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Posts Tagged ‘audio’

One of these things is not like the other

Media streamers like the Western Digital WD TV Live and Netgear NeoTV make just a little less sense than they did a couple of years ago. In those days, they were the perfect alternative to stuffing a home theater PC into your entertainment center. These days, you can get nearly all the same functionality from a new Blu-ray player or a Smart TV.

On the other hand, the latest incarnations of these two products cost less than a new Blu-ray player, and they’re several orders of magnitude cheaper than a new … [Read More...]

It’s been a long road for the Cosmos II, but it’s finally here. The long-awaited successor to Cooler Master’s blockbuster Cosmos was supposed to ship in September—around the same time as our 2011 Dream Machine, which used a prototype version of the Cosmos II as its chassis. Well, after some trips back to the drawing board, the Cosmos II is finally ready for prime time. It’s real. And it’s spectacular.

The Cosmos II, which Cooler Master bills as an “Ultra Tower,” is 20 percent larger than the original Cosmos—it’s more than 27 inches tall, 26 deep, and 13.5 inches at … [Read More...]

Whether you just built or bought a new PC, it pays to optimize your setup from the start

Nothing holds more promise than a brand-new PC. The hardware is fresh and full of potential, the OS is clean and clutter-free, and you have nothing but pure, unadulterated storage space awaiting your precious data. It’s an exciting time, indeed. But before you start dumping old files onto your new rig willy-nilly, and downloading every shiny bauble of an app that catches your eye, take some time to consider a more measured approach to moving in. After all, you only have this … [Read More...]

A barely there home-theater PC

PCs make great Blu-ray players, but Acer’s Revo RL100-UR20P is the first Blu-ray-equipped PC we’ve seen that’s thinner and smaller than most purpose-built Blu-ray players. If it played high-definition audio discs such as SACD and DVD-Audio, it would be one of the most powerful Blu-ray players on the market, but this machine isn’t that ambitious.

It is, on the other hand, considerably less expensive than very high-end Blu-ray players that are capable of playing those high-definition audio formats. The Oppo BDP-95, for example, sells for $999 and is almost never discounted.

Acer’s Revo RL100-UR20P is … [Read More...]

Belkin’s N750 DB offers a better-than-average feature set, but the router’s performance is a mixed bag. At most of our test stations, it delivered very good performance from its 5GHz radio but mediocre throughput from its 2.4GHz radio. Belkin arrives at the N750 model number by adding the 300Mb/s theoretical throughput on its 2.4GHz radio to the 450Mb/s theoretical throughput of its 5GHz radio. This is nonsense, of course, because you can’t bond the two together to achieve throughput that even approaches 750Mb/s.

The features include dual USB 2.0 ports to enable network sharing of both a printer and attached … [Read More...]

Get Gaming on an HTPC

I don’t want to watch cable TV. I don’t want to use a controller. I just want to watch 3D Blu-rays and frag people with a mouse and keyboard, all on a box that fits on my entertainment center. Is that too much to ask?

We’ve built our fair share of home theater PCs in the past, with all sorts of different use cases in mind. Our August 2010 HTPC was a stunner built for 3D, with passively cooled GPU, CPU, and PSU, as well as a four-channel CableCard tuner and Blu-ray 3D support. In … [Read More...]

Creative hedges its bets

Is Creative buying into the notion of the post-PC world? The Sound Blaster Recon3D is a powerful USB audio device based on Creative’s all-new Sound Core3D chip. But you can also connect the Recon3D to an Xbox 360, PS3, or even an Intel-based Mac. Creative tells us the Sound Core3D doesn’t boast the naked power of the company’s previous-generation audio processor, but that it is extremely efficient—it draws all the power it needs from a single USB port.

The Recon3D has an optical S/PDIF input, a 1/8-inch audio output to drive a pair of speakers or … [Read More...]

Amazon has made small tweaks to its Kindle e-book format over the years, but now the retailer has surprised the industry again by announcing a new HTML5 version of the Kindle format called Format 8. This approach leverages a toolset that already has wide support and allows a richer experience — perfect for magazines and comics.

The new HTML5 Kindle format will essentially make books into webpages, with robust handling of images, fonts, and other adaptable content. Amazon has a full list of supported HTML tags, but video and audio tags are not among them, for now at least. So … [Read More...]

In a world where most of us have turned to expressing ourselves in snippets through the use of services like Twitter, Facebook and Google+, there’s still a place in this world for websites. After all, 140 characters might get be enough to push out a message concerning how much you drank last night and where you think you left your pants, but unless you’re a MAG Poetry Prize winner, you might have some difficulty at expressing the emotions you felt in seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time on your summer vacation. It goes without saying that for businesses, … [Read More...]

Samsung is taking its surveillance game to the next level by introducing a new series of Full HD analog video products. Included in the new lineup is the HD-SDI 1920×1080 box camera, HD-SDI 1920×1080 dome camera, and a four-channel HD-SDI digital video recorder (DVR). Samsung’s HD-SDI technology makes it possible to transmit uncompressed and non-packetized digital video signals with no loss of image data and zero latency, the company said.

The obvious benefit here is improved image quality, which is more than five times better than conventional analog technology, Samsung says. But it also offers a “more cost-effective and easier … [Read More...]

Last week in New York, ASUS unveiled the ZENBOOK ultra-portable PC. The ZENBOOK represents collaboration between ASUS and Intel on a category of stylish and thin PCs called Ultrabooks introduced by Intel.

The ASUS ZENBOOK features a super-thin design at a thickness of only 0.11” at the front and 0.67” at the back. The top-side of the ZENBOOK has a silver panel with a “concentric” circle design (see below shot) that is designed to refract a halo of light.

The ZENBOOK also packs quite the performance. It comes packing a 2^nd generation Intel Core processor, a SATA 3 SSD … [Read More...]

We don’t bring products into the Lab just to beat them up, so we almost didn’t bite when Genius pitched these speakers. We also try not to prejudge products, but we didn’t have high expectations for this 2.1-channel speaker system: It looks cheesier than a wedge of Vermont cheddar and sells online for less than 50 bucks. We were fully prepared for a craptastic audio experience. Wow, were we ever off base.

Corsair needn’t worry that Genius will bump its exceptionally good SP2500 speakers off our Best of the Best list—the SW-G2.1 1250 isn’t that good—but it is better than … [Read More...]

Biostar has been trying to reinvent itself as an enthusiast brand, a hard sell considering most seasoned vets have a hard time shaking the notion that Biostar’s focus is squarely on the budget buyer. The truth of the matter is Biostar holds several overclocking records under its belt, and it’s because of high end boards like the new TA990FXE.

In case there was any doubt, Biostar comes out and says it’s targeting “the most demanding overclockers and gamers” with its new board. The appropriately named TA990FXE is based on AMD’s 990FX chipset. It supports all socket AM3+ processors, including AMD’s … [Read More...]

A good wireless speaker tied to an okay networked audio ecosystem 

iHome manufactures dozens of Apple-oriented audio devices, ranging from headphones to speaker docks. The AirPlay-capable iW1 wireless speaker is by far the company’s most advanced product, but its $300 price tag pits it against some tough competition, including the Sonos Play:3. 

Most people will stream music to the iW1 over their Wi-Fi network using Apple’s AirPlay technology, or by docking an iOS device using the provided USB cable. But you can connect any audio source to the speaker using a 1/8-inch cable. AirPlay is a very good media-streaming solution—as … [Read More...]

Lian Li doesn’t really have a reputation for catering to the LAN party crowd, and perhaps that’s something the case maker would like to change. Announced today is the PC-TU200 mini-tower PC chassis, a compact and portable enclosure with a handle on top for easy transport and an all-aluminum body that weighs less than 7 pounds.

It’s available in black or silver and sports a “nuclear football” design. There’s a single 140mm fan in front to suck cool air into the chassis and distribute said airflow throughout the case. That doesn’t seem like much, but combined with the aluminum construction … [Read More...]

Sony’s new Alpha NEX-5N takes great-looking stills and vibrant 1080p/60fps video, but many users have reported the audio is driving them bonkers. It seems that when the camera is moved, even slightly, it produces a clicking sound. A minor annoyance when taking stills, but it makes the audio track in videos pretty much useless.

Engadget tracked the problem down to the camera body itself. So this has nothing to do with the lens or anything external. There just appears to be something not quite tamped down inside the device. According to reports, this happens in all NEX-5N units. Sony has … [Read More...]