AV Rant #305: 3D Bulimia
Liz went to France and saw…stuff. It was sort of like a sexy zombie movie. At least that’s what Tom thinks. Liz is loving the new Facebook page. It makes her feel like AV Rant is real (and you are real as well). So drop by and say Hi sometime. This week – Apple. Have they jumped the shark? Will the recent iPhone ho-hum, lawsuit, and unfinished Maps finally break the near fanatical trust consumers seem to have in Apple? Tom thinks so. Oppo’s new BDP-103 and BDP-105 Universal Blu-ray players. Tom’s excited. You should be too. An overview of the Emotiva XSP-1 Differential Reference Preamp. You may not want it but you have to appreciate how much you get for only $900. Roku’s new streaming stick – $100 saves you having to upgrade something much more expensive. More on Stradivarius – you may not like it simply because you’re not familiar with it. digiZoid ZO2 – full review. Thanks for listening. Now, don't forget to:
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Hi
I am one of the (few?) listeners to your podcast that is only using 2-channel stuff. Of course the new Emotiva preamp interested me.
Before it was released I was thinking of getting their USP-1 stereo preamp but then I ran across the Onkyo TX-8050 stereo receiver. It has more than enough power for me. I don’t need an mc preamp. It will play internet radio and music on a local usb drive including FLAC files. It’s got lots of other convenient features. It’s also a bargain.
This made me think of the Yamaha 2-channel integrated amp you discussed in the Aug 29 podcast. I think this Onkyo is a better deal: it has more power, more features and is the same price.
Tom:
You have mentioned in the last few podcasts that SA-CD’s are no longer being produced. You should check out this website.
http://www.sa-cd.net/home
They provide up to date listings of new and older releases organized by genre with links to various online stores to purchase. A great resource!
Amazing podcast. Sadly, not in a good way, though.
I can understand that you might not know that iPad 3 LTE will work in Australia when analogue television is turned off and the (US) frequencies become available to telcos.
Maybe you don’t know that Siri works fine now millions aren’t asking dumb questions to see if it works. If you don’t own one, at least ask someone who has one, don’t go by what people say on the internet…
or that Maps are OK (yes they need work, but that’s to be expected), even Google maps get it wrong, after all this time.
But for an AV podcast, to admit that neither of you have even bothered to ask for a 2D-3D conversion demo at a shop, that’s just sad. I’d expect you should have done it ‘professionally’, but even if you ‘couldn’t’, you should really be asking for a shop to do you a demo, so you have a modicum of knowledge before you open your mouths.
I picked up a dirt-cheap Samsung 64″ plasma last week and its 2D-3D is surprisingly good – it figures out foreground, middle and background easily – on any signal, even crappy Foxtel classic channels.
iPhone 5 is a brilliant phone – totally new in every way, if anything Apple has understated its capability, you just have to hold one in your hand & actually use it to see. It has more of everything, and feels completely empty, it’s so light. Ground-breaking technology inside.
I’ve been looking for podcasts to cull, and AVRant, sadly, made my list. I like you both and I wish you well, but you’re clearly just making stuff up, and that’s just not worth my time. See ya.
Oh, iPad 1 is getting long in the tooth, but try a Set Up As New, wipe all the data and start from scratch, and you’ll get the best performance from it, that its capable, anyway.
Look for an Apple tech note on how to backup all your data, before you wipe it. Don’t use iTunes Backup, because you won’t be restoring from that backup, it will bring back all the problems. You’ll have to sync it all again, bit by bit.