Jahapp, då har även jag tagit ett steg in i framtiden och investerat i en BluRay spelare. Jag har letat länge efter ett billigt alternativ och det slutade med att införskaffa denna spelaren.

Sony BDP-S360

Absolut allt annat än en värstingspelare, men den har BD-Live och stödjer alla nödvändiga ljudformat som jag är ute efter. Dessutom var den under 2000kr och det var min maxbudget nu. Det är ju julafton runt hörnet och det är lika bra att köpa den nu så kan jag önska mig film i julklapp….nej, alltså jag menade ju såklart lika bra att köpa den nu innan jul eftersom man skall köpa julklappar, hehe.

Specifikation

- BD-ROM (BonusView, profil 1.1)
- BD-ROM (BD-Live, profil 2.0)
- 1080p-utgång (via HDMI)
- HD-uppskalning med Precision Cinema (DVD-uppskalning till 1080p)
- D/A-omvandlare för video: 12 bitar/148,5 MHz
- 24p True Cinema
- x.v. Colour
- Utgång för progressiv avsökning
- Precision Drive HD
- Deep Colour
- 8-kanals linjär PCM Bitstream-utgång
- Dolby TrueHD-avkodning
- Dolby TrueHD Bitstream-utgång
- DTS-HD Master Audio-avkodning
- DTS-HD Master Audio Bitstream-utgång
- D/A-omvandlare för ljud: 192 kHz/24 bitars

Utgångar

• 1x HDMI
• 1x Komponentvideoutgång
• 1x Composite-videoutgång
• 1x Digital koaxial ljudutgång
• 1x Digital Optisk ljudutgång
• 1x Analog stereoutgång
• 1x Ethernet

- Snabbstart: 6 sekunder
- XrossMediaBar^TM (GUI)
- BRAVIA Sync
- Uppdateringar av inbyggd programvara via Ethernet
- Skärmsläckare
- Strömförbrukning: 220-240 V
- Strömförbrukning (under drift): 22 W
- Strömförbrukning (i viloläge): 0,19 W (i normalt viloläge)
- Automatisk avstängning: 30 minuter
- Mått (BxHxD): 430 x 56 x 216 mm
- Vikt (kg): 2,1

+ andra onödiga spec´s som tex display på fronten, fjärrkontroll och massa annat självklart tjafs.

Pris: 1979.- inklusive frakt

Jag passade självklart även på att köpa på mig lite film så jag kan njuta av vår nya leksak direkt. Vi har iof 2st BD filmer sedan innan , Click & Terminator 2, men ändå, man vill ju ändå ha lite nytt när man ändå investerar eller hur?

Här är lilla listan på nyinköpta filmer, klicka på bilderna för att komma till beskrivningen av filmen om ni inte känner igen dem.

Transformers 1 & 2 – Mega Edition (4 disc), Rec, Cloverfield, Hellboy 2, Stargate, Inglourious Basterds

Tyvärr är det fortfarande för dyrt att köpa BluRay (BD) filmer till fullpris, speciellt boxar så som det ser ut nu får det bli att rota runt i billiglådorna och kika efter kampanjer ett tag till. Boxar får köpas på DVD så länge tills priserna sjunker. I stort sett alla filmer som jag köpte nu är på kampanj på cdon, men Inglourious Basterds vill jag ha direkt den kommer så den fick det snällt bli till fullpris. Transformers filmerna är dock ett måste så även den fick det bli köp på direkt, dock till ett lockande specialpris på 399.- Så från och med nu kommer jag inte bara tipsa om köpfilm på DVD utan även på BluRay.

I suggest that the companies involved in standards organizations create a company to administer the standard.  This standards company would essentially be a licensing and development company.  The standards company would also create improvements on the standard and solicit others to contribute their inventions/patents.  Outside companies that contributed patents to the standards company would either receive equity or a royalty payment.  These standards companies would advance the concept of a secondary market for patents. 

 Standards organizations (such as IEEE 802.11 for wifi) are commonly formed by a group of companies to define a transmission or interface protocol.  The companies agree to pool their patents that are necessary to implement the standard.  They also agree to license their patents on a nondiscriminatory basis for a reasonable royalty.  Commonly, a company wishing to build a product implementing the standard takes a license to the pool of patents and pays a royalty.  The royalty payment is then divided among the companies that contributed patents based on the number and importance of the patents each company contributed. 

 If the companies involved in a standards organization agreed to create a company to administer the standard it would decrease the politics associated with the standard, increase the diffusion of the standard, and increase the licensing revenue collected.  The founding companies could either receive equity or licensing revenue from the standards company.  The standards company could either sell equity or pledge the royalty income to issue bonds.  Founding companies could realize value from the creating a standards company that is presently latent. 

 One method that the company could use to raise initial capital would be to issue bonds backed by the royalty income from the standard.  These bonds would be similar to Bowie Bonds, which were issued in 1997.  David Bowie raised $55 million at 7.9% by pledging the royalties to 25 albums (287 songs) according to Wikipedia.  Alternatively, the standards company could issue a combination of equity and debt to raise initial capital.  The value of the standards company would show up as an asset on the companies that created the technology underlying the standard instead of just showing up as an expense.

The goal of a standards company would be to see the standard, such as wifi, as widely implemented as possible.  Its business model would not be that different than Qualcomm.  In the late 1990s, Qualcomm exited most of it manufacturing and product business and instead focused on its core skill research and development.  Another company that is a model for a standards company is Dolby Laboratories.  Dolby is a technology company that focuses on creating technology and licensing its related patents to the sound recording industry.  On of its “principles includ(s) a philosophy not to manage the business for growth’s sake and a focus on innovation and patent protection.”[1] 

Unlike companies that normally “try to protect themselves by keeping technology static,” Dolby Labs maintains its edge by taking the lead in generating the ideas that will ultimately displace its own technologies.[2]

 The standards company economic interest would be to have as many users as possible implement the standard, since according to most economists this would maximize its income.  As a result, it should (and would) price its licensing to maximize the diffusion of the technology.  However, it would also aggressively enforce its rights against technology pirates. 

 Unlike Qualcomm, I suggest that the standards company aggressively seek outside inventors to contribute new technology that would extend the standard or create a new standard.  This would reduce its internal research costs, match research investment to return, and expand the pool of talented researchers working on the standard.  The standards company would pay these independent researchers either a percentage of the royalties received, or buy out their patents/inventions with cash or equity.  Dolby again provides an example.

Continuous innovation also ensures that Dolby Labs rarely goes beyond its own laboratories for technology. For example, in 1998, when the company announced that it would license compression technology directly from another audio technology developer, Ramzi Haidamus, then the Dolby Digital Technology Licensing Manager, pointed out that this was only the second time that Dolby Labs had gone outside for technology. That same year, Dolby Labs partnered with Lake Technology in a licensing agreement giving Dolby Labs access to Dolby^® Headphone technology. Dolby’s subsequent three million dollar investment in Lake Technology was the first time the company had ever taken an equity stake in a strategic relationship.[3]

 Clearly Dolby has realized that despite its earlier model of developing all its technology internally, it can profit by combining its technology with other inventor’s technology. 

 The standards company would focus its expertise on application engineers that would help outside companies that wanted to implement the standard and on licensing and enforcement of its intellectual property.  It is likely that the application engineers would create many of the extensions and improvements in the standard. 

 Most manufacturing/product companies are poor at creating intellectual property and even worse at realizing full value from their patent portfolios.  Qualcomm and Dolby Laboratories are proof of the power of focusing on technology creations and associated patent protection.  A standards company would be a logical division of labor, where talented engineers and scientists would focus mainly on inventing and applications of the technology.  The management of the company could focus just on creating value out of an intellectual portfolio instead of having their focus diverted by manufacturing, distribution, and other none intellectual property issues.  As a result, they would develop expertise in a standards company that would never happen in a traditional manufacturing/product company.  This is the power of the division of labor – thank you Adam Smith. 

 How does this create a secondary market?  A standards company is a secondary market for the innovation by the companies whose technology created the standards company.  In addition, the standards company would openly solicit new technology that they could license.  This would create a market for patents that would be similar to the Apple apps market.  The success of a standards company would result in imitation and extend the concept outside this narrow focus.  Dolby, Qualcomm, Intellectual Ventures, and NTP are proof that this business model could be extended beyond the narrow focus of technology standards. 

Wouldn’t a standards company inhibit the free flow of information?  The standards company would have every incentive to make information about their technology widely available, since this would increase the number of people licensing their patents and increase the likelihood that outside inventors would contribute new innovations.  A standards company would inhibit the pirating of technology, which is essential to establishing a secondary market.  However, it would increase the dissemination of the underlying information. 

 Isn’t there a risk the standards company would charge exorbitant royalties after luring in users with low royalty rates, since they would now have a monopoly over the standard?  Since there are numerous competing standards, if a standards company raised their royalty rates to exorbitant levels product companies would switch to another standard.  In addition, if multiple standards companies were created the competition from other standards companies would ensure competition for both new technology and in getting product companies to use their standard.  Finally, product companies could demand long term licenses to standard that had set royalty rates. 

 Why would the world want to create a secondary market for patents?  A secondary market for patents would reduce the cost of research and development, increase the investment in R&D, and increase the funding for technology start-up companies.  A secondary market would also increase the division of labor between production and invention.  According to Adam Smith, the division of labor is a major method of increasing the wealth of nations.  Innovation is the key to real per capita increases in income and Robert Solow won the Nobel Prize in Economics for proving this.  Patents are the method of attaining title to innovation.  Only by having title to innovation, can a person trade and capitalize their innovation.  Having title to property is critical to economic efficiency and optimization.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

Hello all! I’m currently failing Physics class! Yay! I’ve been spending all my time drawing and stuff and now I’m lost. We’re learning about vectors or some sort and there are a bunch of arrows and stuff. Anyway, not the point! The point is… (drumroll, please) … I’M NOT DEAD! Hehe. Hi! So, I currently have a project in US History that I need to do; a journal. I have to write as an immigrant moving west during the Gilded Age. It’s pretty lame. It has to be done by Tuesday, though or my second quarter grade is doomed before the quarter even starts. So, yeah. GO WEST! I’ve been watching Gensomaden Saiyuki again and it’s pretty amazing. It’s like, a blast from the past, seeing as I haven’t seen it since a simpler and happier time in my life… I just had a thought. Maybe I’m watching Saiyuki again unknowingly because of all this talk of going west at school? Haha. I don’t know. My brain’s kind of scattered right now and OMG I’m just wasting more time! Wah, but I don’t wanna do it! You can’t make meee!!! Hehe. I just thought of Ron DeLite from Trials and Tribulations… Okay, seriously. I’m sorry I’m hard to follow right now, but I get super distracted when I have to do a school project. Bleh. Okay, well I just watched the music video for Thomas Dolby’s super amazing song which can be seen below… All right, well I have to go play Dissidia and make stuff go boom with Leon do my project so commence with your far less interesting lives—Oh, c’mon. You’re still reading this; they can’t be that eventful. Oh, yeah and I added three new wallpapers if anyone cares. BYE!

My apologies for borrowing the title of Depeche Mode’s….what….sixth album?  And what about “album”?  Does that show my age or what?  But while dithering about trying to come up with the title for my very first post to this new WordPress blog I wanted to get it right and considering what I intend to cover I think I did.  If not, please feel free to offer an alternative title in the comments.  I’m all ears….so to speak. Thinking back on the history of consumer electronics one would find far fewer devices available to any family.  A radio was the only real consumer electronic for decades.  And, to a lesser extent, the phonograph made inroads into family living rooms.  Following World War II the world saw television signals delivered to the various aerials one would have either inside or outside the home and those transmissions flickered to life in varying shades of gray, forever changing the sound of radio. Eventually audio equipment in the guises of turntables, 8-track tape (and later cassette) players, and the like found a place in the family home.  Regularly a teen’s first major holiday or birthday gift would be one of those all-in-one stereo systems, resplendent with record player, cassette deck, AM/FM tuner and speakers.  Shitty speakers at that.  Not that the sound coming from the pitiful electronics inside the unit were that much better, but the truly weak link was always the rubbish speakers included with these all-in-one systems. But everything changed in the world of music when listeners were finally able to take music with them, wherever they went. We actually have to jump back to 1965 for the nascent start to it all in the way of the invention of the compact cassette by Philips.  But nothing else really transpired until 1979 when the innovative folks at Sony Electronics unleashed upon the unsuspecting public the Walkman.

Sony Walkman TPS-L2

The original model, the TPS-L2, wasn’t just a cassette tape player, but recorder as well.  It would turn out to be the player portion that would really take off in the consumer marketplace and push Sony to heights it hadn’t yet seen. Suddenly folks no longer had to be tied to a home or car stereo to listen to music.  Granted, portable radios had been around for decades, but that entailed listening to the music someone else wanted you to hear.  No longer.  Now you could bring along your prerecorded tapes or create your own tapes and truly enjoy the liberty of listening to your music on your terms. Over a period of about ten years I owned, if memory serves, about three of these devices.  I think one was a Sony and the other two came from a competitor named Aiwa.  I couldn’t find a picture of either model I owned, but I found this and it is very close to the latter of the two models.

Aiwa Portable Cassette Player

All of these portable cassette players were pretty cool devices, with each more current model offering better sound quality and features.  By the time I purchased the last one it included electronic equalization presets, Dolby B noise reduction, Type II metal tape bias adjustment and pretty decent battery life.  Yet, as good and useful as these devices were, they were something of a pain in the ass. I hated prerecorded cassettes as their sound quality was, simply put, atrocious.  Never did I hear a single one that sounded good.  Not even okay.  They always sounded awful.  The only choice for me was to create my own cassettes; mixed tapes, as we called them back then.  I purchased quality TDK (preferred) or Maxell and made full use of the Type II metal bias and Dolby B for superior audio quality.  I would spend hours putting together a mixed tape as it was an incredibly laborious project to both select the tracks and then obtain the best level for each individual song before actually recording it.  In essence I was listening to each song twice:  once to find the right level and once more when I actually recorded it to tape. This labor of love was always worth it though.  The quality of the audio was as good as was possible, but there were still the drawbacks and limitations inherent in the portable cassette player.  In my opinion the single biggest issue was the problem of flutter.  ”Flutter” is a technical term, but made easy to understand one can think of it like this:  the cassette player, for a variety of reasons, couldn’t always maintain a perfect speed while playing back the cassette.  Minute changes in speed of the tape during playback created a fluttering of the sound; a minor change in pitch.  A very minor change in pitch, but one that could be noticed, especially when the player was subjected to rapid changes in motion. “But why would a portable cassette player be subjected to rapid changes in motion?” you ask?  Simple, unless you were sitting still and the player was resting, the player would be moving.  For instance, I used to take my players with me when I went walking.  I never jogged or ran to keep in shape, but I enjoyed a fast walk.  If I attached any player to my belt via the included clip, the player would be jiggled about as my hips moved up, down, left and right while I walked.  This rapid motion was more than the AA or AAA batteries could overcome and so the player would speed up and slow down in rapid succession:  flutter. I mitigated this problem by carrying the player in hand while walking, which introduced another problem:  hand cramping.  Walking for sixty or ninety minutes (the usual time I walked) I would clutch the player as my arms swung back and forth.  This motion was such that flutter was hardly ever noticeable, but these devices where a handful in size and holding onto them in a secure fashion (never dropped one!) was tiring.  Yet these were the things one went through if they really wanted to listen to their music under the best conditions possible during those years.  But then things changed in a very dramatic fashion.  The world, for better or worse, went digital.

iPod Shuffle (1st gen)

Certainly the iPod line of portable digital music players were not the first.  Nope.  This honor probably belongs to the MPMan created and sold by SaeHan Information Systems of S. Korea.  It first appeared in the States in 1998 and was able to hold about 30-minutes worth of digitally encoded music.  Certainly not much, but a start nevertheless. A handful of players were developed over the following years, but it was the introduction of Apple Computers iPod in 2001 that forever changed the face of portable music.  I think it would not be unfair to say the iPod revolutionized the digital portable music medium. My first experience with a MP3 player was the above-pictured iPod Shuffle.  I purchased two 1GB versions; one for me and one for the daughter, whose portable CD player had recently died.  It was an amazing product and using iTunes was so simple, so intuitive, so convenient.  Suddenly the many, many hours spent creating mixed tapes were a total and complete thing of the past.  Now I could spend a few hours burning my CDs to the computer via iTunes and then transfer whatever music I wanted to the Shuffle.  I could let iTunes randomly select songs.  I could select the songs.  I could create playlists that would include just music I wanted (maybe by genre, year of release, artist, etc.).  It was amazing and I was completely smitten with the technology. But what do I remember the most about this experience?  The fact the Shuffle came with a lanyard so that I could do whatever it was I wanted without having to HOLD the damn thing!  Oh, and NO flutter issues at all.  Life was sweet.  But my appetite was now whetted and I needed more. However, the daughter’s Shuffle died a premature death and between this and the cost of iPods with greater storage capacity I was forced to venture to other manufacturers, which wasn’t a bad or good thing in the great scheme of life.  At this time I moved into the world of Creative Lab products.

Creative Zen Plus

The Zen line of MP3 players had received almost nothing but solid, almost rave, reviews all around the Internet.  Their price point was superior to the iPod and so it was I found myself purchasing a Zen Plus (the Plus included a FM radio, while the non-Plus model did not).  I made this purchase around 2004 and while very pleased with the audio quality of the Zen Plus, I was less-than-pleased with the included and required software.  In the end I used only Windows Media Player to transfer music to the player, but I first had to install the software which came with the player.  Why this was, I’m not quite certain, but it was clearly stated in the operating instructions that to do otherwise might leave me with a small, plastic paperweight.  Joy. While the Zen Plus was a fine player in most every regard, I had a fair number of problems with it and my soon-after purchase of the Creative Vision M.

Creative Labs Zen Vision M

I purchased this 30GB hard-drive based player (the Shuffle and Zen Plus being flash-based) for the purpose of taking it to my temporary job where I could listen to music all day long.  The 4GB Zen Plus left me hearing the same music twice within a few days, but 30GB…well…let’s put it this way:  my temporary employment gig came to an end before I heard the same song twice. But both of these otherwise competent and enjoyable Creative products gave me no small amount of fits and aggravation during their ownership. (to be clear I still own both, but haven’t used the Zen Plus since it died and the Vision M is used sparingly at most)  Both units seemed to have some issue with being recognized when plugged into my desktop PC.  Neither would be recognized in either Windows Media Player or the proprietary Creative software.  This was most odd.  This was very annoying.  And no amount of research or such provided me with any satisfactory resolution to the problem.  Sometimes the players were recognized and sometimes they weren’t. So it was that between this problem with being recognized by the computer and the premature death of my Zen Plus, I elected to again look elsewhere for my portable digital music needs. I enjoyed a very brief (like less than one week) affair with a Sansa product (made by SanDisk I thought I would give it a chance because I use SanDisk storage cards for my cameras), which was promptly returned as the audio quality was less than acceptable.  The player itself was pretty sharp and worked well (meaning the user interface was sufficient), but the sound quality, even with better ear buds, was simply not up to par. Enter the Sony Walkman NWZ-A818…

Sony NWZ-A818

The center player pictured above is the one I acquired.  With 8GB of flash memory it certainly would allow me to carry around a fair amount of music and did so in a well-designed and solid-feeling MP3 player I had yet owned.  But better than these impressions was the sound quality, which left behind even the great sounding Creative products.  The Sony, and its superior sounding ear buds, was a wake-up call to how good a MP3 player could be in every manner. The overall design was compact, but not too tiny.  The device felt solid in the hand.  The user interface was clean and well organized.  The display was very, very nice.  But ultimately it was both the sound quality and fact it needed no proprietary software that made this purchase so freakin’ smart.  I plugged it into my desktop PC, synced to it a randomly selected group of songs in Windows Media Player and was off and running in less than 20-minutes. I really cannot convey how impressed I have been with this player.  The whole experience is made even more impressive when one considers how lost in the wilderness was Sony for so many years.  For whatever reason Sony seemed to make mistake after mistake after mistake with its product line in the portable digital music age.  Proprietary codecs (the programming language that converts your CDs to a file format recognized by Sony players) and uninspired design left the former world champion of portable music languishing in the dust.  Mostly Apple’s dust.  The only complaint I have, and it really shouldn’t be viewed as a complaint, but as an unfortunate choice on my part, is that the NWZ-A818 is not compatible with iTunes even though it will play AAC encoded songs (AAC is one of a number of codecs that are used to convert CD songs into music files read by MP3 players – I’ll actually address this sort of stuff in my next post).  I say this is unfortunate because I recently acquired an iMac and am looking at making it my primary music playing computer, thus leaving the Windows world behind.  But for right now when I want to listen to take my music with me, and I desire sonic quality, I grab the Sony.  Period. But the story doesn’t end here.  Nope.  That would be too easy and make for a shorter story, so you’re stuck with me for a while longer. Actually, my next MP3 player wasn’t specifically purchased for its MP3 playing abilities.  Nope.  Instead it was purchased as a cell phone.  Say hello to my little friend; the Apple iPhone 3GS

iPhone 3GS by Apple

Besides the loads of other things this incredible device does it also serves as a media player, which includes music.  To be frank, while I have about 400 songs synced to it, I don’t actually listen to music on it.  I did, however, bring my ear buds (and not the horrible ones provided by Apple – less than useless they are) along and use it to both listen to music and watch some t.v. shows I synced to it, while I was in Florida visiting my parents at the beginning of September.  It is a fine and competent MP3 player, but I would not go so far as to say it sounds as good as the Sony (and I’m using the Sony ear buds so it’s a pretty straight up comparison).  I’d probably say the sonic quality is on par with the formerly discussed Creative products, which is very good, but still not in the same sphere as the Sony. But speaking of the trip to my parents….while there I received an e-mail from Apple, which mentioned they had refurbished, 2nd generation iPod Shuffles on sale with free shipping for a limited time.  The new 3rd generation iPod Shuffles had just come out and I guess Apple was anxious to unload the remnants of the 2nd generation players (the model I purchased is pictured below).

iPod Shuffle (2nd gen) by Apple

Now if you’ve managed to stay with me thus far you may be wondering why I would bother to purchase a 2GB iPod Shuffle when I already have:  Creative Zen Vision M, Sony NWZ-A818 and iPhone 3GS.  The question is even more poignant considering I own a stretchy arm-band thing for taking the Sony on the go when I hike, bike or…well…vacuum the house.  Well the reason is really quite simple:  2GB of storage is just about right for 200 songs, which is really great for not hearing the same song twice if you use the device only a fistful of hours each week.  The Sony, while a remarkable player, had become uncomfortable to wear with the arm band as the band makes me itch and, to keep it secure on my bicep, cuts off the circulation of blood to my lower arm.  Just a bit, mind you, but the slight tingling sensation in my fingers wasn’t any fun. When I saw the price,which was very good, I thought to myself “Why this over the new 3rd gen model?” especially when I had read that the latest version had superior sound quality.  But this answer was also pretty simple: the latest version did not include any controls on the actual player, but were moved to the Apple ear buds.  Which suck.  Totally.  And I wasn’t about to wait for a 3rd party product to come out for which I’d have to shell out another $20 – $60, thus raising the cost of this entire endeavor.  So I made the purchase from the comfort of my parents home and the 2nd generation iPod Shuffle in bright green arrived at my house a day after I arrived home. Sure…the sound quality is only okay.  Good, but nothing to write home about.  And sure, it only holds 200 songs (encoded in AAC at the highest possible variable bit rate), but you know what?  I don’t care.  I bought it for a specific need and purpose and it fits them perfectly.  I clip the little device to my clothes (usually along the hem of the neck opening of my t-shirt), pop the ear buds into my ears and I’m off and running with tunes while I do whatever it is I need to get done. What an amazing tale, eh? Okay.  This is a pretty long post.  And I really didn’t tell you much of anything other than my personal purchase history and impressions of MP3 players I have owned.  However, I did this to establish some ground work for what will be my next entry, which will also be related to the world of digital music and MP3 players.  In my next post I will discuss some of the criticisms of how we digitize music and the devices upon which we play said music.  And why I think those folks are crazy. I felt it was important to let it be known that I wasn’t simply making observations from afar, but that I actually have lived in the trenches, so to speak, of digital music playing device ownership.  It is from here that I will speak as I reconcile my personal purchasing habits (and the subsequent use of these devices) to what I read in the media. Until then…

Digitaler Raumklang erhöht das Videospiel-Erlebnis um 100% – und kann gerade bei Ego-Shootern sogar das virtuelle Leben retten. Doch egal, ob der Rundumklang zum Steigern der Atmosphäre (Bioshock) oder zum präzisen Orten von Schüssen, Hubschrauber oder Fußschritten (Call of Duty, Operation Flashpoint) eingesetzt wird – die Frage, wie man den optimalen Klang aus seiner Konsole herausholt, spaltet die Gemüter. Dabei gibt es eigentlich nichts zu spalten… sowohl Raumklang über eine Anlage als auch über ein 5.1-Headset haben ihre Vor- und Nachteile und ergänzen sich eigentlich perfekt.

Ich möchte in diesem Blog einen kleinen Zweiteiler zum Thema “Zocken in Dolby 5.1” schreiben und über meine Erfahrungen berichten: mit einer Dolby 5.1-Heimkinoanlage (Logitech Z5500) und mit Dolby 5.1-Kopfhörern (Sharkoon X-tatic). Sowohl der wuchtige Raumklang über Lautsprecher als auch der viel direktere Sound über Headset haben durchaus ihre Berechtigung – und seine Anhänger und Gegner. Fakt ist, je nach Aufgabe ist das eine oder das andere besser geeignet und ich schätze mich glücklich, im Besitz beider Optionen zu sein.

Den Anfang macht mein Bericht über das Sharkoon X-tatic Digital Headset Rev. III. Da ich nur dieses besitze, kann ich natürlich keinen Vergleich zu den Konkurrenzprodukten anstellen – und werde es deswegen auch nicht versuchen. Nur soviel: Ja, es gibt auch noch andere 5.1-Headsets, die ebenfalls mit der XBox funktionieren. Wer sich dafür interessiert, kann danach googlen und wer eines besitzt, darf mir gerne einen Kommentar hinterlassen und von seinen Erfahrungen berichten.

Ich  erzähle Euch heute, was mir an meinem Sharkoon gefällt, was nicht und wann es Vorteile gegenüber der Heimkinoanlage hat – und wann ich es im Schrank lasse:

Wer, wie, was?

Wer auf der Suche nach dem Sharkoon Headset ist, muß sich erst einmal durch einen Dschungel an Revisionen, Namen und Bezeichnungen wurscheln, bis er zum Objekt der Begierde kommt. Das Sharkoon X-tatic gibt es nämlich mittlerweile in der III. Revision. Zudem gibt es das kostengünstigere Sharkoon X-tatic analog Dolby 5.1, was etwas irreführend ist – denn hierbei handelt es sich zwar um das gleiche Headset, allerdings fehlt hier der Digital-Decoder für den digitalen Sound. Dieses Headset ist also nur als Zweit-Headset zu gebrauchen, es sei denn, man kauft den seperat erhältlichen Decoder dazu, was allerdings die Sache nur unnötig teurer macht.

Beim Sharkoon X-tatic digital Rev. III braucht man sich um all das keine Gedanken zu machen, hier enthält der brutal verpackte Blister-Pack alles, was für Raumklang nötig ist – alle Kabel, Decoder, Mikrophon und das Headset selbst.

Das Sharkoon-Headset ist für Xbox zertifiziert, das heißt, es ist Voicechat-tauglich. Das integrierte (abnehmbare) Mikrophon kann per beiliegendem Klinkerstecker an das Xbox-Pad angeschlossen werden; seperate Regler für Sprachausgabe und ein Mute-Schalter sind vorhanden (im Gegensatz zur Rev. II, bei der es noch keine Mute-Funktion gab).

Erhältlich ist das Sharkoon unter anderem bei amazon; es kostet zur Zeit um die 110 Euro.

Kopfhörer

Leuchtet neongrün im Dunkeln: Der Xtatic-Schriftzug. Neben dem Anschlußkabel der Eingang für das Mikrophon.

Das Headset ist ein massiver, stark gepolsterer Kopfhörer, der im Dunkeln aufdringlich durch neongrüne X-tatic-Schriftzüge auf beiden Ohrteilen beleuchtet wird. Seltamerweise ist nicht ersichtlich, wo links und rechts ist, es gibt keine Markierung dafür. Sitzt das Mikrophon links, hat man das Headset korrekt auf. Das Headset wird auf Dauer etwas schwer, es liegt stramm am Kopf an und kann größenverstellt werden. Die Ohrteile sind gut schallisoliert, so daß man von Umgebungsgeräuschen weitgehend verschont bleibt (ein Vorteil gegenüber der Heimkinoanlage).

Zwar sind die Ohrpolster dick und weich, nach einigen Stunden übt das Headset aber schon merkbaren Druck auf die Ohren aus, so daß man bestrebt ist, eine bequemere Position zu suchen. Hinzu kommt, daß das Headset über ein 3,60 Meter langes Kabel (samt integriertem Bedienelemet) mit dem Decoder verbunden ist und zudem ein Klinke-zu-Klinke-Kabel aus ebenjenem Bedienungselement zum Gamepad führt, so daß man schon etwas eingekabelt ist. Ein integrierter Clip erlaubt es, zumindest das lange Hauptkabel an der Kleidung zu befestigen, damit es nicht zusätzlich nach unten zieht. Das Headset funktioniert sowohl im Sitzen als auch im Liegen auf dem Sofa tadellos, sofern man sich nicht allzu sehr bewegt.

Das Dolby ist ein echtes 5.1. In jedem Kopfhörer befinden sich 4 Lautsprecher (je ein Front, Center, Rear, Subwoofer), die einzeln in der Lautstärke reguliert werden können und deren Raumeffekt durch Time Delay noch erhöht werden kann.

Mikrophon

Das Mikrophon ist aus sehr biegsamem, stabilem Material und wird einfach in das linke Ohrstück eingesteckt, von wo es im gewünschten Winkel vor den Mund bewegt werden kann. Um seine Freunde im Party-Chat nicht über die Dolby-Speaker zu hören, sondern auf einem getrennten Kanal, der auch getrennt über einen Drehregler reguliert werden kann, muß man in seiner Xbox die Sprachausgabe auf “Headset” stellen. Als ich sie auf “Lautsprecher” stehen hatte, ging die Stimme meines Gegenübers im Klang des Spiels unter, da sie aus dem Center-Speaker kam, und konnte auch nicht über die Mikrophon-Bedienelemente reguliert werden. Bei “Headset” kommt der Voicechat unabhängig von den anderen Lautsprechern aus einem eigenen Kanal.

Das Mikro ist abnehmbar, sehr flexibel und stabil

Laut meinen Chat-Partnern ist meine Stimme mit dem Sharkoon gut verständlich (natürlich abhängig davon, wie weit ich das Mundstück an meinen Mund heranbiege). Stelle ich jedoch den Drehregler zu laut, mit dem ich die Stimme meiner Partner höre, berichten diese von einem Echo ihrer eigenen Stimme. Bei einer normal-lauten Einstellung ist dieses jedoch nicht der Fall. Positiv fiel im Voicechat auf, daß meine Stimme nicht mehr so abgehackt klingt, wie es mit dem herkömmlichen Headset oft der Fall ist, wo es nach Sprechpausen oft Sound-Aussetzer gibt, sondern man eigentlich durchgängig gehört wird.

Die Sprachausgabe meiner Chatpartner ist ebenfalls gut verständlich und kann mit dem Drehregler sehr laut gestellt werden, so daß es genügt, die Lautstärke im unteren Drittel einzustellen. Sie klingt in seltenen Fällen etwas verfremdet, besonders, wenn der Partner seinerseits weit vom Mikro entfernt ist, ist aber in der Regel sehr gut verständlich und klar. Ein kleines Problem ist das beiliegende Mikro-Kabel, das bei mir einen Wackelkontakt aufzuweisen scheint. Wenn ich mit der Hand an das Kabel komme, bricht bisweilen die Sprache ab und es gibt unschöne laute Geräusche, die auch das Gegenüber hört. Ein 2,5 mm Klinke-auf-Klinke-Kabel ist jedoch kein exotisches Zubehörteil, sondern kann für ein paar Euro im Elektrohandel oder Internet nachgekauft werden, was ich auch getan habe.

Anschluß

Im Lieferumfang sind alle Kabel enthalten, die nötig sind, um das Sharkoon an Xbox, PS3 und PC anzuschließen. Ein optischer Eingang (Toslink) verbindet den Decoder wahlweise mit Xbox, aber auch mit DVD-Player oder anderen Quellen mit optischem Ausgang. Man kann übrigens zwei Kopfhörer an einen Decoder anschließen, so daß man für den Zweit-Kopfhörer durchaus auch das oben erwähnte Sharkoon X-tatic analog Rev. III kaufen kann.

Die "Schaltzentrale": Der Verstärker und Decoder

Die Decoder-Station kann Dolby 5.1 und Dolby Prologic II wiedergeben (manuell umstellbar), daneben beherrscht sie die üblichen digitalen Effekte wie DRC (Dynamic Range Control) und Time-Delay, die den räumlichen Eindruck erhöhen.

Ein Netzteil (incl. Adapter für alle gängigen Steckdosen) mit einer Weiche versorgt sowohl den Decoder als auch das Headset. Schaltet man den Decoder am integrierten Aus-Schalter aus, leuchtet das Headset also munter und neongrün weiter, so daß man den Netzstecker ziehen muß, wenn man es vom Strom trennen möchte. Das optische Kabel wird von der XBox in den Decoder gesteckt. Ich verwende das Mad Catz RGB Ultra-Kabel (ja, ich habe nach wie vor einen Röhrenfernseher), das gleichzeitig mit einem optischen Kabel geliefert wird. Das beim Sharkoon enthaltene Kabel erschien mir etwas labberig, während das Mad Catz Toslink-Kabel massiv und etwa doppelt so breit im Durchmesser ist und sehr schön im optischen Eingang einrastet.

Schließlich wird das Headset in den Decoder gesteckt und dadurch wird die Kabelei komplett. Eine Menge Kabel, aber wirklich einfach anzuschließen und quasi selbsterklärend. Falsches Einstecken ist eigentlich nicht möglich, außer, man übersieht die Stromweiche für das Headset.

Nicht vergessen, nach dem Verkabeln die Xbox in den Systemeinstellungen unter “Audio” auf Dolby 5.1 umzustellen! Bei Scart ist es so, daß der Klang sowohl aus dem Headset als auch weiterhin aus dem Fernseher kommt. Deswegen muß ich die Lautstärke des Fernsehers auf Null stellen, es sei denn, Freunde möchten beim Spielen zuschauen und auch etwas vom Geschehen haben.

Einstellungen

Dolby 5.1 wird beim Einschalten der Xbox vom Decoder sofort erkannt und selbständig aktiviert, wie man am blauen Kontroll-Licht des Decoders erkennen kann. Am Decoder kann man die Master-Lautstärke, Pro Logic, Time Delay und DRC einstellen. Die Einstellungen merkt sich der Decoder auch ohne Strom.

Die vier Schalter für die Lautsprecher leuchten neonfarben; die Farbe signalisiert die Lautstärke der einzelnen Boxen

Die Lautsprecher selbst werden am Bedienelement im Verbindungskabel zwischen Headset und Decoder bedient. Dieses Bedienelement ist handfreundlich gestaltet und leuchtet, so daß man es auch im Dunkeln jederzeit findet. Front, Center, Rear und Subwoofer haben eigene Schalter.

Die Lautstärke ist an einer Farbcodierung zu erkennen; Grün ist Standard-Lautstärke, Lauter wird es bei Blau und wirklich LAUT bei Rot. Entweder, man regelt die Lautstärke aller Lautsprecher gleichzeitig (Standardeinstellung, erkennbar daran, daß alle vier Speaker-Schalter leuchten), oder man wählt einen Speaker aus (die anderen Lichter erlöschen in diesem Fall) und dann spricht der Lautstärkeregler nur den erleuchteten Speaker an. Nach einer Weile stellt sich die Fernbedienung zurück auf alle vier Lichter. Auch diese Einstellung merkt sich das Headset, nachdem es vom Strom getrennt wurde.

Das Bedienelement enthält neben diesen Lautstärkereglern auch den Mute-Schalter und den Drehregler für den Sprachchat, zudem geht das Mikrophon-Kabel von hier ab in das Gamepad.

Und wie klingt’s?

Räumlich. Erstaunlich, aber wahr – auch mit einem Kopfhörer ist Raumklang möglich, obwohl die Lautsprecher so dicht beinander liegen. Im Gegensatz zum vollen, wummernden, krachenden Klang einer THX-Heimkinoanlage liegt hier jedoch der Fokus auf dem Detail. Für Filme und pathethische Spiele, bei denen es nicht auf die Richtung ankommt (wie Rollenspiele) bevorzuge ich die Surround-Anlage für das Rundum-Gefühl. Für Taktik- oder Ego-Shooter oder für Spiele mit raumorientierter Atmosphäre, bei dem das Gruseln auch durch Geräusche aus unterschiedlichen Richtungen erzeugt wird (Bioshock, Silent Hill), ist das Sharkoon aufgrund der besseren Isolierung gegen Umgebungsgeräusche vorzuziehen.

Bei Spielen mit brachialem Klangteppich (a la Marvel Ultimate Alliance II, Last Remnant, Star Wars Battlefront II, The Force Unleashed, X-Men Wolverine), bei denen es eher um den Gesamteindruck geht, hat die Surround-Anlage die Nase vorn. Die Anlage sorgt für ein rundes Gesamtbild, das Sharkoon eher für das Detail.

Der Kopfhörer gewinnt das Duell aber ganz klar bei Spielen wie Call of Duty 4 und World at War, Battlefield 1943 oder Operation Flashpoint. Dank fehlender Umgebungsgeräusche (durch die stramm sitzenden, gut isolierten Kopfhörer), die sich bei einer Anlage in das Klangbild mischen können (Spülmaschinen, haltende Busse vor dem Fenster, randalierende Katzen, aufräumende Personen, penetrante Nachbarn), hört man mit dem Sharkoon Geräusche, die man mit der Anlage nicht hören kann und die ich auch nie zuvor gehört habe.

Moderne Kunst: Ein Traum in neon und Kabel-Wirrwarr

Insbesondere World at War ist hier ein positives Beispiel – zwar bin ich kein Fan dieses Spiels, da es mir zu viele Flaws hat, aber die sehr gute Dolby-Abmischung ist tatsächlich noch besser als bei Modern Warfare und die vielen kleinen, feinen Ambience-Geräusche und natürlich die Schritte, das Rascheln und Klirren von Waffen und Uniform sind gestochen scharf zu hören. Unbezahlbar ist es, wenn man auf einer kleinen Map wie “Dome” von irgendeinem Spieler mit Messer verfolgt wird, der einen überraschen will, und man sich in der Sekunde umdreht, in der er zustechen will, und ihn seinerseits ersticht oder erschießt. Mehr als einmal erstarrten Verfolger zu Stein, wenn man sich plötzlich umdreht und ihre scheinbar lautlose Verfolgung ruiniert.

Auch bei Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, das wir zur Zeit spielen, hat sich das Sharkoon schon bewährt. Präzise Richtungsortung herumfliegender gegnerischer Hubschrauber und Harrier ist genauso möglich wie das Einordnen der Schritte von Freund und Feind und die Richtung, aus der die Schüsse kommen.  Auch die vielen netten kleinen Umgebungsgeräusche, wie hupende Autos, schreiende Kinder, Sirenen in der Ferne, Vögel, Grillen, Specht fallen erst mit dem Sharkoon auf. Die Dolby-Abmischung ist wirklich gut gemacht und steigert die Atmosphäre enorm – natürlich auch im Single Player und in den Spec Ops-Missionen, bei denen insbesondere die Schritte im knirschenden Schnee für Verblüffung sorgen. Shooter gewinnen enorm durch die stark erhöhte Detailtreue des Klangbildes.

Fazit

Das Sharkoon-Headset ist einer Surround-Anlage bei Shootern deutlich überlegen, da es weniger Umgebungsgeräusche zuläßt und durch die Nähe zu den Kopfhörern einen detaillierteren, feineren und exakteren Klang mit viel mehr Einzelheiten und leisen Geräuschen erlaubt.

Für DVDs oder Spiele, bei denen es nicht auf die Richtung ankommt, würde ich jedoch jederzeit eine Anlage vorziehen – allein deswegen, weil das Sharkoon nach einigen Stunden schon etwas unbequem wird und man sich des Drucks auf den Ohren doch bewußt wird. Wenn man nicht gerade mit aufgestütztem Kopf auf dem Sofa herumhängt, wird mit der Zeit auch der Nacken schwer, zudem ist man ziemlich in Kabel eingewickelt und dadurch unbeweglich. Deswegen ist das Headset eher explizit für intensive Shooter-Sitzungen gedacht als dafür, dauerhaft alles damit zu spielen.

Wohnt man mit empfindlichen Nachbarn zusammen oder Personen, die für das Hobby kein Verständnis haben, ist es sicher aber auch eine generelle Alternative, wenn man seine XBox nicht mit einer Anlage verkabeln will oder kann und trotzdem auf Dolby-Raumklang nicht verzichten möchte.

An der Verarbeitung und Bedienbarkeit sowie dem Lieferumfang habe ich nichts auszusetzen; das Headset fühlt sich wertig an und die Bedienung über die integrierte Bedienung ist einfach und intuitiv. Die Lichteffekte, die aus den Ohren und dem Bedienelement leuchten, sind etwas aufdringlich, aber zumindest kann man so auch im Dunkeln den schnellen Griff zum Lautstärkeregler nicht verfehlen. Lediglich das mitgelieferte Mikrophon-Kabel und das Toslink scheinen mir etwas dünn bzw. das Mikrokabel wackelte. Da es sich aber um billige Standardkabel handelt, die man überall bekommt, ist das kein allzu großes Problem.

Bei Shootern ist das Sharkoon über jeden Zweifel erhaben und ein 100%iger Gewinn für das Spielerlebnis ist definitiv gegeben. Wer keine Shooter spielt, braucht das Headset nicht zwingend, sondern könnte eine Surround-Anlage in Erwägung ziehen. Wer aber keinen Platz für eine 5.1-Anlage hat, trotzdem aber 5.1-Klang möchte, macht mit diesem Headset sicherlich nichts falsch. Von mir ein klares “Empfehlenswert”, von den erwähnten Schwächen (hohes Gewicht, viel Kabelwirrwarr, auf Dauer unbequem) einmal abgesehen.

Over the past few months, Internet movie company Vudu has been in the process of morphing from a company that makes a box into a company that (also) licenses its platform to much larger consumer-electronics companies for incorporation into other devices. Yesterday, owners of LG’s BD390 Blu-Ray players got a software update that put the ability to rent and buy movies from Vudu capability on their players. To celebrate, Vudu held a press event at a screening room at Dolby Labs in San Francisco, where it streamed video in its HDX extra-high-quality HD onto a theater screen. It played without hiccups, held up well, and generally helped confirm that Vudu is a neat option for folks who want movies delivered via the Internet without any compromise in visuals or sound.

Also on display at the Dolby event was Mitsubishi’s 52-inch LT-52249 LCD TV with built-in Vudu–a drool-worthy $3099 1080p display that showed off Vudu’s razor-sharp video to impressive advantage. (The Bolt trailer has never looked so good.)

Vudu’s biggest limitation is that unlike humongous archrival iTunes, it’s only available in the living room–not on computers and portable devices. A Vudu representative at the event said that the company said that figuring out how to bring Vudu to more devices is on its to-do list.

The company also announced that Vudu has now integrated Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews into its service’s slick user interface, providing access to a much richer database of critiques as you browse for stuff to watch.

Duplo Deck Technics Pro RS-T120

Varios controles legais de edicao e escolha do tipo de fita.
Nas palavras do dono, “em perfeito estado, preservado com todo cuidado”.

R$ 250

Siguiendo la racha del cine en México, los invitamos a escuchar directo de boca de Eddie Rojas, nuestro experto invitado especial, a escuchar cómo es que se hace que el cine, suene. Más allá de hablar o grabar algunos sonidos, los invitamos a descubrir toda la ciencia y tecnología, así como habilidad que hay detrás de cada sonido en cada película que han visto.

Escúchannos en vivo dando click al siguiente botón!

En vivo los MIERCOLES a las 20:00hrs!

Si no nos escuchaste en vivo, no te preocupes, puedes descargar el programa el día siguiente de su transmisión en los siguientes botones:

Descárgalo Aquí!

Descárgalo Aquí!

Otra opción para disfrutar Floppy, es viendo nuestro canal de TV que cuenta con una programación bizarramente variada y un par de sorpresas en la opción de “Video-On-Demand” – Para ver nuestro canal, da click en la siguiente imágen.

Disfruta de la programación pre-grabada de Floppy Radio TV aquí!

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Búscannos como “floppyradio” o da click en la imágen!

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EDDIE ROJAS Y AUDIO EN EL CINE

Soundbyimage

El sitio de Eddie Rojas

Los Estudios (igualitos que aquí!):

El Grant Theatre

El Quinn Theatre

El Lancaster Theatre

Eddie con las manos en la masa, perdón, consola:

Una consola "modesta"

Grabando sonidos con todo tipo de objetos...

De aquí salen los grandes sonidos de las grandes producciones...

TECNOLOGÍA

El futuro le pertenece a… ¿Microsoft?

Final Fantasy en HD

CINE

Viggo y The Road

BFI 53 London Film Festival

La última de Moore a 20 años de Roger

La reseña de Zombieland

El error de Amenábar

Rich Ross, director de los estudios cinematográficos de Walt Disney

Las recomendaciones de Cahiers du Cinema

VIDEOJUEGOS

¿Quiéres saber más de videojuegos?

TRAILER DE LA SEMANA

Where the wild things are

A Christmas Carol

ROLAS DE LA SEMANA

Esta semana es un homenaje a un gran grupo Counting Crows. Banda originaria de Berkeley, California, formada en 1991.

Algunos datos curiosos:

Recibieron una nominación al Oscar por su tema Accidentally in Love.

La canción Mr. Jones, se convirtió en un éxito instantáneo cuando se promocionó en MTV.

-F

DolbyDigital ve DTS Yerleşim PMPO, RMS Nedir? Çok kanallı ses sistemleri, sinema salonlarını evinize taşımakla kalmıyor aynı zamanda popüler 3B oyunlardan aldığınız hazzı da ikiye katlıyor. Günümüzde sinema endüstrisinde özel görüntü efektlerinde ve üç boyutlu canlandırmada muazzam bir ilerleme sağlanmış olsa da, yine de bu filmleri sessiz olarak izlediğinizde aynı zevki alamayacağınız kesin. Ses ve görüntü ancak bir arada ve uyumlu olarak devam ettiği sürece izlediğimiz sinema filmlerinden haz almamız mümkün. İzleyicilerin sinemada film izlerken aldıkları hazzı evlerinde de sürdürme istekleri ve teknolojinin hızla ilerlemesi sonucunda “ev sineması” kavramı doğmuş oldu. Ev sinemasında en büyük çaba her zaman sinemadaki görüntü ve ses kalitesinin mümkün olduğunca bir benzerini evde oluştumak. 3G Cep Telefonları ile evinizden kilometrelerce uzakta olsanız bile evinizi göz altında tutabileceksiniz. Biz bu yazımızda işin görüntü kısmını bir kenara bırakarak ev sinemasının ses kısmı ile ilgileneceğiz. Görüntü ve seslerin film içerisindeki başarısı her zaman gerçeğe olan yakınlıkları ile ölçülür. Dinlediğiniz sesler orjinal hallerine, yani başka bir deyişle gerçek hayattakine ne kadar yakınsa, o kadar etkileyici olur. Sinemalarda kullanılan çok kanallı, etkileyici ses düzenlerinin benzerlerini evde yaratma çabaları, günümüzde ev sineması sistemlerinde en çok tercih edilen iki biçim olan Dolby Digital ve DTS’i geliştirmiştir. Bu iki biçim, sinemadaki ses kalitesini evinize taşımak için geliştirilmiş en popüler biçimlerdir. DTS için sadece DolbyDigital’in bazı zaaflarını kapatmak için yaratılmış yeni bir sürüm demek yanlış olmaz. Ayrıca AMD’den DirectX’e Yeni Soluk geldi. Her iki biçim de aslında DVD teknolojisinin sunduğu imkânlar dâhilinde hayata geçirilebilmiştir. Çünkü 1,5 saatlik bir filmin DolbyDigital biçimindeki ses verisi bile yaklaşık 300 MB yere ihtiyaç duymaktadır. DolbyDigital (AC-3), 1995 yılında Dolby laboratuvarları tarafından geliştirilen ve standartları belirlenen üçüncü jenerasyon (AC3-Audio Codec3) ses sıkıştırma ve kodlama algoritmasıdır. AC3 aslında 48 KHz/16-20 bit (genellikle 16 bit) çözünürlükte, DVD üzerinde az yer kaplaması amacı ile kodlanmış ve sıkıştırılmış (10:1 sıkıştırma), 5+1 bağımsız kanaldan oluşan sayısal bir ses biçimidir. AC3’de sesler iki ön (sağ ve sol) ve iki arka (sağ ve sol) olmak özere dört kanal efekt, bir kanal ana sesler (konuşmalar gibi) ve ayrıca bir kanal da düşük frekanslı bas sesleri verebilmek için tahsis edilmiştir. AC3, ses verilerinin daha az yer kaplaması için sıkıştırılmış ve kodlanmış sayısal bir biçimdir. Dolayısıyla bu sayısal biçimi dinleyebilmek için önce sıkıştırılan veriyi açmalı ve daha sonra kodun çözülerek hangi kanallara hangi seslerin gideceğine karar verilmesi gerekiyor. Ancak seslerin hangi kanallara gideceğine ya da seslerin doğru kanallarda olup olmadığını düşünmenize gerek yok. Uygun Bir Masaüstü Bilgisayar almak için nelere dikkat etmeniz gerekiyor? Zaten bu konuda bir müdahale şansına da sahip değilsiniz. Bu kanallardan hangisinde, ne zaman, hangi seslerin olacağına sinema filmlerinin yapım aşamasında karar verilir ve miksaj buna göre yapılır. AC-3 çözebilen sisteminiz sadece bu sayısal veriyi çözecek ve hangi kanala, hangi seslerin gitmesi gerektiğini ayırıp gönderecektir. DTS’de temel olarak AC-3 ile aynı mantığa sahip bir diğer dijital çok kanallı ses biçimidir. AC-3’de ses bilgisi yaklaşık 10:1 oranında sıkıştırılmış olarak ve bir miktar kalite kaybıyla 320 kbs’lik bir bant genişliğine sahiptir. DTS’in bant genişliği ise 1.411 kbs’dir. Yani DTS AC-3’ye oranla yaklaşık 4,5 kat fazla bir bant genişliğine sahip. Bu sayede DTS, potansiyel olarak AC3’ten çok daha fazlasını sunabilecek bir dijital ses biçimi. Çünkü çok daha az sıkıştırmayla ve değişen algoritmayla detaylarda daha az kayba neden oluyor. Fakat standart giriş seviyesi ev sineması sistemlerinde DTS standardını dinlemek mümkün olsa da, AC-3 ile arasındaki farkı hissetmek neredeyse imkansız. DTS’in (aslında AC3’ninde) gerçek potansiyelini duymak için kayıttan AC-3/ DTS çözücüye, kolonlarınızdan, kullandığınız kablolamaya ve hatta kolonlarınızın konumuna kadar bir çok parametreye dikkat etmelisiniz.

Eine Zusammentragung netter Dolby-Histörchen beginne ich in diesem Beitrag.

Nr. 1

Hoy he estado presente en el IBC en una charla donde he podido ver la solución a los problemas de los subtítulos para el 3D. Una es una propuesta de Doremi, que ha presentado Patrick Zucchetta añadiendo una funcionalidad de Philippe Gerard de la empresa 3DLized, y por otro una solución de Dolby que me ha hecho abrir los ojos a las nuevas posibilidades técnicas y creativas que pueden aparecer con los subtítulos en 3D.
Esto añadido a lo que vi ayer, me da una visión estupenda para innovar en el grafismo dentro de los contenidos 3D.
Mañana me espera un día intenso en lo referente a las sesiones de 3D.

Binaural Trap

Not often do I use my ‘office’ machine for working on sessions, but today I had a few spare moments and just wanted to try out something simple with MWS.

Among other things, I wanted a 5Hz binaural beat. Entrainment track to 5Hz, add content, tones, binaural beats. Fired up the session and was blown away by how obvious the beats were. Then I was blown away by the fact that I could hear the beat with either earphone removed. And somewhat suspicious.

In one of my not particularly impressive diagnostic sequences, I decided to delete the binaural track and hand-build one out of two tone only/no entrainment tracks – 180Hz and 185Hz pitch, FX/pan -100 for one, +100 for the other.

Yup. A  booming beat from either earphone. Mute one tones track – ahhh! Single tone.

I’ve long known that it’s important to turn off all the environmental effects on your PC’s soundcard in order to use binaurals. This machine had all the usual ones turned off, all the suspicious looking ones in the soundcard control ap effects dialogue.

Unnoticed by me, however, was a “Dolby” tab. Dolby was on. Now it’s not. Now binaurals work properly.

This is a cautionary tale. If you haven’t run the NP2 or MWS Headphone Testing Tool, you may not be hearing binaurals at all – maybe just monaurals formed by the soundcard effects.

Bright Lights

I’m not sure where I stand with sharing information that could lead to problems for some people. I’m going to ask you here to be grown-up and apply your own discretion in repeating my foolishness. Better yet, I’ll just tell you most sternly, not to repeat my foolishness.

Open-eye versus closed-eye is a level battlefield. There’s a few maybes, but nothing conclusive. My impression is that open-eye is good for theta and beta+, while closed-eye suits delta and alpha. I’ve been shuffling between machines and glasses, trying to work out what really matters in terms of getting great visuals.

Confession… I’m more calm, content and peaceful than I’ve been at any time in my life. I have absolutely no therapeutic use for my AVS at all at this time. The highest commendation of a therapy has to be that it has worked so well it isn’t needed any more. Not needed, but wanted – as a tool for exploring the corners of the brain/mind, AVS induced hallucination is beyond excellent.

Some of the effects I’ve been enjoying have been truly spectacular. I think I’ve finally settled on bright white as being the ultimate weapon for true hallucinations as opposed to optical effects. Varying brightness, open-eye or closed-eye, makes an amazing difference. As much as it is my nature to “go extreme” at every opportunity and crank the brightness up full, doing so diminishes much of the pulse definition and subtlety – backing of a quarter turn can result in a much higher contrast image.

What happens for me is that the visuals have large scale components,a varying number of different scales and complexities of repeated details, and physiological artifacts (floaters, retinal caillaries, surface film, etc.) As near as I can tell, the character of an image is essentially the same, device to device, open-eye to closed-eye, at any given frequency, and at any level of brightness.

All the press is given to diffuse or peripheral open-eye designs. Thought I, “What happens if your stare straight down the snout of an LED?” I did a bit of reading, decided that none of the LEDs in any of my glasses are likely to have brightness levels high enough to be considered hazardous at any distance. Many trials later, I’ve found another whole realm to explore. Basic imagery remains the same, but the effect is of a pair of intensely bright cores, surrounded by a bright auras, fading rapidly to black. Moving the glasses around leads to some interesting illustrations of how binocular vision works, but for visuals, lining them up right in front is best. What I’ve seen is relatively conventional optical imagery in the brighter areas, with the dark area filling with photorealistic stuff – rocking horses, birds, animals, people, buildings, anything it seems even remotely comes to mind.

Anyway. You’d have to be a special kind of fool to stare for extended periods into LEDs in glasses that are sold on the strict understanding that they are for use with eyes closed.

Sensory Deprivation

I’ve been reading about the 8-Coil Shakti device, wondering if such a thing might be the next tool for prying open the doors of the mind. I dearly wish I could believe testimonials, but I don’t. The website reeks of everything hype and scam. Mixed size type, lots of big bold words, techy looking diagrams and animated demonstrations, proper looking anatomical drawings with all the right names, reverent references to the originator of the concept, Michael Persinger, while discretely conveying that the device itself is based on the work of Persinger, but is not the device all his published material was based on. However, his apprentice, Todd Murphy, assures us that his version is strictly new and improved, with some waveforms under license from Michael.

The description of the technology has a few mystical puffs of smoke, but mostly seems to make sense in terms of more general Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation information. The wisp that intrigues me most is the one elucidated in a FAQ item entitled, “How can a sound card play an EEG signal?” It goes on to explain about complex signals that cannot be produced or synthesised in any way other than recording them from real EEG. Two problems – 1. an EEG waveform can be synthesised with the greatest of ease; 2. This is one of only two products with an emphasis on complex signals - the only material I’ve seen that pursues the idea of the brain copying a sample neural waveforms originates from, or is associated with Persinger/Murphy or Chuck Davis (Roshi). Interestingly neither offer any assistance in physically evaluating their products – place your ante or view from the sidelines.

A long and circuitous journey back to the point – it is made extremely clear that the Shakti must be used in conjunction with sensory deprivation – silence and darkness. How easy is that for the average you or me to arrange? There’s even suggestions that you should check the latest geomagnetic and solar wind conditions.  If this form of stimulus is so sensitive, could we expect more from AVS if all other stimulation were more thoroughly eliminated? If I were to get a Shakti and I were to find it ineffective, how could I be confident that it was not just because I failed to use it in the correct environment. Persinger had his subjects sit in a soundproofed, magnetically shielded vault in the middle of Canadian nowhere. As much as I’d like to, I can’t see myself replicating the test conditions.

US$285 for an 8-coil Shakti is much less of a gamble than US$1800 for a pRoshi, but it’s more than I’m happy about shelling out on the sole basis of inventor evangelism and unsubstantiated testimonial. I would really like to hear something about these devices from an independent someone whose opinion I know to have substance. However, a couple of, “I want to know about Shakti.” comments would probably nudge me over the top – if anyone is sufficiently interested, that will be sufficient excuse to be test dummy.

Aaargh. Enough.

Cheers,
Craig