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Australia's complete digital lifestyle companion
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HIGH-DEFVIDEOThe options
explained, plus our top 10
A U S T R A L I A ’ S C O M P L E T E D I G I T A L L I F E S T Y L E C O M P A N I O N
THE 2009TV BUYING CHECKLIST
PORTABLE PLAYERS FOR PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
PORTABLE PLAYERS FOR PEOPLE ON THE MOVEPORTABLE PLAYERS FOR PEOPLE ON THE MOVEPORTABLE PLAYERS FOR PEOPLE ON THE MOVEPORTABLE PLAYERS FOR PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
ISSUE 23 $7.95
DISCOVER DIGITAL RADIO
TV BUYING
12EXCLUSIVE REVIEWS THE RADIOS THAT RATE
MORE STATIONS, BETTER SOUND, AND IT’S FREE
TESTED THIS MONTH• DEFINITIVE TECHNOLOGY
MYTHOS SPEAKERS• KOGAN KGNBRVA
• YAMAHA RX-Z7• SHARP BD-HP50X• SENNHEISER HD 800
• EPSON EH-TW5000
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FAST FOREWORD
All care is taken in the compiling of this magazine,the editors and proprietors assume no responsibility for the effects arising therein.Correspondence,manuscripts and photographs are welcome,and books, equipment and materials may be submitted for review.Although care is taken,the editors and publisher will not accept responsibility for loss or damage to material submitted.The magazine is not aligned with any company or group within the Australian electronics industry.Its editorial policy is completely independent.Views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. All rights reserved and reproduction without permission is strictly forbidden. Price on cover is recommended retail price only. ISSN 1327-0338 Copyright 2009
Managing Director Valens Quinn [email protected] Peter Blasina [email protected] Director Anika Hillery [email protected] Director Bill Chan [email protected] Director Daniel Russell [email protected] Manager Nathan Yerbury [email protected] Tony Read [email protected] Contributors Anthony Fordham, Nic Tatham, Thomas Bartlett, Max Everingham, Nathan Taylor, Colin HintonPrinting The Quality GroupDistributed by Gordon & Gotch www.gordongotch.com.au
The Tangled WebDIGITAL RADIO TEST BROADCASTS BEGAN IN 2003, AND SIX YEARS LATER THIS May, Australians living in metropolitan areas will be able to tune in to the country’s fi rst full-time digital radio transmissions. These will be provided by the commercial networks, with the national broadcasters to come onboard in August. Regional Australia, again, gets a bad deal, with no time line yet for switch-on.
The slow birth of digital radio will be ameliorated by the higher quality audio and greater programming choice it promises, the population coverage it will provide, and the ready availability and affordability of hardware with which to receive it. These elements haven’t come together for a digital radio switch-on in any other market in the world, and the joint effort of broadcasters, retailers and hardware suppliers will give the technology a kick along it hasn’t enjoyed in international markets. It will certainly give the technology a better leg up than digital TV ever had – it’s still gaining traction eight years after switch-on.
As with all new technology, content is key, and without compelling, unique programming there will be little to coax consumers across. The commercial networks are keeping their plans close to their chest in the lead-up to launch, but it’s what the ABC and SBS will offer that interests us most. With rich mines of website content already complementing their current broadcast programming, the national broadcasts can really create some excitement when they come online later in the year. We’ll keep you up to date with programming developments from all the broadcasters in Home Entertainment and on the GadgetGuy.com.au website over the coming months.
INTERNET RADIO, OF COURSE, CAN DELIVER EQUIVALENT SOUND QUALITY TO DIGITAL RADIO, AS WELL AS PROVIDE MUCH GREATER VARIETY OF programming. Unlike terrestrial radio broadcasting, internet radio allows you to listen to your favourite stations from wherever you can get online, be it Mumbai, London or Belize City. Internet radio devices have become easier to use in the last couple of years too, and in fi ve years or so, just about every electronics device – TV, mobile phone, Blu-ray player, fridge – will be able to connect with the internet and, potentially, perform as an internet radio.
As a challenger to digital radio, then, it has legs, but the convenience of digital radio devices will see them as the preferred option for many, especially when it comes to incar use. Mobile internet is very much an imperfect technology – especially when the receiving device is hurtling along rather than sitting still – and offered by a limited number of telcos that don’t provide an all-you-can-eat data plan. Until the streaming of radio stations (and other data) to your car, mobile phone or every room of the house
becomes a known monthly cost, internet radio will be prohibitively expensive compared to free-to-air digital radio.
THE INTERNET IS POSING AN INTERESTING CHALLENGE TO TRADITIONAL TELEVISION BROADCASTERS TOO, with the 2009 range of products from the big name manufacturers sporting some facility for directly accessing the content riches of the web.
Forthcoming Blu-ray players and televisions from Panasonic and LG will connect via cable to the Net to bring YouTube straight to your TV, with navigation provided from the remote control. Panasonic’s Viera Cast products add access to Google’s Picasa web gallery, allowing you to view photos on the big screen, and there are plans to further expand its web offerings in this area. In the US and Europe, for example, Viera Cast allows on-demand movie downloads from Amazon, and video streams from Eurosport and Bloomberg.
This trend is mirrored by Samsung, some of whose forthcoming range of web-connected tellies come preloaded with widgets that provide access to popular Yahoo sites such as Twitter and Flickr. More widgets are being made available for download via Yahoo’s Widget Gallery, which is a bit like Apple’s App store, and these are able to be accessed free by any device supporting the Yahoo Widget Engine, not just Samsung TVs.
While a virtual keyboard makes for slow and clunky navigation around the site once its up on the big screen, the Yahoo widget system wins points for working simultaneously with the TV’s programming. This means you don’t have to turn off the live broadcast to check the weather, browse Facebook or catch some video on breaking news.
More and more, our notebooks and 3G phones are sharing couch space in the living room with the universal learning remote. Televisions with new networking smarts are an acknowledgment that we are multi-tasking when we should be vegging out in front of the idiot box. And as the IQ of the humble TV continues to rise, it might be time for that kind of inappropriate name-calling to disappear.
Cheers
4
convenience of digital radio devices will see them as the preferred
the receiving device is hurtling along rather than sitting still – and
other data) to your car, mobile phone or every room of the house
Cheers
Australian Home Entertainment is published quarterly by The Gadget Group Pty Ltd, 120 Cathedral Street,Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, Australia 2011. Australian Home Entertainment is available for licensing overseas. For further information, please contact The Gadget Group on +61 2 9356 7400 or email [email protected]
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6
CONTENTS APRIL /MAY 2009
FEATURESModel Must-haves 22The current must-haves for your TV shopping checklist, plus emerging technologies and Max Everingham’s wish list for the tellies of tomorrow.
Radio Daze 30In May 2009, radio is going to sound better and offer great-er programming choice. Anthony Fordham outlines why the airwaves are going digital, and the benefi ts to you.
REGULARSRandom Play 8Home entertainment news and product highlights.
You Wish 36Bang & Olufsen delivers a new music system based on ‘More of the Same’, but it’s like nothing they’ve done before.
In Motion 84A round-up of portable players, with speakers and head-phones for entertainment on the move.
Ultimate AV 90The world’s biggest LED screens fi nd a home in Australia.
Gear Log 92A showcase of standout electronica.
Ear & Eyes & Thumbs 94Watch, listen, play. Max Everingham’s roundup of the best movies, music and games.
Time Warp 96A retrospective of milestone entertainment products and technologies. This issue: Atari 2600 games console
WantHome
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22 3084 39
A U S T R A L I A ’ S C O M P L E T E D I G I T A L L I F E S T Y L E C O M P A N I O N
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News from world’s
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7
LEXUS L600hLLEXUS L600LEXUS L600
COLUMNSGuy Talk 18Channel Seven’s GadgetGuy, Peter Blasina, reports today’s technology trends.
Tech Corner 20 LED backlighting has seen LCD catch plasma in the contrast stakes; Anthony Fordham explains how it works.
HOW TO BUYHD Video Players 39With the number and type of high defi nition video players increasing, Thomas Bartlett examines what each does, and how to get the best value and performance from your choice.
Digital Radios 46A month before the offi cial launch of digital radio, Nathan Taylor presents digital radios – from basic portables to high-end internet radio stations, and everything in between.
67Refl ex Action: Buying a Digital SLR CameraYou can’t beat the sheer picture-making talent of a digital-SLR, and with HDMI connections and high-def video shooting features, they’re ready-made for use with HD entertainment setups
VISIT US AT
Reviews, articles and news from Home Entertainment
magazine online
Exciting digital page-turning format!
30 366739
Reviews, articles and news from Home Entertainment
Exciting digital page-turning format!
Exciting digital page-turning format!
Exciting digital
BOX FRESH
Arcam FMJ T32 48Grundig GDR710DABIP 49Pure Chronos iDock 50Pure Evoke Flow 51Pure One Elite 52Pure Siesta 53Revo Pico 54Revo Uno 55Roberts Ecologic 4 56Roberts MP-Sound 43 57Sangean DPR-69 Plus 58Tivoli Audio NetWorks 59Defi nitive Technology Mythos 62Yamaha RX-Z7 64Epson EH-TW5000 66Sennheiser HD 800 68Kogan KGNBRVA 72Sharp Aquos BD-HP50X 72
REVIEWED THIS ISSUE
8
RANDOM PLAY
The fi rst wireless high defi nition televisions will debut in April when Sony introduces its ZX1 and EX1 Bravia LCDs. At 9.9mm, the ZX1 integrates Edge LED lighting – where LEDs are located along the sides of the screen rather than behind it – to achieve its status as the world’s thinnest LCD television, while the EX1 sports Sony’s new picture frame styling and comes with six preloaded images to give the appearance of being a work or art.
Both sets employ ‘Bravia 1080 Wireless’ technology for sending 1080p video and sound from a media box to the TV, located up to 20 metres away. The media box contains the HDTV tuner and most of the video processing circuitry – a factor that allows the televisions to be manufactured so thin – and provides connections for Blu-ray players and other video devices. All signals
are transmitted, without cables, to the remotely located TV, via radio frequency, meaning the media box and sources can be placed behind walls or in another room entirely to the television. The transmission is not buffered, either, but displayed in real-time, with no lag detectable during Home Entertainment’s preview of the products.
All sets incorporate Sony’s Motionfl ow 100Hz technology, Bravia Engine2, Bravia Sync technology for operating other Sony products, TrueCinema 24, and USB ports for photo viewing. The 40 inch ZX1 will cost $7399, with 52, 42 and 40 inch Bravia EX1 models costing $7099, $6099 and $5399 respectively.
Thin as a sheetSony CorporationPHONE 1300 720 071WEB www.sony.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
Connected to high-speed broadband, LG’S BD370 player can stream videos from YouTube, with the site’s vast video library searchable via the Blu-ray player’s remote control. BD Live-enabled, the player also connects to the internet to download movie trailers, subtitles and other information related to a BD movie (where provided by the disc) as well related movie
quizzes and multi-player interactive games.
The latest HDMI specifi cation is supported, 1080p upscaling improves the appearance of ordinary DVDs, and built-in decoding for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master decoder means the BD370 can be mated to older-model AV receivers to provide the highest-resolution surround sound. Boot-up is a claimed
15 seconds; support for a wide range of formats – DivX, MPEG4, video, JPEG, MP3, HD Divx and WMA – is
provided and, in a nice touch, the centre panel light glows blue for BD Live titles, changing to orange for DVDs and violet for CDs. It costs $449.
Blu-ray, with YouTubeLG ElectronicsWEB www.lge.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
highest-resolution surround sound. Boot-up is a claimed 15 seconds; support for a wide range of formats – DivX,
MPEG4, video, JPEG, MP3, HD Divx and WMA – is
Home ’s preview of the products.
All sets incorporate Sony’s Motionfl ow 100Hz technology, Bravia Engine2, Bravia Sync technology for operating other Sony products, TrueCinema 24, and USB ports for
s y n t e c _ t a n n o y H o mE n t . p d f P a g e 1 5 / 3 / 0 9 , 1 0 : 1 8 A M
10
RANDOM PLAY
In expanding its family of CM Series loudspeakers, the Bowers & Wilkins CM1 Mini Monitor is joined by two new three-way fl oorstanders, a larger stand-mount model, two centre channels and a dedicated subwoofer. Positioned between B&W’s 600 Series and high-end 800 Series, each CM model is fi nished in either a polished gloss black, rosenut or wenge real-wood veneer, with the good looks further enhanced by aluminium-trimmed drivers and magnetic grilles.
The drive units in the CM Series provide an inherently smooth response, according to B&W, and with longer voice coils and
stronger magnets than used in the 600 Series, the bass drivers deliver more “punch and attack” while reducing distortion.
Prices start at $1199 for the two-way CM Centre; the CM5 standmount bookshelf model costs $1499/pair; the ASW active subwoofer costs $2499, and the topline CM9 three-way fl oorstander cost $4499/pair.
Growing family
Convoy InternationalWEB www.e-hifi .com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
stronger magnets than
CM Centre; the CM5 standmount
Direct marketer, Kogan Technologies, has an idea on how to spend the cashlings coming to you as part of the prime minister’s stimulus package. It’s ‘Kevin 37’ LCD television costs a neat $900, the maximum
amount anyone will receive as a tax bonus when the government starts sending out the cheques in April.
“While big name technology vendors are raising prices, we’re introducing new products at prices that undercut the market signifi cantly, says founder and director of Kogan Technologies” Ruslan Kogan. “The government bonus is intended for local spending, which will in turn stimulate economic growth. The Kevin 37 is designed specifi cally for this stimulus package.”
The Kevin 37 LCD TV has resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, a built-in high defi nition tuner, 6 millisecond response time, a rated contrast radio of 1200:1, a digital coaxial output for sending surround soundtracks to an outboard receiver, plus a single HDMI input. Order online at www.kogan.com.au
Money for nothing
Kogan TechnologiesWEB www.kogan.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
GRANDE UTOPIA III
Everything you’ve heard up until this moment is a murmur.Audio realism, precision and dimension like nothing else on Earth.
Hand made in France by the world’s most passionate audio engineers, the FOCAL Grand Utopia III stands 2m tall and weighs 260kg. Utopia isenriched with technological milestones including Electro-Magnet woofer, “W” cone, Focus Time, Multiferrite, Beryllium, Power Flower, OPC and Gamma Structure. And the sound? It’s like hearing for the very fi rst time.RRP $269,000 a pair and worth every cent.
Experience the sound of Utopia and meet the rest of the FOCAL family at Len Wallis Audio. Visit our showroom for a full demonstration or call 02 9427 6755 for more information.
12
RANDOM PLAY
In the last ten years French company Focal has progressed from making specialist drivers for other companies to designing and manufacturing its own line-up of speakers. These range from the Dome sub/sat system to the fl agship Grand Utopia EM. These weigh 260 kilos each, stand two metres tall, cost $269,000 and are packed with the latest advances in driver design.
Adjustable Focus Time, for instance, allows you to tilt the section of the cabinet holding the top speakers towards the listener via a small crank, depending on your listening position. More innovative, however, is the replacement of the conventional magnet on the 15 inch bass driver with an electro-magnetic (EM) motor. This allows the magnet force to become endless – or fl exible
– according to the importer, Len Wallis Audio. The electro-magnet power supply is external of the speaker cabinet, and can be adjusted, allowing you to tailor the bass according to room conditions, and to listening preferences.
“There is no disputing that this is an expensive loudspeaker,” says Len Wallis, of Len Wallis Audio, “but this is not about the money. This is a statement of what is achievable given the appropriate budget. For many, listening to this speaker is a revelation and an education. And, as with previous fl agship models from Focal, the technology utilised quickly seeps down into less expensive offerings.”
The budget offering in the Utopia range is the Diablo bookshelf, costing $17,000 a pair.
The next two months sees most nameplates turning over their current line-up of televisions, but Toshiba has beaten many to market with its XV550A, XV560A and RV550A ranges. All models in each series are full HD, with the XV series driven by Toshy’s Power Meta Brain video engine and incorporating ClearFrame 100Hz processing for smoother reproduction of fast motion sequences. The XV and RV Series also benefi t from a gaming mode that, according to the company, “delivers you faster game controller response times direct from your notebook or game console to your TV”.
Respectively, the 42 and 46 inch XV550A cost $2859 and $3629; the 42, 46 and 52 inch XV560A
cost $2859, $3629 and $4599, and the 42 and 46 inch RV550A cost $2199 and $2749.
Grand designs
Get game
Len Wallis AudioPHONE 02 9427 6755WEB www.lenwallisaudio.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
Toshiba Pty LtdWEB www.toshibaav.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
14
RANDOM PLAY
The Ferrari of the projection world, SIM2 has released its most affordable 1080p projector to date. The Domino 60 is a single chip DLP design based around Texas Instruments’ 1080p DarkChip3 0.95 inch DMD chipset.
Like more expensive SIM2 projectors, the Domino 60 shares a few similar features such as a variable dual iris in the lens which adjusts to produce the right amount of light output for each of three operational modes; Cinema, Dynamic and Standard. The advantage of the dual iris, according to SIM2, is to enhance contrast and shadow detail. Further use of Texas Instruments’ DynamicBlack technology digitally examines the video source material and adjusts the iris aperture based on the level of light shown on screen.
Aimed at the serious, but not OTT, home theatre enthusiast, the Domino 60 has the connections to fi t into most AV systems. There are twin HDMI inputs, plus composite, S-Video, component
and RGBHV. Third-party system integration such as Crestron or AMX is provided for with an RS-232 port and 12 volt trigger output.
Priced at $5999, the Domino 60 comes with a nationwide two year parts and labour warranty.
Top marquesAudio Products GroupPHONE 1300 134 400WEB www.audioproducts.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
dual iris in the lens which adjusts to produce the right amount of light output for each of three operational modes; Cinema, Dynamic
Domino 60 has the connections to fi t into most AV systems. There are twin HDMI inputs, plus composite, S-Video, component
Developed by a Los Angeles entrepreneur who wanted a safe way to cycle, listen to music and make phones calls at the same time (now that’s sooo LA), CyFi is a compact speaker and speakerphone that attaches to a bike stem and connects over Bluetooth to just about any MP3 player or phone you might be carrying in your pocket. The player or phone needs to support A2DP, the latest stereo wireless standard, and for maximum safety when making calls, connected phones should support voice recognition. An iPod adaptor also lets you listen to and share your favourite tunes wirelessly when your get off the bike.
With six hours of battery life, track, volume and playlist settings, plus a remote control, the compact and water resistant CyFi will, according to its distributors, appeal to bushwalkers, boaties and campers as well as cyclists. It costs $350.
Sony says the tightly sealed acoustic design of its MDR-XB eXtra Bass headphones helps produce a high level of sound isolation, while the newly designed direct vibe structure of the headphones assists in providing a full bass sound without sacrifi cing the mids and highs.
The MDRXB20EX in-ear model provides an angled ear-bud, 9mm high sensitivity dome driver and a 5–23,000Hz frequency response, while the MDRXB40EX offer a vertical in-ear bud, 13.5mm dome driver and 4–24,000Hz frequency response. For extra comfort, the overhead MDRXB300, MDRXB500 and MDRXB700 headphones provide king-sized cushioning for extended use, and an even higher level of sound isolation.
Sing the blues
Head casesCy-FiWEB www.cyfi .com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
Sony AustraliaPHONE 1300 720 071WEB www.sony.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
connected phones should support voice recognition. An iPod adaptor also lets you listen to and share your favourite tunes wirelessly when
16
RANDOM PLAY
Denon’s fi rst Blu-ray player has all you’d expect from a current-model high defi nition disc spinner, including 1080p/24fps video output, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD Master Audio support, Bonus View compatibility for accessing the video Picture-in-Picture features provided on some discs, plus HDMI 1.3 for Deep Colour and x.v Colour. The DVD-1800BD, however, sports a price of $1699, with the premium covering what Denon
describes as its “advanced on-board interlaced-to-progressive conversion and 1080p upscaling technology
that produces some of the fi nest images currently available from this format”.
The DVD-1800BD also provides a suite of picture adjustment controls that include brightness and contrast, along with colour and sharpness adjustments and a gamma control for superior deep black and dark grey performance. Playback of most common disc types, including DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD, CD-R/RW, is provided, and MP3, WMA, JPG and Divx (version 6) formats are supported. The player provides an SD slot for accessing multimedia, and a Pure Direct mode disables all video circuitry within the player to allow optimum audio fi delity from CD.
Australian distributor of the Beyonwiz PVR, Digital Products Group has announced it will introduce the Slingbox to Australia. Launched in the US in 2005, the device allows you to stream content from a home television source – such as a digital TV set-top box, PVR, or PayTV receiver – to a laptop or desktop computer (PC or Mac) in and around the house. And with a broadband connection with upload speeds of 256kbps per second or higher (such as ADSL 2+), Slingbox will even stream TV signals to locations outside the home with a high-speed network
connection. You could watch, for instance, your favourite Foxtel or digital TV show – or a program recorded to your PVR – in a hotel room on the other side of the world with Slingbox. And with SlingPlayer Movie you will be able to do the same using a compatible 3G or WiFi-capable mobile phone. Current compatible handsets include BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Mobile, with iPhone soon to join the list, according to Digital Products Group.
The Slingbox Solo ($349) provides you with access to one AV source, while the Pro provides access to three AV sources ($499).
Wrapped up in Blu
Sling shift
Audio Products GroupPHONE 1300 134 400WEB www.denon.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
Digital Products GroupPHONE 1300 889 803WEB www.digitalpg.com.au
DISTRIBUTOR
3/200 Turner Street, Port Melbourne Victoria 3207 Telephone 03 9645 4700 Facsimile 03 9646 7366 Email [email protected]
www.sangean.com.au
Tune in to the digital radio revolution.
The next evolution in radio broadcasting has arrived with Digital Radio.
Digital Radio offers clearer reception, live text displaying song titles, artists, sports results, traffi c information, talkback announcer names and the convenience of never having to ‘tune’ the radio again. Imagine AM and FM on a level playing fi eld, both with virtually CD quality sound.
This innovative, exciting technology will enable you to choose from a greater range of radio stations with an interference free experience.
Sangean, the world’s largest specialist radio manufacturer, is at the forefront of Digital Radio technology with an exciting range of high-quality Digital Radios designed to suit your lifestyle.
Call 1800 636 026 today for the location of your nearest Sangean dealer.
DPR-99+Digital Radio Plus / FMPortable Digital Radio
PR-99+PR-99+lus / FMlus / FMal Radioal Radi
WFT-1D+Digital Radio Plus / FM
Internet Radio / Network Music PlayerComponent Hi-Fi Tuner with remote control
WFR-1D+Digital Radio Plus / FM
Internet Radio / Network Music PlayerDigital Tabletop Receiver with remote control
DPR-69+Digital Radio Plus / FMCompact Digital Radio
18
GUY TALK
The GadgetGuy™, Peter Blasina, is the technology reporter for Channel Seven’s Sunrise program, appears regularly on other network programs and is broadcast weekly on various national radio stations. Peter Blasina visited Seoul, South Korea in January 2009 as a guest of LG Display Company.
A Matter of Choice
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to tour LG’s
impressive AU$7.35 billion Paju LCD plant outside
Seoul in Korea. The plant is immense. Big enough to
hold eight soccer stadiums, in fact.
At the time of my visit, huge trucks and cranes were moving
new multi-million dollar robotic machinery into place to handle the
massive glass sheets used for big-screen LCD TV and small-screen
LCD computer monitor production. The impression was that the
plant saw fairly regular upgrade works like this to cope with the
world-wide demand for larger screen LCD TVs.
The LG Display plant is based on so-called ‘8th generation’
production technology. This means it can process sheets of mother
glass – the large glass panels from which several LCD screens are
made – of 2.2 metres by 2.5 metres. Each generational process
technology is best suited to producing a certain number of TVs of a
single screen size (or combination of screen sizes) because they are
able to be cut from the mother glass sheets with least waste.
LG Display now uses the new plant for 32 inch, 47 inch and
55 inch LCD panels, with 60 inch panels planned for later this year.
Monthly capacity of the line is 20,000 sheets of mother glass,
although LG Display anticipates increasing production at the Paju
plant to more than 80,000 sheets per month by the end of 2009 if
demand requires it.
LG Display is the number two LCD TV display maker in the world
behind Korean competitor Samsung Electronics. With the new plant
it hopes to profi t from the expanding world LCD TV market, and
is looking towards China in particular for generating sales. Here, a
government stimulus package has been implemented to stoke rural
consumption of consumer electronics products.
With a global economy in turmoil, it is immensely uplifting to see
fi rst hand a company committed to a constant cycle of generational
development. A large part of this is, of course, given impetus by the
desire to stay in front of the competition. As competition declines,
however, some companies may see it as an opportunity to scale
back that imperative.
As with that other fl at panel TV technology, plasma, strong
competition has resulted in prices dramatically heading south in
recent months. This makes it diffi cult for companies to increase
profi ts, despite higher sales volumes.
It seems like everyone is complaining of unsustainable margins
– manufacturers, importers and retailers all say that while sales
of fl at panel TVs continue to grow, the value of those sales has
been in steep decline. Sure, the downward spiral of prices has been
a boon for the consumer, but that same consumer now stands
to lose because the profi t that helped improve TV technology is
diminishing. In short, the makers
of fl at panel displays now fi nd
themselves having to squeeze
better TV technology out of less
and less dollars.
Some have found the task
so onerous that they’ve taken
their fl at panel TVs and
gone home. In the last
12 months, long-established tier one manufacturers such
as Philips, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi and, most recently, Pioneer have
exited the Australian TV market.
The immediate impact is less choice for the consumer and
less competition. The longer-term result will be higher prices
and perhaps even a reduction in research and development
as manufacturers attempt to squeeze all possible profi t out of
traditional technologies.
With the exit of Pioneer, for example, the innovation that fuelled
the development its plasma TVs – consistently rated by the national
and international press as providing the benchmark in quality – will
now simply evaporate.
This doesn’t, of course, mean that excellence disappears from
the plasma area, just that another nameplate needs to step up with
technologies that earn it the mantle of world’s best plasma maker.
LG recently circulated a global press release stating that,
“As a founding member of the Plasma Display Coalition, LG
are committed to the plasma business and believe plasma TVs
are an important segment in the fl at panel display sector. In
addition, unlike some current and former plasma TV players, LG
possesses core technologies for plasma TVs and PDP modules,
giving it unique advantages in the market. LG have invested
heavily to strengthen the LG brand in this segment and will
continue to do so.”
Let’s hope, then, that the three remaining major plasma
manufacturers will continue to innovate so that consumers
are provided with a wealth of choice when it comes to deciding
between LCD and plasma – even if it eventually means higher
prices. It will always be a better bet to pay a little more for better
technology. ■
A Matter of Choicediminishing. In short, the makers
of fl at panel displays now fi nd
themselves having to squeeze
better TV technology out of less
and less dollars.
Some have found the task
so onerous that they’ve taken
their fl at panel TVs and
gone home. In the last
12 months, long-established tier one manufacturers such
as Philips, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi and, most recently, Pioneer have
exited the Australian TV market.
The immediate impact is less choice for the consumer and
less competition. The longer-term result will be higher prices
and perhaps even a reduction in research and development
as manufacturers attempt to squeeze all possible profi t out of
H D G a d g e t G r o u p 0 4 1 6 5 7 . p d f P a g e 1 2 / 4 / 0 9 , 5 : 0 1 P M
20
TECH CORNER
When is a fl at panel TV not really that fl at?
When it doesn’t have an LED backlight.
Dart into the shops these days and you’ll
see a new breed of displays. Compared to a
CRT, an-old school LCD TV is pretty fl at. But compared to an
LED-backlit display, it’s positively chunky.
These new TVs are typically less than 10cm thick – compare
that to the 20 or 30cm thickness of a regular LCD.
The secret to this sveltness is the Light Emitting Diode. It’s not
a new technology (it was invented in 1907) but its presence in big
displays is a new application. Let’s start with the electronics.
A regular light globe generates light when the element
in the globe resists an electrical current passing through it.
A by-product of this resistance is light. The more resistance
(measured in watts) the brighter the light.
But last-generation fl at panel TVs don’t use incandescent
backlights. Instead, they use fl uorescent lights. These pass
electricity into a cathode that spews electrons into the lamp,
which react with a low-pressure gas, creating light.
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are something else entirely. They
use two semi-conductors, which interact in such a way as to produce
light when electricity is passed through them. The real advantage
of LEDs is that they are extremely effi cient at generating light,
compared to how much power you pump into them.
‘running lights’ and improve the visibility of the vehicle during
daylight: the bright white LEDs stand out even in direct sunlight.
For TV users, it’s the compact size and low power
consumption that make LEDs so perfect for TVs. The technology
is already proven, as LEDs have been backlighting small
electronic devices such as handheld games consoles for years.
They’re also making their way into the latest generation of
notebook PCs – Apple uses LED backlights in many of its
Macbook computers. LCD TVs need a backlight because the LCD
grid itself creates only colour; it doesn’t generate its own light. A
backlight has to shine through it, so you can see the image.
Like cold-cathode fl uorescent lighting, LEDs are installed in
the back of the TV and confi gured so their light passes through
diffusers, creating an even spread of light.
Where LEDs can start to improve the image quality is when
manufacturers use a Red/Green/Blue LED system. RGB systems
consist of a grid of red, green and blue LEDs that combine their
light to create white.
The advantage of RGB LEDs is that the temperature of white
– the White Point of the display – can be set dynamically by the
circuitry in the TV, or even by the user. Prefer a yellower look?
Twiddle the remote, and it’s done.
RGB LED backlighting essentially boosts the colour-
generating capabilities of the LCD screen. A TV with wide
colour gamut support can harness its back-lighting system to
further boost reds, blues and greens in scenes dominated by
those colours. Said TV can also display more colours than its
last-generation brethren, and by moving the red, green and blue
‘points’ can make these colours more vivid.
(Colour ‘points’ have to do with the amount of light energy
hitting your retina at short, medium and long wavelengths. For
more detail on this, enrol in a degree in opthamology!)
Unfortunately it’s not all (extremely vivid) roses when it comes
to LED backlighting. Like any kind of light, LEDs do age and their
colour changes over time. What’s especially irritating about LEDs
is that they don’t age uniformly. So when you put a bunch of them
in a grid, different parts of the grid may age at different rates.
So you may fi nd after several years that the upper right
corner of your TV doesn’t produce as brilliant a red, or the
bottom third doesn’t quite manage blue as well as the rest of
the display. And because RGB LED systems use multiple colours
to create white, the temperature of the display will almost
defi nitely shift over time.
Still, the LEDs are solid state. This means it’s extremely
unlikely for any of them to fail. They also have the potential to
use much less power than a fl uorescent backlight, though this
does require clever circuitry.
In real terms though, there are very few disadvantages to
LED backlighting, and plenty of reasons to look for it in your
next TV purchase. And within the next few years, it won’t even
be a matter of choice: all LCD TVs will use LEDs, as will your PC
monitor and your notebook.
Flatter fl ats, more colourful colours, and less power
consumption. All thanks to a component invented more than
100 years ago. Thanks LED! Anthony Fordham
Light Work
For TV users, it’s the compact size and low power consumption that make LEDs so perfect for TVs
Currently LEDs are roughly four times as effi cient as an
incandescent bulb. They’re not as effi cient as a fl uorescent tube,
but they do light up much faster and they can be very small. They
also solder directly onto a circuit board: they don’t need ballasts.
(Ballasts are chunks of electronics, mainly capacitors, that regulate
the fl ow of electricity to the tube. They run hot, they can fail, and
they generally make the whole system more complex and bulky.)
Importantly, they can be built to emit a specifi c colour of
light, instead of needing a colour fi lter. A blue LED really is blue,
not a white light in a blue case.
They’re also almost completely shock resistant and don’t
contain toxic mercury. There’s no element, so if you drop one, it
won’t break or ‘blow’ like a regular light globe.
You can destroy an LED by running electricity through it at a
reverse polarity. As most LEDs are soldered onto circuit boards
though, this would require the average user to crack open their
device and get busy with a soldering iron.
LEDs in the world at large are almost everywhere. In fact,
wherever you need a bright point of light that needs to switch on
and off regularly and last thousands or even tens of thousands of
hours. Many new cars now uses LED brake lights and the snazzier
models have a line of LEDs under the headlights which work as
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Home Entertainment Magazine.indd 1 1/04/2009 8:39:45 AM
22
23
MODEL MUST-HAVES
The adventure of buying a new TV is a microcosm of the adventure
of life. You know what you dream about having, you know what
you actually need and you know what you can afford. And they’re
never the same things. So, unless you’re hugely fortunate, you’re
going to have to do some research. Sit down, have a think about what you really
must have and what you can live without, make a list, get on the web, do some
comparisons and only then strike out and venture into the stores.
What you’ll most likely discover during that research phase is that there’s a
bunch of different technologies, all hiding behind silly or unhelpful acronyms or
abbreviations, and all claiming to be absolutely critical to your home entertainment
happiness factor.
Whatever you do, don’t ask one of the in-store ‘experts’ about any of these silly
names. No, come to us. We’re comprehensively versed in the silly name department
– for example, ‘GUNCE’ which we just made up right now and stands for ‘Gurus
of Unhelpful Names for Consumer Electronics, but is pronounced ‘gunk’ – and
will guide you through the maze of ‘features’ the manufacturers would have you
believe are critical for the support of home entertainment life on earth.
TV continues to innovate, so what are the current must-haves and what we can we look forward to in the future? Max Everingham reports.
MODELMUST-HAVES
THE CHECKLIST FOR TV BUYING IN 2009
24
If you’re anything like us, with home theatre space competing with children, dogs and clumsy, ape-like male friends, wireless HDMI will be worth every extra cent
Some of these are fairly obvious by now. Despite the fact
that someone clever is going to have to try and think of a ‘fuller’
name than ‘Full HD’ when that term, itself, is eclipsed, full HD or
1080p resolution is a must-have these days. Not only because
1080i television broadcasts are becoming more common or the
PlayStation 3 can (but rarely actually does) display games up to
1080p, and certainly not because of the 1080p format of Blu-ray,
but more importantly because you instantly lose boasting points
with your mates if your set is limited to the now-lowly 720p.
A decent number (at least three) of HDMI inputs, DLNA
compliance (basically ‘plug & play’ for your digital equipment,
guaranteeing components badged DLNA can share content over a
home network), and even Internet connectivity (such as Panasonic’s
recently announced ‘VieraCast’ internet content service with
Amazon Video on Demand) are becoming de rigueur too.
Another obvious one, assuming quality is a priority for you,
has to be to look out for compliance with standards like ISF, THX,
xvYCC and ‘Deep Colour’, or 30-48 bit RGB, covered in the HDMI
1.3 specification. THX is, of course, the set of high-quality audio
and video standards made famous by George Lucas’ Lucasfilm
company, ensuring that a movie will sound and look great
wherever it’s played. ISF, or ‘Imaging Science Foundation’ is a
self-appointed group that tries to ensure similar standards for the
visual realm.
Televisions that support DLNA can share images, music, video and photos with other DLNA devices – such as mobile phones, digital cameras, camcorders – over a home network
THX Certified displays have a proprietary THX Movie Mode that re-creates the cinema experience of movies on DVD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD and broadcast television in the home. The mode sets the display’s gamma,
luminance, color temperature and other settings to match the levels found in the studios where movies are produced
TV s that support HDMI 1.3 can display
the latest Deep Colour and x.v. colour standards. These expand the colors on the display from millions to billions, offering a vividness and color accuracy which has not been seen before in display technology
HD displays with the Imaging Science Foundation logo feature calibrated onscreen presets for superior image performance
Previously, only high-end companies such as Pioneer and NEC
bothered with these, incorporating ISF compatibility into their sets
(so the picture can be calibrated to a much more detailed level),
but an increasing number of companies are getting involved, with
LG leading the charge both on that and the THX sound front. It’s
TVs are integrating Ethernet connectivity to directly access the content riches of the Web; LG’s PS80 uses NetCast Entertainment Access functionality to access Netflix Instant Streaming, Yahoo! Widgets, YouTube movies, and media stored on a PC. It also offers THX Display Certification and THX Media Director. Panasonic’s VieraCast provides similar functionality for its P50G10
25
MODEL MUST-HAVES
probably not worth breaking your budget to pick up a television
with ISF calibration features if you only watch DVDs, but would
make more sense if you’re going for a premium home theatre
installation.
Part of the latest HDMI connection standard, ‘xvYCC’ and
‘Deep Colour’ refer, respectively, to the range and depth of colour
available. xvYCC is an ‘extended gamut’ colour space, allowing
1.8 times the number of colours than the more familiar sRGB
specifi cation used on DVD. So you get more possibilities for colour
variation, if you like.
Deep Colour allows for up to 48-bit colour – in fact, way
beyond what the human eye can interpret. But more shades allow
for greater colour fi delity and can help decrease artifacts such as
banding, increase contrast and, within the increased xvYCC space,
produces extremely clear, vivid pictures.
These two colour standards are available on discs created from
AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Defi nition) devices, such as
camcorders and some digital cameras, and advanced games, such
as those for the PS3, can be created using Deep Colour. They are
not yet implemented on DVD or Blu-ray
I see the light – it’s beautifulLooking at the technology that’s available right now, the
buzzword is ‘LED backlighting’ – unless you’re a plasma TV
manufacturer, but they’re dying out quicker than the Louisiana
wetlands (look it up). LED backlighting comes in two fl avours:
one using regular white LEDs and one using coloured, RGB
versions.
LED backlighting complements the other big motion-blur-
combating technology – called variously ‘TruMotion’, ‘Auto Motion
Plus’, ‘ClearFrame’, ‘Motionfl ow’ and other decidedly unsnappy
names – but which basically doubles the regular refresh rate of
50 frames per second to 100Hz (or, in the case of LG, Sony and
Samsung, doubling that again, for a 200Hz refresh rate). This
goes a long way to improving the appearance of fast-moving
video, but is often attended by a heat haze-type artefacting
around the moving subjects, which can be more distracting than
the motion blur itself.
TV sets with LED backlighting use the LEDs instead of the
usual, always-on fl uourescent lamps. This has a number of
benefi ts: blurring is reduced, contrast is improved, with deeper
blacks and more vivid colours, power consumption is lower and
the TV set itself can be made thinner.
Both technologies are worth looking for if you’re considering
buying an LCD TV. As you might expect, a TV using the three
separately-coloured red, green and blue LED backlights is going to
produce a better picture than one using just white LEDs, as they
match the colours of the LCD pixels and less light needs to be
fi ltered out to start with.
Messing with your head There’s another big buzzword, actually, exhibited to great effect
earlier this year at the annual CES show in Vegas: 3-D. Heralded
by all sorts of marketing double-speak gurus as ‘the next big
thing’, all the big hitters had 3-D sets on their stands at the show.
But there’s always a next big thing, right? So is it worth having?
The answer would seem to depend on how you feel about looking
really stupid.
The old red and green glasses
are history, you’ll be pleased
to hear, but you may be less
pleased to hear that you still
have to wear 3-D glasses to
benefi t from the effect. The
main reason for this right now
is physical – more accurately,
it’s down to a physical
limitation of the human body.
To achieve 3-D vision, we
need to get a slightly different
image for the left and right
eye. We’re used to our brains
overruling our eyes when it
feels like it (why else
LG’s LH90 integrates LED backlighting with local dimming technology to provide a claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1
LCD televisions with 100Hz and 200Hz picture processing cost a premium but improve the appearance of fast-moving action sequences
video, but is often attended by a heat haze-type artefacting earlier this year at the annual CES show in Vegas: 3-D. Heralded
by all sorts of marketing double-speak gurus as ‘the next big
thing’, all the big hitters had 3-D sets on their stands at the show.
But there’s always a next big thing, right? So is it worth having?
The answer would seem to depend on how you feel about looking
really stupid.
The old red and green glasses
are history, you’ll be pleased
to hear, but you may be less
pleased to hear that you still
have to wear 3-D glasses to
benefi t from the effect. The
main reason for this right now
is physical – more accurately,
it’s down to a physical
limitation of the human body.
To achieve 3-D vision, we
need to get a slightly different
image for the left and right
eye. We’re used to our brains
overruling our eyes when it
feels like it (why else LCD televisions with 100Hz and 200Hz picture processing cost a premium but improve the appearance of fast-moving action sequences
TVs with THX Media Director allow digital media to self-confi gure home entertainment devices for optimum playback settings
26
can’t you see your nose all the time?!) and the glasses help to do
this, merging the result into a single whole. This time, the lenses
are grey, so there’s more chance of matching them with your
lounge suit outfit but, as we’ll see in the second half of this article,
you’re going to have to stick with the glasses for a little while yet.
Still, the effect can be fantastic. If you’re into explosive action
movies or games, you’ll want to keep an eye on this technology.
But, for now, save the dollars for the technology that’s next up.
Spaghetti-free zoneDespite all the salesmen’s claims to the contrary, nothing’s quite
wireless yet in home electronics. Audio-visual leads are the last,
great bastion of resistance against a cable-free nirvana and even
wireless speaker sets still need a power lead snaking back to plug
into the electricity grid. But this is set to change in the near future
– in fact it’s already changed if you can afford it.
LG exhibited an LCD panel at CES – the LG71 – with
wireless HDMI as standard, as well as two plasma televisions
offering it as an option. Essentially a transmitter box with
four HDMI 1.3 (Deep Colour) inputs that you can place up to
10 metres away from the screen and a corresponding receiver
in the TV itself; the 802.11n wireless system is promising
artefact-free full HD that’s indistinguishable from wired HDMI
over thin air.
And LG weren’t the only ones trying to make HDMI magic.
Gefen has demonstrated three different options of their ‘Wireless
for HDMI’ tech, with extenders that beam 1080p images and up to
5.1 digital surround sound over distances up to 30 metres. Better
still, the system doesn’t require line of sight and is said to go right
through walls too, given its use of 5GHz radio frequencies. There’s
only a single input/output pair to use and it may double the
number of HDMI cables you need, but at least they include one
in the box for you. Due out later this year, if you’re anything like
us, with home theatre space competing with children, dogs and
clumsy, ape-like male friends, wireless HDMI will be worth every
extra cent it demands.
Wireless HDMI and similar standards, such as Wireless HD, allow uncompressed 1080p/24 standard video to be transmitted from a media box to a display up to 10 metres away. Sony and LG will market Wireless HD televisions in 2009
Slim televisions make wall-mounting easier and enhance portability, and will go hand-in-hand with wireless HDMI media boxes
Wireless electricity is already a reality… it’s exciting, it’s unobtrusive and there’s a host of applications for it, of course, not just with TV
Untitled-1 62 29/1/09 4:01:28 PM
28
Trumping all the admittedly impressive wireless HDMI tech,
though, has to be what some wag has dubbed ‘Witricity’ (doesn’t
quite work, does it?). Sounding more like a family game for your
Wii console than a serious application of technology, wireless
electricity is already a reality. Employing a large transference coil
situated away from the TV itself and a receiving coil in the base of
the TV, power is then transferred through the ether to spark up
your appliances. And these large coils can be hidden.
At CES 2009, a working prototype of one in a large painting
and another behind a wall was in evidence at one vendor’s stand
(Witricity Corp), so it’s exciting, it’s unobtrusive and there’s a host
of applications for it, of course, not just with TV. We’re slightly
curious whether the ‘magnetic resonance’ principle it uses to
operate will addle our brains or not, however.
Before we move on to future technology, it’s probably worth
noting that concerns with size have moved from diagonal screen
dimensions (yes dear, it’s plenty big enough, I promise) to width.
‘Super-slim’ and ‘ultra-slim’ TVs are all the rage now, with even
the largest only one inch thick (that’s 2.54 cm in real money) and
more efficient to boot. So, you know, don’t buy a fat TV.
Will it never end?You didn’t really think that 1080p full HD was the best it was going to
get, did you? Of course not. ‘Quad HD’ is the latest resolution to be
touted around by the likes of Philips, Westinghouse and Samsung. So
called because at 3840 x 2160 it provides four times the pixel count
of full HD (over eight million, as opposed to just over two million), it’s
abbreviated as ‘2160p’ so neh-neh-ne-ne-neh to you, 1080p! However,
it’s extremely costly to make just now (and there’s scant QuadHD
content) and is usually just shown in ‘autostereoscopic’ form to
showcase future 3-D television. One-all, then.
Possibly a bit closer to affordable reality is OLED, or Organic
Light Emitting Diode, technology. Emitting bright light of their
own and thereby removing the need for backlighting, OLED is still
small – 15 inch screens have been in evidence and in fact Sony
With world video production and broadcasting standards needing to quadruple in resolution, Quad HD televisions are a long way from becoming mainstream (Samsung Quad HD TV pictured)
OLED is a promising display technology, allowing the development of bright, flexible, power efficient roll-out/roll-up screens
Watch the Oscars or Grand Final match and have your mates virtually alongside you to comment on the action and share the emotion of the on-field action
HOT TV TEcH nOw
...AnD TOMOrrOw
• FullHD/1080p• 100Hzand200Hz •Bigandskinny• LEDandRGBLEDbacklighting• HDMI1.3 •DLNA• ISFcalibration •THXcertification
• 3-D •WirelessHDMI• OLED •Witricity• InternetTV •QuadHD
We’d like to see that: TVs with built-in Slingbox capabilities that use the internet to broadcast content from your home AV rack – Foxtel, PVR, etc – to a PC anywhere in the world (or to any room of the house)
29
MODEL MUST-HAVES
sells one – lightweight, bright, durable, power efficient and, most
excitingly of all, since they’re composed of thin films (made from
organic materials, hence the term ‘organic’) can be made very
thin and even be printed onto flexible materials.
So one day, maybe we’ll be able to take what looks like a
regular pen out of a pocket as we sit down on a plane and pull a
10 inch widescreen OLED display out of it, rolling it back up when
we’re finished and ready for a snooze.
Dear future Santa…..Panasonic has already brought us one step close to life in Arnie’s
Total Recall, with its ‘Life Wall’. This is a connected, 150 inch video
wall incorporating ‘stay with me TV’ that makes the TV screen on
the wall follow your movements, growing larger and smaller, or
moving along the wall as you walk – maybe while you’re pacing up
and down in the kitchen eating some toast for breakfast? – as well
as face recognition tech, which recognises each user’s features
and adjusts personalisation settings as a result.
But you have to use very controlled, deliberate movements
to get it all to work, not at all like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. So looking further ahead, let’s do the research folk a favour and
come up with our own wish list of features to be included in future
TV design.
Unnecessary but novel features you can currently find in HD
TVs include electric, remote-controlled swivel stands, light sensors
that measure ambient light in the room and adjust the picture
accordingly, and even motion sensors that will shut the TV off if
no movement is detected in the room and the TV is not in use
(fear not, couch potatoes!) But how about putting such gimmicky
features in the ‘can live without’ column where they belong and
demanding more genuinely useful technology instead?
Like automatic muting, for instance, for when the adverts
come on – or at the very least, sound equalisation – so that the TV
station marketing folks’ plans of rudely grabbing your attention
through pure fright, are thwarted and your eardrums left intact?
And while we’re talking automatic, how about having the TV
automatically turn itself on, and switch to the correct AV input,
when you first switch on one of the components, like your DVD
player, HDMI-CEC compatible or not? Or simply putting more
powered speakers in the TV to begin with, complete with that
fancy new ‘front surround’ technology, so that it’s completely
unnecessary to splash out on a separate surround sound system
and clutter your room up with more boxes?
Another great way to innovate is to cheat – or more precisely,
to ‘gain inspiration’ from other sources. Slingbox technology – a
digital box that hooks up to a broadband connection and can
then ‘sling’ source material from your Foxtel, PVR or other
digital device to your PC or laptop anywhere in the world - is
here, and it’s superb, so why not build it into a flat screen TV?
Or take the solid-state memory storage used in mobile phones
and now netbooks and incorporate that, making your TV capable
of recording and downloading? Use the internet connectivity
we have now to display Skype-like PIP with full audio along the
bottom of your TV screen during the big match. So you can watch
the Oscars or Grand Final match and have your mates virtually
alongside you to comment on the action and share the emotion
of the on-field action. Bring sociable back!
Please sweat the big stuffQuad HD and large OLED are certainties, just a matter of economies
of scale. Similarly, 3-D TV, regardless of whether it achieves mass
adoption or not, will start to really take off when it ditches the glasses;
an event only about 10 years into the future, say Panasonic and
LG. And even if OLED doesn’t deliver, we still want roll-up screens
along the lines of current projector screens, only with all the video-
processing circuitry built in, so they simply roll out and display an
incredible HD picture; no blackout and no projector required.
And lastly, forget the powered swivel stand but instead how
about incorporating some of that delicious ‘Witricity’ into its base
so that it becomes a charging mat, in effect, and charges the
batteries in your universal remote, or a game controller, say, when
you put it down there?
Maybe one day, we’ll just have three pipes – red, green and
blue – protruding out of the wall that will then project a huge,
3-D panorama right into the middle of our living rooms. Until
then, we’re pretty happy with the way that the innovations in
TV technology have begun to provide more of what we want, in
terms of improved picture and sound quality, convenience, power
efficiency and aesthetics, rather than brutish physical size. n
As we fall further in love with the idea of hang-on-the-wall viewing, televisions are becoming ever thinner – some less than 1cm thick – necessitating the use of a separate media box for housing TV tuners and video processing circuitry
30
After years in the planning, Australia’s radio airwaves are about to go digital. Anthony Fordham explains what’s in it for you
How’s your digital content these days? Let’s
see: HD digital TV, check. Digital photographs,
check. Digital video via a super-slim hard-drive
or memory-stick based camera, check. Personal
music, check! Radio…
Hang on, how did we miss this one? Of the wide range of media
available to Australians, none commands more listener-hours than
radio. There are between 50 and 70 million radios currently in use
– cars, portables, clock radios, even high-end AV tuners – yet until
May 2009 not one of them will accept a digital signal.
It seems mad, really. We have free-to-air digital television
broadcasting at 1080i with surround sound, which is no mean
technical achievement. So why don’t we have simple stereo
digital radio broadcasts?
Well, the good news is that now we do. Thanks to a claimed
$300-400 million of infrastructure investment and nearly a
decade’s work on the part of groups like Commercial Radio
Australia (the CRA) – which comprises around 98 percent of
the country’s commercial radio broadcasters – a whole bunch
of radio manufacturers and
distributors, and of course
retailers, digital radio is
set to commence regular
broadcasts in Australia, in
May 2009.
Why so long?When we ask CEO of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner,
why digital radio has taken so long to get here, she actually
responds that the process has been relatively quick.
“We’ve been working on this directly since 2003,” she says.
“It’s not as simple as saying let’s do a new tech and then rolling
it out.”
Warner explains that it’s important to Australia’s radio
broadcasters that every possible standard and technology be
examined and rated for suitability. There are also many behind-
the-scenes questions that needed to be answered: who would
control the transmission system? Would existing broadcasters
get exclusive access to the new tech, and for how long?
And because the airwaves are public property, big decisions
such as adding digital radio to the existing radio landscape have
to be backed up by government legislation.
It’s hardly a glamorous start for a new tech: locked in
committee rooms full of overhead projectors and whiteboards.
Still, all that’s behind us now, and it’s time to get the
ball rolling on digital radio. But what exactly is
digital radio?
Why we needdigital radioCurrent AM and FM broadcasts are analog. Your
receiver converts the electrical signal directly
into audio. You might have a radio that provides
some kind of audio fi ltering or processing,
but the signal is intrinsically degraded by the
transmission process.
Product with the Digital Radio Plus logo – the offi cial name of digital radio in Australia – supports DAB+ broadcasts
31
AM and FM suffer from all sorts of disadvantages. They
take up a lot of bandwidth, so the number of channels that
can be carried is limited. They’re vulnerable to ‘crosstalk’ –
with stations overlapping each other. And of course we’ve all
experienced static and loss of signal.
In fact, there are many similarities between the digital radio
experience and digital television. Digital radio gives a solid
signal, without any fuzz or static. You’ll also tune in to ‘named’
stations instead of esoteric numbers like 106.5 or 88.1 – just
select ‘ABC Radio National’ from a list on your receiver.
The standard for digital radio – in Australia it’s called DAB+
– specifi es that receivers must have a two-line text display.
But this isn’t just for station names. Broadcasters can also add
metadata to their transmissions, including playlist information,
weather reports, anything really.
“Hearing is believing with digital radio,” says Warner.
“Listeners are going to be really excited once they get the
opportunity to actually experience digital.”
She says that with the ability to show text, and even
images, digital radio has a natural “wow factor” built in. It will
dramatically refresh our oldest and perhaps most undervalued
broadcast medium.
In the beginningThe Digital Audio Broadcasting standard, DAB, was developed
in 1988 and formalised in 1993. Continental Europe and the UK
started broadcasting in 2000, and it’s estimated that by 2006
around 500 million people lived in coverage areas for digital radio.
But the history of DAB is somewhat chequered, and that’s
why we won’t be using it here in Australia. Instead, we’ll use the
upgraded DAB+ standard. So what’s the difference?
DAB predates most compressed audio devices such as
personal players and even affordable home PCs, so it uses
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II compression (called MP2). This was good
enough in the early ’90s, but it had a major drawback: digital
stations had poorer audio quality than FM!
With the ability to show text, and even images, digital radio has a natural ìwow factorî built in. It will dramatically refresh our oldest and perhaps most undervalued broadcast medium
Many of the fi rst digital radio devices support alarm clock and iPod functions
32
Yes, DAB eliminates crosstalk and static, but it sounds a lot
worse than a CD. Adding insult to injury, some stations broadcast
their music in mono to save on bandwidth.
Analog radio gets a slice of the spectrum to use, and has a
KHz ‘slot’ on the band. Digital radio does too, but since it’s digital,
the amount of content is actually measured in kilobits per second
(kbps), just like when you encode an MP3 at different quality
settings.
Here in Australia, digital channels will be given a maximum of
192kbps per channel. It’s possible to split this bandwidth up, assign
it to different sub-channels or use it for text, and that’s part of
what’s so great about digital radio.
But in countries that use DAB, not DAB+ like Australia, any
reduction in bandwidth has a massive effect on audio quality,
because of the MP2 compression.
DAB+, on the other hand, uses AAC+ compression, just like
iPod. It’s more efficient, and it means a 64kbps audio stream
sounds fantastic, much better than FM. DAB+ also has better
error correction, and when it comes to a digital signal, error
correction makes all the difference between uninterrupted music
and constant dropouts.
There’s more: in the UK for instance, initial digital broadcasts
Digital raDio programming
Content will drive the take-up of digital radio by consumers, but like all new technology before it, digital radio finds itself in the classic chicken and egg scenario. How can broadcasters fund the creation of compelling new content if listeners aren’t buying digital radio receivers, and why should consumers buy new hardware when there’s no compelling content to listen to?
Many digital radio stakeholders, then, are taking a slowly-slowly approach to the roll-out of DAB+. Bush, Grundig, Sangeon, Pure Audio, Tivoli Audio, Arcam and Roberts, for example, will have radios for sale at launch, but the
bigger electronics names – Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sanyo and Yamaha and Onkyo – are holding off till later in the year.
The public broadcasters and commercial networks aren’t being ambitious either, with none giving much away regarding their content plans, other than to say current analog stations will be simulcast in digital during the initial broadcasting period. At the very least, then, sound quality will be improved, but longer-term, digital radio promises listeners much more, and far greater programming choice.
Like more stations with
programming unique to digital channels. This may include music specials, extended interviews, comedy highlights, sports events, radio plays and catch-up radio where programming highlights from a broadcaster’s primary channel is repeated.
As the technology gains traction, compatible receivers may also be able to display broadcast images of music artists, radio personalities, album art, a weather map or picture of traffic conditions. Advertisers may be able to show pictures and logos, display prices, opening hours, store locations and website addresses.
Australian digital radios will display text provided by the broadcaster, such as race results, phone numbers, news alerts, song titles or shop opening times
33
raDio Daze
didn’t work indoors! It was only available in the car or on
portable systems. And the way that ownership of the actual
transmission system – the multiplexers that create the signal –
was set up, meant broadcasters had to pay huge fees to access
the technology, and that naturally impacted on the quality of
programming.
World’s best for OzAustralia aims to avoid all these problems, as Warner explains:
“From day one we want to offer a complete system. We’ve learnt a
lot from overseas.
“We have in-building coverage, we have very high coverage
for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and the
broadcasters hold the multiplex licenses.”
Warner also points to the relationship that the CRA has with
DAB+ device retailers. “Our relationship is unique in the world, we
work very closely with retailers and keep them in the loop. This
means on launch you can hear about digital radio and then go
into a store and buy a suitable device.”
She sums up the whole project as offering the broadcasting
industry real freedom. “It’s a freedom to implement features and
services to suit listeners. It’s all about listeners.”
Indeed, listeners are the whole point of digital radio, and
Australia has no shortage of radio listeners. What’s more, we have
an unusually high proportion of AM listeners: 48 percent.
This makes us ideal candidates for a switch to digital radio, as
the advantages over AM are in many ways even greater than over
FM. Check the boxes in this article for the details.
The hardware So the seeds are sown: the industry believes it has the right
system, and the business of digital radio is set up in the right way.
But all of this will come to nought if you, the listener, can’t go out
on May 1 and buy a great DAB+ capable radio.
DaB+ vs am
Compared to AM, DAB+ has vastly superior audio quality. It’s essentially like travelling to your favourite AM station and camping outside the studio, listening to the direct monitor feed. What’s more, since voice gets away with a lower bitrate than complex music, stations will be able to split their signal and pipe several channels at once.
Three football games you really want to follow? You no longer have to rely on the station to choose when to cross to each game: the signal will split, and all three will be available for you to select. What’s more, a radio text layer will display live scores on the radio’s screen.
The radio industry claims to have spent $300-400 million tooling up for digital radio broadcasting
34
Retailers are in many ways the keystone to digital radio.
Suppliers such as Pure and Bush will distribute a huge range of
products that handle DAB+, and you’ll be able to fi nd them at
major electronics stores.
Both Pure and Bush understand that digital radio won’t be for
everyone right away, and so the fi rst run of devices will cater for
users who want to be the fi rst on deck with the new tech, or who
are looking for a style statement for their homes.
Indeed, most of the fi rst generation DAB+ devices will be
standalone clock radio style units, with their own speakers.
Entry-level units, from $169–199 will have a single speaker, but will
have analog audio outputs so you can connect them to a bigger
speaker system for stereo.
More expensive units (around $499) will have compact stereo
speakers, and many will also function as iPod docks.
At the top end ($999), the units are still self-contained, but
feature internet connectivity and digital audio outputs. Internet
connectivity means they’ll also function as internet radios,
connecting to a server and giving listeners access to thousands of
stations worldwide.
DaB+ vs Fm
DaB+ in tHe Car?
The older DAB system used in Europe was actually inferior to FM in terms of pure audio quality. But DAB+ uses a better compression system, and stations can choose to dedicate most of their bitrate to a specifi c channel if they want to provide a very high-fi delity audio experience. Because DAB+ can change the bitrate on the fl y, you might listen to a discussion on Mozart on ABC Classic Digital at 64kbps, and then the actual concerto that plays immediately afterward will be boosted to 128kbps.
DAB+ also supports MPEG Surround, so it will be possible for broadcasters to create immersive live concert experiences by piping the crowd to your rear speakers.
Initially, there won’t be head-units with integrated DAB+ for car audio. Instead, you’ll use a separate module that sticks onto the windscreen like a GPS unit. These units will connect to your existing incar system via an aux plug, though if you’re pressed you can also have
the DAB+ module rebroadcast to your car’s analog tuner via FM. That’s hardly ideal of course, but it will massively improve AM
reception, and of course you’ll get all the other benefi ts, such as an increased number of
channels and meta-data on the module’s display. Initial in-car units will cost around $299.
Commercial radio stations in Sydney Melbourne Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart will commence regular digital radio transmissions in May 2009. No timetable has yet been set for regional and rural Australia
Pricing for the fi rst digital radios will start at around $200, with high-end units starting at $1000
No matter the price-point, every system will adhere to
the DAB+ standard, and will include a display that will show a
minimum of two lines of text. Here, you’ll be able to scroll through
stations and receive meta-data such as weather reports and
playlist information.
Digital radios available in other markets, namely Europe, offer
the ability to pause and rewind live radio, so you can answer the
phone without missing anything important, or listen again to take
down a phone number. Others have USB ports so that radio can
be controlled by a PC.
Future innovations may include the ability for listeners to buy
and download music tracks as they are listening to them on a
digital radio-enabled mobile phone. Electronic coupons to redeem
special offers from advertisers could be made available via digital
radios, and incar digital radios might integrate with satellite
navigation systems to provide real-time traffi c updates.
Go digital or dieManaging director of Pure Australasia, Graeme Redman, believes
digital radio is key to the future of the medium.
35
raDio Daze
“If we don’t go digital, radio will lose its relevance,” he says. “It
might take 10–15 years to complete the change, but we have the
best infrastructure for digital in the world. And the support from
the CRA is key; they have really championed digital.
“Radio is a very taken-for-granted medium. It’s just there, but
DAB+ has the potential to offer information and entertainment
like nothing else. It’s the only concurrent medium – we’ve always
said, you can listen to radio while doing something else.”
Redman believes DAB+ will be a real boon for in-car
entertainment.
“Australia has this incredible AM listener base. In Melbourne
the two highest rating channels are 3AW and ABC, both AM. But
when you’re sitting in traffic, the interference on these channels is
terrible. DAB+ will do away with all that.”
Redman is especially excited about the way DAB+ can change
the bitrate from program to program. He anticipates information-
dense programs with talk and meta-data, then giving way to high
quality music, all on the one station.
The days of having to choose between high quality music
(FM) and talk (AM) will be over. Even if it takes a decade and a
half, the main players in the digital radio game – broadcasters,
manufacturers and retailers – believe it will be more than
worth it. n
DaB+: tHe BreaKDoWn
What is it? Digital radio transmission, using a compressed signal that will be decoded by a receiver. Australia will use the DAB+ standard, which has superior compression, better error correction, and gives better sound quality when decoded.
When will it launch? Commercial radio stations will begin broadcasting in metropolitan areas from mid-May 2009, with ABC and the SBS to follow on 6 August. While 2020 has been mooted as a possible switch-off date, no official timetable exists for shutting down the analog radio broadcast spectrum.
Where can I get it? If you live in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, or Perth you should be able to receive it indoors or out. Depending on your location, you may find yourself in a black spot.
How much is it? The broadcast is free-to-air. However, you will need to buy a DAB+ compliant receiver.
What kind of receivers are there? This year, most DAB+ units will be standalone clock-radio style devices. Entry-level units, at about $200, will be mono. Mid-range units will incorporate iPod docks and cost $500. High end units will start at $1000, have very high quality audio and digital outputs.
What can I listen to? Your favourite commercial radio stations will simulcast in DAB+. As the system matures, secondary channels will come online, similar to ABC2 on digital TV, with additional content and programming. Austereo has announced that its Radar digital station will offer unique programming from unsigned Australian music acts.
What’s the screen for? DAB+ units have a display – with a minimum of two lines of text – to show information such as the name of the song playing, a playlist of the music or shows ahead, or even traffic and weather reports. Down the track, it may also display images.
How good will it sound? Broadcasters can decide this on the fly. The bitrate will be restricted when audio quality isn’t important, making room for metadata such as weather and traffic reports. Dedicated music stations will boost bitrates, giving audio quality that is equivalent to encoding music for your portable player at a ‘high’ or even ‘CD’ quality.
I need more information! Follow the progress of the launch at the official website: www.digitalradioplus.com.au
The CRA says we can expect double the number of commercial services (with commercial owning 80 percent of the listening audience) to metropolitan areas from mid-May. To this we can add the five incumbent ABC stations plus their three new services, and SBS with its additional services
OBJECTSOF DESIRE
36
Bang & Olufsen
BeoSound 5$8995Bang & Olufsenwww.beosound5.com
www.bang-olufsen.com
37
BeoSound 5 The BeoSound 5 system is targeted at
‘hardcore’ B&O’ fans, bachelor execs looking
to impress their mates or female visitors to
their docklands pad, and particularly older
music fans – that’s music fans who have seen the years
grace them with maturity and wisdom, not necessarily
fans of the harpsichord or Neanderthal fl utes – who are
tentatively making their fi rst move towards digital music.
Their reluctance to do so is well advised because, in
most cases, that move to digital music comes with a huge
drop-off in quality sound reproduction, given the highly
compressed nature of most digital music tracks. So the
iPod might have put them off for a few years, but there’s
no doubting the convenience and accessibility of digitising
music and sticking it all on a central media hub.
This is what Danish maestros Bang & Olufsen have
achieved with the BeoSound 5, but they’re aiming to do so
without losing the tactile pleasures associated with handling
a beloved music collection. So the BeoSound 5 exhibits
trademark B&O industrial design ethics – the sleek, minimalist
lines, and use of aluminium in a reassuringly solid construction
that oozes class – and is controlled at the colour display panel
by a trio of metal rings that respond to the lightest touch.
Designed to be operated with one hand – you’ll have
your glass of Chateau Lafi te in your other hand, naturally
– the unit also gives a respectful nod to one of the most
popular and enduring products in the company’s classy
lineup, the six-CD changing BeoSound 9000 that proudly
displays the CD labels on its cuff as the nifty changer
whizzes up and down doing its stuff.
Like that product, the BeoSound 5 shows off the music
stored on the hard drive, but this time displaying the CD
covers digitally, as an arc of small thumbnail images that,
with a fl ick of the wrist, magnify to take up virtually the
entire 1024 x 768 LCD. Again, the intention here is that
you feel like you’re actually handling your recordings.
The 25cm LCD is the centerpiece of the unit, taking
up the only real estate that exists once the B&O installers
have visited your house to hide the speaker wires and
connecting cables away, as well as mount the BeoSound 5
on the wall or optional stand. Or, more accurately, install
the BeoSound 5 coupled with the BeoMaster 5 media
unit.
Paired up, the duo allow proud new owners to transfer
uncompressed or ‘lossless’ binary versions of their
favourite sounds onto the 500GB hard drive housed
inside the BeoMaster 5, which can be secreted away
in your media room, linked to the outside world by an
Ethernet cable. That 500GB capacity means you’ll get
around 80,000 songs (or digital photos), all without that
trade-off between the accessibility of having music stored
digitally and the accompanying audio quality. It plays
internet radio, too.
But the really clever part of the BeoSound +
BeoMaster equation is MOTS, or ‘More of the Same’. This
charmingly prosaic acronym effi ciently describes the
automation of a familiar and quite desirable function;
namely, to recognise what music you’ve chosen to play
on the system, and then to trundle off to the rest of your
collection, rifl e through it and create a playlist of tracks
that complement your choice.
In practice, this process is lightning fast, thanks to
a proprietary and award-winning algorithm developed
by B&O engineering geniuses to the point of being
instantaneous. Much more sophisticated than Apple’s
‘Genius’ offering, which makes its decisions based on
categories, such as genre or artist, MOTS looks deeper,
analysing tone, dynamics and rhythm.
So stump up $8995, pair the BeoSound 5 with the
powered speakers of your choice, and you can start
enjoying all the benefi ts of having your music delivered
digitally without the usual compromises.
New High Definition Satellite and Combination Satellite + Terrestrial Receivers continue to build theSTRONG range of MPEG-4 models. SRT 4900 and SRT 4910 boast outstanding features such asPersonal Video Recorder (PVR) functions, various high quality connections (including HDMI), embeddedCONAX CAS 7 and Common Interface Slots (for those with pay TV needs)…
• High Definition MPEG-4 reception• HE-AAC audio reception (Freeview Reception Capable)• PVR functionality when used in conjunction with External Mass Data Storage Devices of up to 1TB (e.g. Hard
Disk Drives) connected to either the eSATA or USB 2.0 Host port• 1920x1080i, 1280x720p and 720x576p/i Video Resolution Outputs• HDMI, High Definition Multimedia Interface Output• Component/RGB, S-Video and Composite Simultaneous Video Outputs• S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio Output• LAN Port for network connectivity• Superior Audio and Video outputs quality• MP3 Playback & JPEG Viewing via USB 2.0 Host Port• Vacuum Florescent Display (VFD)
STRONG Technologies PTY. LTD.
60 Wedgewood Road, Hallam, VIC 3803, Tel: 03 8795-7990, Fax: 03 8795-7991Helpdesk: 1800 820 030 - [email protected]
www.strong-technologies.com
New State-of-the-Art Additions to the
STRONGProduct Range:
SRT 4900 &SRT 4910
Newsletter - April 09:Layout 4 3/31/09 5:04 PM Page 1
39
When you want to get into home entertainment but need to learn more, our How to Buy section is the perfect starting point. Our expert advice and buying tips will help put you in the know before you venture onto the shop fl oor.
HOW TO BUY
67
4046
HOW TO BUY HD video players 40A guide to the multitude of high defi nition video players that are available, what they do, and what you should look for to get the best value and performance. By Thomas Bartlett.
Digital radios 46Digital radio launches in May and there will be a wide selection of products available, suitable for every taste and use. Nathan Taylor previews 12 of the fi rst models to hit stores.
BOX FRESH Reviewed in this Issue
Arcam FMJ T32 48Grundig GDR710DABIP 49Pure Chronos iDock 50Pure Evoke Flow 51Pure One Elite 52Pure Siesta 53Revo Pico 54Revo Uno 55Roberts Ecologic 4 56Roberts MP-Sound 43 57Sangean DPR-69 Plus 58Tivoli Audio NetWorks 59Defi nitive Technology Mythos 62Yamaha RX-Z7 64Epson EH-TW5000 66Sennheiser HD 800 68Kogan KGNBRVA 72Sharp Aquos BD-HP50X 72
Refl ex Action: Buyinga Digital SLR Camera 67If you watch the best moving pictures on a full HD television, then you capture the best still images on a D-SLR. It’s that simple, writes Byer Gair, as he explains the ins and outs of purchasing a Digital SLR
OUR RATINGSThe Home Entertainment star rating system indicates how any given product compares to other products in the same category and price range. A $1000 product that earns a fi ve star rating, for example, is not di-rectly comparable to a $10 000 product from the same category – the ratings are specifi c only to the product category and price range of the product under review. Products are rated for feature set, performance, price and ease of use. Where stated, an ‘Overall’ rating is an average of these areas of evaluation.
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
ReferenceExcellentGoodFairPoor
High defi nition content is increasing, and so too is the equipment for delivering it to your TV. Thomas Bartlett examines the many HD player options on offer
HOW TO BUY
41
Over the last couple of years, the Australian lounge
room has gone high defi nition. You will be hard
put, if you go to any of the major electronic
retailers, to fi nd an actual standard defi nition TV,
except in the very smallest sizes (ie. 38cm!)
All real TVs start with at least 1024 by 768 pixels of resolution,
and these days full high defi nition – 1920 by 1080 pixels – is
becoming commonplace.
The boxouts in this article go into this stuff a bit more deeply,
but essentially, what’s of interest is that these TVs deliver real
benefi ts from the multitude of high defi nition players that are
available. Here, we are going to guide you through what they
do, and what you should look for to get the best value and
performance.
Four fl avoursTo get a high defi nition picture you need a high defi nition source.
This has caused enormous amounts of confusion. Not all digital
TV is high defi nition, but some high defi nition material can be
found on digital TV. Here we’ll talk about free-to-air-digital TV,
but note that now Pay TV providers are delivering high defi nition
programming. You won’t get much choice in players, so talk to
your Pay TV provider about that.
TV: For free-to-air, you will need a HDTV receiver to get high
defi nition TV. That receiver may be built into your TV (almost
certainly will be, if you’ve bought it over the last two or three
years). Otherwise you may have a separate unit – the proverbial
‘set-top box’. This may be a plain ole vanilla receiver, or a receiver
with a hard drive for recording HD television.
Most LCD and plasma televisions are equipped with tuners for
HDTV reception, with forthcoming models integrating DLNA and
Ethernet connectivity for accessing SD and HD video from the
Web over a home network
Discs: For discs you will need a Blu-ray player. We know,
we know, various equipment vendors tell you about how their
upscaling 1080p DVD players produce a picture as good as Blu-
ray. They are wrong. We have compared dozens of Blu-ray discs
to their DVD equivalents, and in every single case the Blu-ray disc
has been better. In almost all of them, it has been obviously better.
Why wouldn’t it be? A Blu-ray has fi ve times the amount of
information in the picture as a DVD. No electronics can re-create
that from nothing.
Multimedia: Currently the laggard but coming up fast, there
is high defi nition multimedia video. This may be sitting on your
computer, or out there somewhere in internet-land. Increasingly,
equipment is allowing this to appear on your high defi nition
TV. For the most part, this equipment also does other stuff:
primarily, receive HDTV as well. So keep your eye out for these
additional multimedia functions when checking out specifi c
products.
DIY: Finally, wandering through an electronics retailer the
other day we noticed that some leading-brand high defi nition
camcorders were selling for under a thousand dollars. Yes,
you can create your own high defi nition material. But your HD
camcorder doubles as its own player, otherwise you will need
to use some other device to copy your recordings to a disc or
computer.
42
HOW TO BUY
hard disk. At any time you can rewind back a little to catch that bit
of dialogue you missed, or enjoy a scene again.
Other conveniences on offer include Electronic Program Guides
(EPG). Most TV stations broadcast along with their TV programs a
listing of forthcoming shows, sometimes up to several days ahead.
Your HD set-top box will list this in some kind of table format so
you can plan your viewing. PVRs will generally allow you to select a
program from this table to record. Highlight the program and press
the Record key, and your timer recording is set up.
Even more advanced innovations – such as the EPG provided
with the TiVo media device and the subscription service IceTV
(www.icetv.com.au) – allow automatic recording of programs that
bounce all over the schedule, and recommendations for other
programs based on the preferences you reveal when you set up
recordings.
Finally, quite a few HD PVRs include multimedia capabilities of
some kind or another. In particular, the Beyonwiz and Tvix units
can connect to your home network and play back multimedia
material – including high definition material – from your computer.
Gradually, provision is also being made for direct access to
internet material.
Disc spinners giving you choiceThe very best high definition you will ever see – even above
HDTV – comes from Blu-ray. In general, a decent home setup will
produce much better picture quality than you will see in all but a
very few real cinemas.
Upscaling DVD players improve picture quality from ordinary DVDs, but cannot generate all the extra detail inherent in video that is natively high definition. Website: www.toshiba.com.au
Wirelessly connected to a home network, Apple TV allows you to rent or purchase a selection of high definition TV shows and movies from the Apple TV library. Purchased content resides on the networked PC for viewing anytime, and can be copied to a portable player. Website: www.apple.com.au
AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) camcorders capture video in 1920 x 1080 resolution and, equipped with HDMI ports, can send HD footage directly to full HD televisionWebsite: www.canon.com.au
The Tivo media device is a twin tuner PVR with more; owners receive a free movie each week via its internet connection, weather channels, games and, for an additional fee, networking with a computer www.tivo.com.au
HDTV: It’s more than just high definitionBefore discussing high definition TV properly, we ought to note
that that the TV stations are using their HDTV channels for
more than just high definition. They are also using it for effective
multichannelling: providing different programs to their main
channel. So even if the beauty of HDTV resolution doesn’t thrill
you, it could be that you will enjoy the additional TV shows made
available by having access to HDTV.
But let us assume that HDTV is what you want, there is one
absolute essential, and then one major decision to be made.
The absolute essential is that your HD set-top box be fitted
with a HDMI output. We believe that all currently sold HDTV set-
top boxes have this, but we mention it because HDTV has actually
been available in Australia for several years, and older HD set-top
boxes which might be available second-hand may not have these
outputs.
HDMI is best because it keeps the picture in digital format all
the way from the airwaves to your TV, avoiding the damage that
comes from converting to analog along the way.
The major decision to be made is whether you want to time
shift or not. If you aren’t interested in this, your HD set-top box will
be quite inexpensive.
In order to view things (both SDTV and HDTV) at different
times to those at which they are broadcast, you will need a HD set-
top box that can record. This is better known as a personal video
recorder (PVR). In essence, it includes a computer-style hard
disk drive inside the box. Since the TV signal (after it has been
extracted from the radio waves) is digital, it is easily recorded on
the hard disk.
The features vary a little from unit to unit, but most include
a large enough hard disk drive for about 40 hours of HDTV
recording and two TV tuners so that you can record one show
while watching another, or record two shows at once. Most also
have a live pause feature. If you are watching a show and the
phone rings, you just press the Pause key and the unit will freeze
the TV picture and start recording the program to the hard disk.
Some units even ‘buffer’ live TV. That means they keep up to
an hour or two of the TV program that you’re watching on their
43
HD ViDeo Players
All Blu-ray players – including the Sony Playstation 3 – give you
HDMI output for the best picture quality. All current model players
of which we are aware – including the PS3 – can deliver the picture
in the preferred 1080p24 format provided on most Blu-ray discs.
This means that the high definition picture is delivered at 24
frames per second – just the same as the original film.
But not all Blu-ray players are the same. There are actually three
formal levels of Blu-ray player. First, there were the Grace Period
players. These are older models that were introduced prior to
November 2007. You can only get one of these second-hand now.
Then there are the fully capable final specification players,
now called ‘BonusView’. These allow you access to some of the
advanced special extras on some Blu-ray discs, such as picture-in-
picture video commentaries and the like.
Finally there are advanced Blu-ray players labelled ‘BD-Live’.
These players feature a network port so that they can be wired
into a home network (Wi-Fi models are expected to appear in
the near future). Through these they can access the internet and
download additional features for some discs, such as trailers for
other movies, or trivia tracks that can be played with a movie.
If this were an extra-cost option, we’d suggest you don’t worry
too much about it. But the entry-level models for the major
brands are already BD-Live capable, so you might as well expect
this to be included.
The advanced EPG in Foxtel’s IQ2 Pay TV set-top box enables automatic recording of favourite HD and SD shows up to a month in advance www.foxtel.com.au
What’s resolution all about?Walk around a shop selling TVs and you will soon notice the word ‘resolution’ printed on the information cards attached to said TVs. In this context resolution doesn’t mean a way to resolve a problem. It refers to the concept of ‘resolving detail’.
In short, the more dots of information in a video signal, the more detailed and sharper the picture will be.
With digital cameras we measure resolution in ‘megapixels’ – the total number of individual dots making up the picture, divided by a million. With TVs and various video signals we talk about pixels across, by pixels down. In all cases, ‘pixel’ stands for ‘picture element’. What it actually means is a single coloured dot.
Standard definition TV and DVDs have their picture held in a grid that is 720 pixels across by 576 pixels tall (720 x 576). Multiply them together and you find that the picture is a little over 400,000 pixels, 0.4 megapixels.
HDTV can be either 720p (1280 pixels across by 720 tall – 0.9 megapixels) or 1080i (1920 x 1080 – 2.1 megapixels). The main content on Blu-ray is almost always 1080i or 1080p (also 1920 x 1080).
If you have a full high definition TV and are watching Blu-ray or 1080i HDTV, then all your HD player has to do is pipe the video to the TV over the HDMI cable. Easy.
But what if you are watching SDTV? Or a DVD? Or you are watching Blu-ray on a 720p home theatre projector?
In each of these cases the resolution of the source has to be changed – it is called ‘scaling’ – to match the display. Your DVD has be up-scaled from 720 by 576 pixels up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. Or Blu-ray may have to be down-scaled from 1920 x 1080 to the 1366 x 768 pixel resolution commonly used by 127cm plasma TVs until the last year or so.
As a general rule, the best thing to do is have your source device send out the video in its original format. Your TV or other display will handle the scaling from the incoming signal’s resolution to its own resolution.
However, you may wish to experiment if your source – as virtually all do these days – has its own built-in scaler which allows the output resolution to be set. Try its scaler and see if it makes a noticeable difference.
We can say with certainty that HD players will continue to improve, continue to become more capable – and continue to converge as well in their functions
HOW TO BUY
ConvergenceSo far we’ve dealt with these sources as separate categories, but
the lines between them are in fact becoming increasingly indistinct.
For example, Panasonic has a disc spinner that incorporates a
HDTV PVR. LG’s new Blu-ray player promises to have direct access
to the near limitless resources of YouTube. It may not be HDTV, but
it will be immensely rich in content.
The PS3 provides both Blu-ray playback and enormous access to
both online and network-based media. A number of Blu-ray players
and HD set-top boxes and PVRs can play back additional material
from attached memory cards and external hard disc drives.
The day has not arrived yet – but we would expect to see
it within a very few years – in which products will appear that
support all functions. These future models will be full specifi cation
Blu-ray players with twin tuner HDTV reception and deep access
to both network and Internet media.
Shifting sands of supportAnother marker of these devices being part of the computer age
is that a new form of maintenance has become necessary: the
fi rmware upgrade.
Your Blu-ray player and your HDTV receiver are both
programmable devices. They perform their functions according to
computer programs that have been loaded into them. That means
that for some devices, new functions can be added even after the
device has assumed its position in your home.
Sometimes incompatibilities appear, with new Blu-ray discs
failing to work properly in existing players, or a subtle technical
change in a TV signal causing instability. These can all be corrected
without having to take the unit to the manufacturer’s service agent.
Basically, all this is done by downloading from a website
a new fi rmware – a computer program for the device which
typically ranges from fi ve or ten megabytes in size for most
HDTV PVRs, up to 90-odd megabytes for one Blu-ray player we
recently upgraded.
ten 10 hD PlaYersten 10 hD PlaYersten 10 hD PlaYers
Sony Playstation 3It may be a games machine and a network media player, but it is also a very capable Blu-ray player, including BD-Live. Excellent picture quality, fast in operation, it works best with the optional Blu-ray remote controlPRICE $699 (plus $49.95 for remote)WEBSITE www.playstation.com.au
Topfi eld TF7100 HD PVRt PVRTopfi eld delivers a full-blown twin tuner HDTV receiver and recorder. With 320GB of hard disk space, there’s plenty of room for recording the high defi nition versions of your favourite showsPRICE $899 WEBSITE www.topfi eld.com.au
Beyonwiz DP-P2 HD PVRAlso twin tuner, also with 320GB and, like the Topfi eld, with network capability, the Beyonwiz DP-P2 is also a network media
player, able to deliver your computer’s multimedia contents, plus live info from the Web via WizTVPRICE $999WEBSITE www.beyonwiz.com.au
Panasonic DMR-BW500 BD recorderWant to keep your recordings from free to air HDTV for a long time? This unit can copy them from its 500GB hard disk driver to recordable and rewriteable Blu-ray discs. Or it can down-scale them to regular recordable DVDs. Has BonusView support: PRICE $2199 (but available at a much lower street price)WEBSITE www.panasonic.com.au
Samsung HT-BD2T BD home theatre systemWe like our specialised (or rather expensive) loudspeakers and home theatre receivers, but Samsung can deliver you 7.1 channel Blu-ray performance in this moderately priced speaker/player/receiver combo.PRICE $1599 WEBSITE www.samsung.com.au
BD Live players are able to access the internet to download extra material related to some Blu-ray discs, and with Wi-Fi capable models becoming available by mid-year, achieve it without a wireless connection www.sony.com.au
Some HD PVRs connect to your home network, allowing you to playback music, photos and high defi nition material from your computer on your home entertainment systemDvico Tvix 3330 pictured; www.lakopacifi c.com.au
45
HD ViDeo Players
Even this process is eased by some devices. A number of Blu-
ray players, if they are connected to a computer network, check
out whether or not they are up-to-date every time they switch on,
and if a new fi rmware is available, they let you know.
Exciting timesWe are in the midst of a time of extraordinary creativity and
development when it comes to our high defi nition digital video
players. So we can say with certainty that HD players will
continue to improve, continue to become more capable – and
continue to converge as well in their functions. But even now,
there is a wide range of devices that cover HDTV or Blu-ray,
delivering superb high defi nition video to our wonderful, full
high defi nition displays. ■
Kogan KGNBRVA BD playerOne of the lowest cost Blu-ray players currently available, read our review in this issue (p72) and see that we were really rather impressed. It lacks BD-Live, but does have BonusView and, best of all, can play both Region A and Region B discs. PRICE $249WEBSITE www.kogan.com.au
Sony BDP-S5000ES BD playerAt the other end of the scale, Sony has a true premium player (the company also has two much lower cost models). Built to the highest standards, and with complete support for all the features offered by Blu-ray, this is one to keep for yearsPRICE $2299WEBSITE www.sony.com.au
LG BD370 BD playerJust as we were about to go to press, LG announced its latest Blu-ray player. If it’s as good as its last one, it will be the fastest player available and offer full BD-Live (as well as BonusView).
This new one promises the ability to link to YouTube to play back videos on your TVPRICE $449WEBSITE www.lge.com.au
TiVo TCD663160 HD Media Device At fi rst glance, this is just another HDTV receiver and personal video recorder, albeit with just one tuner and modest 160GB hard disk drive. But what makes Tivo special is the intelligent electronic program guide that watches for and automatically records the programs you want … or ones you might like. PRICE $699WEBSITE www.tivo.com.au
Pioneer BDP-LX71 BD playerPioneer’s current Blu-ray player doesn’t have BD-Live. But it does have BonusView, a solid build, front panel touch controls, the ability to change the output resolution with the touch of a key on the remote, and the best picture quality in the business. PRICE $1439WEBSITE www.pioneer.com.au
4545
ability to change the output resolution with the touch of a key on the remote, and the best picture quality in the business. PRICE $1439WEBSITE www.pioneer.com.au
The PS3 was one of the fi rst HD players capable of receiving fi rmware downloads over the internet, allowing it to keep pace with technology upgrades as they became availablewww.playstation.com.au
Equipped with Blu-ray drives, HDMI ports, HDTV tuners and large, high resolution screens, many of today’s multimedia notebooks perform double duty as workhorse computer and multimedia HD source/displaywww.toshiba.com.au
HOW TO BUY
46
DIGITAL RADIO
Digital radio makes its debut in May, promising better quality and a range of new features not available from current radio broadcasts. Nathan Taylor reviews 12 of the fi rst digital radio hatchlings.
DIGITAL RADIOS
47
Digital radio, especially Australia’s
DAB+ technology (as opposed to the
standard DAB used in the UK and much
of Europe), is to regular AM/FM radio
what digital TV is to analog TV. That is, it provides a
clean signal and more space on the airwaves for extra
stations, as well as a simpler method of fi nding and
tuning stations.
As with digital TV, digital radio is an all-or-nothing
proposition. Either you get the signal in full quality or
you don’t get it at all – it doesn’t deteriorate like FM
radio does. What might happen in a poor reception
area is that you receive intermittent signals, but for
the most part any digital radio reception you get will
be clean. Then it’s just up to the receiver to decode the
signal and the speaker to pump out the audio.
DAB and DAB+Digital radio has been broadcasting in Australia for
some time on a test basis, but it’s only in May that
DAB+ broadcasts will come online. Prior to this
most digital radio broadcasts (with the exception of
a couple of test channels and an ABC radio station)
will be primarily DAB, which provides a lower quality
level – low enough that FM radio would often sound
better than DAB, especially in areas of high FM radio
reception. This has certainly been the experience in
Europe as well, where most digital radio broadcasters
use the old DAB system.
That’s because DAB broadcasting uses MP2
encoding on audio, which is a relatively ineffi cient way
of compressing the audio. Even at the common 192kbps
bitrate, it lost a lot of the depth of the original audio,
often sounding fl at in our tests, relative to FM. In effect,
DAB radio was like MP3 music compressed at a fairly
low bit rate.
DAB+ is a whole different ball of wax. It uses the
much more effi cient compression system called AAC+,
which delivers roughly three times the audio quality at
the same bit rate. At 128kbps, it produces audio that’s
nearly indistinguishable from CD-audio, and because
it’s digital it doesn’t suffer from the same kind of
interference as FM.
When we tested DAB/DAB+ products, which was
before the offi cial launch of DAB+, a number of stations
were broadcasting in 192kbps DAB, including Sydney’s
Nova 969, 2UE and several others. ABC radio had a
DAB+ test channel and there were two other 64kbps
DAB+ test channels as well. Even while we were testing,
64kbps test DAB+ channels were sounding better than
the 192kbps DAB channels available.
RadiotextAlong with the audio, it’s also possible for digital radio
stations to broadcast textual information. In many digital
radios, this appears as a scrolling text bar below the
station name. Most broadcasters will use this to provide
quick news updates, web addresses, call-in phone
numbers and details about the song currently playing.
In DAB terminology, this radiotext is called dynamic
label segment (DLS). FM radio has a similar technology
called radio data system (RDS), and RDS-capable radios
can receive and display program-associated text.
During our tests, many of the digital radio stations
were already using this feature. Nova 969 in Sydney,
for example, provided news fl ashes (a little like an
RSS news feed), traffi c updates, links to websites as
well information on the song currently playing. All
the digital radios we looked at supported this feature,
although those with two line displays often took an age
to scroll through the available information.
The hatchlingsAs is always the case, you will pay a premium to own new
technology. The most basic DAB+ clock radio product
will set you back several hundred dollars at least, and
higher end products can cost several times that again.
Some of the higher end products justify their price with
additional networking features, others with iPod docks
and CD players. Some, quite frankly, don’t justify it at all.
The good news is that, thanks the mature digital
radio market abroad, there is already a wide selection
of products available, suitable for every taste and use.
Already the range of digital radio products runs the
gamut, from basic portable to high-end internet radio
stations, and everything in between.
UPnP AV (universal plug and play audio/visual), alternately called DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a system that allows you to stream media across a wireless or wired home network to players situated around the home. For example, you can have your media collection stored on a PC in the study, but play music and videos and view pictures on devices in the lounge room or kitchen.
To have it work, you need to install and confi gure UPnP media server software on the PC. Windows Media Player has this software built-in, and several third-party applications (including free programs like TVersity) are available as well. Then you need to connect the UPnP/DLNA player to the network and it and should (hopefully) fi nd the media server and list the media it fi nds on it. Then you just select the video or music track you want to play or the pictures you want to view.
WHAT’S THIS UPnP THING?
48
HOW TO BUY
The component-sized Arcam FMJ
T32 tuner is a product designed
for the hardcore radio enthusiast.
It’s expensive, heavy and doesn’t
have integral speakers, but it delivers incredible
audio quality, easily the best of any product
reviewed here.
With gold-plated connectors, a Wolfson
8740 digital-to-analog converter and high
performance preamps, the Arcam FMJ T32 is
designed to deliver audiophile-quality output.
And that it does. On good-old FM radio it picked
up details that made most other tuners sound
muddy in comparison. The difference between
the Arcam and less expensive devices was less
evident when it came to digital radio, but it
still delivered the cleanest sound of any device
tested.
It’s a device that could make better use of
the features of digital radio, however. Setting
it up initially is a process best described as
arcane, with indecipherable button labels and
a tuning process that was slower than most.
The small display is not large enough to show
off much textual information associated with
DAB+ broadcasts, and storing presets can be
a little fi ddly. Indeed, DAB+ support seems
almost tacked on in the Arcam, which is
disappointing.
It comes with a universal CR90 remote
control that’s designed to manage your entire
fl eet of Arcam devices, not just the T32 – so
it’s rather more complicated than it needs to
be. It also has two pairs of stereo RCA outputs,
making it suitable for multi-room use, and
there’s also an RS232 control socket, which can
be technically used to remote control external
audio devices (such as iPods) connected to the
input audio jacks. Arcam actually offers an iPod
dock add-on that uses this socket, and allows
you to use the T32 to play back audio from the
iPod.
If you’re looking for the very best sound
from your radio, it’s hard to overlook the Arcam.
However, its digital radio features are sadly
limited, and for this reason it’s a little hard to
recommend it in a roundup of digital radio
tuners. We’re hoping that in the near future
Arcam will develop a device that will take the
unique capacities of digital radio into account
– timeshifting, recording, associated text
information – giving us the opportunity to listen
to near-perfect audio with the full feature set
that DAB+ makes possible.
ARCAM FMJ T32
RATINGS
Price: $1898Warranty: 2 years (5 with registration)Contact: Absolute Audio Vision(02) 9764 5092www.arcam.co.ukFeatures: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS), AM radioSpeakers: noneOutputs: 4 x RCA audio outputsInputs: stereo RCA aux, external radio antennae (DAB, FM and AM), RS232 control socketNetworking: nonePower: mainsDimensions (WHD): 430 x 83 x 290mm
PROS Outstanding audio quality Two pairs of outputs for multi-room use
AM radio support
CONS Limited use of digital radio
features (associated text, timeshifting etc.)
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
ARCAMFMJ T32DAB/FM/AM TUNER
If you’re looking for the very best sound from your radio, it’s hard to overlook the Arcam
49
DIGITAL RADIOS
A combination digital radio
and iPod dock, the Grundig
GDR710DABIP boasts an unusual
tapering design, being thicker at
the bottom than top. The control buttons are
located on a thin fl at shelf at the front of the
radio, which can make them a little diffi cult to
access. Thankfully, it also comes with a credit-
card remote that provides fast access to the
major functions of the Grundig. The remote
works in all three of the Grundig’s modes: iPod
dock, FM radio and DAB+ radio.
Twin speakers are embedded in the radio,
although the quality of the audio output was a
little fl at, and even tweaking with the basic EQ
on the Grundig couldn’t do much to bring it to
life. Volume was also quite limited and tended
to distort at the higher ranges, especially in
DAB+ mode (which was annoyingly much
quieter than FM radio mode, necessitating
volume adjustment every time we switched
between them). Fortunately, it does have a
line-out, so you can plug it into a receiver and
use external speakers instead. Plugging our
test device into a pair of high quality speakers
produced rich tones and a depth lacking in the
integrated speakers.
The control system for the Grundig is
appealingly simple. There’s nothing remarkable
about any of the functions of the radio, but
changing and tuning channels is quick, as is
initial tuning and setup. You can quickly hop
between iPod mode, FM radio and DAB, and
the same controls function for all three modes.
A simple but well-illuminated two-line display
shows the current station or track on the fi rst
line, and any associated text on the second
(such as the now-playing information on
tracks).
It’s not a product that’s rich in features or
produces particularly good audio quality, but
the simplicity of the Grundig will no doubt fi nd
many fans. We never had to consult the manual
to do anything on it, and setup was as simple
as plugging it in and holding the ‘scan’ button
down for a few seconds to perform a full scan.
GRUNDIG GDR710DABIP
RATINGS
Price: $299Warranty: 1 yearContact: Bush Australia1300 131 072www.grundig.net.auFeatures: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS)Speakers: 2 x 7.5cm driversOutputs: 3.5mm stereo line out, 3.5mm headphone jackInputs: iPod dockNetworking: nonePower: mainsDimensions (WHD): 300 x 170 x 125mm
PROS iPod dock and DAB+ radio in one
Easy to use Neat remote
CONS Audio is a little fl at
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
GRUNDIG GDR710DABIP
You can quickly hop between iPod mode, FM radio and DAB, and the same controls function for all three modes
DIGITAL RADIOS
GRUNDIG
50
HOW TO BUY
Pure’s Chronos iDock is an unusual
combination of clock radio,
DAB+ tuner and iPod dock. It’s
a device that suffers from a
number of little design faults, like a screen with
a limited viewing angle (a no-no for a clock
radio), an unresponsive credit-card remote
and buttons that require too much pressure
to press, meaning you often have to hold the
radio in place with your other hand to prevent
it from sliding away when you press them.
Unfortunately, these little faults add up, and the
list of annoyances on the iDock makes it hard to
recommend.
It was also a little hard to test. It doesn’t
have an extendable antenna for DAB+ radio,
and it had trouble picking up the test stations
broadcasting during our review period. It
was only by holding the wire aerial at a
specifi c angle that we could get any
DAB+ reception at all. It picked up
FM radio just fi ne, however.
The iDock has dual
speakers, as befi ts an iPod
dock. The sound from the
oval drivers came across as
a little fl at in our testing, but
did provide a surprising stereo effect in spite of
their closeness. The dock itself comes with a half
dozen adaptors for different models of iPod, and
there’s also an aux-in port if you have an MP3
player that’s not an iPod.
The setup of the Chronos iDock is simple
and logical, although there is a sameness to
the buttons that makes controlling the radio
with bleary morning eyes challenging. The
prominent LCD screen, meanwhile, looks good
from the front, but from an oblique angle it’s
nearly impossible to read the time or see the
information on the display. It does have a few
nice touches to it, including large characters and
the capacity to manually scroll through the RDS
or DAB+ radiotext (which is great when you’re
looking for the ‘currently playing’ information
and don’t want to wait until its next
rotation).
It comes with a very advanced
alarm setup, with four presets, the
capacity to set the alarm for
weekdays or weekends and the
ability to set sleep times and
to choose your wakeup noise
from any source on the radio
– including an attached iPod.
PURE CHRONOS IDOCK
RATINGS
Price: $449Warranty: 2 yearsContact: Pure Australasia(03) 9722 2089www.pure.comTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS), iPodSpeakers: two 7.5cm x 3.8cm oval driversOutputs: 3.5mm headphonesInputs: 3.5mm aux-inNetworking: nonePower: mainsDimensions (WHD): 195 x 125 x 185mm
PROS Handy alarm functions iPod dock
CONS Poor viewing angle on screen Weak DAB+ reception
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
PURE CHRONOS iDOCK
51
DIGITAL RADIOS
With its retro-styling and simple
two-knobs, fi ve-buttons
interface, you could be
forgiven for thinking that
the Evoke Flow was one of the least advanced
digital radios on offer. In many ways the opposite
is true. The Flow has hidden depths that are at
least as compelling – if not more so – than its
core DAB+ tuning function.
With a single embedded 7.5cm speaker, the
Flow is styled after an old-fashioned kitchen
radio, though its touch-sensitive buttons, piano
fi nish and yellow-on-black OLED screen give it a
modern twist.
It tunes DAB+ radio as well as FM radio,
supporting 30 presets on the former and ten
on the latter. Perhaps its most compelling
feature is its Wi-Fi networking support, which
allows you to access music stored on a home
PC as well as listen to internet radio stations.
The former requires you to set up UPnP media
server on the PC – you can use Windows
Media Player on Windows, or download Flow
Server from thelounge.com, Pure’s internet
radio portal site. We found setting up Wi-Fi
easy, if a little slow (especially ‘typing’ in the
password).
Listening to internet radio stations is very
much like tuning into regular DAB+ or FM
stations. The Flow connects to thelounge.com
to retrieve a list of internet radio stations, from
which you can select your channel just as if
you were selecting a broadcast station. Usually
there is a brief buffering period, then the radio
broadcast kicks off.
You don’t have to register at thelounge.com
to use this service, but we’d recommend that
you do so, since there are roughly 9000 radio
stations to choose from, as well as 2600-odd
podcasts and ambient noise channels. Browsing
through them on your Flow can be fun, but it’s
far easier to use thelounge.com to select your
favourite channels. Thelounge.com will then
upload them to your radio and they will appear
in the Flow’s favourites list.
The least compelling element of the Flow is
the speaker. With the single driver, the Flow’s
audio output is not going to impress anybody.
It’s barely a tick above clock radio quality. But
connecting headphones or external speakers
(Pure’s cost $99) to the device delivers very clear
audio performance, if a little limited in terms of it
maximum volume output without amplifi cation.
We’re also big fans of the simple interface
of the Flow, and were particularly pleased
at how fast it is: fast to change channels
and modes, fast to tune and search for new
channels. Even its internet radio performance
was top notch, delivering both high quality
audio and fast buffering on the dozen
channels we tried.
All this makes the Evoke Flow a very
compelling buy indeed. It goes well beyond
simple DAB+ radio tuning – it’s a networked
media player and internet radio tuner as well.
You will never get bored with your radio again.
PURE EVOKE FLOW
RATINGS
Price: $699Warranty: 2 yearsContact: Pure Australasia(03) 9722 2089www.pure.comTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS), internet radio, UPnP/DLNA media serverSpeakers: single 7.5cm driver;additional speakers $99Outputs: 3.5mm stereo out, 3.5mm auxiliary speaker, 3.5mm stereo headphonesInputs: 3.5mm auxiliary input, USB (for optional external iPod/MP3 player dock)Networking: 802.11g Wi-Fi with WPA/WEP security supportPower: mains or batteryDimensions (WHD): 210 x 175 x 110mm
PROS Wi-Fi support for media streaming and internet radio support
Neat online service for fi ltering and selecting Internet radio channels
Fast tuning and general operation
CONS You’ll want to connect your own
external speakers
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
PURE EVOKEFLOW
52
HOW TO BUY
Another member of Pure’s
extensive line of retro-styled
digital radios, the One Elite is a
two-speaker FM and DAB+ radio.
It lacks the funky networking features of the
Evoke Flow and has a control interface that can
at times be counterintuitive, but does have a
few very neat features, including a time-shifting
capacity called ReVu that allows you to pause
and skip through live broadcasts, much like a
PVR does for TV.
The One Elite has twin 7.5cm speakers to pump
audio out, but lacks the capacity to connect to an
external speaker set. While the speakers deliver
decent audio for their size, they don’t really do
justice to the clarity of digital radio, and their
close proximity limits the stereo effect. When we
connected headphones to the Elite, however, the
radio delivered clean audio to the headset, rivalling
the best of the other digital radios reviewed here.
The Elite is controlled through a combination
of ten buttons and a dial, with most buttons
changing the function of the central dial. This
context-based control of the radio requires a
little getting used to, and can be rather painful
for some functions, and at times we found
ourselves wrestling with the system, especially
in respect to the ReVu function.
ReVu, which functions only in DAB+ mode
(not FM), allows you to pause or rewind for up
to 15 minutes. The fi rst press of the ReVu button
pauses the audio, a subsequent press restarts
the playback, and the dial then allows you to fast
forward and rewind through the buffered audio.
It takes some practice to work the fast forward
and rewind effectively, but once you get the
hang of it, it’s very cool, and can be used for ad-
zapping if you’re prepared to let the live audio
get a little ahead of you.
In addition to ReVu, it has several other
nifty features. It sports an alarm clock and
kitchen timer, up to 25 channel presets and the
capacity to pause the scrolling text that gets
broadcast with DAB stations, to better catch
web addresses and phone numbers. The text
pausing is pretty much a necessity, since the
Elite One only allows displays a single line of
text at any one time on its rather limited LCD
screen.
The Elite One is powered by mains or from
batteries, and Pure claims it will get 70 hours of
life from six alkaline C types, which makes it a
fair travelling companion or camp radio.
PURE ONE ELITE
RATINGS
Price: $299Warranty: 2 yearsContact: Pure Australasia(03) 9722 2089www.pure.comFeatures: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS)Speakers: 2 x 7.5cm driversOutputs: 3.5mm headphonesInputs: 3.5mm line-in, USB (for external MP3 player dock or software update)Networking: nonePower: mains or batteryDimensions (WHD): 256 x 155 x 88mm
PROS Can pause and rewind live radio Alarm clock and kitchen timer Fast tuning
CONS No external speaker
connections Small speakers
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
PURE ONE ELITE
HOW TO BUY
PURE ONE
Once you get the hang of it, it’s very cool, and can be used for ad-zapping
53
DIGITAL RADIOS
PURE SIESTA
RATINGS
Price: $199Warranty: 2 yearsContact: Pure Australasia(03) 9722 2089www.pure.comTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS)Speakers: single 7cm driverOutputs: 3.5mm headphonesInputs: noneNetworking: nonePower: mainsDimensions (WHD): 170 x 62 x 145mm
PROS Big, easy-to-press control buttons
CONS Poor viewing angle on screen Weak single speaker
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
PURE SIESTA
Energy-conscious buyers should also be pleased with the Siesta’s power consumption
The Pure Siesta is a product that
looks very much like the traditional
clock radio, with a single upward-
fi ring driver, large buttons designed
for half-awake morning users and a simple
design that’s light on the frills but easy to use
and control.
It uses a similar screen to the
Chronos iDock, and it shares the
same problems. The screen looks
great from the front, clean and
bright, with readily readable
text and time information.
View it from an angle,
however (as you might as
you peer bleary-eyed from
your bed in the morning)
and it’s almost unreadable.
It uses a wire aerial for
tuning, which can result in weak DAB+ reception,
depending on where you are. With a little fi ddling
we managed to get it to tune DAB+ radio during
the testing period, and the speaker produced
the kind of audio you’d expect from a small clock
radio. The audio was clear, but devoid of depth or
timbre. When we connected headphones to the
Siesta, however, that changed, and we listened to
clear, rich stereo DAB+ audio.
The Siesta supports three alarm presets, plus
advanced options for each, including the capacity
to choose what days the alarm goes off and its
volume. It’s fast and simple to set up.
Energy-conscious buyers should also
be pleased with the Siesta’s power
consumption. DAB+ isn’t exactly
an energy-effi cient technology,
but according to Pure the
Siesta uses only about 2
watts when active, and less
than 1 watt in standby,
which is very impressive
indeed.
In all, it’s a fair clock
radio, but as we’re seeing
a lot with these early DAB+ radios, the price is
rather steep for what’s on offer. At around $200
RRP, you’re paying a lot for the privilege of being
able to tune digital radio as well as FM, and a
clock radio speaker can’t really do justice to the
additional clarity offered by DAB+.
It uses a similar screen to the
Chronos iDock, and it shares the
same problems. The screen looks
great from the front, clean and
bright, with readily readable
volume. It’s fast and simple to set up.
Energy-conscious buyers should also
be pleased with the Siesta’s power
consumption. DAB+ isn’t exactly
an energy-effi cient technology,
but according to Pure the
Siesta uses only about 2
watts when active, and less
than 1 watt in standby,
which is very impressive
indeed.
radio, but as we’re seeing
54
HOW TO BUY
As the name implies, the Pico is
small. It’s not iPod-put-it-in-your-
pocket small, but the case would
be just large enough to hold a
drink can inside, which makes it more compact
than most other DAB+ radio’s we’ve seen, and
very much suitable for travel.
The front has a bright two-line display, a jog
dial with which you select your channel, and
a set of control buttons to switch modes and
control the volume. It’s very neat, very simple,
and we were very pleased at the speed with
which we could switch between digital radio
channels.
We were also pleasantly surprised with the
audio output of the Pico. The Pico’s integrated
speaker, although small, actually delivers audio
with remarkable depth and clarity. It’s mono,
of course, but the back of the Revo sports
RCA outputs for connecting to larger stereo
speakers. When we did so on our test device, the
stereo output was deep and rich with plenty of
detail and virtually no gremlins.
The front of the Pico also has a 3.5mm port
into which you can plug a portable MP3 player.
It’s not a proper iPod dock, however, so you
can’t use the Revo to control playback on that
particular MP3 device.
It has a non-changeable integrated lithium
ion battery that Revo claims will last for 12 hours
of DAB+ listening before needing a recharge. In
our testing it actually lasted rather less, going
for 10 hours before failing.
It also comes with a slimline remote with
which you can control both the FM and DAB+
radio playback. Conveniently it has buttons for
all 12 channel presets, making switching between
channels using the remote very fast indeed.
It’s not big on the bells and whistles, but what
the Revo Pico does, it does right. Quality audio,
a stylish and solid design, a user interface that’s
simple and logical and a useful remote make it
a product worth having. It doesn’t deliver the
audio quality of say, the Arcam FMJ T32 or have
the features of the Pure Evoke Flow, but as a
basic single-speaker DAB+ radio, it’s a winner.
REVO PICO DAB+
RATINGS
Price: $449Warranty: 1 yearContact: Bush Australia1300 131 072www.revo.net.auTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS)Speakers: single 5.7cm inch neodymium driverOutputs: 2 x RCA, 3.5mm headphonesInputs: M-Port line-in (3.5mm stereo)Networking: nonePower: mains or batteryDimensions (WHD): 167 x 105 x 105mm
PROS Good audio performance from a single speaker
Compact design Integrated li-ion battery
CONS Expensive for what’s on offer
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
REVO PICO DAB+
It’s not big on the bells and whistles, but what the Revo Pico does, it does right
55
DIGITAL RADIOS
Aproduct that’s similar in size if not
design to the Revo Pico, the Uno
is designed primarily for use as
clock radio. A tubular radio with
a single integrated speaker, all the controls are
found on the top rather than the front of the
device. Those controls are very simple, but that’s
not unexpected, since there is little to this radio
beyond its core tuning and alarm functions.
It’s DAB+ capabilities are not tremendously
compelling, and its single 5cm driver cannot do
justice to the extra clarity that DAB+ provides.
Grading that speaker on the clock radio
curve, we’d say that it’s a cut above most other
similar devices, delivering cleaner sound than
most other single-speaker clock radios. But
that’s not saying much, and the speaker isn’t of
high enough quality to demonstrate a qualitative
difference between digital and FM radio (though
there is a noticeable volume difference). You
can’t connect it to external speakers to improve
the audio quality, either – there is no line-out on
the Uno, though there is a headphone port.
It does have a line-in, however, that allows
you to plug an external device such as an MP3
player into the Uno. It’s not an iPod dock – you
can’t control the playback from the Uno – but
it does allow you to pipe your portable media
player through the Uno’s speaker.
Perhaps its most compelling feature is its
alarm clock, which allows you to set up to four
different alarms and gives you ridiculous levels
of control over their sound. You can set different
alarms for weekdays and weekends, have alarms
set to different times, go to different stations
and work at different volumes. The sleep button
is a broad touch-sensitive pad at the front of the
Uno that would be impossible to miss even in
the most sleep-muddled haze.
The Uno is mains-powered only and doesn’t
come with a remote control (though one is
available as an optional accessory). It’s also far
from the most compelling device we’ve looked at
here, and even if you like the Uno’s compactness
we’d recommend the Pico in its stead, especially
if alarm capabilities aren’t important to you.
REVO UNO
RATINGS
Price: $299Warranty: 1 yearContact: Bush Australia1300 131 072www.revo.net.auTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM Radio (with RDS)Speakers: single 5cm neodymium driverOutputs: 3.5mm headphonesInputs: 3.5mm line-inNetworking: nonePower: mainsDimensions (WHD): 105 x 167 x 105
PROS Excellent alarm setup Compact and stylish
CONS Weak speaker performance,
with no alternative output
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
REVO UNO
It does have a line-in, however, that allows you to plug an external device such as an MP3 player into the Uno
DIGITAL RADIOS
It’s a cut above most other similar devices, delivering cleaner sound than most other single-speaker clock radios
56
HOW TO BUY
With its somewhat retro
garage-radio styling,
copious dials and buttons
and quality speakers,
the Roberts Ecologic 4 portable radio is
going to be very appealing to many radio
enthusiasts. You don’t have to switch through
digital menus to choose stations, control EQ
settings or change the volume. There are
dials for all these things, as well as 14 more
buttons for fast access to preset stations and
other settings. With these fast and accessible
controls, as well as the very bright backlit
LCD we were immediately taken with the
Ecologic 4.
Its telescopic aerial quickly picked up all
the available digital channels in our area
during testing, and we found we could quickly
switch through channels using the FM tuning
dial. Ten presets for DAB+ radio are also
available (as well as ten more for FM).
The twin integrated 7.5cm drivers
produced audio that was rich and deep, even
managing to make the sometimes fl at MP2
DAB broadcasts sound appealing. It also has a
line-out connector, so you can hook it up to a
larger stereo system if you want to really blast
the audio, as well as a headphone connector if
you want a little private listening.
The Ecologic 4 is powered either from
mains or six D-cells, and Roberts claims that
you can get an extraordinary 150 hours from
alkalines using the radio. Admittedly, D-cells
are big batteries, and the radio can become
quite heavy when loaded with them (it weighs
2kg as is), but that’s a battery life that will
carry you through a long camping trip or
many days in the fi eld.
Overall, it’s not a product that has a lot
of cool extra frills, like internet access or
timeshifting, but its quality speakers, dial
controls and long battery life make this
an impressive product for its price, and a
recommended purchase.
ROBERTS ECOLOGIC 4
RATINGS
Price: $299Warranty: 1 yearContact: Glen Dimplex1300 556 816www.robertsradio.com.auTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS)Speakers: stereo 7.5cmOutputs: 3.5mm line-out, 3.5mm headphonesInputs: noneNetworking: nonePower: mains or batteryDimensions (WHD): 300 x 180 x 95mm
PROS Cool dial controls High quality speakers Long battery life
CONS Not big on extra DAB+ features
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
ROBERTS ECOLOGIC 4
Its quality speakers, dial controls and long battery life make this an impressive product for itas price, and a recommended purchase
57
DIGITAL RADIOS
Roberts’ MP-Sound 43 functions
as an iPod dock and CD player
as well as radio tuner – and it
performs all three functions very
well. It also manages to look good while doing
so, with its modern interface, clear two-line LCD
and piano fi nish.
Although it looks a little odd with its
telescopic antenna protruding out the back, that
antenna allowed it to pick up all the digital radio
stations in our test area perfectly. Using the
touch-sensitive buttons, we could quickly switch
between them or load them into one of ten
digital radio presets.
The speakers managed to output high
quality audio, showing off details that many
of the other integrated digital radio speakers
missed, even for FM and DAB (as opposed to
DAB+) audio. They’re certainly a cut above
most of the products we’ve reviewed here.
If the sound output is not big enough for
you, it also has a line-out with which you can
connect the MP-Sound 43 to a larger stereo
system.
The Roberts also impressed when we
played back music from an iPod and from a CD
fi lled with MP3 tracks. It managed to give the
compressed audio a unusual depth, rivalling
some of the best iPod docks we’ve seen. The
CD support also extends to WMA, but it doesn’t
read embedded tags for sorting tracks on CD.
It does, however, have handy buttons for folder
navigation on data CDs.
The MP-Sound 43 comes with a proper, full
remote (unlike the usual credit-card remote
you often get with digital radios). The remote
has all the buttons you need to operate the
radio, including numbered buttons for quick
track skipping and access to FM and DAB+ radio
presets.
On top of all that, the MP-Sound 43
incorporates an alarm system that can even play
music from an attached iPod. It supports two
presets and a confi gurable snooze time.
This impressive multi-functionality makes
the MP-Sound 43 a worthwhile purchase.
While it would have been nice if it had a few
more digital radio features (like timeshifting or
controllable radio text), it’s still an impressive
product overall.
ROBERTS MP-SOUND 43
RATINGS
Price: $799Warranty: 1 yearContact: Glen Dimplex1300 556 816 www.robertsradio.com.auTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS), iPod, CDSpeakers: 2 x 7.5cm driversOutputs: 3.5mm line-out, 3.5mm headphonesInputs: 3.5mm aux-inNetworking: nonePower: mainsDimensions (WHD): 325 x 112 x 220mm
PROS Multifunction CD player, iPod dock and digital radio
Good quality speakers Useful remote
CONS Could do more with digital radio
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
ROBERTSMP-SOUND 43
DIGITAL RADIOS
ROBERTS
It managed to give the compressed audio a rare depth, rivalling some of the best iPod docks we’ve seen
58
HOW TO BUY
The most compact of the digital
radios we’ve looked at, the
Sangean DPR-69 Plus is a portable
travel radio, not quite small enough
to fi t into a pocket, but certainly handbag-ready
and only 348 grams. It’s powered by either
four AA batteries or mains power, and Sangean
claims that a set of alkalines can provide up to
25 hours listening on the road. It also supports
rechargeables, and even includes an adaptor
that allows you to recharge batteries without
taking them out of the radio.
It has a single 75mm loudspeaker for audio
output, and it supports stereo headphone output
as well, but has no connectors for external
speakers. With power output of just 0.5 watts, it
isn’t really going to be your best option when you
want to crank up the tunes, and in any case the
audio tends to be a bit muddy at the top volumes
supported, especially for FM radio. The quality
improved somewhat when we switched to DAB+
channels, which produced much cleaner sound.
Connecting high quality headphones also helped,
and although the volume was quite limited, AAC+
audio came through the headphones clearly and
with plenty of detail.
It supports up to fi ve presets each for FM
and DAB radio, and switching between channels
is easy and fast. A logical control system is
supported by a simple backlit two-line LCD
showing the current channel and any radiotext
that might be associated with it (commonly
news updates or currently playing information).
It’s not a pretty radio, nor is it the source of the
highest quality audio on the market, but it is just
about the most portable digital radio you can get
right now, suitable for campers and travellers or
for workers who tend to move about during the
day. Given its lack of extra features or external
outputs, however, it feels a little pricey for what
amounts to a basic portable radio, the FM
equivalent of which would cost you half as much.
SANGEAN DPR-69 PLUS
RATINGS
Price: $239Warranty: 1 yearContact: Canohm 1800 636 026www.sangean.com.auTuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS)Speakers: single 7.5cm driverOutputs: 3.5mm headphonesInputs: noneNetworking: nonePower: mains or batteryDimensions (WHD): 161 x 106 x 37mm
PROS Portable and light Easy to use
CONS Weak-ish speaker
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
It’s not a pretty radio, nor is it the source of the highest quality audio on the market, but it is just about the most portable digital radio you can get right now
HOW TO BUY
SANGEAN DPR-69 PLUS
DIGITAL RADIOS
59
Easily winning the prize for the
most unusual-looking product in
the roundup, Tivoli’s Networks
looks like a single standard
wooden speaker with a monochromatic blue-
on-black LCD screen embedded in it. It’s also
easily the most ambitious of the digital radios
reviewed here, supporting internet radio as well
as DAB+ and media playback from USB storage
devices and networked PCs.
All these features can make the Tivoli
quite complex, and the interface to access the
features is not always intuitive, but once you get
everything set up it’s a very cool dude indeed.
Starting with DAB+ audio, it delivered clean
sound through its single speaker, and a speaker
port at the bottom allows you to connect a
matching second speaker available from Tivoli
for full stereo support. Singly, or working
together with a second speaker, it produced
very high quality sound when listening to both
DAB+ and FM radio. It also tuned and switched
channels quickly, and setting a preset was as
simple as holding down a number on the remote
for a few seconds.
Switching over to internet radio required
only the pressing of the ‘Source’ button on
the remote. The NetWorks can connect to
the internet through either wired or wireless
networking, and both worked seamlessly for us.
Being connected allowed us to browse through
hundreds of internet radio stations, sorted by
genre and/or country. Not all the stations were
online when we tried them, but it easy enough
to go back and browse more. It’s not as slick an
internet radio interface as that offered by Pure
in the Evoke Flow, but it worked well enough to
make it compelling.
Finally, there’s the option of listening to your
own music collection. A USB interface on the
back allows you to plug in your MP3 player, USB
hard disk or thumb drive and listen to music
from it. It can also talk to networked PCs with
fi le shares, even supporting standard Windows
fi le sharing in addition to UPnP AV shares. It
works beautifully, even though initial setup can
be fi ddly thanks to things like fi le passwords on
fi le shares. The output quality of MP3 and WMA
playback is outstanding.
On the downside, the unusual design of
the NetWorks is a major
drawback. All the controls
except for the snooze
button (it has a basic alarm
function) and volume dial
are located on the back of
the device, necessitating that
most of the time you have
to use the supplied credit-
card remote. That remote
has thin, diffi cult-to-press
buttons and is just painful
to use for extended periods.
This is a defi nite case of
allowing design to triumph
over function. Yet in spite of
this, the excellent feature set of the Tivoli makes
it a very compelling product indeed, even at the
steep asking price.
The verdictOf the products we looked at, it’s hard to go past the Pure Evoke Flow
for features and fun, and that would be our pick of the batch. It’s a
combination digital radio, internet radio and network media player. It’s
slick and easy to use, had the best display of any radio and was beautifully
integrated with an online music and radio service. It’s expensive, but it
changes the radio experience dramatically.
Tivoli Audio’s NetWorks worked in a similar way, and had even more
features and better sound than the Evoke Flow, and may well have been
our editor’s pick if it weren’t for the price and the control system. A word to
Tivoli Audio – if you’re going to force us to use a remote, at least give us a
good remote.
Other highly commended products include the Pure One Elite and the
Roberts MP-Sound 43. ■
TIVOLI AUDIO NETWORKS
RATINGS
Price: $999Warranty: 1 yearContact: Audio Dynamics(03) 9882 0372tivoliaudio.com.au Tuning: DAB/DAB+, FM radio (with RDS), Internet radio, USB audio, networked PC audio Speakers: single 3.5 inch integrated speaker (matching second speaker available; $179)Outputs: RCA speaker output, 3.5mm headphones, 3.5mm subwoofer, 3.5mm rec outInputs: USB, 3.5mm aux in, 3.5mm mix inNetworking: 802.11g Wi-Fi wireless networking, fast Ethernet wired networkingPower: mainsDimensions (WHD): 140 x 222 x 130 mm
PROS Listen to internet radio, or your own music collection via USB or network
Excellent audio quality Plenty of inputs and outputs
CONS Interface can be technical Controls situated around back, forcing you to use a sub-standard remote
Overall
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
TIVOLI AUDIO NETWORKS
the NetWorks is a major
drawback. All the controls
except for the snooze
button (it has a basic alarm
function) and volume dial
are located on the back of
the device, necessitating that
most of the time you have
to use the supplied credit-
card remote. That remote
has thin, diffi cult-to-press
buttons and is just painful
to use for extended periods.
This is a defi nite case of
allowing design to triumph
over function. Yet in spite of
The verdict
60
BOX FRESH
Scooping an innovation award at the recent
CES show in Vegas, the successor to the 1100i
programmable remote should be on shelves in
Australia by the time you read this. Harmony’s VP
in the States reckons the unit’s mission is “to simplify today’s
complex home entertainment systems” and any regular reader
of this magazine will certainly identify with that objective! But
does the new 1100i achieve its lofty goal and, particularly with
the advent of HDMI-CEC, is it worth you investing the dollars?
Setting upThings start well – the packaging is very good quality, conveying
the feeling that you’ve bought something valuable. Out of the box,
the most apparent change is the new livery, now presenting itself
in the near-ubiquitous ‘piano’, or gloss black, fi nish rather than
its predecessor’s more classic silver body which, depending on
your personal home entertainment setup, could be a blessing or
a curse.
The ‘quick setup’ guide folds open into a rather obtrusive
size and, disappointingly, instruction no. 3 informs you you’re
going to have to wait fi ve hours for the battery to charge
before you can use your new toy. Why Logitech can’t include
a pre-charged battery with such an expensive item, goodness
LogitechHarmony 1100i
This time around, the [Foxtel IQ’s] coloured buttons, the ‘back’ button and several others are there right away, as standard
61
LOGITECH HARMONY 1100I
knows – if Duracell can do it with their
rechargeable AAAs, we don’t think it’s
too much to ask, is it?
So you’ve got plenty of time to go
off and install the Harmony Remote
software on your PC. To set the thing up,
you need to go through a Q&A process
with an online wizard. This has improved,
as have the various compatibilities with
the equipment you might wish to hook
up to the remote. Previously, adding
a Foxtel IQ box necessitated a lot of
‘tweaking’ to get the most-used buttons
up onto the remote’s screen. This time
around, the coloured buttons, the ‘back’
button and several others are there right
away, as standard.
FeaturesLogitech describes the Harmony 1100i
as ‘plug and play’ but that truly is
wishful thinking. The default settings,
particularly the choice of buttons that
get displayed on the lovely colour
screen, will need a lot of adjustment
after your fi rst run-through. We
encountered lots of resistance – no
recognition of our PVR, a stubborn refusal
to operate the Xbox 360 at all and, of course, it can’t cope with
the Bluetooth-controlled PlayStation 3 (or the Wii) without buying
a third-party peripheral. More like ‘plug and fi ddle endlessly’.
PerformanceThe situation was saved by the Harmony Support Team – or more
accurately, a very helpful guy there who called us at home and
addressed some of the more frustrating issues. But the fact that
Logitech has established a dedicated priority support line tells you
something here.
ConclusionThe Harmony 1100i really can simplify your home entertainment
system but to really get it working right, there’s a lot of messing
about involved. Battery life is not great – about a day – but I guess
that’s on par with any of the ‘smartphones’ with colour LCD
Category: Learning remotePrice: $899.95Warranty: two yearsContact: Logitech Australia1800 025 544www.logitech.com Harmony Remote Priority Support Line1800 726 063LCD screen size: 3.5 inchScreen resolution: QVGACompatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista/ Macintosh OSX 10.3-10.5Features: manual zoom and focus; 27dB noise; digital keystone correctionSupplied accessories: charging cradleDimensions (WHD): 220 x 333 x 103mm
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
Category: Learning remote
RATINGS
SPECIFICATIONS
PROS Great build quality and bright screen Very good at switching between inputsand components
Cheap entry option for its category
CONS Requires patience and plenty of tweaking to
set up properly Often makes a poor choice for default
buttons/ controls Unit doesn’t operate while docked in charging
cradle Will not operate the Wii or PS3 game consoles
touchscreens, so you just need to remember to cradle the sucker
when you’re not using it. Compare it with other learning remotes,
though, and it’s a bargain.
Max Everingham
62
BOX FRESH
Once you start spending big bucks on a speaker
system, it is almost taken for granted that you
will have large, fl oorstanding front speakers
and a massive subwoofer. But US fi rm Defi nitive
Technology has long contested that with its compact speakers.
One such is the Mythos range, combined with one of the
company’s SuperCube subwoofers.
FeaturesThe Mythos range features extruded aluminium enclosures and,
mostly, passive radiators to enhance their bass performance.
For the front left and right speakers I was provided with a pair of
Mythos Six models, and for centre channel work a Mythos Seven.
These two models are almost identical, with minimal changes
based on the Sixes being intended to stand upright and the
Seven laid down fl at. A
25mm pure aluminium
dome tweeter does
the treble, while a
pair of 90mm bass
midrange drivers, one
located on each side of
the tweeter, provides
the rest. Further out
from the centre, one
towards each end, are
the two 90mm passive
radiators.
Defi nitive Technology Mythos Surround System
The surround imaging was magnifi cent from the fi ve Mythos speakers, producing an envelopment at the top of the class.
Defi nitive
BOX FRESH
Defi nitive
BOX FRESH
Defi nitive
Seven laid down fl at. A
25mm pure aluminium
dome tweeter does
the treble, while a
pair of 90mm bass
midrange drivers, one
located on each side of
the tweeter, provides
the rest. Further out
from the centre, one
63
Wall brackets are
provided and probably
should be used, as
discussed below.
For surround work a pair
of Mythos Gem speakers
were provided. The stated
specifi cations were a little
confusing, but it seemed
that they were essentially
Mythos Six models with the
ends truncated, thereby
losing both some size
and the passive radiators.
Except that their two
larger drivers were canted
slightly to the left and
right, presumably in order
to spread the sound around
a little.
The SuperCube III subwoofer features a forwards fi ring 190mm
driver with 650 watts of power backing it. The bass output is
enhanced by the use of two 190mm passive radiators, mounted
on the sides of the cabinet.
PerformanceOnce I had put the satellites on stands and placed the SuperCube
III into my preferred subwoofer corner, I used the auto-setup
facility on my home theatre receiver to get things rolling. This
decided, very sensibly, that all fi ve of the speakers were ‘Small’.
Interestingly, it put the crossover frequency to the subwoofer
at 150 hertz for the Mythos Six and Seven speakers across the
front of the room, and 200 hertz of the Mythos Gem surround
speakers.
I thought that was asking a bit much of the subwoofer, and
in fact there did seem to be a bit of a hole in the mid-bass, so
I wound the crossover down to 120 hertz for all fi ve speakers,
but still the hole remained. That’s when I moved the front three
speakers from their speaker stands and placed them hard up
Category: Surround loudspeaker systemPrice: $5180Warranty: fi ve years (three years on electronics)Contact: Advance Audio Australia Pty Ltd(02) 9560 4855www.advanceaudio.com.auDrivers: Mythos Six & Seven, Gem: 2 x 90mm bass/midrange drivers; 1 x 25mm pure aluminium dome tweeter SuperCube III: 1 x 190 driverEnclosure: Mythos Six & Seven: Aluminium construction with 2 x 90mm passive radiators Mythos Gem: Aluminium construction, sealed SuperCube III: 2 x 190mm passive radiatorsFrequency response: Mythos Six & Seven, Gem: 60-30,000 hertz SuperCube III: 16-200 hertzNominal impedance: Mythos Six & Seven: 4-8 ohms Mythos Gem: Compatible with 8 ohmsPower: Mythos Six & Seven: 10-175 watts (Recommended Amplifi cation); Mythos Gem: 10-200 watts (Recommended Amplifi cation); SuperCube III: 650 watts (output) Sensitivity: Mythos Six & Seven, Gem: 89dBDimensions (WHD): Mythos Six: 104 x 497 x 102mm; Mythos Seven: 497 x 104 x 102mm; Mythos Gem: 105 x 260 x 108mm; SuperCube III: 260 x 260 x 260mmWeight: Mythos Six: 3.40kg; Mythos Seven: 3.30kg; Mythos Gem: 1.75kg; SuperCube III: 12.70kg
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
RATINGS
SPECIFICATIONS
PROS Very good sound quality Good placement options Powerful little subwoofer Sturdy and attractive design
CONS Limited really deep bass Misleading specifi cation for subwoofer
against the rear wall. They
needed to be there to enhance
their bass output.
Once there, with the
crossover at 120 hertz for the
back and 100 hertz for the front,
things tightened up nicely.
In fact, they sounded great.
A subwoofer/satellite speaker
system depends very much
on the performance of the
subwoofer, for it has more work
to do than in most systems
as it has to carry all the bass.
Incredibly, the SuperCube III was
up to the task, and never lagged
or lacked.
That was despite the ability of
the fi ve Mythos speakers to absorb
large amounts of power and deliver proportionately large
volumes of sound. The surround imaging was magnifi cent from
the fi ve Mythos speakers, producing an envelopment at the top of
the class.
There was one thing I must call a ‘weakness’, although
I wouldn’t normally so identify it. Defi nitive Technology claims
that the subwoofer will deliver ‘bass performance extending
effortlessly down to 16 Hz.’ Sorry. It won’t. It won’t deliver 20 hertz
to any signifi cant level either. It did stretch well below 30 hertz,
which is a mighty impressive performance for such a small unit.
And had they not claimed more than that, I probably wouldn’t
have even mentioned it.
ConclusionDon’t let that sour note put you off, though. If this falls into your
pricing range, audition this system even if you have in mind
getting larger speakers. You might be surprised. Thomas Bartlett
DEFINITIVE TECHNOLOGY MYTHOS SURROUND SYSTEM
64
BOX FRESH
The ‘big boys’ of the AV receiver world like to mix it
up from time to time. There’s a fair amount of one-
upmanship also, as each tries to outdo one another
with the latest and greatest AV mega-receiver.
A long time player in this fray has been Yamaha, with the
current RX-Z11 pulling the heaviest of surround sound punches for
the company. Now this behemoth has spawned a son, the RX-Z7
under review here.
Slimmer – a bit. Lighter – by some 14 kilos. Less expensive
– almost half the price. The RX-Z7, however, is still a serious AV
receiver by anyone’s standards.
FeaturesWhere to start? There’s not much the RX-Z7 hasn’t got covered.
It’s rated at the same high power output as the RX-Z11, some
140 watts per channel, although this is ‘just’ a 7.1 channel design,
as opposed to the 11.1 of the fl agship. There are preouts for all
channels, too, should you (insanely) want to add external power
amps to further beef up the power output.
This too is a network receiver and has a web-browser interface
that allows you to control the RX-Z7 using any PC or web-enabled
PDA (such as an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch) over the home
network. The Ethernet connection also allows you to stream
music (WAV, MP3, WMA, AAC) from your network or the internet,
and to access WMA/MP3 internet radio stations. An optional dock
allows it to play nice with iPods, with playlist information displayed
onscreen via Yamaha’s GUI.
It’ll decode just about everything, including the latest Dolby
True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks, plus there are
fi ve HDMI 1.3a inputs (including one on the front panel) and two
outputs, which is handy for those running both a projector and
fl at panel display. You can’t run different sources to two displays,
however, just a single source.
All high defi nition video formats are supported, including Deep
Colour, x.v.Colour, 24Hz and 100/120Hz video. Scaling over HDMI
claims to upconvert video to 1080p standard.
There are more than enough connections to cater for the most
involved home theatre system, with eight digital audio inputs,
front and rear USB ports for attached thumb drives and portable
music players, six S-Video inputs, three component video… the list
goes on and on.
Yamaha RX-Z7
65
YAMAHA RX-Z7
Yamaha RX-Z7 Multi-room and multi-zone use is also well catered for with
audio distribution to up to four individual zones, and component
video assignable to zone 2-4. I could carry on, but space doesn’t
allow, so let’s fi nd out how the RX-Z7 performs.
PerformanceYamaha’s YPAO (Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic
Optimizer) is the fi rst step and takes care of accurately
recognising the size of my loudspeakers, then setting up
levels, delays and distances, plus full bass management for the
subwoofer LFE channel.
Category: AV receiverWarranty: two yearsPrice: $3999Contact: Yamaha Music Australia1800 805 413www.yamaha.com.au Power output: 7 x 140 watts, (8 ohms, 20 Hz–20 kHz, 0.04% THD)Audio processing: Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital EX/ Dolby Pro Logic IIx, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-ES Discrete 6.1, DTS 96/24 / DTS Neo:6Pure Direct, Compressed Music Enhancer, SRS (Circle Surround II), THX ProcessingVideo connections (in/out): HDMI Version 1.3a: 5/2; component: 4/2; AV inputs (6 x S-Video) Audio connections (in/out): digital optical 5/2; digital coaxial 3/0, i.Link (IEEE 1394) 1/0; 2 x USB (front and rear); 8- analog RCA preouts,Features: iPod compatibility with optional YDS-11; Bluetooth compatibility with optional YBA-10; HDMI upconversion 480p/720p/1080i/1080p; YPAO (w/Optimiser Microphone); RS-232C Interface; 2 x 12V Trigger Output; LAN Terminal RJ-45; 4-zone audio; 2 zone video and audio; learning remote and zone remote Dimensions: (WHD): 435 x 196 x 441 mmWeight: 19.6kg
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
RATINGS
SPECIFICATIONS
PROS Superb audio and video performance Battleship build quality Excellent audio streaming and network capability
CONS Runs hot when pushed Fiddly manual setup
Right from the get-go, it’s obvious this is an AV receiver with
bags of power, control and ability to dish out the dynamics.
Jumping straight into the action, it was time for some loud stuff.
The scene where the Tripod emerges from under the street in
Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is one of the most bass-crunching
and dynamically challenging you’ll fi nd. Rarely have I experienced
this movie sequence with as much ‘slam-you-in-the chest’
impact and intensity as this Yamaha serves up. It’s got so much
headroom too, and drives a 7.1 channel speaker confi guration with
absolute ease. With the volume cranked I did notice the Yamaha
runs pretty warm, so I wouldn’t be sticking it in a cupboard or
placing other gear on top – it needs room to ventilate.
Far from being all brute and no brains, the RX-Z7 is also highly
tactile, placing and steering effects around the room with almost
unnerving accuracy. The BD of Sweeney Todd demonstrates this
well, creating a suitably dark sonic mood to match the onscreen
atmosphere. And when the cast often break in to song, the
Yamaha makes the different vocal characters sound natural,
wholesome and perfectly placed within a very broad soundstage.
Hit the ‘Pure Direct’ button and the RX-Z7 transforms into a
more than decent two-channel amplifi er for music; there’s that
same bass power and control, with a smooth and extended treble
that doesn’t ever sound overly harsh or forced. And to help tidy
up the sounds from your iPod or networked music library, there’s
Yamaha’s Compressed Music Enhancer technology.
And, as is usual with all Yamahas, there are ample (38 total,
with 22 cinema modes) DSPs to keep the most avid button-pusher
happy, if you fancy replicating the acoustics of a Munich church,
for example.
ConclusionFar from simply being a stripped-down version of the RX-Z11,
this is a fi ne top-end AV receiver in its own right. At around
$4000, it’s still a reasonable amount of outlay, but with its
capability as a movie and music performer, plus great system
fl exibility and connectivity, the RX-Z7 makes an excellent all-round
AV solution. Nic Tatham
66
BOX FRESH
TIt’s pretty obvious that Epson has been the sales
leader in the home theatre projector market in
recent times. The reasons are simple: it has been
offering projectors with the best features at market
leading prices.
Things are no different with its newest top-of-the-line model,
the EH-TW5000.
FeaturesThis projector is a mix of evolutionary enhancements from
its previous top model – the EMP-TW2000 – with a couple of
extraordinary new features.
The improvements include a new case (mostly black)
and reworking the light path to improve the LCD black level
performance. The native contrast ratio of the previous model was
4000:1 and this one goes up to an extremely impressive 6000:1.
Add in the dynamic iris and you get up to 75,000:1.
Retained from the earlier models is the massive zoom range
of 2.1:1 and the horizontal and vertical lens shift. These allow
exceptional fl exibility in locating the projector. Because of this
fl exibility, you can have the projector quite off-centre from the
screen, yet still display an undistorted picture.
Also retained is the HQV Reon VX video processor, which
offers among the best picture scaling, deinterlacing and picture
noise reduction available.
What is new is what Epson calls ‘FineFrame interpolation
processing technology’, and reversal of 3:2 pulldown. The fi rst
generates as many as four new fi lm frames between each pair
of actual fi lm frames. Those additional frames are interpolated
(kind of averaged) from the preceding and following frames, and
thereby work to smooth onscreen motion.
The 3:2 pulldown reversal undoes the 24 frames per second to
60 frames per second ‘3:2 pulldown’ performed by DVD players
on US-style NTSC DVDs, and by some early model Blu-ray players.
That conversion makes for jerky motion. But undoing it, this
projector can smooth the motion back to the original fi lm quality.
It also has a new aspect ratio suitable for use with
an external anamorphic lens, preferred by some
for ‘Constant Image Height’ home theatre
installations. This is quite important to some
people because it replicates the effects of a
cinema, where the wider the aspect ratio (eg.
2.35:1 as compared to 1.85:1), the wider the
masking curtains open up on the screen. We
don’t recommend this because the additional
scaling involved softens the picture, and the
special anamorphic lenses cost several thousand dollars.
Epson EH-TW5000
6666
That conversion makes for jerky motion. But undoing it, this
projector can smooth the motion back to the original fi lm quality.
It also has a new aspect ratio suitable for use with
an external anamorphic lens, preferred by some
for ‘Constant Image Height’ home theatre
installations. This is quite important to some
people because it replicates the effects of a
cinema, where the wider the aspect ratio (eg.
2.35:1 as compared to 1.85:1), the wider the
masking curtains open up on the screen. We
don’t recommend this because the additional
scaling involved softens the picture, and the
special anamorphic lenses cost several thousand dollars.
67
EPSON EH-TW5000
PerformanceThe projector was easy to set up, as the wide range of
adjustments would imply. The remote control has backlit keys and
throws a beam powerful enough to bounce from the projection
screen back to the projector, making it easy to control.
One should be cautious in one’s praise of products, but to hell
with that. The black levels were absolutely incredible with this
projector. What was once the Achilles heel of LCD projectors is no
longer. I have never seen better, inkier, velvet-like blacks from a
front projector than with this one.
I was initially a little disappointed with those blacks. They were
pretty good, but not what fi gures like ‘75,000:1’ would suggest.
Then I realised that the dynamic iris of the projector was switched
off. That’s how good the native contrast ratio of the projector is.
With the dynamic iris on – that’s where those Indian Ink blacks
come in.
The projector did a fi ne job with PAL DVDs and supported
the highest quality 1080p24 video from Blu-ray as well. The
3:2 pulldown reversal worked well with Blu-ray discs fed to
the projector in 1080i format. Some NTSC DVDs worked as
well, but the difference was barely noticeable because these
tend to produce a fairly fuzzy picture in which jerkiness is less
noticeable.
I have never seen better, inkier, velvet-like blacks from a front projector than with this one
Category: ProjectorPrice: $5299Warranty: three years (including lamp)Contact: Epson Australia1300 361 054www.epson.com.auImage: 3 x LCD panels; 16:9 native aspect, 1920 x 1080 pixels; brightness 1600 ANSI Lumens; 72,000:1 contrast ratio (Dynamic); lens zoom 2.1:1, lamp 200 wattsInputs: 1 x composite video, 1 x S-Video, 1 x component video (supporting progressive scan and HD), 2 x HDMI (v1.3), 1 x D-SUB15XOthers: 1 x 12 volt trigger out, 1 x RS-232CFeatures: full high defi nition, 120 Hertz FineFrame technology, anamorphic lens support, ceiling/reverse projection capable, vertical and horizontal lens shiftSupplied accessories: remote control; manual (on CD ROM)Dimensions (WHD): 450 x 136 x 360mmWeight: 7.5kg
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
RATINGS
SPECIFICATIONS
PROS Full support for Blu-ray and DVD Black levels the best in the business Excellent video processing features Very good value for money
CONS Quite slow to acquire signal Some halo-like artefacting when FineFrame
processing applied
The ‘FineFrame’ process worked in a very similar manner to
that provided on some high-end TVs with 100Hz video processing.
It had three settings. Avoid ‘Low’, because it tended to fall out
of the smooth mode far too readily, in a quite disconcerting way.
‘Normal’ was okay and ‘High’ even better. But this did tend to
create a glossy artifi ciality to much of the imagery, and there
were some fuzzy halo artefacts generated as well.
The one real criticism was that whenever the signal changed
(eg. from 1080p24 for Blu-ray, to 1080p60 for some special extra
on the disc), the projector took a long time to work out the change
and start showing the picture again, up to a minute in some cases.
ConclusionSo there you have it: Epson has outdone its previous effort to
produce what must be one of the best home theatre projectors
currently on the market at a remarkable price. And that price
comes with a three-year warranty, which includes the lamp.
Thomas Bartlett
68
BOX FRESH
A few years ago now, as a lowly hi-fi sales assistant
in London’s Covent Garden, I can lay claim to
having sold a pair of Sennheiser’s most expensive
headphones. The Orpheus was a gorgeous
reference electrostatic headphone driven by its own high-end
valve amplifi er and the American customer who bought the pair
from me was lightened of some £10,000. At today’s exchange
rate, that’s around AU$22,000.
Sennheiser recently launched its latest fl agship pair of ’cans,
the HD 800, which at $2399 a set have a much more palatable
price tag. Let’s face it, though, it’s still a lot of cash. Top-end
Sennheisers are usually something to get excited about, and
owning a pair of HD 600s myself I was keen to learn just how
much better, if at all, the step-up 800s were.
FeaturesHandmade in the factory in Germany – like all Sennheiser designs
– the HD 800s are an open-backed circumaural design, meaning
there’s some outward sound leakage. Sennheiser says the
patented 56mm transducer (the part that converts the electrical
signal into sound) is the largest ever incorporated in a pair of
headphones. Transducers with a large surface area are better at
generating full bodied sound and solid bass levels, but typically
also generate distortion. Sennheiser claims to have overcome this
by developing a ring-shaped transducer. While this actually has
less surface area than a conventional circular transducer of the
same dimension, it manages to vibrate the same volume of air
above it, according to Sennheiser.
The doughnut-shaped drivers are angled from inside the ear
cups at 45 degrees to the ear canal. This emulates the way sound
arrives at our ears from a pair of triangulated stereo speakers,
making the listening experience more natural.
Solid and mostly metallic in construction, the HD 800s are still
very comfortable thanks to luxurious touches such as ear
Senheisser HD-800
They’re hardly a chore to listen to for long periods, with a smooth, extended treble that never bites or sounds shrill
70
BOX FRESH SENHEISSER HD-800
pads made of a Japanese man-made fi bre called Alcantara, which
is also used as a high-quality interior fabric in the automotive
industry. The three metre cord doesn’t get in the way either, and is
constructed from four-core Tefl on insulated cable.
PerformanceFirst up, know that these cans are not intended for use for
portable players such as iPods. These devices won’t drive
headphones like the HD 800s because they simply can’t handle
the high impedance (ie. electrical resistance) presented to them.
I ran the HD 800s straight off a dedicated valve output from a
Shanling Super Audio CD player as well as via a $1549 Lehmann
Black Cube Linear headphone amplifi er, which was supplied by
Sennheiser’s Aussie distributor, Syntec.
Direct from the source, the HD 800s sounded sublime and
Category: HeadphonesPrice: $2399Warranty: 2 yearsContact: Syntec Internationalwww.syntec.com.auDesign: circumauralFrequency response: 14–44,100 Hz (-3dB) Nominal impedance: 300 ohmsWeight: 260 grams (without cable)Jack plug: 6.2mm stereo jackCable length: 3 metres
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
RATINGSSPECIFICATIONS
PROS Sublime sound quality with all music genres Sumptuous build Comfortable
CONS Pricey Needs a quality headphone amplifi er to
perform at its best
delivered an incredibly open performance that was intoxicating in
its freedom.
I started out with an ‘audiophile’ recording of Patricia Barber’s
album Companion and was soon lost in the atmosphere and
sultriness of the vocals. The midband is smooth – but not overly
so – and superbly focused. Bass is rich and warm and makes
everything from classical to dance music sound big-boned and
mightily impressive. This is something that helps makes the HD
800s far more suited to a wider range of musical styles than
the HD 600s and other previous models, which tend to shine
with classical or jazz and don’t really ‘rock out’ so much. The HD
800s also leave the 600s for dead in terms of the sense of sheer
openness and space. While the 600s are good here the 800s are
in a different league, providing far more ‘air’ around instruments
and creating a much wider soundstage between your lugholes.
Hours later, and with CDs scattered all over the listening room
fl oor, I was still going and the HD 800s still felt comfortable. So
they’re hardly a chore to listen to for long periods, with a smooth,
extended treble that never bites or sounds shrill. Sure, they are
highly revealing, so feed them a poorly recorded CD and the
Sennheiser’s will show it up warts’n’all, but with quality recordings
they shine.
The Lehmann amplifi er proved an ear-opener too, extracting
even more sonic strength from the HD 800s. If you’re looking at
spending this sort of money, a quality headphone amp is a wise
investment.
ConclusionSennheiser has done itself proud with the HD 800s, which are
some of the best-sounding ’phones that you can stick on your
head. Great sound is worthless, though, if headphones ‘wear’ like
an anvil or vice, so the HD 800s offer the twin benefi t of being
superbly comfortable. They are best paired with a good-quality
dedicated amplifi er, but if you’re the type to consider a $2000-
plus headphone purchase this item is probably already on your
musical to-do list.
Nic Tatham
HIGH DEFINITION HAS NEVER BEEN THIS BIG.
THE EPSON TW3000 PROJECTOR. MASSIVE 120” IMAGE. FULL 1080p HD. 18,000:1 CONTRAST RATIO.Epson, the world’s number one in projectors, brings you a huge new home cinema experience – with an image that’s an unbelievable
3 times bigger than the average fl at screen TV. It uses less power than Plasma or LCD TVs and features a wide range of connectivity
options (including twin HDMI inputs). So with the TW3000, your High Defi nition viewing experience will now be even larger than life.
For information on our 1080p HD projectors call 1300 130 194 or visit epson.com.auTW4000 TW5000
V I 0 1 3 9 H o me E n t e r 1 4 4 7 . p d f P a g e 1 2 / 3 / 0 9 , 3 : 0 4 P M
72
BOX FRESHBOX FRESH
As Blu-ray continues to mature as a platform and
more discs hit shelves, manufacturers start to
roll out a second generation of BD players. The
key feature of these new devices is price: they’re
now no more expensive than the fi rst generation of quality DVD
players. But every BD player that costs less than $700 faces a
strong rival: Sony’s ultra-versatile PlayStation 3.
Sharp’s top-end Aquos-family player, the HP50X, brings all the
features you need for today’s Blu-ray movies, but can it survive in
a market full of more fl exible devices?
FeaturesShop for a BD player today and you need to demand a basic set of
features: HDMI output, support for 1080p24 playback, and Blu-ray
This is the third Kogan product I’ve reviewed. Last
year I did two of the company’s TVs. The fi rst
impressed as excellent value for money. The second
I suggested ought not be purchased by video
enthusiasts. It later came to my attention that some internet
forum participants interpreted the fi rst review as me being on
the take from Kogan, and the second as me covering up.
Hmmm. Well, I suspect that this review will be interpreted as
me going back onto Kogan’s payroll. Because this Blu-ray player
ought to be dreadful, given that it costs only $249. Instead it’s
rather decent in its major functions, although with a few quirks.
Profi le 1.1 (Bonus View). Fortunately, the HP50X has all of these
things, and wraps them up in a piano-black box that matches the
new range of Aquos TVs.
Thanks to Bonus View support, the HP50X can play back
secondary video and audio in a picture-in-picture mode. So now
director’s commentaries are no longer given by a disembodied
voice: the director is there in the corner of your display,
gesticulating wildly. You may, however, need to plug a USB2.0
thumbdrive into the back to get this working, and this can be a
pain if the player is installed in a big AV stack.
The unit includes a component and a composite output, but
you’d be mad to use anything but HDMI. Full support for version
1.3a is provided, allowing the player to be controlled by a Sharp
Aquos TV, via the proprietary Aquos Link technology (Sharp’s
Sharp AquosBD-HP50X
Kogan KGNBRVA FeaturesThis Blu-ray player is a BonusView unit, offering support
for both secondary video and audio. But it is not BD-Live,
so there will be no downloading of additional special extras.
The 256MB of persistent storage (ie. the memory is retained
when the unit is switched off) required for BonusView
operation is internal, so there is no need to purchase a USB
memory card.
The unit has full 1080p24 output capability from its HDMI
port, plus the ability to deliver the original digital sound –
including the new high defi nition formats – via HDMI. The front
features: HDMI output, support for 1080p24 playback, and Blu-ray Aquos TV, via the proprietary Aquos Link technology (Sharp’s
Kogan KGNBRVA
73
SHARP AQUOS BD-HP50X & KOGAN KGNBRVA
Sharp AquosBD-HP50X
Kogan KGNBRVA
panel has touch controls rather than push buttons and on the
back is a hardwired on/off switch.
The biggest feature is, apparently, unique to this unit: it is
capable of playing both Region B (Oceania, Europe, Africa and the
Middle East) and Region A (North and South America and parts of
Asia) discs.
PerformanceThe unit doesn’t automatically change region. You have to apply a
two keystroke code using the remote control to switch between A
and B. All three of my Region A discs played perfectly.
For these and all regular Blu-ray movies, the picture
performance was excellent, delivered at 1080p and 24 frames per
second. The colour seemed to match specifi cation, the image was
sharp and there were no decoding wobbles.
The sound was just as good. The latter was expected since
I just piped the bitstream straight out to my receiver. My tests
revealed that the unit can decode Dolby TrueHD audio up to at
least 96kHz, but it always turns 7.1 channel audio into 5.1. It does
not decode DTS-HD Master Audio, but instead uses the standard
DTS ‘core’ within such audio tracks.
The unit was very poor with all 1080i material, though, when
it came to 1080p output. The worst I’ve seen so far. The solution
is to set the video output to ‘Auto’ rather than 1080p. This will
deliver most Blu-ray movies over HDMI at 1080p24 – the ideal – if
you have ‘Film Mode’ switched on. DVDs and 1080i material will
be output at 1080i. That will leave it to your TV to deinterlace this
material, and it will surely do a better job than this player.
Surprisingly, this unit was at the top end of the scale for
picture quality from PAL DVDs (output at 1080i or 1080p) as far
as Blu-ray players go. Speed-wise, it was about middle of the pack
when it came to starting up, reading discs and the like.
The remote control was touchy with regard to range and angle,
and even how quickly I pressed the keys, so sometimes the unit
could be a little diffi cult to use. The front panel touch controls
were also a bit iffy sometimes. But there’s little point bothering
with the front panel control since there is no apparent way of
putting the unit into Standby mode, nor switching it back on,
without using the remote control!
implementation of HDMI’s Consumer Electronics Control).
Unfortunately, this only works with Sharp devices, so a Sony TV
with CEC won’t be able to control the HP50X.
Thanks to HDMI 1.3a, the player also supports the full x.v. Colour
space. This is available from discs or memory cards recorded with
AVCHD devices (Advanced Video Codec High Defi nition), such
as camcorders from Panasonic and Sony, and allows the display
of nearly double (actually 1.8) the number of colours as the DVD
players of yesteryear. (Blu-ray discs do not yet employ x.v. Colour.)
Your display will need matching support though, as will an AV
receiver if you’re passing the video through it.
For audio enthusiasts, there’s also support for Dolby TrueHD
and DTS-HD Advanced, so the HP50X is defi nitely worthy of a
serious cinema system.
SetupA quick note here on an extremely irritating element to the
otherwise straightforward setup of this player. Sensible users will
The biggest feature is, apparently, unique to this unit: it is capable of playing both Region B and Region A discs
Paired with a high-end 1080p display that supports 24Hz mode, you get all the detail and incredible colour you’ve come to expect from Blu-ray
of course choose HDMI, and connect the player to a display or
AV receiver with a single cable. Setup done? Not quite: you need
to hold down the HDMI button on the remote for fi ve seconds to
enable HDMI mode.
This is nothing new: high-end DVD players used to have a
switch on the back to select between composite and component
output. But it was a physical switch, and both obvious and instant.
If you’re one of those people who pride themselves on not
having to read a manual up to page 15, the HP50X will make you
change your ways.
PerformanceWith such a complete feature set, video playback from the HP50X
is naturally excellent. Paired with a high-end 1080p display that
supports 24Hz mode, you get all the detail and incredible colour
you’ve come to expect from Blu-ray. You can also choose to send
the audio out via optical or coaxial digital, which might be the
superior option for your audio setup.
We say again: you’re mad to use analog outputs for Blu-ray,
but if you need to save your shekels, then the component output
here is just fi ne. Maximum resolution is only 1080i of course, and
there’s no 24Hz support, but if you’re using a TV without HDMI,
then you’re not going to notice these shortcomings.
The machine itself is fairly quick to start up: there’s a quick-
start mode which marginally speeds boot times, but if you want
to conserve power consumption you can turn this off and wait the
few extra seconds for playback to get underway. The whole front
of the unit folds down on a motorised hinge to reveal the disc tray,
and this becomes irritating after a while, plus it’s one more bit to
snap off!
Where the HP50X starts to fall behind is when you want to
use it for something other than BD. DVD playback is fi ne: the
74
BOX FRESH
Category: Blu-ray player Price: $249Warranty: one yearContact: Kogan Technologies1300 304 292www.kogan.com.auOutputs: 1 x HDMI, 1 x component video, 1 x composite video, 1 x stereo analogue audio, 1 x 5.1 analog audio, 1 x optical digital audio, 1 x coaxial digital audioDisc types supported: BD-ROM, DVD Video, CD Audio, BD-R/REHDMI Output resolution: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576p, 480p @ 50 or 60 hertz, 1080p @ 24 hertzComponent output resolution: 1080i, 720p, 576p, 480p, 576i, 480i @ 50 or 60 hertzDimensions (WHD): 430 x 60 x 305mmWeight: 2.90kg
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
Category: Blu-ray player
RATINGS
SPECIFICATIONS
PROS Matches your Sharp TV Moderate cost Blu-ray 1.1/Bonus View profi le
CONS Limited disc support Irritating front door No Blu-ray 2.0/BD Live
Category: Blu-ray player Price: $599Contact: Sharp Australia1300 135 530www.sharp.net.auWarranty: 12 monthsVideo outputs: 1x HDMI 1.3, 1x component, 1x compositeAudio outputs: 1x stereo RCA, 1x opticalDisc types supported: BD-ROM, BD-RE dual layer, BD-R dual layer, DVD Video, DVD+RW/+R/-R/-RW dual layer, Audio CD, CD-RW/R (JPEG images only)Blu-ray profi le: 1.1 Bonus ViewHDMI output resolutions: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576/480p, 1080p @ 24HzComponent output resolutions: 1080i, 720p, 576/480p, 576/480iHD audio formats: Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD AdvancedDimensions: 434 x 68 x 349mmWeight: 4.3kg
Performance
Features
Ease of use
Value for money
Category: Blu-ray player
RATINGS
SPECIFICATIONS
Through a dozen Blu-ray discs, the player just chugged on,
doing its stuff and not once skipping a frame or a digital audio
sample. It was totally solid.
ConclusionI would not hesitate to watch regular 1080p24 Blu-ray movies
with this unit. It delivers good quality, does what it is supposed
to do, and costs very little. And if you want to purchase Blu-ray
discs from the US, you can do so confi dently with regard to region
codes if you have this player. Thomas Bartlett
decoder chips are cheap, so this is as good as any HDMI-equipped
DVD player. But there’s a distinct lack of support for other fi le
types.
Enjoy watching DivX movies or playing MP3 or WMA CDs?
Forget about it. There’s no support for these formats. It’s
commercial BD, DVD, CD-Audio and image CDs with JPEG fi les
only. You can’t even play back DVD-Audio!
This means you will still need a second optical player in your
AV stack if you go with the HP50X, and here’s where it faces its
biggest competition: Sony’s PlayStation 3.
ConclusionWith a device like the PS3 on shelves, BD players such as the
HP50X need to work hard to secure buyers. Consider, pay $100
extra for a PS3 (and that’s assuming you can’t get one on sale)
and you’ll get a BD player that’s faster, supports the 2.0 Profi le
(interactive elements on a few discs so far), plays almost every
video and audio format including SACD, and has a 40GB hard
drive! Oh yes, and it plays games too!
To be able to fi rmly recommend the HP50X, it really needed
to support more compressed video formats, so its slim and stylish
fascia could become the centrepiece of your AV stack.
Still, if compressed content is anathema to your AV
sensibilities, and you don’t want to mess around with an overly
complicated media server, the HP50X is a lean BD player, even if it
is a little mean on the extra features. Anthony Fordham
PROS Plays both Region A and Region B Blu-ray discs Very good value for money BonusView Blu-ray support Reliable operation
CONS Not BD-Live capable Weak remote control signal Poor 1080i deinterlacing Some remote control quirks
REFLEXACTION
GEAR GUIDESFOR DIGTAL LIVES
75
Buying a Digital SLR camera
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76
Affordable digital SLRs are making it easy for the rest of us to achieve pro-level photography results, writes Byer Gair.
Image Makers
In the last twelve months a seismic shift happened in the
digital camera business: some compact digicams began
to cost as much as a digital SLR while some DSLRs fell to
compact digicam levels. Mighty strange.
Keen photographers, blooded in the days of fi lm cameras,
are licking their lips at the thought of an affordable DSLR kit —
and rightly so!
Now they can own and enjoy a camera that looks like an
SLR, shoots like an SLR but brings with it the tech of digital
imaging. They can now import digital pictures into a computer,
massage the pixels with reasonably priced software, then pump
out glorious prints on the home printer. Or they can take the
quick’n’easy path and head for a Big W, Harvey Norman or other
digital print-enabled store and DIY a batch of prints costing
anywhere between 10 and 20 cents a go.
Why a DSLR?You choose a DSLR because you can enjoy fi nely tuned control
of picture making, precise manual or accurate auto focusing,
accurate exposure control in even the most challenging
situations.
You can also view with an optical viewfi nder that shows the
scene with infi nite detail … or have the option of Live View on
the rear LCD screen, previewing the shot exactly as it will appear
on a monitor, live and in digital form.
DSLRs are quicker, with almost no delay in shooting and
the subsequent writing of the image to the memory card.
Unlike digicams, you can now shoot the unpredictable and
unrepeatable action of kids, animals and sports with little
THE GOOD AND LESS GOOD
GOOD• Top quality images
• Rapid shooting rate
• Precise, quick auto focusing
LESS GOOD• Larger and heavier than
compact digital cameras
• Far more complex to operate
than digicams
• Low cost kit lenses are less
capable in low light
77
chance of missing the shot.
With a couple of cautions: DSLRs are bigger, heavier and
more complex than your average digicam. While you can set
up a DSLR to work in absolute, no-brainer auto mode, do so
and you miss out on the sheer picture making talent of these
wonderful pieces of technology.
Live View is, essentially, a response to people who missed a digital view while shooting with a refl ex camera. Now a DSLR can work just like a compact digicam.
During Live View, the image on the LCD screen is the same as that received by the CCD or CMOS sensor that captures your image. By using the Live View on the LCD screen you can compose the shot as well as check on the effects of exposure compensation or white balance.
While the image appears on the LCD screen during Live View, the mirror is raised and the shutter is open. At this point you can’t check the subject in the optical viewfi nder.
Olympus and Panasonic decided to equip their DSLRs with the Four Thirds system, using a common sensor and lens mount to assure compatibility between Four Thirds System bodies and lenses produced by different makers.
Then a second format: Micro Four Thirds has the ability to dramatically reduce both body and lens sizes. This new format could be seen as an answer to criticism of current DSLR model sizes: many customers fi nd DSLR cameras to be big, heavy, and diffi cult to operate.
Micro Four Thirds cameras have an approximately 50 percent shorter lens mount-to-sensor distance; a smaller lens mount outer diameter, and two more electrical contacts in the lens mount to deliver new features and increased system functionality. The sensor remains the same size.
In the new scheme the pentaprism optical viewfi nder is removed to reduce the lens-to-CCD distance. So, added to the rear LCD screen providing a ‘Live View’ of your shooting, the top turret viewfi nder will also be an LCD one. Micro Four Third cameras do not have an optical refl ex viewfi nder.
At this point, Panasonic’s DMC-G1 is the only camera using the approach.
LIVE VIEW
FOUR THIRDS
Live View is, essentially, a response
view while shooting with a refl ex camera. Now a DSLR can work just
the Four Thirds
assure compatibility between Four Thirds
FOUR THIRDSFOUR THIRDS
“You can enjoy fi nely tuned control of picture making, precise manual or accurate auto focusing, accurate exposure control in even the most challenging situations”
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
• A dust removal system
• Internal body stabiliser
• RAW format capture
• High def video capture
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78
Some DSLRs have HDMI outputs so you can run slide
shows of your stills on high defi nition TV sets. Now you can
also shoot high def video with a few cameras, then watch
them on an HD TV.
SpotsVirtually all DSLRs provide a form of sensor dust removal, an
important factor in capturing clean images. The refl ex type of
camera is particularly prone to the entry of dust, due to the
action of changing lenses outdoors or in dusty environments.
The dust settles on the CCD or CMOS sensor and the spotty dust
particles can degrade your image.
SteadyIf you’ve used compact digicams for any length of time you’ll
know that with most of these small cameras the risk of camera
shake can be high. Digital SLRs take this problem to an even
higher level: they are heavier than digicams and not as easy to
Camera in hand, some shots under your belt, what’s the next step? Accessorise your rig.
Keen photographers have a desperate passion for DSLRs and it’s true that this level of gear demands great skill in its use if it is to achieve above average picture shooting. But a camera is only the beginning.
TripodsThey’re a curse to carry but a blessing in the quest for sharp pictures: tripods.
Heavy tripods ensure less vibration; a cross-braced design that links the central column and the legs adds to the steadiness factor, while fewer leg sections contribute to steadiness.
Rubber feet will generally make a stable connection with the ground, and they are less likely to slip on hard surfaces.Look carefully at the method used to adjust leg height — some models are a pain in the bum.
A carbon fi bre tripod can make the weight factor less of a pain; they’re not cheap but they’re much lighter. Tripods made with titanium and/or magnesium are also light and not quite as expensive as carbon fi bre.
Most tripods are sold with a head attached but you may prefer to select a separate head. There are two ways to go here: pan-and-tilt or ball-and-socket heads. The former gives you camera adjustment in three planes: tilt up or down; pan left or right; tilt left or right. Ball-and-socket heads afford adjustment in all directions.
Prices of tripods can run from $30 to hundreds of dollars; my advice is to go for quality and steadiness … and
not the bottom dollar.Other options: Ever heard of the Wimberley Plamp?
This gadget clamps to the tripod leg, at one end, and can hold an object at the other — at least 56 cm away — attached to a light clamp. About $70.
Another oddity is the Joby Gorillapod. A tripod in concept, the three rubber-coated legs are fl exible and can bend and rotate 360 degrees to form a shape which best suits your purpose. $20 and upwards.
FlashAlmost all DSLRs have a tiny fl ash cell built into the top of the camera. They are low-powered and, while they can get you out of a spot when shooting, adding fi ll light in portrait shooting or lighting up a corner of a
dim room, to get the full benefi t of 21st century fl ash technology you should investigate the
systems that can be hung off your own
THE EXTRAS
They’re a curse to carry but a blessing in the
Heavy tripods ensure less vibration; a cross-braced design that links the central column and the legs adds to the steadiness factor, while fewer leg sections contribute to steadiness.
Rubber feet will generally make a stable connection with the ground, and they are
Look carefully at the method used to adjust leg height — some models are a
A carbon fi bre tripod can make the
heads afford adjustment in all directions. Prices of tripods can run from $30 to hundreds of
dollars; my advice is to go for quality and steadiness … and not the bottom dollar.Other options: Ever heard of the Wimberley Plamp?
This gadget clamps to the tripod leg, at one end, and can hold an object at the other — at least 56 cm away — attached to a light clamp. About $70.
Another oddity is the Joby Gorillapod. A tripod in concept, the three rubber-coated legs are fl exible and can bend and rotate 360 degrees to form a shape which best suits your purpose. $20 and upwards.
FlashAlmost all DSLRs have a tiny fl ash cell built into the top of the camera. They are low-powered and, while they can get you out of a spot when shooting, adding fi ll light in portrait shooting or lighting up a corner of a
dim room, to get the full benefi t of 21st century fl ash technology you should investigate the
systems that can be hung off your own
79
BUYING A DIGITAL SLR CAMERA
hold, so encouraging the ‘shakes’ that cause fuzzy images.
Camera makers have followed two sophisticated paths to
attack this problem: one approach is to build the stabilising
function into the body itself, by sensing unwanted camera
movement and moving the image sensor itself to counteract
it; the other method is to attack unsteadiness by ‘shuffl ing’
a group of elements within the lens itself. Both are quite
sophisticated systems.
The body stabiliser path is followed by Olympus, Panasonic,
Pentax, Sony and others. The stabilised lens approach is followed
by Canon and Nikon.
particular camera.
Some cameras have a hot shoe or a sync socket allowing you to fi t an external fl ashgun. Some cameras work only with dedicated ‘original maker’ fl ashguns. If yours offers TTL (through the lens) fl ash metering you can set the camera’s aperture on the fl ashgun and it will produce the precise amount of light for a perfect exposure. The sensor on the front of the fl ashgun measures the light refl ected back from the subject, cutting the output when suffi cient light has been emitted. If your fl ashgun has a swivel head, you can bounce light off a white ceiling or wall to soften its output.
Adventurous photographers keen to get into interior shooting should investigate cameras that offer multiple slave fl ash techniques.
Auxiliary fl ash units can cost anywhere between $150 and $700, with original brand units priced at the
upper level and offering a complete interface with that company’s cameras.
MemoryMemory cards are cheap these days and, for the sake of a higher writing speed, head for the fast writing types: SanDisk calls its range Ultra II; Lexar usually marks its fast writing types in terms of speed … 60x, 300x etc.
It’s a wise practice to buy only name brand cards. Recently, there has been a spate of fake SanDisk CompactFlash cards sold via eBay. The company advises you should “make sure any card you buy has its unique serial number either on the side or back of the card.”
Buy at least two cards when you acquire your new camera. Rotate them. And never insert or remove a card while the camera is powered up!
fi t an external fl ashgun. Some cameras work only with dedicated ‘original maker’ fl ashguns. If yours offers TTL (through the lens) fl ash metering you can set the camera’s aperture on the fl ashgun and it will produce the precise amount of light for a perfect exposure. The sensor on the front of the fl ashgun measures the light refl ected back
you acquire your
insert or remove
Before you lay out the plastic to take possession of your new camera, double-check these points:1. Any digital SLR will have enough pixels packed
into its CCD or CMOS sensor to allow you take happy snaps and enjoy 10 x 15cm prints.
2. If you have special needs: you need to shoot high quality magazine covers or to make large-scale posters from your images, head for the higher megapixel count.
3. Make sure you can cope with the user interface of your new camera. Is it too complex? Will all the family be able to use it?
4. The kit lenses supplied with the camera are made down to a price. Their maximum lens aperture will not help in dim situations. Some of them have pronounced optical distortion.
5. Do a deal with your retailer: gently persuade him or her to tip in extra memory, a camera bag and other accessories before you fi nalise the price.
BEFORE YOU BUY
A new take on the tripod, the Joby Gorillapod’s rubber-clad legs allow stable shooting by attaching to just about anything
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Canon EOS 500D*• 15.1 megapixel Canon-developed CMOS sensor captures superb image quality with low noise and natural colour• New DiG!C 4 Processor means faster processing and new features such as Live Face Detection AF Mode• 9-point AF and 6-point Assist AF for ultra sharp images. You can manually select any of the 9
points to ensure correct sharp focus• Continuous smooth shooting speed of 3.4 fps• Now with new Live Face Detection AF mode, and Live View Movies
(in Full HD)• Standard ISO (100-6400) and expandable to an incredible H1:12800
with incredible image detail in low light• 3.0” (920,000 dots) LCD screen with anti-refl ection and anti-smudge
coating for clear photo previews• Prevents and automatically removes tiny dust particles resulting in
cleaner images• Live View Stills (Live, Quick and Live Face Detection AF modes)• Live View Movies in Full HD (with sound)• HDMI mini output in full High-Defi nition
Canon EOS 50DFeaturing an APS-C-sized 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and the newly developed DiG!C 4 Image Processor, the EOS 50D boasts a tough magnesium alloy body with a stylish design and a 3.0-inch VGA LCD monitor with 920,000 dots for greater fl exibility and creative composition. The new image processor provides even faster signal processing and enables the EOS 50D to support continuous shooting speeds of 6.3 frames per second (fps) with continuous shooting up to 60 shots in a single burst (JPEG Large/Fine). The EOS 50D also has a baseline sensitivity range of ISO 100-3200 in 1/3-stop increments, which can be increased to ISO 6400 or ISO 12800 with ISO expansion. EOS 50D features a Live View Mode with Auto Focus capabilities and a Live Face Detection AF mode in Live View shooting,which is a fi rst for Canon EOS cameras. In another fi rst for Canon DSLR, the EOS 50D offers HDMI output in full High-Defi nition (HD), ensuring images can be viewed in Full HD when transferred to an HD monitor.The new Creative Auto mode with Quick Control screen, enables photographers to adjust settings and shoot images as they visualise them, without requiring an understanding of technical terms such as aperture and exposure. On-screen graphics allow images to be made a little brighter or darker or users can make the background more blurry in Creative Auto mode, rather than by understanding how to change the exposure or aperture.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IIThe EOS 5D Mark II features a huge, full-frame sensor. A 21.1-megapixel CMOS sensor delivers images of up to 5616 x 3744 pixels. And since it is full-frame, all lenses will deliver the angle of view they would on a 35mm camera without a conversion factor. This comes in handy especially when shooting with wide-angle lenses. For the fl exibility to shoot in even the most dimly lit situations, the EOS 5D Mark II offers Canon’s highest ISO sensitivity to date, ranging from 100-6400 (expandable to ISO L: 50, H1: 12800 and H2: 25600). Thanks to improved noise reduction technologies, images shot even at highest sensitivity will be remarkably smooth.
• New DiG!C 4 Processor means faster processing and new features such as Live Face Detection AF Mode• 9-point AF and 6-point Assist AF for ultra sharp images. You can manually select any of the 9
cameras. In another fi rst for Canon DSLR, the EOS 50D offers HDMI output in full High-Defi nition (HD), ensuring images can be viewed in Full HD when transferred to an HD monitor.
* Canon EOS 500D available May 2009
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Nikon D60The Nikon D60 makes it fun and easy to take breathtaking pictures while also offering plenty of features for those who want to deepen their interest in creative shooting. With a split-second shutter response, the Nikon D60 captures pictures that cameras with longer time lags miss.
Nikon D90The 12.3-megapixel D90 captures HD video at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 24 frames/second with the clarity and depth-of-fi eld control that only a DSLR can provide. Clearly, Nikon doesn’t place a high priority on this capability (and neither do we, seeing it as more of an adjunct you’d use now and then, than a primary motive for purchasing the D90). However, as it’s a ‘world fi rst’, Photo Review will deal with it before moving on to other more important features.Video in a DSLR is a signifi cant advance - particularly at the D90’s price point. Previously, if you wanted a video camera with interchangeable lenses, you were looking at around $7000 for a model that couldn’t even record high-defi nition, widescreen video. But the D90 provides a lot more for a much lower price tag by giving users with the same kind of control over focus-ing, exposure and depth-of-fi eld as they get with a DSLR camera, along with the ability to shoot with virtually any Nikon lens.
TM
capability (and neither do we, seeing it as more of an adjunct you’d use now
point. Previously, if you wanted a video camera with interchangeable lenses,
much lower price tag by giving users with the same kind of control over focus-
Great Price Great Service! I have once again been amazed by the terrif ic service I receive when I
purchase from Camerasdirect. Their prices are always the lowest I can f ind in an Australian store and products are well packed and usually arrive the following day! The low prices are great but the service is what brings me back to Camerasdirect. Thanks to all the crew! Another lens to play with!
Gwen R, QLD
I buy all my equipment here. I know when I call up I will get to talk to someone who really knows
photography and photographic equipment. Great prices and great advice. Beats the hell out of the hard sell at your local camera store. I recommend CamerasDirect to all my friends.
Anthony O, VIC
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82
In simplest terms, the body stabiliser means you can attach
virtually any lens. With the stabilised lens approach you must fi t
lenses that have this technology built into each. In cold hard dollar
terms the latter lenses are more expensive.
LensesLook at any of the catalogues popped into your letterbox at
the weekend and you’ll see ads for DSLRs that offer big name
brand camera bodies paired with two ‘kit lenses’ for prices well
under $1000.
This combo should handle almost any photographic
assignment you could throw at it. And it will.
But there’s a factor you should be aware of: the kit
lenses’ f stop or lens apertures are usually f3.5, a fi gure
that indicates they are slow lenses … ‘slow’ as in less able
to take decent photos in less than bright light.
Should you want to shoot in dim light or use light-
hungry, fast shutter speeds you will fi nd yourself crying
out for a ‘fast’ lens, with an aperture of at least f2.8. This
capability costs!
“Any digital SLR will have enough pixels packed into its CCD or CMOS sensor to allow you take happy snaps and enjoy 10 x 15cm prints”
Nikon startled everyone when it introduced the D90. At last, you could shoot high defi nition video with a DSLR!
While its video specs of 1280 x 720 pixels at 24 fps are not full HD they look pretty good on a big LCD or plasma screen. Then Nikon took it further by providing an HDMI output to ensure the full digital picture quality gets to the big screen.
Most cameras have only a composite video output that limits quality to the level of a VCR. HDMI output is a big step forward.
VIDEO OUT
capability costs!
83
Sensor SizeCamera retailers have shelves full of digicams boasting multi
million megapixel image capture. This high pixel count means you
can, in theory, shoot and print images up to A3 in size. And you
can.
For their part most DSLRs can offer 8, 10 and higher megapixel
image counts. But there are pixels and there are pixels.
The story revolves around the size of the image sensor
itself: most digicams have sensors that measure around
4 x 3 mm while even budget DSLRs have sensors that measure
approximately 22 x 15 mm. In short, DSLR sensors have 25 or
more times the area of didicam sensor.
This rather confronting fact means that each of the 10 million
pixels on a digicam’s sensor will be signifi cantly smaller than
those on a DSLR with a 10 million pixel count. Smaller pixels
mean more image noise in your pictures, more colour artefacts
and comparatively fuzzier images.
Next?So, you’ve bought your DSLR. What’s next?
If you’re a serious and keen photographer, shoot all your
digital pictures in the RAW format. If you’re a casual snapper, use
JPEG as your fi le format of choice.
RAW delivers the image in all its natural glory: no
compression, no artefacts and ready for your own custom way
to twist and tweak your pictures in software at a later time.
JPEG images don’t have the headroom of the RAW format.
It’s a bit like comparing live sound with that of an AM radio!. ■
1. Count me in for a Nikon D90: with an 18-105mm VR-stabilised lens strapped on, it weighs only a kilo; it captures 12.3 megapixels; shoots 1280 x 720 pixel/16:9 ratio HD movie quality at 24 fps. Asking price: $1849 with the above lens.
2. Canon’s EOS 1000D is priced at $1199 and includes two non-stabilised kit lenses. At this price you get the full DSLR experience at a bargain price. Captures 10.1 megapixels and can shoot at three fps.
3. Using a body stabiliser, Olympus’ E-520 abides by the Four Thirds system. Weighing just over 800 grams with lens attached, the camera can take 10 megapixel pictures. Price with 14-42mm kit lens: $1099.
4. Pentax is a respected name in photography and the company’s K20D camera is worth a look: 14.6 megapixel capture; body stabiliser; the ability to take Pentax K-/KAF/KAF2 mount lenses. Price with 18–55m kit lens: $1999.
5. Let me squeeze in two magnifi cent cameras, for those with deep pockets, long arms and heaps of camera expertise: Nikon’s D3X and Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II.The Nikon has 24.5 megapixel capture to a full frame sensor and plenty of delicious features. PriceL $13,999 body only. Canon’s camera has 21.1 megapixel capture with a full frame sensor and a tonne of operating smarts. Price: $4299. Only for the wise and wealthy!
TOP 5
with an 18-105mm VR-stabilised
megapixels; shoots 1280 x 720
4. Pentax is a respected name
2. Canon’s EOS 1000D is priced at $1199 and includes two non-stabilised
5. Let me squeeze in two magnifi cent
camera has 21.1 megapixel capture with a full frame sensor and a tonne of operating smarts. Price: $4299. Only for the wise and wealthy!
Olympus’ E-520 abides by the Four Thirds system. Weighing
frame sensor and plenty of delicious features. PriceL $13,999 body only. Canon’s
Olympus’ E-520 abides by the
5. Let me squeeze in two magnifi cent cameras, for those with deep
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84
IN MOTION
PORTABLE M USIC SCENEFIT FOR ACTION
iriver T6If looks and build without too many feature frills are
important when you’re on the treadmill, this little iriver fi ts
the bill superbly. The size of a packet of chewing gum, the
T6 sports an FM radio and voice recorder and is fi nished in
brushed aluminium.
PRICE $89/4GB
iriver Australasia (C.R. Kennedy & Co.)
WEB www.iriver.com.au PHONE (03) 9823 1555
84
iriver Australasia (C.R. Kennedy & Co.)
WEB www.iriver.com.au PHONE (03) 9823 1555
Sony W series WalkmanSony’s wraparound MP3 headphones have no cord and no display to
get in the way of your daily workout, and the handy ‘Zappin’ function
allows you to quickly search for music by playing 15-second snippets
of tracks in your playlist. A three-minute quick charge feature provides
90 minutes of play, and full charge offers 12 hours playback. Loads of
trendy colours on offer, too.
PRICE $119/2GB
Sony Australia WEB www.sony.com.au PHONE 1300 720 071
In 1998, the MPMan introduced the world to compressed
music on the move. Today’s players are now highly evolved
versions of this 32MB Korean-made portable pioneer,
integrating video and photo playback, voice recording and even
wireless networking in ever smaller-on-the-outside, bigger-on-
the-inside packages. Here’s our pick of the pack. Nic Tatham
Samsung U4Samsung’s miniature U4 is small enough not to be noticed
either in your pocket or strapped to your arm, and the
feature count isn’t bad for such a small player. There’s a
built in FM radio and microphone, plus a host of tweakable
audio settings including an adjustable graphic equaliser.
PRICE $109/4GB
Samsung Australia WEB www.samsung.com.au
PHONE 1300 362 603
Sennheiser MX 85 Sport II headphones
Taking perspiration in their stride, these Sennheisers are
waterproof and fully washable after a workout. Their ‘Twist-
to-fi t’ system means they sit securely in the outer ear canal
and won’t pop out while running or lifting weights.
PRICE $89.95
Syntec International WEB www.syntec.com.au
PHONE (02) 9910 6700
85
PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYERS
PORTABLE M USIC SCENETHE STYLE BRIGADE
iriver SpinnVideo looks great on its 3.3 inch colour touchscreen
and with inbuilt SRS Wow HD soundfi eld technology,
the Spinn sounds the business too. This player
supports a decent array of music and video fi les plus
also handles podcasting and audiobook downloads.
PRICE $349/8GB
iriver Australasia (C.R. Kennedy & Co.)
WEB www.iriver.com.au
PHONE (03) 9823 1555
Bang & Olufsen SerenataA music player fi rst and phone second, this is a stunning-looking bit of kit,
whichever way you take in its svelte, sculptured lines. Packed with B&O’s
audio know-how to enhance both music and speech quality, twin speakers are
driven by B&O’s proprietary ICEpower digital amplifi cation and digital signal
processing. Louis Vuitton has also crafted a leather holster for the B&O, making
this perhaps one the swankiest MP3 players money can buy.
PRICE $2275/4GB
B&O Australia WEB www.bang-olufsen.com
Oakley Split ThumpOakley’s ‘High Defi nition Optics’ lenses provide clarity of vision
and protection, while sounds are delivered courtesy of removable
earphones located in the side arms. Wireless, the Split Thumps
are a highly convenient option for music on the move, be it dropping
into the half pipe, or simply cruising the strip.
PRICE $550/2GB
Oakley Inc WEB http://oakley.com.au PHONE 1800 625 539
Apple iPod TouchLashings of chromed steel, glass and a big 3.5 inch screen
make this a beautiful and tactile bit of music and video playing
kit. Browse the internet or check your emails with its Wi-Fi
connectivity, and keep on downloading at any Wi-Fi hotspot.
PRICE $329/8GB, $419/16GB, $549/32GB
Apple Pty Ltd WEB www.apple.com/au
PHONE 133 622 (Apple Store)
86
IN MOTION
JUKEBOX PLAYERS
Samsung YP-P3Milled from die-cast aluminium with a 3 inch touchscreen and
Samsung’s brand-new ‘EmoTure’ user interface, the YP-P3 is
designed to make the most of portable music and video content.
It also sports Bluetooth connectivity for audio streaming from a
PC or phone, and even allows you to answer a mobile phone call
via its headphones and built-in microphone.
PRICE $TBA (4/8/16/32GB)
Samsung Australia
WEB www.samsung.com.au PHONE 1300 362 603
Myvu Crystal Personal Media Viewer
Once the fantasy of sci-fi tragics, these glasses
connect to a portable media player to display
your very own video show, quite literally right in
front of your eyes. Screen resolution is VGA 640
x 480 pixels and decent audio quality is provided
by built-in Ultimate Ears earbuds.
Star Trek: The Next Generation never felt so real.
PRICE $399
Myvu Corporation WEB www.myvu.com
Sony X series WalkmanThe iPod Touch may be the daddy of cool of portable music players,
but it has many challengers in the touchscreen-cool stakes. The
X series Walkman is equipped with a 3 inch OLED (Organic Light
Emitting Diode) screen, Wi-Fi connectivity and Internet access, inbuilt
digital noise cancelling, plus Sony’s quality EX earphones.
PRICE $649/16GB, $799/32GB
Sony Australia WEB www.sony.com.au PHONE 1300 720 071
Microsoft ZuneWith up to 120GB of hard disk storage inside, you can cram just
about everything onto the Generation 3 Microsoft Zune. Record
your favourite TV shows or movies via the Internet, and sync with
the Windows Media Center in Windows Vista to upload what you
want to take with you to watch. Use your home wireless network
to share tracks, or stream content to Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
PRICE $480/120GB (4/8/16/80/120GB)
Microsoft Australia WEB www.microsoft.com/australia
PHONE 13 20 58
87
PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYERS
COLOURFUL SORTS
Apple iPod nanoAvailable in no fewer than nine colours, the fourth generation
iPod nano features an ‘accelerator’ which, by giving the nano a
shake, shuffl es to the next track in your library. Tilt the nano on
its side and the 2 inch display reorientates accordingly, while the
Cover Flow feature allows you to fl ip through music album art
just as you would on the iPod Touch and iPhone.
PRICE $199/8GB, $279/16GB
Apple Pty Ltd WEB www.apple.com/au
PHONE 133 622 (Apple Store)
AktiMate Mini There are all manner of powered speakers for portable music
players, but few sound as good as the Aktimate Minis. There’s
a cradle mount for an iPod or iPhone, plus connections for
other players and an output for a subwoofer. A USB port is
provided, as is 40 watts of power output and a connection for
sending video and photos to a TV.
PRICE $650/pair
Epoz Australia WEB www.aktimate.com
PHONE (02) 9972 2815
SanDisk Sansa FuzeThe Fuze’s alloy metal case comes in a
range of fi ve bright colours, and wraps
the player’s 1.9 inch colour TFT screen
and central control wheel. A microSD
card expansion slot allows memory to
be beefed up to 24GB, and a range of
colour-coordinated additions allows you
to accessorise at will.
PRICE $179/8GB (2/4/8GB)
SanDisk Corporation
WEB www.sansa.com
Creative Zen StonePebble-sized and shaped, the Zen Stone is offered in a livery
of six different high gloss colours, with a host of accessories,
from skins to speakers, to suit. For something fancier, the
Zen Stone Plus incorporates a small OLED screen and FM
tuner. Both versions of the Zen are available with or without
a built-in speaker.
PRICE $49.95/Zen Stone 1GB
Creative Labs Pty Ltd (Australia & New Zealand) WEB
http://au.creative.com PHONE (02) 9021 9800
88
CEDIA
ACTMillennium Audio VisualUnit C, 66 Maryborough St.Fyshwick ACT 260902 6162 3330www.mav.com.au
Sound Advice Australia21 Molonglo MallFyshwick ACT 260902 6280 8777www.soundadvice.com.au
NSWAdvanced Entertainment SystemsUnit 14 12 Cecil Road Hornsby, NSW 207702 9477 3377www.aesonline.com.au
Advanced Living2/29 Mitchell RoadBrookvale NSW 201102 9939 0188www.advancedliving.com.au
Andrew Parker Custom AV Installations5 Honeysuckle PlaceKellyville, NSW 215502 8824 7177www.andrewparker.com.au
Audio Connection455 - 40Parramatta RoadLeichhardt, NSW 204002 9518 3000www.audioconnection.com.au
Audio Connection (Caringbah)381 Port Hacking RoadCaringbah NSW 222902 9518 3000www.audioconnection.com.au
Audio Connection (Drummoyne)137 Victoria Road Drummoyne NSW 204702 9561 0788www.audioconnection.com.au
Audio Solutions1133 Botany Road,Mascot, NSW 202002 9317 3330www.audiosolutions.net.au
Audio Visual & Security Unlimited5/686 New South Head RoadRose Bay, NSW 202902 9371 2052www.audiovisualunlimited.com.au
Audio Visual Lifestyle86 Merewether StreetMerewether NSW 229102 49 [email protected]
Automated InnovationUnit 2, 51 Pacifi c HighwayBennetts Green NSW 229002 49 484812www.automatedinnovation.com.au
AVD Australia Pty Ltd55 Atchison Street St Leonards NSW 206502 9906 2424www.avd.com.au
Castle Integrated Media 372 B Military RoadCremorne NSW 209002 9953 8037 www.castleintegrated.com.au
CONNEXIONS (NSW) Pty Ltd 19C Grace AveFrenchs Forest, NSW 208602 9453 [email protected]
Custom Home ElectronicsPO Box 564Hamilton, NSW 230302 4940 [email protected]
David Leisk Electronics25/1 Short StreetChatswood, NSW 206702 9882 3733www.davidleisk.com.au
E.C.S. Services Pty Ltd22 Forestwood CrWest Pennant Hills, NSW 212502 9871 4061www.ecss.com.au
EBM SystemsPO Box 1865Hornsby Westfi eld, NSW 163502 9029 9245www.ebmsystems.com.au
Electronic Environments1 Lansdowne ParadeOatley, NSW 222302 9585 1233www.electronicenvironments.com.au
Eris McCarthy Home TechnologyPO Box 8099Tumbi Umbi, NSW 226102 4389 1990www.erismccarthy.com.au
Harvey Norman CommercialHome Automation Systems15 - 21 Atkinson RdTaren Point, NSW 222902 9710 4321www.hncommercial.com.au
Home Control & AudioPO Box 1324Sutherland NSW 223202 9528 0071www.homecontrolandaudio.com.au
Infra Red Entertainment & Automated InteriorsSte. 2, 11 Albany StreetSt Leonards, NSW 206502 9439 6444www.infrared.com.au
Insound Pty Ltd108 West StreetCrows Nest, NSW 206502 9954 [email protected]
Instinct ElectricalPO Box 557Dee Why, NSW 209902 9938 3188www.instinctelectrical.com.au
Intelligent Control Systems ‘ICS’13/3 Apollo StreetWarriewood, NSW 210202 9999 0766www.icsonline.net.au
IntelliStreamPO Box 4018Kotara East,NSW 230502 4957 8820www.intellistream.com.au
JFK Audio VisualL3, 18/81-91 Military RoadNeutral Bay NSW 20890414 434 535www.jfk.com.au
Jory Home Systems Pty Ltd6 Morrisey WayRouse Hill, NSW 215502 9836 5132www.joryelectric.com
Len Wallis Audio64 Burns Bay RoadLane Cove, NSW 206602 9427 6755www.lenwallisaudio.com
Life Style Store Pty LtdUnit 8 - The Junction, 2 Windsor Road Parramatta, NSW 215002 9683 7222www.lifestylestore.com.au
LovemyTVPO Box 3320Bangor, NSW 22340439 888 113www.lovemytv.com.au
Mac Hi Fi Pty Ltd17 Flinders StreetWollongong, NSW 250002 4227 6767www.machifi .com.au
Matrix Audio Visual Services22 Palm StreetSt Ives, NSW 207502 9440 [email protected]
McLeans Smarter Home EntertainmentCnr Minto & The Entrance RoadsLong Jetty, NSW 226102 4333 3545www.mcleans.info
Neutral Bay Hi Fi89 Spofforth StreetMosman, NSW 208802 9908 1285nbhifi @bigpond.net.au
New Fidelity Pty Ltd392 Darling StreetBalmain, NSW 204102 9818 2333www.newfi delity.com.au
Nova Comm Pty Ltd8 / 280 New Line RoadDural, NSW 215802 9651 6430www.novacomm.com.au
OnetouchPO Box 3002Balgownie, NSW 25190437 [email protected]
OPOC Solutions Pty Ltd1 Campbell AvenueNormanhurst NSW 207602 9489 0906www.opoc.com.au
Pacifi c Hi Fi62 Macquarie Stree Liverpool NSW 217002 9600 6655www.pacifi chifi .com.au
Smart Home SolutionsUnit 21 56 O’Riordan StreetAlexandria, NSW 201502 9304 4700www.smarthomes.com.au
Soundys Electrical and Computers383 Goonoo Goonoo RoadTamworth, NSW 234002 6765 [email protected]
Sturman Electronics Pty Ltd443 Crown StreetWest Wollongong, NSW 250002 4226 6690www.sturmans.com.au
Sydney HiFi ASVPO Box 150Mascot, NSW 202002 9578 0118www.sydneyhifi .com.au
Sydney Home Cinema Pty LtdPO Box 6072 Narraweena NSW 2099 0413 397 256www.sydneyhomecinema.com.au
TJA CommunicationsPO Box 300Seven Hills, NSW 214702 9838 4622www.tjacom.com.au
The Directors Chair SydneyTenant 6, Level 1, Rear 290 Botany RoadAlexandria, NSW 20171300 652480www.thedirectorschair.com.au
The Silent Butler 57 Himalaya CrescentSeven Hills NSW 21470416 153 433www.thesilentbutler.com.au
Tomorrows430 New South Head Road Double Bay NSW 20281300 880 840www.tomorrows.com.au
Zeale GroupP.O. Box 1196Albury NSW 264002 6041 1484www.zealegroup.com.au
QLDAudio Dreams Australia17 Lillypilly PlaceMooloolaba, QLD 455707 5444 8122www.audiodreams.com.au
Auztech Industries Pty LtdPO Box 4368Logenholme DC, QLD 412907 3806 3133www.auztech.com.au
AVTEC12 Buckle Court Sinnamon Park QLD 407307 3279 6353www.avtec.com.au
Custom InstallPO Box 1250, Spring Hill, QLD 400407 3277 9823www.custominstall.com.au
Electronic Interiors Brisbane (Formerly Toombul Music)2 / 180 Northgate RoadNorthgate, QLD 401307 3266 2533www.einteriors.com.au
Electronic Living14 Smallwood PlaceMurarrie QLD 40121300 764 554www.electronicliving.com.au
CEDIA INSTALLER DIRECTORY
WANT A CUSTOM INSTALL? Make sure you use a CEDIA CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL
and have peace of mind.
CEDIA members specialize in the planning, design, supply,
installation and concealment of automated electronic systems
for the modern, intelligent home. They can install anything
from multi-room audio and home cinema systems to complete
home networks and sub-systems which intelligently control
lighting, HVAC and even garden areas.For more information go to www.cedia.com.au
89
Fi Audio Video3/3 Gibson RoadNoosaville, QLD 456607 5455 6300www.fiaudiovideo.com.au
Harvey Norman Home AutomationPO Box 5935 GCMC Bundall, QLD 421707 5584 [email protected]
HomeTech Systems Pty LtdPO Box 979 Nerang QLD 421107 5502 [email protected]
Home Theatrix - Bundall56 Ashmore Road, Bundall, QLD 412707 5531 7244www.hometheatrix.com.au
Home Theatrix - MurarrieUnit 11 Nautilus Business Park 210 Queensport RdMurarrie, QLD 41721 300 555 270www.hometheatrix.com.au
Look & Listen6 Ascot StreetMurarrie QLD 41721300 765 322www.lookandlisten.com.au
In Sight & Sound Pty Ltd125 Shamley Heath RoadKureelpa, QLD 456007 5445 7799www.in-sight.com.au
Power Integration9 Senden CrescentManly West QLD 41791300 797 468www.powerintegration.com.au
Skehan Antenna’s Pty Ltd14 Goombungee RdKingstaorpe, QLD 440007 4630 [email protected]
Star Home Theatre17 Trenton StreetKenmore, QLD 406907 3701 5288www.starhometheatre.com.au
Stereo SuppliesGold Coast Mail Centre PO Box 6817, Gold CoastQLD 972607 5531 7955www.stereosupplies.com.au
The Directors Chair Brisbane3 / 49 Jijaws StreetSumner Park, QLD 407407 3376 7065www.thedirectorschair.com.au
Todds Sound & Vision1 308 New Cleveland RoadTingalpa, QLD 417307 3907 7777www.todds.com.au
VideoproLevel 1 1062 Ann StreetFortitude Valley, QLD 400607 3250 0000www.videopro.com.au
VisiontronicsPO Box 11, Landsborough, QLD 45500412 314 466www.visiontronics.com.au
Visual Focus 16 Clifford Street Toowoomba QLD 4350617 4632 0402www.visualfocus.com.au
SAHarvey Norman Mile EndPO Box 288 Torrensville, SA 503108 8150 8000www.harveynorman.com.au
Sound & Vision Studio237 Greenhill RoadDulwich, SA 506508 8364 4000www.sv-studio.com.au
TASNation TechnologyLevel 1, 2 Trotters LaneProspect, TAS 725003 6343 0655www.nationtechnology.com
Soundtech Integrated Systems262 York StreetLaunceston TAS 725003 6331 9900www.soundsmart.biz
VICAdvanced Lifestyle Solutions Pty LtdPO Box 360, Niddrie, VIC 304203 8307 5618www.advancedlifestylesolutions.com.au
Audio Trends 10 Argent Place Ringwood Vic 313503 9874 8233www.audiotrends.com.au
Cableman Pty LtdLevel 1/1227 Glen Huntly RoadGlen Huntly, VIC 316303 9572 8900www.cableman.com.au
Carlton Audio Visual164 - 172 Lygon St, Carlton, VIC 305303 9639 2737www.carltonaudiovisual.com.au
Custom Home TheatrePO Box 963 Berwick VIC 380603 9796 2617www.customhometheatre.com.au
Encel Stereo - Richmond 84 Bridge Road, Richmond, VIC 312103 9428 3761www.encelstereo com.au
Frankston Hi Fi450 Nepean HighwayFrankston, VIC 319903 9781 1111www.frankstonhifi.com.au
Hidden Technology30 Dickenson StreetAltona Meadows, VIC 302803 8685 8544www.hiddentechnology.com.au
howdoi.com pty ltd6a / 4 Rocklea DrivePort Melbourne, VIC 320703 9646 9116www.howdoi.com.au
IBS Audio Visual Pty Ltd43 Dalgety StreetOakleigh VIC 316603 9568 2800www.ibsav.com.au
Impact Electrics3 England StreetBentleigh East, VIC 316503 9209 [email protected]
Integrated Technologies Australia PO Box 570, Kilsyth, VIC 313703 9761 8700www.integratedtechnologiesaustralia.com.au
Interior Sound and VisionPO Box 1093, Niddrie, VIC 304203 9336 7643www.isvinfo.com.au
Inteverge Pty LtdPO Box 2501, Kew, VIC 31010409 178 076www.inteverge.com
Smart Systems Pty Ltd0Church Street, Hawthorn, VIC 312203 9818 8006www.smartsystems.com.au
Steve Bennett Hi Fi174 Ryrie Street, Geelong, VIC 322003 5221 6011www.sbhifi.com.au
Tasman AV Pty Ltd6 Hood St, Collingwood, VIC 306603 9416 2255www.tasmanav.com.au
WAAVARNTI1/ 325 Harborne StOsborne Park, WA 601708 9443 1288www.avarnti.com
Digital Interiors319 Hay StreetSubiaco, WA 60080417 921 223www.digitalinteriors.com.au
Douglas Hi Fi Enterprises Pty Ltd401 Murray StreetPerth, WA 600008 9322 3466www.douglashifi.com.au
ECA SystemsUnit 2/13 Clark StreetDunsborough WA 62811300 858 897www.ecasystems.com.au
Electronic Interiors WA 125 Burswood RoadBurswood, WA 610008 9472 4800www.einteriors.com.au
Essential Cabling1 / 6 Chullora BendJandakot WA 616408 [email protected]
Frank Prowse Hi-Fi6-14 Glyde StreetMosman Park, WA 601208 9384 1362www.frankprowsehifi.com.au
Hillstone CommunicationsPO Box 599Kalamunda, WA 692608 9293 [email protected]
Home Cinema Systems 2 / 18 Port Kembla Drive Bibra Lake WA 6163 08 9434 5556 www.homecinemasystems.com.au
Intelligent Home Automated Solutions25 Wittenoom Street East Perth, WA 600408 9325 7775www.intelligenthome.com.au
Light Application Pty Ltd78 Erindale RoadBalcatta WA 602108 9240 6644www.lightapplication.com.au
Lynx Integrated SystemsUnit 5 / 74 Kent WayMalaga WA [email protected]
Northam Home Cinema 5 Oliver Street Northam, WA 640108 9622 [email protected]
Surround CustomUnit 3, 83-85 Stirling HighwayNedlands, WA 600908 9389 7755www.surroundsounds.com.au
Surround SoundsUnit 3, 83-85 Stirling HighwayNedlands, WA 600908 9389 6900www.surroundsounds.com.au
Starship IndustriesPO Box 30Claremont WA 60100428 912 [email protected]
Ultimation488 Scarborough Beach RdOsborne Park WA 60171 300 880 544www.ultimation.com.au
Vince Ross Audio World162 Stirling HighwayNedlands, WA 600908 9386 8144www.vinceross.com.au
NZALETRO LtdPO Box 9680Newmarket, Auckland+64 9 307 1238www.aletro.com
Automation AssociatesPO Box 109722Newmarket - Auckland+64 9 377 3778www.aa.net.nz
Liquid AutomationP.O. Box 300753Albany Auckland 632+64 9 444 2440 www.liquidautomation.co.nz
Smartline37 Cracroft Street, Waitara, FitzroyNew Plymouth64 6 754 6771www.homenet.net.nz
Sound Advice FirstPO Box 12-145Christchurch 8002+64 3 379 9416www.soundadvicefirst.com
Soundline Audio LtdBox 2650, Christchurch 8002+64 3 379 5695www.soundline.co.nz
Soundline Audio LtdCapital Gateway Centre, 56 Thorndon QuayWellington+64 4 471 0542www.soundline.co.nz
The Listening Post657 Victoria StreetHamilton+64 7 839 0135www.listening.co.nz
Strawberry Sound90 Falsgrove StreetChristchurch +64 3 379 8477www.strawberrysound.co.nz
Strawberry Sound21 Bath StreetDunedin+64 3 477 7742www.strawberrysound.co.nz
90
ULTIMATE AV
Action StationsThere aren’t many things that are bigger than
China – there’s Russia, and Canada by a nose, but
no-one by population, added to the fact that their
manufacturing seems to be conquering the known
world. So it’s a welcome sight when our Japanese friends,
Panasonic, decide to grace Australia with a product that beats the
Chinese at their own (Olympic) game.
Recently installed at opposite ends of the ANZ Stadium in
Sydney, Panasonic’s brand new ‘Astrovision’ high defi nition LED
screens are absolute giants and the largest anywhere in the
world. Measuring 10 metres high by 23 metres across, which is
the same size as three cricket pitches laid side by side, each of the
Astrovision panels dwarves the ones installed in the Bird’s Nest
Stadium in Beijing for last year’s Olympic Games.
Why no LCD?And ‘LED’ isn’t a spelling mistake on our part. Neither plasma
nor LCD, the massive televisions use high intensity light emitting
diode technology (LED) to produce a far brighter image than
normal, with excellent colour fi delity. They also allow for greater
contrast, which is ideal for countering all the ambient light in the
outdoor environment.
Panasonic launched the LED screens late last year and claims
that the composition of the displays is a key selling point, allowing
the company to dominate the commercial sector in providing
such large displays. Comprising hundreds of individual LED units,
their confi guration can easily be changed to suit quite specifi c
requirements. They’re both linked to the ANZ Stadium control
centre via high bandwidth fi ber optics, can be hooked into a
LAN for remote operation and will accept images broadcast in
resolutions up to 1080i.
Chop viewyWith a 21:9 aspect ratio and a viewing angle that hits 145 degrees to
accommodate the crowds, one of the most attractive features of the
new Astrovision screens, aside from their sheer size, is the ability to
‘chop up’ the panel into discrete displays during sporting events. So
alongside live footage of the actual on-fi eld proceedings, the stadium
owners can show the punters instant replays, information about the
players and venue and, of course, run advertisements from sponsors.
Well, someone’s got to pay for them. Max Everinghamnormal, with excellent colour fi delity. They also allow for greater players and venue and, of course, run advertisements from sponsors.
Well, someone’s got to pay for them.
92
GEAR LOG The GadgetGuy™ presents great gear and top tech for your digital life
5800 XPRESSMUSIC
and top tech for your digital lifeand top tech for your digital life
Music ExpressOptimised for use with Nokia’s newly hatched online music store, the 5800 XpressMusic handset – the company’s fi rst touchscreen – includes a graphic equaliser, 8GB memory for storing up to 6000 tracks, and support for all major digital music formats. The Australian Nokia Music Store (Comes with Music) offers more than four million tracks from local and international artists and, unlike other subscription services, they are yours to keep, according to Nokia.
A virtual alphanumeric keypad, computer-style QWERTY keyboard, pen stylus and plectrum (for the die-hard musos) provide lots of input options for the widescreen interface, and you can track a digital history of recent text messages, emails, phone logs, photos and blog updates for up to four favourite contacts directly from the Contacts bar on the home screen. A 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens is built-in, with images and videos (recorded at 25 frames/second) able to be shared to sites such as Flickr or Facebook at the touch of button.PRICE $979 (with 12 months Comes With Music subscription)WEB www.nokia.com.au
Show time3M’s ultra-portable micro projector turns any space into an instant presentation arena or mini-theatre slideshow space, it’s teeny (152 gram) form capable of throwing an image up to 1.2 metres onto any fl at surface in a darkened room. Connected to a notebook, video MP3 player or mobile phone, the highly pocketable MPro110 is good for up to 60 minutes of use before the lithium-ion battery needs recharging and, powered by energy effi cient LED technology, it lacks fans so is whisper-quiet in operation. Video resolution is VGA standard and pictures are presented in 4:3 format, with AC adaptor, video cable and VGA cable supplied in the box. PRICE $725 WEB www.3mmmpro.com.au
In loveDell, the heavyweight of budget no-frills computers, has gone posh with the $3699 Adamao line-up, the world’s thinnest notebooks at around two-thirds the thickness of the MacBook Air. Latin for “to fall in love with”, the 13 inch Adamo ‘Desire’ and ‘Admire’ models are machined from a single piece of aluminium, feature a scalloped backlit keyboard and high defi nition edge-to-edge displays and come in pearl or onyx fi nishes. The internal solid state memory can be augmented by a colour-matched external hard drive (250 or 500GB) or 8GB USB drive; Windows Vista Home Premium Edition is pre-loaded, and battery life is rated at fi ve hours. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (Draft n) are standard, and the Adamos can be optioned for mobile broadband. PRICE $3699WEB www.AdamoByDell.com.au
Dell, the heavyweight of budget no-frills computers, has gone posh with the $3699 Adamao line-up, the world’s thinnest notebooks at around two-thirds the thickness of the MacBook Air. Latin for “to fall in love with”, the 13 inch Adamo ‘Desire’ and ‘Admire’ models are machined from a single piece of aluminium, feature a scalloped backlit keyboard and high defi nition edge-to-edge displays and come in pearl or onyx fi nishes. The internal solid state memory can be augmented by a colour-matched external hard drive (250 or 500GB) or 8GB USB drive; Windows Vista Home Premium Edition is pre-loaded, and battery life is rated at fi ve hours. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (Draft n) are standard, and the Adamos can be optioned for mobile broadband. PRICEWEB
94
EARS & EYES & THUMBS
HIGH DEFINTION MOVIES
The fi lm that hardly needs an introduction in this country, Australia’s main female star, Nicole Kidman, claims to have signed on the dotted line without even reading the script. Received well over here but not so enthusiastically over, you know, there, the self-proclaimed epic adventure is now available on a 50GB Blu-ray disc. But with the potential to pack it full of bonus content, there’s only one ‘featurette’, a paltry two deleted scenes and a bunch of ‘behind the scenes’ short pieces on such subjects as sound, visual effects and costume design. Which, with a large-scale production like this, with over two-and-a-half-million feet of fi lm shot, very much suggests that there are a few ‘special’ or ‘limited’ edition versions of the movie set for
milking in our future, too. Worse, good ol’ Baz Luhrmann is extremely patronising when talking about post-production – why on earth should anyone know, or care, what it is, anyhow? – and when he gets to extemporise on “the fi lm is being born, and starting to have its own life”, it’s time to skip the chapter. But steer clear, if you do, of his life partner’s segment on costume design, which turns out to be scary and egg-sucking in equal parts, although her use of ‘similarily’ is worth hearing for a chuckle. The DVD gets only the two deleted scenes, which seems a bit stingy, even by movie house standards. Wait for the inevitable Christmas bonza version.Sound: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio (lossless)
Same studio, different blockbuster. The latest Bond movie, victim of a lacklustre critical reception but breaking all sorts of box offi ce records – including biggest Bond opening ever, smashing Brosnan’s Die Another Day - in fact sees Craig bring a convincingly grim portrayal of life as an MI6 spy to the screen. Quantum of Solace, now out on Blu-ray, tells the story of Bond out for revenge, following on directly from Craig’s Casino Royale as he morosely tracks down his lover’s killers inside the ‘Quantum’ criminal organisation.
The main component of the bonus content is a ‘making of’ featurette and various ‘blogs’ from the movie’s production crew. But the rest of the menu is eerily similar to Fox’s other big release this month, Australia, almost as if the studio has a template set up somewhere. Probably the best of these are the music video from Alicia Keyes and the White Stripes’ Jack White (but that’s on the DVD version too, so not exclusive to Blu-ray) and the odd couple’s later appearance in the ‘Music’ blog. Sound: English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio (Lossless)
This latest Futurama ‘feature-length’ adventure, the fourth, suffers from all such animated releases, in that sitting down for its 85 minute run is really little different from watching a few episodes of the regular show back-to-back. The fi lm has some serious pacing issues that, in places, are genuinely sleep-inducing. But there are a few bright spots with the extras on the disc, including a ‘Matt Groening and David Cohen in Space!’ featurette which, while quite self indulgent, is amusing, if only to hear the reactions of LA locals to the pair walking around LA afterwards in their space fl ight suits. Also, presented by the joke production company ‘DVD bonus productions that no-one bothers to watch’, the ‘How we make Futurama so good’ is entertaining too, but mostly, assuming Fry’s crassness here
a bit, due to the presenter of the piece, Lauren Tom being so cute throughout.
And to cap it off, the AV commentary is hardly compelling, despite even the mighty Matt Groening’s presence. So it’s not really the best of the extra content on the Blu-ray version of this fi lm but the only one exclusive to the HD format. Promised the extras world when the Blu-ray format was launched, early adopters simply haven’t been suffi ciently rewarded with the content they were told was coming. Perhaps that joke company name producing‘How we make Futurama so good’ may not be that far from the truth, belying the makers’ conviction that it’s not worth providing many extras anyhow. Sound: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio (lossless)
Australia Rated M Distributor Fox
Quantum of Solace Rated M Distributor Fox
Futurama: Rated PG Distributor Fox
Entertainment for wherever you are — from movie room to laptop to mobile phone, and from HDTV to podcasts, DVDs and downloads. Compiled by Max Everingham.
Into the WildGreen Yonder
Bond Collection No.2 Rated various Distrubutor FoxCunningly timed for release at the same time as the Blu-ray and DVD version of the newest Bond outing, Quantum of Solace, Fox and MGM are announcing fi ve more golden oldie 007 movies from full slate of 22, remastered for Blu-ray. Joining the six already available on the new format, the fi ve new titles are Moonraker, Goldfi nger, The World is Not Enough, The Man with the Golden Gun and License to Kill.
So you get another decent spread of the various actors who’ve portrayed the maverick spy – including Connery, Moore, Brosnan and one of the only two movies to star Timothy Dalton in the title role. Maybe it’s their classic nature, but all these Blu-ray movies come with some incredibly engaging and valuable bonus content; too much to list separately here. Original interviews – proper interviews,
not the choppy, three second soundbite stuff we get now - adverts, photos, storyboards and a heap more from the BBC archives will delight 007 fans, but one of the most outstanding extra segments has to be the ‘On tour with the Aston Martin DB5’ feature. This exhibits original early-’60s coverage of the press-tour version of 007’s beautiful car from Goldfi nger, wonderfully replete with fully-working gadgets, including some not shown in the fi lm, like the wing mirror scanner! And did you know that the Aston factory made a miniature electric version in 1966 for Prince Andrew, with working gadgets and sound effects or that the original car used in the fi lm was sold to a Boca Raton resident, but subsequently stolen and not recovered to this day? Superb stuff all round – let’s hope that the next batch includes The Spy Who Loved Me.Sound: English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio (Lossless)
SHAKEN... IN HIGH DEFINITION!
95
GAMESComing to Australia from a different country, one of the strongest fi rst impressions the natives make on you is that they’re all outdoors crazy – eating outdoors, exercising outdoors, going for hikes, bike rides, having parties in parks. Whether it’s true, a smartly cultivated reputation by a few seriously energetic types or just a function of living in bike-crazy Melbourne, I’m not sure. Whichever it is, in this month’s update of great applications for your mobile devices, we’re going to kick off with some sweaty stuff for you active types.
Starting with the iPhone, ‘iMapMyRun’ and ‘iMapMyRide’ both use the built-in GPS ability of your phone to provide ‘location-based’ information for bike riders, runners and other afi cionados of the more exhibitionist past-times. You can plot great running or cycling routes, keep a training log and view all the critically important stats like distance, time, pace and calories burned directly on your iPhone. So if you live in Melbourne especially, treat your bike like one of the family and really love your lycra, this one’s a shoe-in. And for an alternative, check out ‘Runkeeper’. Next is the totally free ‘Ski Report’ - another location-based app that uses GPS to display information from the resorts closest to you, including ‘dumpage’, ski reports from other users and links to weather reports and webcams. Finally, download ‘Trips’, a data management tool that’ll keep track of all the hotel reservations, fl ight numbers, meetings and so forth, for all you road warriors out there, including real-time updates on fl ight schedules, including delays.
Less sporty, but really, really useful is Sopods’ full-screen web browser, freeing up to 40 percent more of the iPhone’s screen for browsing, ‘MobileFiles 2.0’ from Quickoffi ce, allowing you to transfer fi les over Wi-Fi to a PC or Mac, and, best of all if you’re prone to forgetting where the hell you parked the car at the local mall, ‘Take me to my car’ from a humble Stanford grad student. Tap once to start the app, again to store the location of your car as you lock it up, and when you emerge again from the mall, re-open the app to be guided directly to your parking spot. Totally free and totally genius. And the game this month is ‘Fastlane Street Racing Lite’, a free taster of car racing game that employs the accelerometer to really good effect.
But what if you’re not an iPhone addict? Well, there’s not enough space to do a proper rundown of Windows Mobile apps this issue but, for a controversial opener how about ‘Spyphone’, turning your handset into a spy kit that monitors the audio level picked up by a second phone (place it close to your surveillance target) and alerts you if it goes above a determined level. Good as a baby monitor, perhaps, but I’m sure you can think of more pleasingly nefarious applications. Next month, apps for your Google Android phone.
Apple App storehttp://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphonehttp://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore
Specifi c applicationsTake me to my car http://takemetomycar.anresgroup.comSki Report http://www.skireport.com/australiaSpyphone http://www.spy-phone.com
Tomb Raider Underworld Eidos Platform PS3
Castle Crashers Microsoft Platform Xbox 360
Lips Microsoft Platform Xbox 360
Nerf N-Strike EA Platform Wii
With any game franchise that has seen multiple sequels, the least the gaming public should expect is that the developers fi x what was wrong in the last game and evolve the stuff that worked. Crystal Dynamics, the company responsible for Lara Croft’s newest foray into destroying culturally signifi cant architecture and stealing anything of value hidden in the ruins at least delivered some of that premise. Underworld is the eighth game in the Tomb Raider series and Lara returns looking better than ever, the environments she lopes around in are often stunning and there’s a real sense of discovery and adventure as you venture into new places. But the combat is horrible, levels are designed to exploit Lara’s scrambling, climbing and jumping rather than to be genuinely interesting or challenging, the controls are still picky, arbitrary and completely infuriating, given the precision demanded of them, and the camera is still wildly erratic.
A brilliant Xbox Live Arcade game that puts most full-priced releases to shame, Castle Crashers has a great pedigree, developed by the same crew, The Behemoth, that brought us the superb Alien Hominid. At fi rst glance, Castle Crashers is a traditional, side-scrolling hack-and-slash game with innocuous, ‘cell-shaded’ cartoon graphics. But, much like Happy Tree Friends, the childish appearance belies a quite breathtaking gore quotient. Allowing up to four players to join forces on the knightly quest, Castle Crashers’ strongest appeal lies in the combination of excellent co-op multiplayer, addictive gameplay, fun customisation choices and great use of humour. A deeply nostalgic blast from the past for veteran game players and a fresh, engaging fi ght-fest for newcomers, Castle Crashers is endlessly entertaining.
Lips from iNiS Corp is exclusive to the Xbox 360 and is, basically, that console’s version of the incredibly popular SingStar karaoke game on PlayStation. There are some signifi cant differences, though, and they’re improvements as far as we’re concerned – you can download and play your own (DRM-free) songs, the game doesn’t rate your singing (so doesn’t fail you and is far more accessible for young families as a result) and the microphones are both sexier than the PS SingStar efforts and wireless. The 30 included songs are all over the place, from the classic ‘Call me’ from Blondie to ‘Umbrella’ from Rihanna, but since the game’s release there have been more than double that number of tracks released as ‘premium downloadable content’. So if you’re keen on karaoke, Lips is now already cheaper than its $99.99 advertised price in some stores and well worth checking out.
One of the fi rst titles borne out of a new collaboration with toymaker Hasbro, Nerf N-Strike for Wii is a virtual version of those soft-missile-fi ring toy guns that, depending on your parental tolerance levels are either a) hilarious, safe fun for all the family or b) teeth-clenchingly annoying crap pieces of plastic that you can’t wait to throw in the trash when the kids turn their backs. And Nerf N-Strike is not entirely virtual, as it happens, because by far the best part of EA’s new offering is the fact that you get a real Hasbro Nerf gun in the package along with the Wii game. A simple light-gun game, the fun is sadly short-lived and the only shooting mini-games with any real longevity are, paradoxically, the ones that your sprogs are least likely to be able to understand and play. But the Nerf toy itself is great, the transformation into light-gun with the Wii remote works beautifully, and there is more fun to be had in the multiplayer side of the game.
Active Apps
96
TIME WARP
Space InvadersJust over 30 years ago – about the same time
some of us were queuing up to see Star Wars - the
venerable Atari CX-2600 Video Computer System
was released. It seems incredible now, but before
this – and take note Generation Y, Generation Z or whatever
comes after that – most people actually needed to depart
the couch for an arcarde or pizza joint to enjoy videogaming
entertainment.
The Atari 2600 wasn’t the fi rst in-home games machine –
that was Atari’s Home Pong game, released back in 1975 – but
when the 2600 debuted two years later it showcased a radical
design that relied on external ‘cartridges’ to store a game’s code,
and a ‘universal’ Central Processing Unit (CPU) to execute it.
Other products of the time used purpose-built hardware to run
a handful of ‘locked-in’ games. The cartridge system freed up
the internal circuitry from storing the games, and sparked a new
industry of independent games developers.
The Atari 2600 didn’t score immediate success in 1977, but
after licensing the arcade smash-hit Space Invaders in 1980 sales
shot to two million units. In 1982, Atari sold 8 million units, and by
2004 an astounding 30 million units had been sold and around
900 games had been developed for it. The 2600 also earned the
title of the longest selling games console in US history, with sales
spanning 14 years.
But how far have we come since those days? How does the
Atari 2600 stack up, for example, against Sony’s Playstation 3,
arguably the most powerful games console available today?
Under the hood, the Atari 2600’s CPU – the
little engine that could – ran at 1.19 megahertz,
or 1.9 million clock cycles per second. The PS3’s
Cell Broadband Engine (BE), on the other hand,
runs at an insane 3.2 Gigahertz, or 3200 million
clock cycles per second! To boot, the Cell BE
processor’s architecture also includes seven
Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs), or ‘co-
processors’ to help the main processor get the
job done. And remember, this is a product that
reaches the ‘supercomputer threshold’ set by
the US government, meaning it could be put to use in applications
such as missile guidance systems!
As memory was very expensive in the late-70s, the Atari
2600’s engineers set aside just 128 bytes of ‘working memory’
for the system to execute games. The cartridges that stored the
game data contained 4 kilobytes, or 4000 bytes of memory.
In contrast, the PS3 comes with 500 million bytes (500MB)
of onboard ‘working memory’, plus anywhere from 20 to 160
thousand, million bytes (20–160GB) of local memory to hold
game data. Also, as PS3 games are stored on Blu-ray discs, these
contain enough room for up to 50 thousand, million bytes (50GB)
of game data – which is some 12.5 million times more than an
Atari games cartridge!
On the joystick front, Atari’s 2600 came with two 8-direction,
single-button joysticks. The PS3 cheaps out by offering only
a single ‘Sixaxis’ controller, but the console can support up to
seven controllers at one time. Also, Sixaxis controller contains a
cornucopia of buttons – 12 in total, plus two analog ‘thumb-sticks’,
a four-direction pad, and it can connect wirelessly! Oh, and did
I mention that it’s motion sensitive, and there’s also a vibrating
version?
Now how has the visual quality of games changed? By today’s
standards, the Atari’s games were drawn from a grid of 192 x 94
pixels with a 104-colour palette, and complemented by stereo
audio. The PS3 can create fully fl uid, detailed 3D worlds in
1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p high defi nition graphics), using millions
of colours and 5.1 channel Dolby Digital surround sound. Gaming
worlds have never been so immersive or sounded so real. And
consoles of today do much more than play games – they connect
to the internet, screen Blu-ray movies, create slideshows of your
photos, play music and more. Just around the corner, Sony is
planning to build in support for 3D games and movies that will
leap out from your screen, with the use of special 3D glasses.
Despite all of the advances in games console technology, one
thing remains as true in 1977 as it does now – great games are
more than just great technology. Yesterday’s games couldn’t rely
on fl ashy graphics, so thoughtful, challenging, strategic and fun
game play took a stronger role in the development of games
titles, and many were terrifi cally addictive. Perhaps the downside
of today’s games is that we don’t need to rely on our imagination
as much, and without that, how will we come up with the next
generation of games for the future? Valens Quinn
arguably the most powerful games console available today?
Under the hood, the Atari 2600’s CPU – the
little engine that could – ran at 1.19 megahertz,
or 1.9 million clock cycles per second. The PS3’s
Cell Broadband Engine (BE), on the other hand,
runs at an insane 3.2 Gigahertz, or 3200 million
clock cycles per second! To boot, the Cell BE
processor’s architecture also includes seven
Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs), or ‘co-
processors’ to help the main processor get the
job done. And remember, this is a product that
reaches the ‘supercomputer threshold’ set by
titles, and many were terrifi cally addictive. Perhaps the downside
of today’s games is that we don’t need to rely on our imagination
as much, and without that, how will we come up with the next
generation of games for the future?
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You can turn on your air conditioner from your mobile phone on the way home, or check that everything is turned off over the
Once there were smart homes,now there are Wiser Homes.
internet when you get to work. It will even send you a message if your alarm goes off and you can check your home security cameras from your mobile phone.
Wiser is the missing piece of the smart home puzzle, bringing technology together into a single user-friendly solution.
To make your home Wiser, contact your nearest C-Bus pointOne Accredited Integration Professional or go to www.clipsal.com/wiser.
© Copyright Clipsal Australia Pty Ltd. CLIPCOM18955
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