Comments

Was looking for a DVD/VCR recorder combo and had basically chosen this unit, the came across your article - question: are you still happy with it??

Thanks,

J.

HBO requires a level of content protection that is not currently supported by Airplay/Apple TV. This is a capability that might be offered in the future as per HBO GO

Way to go Aidan! Congratulations on your discovery and deserving award.

Is there anyone that has use this 3D adapter kit, How good or bad do this adapter do ?

Good points John.  For me it sort of helps to answer my question but for different reasons. That is: in those instances where i have a fully DDD recording on LP, the CD will probably serve me just as well.  I will note that many early CDs sounded bad because they were made from compressed-for-lp slave copies of master tapes or (in the case of some “twofers” (2 albums on one disc) a smaller size file was used to squeeze all the info on a single disc (zappa’s overnight sensation/apostrophe disc was way tinny sounding and fared much better—after complaints—breaking them out into two discs at fuller CD resolution

Regqrding the sound of vinyl vs CD and distortion “hidden” in the LP, more times than not I was amazed to find out that distortion I heard on vinyl—and which I attributed to my less than perfect condition pressings—were actually on the original recording. I was surprised hearing certain records by Zappa, The Velvet Underground, Dylan, The Moody Blues and others on CD for the first time and discovering that my LPs didnt sound so bad after all ... it was the way the recordings were made!

I do believe that analog masters contain more sonic info than 44.1/16-bit clones would be able to capture.  But I have to assume (unless someone explains otherwise) that for recordings made natively in the digital domain, then those recordings are what they are…. they’ll never be anything more than what the original was recorded at.

So there is probably no good reason to keep a digitally recorded LP if I can get it on CD these days… unless of course it contains a mix that was later changed/remixed

Hi Mark,

This has been my life’s work since about 1978.  We had some of the first digital multitrack recorders that 3M ever built, and a huge part of my life was supervising the cutting of analog (and later digital) tape masters into vinyl, following those lacquers through electroplating, and then the actual pressing into vinyl.  We had our own pressing plant, so I got to see it all happen every day, from trombonists coming through the front door to record jacket fabrication and excess vinyl re-grinding to make audiophile records.

The bigger point is not which sounds “better”—it’s what sounds most like what the mixer heard when he was working on it in the control room.  If you had the privilege, as I did for years, of sitting beside a mixer listening to control room monitors and watching as he went for a particular “sound”, often worrying himself about the accuracy of the speakers and the room acoustics, you would understand that the whole goal was to try to replicate what he heard. 

Analog tape was very good at that, but always lost a bit of transients, and increased the noise floor a bit, simply because of the limitations of tape.  Indeed it was often quite difficult to tell whether you were listening to the console output or the one-second-delayed playback head of the 2-track master.

When digital mastering came on the scene, first on videotape (we used black and white U-matics, which is why the weird sample rate of 44,100 came to be—it’s a multiple of the horizontal sync frequency of black and white videotape) we were all amazed at the transparency.  What we heard coming back from the digital deck was an identical sonic clone to the console itself, indeed showing the limitations of the console electronics.

Many consumers, however, had grown accustomed to the tracking and tracing errors and distortions that vinyl records inherently have.  No vinyl record truly sounded like what we were hearing on the mix console; it was several layers of distortion removed, with the distortions coming from the cutting angle of the cutterhead, the “de-horning” process which cut off the bottom of the grooves so that the vinyl would release from the stamper, and the inherent noise of the vinyl medum itself.

A CD is a much, much closer replica of what the original mixer heard on his board than an LP could ever be.  Now does that mean that you would rather experience what the mixer heard or experience what an LP listener of the era heard?  That’s actually a very serious question.  Almost no one who didn’t work in recording studios heard “clean” audio, and it was a very foreign sound to consumers, resulting in a lot of reluctance to accept digital media.  Consumers simply didn’t understand that they were, for the first time, hearing what we had heard in the production control rooms.  In many cases, the noise floor and distortion of the vinyl helped to cover up the limitations of the original master—making the CD sound “worse”.

I hope this helps, but I fear it may only add to the confusion.

NW. I bet a tactile transducer connected straight to the desk couldn’t even do that.

I have the streaming-only service.  One thing that ticks me off is - I am using a web-based service, right - but there are no web-based methods of contact with Netflix - go ahead, try to find a “contact us” that isn’t a phone number!  No email, no chat, nothing!

I wanted to complain about how they had lured me into their service, only to start dropping some titles I had expected to be able to watch (such as all of the, admittedly limited, selection of James Bond flicks).

I also wanted to complain that for weeks, the “Recently Watched” listing was missing.

Wow i would be pissed if i was a Netflix user pisssssed. Here is a secret people. Corporations only get away with what you let them get away with. Hit their pocket book and they will suddenly start whistling another tune.

I don’t work for Netflix and I think the author of this article is a huge baby-man with an entitlement complex.

If you don’t like it, then cancel your subscription. It’s their company and they can charge what they like. Get a life.

More interesting to me is how you got that deal in 1998, when Netflix didn’t have any subscription plans until 1999, and unlimited usage didn’t start until 2000.  Netflix was just a DVD rental store on the ‘net where you paid a flat rate for a movie rental and if you kept it for longer than a week you paid a late fee.

I can see by your post that we definitely have some Netflix employees on here…

netflix = streaming only for now. dvd’s suck

Get a grip netfix minion, That price you mention paid for a lot of overhead, that employed locals. I don’t see the point as to when?, exactly, did we get dressed, drive, etc, and get manipulated / rate-hiked by 60%? Gee,  if this rate-hike doesn’t bother you then you probably have more problems than just ethics.

Remember when we used to have to put on clothes and go out of the house to a rental store, pay $3.99 for three days’ rental, and then drive back (don’t forget the clothes) to return it?  Gee.  If this price change will destroy a person’s budget, they probably have more important things to worry about than streaming video.

For those contemplating the “streaming” package, don’t waste your time or your money.  They have only had 10% of the movies I’ve ever wanted to download.  Especially if you have kids and are looking for something they might like—not a big selection.

Looks like we have some Netflix employees here.

The BEST deal on the planet !!!  And you’re complaining about it?

Dear author,

Is Netflix forcing you to subscribe? I myself couldn’t care less if they raised their rates to a thousand bucks a month for the sole purpose of allowing their board members to bathe in jacuzzis full of Crista WHILE on their jetsl. We’re the customers and It’s always your prerogative to leave if the cost is too much for you or me to bear. Not only that, if they go beyond what the market will bear, it gets much worse for them: you or I could become their competition.

The milk and chicken you buy to drink and eat, Are those prices the same since 1998? Grow up fool.

Best 3D in any film ever:  Journey to the Center of the Earth.  It was beautiful, dramatic, and startling everything I want out of 3D, and it was even “fake”.

Your views and product evaluation convinced me to purchase one,, I will pick it up tomorrow,,Thanks for this, you removed the sceptical doubt I had about it.

Thanks for the detailed product overview including the specific sound tests - appreciate it.  Our Soundbar 6000 comes this week.  Will post back after installation with our findings - expecting to have a simple plug and play with great sound.  JT McG

Michael, thank you so much for the write up!  We are thrilled to be offering the new Seven Series, blending art and audio to such a high level.  Just to clarify, the new Sevens actually use Seas Excel woofers and tweeters (looks like we need to update our website!).  The image uploaded shows an African Wenge hardwood finish, but of course all Leon’s can be custom finished to any style.

This article is just plain wrong.

First, “The Cloud” is a joke.  No ISP plant out there could keep up with whole neighborhoods streaming multiple HD content into their homes at the same time, even if they offered 60+ Mb/s to 100Mb/s speeds.  I have 60Mb/s and can tell when my son is watching one Netflix stream early in the morning when few others are online.  The writ small version of this occurred with AT&T found out that, surprise, iPhone users wanted to do more with their phone than talk on them…  Cell providers use caps, throttling, and GB purchase increments.  ISP’s are beginning to do the same.

Second, as a computer user since the late 70’s and a hard drive user since 1985, I can tell you for a fact that hard drives, except the cheapest of the cheap, have done nothing but go up in reliability and down in price.  I have hard drives I have run for over 5 years and they still pass surface scans and the like.  Barring an absolute miracle, hard drives are not going anywhere.  MLC flash could never last more than maybe a year, if that, recording relatively non-compressible things like video and audio streams.  If you are lucky, flash is $2 per GB for the el cheapo consumer MLC stuff.  A enterprise grade platter hard drive is more like 12.5 cents per GB, tops.  A decent prosumer platter drive is in the area of 5 cents per GB.  Also, power consumption has fallen on these as well.  Laptop drives, more than adequate for multiple HD streams, use less than 3 watts at full working draw.

People think “The Cloud” will be cheap, fast, and available.  It’s not, and it won’t be without a massive, highly subsidized build-out that could take 10+ years to accomplish.  One look at how U-Verse and FIOS build-outs have slowed ought to tell you something about how soon we will have “The Cloud” for Gargle and its ilk to sponge off of.

TIVO is probably not far behind on yanking their service and also leaving their customers with paid lifetime subscriptions high & dry. They just yanked the service on 6/1/11 in the UK leaving their UK customers with large expensive paper weights just like ReplayTV is doing.

ABOUT ####### TIME !

I am really big fan of Oprah and i also like to her approach towards the gadget. Is you have another blogs about Oprah favorite gadget

Really stupid posting

What a dramatic expose’ of an album.  Its only an album.

There were a couple overplayed commercial songs, it was the time of the kickoff of MTV. They were intended to be MTV ready.  How many times did we hear/see Billie Jean by MJ?

but the rest of the album is fine. Simple as that.  This 5.1 release is not only surround sound, it is a much deeper sounding release as are SACDs.

and If you want to hear it improvised, see it live.

This simple procedure appears to unlock the Mits 3DC-1000 / 3DA-1 so it works with the Samsung 3D DLP sets!

1. Power off the adapter (leave everything plugged in and connected)
2. Press and hold the 3D Mode button then press and hold the Power button
3. Observe the 3D status light until it blinks. You want it to blink once, if it blinks twice (5 seconds apart) then restart at step 1.
4. After you get the unit to blink once, release the Power button then release the 3D Mode button.

Almost went and get the AppleTV, thanks for the info guys

BAD INFORMATION - AppleTV and HBOGo do not work together.  It only allows you to stream the sound not the video.  Get your facts straight.

Or perhaps Jefferson Airplane ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQUKfjKc0hY

There is a reference point but I can’t place it at the moment

Silencer is poor terminology. Suppressor is correct. They work like a muffler on a car and simply reduce the decibels of sound emitted from a pistol or rifle. The sound is quite audible and still sounds like a gun shot be it rifle or pistol. It makes for a difference of whether you wear ear protection or you can fire sans that protection. It has positives in it’s use for covert ops. as the sound can be bounced off something like an adjacent wall creating confusion as to where the shot originated, yet that technique is used by snipers that are firing at range a non-suppressed weapon as well. A $200.00 class III fee to ATF with 3 finger print cards and a signed OK by local LEO anyone who clears the checks for a concealed weapons permit can take this route to buy and use a suppressor at often a higher cost than the weapon they use it on. I see no profit by the criminal users from the devise. It is nice to be able to deploy one while target shooting on certain calibers with sub-sonic ammunition, like 22s or 9mm both are available in slower than the speed of sound [sub-sonic] and make for a nice day shooting tin cans or paper targets sans ear plugs, but by no means or they silenced. Expensive and they make ear muffs quite attractive to poor boys like me.

Is it just me, or does “Sexless Auto” hint at “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature” on speed in places?

Hi Paul,
Hi Paul,

Glad you enjoyed it!  To your question, I honestly haven’t been able to make that comparison yet.  I either need to get a streamer that will let me properly playback the 96/24 files off my computer or (more to my lifestyle and liking) I will need to upgrade the software on my computer so I can create a 96/24 DVD Audio disc (or perhaps DVD Video, using it just for audio as many are doing these days….  I was able to make a DVDV but (i’m guessing) my program (Toast, for Mac) converted the files to 48k, because that is what came up on my TV screen when I went to play it on my Oppo Universal player.  So, when I get to that point of being able to do full 96/24 I’ll be sure to update this article. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my column.

Cheers

Mark

This is very misleading. This does NOT work with Apple TV. It does not.

Hi Mark, wonderful review.  I am in complete agreement. 
So Beautiful Or So What is an excellent album. 
It is probably impossible for Paul Simon to make an
album that is less than excellent.  But Surprise
is an extraordinary album. 

Do you note any differences in quality or otherwise
between the vinyl and the “HD” digital download
for So Beautiful?

Many thanks,
paul

I apologize that you had to go through that. When I initially wrote the story I called Monoprice to ask if how I described it would work, and they assured me it would. Obviously whomever I spoke to on the other end was misinformed. We’ll change the story to reflect it.

I’m really surprised that no one has produced such a product by now to be honest. There seems to be a lot of demand for it. Until then all I can suggest is picking up a player like the Panasonic 310 that has dual outs

Forgot to mention that I chatted with a monoprice technical support, and he said it wouldn’t work.

I don’t think this works.  Based on this article I bought one of these, but when viewing 3d content, I get 3d video but no audio.  2d content I get both video and audio as expected.  Based on the instructions from monoprice, I see nothing to suggest that this is intended to do anything other then to display the 3d content on two tv’s.

The splitter has no idea the second output will be audio only so it sends data in a 1.4 format, and the receiver can’t handle it, which is the problem the author suggests it solves.

What an awesome system! My favorite way to discover new music is You Tube, internet radio and Pandora!

would like to win and try out this new tech

I would love to win this. This is grt system giveaway.. I look for iTunes and internet Radio to find new music.

Awesome… My favorite way to discover to new music is internet radio like Pandora, Radio and other online music services.

It could be nice addition in my home theater system.
I usually discover new songs from Radio and friends ipod :).

Sweet giveaway.. I want to win this..

I like to discover new music from Radio, TV, youtube and Friends.

Sweet Giveaway… My favorite way to discover new music is Radio channel and friends.