MP3. That three charachter combination of letters and numbers is one of the best known and most used file extensions. MP3 or mpeg3 is an audio codec(COder/DECoder). It is a common form of compressing CD audio files into a smaller digital format to decrease the amount of space they take up on a given storage device or player such as an iPod. These compression methods are designed for convenience. They allow you to store more music in less space, and they also allow for faster downloading because of their decreased size.
So where did MP3 come from? MP3 is the audio codec used to encode and decode DVD audio. Blu-ray discs are now using lossless codecs such as DTS Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. Which is essentially the same as comparing an MP3 to CD quality sound. This brings the audio compression and codec wars out of the high end stereo listening room and into the home theater. Below is a graph of the difference between an MP3 file and a WAV file when playing a 1kHz sinewave at –10dBFS. The green chart is a WAV file the red chart is a 128K MP3
As you can see mathematically the differences are fairly substantial. However we are not listening to a graph. So listening test are the only true way to discern what is what and how you can tell.
Most new pre/pros and receivers have the ability to decode the HD audio codecs via HDMI and the processors and receivers that do not have an eight channel analog input that will accept analog decoded audio from any blu-ray player with a multi-channel output.
For my listening test I used two unique systems one mid-fi system with moderately priced equipment and speakers and my reference cinepro system. I used the same Sony ES blu-ray player on both and hooked them each up via optical digital for the compressed audio tracks and 6CH analog for the lossless tracks. The movies I used were the Incredible Hulk and King Kong. Both these movies have exceptional audio tracks that display dynamics and surround effects very well. They also both take advantage of high and low frequencies for extended periods and often. After about 2 hours of listening I came to a conclusion. Lossless encoding is the closest thing I have ever heard to the real thing. Lossless encoding ultimately takes away the ability to locate the speakers with your ears. You are listening to sound instead of a speaker. It also creates a more dynamic experience with less distortion on both ends of the spectrum.
Does lossless make a difference? YES. Is it worth spending the money to upgrade your processor or receiver? YES. If you are a big movie watcher and have a solid collection of good action blu-rays this upgrade is a must.
The new Mac Mini was released by Apple last week. After getting a good look at it I must say it is impressive. The question that everyone has been asking is “Is the Mac Mini a Media Center. In a sense it is. Apple has built a media center tool into their operating system called front row. Which allows you to use your Apple remote, via IR, to control your media library. This allows you to store, navigate and view movies, music, television shows, pictures, and much more. Below is a look at how front row looks in action.
So now that you have seen Front Row. What makes this Mac Mini so much better than the previous generation?
THE GOOD
This allows the mac mini to plug directly into any HD display that supports HDMI, which is most of them. This is the first Mac with a true HDMI output. The other great thing is that the Mini supports multichannel audio over HDMI which means one cable from the mini to your A/V system is all you need.
The Mini may be one of the smallest computers ever built. at 1.4” high and just 7.5” wide and deep the computer has a footprint that is similar in size to the Apple TV and about half the size of most consumer DVD/Blu-Ray Players.
While Processor speed is not dramatically increased, the HDD size, memory expandability alone make it a worthy upgrade, couple that with a graphics card that can keep up with some of Apple’s pro level Notebooks and Desktops and you have a computer that is seriously powerful.
The old mac mini was no slouch, and a lot of its problems carry over to the new one when it comes to using it as a true media center PC. Here is a short list of things that still need to change.
THE BAD
Yep thats right folks Apple didn’t put a blu-ray drive in this little guy. There is no defending it as far as I am concerned blu-ray is the future of disc media. The argument is that soon discs will be obsolete but until then how are you supposed to watch your blu-rays….a separate player. Thats no fun.
All the great media centers have it. Drop a disc in the drive, it rips and automatically adds it to your library. iTunes will do it with CDs but not with any kind of video media. This is kind of a bummer.
Front row has needed a facelift for about a year now. Apple TV has a sleek UI and runs really smoothly, front row is kind of an old lackluster interface that needs serious improvement. It also needs to add some non apple content like HULU, Amazon Unbox, or Netflix. I know Apple wants everyone to buy everything from iTunes but seriously you would sell a lot more hardware if you just made a few little tweaks.
The Verdict
Mac Mini is a very cool, very capable little computer, but it still isn’t the pinnacle of the media center PC world, however it is a very good start. For the tech savvy user who isn’t afraid of using 3rd party software to rip movies, and who doesn’t mind having a blu-ray player sitting underneath their mac mini, this baby is pure gold. The novice end user, should probably wait until the thing is perfect before they run out and buy it.
RLD MONTHLY MOVIE NIGHT VOTING! -
Your choice of FIVE movies!
Avatar
The Green Zone
Edge of Darkness
Casino Royale
The Book of Eli
Please click here to vote.
We will be providing popcorn for our guests. You are free to bring any other food and drink that you like. We will be giving away the blu-ray at the end of the show to anyone that brings a friend who has never been to our showroom before. That’s right BRING A FRIEND win a blu-ray. Please contact us via facebook. twitter (@reallifedesigns) phone or e-mail to RSVP.
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!
Please be sure to RSVP to this event.
TRAILERS
Avatar Trailer
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/
Green Zone Trailer
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/greenzone/
Edge of Darkness Trailer
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/edgeofdarkness/
Casino Royale Trailer
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/casinoroyale/
The Book of Eli Trailer
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/thebookofeli/
MORE INFO ON THE FILMS (IMDB)
Avatar
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/
Green Zone
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947810/
Edge of Darkness
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226273/
Casino Royale
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381061/
The Book of Eli
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/
What is Cinepro? We at Real Life Designs hear that all too often so we are going to formally introduce you to them and tell you about how their systems offer mind blowing experiences beyond any theater audio system that most people have ever heard.
In our opinion Cinepro is, simply put, the best home theater experience money can buy. It’s not all tube audiophile gear, it doesnt have sophisticated colored lights and glossy front panels. What it does have is they dynamic range and power to knock your socks off. To quote our owner and resident audiophile Bob Stevens, “there are simply no finer amplifiers for theater…anywhere.” The key to this performance is the amount of power that the amplifiers in the Cinepro system can put out.
The reference Cinepro Evolution System that is in our showroom packs over 8,000 watts RMS and almost 15,000 watts peak power. Two 30Amp 220V electrical lines are needed to run this amplification system. To give you an idea most small to mid size homes do not need this much amperage. This allows the headroom needed to produce dynamic explosions while not sacrificing dialog or soundtracks. The Level of detail and dynamics experienced with this system is unparalleled all because of the power. Now of course with the power comes LOUDNESS. We have tested the system with many different decibel meters and found varying results depending on source material, but we estimate that with most movies the system can safely play at 125DB, which is about as loud as a rock concert 3’ from the stage. Yep, it’s pretty loud.
With all that volume you might think that the system is annoying and harsh to your ears, but that is not the case. Custom built Cinepro speakers that are built to work with these amps provide smooth detailed sound without any coloration. They are very even keeled, almost studio monitor flat if you ask me. This provides an experience that is enjoyable and not fatiguing. With that being said the Cinepro system is kind of like a Ferrari, you don’t have to drive it 180MPH all the time to enjoy it. At about 65-70% of the systems capacity movies sound better than they do in any theater and still deliver the same dynamics and detail, minus some of the “UMPH” that you have at 90% of capacity.
Ok, so the system is detailed, dynamic, loud and accurate. But how much does it cost? If it really is better than some of these brands like McIntosh or Meridian it has to be expensive. It’s no bargain basement set up that is for sure. But it is certainly much less than any system that can do 90% of what this system can do. A system from any other brand that could boast this performance level is sure to cost twice as much. At a $100,000 price point theres nothing that comes remotely close to this system. If you want to hear and see this thing for yourself and experience what cinepro is truly about, visit our website, contact us, and come check out the showroom, or head over to our facebook page to see what events we have going on at the showroom.
CINEPRO MIGHTY SPEAKERS
COOL LINKS:
Cinepro Review in Home Theater Magazine
Synopsis:”It’s 1954, and up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He’s been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn’t been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy’s shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals “escape” in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.” (IMDB.com)
Review:When you put Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio together you are guaranteed a pretty good flick. In the beginning of the movie Scorsese does a great job of building suspense, and keeps you guessing about what is really going on. With subtle hints of plot twists and great dialog in the film Daniels(DiCaprio) is immediately a very interesting character. DiCaprio is captivating. He gives a stunning performance throughout the film and truly demonstrates a mastery of his craft beyond many of his other films. I would say that Shutter Island and Gangs of New York are easily his 2 best performances and I would have trouble deciding on which one is better. I cannot short many of the other people in the film especially Mark Ruffalo, who gave a great supporting performance.
Beyond the expectedly good directing and acting, the film is beautiful. Very well shot and composed with colors that really speak to the emotions that are being experienced. The costume design, set design and cinematography all lend themselves to the period and the idea of the movie.
The film overall was very good, however when I watch a Scorsese film I expect nothing less than greatness. The story was good not great, and it definitely was predictable and most of all a little too long. There were certain points in the film where I was bored. Overall its definitely no Taxi Driver. However Shutter Island is a very good watchable film which is easy to enjoy…A bad Scorsese film is still a great movie.
Audio and Video Quality: This movie lends itself to Blu-Ray Subtle details in the costumes and set design are enhanced in the HD format. The DTS master audio track really reveals much more detail that was apparent in the theater, it brings the dialog to life and gives the entire movie new dimension. In scenes that are suspenseful the surround sound is an experience in itself. You can literally shut your eyes and hear the surroundings. A very good blu-ray one I am personally heading out to purchase.
More Info
We recently got a chance to take a look at the Digital Projection M-vision series
LED projector. We took a look at it on multiple screens and got to really play with some of the settings and menus. The basic tech specs are as follows
Brightness: 600 Lumens
Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1
Resolution: 1920x1080 (1080p)
First Impression: All I can say is WOW! This projector immediately showed off detail that I have never seen. We tested with Avatar, The Dark Knight, and Speed Racer. The dark scenes in all three movies came to life. The contrast is unmatched by any projector that I have ever seen. The level of detail and the three dimensionality of the images is also second to none. The initial screen that we tested the projector on was an 87” Da-Lite Da-Mat with a 1.3 gain. On this size screen the projector screams perfection. The ultimate test in our showroom however is our main theater room.
Further Testing: Our main theater room has a 147” Da-Lite Da-Mat with a 1.3 Gain. The projector that we are currently holding as our gold standard for price to performance ratio is the Samsung SP-A900B. So naturally this is what we wanted to test the DP against. So we set up the DP on the big screen. With the lights in the room at less than 10% we still had trouble with the brightness of the image, at 600 ANSI lumens it just doesn’t put out enough light to fill a 147” screen. The projector still had an impressive level of detail at this size. It was just not bright enough making the blacks look washed out and making it so the colors did not pop quite as much as many other brighter projectors do. We sat and played with many of the settings trying to get the image just right on the bigger screen however after all of it it still couldn’t perform at that screen size. We adjusted the projector to throw a smaller image on the large screen, this immediately improved the image.
Conclusion: The LED technology that DP employed when designing this projector is revolutionary. It is one of the most detailed projectors I have ever seen at any price point. While I cannot divulge the price of the unit I will say it is more expensive than the Samsung which means that it needs to compete with it on every level. Unfortunately the 1000 lumens that the Samsung puts out overpower the DP. However the DP is a little bit more detailed. The light output will be an issue until the engineers come along and figure out how to get 1000+ lumens out of an LED projector that is designed for home theater use. When this happens I belive that all the other projection technologies will be fighting for second place. Until then this projector is the perfect fit for videophiles with 110” and smaller screens who demand perfection.
Cool Links
The Junior League of Greater Princeton recently held its biennial designer show house. The show house had over 30 design spaces, beautiful gardens, and a wonderful café. The house was a great way to spend a few hours. Some of the Princeton area’s most talented designers, landscapers and artists all showcase their work at the show house. We thank all those that participated and encorage you to keep up with the junior leage and Real Life Designs for future events.
Above are two photos of the room that we helped create in this years show house. Real Life Designs and Christie Associates worked together on the “Attic Entertainment Salon. Included in the room are such design elements as a 106” theater screen, surround sound, lighting control, a sectional sofa, a bar, a gaming table, hand painted artwork, metal and wood sculptures, and so much more. The room has been featured in several local newspapers most notably the Princeton Packet. We encourage you to stop in this week to see what great work has been done by the best in the business and to support the Junior League of Greater Princeton.
Links:
Video On Demand is quickly becoming the new standard for video rentals. Video On Demand also know as VOD was originally introduced by cable companies as a more flexible pay-per-view service. Now it has boomed into a huge market that has taken the traditional disc based rental services by surprise. Companies like Blockbuster did not foresee the huge shift to VOD in such a short period of time. Blu-ray peaked consumer interest in 2008 and has been on a slow steady decline while VOD is quickly gaining steam. As these services become more available VOD is sure to replace all disc based mediums sometime in the future.
Many cable companies offer VOD service to their digital cable subscribers. Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, and Apple all offer popular VOD services. These services are available through many set top boxes, Blu-ray players, and media center PCs. There are hundreds of devices to choose that can deliver these services. Netflix, Amazon, and Blockbuster use a host of devices including: standalone set-top boxes, DVRs such as TiVo gaming consoles such as PS3 and X-Box 360 and most new Blu-ray players. Each one of these services provides a large library of content.
Netflix has a large library of “Instant” movies which any current Netflix subscriber has access to. Their monthly fee covers this VOD service so that the customer does not have to pay for each rental. The only downside is that new releases are rarely available in Netflix’s instant library.
Amazon and Blockbuster allow customers to rent video on demand for a small fee, usually between three and five dollars. They also allow you to purchase movies and store them on your hard drive. The upside to paying per rental is the ability to access much more content including new releases.
Apple uses the proprietary Apple TV. Their rental system is very much the same as the Amazon and Blockbuster systems however they also allow the purchase of music, and they have one of the largest VOD content libraries. This allows them to more closely monitor the content. The upside to this method is that it allows you to link rentals or purchases to your PC so that the videos may be watched on the go via iPod. The apple tv also gives you the unique ability to link your entire iTunes library to your television allowing you to watch whatever you have on your PC. Even the digital copies of movies that are being packaged with blu rays can be viewed on Apple TV.
Consumers who have not experienced the technology first hand usually question the quality of streaming video. While most of the HD rentals the on demand services have to offer are not quite Blu-ray Quality the added convenience outweighs the slight loss in quality for most consumers. However as the infrastructure in the country grows we will have the bandwidth to accommodate full 1080P streaming video which will make Blu-ray obsolete.
So what do you do with all your discs that you already own? Media centers solve that problem effortlessly. Drop a disc in and you are done. The media center stores it on your hard drive and downloads movie data and even cover art from the internet. You can have the full quality feature film, with all menus and special features in tact stored on a drive without ever having to load a physical disc again. Crestron, VidaBox and a host of other companies have come out with high end media servers that allow for distribution of stored audio and video throughout homes with ease. These devices also have access to all of the streaming services that are mentioned above.
Blu-ray was born less than half a decade ago and already the streaming format has gained widespread acceptance as the next standard in media delivery. Streaming media is moving as quickly as it can into our homes and hearts as a convenient, high quality, low cost alternative to the disc.
COOL LINKS
Black bars have plagued everyone’s HDTV screens since the first 16:9 HDTV was introduced. If you don’t have black bars you have distorted images. There are currently 3 common formats for images on television screens. All of the aspect ratios are numerical ratios which are the ratio of the height and width. So a 16:9 aspect ratio represents a screen that is 16”wide for every 9” high.
The first television format is 4:3 which is the standard definition television format. 2.35:1 which is known as cinemascope is the most common aspect ratio for films. This varies slightly between 2.35:1 and 2.40:1 however the difference between the two is minute and because 2.35 was the original nomenclature used it has become part of the vernacular. The most common aspect ratio for HD television today is 16:9.
The standard for High Definition broadcasts was set by SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) when HD was originally proposed almost 20 years ago. The format was chosen because it fit all other screen formats inside without any modification. Meaning that 4:3(SDTV), and 2.35:1 (Cinemascope) images could fit on the screen by adding black bars without distorting the image.
All of these numbers are enough to make anyone confused. The big question is why are there so many different standards and how can you get them all to look right at home.
For those people with projectors, special anamorphic lenses, masking screens and video processors can correct the problems by simply changing the aspect ratio of the screen and the projected image. With a television there is no clear cut solution. Some players and televisions allow zoom and stretch features to fit the image to the screen however this creates distortion. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, most video experts will tell you they would much rather watch with black bars than a distorted image.
In the modern world of HD video 16:9 is currently the accepted standard. However many films are still shot in the wider screen 2.35:1. IMAX cameras are changing this. IMAX cameras shoot in 1.43:1 which is much closer to the 16:9 aspect ratio so many of the IMAX films can be easily reformatted to fill the entire screen with a 16:9 image. This means that films are slowly shifting towards 16:9. The Dark Knight’s IMAX scenes were in the 16:9 aspect ratio and all of AVATAR was in this format. This signals the beginning of a new era where standardization is taking over and more filmmakers are switching to this aspect ratio.
So what does this mean? Well no one can say for sure. There are many people speculating on both sides of the spectrum. I for one believe that eventually everything will move to the 16:9 aspect ratio to accommodate the millions of HDTVs and projectors that are currently on the market.
MORE INFO
Wikipedia Page on Aspect Ratios
The Ultimate Guide to Anamorphic Widescreen for Everyone
Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. 2012 is visually and aurally stunning. 2012 was a very typical disaster movie the plot was simple, the action scenes were amazing. However they took two and a half hours to tell a story that could have been told in half that time. Some cheesy dialogue and of course one big noble speech is the status quo for disaster movies. 2012 overdid both and drug the movie out. I also did not become attached to the characters. They were all very bland characters with no charisma. Overall the movie failed to deliver true entertainment value it was hard to pay attention to and I spent most of my time watching it bored and uninterested in what was going on. 2012 a drawn out adventure of boredom and bad dialogue. 1 out of 5 stars
