http://www.ecoustics.com/latest/articles Latest articles, updated every five minutes http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/24697/ Let’s just face it; Bluetooth technology is taking over. Just about all the new eletronic audio devices are incorporating Bluetooth technology into their design, allowing the user to talk on the phone, stream music, or perform other various tasks. This “Bluetooth fever” has also been leaking into the car audio industry for a little while now, but has recently exploded with all the different uses that Bluetooth can offer. Bluetooth car stereos are the way of the future, and manufacturers provide several different options to bring this convenient technology into the vehicle. The majority of these Bluetooth head units allow the driver to answer phone calls and steam music via a Bluetooth enabled music device such as a MP3 cell phone, iPod, or laptop. The most popular option is to have hands-free calling in the car. Let’s look at the KD-AVX44 from JVC and the MEX-BT5000 from Sony. When someone buys either of these units, it will come with Bluetooth technology built-in to the car stereo . The microphone is right on the faceplate, and the Bluetooth transmitter is already installed. All the driver had to do is pair his or her Bluetooth enabled phone to the unit and start... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:37:29 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/24679/ Packed with power and light on the wallet, netbooks are a hot gift this year - see the specs of some of the most popular models. Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:47:40 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/24387/ Looking for a gift for your geeky special someone this year? Or maybe, you're just looking for a more efficient way to control your home entertainment system. We've all tried the "remote shuffle," and frankly, it can be pretty stressful when all you want to do is enjoy watching a movie! Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:36:56 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23997/ Like many people, I've really gotten addicted to having a big music collection. Recently, though, I've gotten into other things, like video podcasts and recording LiveTV on my Mac. My pitiful 120GB external drive, unfortunately, just wasn't packing the kinda space I needed. So, I began the journey of finding the right drive for my system. Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:18:16 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/24217/ In times of economic turmoil, it's often necessary to take a look at the family budget and get yourself back on track. What you may not realize is how much the technologies you use everyday are affecting your bank account. Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:47:41 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23595/ Do you find yourself having to change the volume levels on your Sansa MP3 player everytime the song changes?Are you turning the volume up to hear soft songs, then getting blasted by louder ones?Luckily, there's a great little utility called MP3 Gain that does lossless volume analysis and adjustment, as well as allowing for the volume of entire albums to be processed. Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:30:04 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/24013/ If you're looking for a svelte, effective, and fun solution for recording and watching television on your Mac, the Elgato EyeTV 250 is just the ticket. Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:00:06 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/24053/ The Internet can seem scary at times it is hard to know what you can do to protect yourself. Below are some tips that will help protect you and your computer. Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:45:09 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23884/ There comes times that you may want to combine a couple (or more) MPG video files into just one larger file. I had this case come up just recently. I needed to decompile a DVD that I wanted to watch using my thumb drive. Unfortunately, my thumb drive is only 2.0 GB and the movie was over 4. There are several ways to copy a DVD to your computer and I won't get into how to do this now. But, I needed to copy it to my thumb drive in the original VOB structure that the DVD uses instead of one large file. If you are familiar with DVDs and their layout you will know that they usually breakdown the movie into about 1 GB VOB files. At the end of the day, after doing the decompiling, I had all the original VOB files on my computer and , if you didn't know it , a VOB file is the same exact thing as a MPG file just with a different extension. So to "turn" them into MPGs I simply renamed each one of the VOB files to an extension of MPG. Now I had the MPG files I neded... Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:00:09 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23596/ Are you so in love with music you can't imagine life without your ten-thousand favorite songs? Are you a little bit of a control freak? Do you obsess over song order when composing your over-mulled playlists? Most importantly, are you getting married soon? If you answered yes to all of the above, have I got an idea for you! It may be time to consider an MP3 player as your reception DJ instead of the typical human variety. My upcoming nuptuals are quite a while away, so I have sufficient time to plan a 4-hour playlist of songs that really speaks to me and my fiance. I've read about this concept in bridal magazines, and this is a great new trend that even acts as a money saver. Why do such a thing, you ask? First and foremost, it really works best for smaller parties of your nearest and dearest, who don't need gimmicky games hosted by an obnoxious DJ to entertain themselves. The company of loved ones is really the best game you can play at a wedding. Secondly, I am a major control freak. Everytime I heard a song that I loved I penciled it down and said... Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:00:09 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23648/ I travel some and have a hard time hearing my music and videos on the airplanes. What I have found is that with a simple Portable Audio Amplifier I can amplify and enhance the sound quality to a much better level. There are a couple of different options when it comes to Portable Headphone Audio Amplifiers. One is the Boostaroo , which has the ability to will double the available volume from your audio player and separate the audio signal into individual stereo channels to drive 3 separate sets of headphones or speakers. Naturally it will depend on the ohm rating of your headphones, but the Boostaroo can increase the volume of your player by 100% with no more than a 0.3% harmonic distortion. If you are watching or listening to something that two or tree people want to hear I highly recommend the Boostaroo . If you are looking for something that improves the sound quality for MP3 MP4 Players Computers or Mobile Phones when using earphones or headphones and not so much into sharing the audio with others and are wanting a more quality for an awesome personal listening experience right between your ears I recommend the FiiO... Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:45:09 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23644/ So after numerous Google searches and store trips, I settled on the Casio Exilim EX-Z77, which touts heavily its ease of use and also its YouTube recording feature. I'm so happy with my purchase, that I wanted to share the elements of this camera that I feel are unique, and what makes it a perfect camera for a novice. Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:15:11 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23724/ The Sprint HTC Touch Diamond is almost here!!! Here are the facts! - Coming to Sprint in September - SRP $549.99 - Net Cost $299.99 Re-defining the perception of advanced mobile phones… the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond signals a giant leap forward in combining hi-tech prowess with intuitive usability and exhilarating design. Featuring a sharp 2.8-inch touch screen housed within a stunning formation of brushed metal and flawless faceted edges, the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond is as beautiful to behold as it is to use. With HTC’s vibrant touch-responsive user interface, TouchFLO 3D, and ultra-fast HSDPA internet connectivity… the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond offers a rich online experience to rival a notebook computer, allowing you to interact with Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia as freely as you would with a broadband connection. Your contacts, favourite music, videos and photos are no longer an uninspired line of text. With TouchFLO 3D, album artwork, video stills and snapshots of your friends’ and family’s faces are brought to life for you to interact, play and launch at your fingertips. A 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera will help you capture the perfect moment in style and with a massive 4GB of internal storage you can keep... Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:00:07 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23569/ You arrive home, giggling and overjoyed, only to find that the disc... won't... play.  You try everything to get it to work... but nothing works, because there's a bunch of scratches and Cheeto-prints on the back of the disk from the inconsiderate loser who rented it before you. Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:00:07 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23189/ This step-by-step guide will show you how to convert DVD to other various video formats such as MPEG-4, AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, VOB, etc. using Aimersoft's DVD Ripper software and Windows Movie Maker. Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:17:47 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/22530/ This is for model numbers WS55859, WS65869, WS55909, WS65909, WS63909. You can get a free copy of the service manual at TechLore's Technician's Corner located in the resources tab on the home page or click HERE . This will give you an idea on what needs to be done for the other models as the tools and procedture is the same. The different models do have different IC's to see what IC each model has go to this TechLore Forum Discussion . First, it is very important that you have some soldering experience working on solid state printed circuit boards, and that you know too much heat from the soldering iron will most likely ruin the PC (printed circuit) board. If this happens, it can be a very difficult repair. The boards are no longer available for these sets from Mitsubishi, so I cannot stress enough - if you have no soldering experience, let a pro assist you in this repair. One more very important thing to remember and NOT DO!! If the convergence is way out or cannot be adjusted by the customer controls, do not go into the service menu and try to adjust the convergence. It will... Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:45:11 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23304/ Now, I'd like to give my two cents on MobileMe.  A little backstory first, though - I've been a Mac user for about 6 years now (I'm guessing) and have loved it.  However, I always had to work on PC's (until more recently) and became addicted to Exchange and it's instant syncing ability between my Windows Mobile phone, work PC, and home PC.  Switching to Mac made me really miss these features, so naturally I was stoked for the release of MobileMe. Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:49:08 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23034/ Jumping through hoops of fire just to play my own music, even after I paid almost "full price," just burned my chubby little biscuits.  I then embarked on the quest to find my digital music mecca, and quickly found it.Enter eMusic: the solution to my digital music woes.  I actually smile in glee every time my monthly subscription renews, and I'd love to tell you why. Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:30:13 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23009/ Have you ever been watching your DLP TV and see this message come accros the screen? “TV will shut down in a few seconds. Please check if the air flow is blocked ” Not only is this a scary thing to see your TV say, but it can be confusing and sometimes hard to determine why this is happening. The reason you are getting this notice is because for some reason the lamp is getting too hot. This can cause a lot of damage if the TV does not shut down and will lead to early and costly replacemnt of your lamp. If you ever see this message the first thing to do is make sure something has not been placed in front of the air vents on your TV. On a Mitsubishi DLP TV the vents are on the lower left side of the TV. It basically looks like a screen on the side of your TV. Other models may have the air vents elsewhere. Make sure there is nothing blocking that area. If something is remove it and see if you see thiscome up again. If nothing is, then you may have a problem with dust build up... Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:00:09 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/22686/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:30:21 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/22886/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:42:18 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/22775/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:15:14 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/18306/ In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we discussed many things: the standby power supply, main power supply, horizontal and vertical deflection circuits, degaussing, and tuners. In Part 3 of this series, we will discuss the IF (Intermediate Frequency), AGC (Automatic Gain Control), sound IF, sound amplification, and the remote control circuits of the basic television set. IF (Intermediate Frequency) Circuits The most important feature of the IF amplifier is selectivity. Selectivity is the process of allowing only the desired frequencies to pass, while rejecting all others. There will be about three or four separate amplifier stages in a color TV IF circuit. By amplifying the signal in stages, the amounts of distortion in the IF signal waveform are reduced. The IF stages of a color TV set are fixed-tuned to a single IF frequency. Both the video and audio IF signals travel together through the IF amplifiers. The IF amplifiers need to have a bandwidth of at least 4.5 MHz, if amplification stages range from 41 MHz to 46 MHz. Traps through the circuits are used to attenuate transmission of the video carrier of the next higher channel, sound carrier of the current channel, and the sound carrier... Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:30:05 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/22606/ These days, TiVo has become a generic term for any DVR on the market, and for good reason. They paved the way for the rest of the industry, innovating unique features like trick play and pausing live TV. Similar to other innovators and leaders in their respective industries such as Xerox or Kleenex, TiVo has been adopted into the American lexicon. But just because someone may call any DVR a TiVo, it doesn't mean that there isn't a long way to go before it could even come close to the real thing. You see, while cable and satellite providers have been satisfied to only provide their customers with the rudimentary features that TiVo perfected eight years ago, TiVo themselves have never stopped innovating. Aside from simply recording programs you want to watch --which, as far as I'm concerned, TiVo does better than anybody using Wishlists, Swivel Search and Suggestions-- there are many other features on a TiVo that generic DVRs simply don't have, and probably never will. Sure, you can watch Pay-Per-View on a cable DVR, but how many allow you to rent movies from the extensive Amazon Unbox library? None. Or how about: playing your MP3 collection, browsing through... Tue, 27 May 2008 16:29:10 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/21993/ Windows Media Player is a media player for all your digital media (audio, photos and video) for computers running Windows XP and Vista. It is available as a downloadable application for Windows XP directly from Microsoft or via Windows Update and ships with Windows Vista as its default player. It is also available on Pocket PC and Windows mobile based devices. In the following sections, I will show you the basic interface, library management, ripping/burning audio cds to the library and how to sync your media to a portable MP3 player. This article focuses on Windows Media Player 11. The Interface Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) is the latest version on Microsoft's Media Player. It has undergone a complete overhaul from previous versions and sports a slicker user interface. It is pretty simple to navigate and access your media by just a few clicks of the mouse. You can use it to share media with other pcs, media streaming devices (XBox360, PS3, Netgear EVA8000, etc.), to rip and burn cd's to and from your library and sync your media to/from portable media players (both audio and video). There are 5 main buttons on the interface, they consist of the "Now... Fri, 16 May 2008 11:15:06 -0400