Onkyo HT-S5405 1 Box 5.1 Surround Sound System
With the search for a 5.1 system beginning and ending quite quickly, I thought I'd post my thoughts on the new system. As Matt Harrison happened to see when he coincidentally brought his own receiver in for repair, I recently bought the system from Richer Sounds for £350. Although undeniably a lot of money, I have to say I am impressed with the value for money.
The concept:
Although technically a one box solution, it avoids the usual downside to these systems; the inability to upgrade components or connect additional inputs beyond the included DVD/Blu-ray player. As this system contains a bespoke A/V receiver with standard binding post outputs, and speakers to connect you are still able to upgrade the speakers and/or receiver in the future.
Contents:
Onkyo HT-R548 5.1 A/V receiver with 2.0 alternate front speaker function, Onkyo HTP-548 5.1 speaker system including an active subwoofer, all necessary cables, calibration mic.
Setup:
For anyone familiar with home cinema setups, piece of cake. For anyone not, the instructions are clear and everything is labelled and/or colour coded to aid in identifying what goes where. The only thing not specifically indicated is the intended positive to positive, negative to negative connections between speaker and amplifier. As many of you will know this doesn't really matter, as long as all speakers are connected consistently. The only issue I found was that the 8m of cable included for each of the surround speakers (that is 8m for each speaker, not shared between them) was not quite enough for the relatively small room I call my music / films / gaming room. Although enough for the inevitable "quick, plugin this stuff in and make it make sound" frenzy which naturally ensued once I'd got the box open, it was clear from the outset that when running the cables neatly between the skirting board / carpet (which was easy enough to do given the (appropriately) thin included cable), there was about 1.5m too little to run both cables along the same path (towards surround L) and across to the right surround speaker.
New FAQ Section Underway
I am currently creating a new site-wide FAQ section (using phpMyFAQ) which will cover FAQs from the studio and my lessons. If you want to check it out in its current format have a look here.
Pro Tools 10
Fantastic, a new version of Pro Tools however I just thought I'd echo the thoughts and feelings of Avid Certified Instructors across the globe (as I largely agree). All Avid instructors are connected via a mailing list, which allows Pro Tools related issues to be discussed between professionals across the globe.
With the release of Pro Tools 10 came some new features (which is always good) but at an inevitable cost to upgrade. I share the concern that the now yearly scheduled upgrades so far contain relatively minor features such as RAM fades and realtime clip gain. Although also including numerous other features (a new plugin architecture), they have been described as "under the hood" upgrades; a label with which I agree - not necessarily customer focused new breakthrough features. Yes Pro Tools 9 was a shock - with the ability to choose your interface, but no matter how many videos Avid make showing people sat in the sunshine mixing this is NOT some kind of breakthrough feature - is is a built in feature of every major operating system used by every other major DAW from the year dot.
The kicker though, is that PT10 also marks the last version which will support the 192 I/O, a popular interface with HD users. Although 5 years old, the sudden end of compatibility for this (and many older interfaces) marks an insult to the investments made by many institutions across the globe, an insult to the promotion and plugging of Avid products which training institutions naturally (and willingly!) partake in, and a hugely jarring blow to those institutions who have only recently upgraded / purchased new TDM 192 systems. Many institutions are thinking twice about their update to PT9 for the beginning of the new academic year.
I, and many others fear this may signify a standardised production line of yearly charges - software updates, (hardware updates?), instructor recertification and literature updates ("your 101 v9 book is out of date now by the way") - all of which occur with no warning or information to Avid's training 'partners'. Now this point has been largely clarified that Avid (as an incorporated company) cannot disclose upcoming product information under insider trading laws, which is fair enough. However many people will take no solace whatsoever in the knowledge that their recent investments are going to be out of date and their software fixed at version 10 because of insider trading laws.
OnLive Reaches The UK
I can't believe how much more expensive OnLive games are in the UK now it has been released! I had a quick look today and the new games seem to be close the normal retail price! This kind of negates one of the major advantages for me - great value. Anyway, I think this has certainly sealed OnLive's fate in my eyes, especially with the special offers of 3 months playpack games - where's the free hardware like they did in the US? What kind of launch is that?!
Anyway, OnLive has been removed from my computer, never to return - long reign consoles.
Good luck trying to play OnLive with "Infinity". I'm not sure what it "infinitely" is, but with a 10GB monthly usage cap (the equivalent to 1 DAYs worth of peak time only caps on Virgin Media) you're not going to be able to do much gaming. The first month doesn't count towards your monthly bandwidth, yes only the first month, after that, and from what I can see - you're screwed!
I really wanted OnLive to work, I really did. Maybe we are not quite ready for it yet?
Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video In Historic Experiment [Video]
Woah!
Why I fell out with OnLive…
After a brief love affair with OnLive we have parted ways.
It's not that I've closed my account or anything, I just 'downgraded' my internet connection back to 10 mbps and bought a PS3.
The reasons behind this are threefold; availability of games, partnering with BT and online presence.
The main thing which pushed me over the edge was the first point; that OnLive started restricting the games which were available to certain accounts based on the locale of the credit card registered to them. Me being registered with a UK credit card and a "90210" zipcode suggested (quite rightly) to them that I was not a US resident. I had been wanting to try a demo of Duke Nukem Forever (which sucked as it turned out) but it was not appearing in the OnLive market place and after contacting support I was told that it was because I was not a US resident.
They still haven't released the service in the UK and Europe, despite the number of accounts using "90210" as their zipcode being greater than the population of Beverly Hills; the demand is clearly there but the willingness to push forward is seemingly not. I felt that if they are going to start limiting the service to me, then I do not want to be a part of it and will seek my gaming fix elsewhere.
Passwords
The contents of the lecture notes sections are now password protected. The user names and passwords can be found in the search/notes section of blackboard. If you don't have access to blackboard let me know and I'll give you access (to the notes).
New web host, new (self hosted) blog
I've got a new web host now (tsohost.co.uk) and am now self hosting my WordPress blog thanks to the new host making it easy!
Police Tribute Band Tracks Finished
I've done some more recording, a Police tribute band this time and here are the finished tracks, engineered and mixed by me.
Enjoy!
Do, Do, Do, Da, Da, Da
Message In A Bottle
Spirits In The Material World
Why, oh why, Spotify?
There was dispair on my part when Spotify announced the 5 plays per track policy, not because I use Spotify heavily, simply because I (and many others) saw this move as the end of Spotify. I am trying to understand Spotify's logic; if people aren't paying for premium subscriptions, how is attempting to force them to pay likely to work? It is a well known fact that when the general (music loving) public don't like something, corporations forcing them to pay money for things always works - I mean look at how few people use P2P and torrent technology!
As far as I was concerned, if I wanted to listen to a track I might use Spotify, although the previews on sites like Amazon (my favourite) are usually adequate enough to decide whether I like a track or not (it's mainly a whole album yes / no situation for me any way, to be honest). Or I could just not bother with it at all. I was done.