Podcast #541: 3 Budget Receivers, Unique Remotes and WiFi Headphones

Episode 541 is packed with information, from a CNet discussion on their favorite 3 (budget) receivers to the new STRIVA wi-fi headphones from Koss. Mixed in there is a list from Electronic House with 10 very unique remote controls that are sure to start as many conversations as movies in your home theater.

Download this Episode.

Netgear NeoTV Pro Winners Announced!

Listen to the show

Today's Show:

Blu-ray Reviews:

• All Reviews

News:

• Dish alters AutoHop amid legal battle
• Netflix and YouTube are Smart TV Favorites
• Google TV now lists movie New Releases, to let users control YouTube vids from phones and tablets

Other:

• 10 Most Unusual Remote Controls
• Best (budget) AV receivers
• Audioholics Interview: Michael J. Koss Introduces STRIVA Wi-Fi Headphones
• DIRECTV adds a ton of HBO On Demand Content
• Redbox and Verizon's Netflix competitor goes into alpha test
• Netflix Q2 2012 earnings: 530,000 more US subscribers and a return to profitability
• Apple TV sales up 170%, reaches installed base of 6.8 million AirPlay-ready HDTVs
• Google TV will get its own version of AirPlay

Amazon Prime:

Sign up for Amazon Prime and enjoy:

• Free Two Day Shipping!
• Instant Streaming of TV Shows and Movies
• Instant Access to thousands of Kindle Books
• The HT Guys gratitude!

Home Theater Terms

• Throw Ratio - When buying a projector, one of the key measurements you must know before you pay is the projector’s throw ratio.  The term throw by itself is the distance from the projector lens to the center of the screen.  The throw ratio is that throw distance to the screen divided by the width of the projected image, or essentially the width of screen it will support.  Since it is a ratio, there are no units associated with it; you can use feet, inches, meters, miles, whatever you like. Bottom line, the throw distance will narrow down which projectors are right for your room.  If you want to have a 200 inch screen, the projector will need to be able to do that from wherever you plan to mount it.  If you can only accommodate an 80 inch screen because of the wall space or room layout, you need to factor that in as well.  Because of zoom lenses, most projectors have a throw ratio range.  As long as your throw distance and desired screen size fall in that range, you’re all set.
• Bitstream - Technically a bitstream is no more than digital information expressed in binary form (0’s and 1’s) moving from one device to another.  But when we use the term in a home theater context, we’re typically referring to a specific kind of information - namely audio information - moving from a source device, such as a blu-ray player, to an audio processing device, such as a standard AV receiver.  Audio in the bitstream state hasn’t been decoded yet; it is still in its encoded form: Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.  When the bitstream arrives at the receiver, the receiver is responsible for decoding it, converting it to analog and sending it to the speakers.  In cases where the receiver is incapable of decoding a particular audio format, the source device can decode it and instead of sending the bitstream, send the decoded audio as linear PCM.
• Luminance - The part of a video stream that determines the brightness, or the black and white component, of the picture or video on screen.  The luminance value produces shades of grey that match brightness levels perceptible to the human eye.  In an analog component video cable the luminance value is kept separate from the color values, or chrominance, to produce a more pristine image.  Luminance values are carried on the green or ‘Y’ cable while the chrominance values are carried on the other two cables, the red (Pr) and blue (Pb) cables.  For analog video, component cables are typically considered the best compromise between compression and quality.  In digital video signals, such as HDMI and DVI, the video is in a digital format, so the luminance portion of the stream is simply encoded as part of the color values.

Download Episode #541

Comments

[Rick K.]

If I may add a further note on Dishtenna, I am noticing something during the Olympics this weekend. I was with Time Warner Cable for some time before switching to Uverse maybe five years ago because TWC was really lagging at adding HD channels. I didn't note much in the way of compression artifacts with TWC (possibly due to the fiber optics installed in our area by PacBell in the 90's or maybe because they were transmitting so few channels) but they were rather severe with Uverse. I put up with them for the sake of the superior channel lineup and got used to them to the point where I almost stopped noticing them. I have to comment that it's really a joy to watch the Olympics without the jerky motion and bizarre pixelation that used to appear even in sitcoms with Uverse.

I do miss having other events available on other cable channels (I assume NBC is using CNBC and other "affiliates" for additional coverage) but I didn't realize how much more noticeably enjoyable watching a clear picture was so I'm not going to complain about it. If you with a "cable" system I might suggest the strategy of adding Dishtenna so you can get the superior picture (and maybe sound for all I know, I'll hook into the receiver when I add on the TiVo) and just switch to it at your convenience. Network football and basketball could be far superior, I know the baseball is. Just a strategic thought. It's not a killer expense.

Separately, I do have a complaint about Olympic coverage. I just leave the TV on all day and noticed that the afternoon coverage yesterday was just a repeat of the morning coverage. How about showing us some of the little known sports, the shooting, archery, equestrian, etc, instead of just going to "reruns" of the big name stuff? If you feel like you might lose viewership, NBC, maybe you could intersperse them with the glory sports. You never know which kid might get inspired to try one of these under-reported sports and bring us gold some day. OK, </rant>.

[Bill Van - Va. Beach]

Rick K. I can't speak to you about the difference between my provider DirecTV and Uverse or Time Warner, but I can say DirecTV is about 5 years ahead of Cox Cable in my area, at least in my opinion. It's that bad. And get this, my last DirecTV "Refer A Friend" is saving a ton over her previous Cox Cable and she now gets DirecTV's whole home experience a free year of the NFL Sunday Ticket and she can't thank me enough. She is saving about $20/month last year and will save about $10/month in the coming year.

With my three set top box whole home setup I have 9 tuners to record from (5-2-2) and 2 terabytes of storage so I decided to record all 5 NBC Olympic channels. This way I can look at the menus and watch and skip what I want. I don't have to miss a thing and can watch it when I want. Live coverage starts around 4:00 in the morning here. Right now I'm recording 3 channels (NBC - MSNBC - NBCSHD) but earlier it was with BRAVO and CNBC too.

As far as artifact are concerned I can't tell you the last time I actually saw one. The only draw back with DirecTV is rare pixelation or outage for a short periods of time during a heavy downpour. It's not talked about much any more due to stronger signals coming from Mpeg 4 satellite signals.

I'm suggesting that you do some research into other providers like DirecTV or Dish Network. There is a reason experts in the field like Ara and Braden are with DirecTV and Dish Network. And I'm with you all the way, so lets get kids inspired to try one of these unreported sports and bring us home gold some day. Go USA!!

[Rick K.]

Oh, yes, Bill. I agree with you. I've seen DirecTV at my cousin's house in MO and thought the signal was top notch. However, I couldn't watch his Sharp AQUOS very long, it made me dizzy! Kind of a faux 3D thing going on. I thought it was just me but later that night my wife told me my son asked her why it looked so weird and she agreed with him. I noticed the same effect while looking at large screen Sharp TV's at Wilshire Home Theater here locally when I was projector shopping. Anyway, I just couldn't watch very long and we were watching Big Bang Theory so I'd hope not to see this effect (although I have noticed it during Big Bang on Uverse). My cousin is also very impressed with DirecTV compared to the Cox service he had in San Diego.

When we get moved to the Midwest I'll probably have DirecTV, too, as it seems to be the most popular provider in these rural areas so I'd sure hope their picture was great! I was only comparing the providers I've seen in my home.