Search results

C, I still think you should buy a DVD Audio disc or two, just to hear what you're missing. :)

Home Theater in a Box setups are usually pretty anemic. If you're LUCKY they rely on the bass module to deliver decent sound. Which, come to think of it, is just like computer speakers. I use a set of Acoustic Research AR-HC5s for the audio rig in my office. The center isn't as good as I'd...

$109 MSRP. So probably $80 or so.

A DVD full of 128k MP3 files will hold about 70 hours of music, Stereodude. That would be one logical reason to be interested.

Oh, and on the experience of hearing your favorite music out of better equipment than you've heard before: Fully expect to hear things you've never noticed. Picks sliding across guitar strings. Tapping feet. Soft sighs of breath. More cowbell. That stuff was there all along. If you're really...

I concur on the subject of headphones. Being an adult and having my own living space means being able to listen comfortably. But, on to more constructive comments: You are making a mistake by ignoring surrounds. The addition of discrete surrounds from stereo sources is one of the prime...

Sounds like a pretty nice setup, really.

Who's the joker who gave this a one-star rating?

You might try buying a more modest receiver, something in the realm of $300 - $500. Something like an Onkyo TXSR674, maybe (just as a suggestion; I've never heard one, but it has an appealing feature set). Your Klipsch speakers are REAL speakers IIRC, they have real speaker terminals to be...

Try a different DNS server. 4.2.2.2 is a pretty easy one to remember. Another likely possibility is that two top-tier telcos have stopped talking to one another for whatever reason. It's happened before, and can result in a similar set of conditions.

I'm certain that GaryH is the guy who knows more about the actual electronics than anyone here. Also, down the path to better sound lies utter madness. I'm serious. Stereophiles are as bad as drug addicts. One of my brothers has $12,000-apiece mono amplifiers driving single speakers worth...

Just to be more clear (it's 2:00AM!), the difference between DVD-Audio and CD is pretty substantial... if you're in an environment where the noise level is fairly low. Driving around in most cars is not going to give you that experience. For anyone else who is curious, PowerDVD 6 and WinDVD can...

There are programs that can create proper DVD Audio discs, and there are car stereos that support DVD Audio, but that's not the same thing as being able to play a DVD full of CD-spec audio. Frankly, unless I was in an electric car or one that was wall to wall dynamat, I probably wouldn't be...

The difference is that they're using a different audio chip that supports DDL/DTSI, and there's an onboard digital input. I was desperate enough to try getting the Hoontech digital I/O daughterboards that will work with the X-plosion that I tried buying them from a computer store in Sweden...

Generally, Hugh Hefner maintains around six "girlfriends" at a time. They are essentially paid for their status with magazine and newsstand-special (e.g. Playboy's Voluptuous Vixens) appearances and with the added media exposure of being seen in public with Hef. There's an annual turnover of...

I'd perfectly happy to swap six piddly little 250GB drives for a 1TB unit. I'm having to hold off on consolidating my PCs at this point because the drives that I own are simply not dense enough. I'm having to keep extra drives powered on, generating heat that I have to get rid of, blocking...

The Marvell LAN chip on that board should be fine under Linux. I can't say I've tried that specific board, but Marvell's chips have been supported very well. Linux doesn't really have "drivers" for LAN hardware so much as loaded kernel modules that are precompiled by the distro's management. I...

1. I was right, even down the the correct number of women. 2. Hefner only has one F. 3. Die in a Fire, Captain Sailboat. :P

My profit... I mean video cards came today. Are there quantitative tests for suckiness that I can do, or should I just estimate the suck from the weird green design on the translucent neon-green fan?

I got my first batch of Antec NSK4400s today. I was shocked and delighted to discover that beneath the classic black and silver exterior is the exact same chassis as my beloved Compucase 6812. I haven't seen a new one in over two years. With the Antec name on it, it was ~$12 more than I was...

DD probably started his day with a menage a' trois, moved on to Dom Perignon on his sailboat and right about now he's probably enjoy a Kush fattie. And having another menage a' trois.

WD is a four letter word. Buffalo Terastations are essentially painless to set up. I installed one to use as a network backup device, once. You could also look at the extremely flexible Linksys NSLU2. My biggest complaint with SOHO NAS devices: Out of the ones I've used to date, they ALL seem...

Vista Prices? Nonsense!

1. That's basically it, man. Decent CPU utilization and SNR. It's not going to be perfect if you're using an analogue connection like a headphone jack and an internal sound device, but you're obviously not an audio snob so I doubt you're going to care very much. :) 2. There are USB-based...

You guys are going to make me feel extra-guilty about my lab full of X2/4800s with X1900XTXs, aren't you?

I can't stand wearing headphones myself. The earbud type aren't noted for sound quality and closed-ear 'phones are REALLY uncomfortable with my glasses. Plus I hate to think what headphones might do to my hearing - I'm still able to hear a 19.5kHz test frequency at age 30, and I'd prefer to keep...

Hm. $120 + shipping for the set? Would that work?

I got one of the cheap ones. HDA-X1 or something like that. It was like $430. I bought it just so I could watch Serenity in all its glory. I've been through all the HDMI troubleshooting I can do. I'm under the impression that my TV (61" Samsung) just didn't get finalized HDCP support. My...

If you have a DVI-capable monitor, why not just use the VGA cable for the secondary PC and use the input select on the display? If both the PCs are fairly close, you can just set a second keyboard and mouse on top of the PC when you aren't using 'em. :)

Most new motherboards and cases support front-mounted audio ports. That's not the province of Creative Labs any more. Many new motherboards support onboard sound hardware that would've been on premium add-in cards a couple years ago. Midrange and better Intel Branded motherboards do Dolby...

Allpeers seems like a good and happy thing, from what I've read. I'll take an invite if you've still got 'em.

Oh look, the press has finally caught on to the fact that home firewalls suck.

Don't know if anyone cares, but the folks who make the 3D Rendering Program Bryce have put up a free version on download.com. I had a ancient, pirated copy for a while. I thought it was a lot of fun to play with. Linky.

I rather strongly suspect Cyberlink will tell you it's a problem with your hardware. On the other hand, Cyberlink's tech support has been very helpful the couple times I e-mailed them. Six channel surround doesn't seem to be implemented very well on a lot of hardware. The jacks for Surround...

You're also making the assumption that there won't be some kind of change in energy prices over the life of the systems. I'd guess that there will be, and that change will favor the most energy efficient chips. On the other hand, I saw a real reduction in my power bill when I switched en masse...

6 USB cards * 4 USB ports each = Yummy Meat Burnination. In Japanese. Normally I think of Japanese culture as some kind of weirdly diseased tentacle-fetishizing, anime-loving, raw fish eating waste of humanity, but one must respect the Tech Fu of a culture that produces a USB electric grill. I...

I was on at around 3:00AM as well. :P

Yes, but only certified OEMs can have cards that properly support those DRM features. HDMI is essentially just DVI + Digital Sound otherwise. HDMI compatibility is BAD regardless. Completely borked. I have a small number of HDMI equipped devices (TV, a projector, an HD-DVD player) and none of...

I'm given to understand that Firefox is closer to full Acid2 compatibility than IE6 is or IE7 will be. If "standards compliance" were fully a selling point for a browser, IE wouldn't still have 80something percent of the browser market, would it? I'd rather have a fully standards-compliant...

If it makes you feel any better, I was tempted to buy some just because I know I can resell them for $50 more than I paid. I still might do it; I know some gamers who would be very happy to get an upgrade.

I'm pretty sure it's S*ny.

woot has $140 Nvidia 7900GS video cards right now, which looks like about $100 off what anything else with that chip would cost.

That is what I'm looking for. I'd like to get at least six such modules, and at this point I've given away all that I have.

Lots

Anyone have spare 168pin SDRAM laying around? I'd like to find rather more than I have. I'll buy 128MB and 256MB modules.

I would be strongly inclined to stick with the platform that lets me re-use the RAM I have already. I don't think there's much gain to be had in DDR2. Particularly when the "good stuff" isn't affordable to begin with. IMO 939 has a lot of life left in it.

I've found the top (blowhole) fan needs frequent cleaning on the P180 to keep it from making noise. The door might be a positive or negative for people as well. I actually had to replace someone's case because they didn't like the door. Which was OK. I put them in a $60 solution series and...

14 Computers. Zero network. The fastest PC is an HP Vomit Box, a Celeron 2.8GHz with 256MB RAM. The second-fastest is a Compaq P4/1300 with 128MB. I have thrown away better PCs than the second best system they have. There are six PCs of Pentium-class, four of them P54Cs (non-MMX)...

Four or five years ago, I would've eaten a busload of nuns for a combination SACD/DVD-Audio player for $150. What the hell are you complaining about?

Nothing about Firefox/Phoenix/Firebird could've messed anything more serious than your default browser setting, Lunar. Everything Firefox does goes in its own keys in the registry and always has. Firefoxes are real creatures. They are also called Red Pandas. The logo is a Firefox chasing its...