Avi Greengart – Page 7

RIP Snell, Escient

July 14, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Not sure where I was when this crossed the wire back in April, but I was saddened – but not surprised – to learn that D&M Holdings shut down both Snell and Escient.

Snell was a high end speaker brand without enough brand recognition. Selling $30,000 speakers in a recession is extremely hard. Selling $30,000 speakers from a brand that only involved enthusiasts have heard of is basically impossible, no matter how terrific they measure and sound (Snell was famous for rigorously achieving ridiculously flat frequency measurements).

I suspect that the recession did in Escient, which made well regarded music servers, as well. Sure, some of Escient's functionality made its way into Windows and iTunes over the years, but the general collapse of the custom installation business was the bigger culprit. That and the rise of Sonos, which is dead simple for regular consumers to install, and considerably less expensive than any custom solution.

Audio / Industry / Television

New Onkyo Receivers Come with HDMI 1.4 and Buyer’s Remorse

June 3, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - 6 Comments.

The problem with 3DTV – aside from the glasses and the nausea and the total lack of content – is that you need to buy an entirely new equipment chain. It is not enough to replace your TV with a 3D capable set, you will also need a 3D-capable Blu-ray player, and – much to the delight of Monster Cable – you may actually need to upgrade your HDMI cables to handle the increased signal bandwidth. The typical HDMI connection in most devices today is 1.3b, but you'll need to upgrade to HDMI 1.4a for 3D.

This has implications for audio as well. If you want to get the best audio out of your 3D content, you'll need an A/V receiver (or processor and separate amplifier) to process the compressed digital signal, amplify it, and pass it along to your speakers. If your receiver – like nearly all on the market today – does not have HDMI 1.4a inputs, you will need to run a second digital audio cable from your Blu-ray player to the receiver – assuming that your Blu-ray player can simultaneously output video over HDMI and audio over coaxial or Toslink outputs. It probably can. Probably.

There are also an increasing number of 2D devices that connect to your television via HDMI, and most TVs and receivers have a paucity of HDMI inputs of any kind. I have 15 devices with HDMI outputs, including game consoles, digital set top boxes, digital camcorders and several smartphones.

With that background it is entirely unsurprising that electronics manufacturers are rushing to update their lines with new A/V receivers that have multiple HDMI 1.4a inputs. For example, Onkyo just announced three new receivers with 7 HDMI 1.4a inputs a piece, including the 9.2 channel TX-NR1008. Of course, this comes literally three days after I bought Onkyo's current generation receiver with 7 HDMI 1.3 inputs, the TX-NR3007 (pictured). Now, I knew that updated versions were bound to be introduced shortly, and, having sent back all my review units, I needed a new receiver now, not in June …but I still feel a twinge of regret.

Note: the TX-NR1008 is technically a replacement for the TX-NR1007, not the NR3007 which I purchased. I'm sure the TX-NR3008 will be along shortly, along with a new TX-NR5008 flagship, which is bound to have 8 HDMI 1.4a inputs.

Uncategorized

Front Projector Sales Up! (Or down. Depends on your point of view.)

May 25, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

CEPro reports that Quixel Research says home-theater front projector sales rebounded in the first
quarter compared to a year earlier, with
a 51% increase in unit sales and 17% increase in revenue. Woo hoo! Then again, sales are down consecutively from last quarter (the overall market
value was $72 million at the end of the first quarter, down from $97 million
in Q4 2009). Q1 sales declines are normal – most people buy projectors for Christmas, not the Super Bowl. Nice to see that the high end of the market is recovering overall.

Audio / Music / PC Convergence

Sonos Goes Stereo

May 18, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Just a quick note today: Sonos just started shipping a new software update that adds some new Internet radio options, crossfading between songs, some new language support, new alarm settings, and the ability to use two S5's as a stereo pair. None of the features is critical on its own (though the S5 stereo feature is quite cool; when everything is digital, you can do all sorts of neat things) but Sonos already built the best multi-room component system. I sent back my Sonos review system so I can't test this personally. Sigh.

With the Sonos gone, we've been using Logitech's Squeezebox Boom (OK; needs a better remote, the UI is just "OK," and the Sonos is better for multi-room use). The Squeezebox Touch just showed up, and I'll put that to the test once I get some speakers for it.

Industry

The New HT Sales Environment

March 2, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

HomeTheaterReview – not HomeTheaterVIEW, which is what you're reading right now – has an interesting take on how the home theater sales environment has changed since the recession, and how to cope. It's partly a pitch for online advertising, partly a manifesto. Oddly enough, I agree with the advertising part, but he's missing a few pieces in the manifesto:

Are boutique bricks-and-mortar A/V stores relevant in an amazon.com age? (Short answer: only if they're truly boutiques.)
Is seated home audio relevant in an iPod/dock age? (While there are exceptions — witness the rebirth of vinyl — generally speaking the answer here is, "not for anyone younger than 35.")
Are editorial-driven magazines (in print or online) relevant in an age of semi-pro blogs and forums? (If my friends writing for these publications are any indication, probably not.)

Uncategorized

Mailbag: Is it Time to Upgrade to a “Blu-ray capable” Receiver?

February 11, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - 3 Comments.

Here's one from the mailbag:

I’m thinking about upgrading my receiver. Currently I have a Denon AVR-987. It’s 3- 4 years old and does not have the current technology for blu ray. I’m thinking of going with a Sony STR-DA2400ES receiver. I have a 52” Sony XBR and a Sony BDP S-300 blu ray player. My speakers are Soundworks MC300 front/Soundworks original surrounds and JBL Northridge for the center. Any advice would be appreciated.

It really depends on why you think you need the upgrade, but I
wouldn’t do it.

You’d be surprised, but your current receiver can handle Blu-ray
just fine – rather than upgrade your receiver to a model that can decode Dolby
TrueHD, you just have the Blu-ray player do the decoding and send the bitstream
(PCM) on over to your receiver – it will sound the same whether the player does
the decoding or the receiver. In fact, depending on which Blu-ray player you
have, it may work that way by default. For example, Sony’s Playstation 3 can’t
send unencoded TrueHD to a receiver, you have to go the PCM route (the newer
Playstation 3 Slim can pass an unencoded signal, but, again, there should be no
difference in the sound). In your specific case, the BDP-S300 can decode Dolby TrueHD, but only if you download a firmware update. You should be regularly updating your firmware anyway to ensure that newer discs play on it without incident.

So, is it worth upgrading your receiver? Your Denon has more power than the newer Sony, it has basic room
correction by Audyssey, and it has plenty of inputs/outputs as long as you
don’t need a lot of HDMI switching or video upscaling. While the Sony has all
the latest audio decoders, it doesn’t have the most HDMI inputs, the best video
upscaling, or the best room correction, so I’m not sure it’s enough of an
upgrade even if those were your priorities.

Your biggest bang-for-buck audio upgrade would be to keep the Denon
and upgrade your speakers. At the very least I’d get matching front speakers
(either get another MC300 for the center or get another pair of JBL’s for front
left/right) and a sub.

Uncategorized

Off to Apple’s Special Event

January 26, 2010 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I'm off to Apple's Special Event tomorrow. Journalists who want to contact me
for comments afterwards can call me at 201 658 7729 or email me at agreengart @
currentanalysis com.

Once Apple madness is behind us, more HTV posts are coming, including a post-CES wrap-up, VUDU review, and an end to my quest for an A/V receiver with enough HDMI inputs to serve as a test center.

Audio

Strange New Home Theater System from Yamaha

December 23, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

Yamaha just announced the YHT-S400, a two piece home theater in a box. The soundbar is par for the course, giving people pseudo surround sound from just a single enclosure you can mount below your flat panel TV. Soundbars are incredibly popular right now, as they match the design of today's televisions (which also don't intrude on the living space) and don't require stringing wires all over the place. The YHT-S400's receiver is unique, in that it has a built-in subwoofer. Oddly enough, it reminds me of the mid-1980's PC, the Coleco Adam, which combined a daisy wheel printer with the PC's power supply – two things that definitely did not ordinarily go together. The reason my mind jumps way back (and yes, I know I'm dating myself) to the Adam is because strange combination designs not only limit upgrade flexibility, it means that if there is a problem with one component, your whole system is shot. Anyone buying the YHT-S400 needs to be aware that a problem with the sub means a problem with the whole system, and that they will not be able to upgrade any part of the system in the future.

Assuming that the sound quality is good – I have not heard a unit – the price seems reasonable ($599). Yamaha is probably thinking that this design will help space-challenged apartment dwellers, but there is another market segment worth exploring: parents of small children who don't want their kids stuffing Matchbox cars into a floor-level subwoofer port. I pulled 22 cars out of one of my subs in the playroom – the subs in my home theater all have floor-facing ports. On purpose.

DVD

Cheap Blu-ray Upgrades from Warner

November 18, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Well, this is nice: some of us have felt like suckers, buying the same titles over and over as formats have shifted from VHS to letterbox VHS to laserdisc to DVD to special edition DVD to Blu-ray (and I probably missed a few format changes in there). If you've got a bunch of Warner DVDs and feel compelled to upgrade them to Blu-ray, check out this Warner Brothers site: http://www.dvd2blu.com/. You'll have to physically mail in your DVDs, and shipping charges apply if you have less than four to upgrade, but if you have four or more from the list of 55 titles, it should be about $8 per disc. Not free, but not bad, and a nice gesture to loyal customers.

Displays / HDTV / Industry / Television

Lessons From Panasonic’s Plasma Day

November 12, 2009 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, I, along with a handful of tech journalists, was invited to attend a briefing by Panasonic in New York to show off their latest line of plasma televisions. The emphasis was on the technical capabilities of Panasonic's plasma technology relative to the latest LCD with LED backlighting. Some things I learned:

Never have a Japanese engineer who doesn't speak fluent English give a marketing presentation to journalists. Yes, there was a lot of technical detail included, but the fundamental reason Panasonic was doing the briefing was to spin the technical detail, otherwise they would have just provided a white paper. While the presentation itself was pretty good, it was agonizingly slow going in parts, and key points just weren't made well.
Plasma's burn-in issues are a thing of the past. Non-issue with current sets. Now, the legal guys haven't gotten the message, so you still see a warning in the manual not to allow static images to linger on the screen, but some of the sets are deliberately marketed as better for gaming (which they are). The manuals need to be updated and this issue needs to be taken off the table.
Plasma is actually brighter than LCD over smaller areas. This is irrelevant overall – the sample images on the LCD during most of the presentation jumped out at you in a way that plasma does not. Ergo, consumers prefer LCD at retail. (It's more balanced on calibrated sets in a home environment, but on bright images, LCD is superior, and on dark images, plasma rules.)
Plasma has markedly better color than LCD, especially off-angle. Sadly, this is basically impossible to see in retail environments with uncalibrated televisions.
Maximum energy usage on a plasma is still high if you display white fields all day long, but Plasma and LCD are pretty close in terms of energy consumption on real-world program material. LCD is still better (and has a much better number on the energy use sticker), but it's not a reason to disqualify plasma any more.
Plasma is much, much better for resolving high definition when there is motion in the image. This is a key fact that Panasonic should be marketing hard, especially since the LCD competition charges more for sets that try to compensate by speeding up refresh cycles, and they are still noticeably worse on test patterns and real world content.
How a TV is set up at retail is critical: the LCD set they had on hand for comparison showed more stars in a starfield, and none of us cared that the gamma of that set may have been off – there were far more stars visible on that TV than on the plasmas. And we actually know what gamma is – the average consumer never touches picture controls when they get their TV home.

All in all, I came away with a better understanding of why I still prefer plasma over LCD for most uses, and why most consumers are buying LCD anyway – and are unlikely to change any time soon.