, this unit is more stable, not requiring calibration as often.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Lenovo First Ion-Based Netbook

Just weeks after refreshing the IdeaPad S10, Lenovo has officially introduced its first netbook to feature Nvidia Ion graphics. The IdeaPad S12 joins the Samsung NC20 as one of the few netbooks with both a 12-inch screen and a full-size keyboard, besides offering 1080p HD video output and decent gaming performance in games like Call of Duty 4 – as long as you tone down some of the settings. At $499, the price seems reasonable too.

Apart from improved graphics, you’ll get more or less the typical netbook configuration – 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive. Other features include wireless draft-N, Bluetooth, three USB ports, 4-in-1 card reader, webcam, and six-cell battery. A base configuration with Intel-based video will also be available, starting from $449, as well as a version based on the Via Nano processor and Chrome9 integrated graphics that will be available overseas only. Lenovo has also taken its first steps into Intel's Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) processors with the IdeaPad U350. The 13.3-inch system promises to deliver the relatively thin and lightweight design of an ultraportable but in a low-cost form. Starting at $649, customers can choose between Intel Core 2 Solo and Pentium ultra-low-voltage processors, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and up to 500GB of hard drive storage.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Facebook in Phone come to life.

Facebook now can be use in our PDA Phone that run on window mobile 6.

Here is what mobile facebook can bo:
1) send messages or call people in your friend list whenever you like.
2) manage your profile and post anytime and anywhere.
3) take pictures and video on your u, upload it anytime.

Facebook come alive in your mobile, your life come alive in all your friend and family.
You can now upload all your photo and video whenever u like. Take a photo then upload to facebook.

Facebook come alive in your mobile, your life come alive in all your friend and family.

But Beware if you do something "dirty" it will in your facebook live...:)

Here is the link for u to download facebook software:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/8/C/98C5A4DF-1C12-421F-9384-34C5360E8736/Facebook_v1.0.0.7.CAB

Friday, April 24, 2009

O2 XDA Flint (HTC Athena 400)

O2 XDA Flint (HTC Athena 400) Specs

Datasheet Views : 5257 views since addition of datasheet (December 10, 2008)
Datasheet State : Final specifications
Release Date : January, 2009
Project Codename : HTC Athena 400
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Dimensions : 98 x 133.5 x 16 millimetres
Mass : 375 grams (battery included)

Software_Environment
Operating System : Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
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Microprocessor,_Chipset
CPU : 32bit Intel XScale PXA270
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CPU Clock : 624 MHz

Memory,Storage capacity
ROM capacity : 15.2 GiB (accessible: 15 GiB)
RAM capacity : 128 MiB (accessible: 121 MiB)

Display
Display Type : color transflective TFT , 262144 scales
Display Diagonal : 5 "
Display Resolution : 640 x 480
Video out : NTSC/PAL resolution

Sound
Microphone(s) : mono
Loudspeaker(s) : stereo
Audio Output : 3.5mm

Cellular Phone
Cellular Networks : GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS850, UMTS1900, UMTS2100
Cellular Data Links: CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
Call Alert : 40 -chord melody
Speakerphone : Supported

Control Peripherals
Positioning Device : Touchscreen
Primary Keyboard : Attachable QWERTY-type keyboard
Directional Pad : Not supported
Scroll Wheel : Not supported

Interfaces
Expansion Slots : miniSD, miniSDHC, SDIO
USB : USB 2.0 client, 12Mbit/s, mini-USB
Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0
Wireless LAN : 802.11b, 802.11g
Infrared Gate : Not supported

Multimedia Telecommunication
Analog Radio Receiver : Not supported
Digital Media Broadcast Tuner : Not supported

Satellite Navigation
Built-in GPS module : Supported
Complementary GPS Services : Assisted GPS, QuickGPS, Geotagging

Built-in Digital Camera
Main Camera : 3.1 MP
Autofocus (AF) : Supported
Optical Zoom : 1 x
Built in Flash : mobile light (LED)
Secondary Camera : 0.3 MP

Additional Details
Built-in accelerometer : Supported
Battery : removable
Battery Capacity : 2100 mAh

Sunday, April 19, 2009

LG Xenon

The LG Electronics Xenon is a nice option for someone who is looking for a combination touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard, but not necessarily for a smartphone. The Xenon has threaded messaging, a bright 2.8-inch touch display, a 2-megapixel camera, GPS integration, Bluetooth 2.0, and Wi-Fi connectivity. The user interface isn’t terribly exciting (it's almost identical to that of the LG Electronics VU), but I found it easy to navigate in my hands-on examination. The physical keyboard resembles the ones on other LG devices, but the company also threw in a handy space bar for the Xenon. The Xenon will be available on April 8 in three color choices--black, blue, and red--for $100 with a two-year AT&T service contract.

Motorola Evoke QA4

With a 2.8-inch full touchscreen, a widget-based user interface, and a full HTML browser, the Motorola Evoke QA4 has some pretty impressive specs for a handset that doesn't qualify as a smartphone. The Evoke comes preloaded with seven widgets--MySpace Mobile, Follow Me Weather, Google Quicksearch, Google Picasa, RSS Reader, USA Today Mobile, and YouTube--each of which has its own panel. You can flip through the panels with a swipe of your finger.
In my hands-on evaluation, the Evoke QA4’s touchscreen seemed quite responsive. The silky interface reminded me a little of the “deck of cards” model that the Palm Pre uses to manage apps. The Evoke also has haptic feedback, which sends a light vibration to your fingertip when you tap an on-screen key. Haptic feedback is an especially useful enhancement for the Evoke QA4’s landscape QWERTY keyboard, which I found to be surprisingly comfortable and easy to use. Motorola has not announced carrier, availability, or pricing for the Evoke QA4.