Here are some audio and video trends for 2019:
The global Hi-Fi Systems market was valued at million US$ in 2018 and is expected to grow. EISA Awards has selected Hi-Fi product category winners, but I did not see anything really fancy new innovations that would excite me there. The Hi-Fi speaker market has seen considerable consolidation over the years but is expected to grow. The global Hi-Fi speaker system market is highly competitive. Various established international brands, domestic brands and as well as new entrants form a competitive landscape. The market is expected to have higher growth rate as compared to the previous years due to the booming electronic industry globally. It is due to the rising income of individuals globally and increasing affordability of technology products globally. Due to technological adoption and smart gadgets, North America region is showing steady growth in the Hi-Fi speaker system market. On technology standpoint the Hi-Fi market is mainly based on pretty much stabilized technology as class D amplifiers have been on mainstream for many years.
Smart TVs are everywhere. The vast majority of televisions available today are “smart” TVs, with internet connections, ad placement, and streaming services built in. Despite the added functionality, TV prices are lower than ever. Your new smart TV was so affordable because it is collecting and selling your data. It is clear that TV companies are in a cutthroat business, and that companies like Vizio would have to charge higher prices for hardware if they didn’t run content, advertising, and data businesses. Google wants sensors and cameras in every room of your home to watch, analyze, you, patents show.
Streaming services competition stays high. Apple’s embracing the TV industry for the first time: Vizio and LG TVs will support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, while Samsung TVs will get an iTunes Movies & TV app, as well as AirPlay 2 support. Google and Amazon are playing are important players on smart speaker markets.
4K video resolution is still as hot as in 2019 – it us becoming mainstream and getting cheaper. Peraso showcases 4K wireless video at CES 2019. LG has produced a market-ready rollable OLED TV. The new 75-inch 4K Micro LED TV announced at CES 2019 proves Samsung is serious about scaling the technology to do battle with OLED. But it seems that even in 1029 “4K” trend remains woefully deficient from a compelling-content-availability standpoint. CES 2019 is already full of weird and wonderful monitors.
But new higher 8K resolution is being pushed to market. The “8K” (resolution) tagline was apparently everywhere at CES this year. Samsung announced a 98-inch 8K TV because why not. LG has come strong to CES 2019 with an 88-inch 8K OLED TV, a 75-inch 8K LED/LCD TV, HDMI 2.1, new auto calibration features, Alexa built in, and many more features. It seems that this ongoing evolution is occurring out of necessity: as a given-size (and -pixel-dense) display becomes a low profit margin commodity, manufacturers need to continually “up-rev” one or both key consumer-attention-grabbing parameters (along with less quantifiable attributes like image quality) in order to remain profitable … assuming they can continue to stimulate sufficient-sized consumer demand in the process. I am not sure if they can stimulate 8K to mass market in next few years.
Wall size TVs are coming. Samsung announced a modular TV at CES. Samsung first showcased this MicroLED TV technology at CES 2018, showcasing how the screens were composed of millions of individual LEDs. Individuals screens could be combined to create massive displays, which the company calls The Wall TV. The wall-sized displays shown in recent years at CES are, in my opinion, quite ridiculous, at least for the masses.
HDMI updates are coming. At present, the HDMI equipment uses the 2.0 standard (adopted in 2013) tht provides support for example for 4K video. HDMI Forum announced a new 2.1 standard already in November 2017, but it just starter showing in CES in January 2019. 8K fiber-optic HDMI cables seen at CES 2019. The 2.1 standard is a big change in technology at the bus bandwidth increases from 18 gigabit to 48 gigabits per second. This enables up to 10K video transmission and up to 120 frames per second.
Bendable displays are really coming to PCs and smart phones. LG’s “rollable” display shown this year neatly showcased the technology’s inherent flexibility while also addressing the question of how to hide a gargantuan display when it’s not in use. Several foldable smart phones have been shown. Chinese company Royole was showing off the FlexPai at CES in Las Vegas.
Micro displays for VR and AR glasses have developed. MicroLED is better looking, more efficient and more versatile than any previous display tech. Now all Samsung, Sony, LG and others have to do is figure out how to manufacture it affordably.Nanoco Technologies and Plessey Semiconductors have partnered to shrink the pixel size of monolithic microLED displays using Nanoco’s cadmium-free quantum-dot (CFQD quantum dots) semiconductor nanoparticle technology. Microchips and organic LEDs that deliver 4K-like high resolution displays a quarter of the size and half the weight of existing virtual reality (VR) headsets have been developed under a European Union project. Marc Andreessen says VR will be “1,000” times bigger than AR even though VR seems to be the popular whipping boy amongst the tech community.
There seems to be no shortage of angst with the current (and unfortunately burgeoning) popularity of usage of the term artificial intelligence (AI). Intelligence has been defined in many ways which makes it hard to get good picture on what is going on. I am still waiting for sensible intelligent AI to do something useful. But the ability for a sufficiently trained deep learning system to pattern-match images, sound samples, computer viruses, network hacking attempts, and the like is both impressive and effective.
Potential problems related to the coming of self-driving car technologies and cameras are expected. A man at CES in Las Vegas says that a car-mounted lidar permanently damaged the sensor in his new $1,998 Sony a7R II mirrorless camera. Man says CES lidar’s laser was so powerful it wrecked his $1,998 camera because the LIDAR laser power rules ensure lasers are safe for human eyes—but not necessarily for cameras. Is this something that camera and car manufacturers need to figure out together?
2019 Will Be the Year of Open Source from software and even hardware. Open source video player app VLC has now reached 3 billions downloads.
When almost all AV products are pushing more and more features, it seems that almost Everything is too complicated for an average Joe.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital camera design: determine pixel size, focal ratio, and field of view
https://www.edn.com/digital-camera-design-determine-pixel-size-focal-ratio-and-field-of-view/
Digital cameras are nearly everywhere today. According to LDV Capital, by 2022, there will be 45 billion cameras in operation worldwide. In 2019, over 500 hours of video was uploaded to YouTube every hour of the day. Besides our familiar smartphones, automotive, and home-security applications, digital cameras are used inside laboratory instruments to sequence DNA as well as in the search for dangerous Earth-threatening asteroids and all sorts of applications covering microscopic and macroscopic objects.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Have Reconstructed Ancient Greek Music And You Can Listen To It
https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/scientists-have-reconstructed-ancient-greek-music-and-you-can-listen-to-it/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.thomann.de/blog/fi/miksi-ihmiset-rakastavat-viinyylilevyja/
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Baby Shark’ Is The Most-Viewed YouTube Video Of All Time
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/11/02/baby-shark-is-the-most-viewed-youtube-video-of-all-time/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
After becoming an unexpected smash hit in 2018, the insanely catchy children’s tune Baby Shark on Monday became the most-viewed video on YouTube.
Baby Shark has now garnered 7.04 billion views, beating out Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s global hit Despacito.
Though it was originally uploaded in 2016, the song surged in popularity in 2018, becoming the bane of parents everywhere as the song was inescapable.
The viral hit’s popularity is somewhat of a mystery, but the video’s easy dance moves, cute characters and catchy lyrics made for a particularly wholesome social media challenge, #BabySharkChallenge, which first went viral in Asia and then spread to the rest of the world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Listen Up With Speakers in Lightbulbs, Shower Heads
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/consumer-electronics/gadgets/speakers-lightbulbs-shower-heads
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/portable-audio-recorder-captures-live-room-and-soundboard-audio/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Upcoming Onion Tau Depth Camera Offers an Affordable Entry Point to LIDAR-Like 3D Mapping
https://www.hackster.io/news/the-upcoming-onion-tau-depth-camera-offers-an-affordable-entry-point-to-lidar-like-3d-mapping-4acb9ece6440
With an OpenCV-compatible Python library and a live-view web app, Tau aims to be the new entry point to 3D mapping applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/electric-shocks-like-pop-rocks-on-your-tongue-could-offer-relief-to-tinnitus-sufferers-1931b26ea50d
Tomi Engdahl says:
Emilia Kujalan kolumni: Syy videokohtaamisten puuduttavuuteen löytyy sosiaalipsykologiasta
Videokohtaamisissa sosiaalinen tiedonkäsittelymme menee sekaisin, kirjoittaa psykoterapeutti ja sosiaalipsykologi Emilia Kujala.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11588402
Nyt ajatus hyvälle ystävälle järjestettävistä yllätyskutsuista tai psykoterapiatyöstä videon välityksellä tuntuu sydäntä ja hermoja raastavalta. En jaksa enää yhtään sosiaalista tilannetta, jossa en ole varma, kuuleeko kukaan, kiinnostaako ketään tai miten kauan saan tuijottaa paikalleen jäätynyttä naamaa.
Jokin videokontakteissa aidosti puuduttaa. Kyse ei voi olla vain siitä, että jatkuva näytön tuijottelu väsyttää silmiä ja kotitoimistolla muiden perheenjäsenten elämöinti ajoittain häiritsee keskittymistä.
Arvelen, että videokonktaktit eivät palkitse sosiaalisesti samalla tavalla kuin aidot kohtaamiset. Päätin selvittää hypoteesini paikkaansa pitävyyden
Heti puhelun alkuun käy ilmi, että tavallinen puhelu on vuorovaikutuksen tutkimuksen näkökulmasta vähemmän kuormittava sosiaalinen tilanne kuin videopuhelu. Kun emme näe keskustelukumppaniamme, sosiaalinen tiedonkäsittelymme sopeutuu tilanteeseen, jossa on parasta luottaa pelkkiin äänivihjeisiin. Videokohtaamisessa mielemme taas kuvittelee olevansa livekohtaamisessa. Moni sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen näkökulmasta perustavanlaatuinen asia on kuitenkin pielessä.
Vuorovaikutuksessa sillä, mitä sanotaan, on loppujen lopuksi paljon vähemmän merkitystä kuin sillä, miten sanotaan. Evoluution näkökulmasta keskustelutilanteissa on ollut äärimmäisen hyödyllistä kiinnittää huomiota mikroilmeisiin, eleisiin, äänen painoihin ja kehon asentoon. Näin olemme osanneet suojautua ajoissa uhkaavilta ihmisiltä ja tilanteilta.
Yksi suurimmista videokeskustelun ongelmista liittyy juuri sanattomaan viestintään, Kohonen-Aho kertoo. Kehonkieli, eleet ja ilmeet eivät erotu videokohtaamisissa samalla tavalla kuin luonnollisissa kohtaamisissa, koska näistä kertovat vihjeet tulevat videolla viiveellä tai jäävät kokonaan pois. Monella on esimerkiksi tapana selittää käsillään, mutta käsiä tuodaan harvemmin niin korkealle kehon etupuolelle, että ne näkyisivät videolla.
Katsekontaktilla on tärkeä tehtävä keskustelijoiden välisen intimiteetin luomisessa ja sen avulla varmistetaan kuulijan huomio. Videokohtaamisissa aito katsekontakti ei toteudu, koska harva katsoo suoraan kameraan, vaan hieman sen alapuolelle – eli sinne, missä saattaisimme kohdata keskustelukumppanin katseen. Näemme siis silmät, joilla ei kommunikaation näkökulmasta tee juuri mitään.
Katsekontaktilla on tärkeä tehtävä keskustelijoiden välisen intimiteetin luomisessa ja sen avulla varmistetaan kuulijan huomio. Videokohtaamisissa aito katsekontakti ei toteudu, koska harva katsoo suoraan kameraan, vaan hieman sen alapuolelle – eli sinne, missä saattaisimme kohdata keskustelukumppanin katseen. Näemme siis silmät, joilla ei kommunikaation näkökulmasta tee juuri mitään.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://karihaakana.medium.com/joko-netflixin-kone-yskii-52bcc2177e2d
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2600net/permalink/2885379871685119/
ULTRASONIC “BRAIN TRANSMITTER” — Imagine a world where you move around in your own personal sound bubble. You listen to your favorite tunes, play loud computer games, watch a movie or get navigation directions in your car — all without disturbing those around you.
New device puts music in your head — no headphones required
https://apnews.com/article/new-tech-device-sound-beaming-noveto-38327ae5fe116080a5eaf2374eb0f5c8
LONDON (AP) — Imagine a world where you move around in your own personal sound bubble. You listen to your favorite tunes, play loud computer games, watch a movie or get navigation directions in your car — all without disturbing those around you.
That’s the possibility presented by “sound beaming,” a new futuristic audio technology from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company. On Friday it will debut a desktop device that beams sound directly to a listener without the need for headphones.
Noveto expects the device will have plenty of practical uses, from allowing office workers to listen to music or conference calls without interrupting colleagues to letting someone play a game, movie or music without disturbing their significant others.
The lack of headphones means it’s possible to hear other sounds in the room clearly.
The technology uses a 3-D sensing module and locates and tracks the ear position sending audio via ultrasonic waves to create sound pockets by the user’s ears. Sound can be heard in stereo or a spatial 3-D mode that creates 360 degree sound around the listener, the company said.
“You don’t believe it because it sounds like a speaker, but no one else can hear it…it’s supporting you and you’re in the middle of everything. It’s happening around you.”
By changing a setting, the sound can follow a listener around when they move their head. It’s also possible to move out of the beam’s path and hear nothing at all, which creates a surreal experience.
While the concept of sound beaming is not new, Noveto was the first to launch the technology and their SoundBeamer 1.0 desktop device will be the first branded consumer product.
Ramstein said a “smaller, sexier” version of the prototype will be ready for consumer release in time for Christmas 2021.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital camera design, part 3: CMOS rolling shutter and global reset schemes
https://www.edn.com/digital-camera-design-part-3-cmos-rolling-shutter-and-global-reset-schemes/
Digital camera design, part 2: Motion considerations for frame rate, exposure time, and shuttering
https://www.edn.com/digital-camera-design-motion-considerations-for-frame-rate-exposure-time-and-shuttering/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/11/daily-crunch-google-photos-will-end-free-unlimited-storage/
Tomi Engdahl says:
US: Archivists’ Victory over Overbroad Copyright Claim
GitHub Rejects Challenge on Tool used to Preserve Videos of Abuses
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/11/25/us-archivists-victory-over-overbroad-copyright-claim
A decision by GitHub, a leading software development platform, to reinstate a popular free software tool for downloading videos, means that human rights groups will be able to continue to use the software without interruption to preserve documentation of human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch, Mnemonic, and WITNESS said today. GitHub had removed the code for the software, youtube-dl, from its platform in response to a request by the Recording Industry Association of America Inc (RIAA).
youtube-dl is one of the primary tools used to download videos from hundreds of websites, including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The tool is maintained and updated on GitHub. Videos posted online are essential for human rights investigations and research to expose human rights violations and provide evidence in legal proceedings to hold human rights violators accountable, including in international tribunals.
On October 23, the Recording Industry Association of America submitted a Digital Millennium Copyright Act request to GitHub to remove all public code repositories of youtube-dl, which essentially constitute the code behind the tool. This request would have left the youtube-dl developers without a key platform to coordinate with other developers working on the open-source tool.
Microsoft-owned GitHub complied with the request a few days later. On November 16, GitHub reversed course and reinstated youtube-dl to its platform, saying that it did so after it “received additional information about the project” that enabled it to reverse its decision.
While there is a possibility that youtube-dl might be used to download copyrighted material like Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off video and other videos mentioned in the request, the Recording Industry Association of America did not provide evidence that this had happened. Instead, it contended that youtube-dl should be removed for use by anyone for any purpose.
During the weeks youtube-dl was removed from GitHub’s platform, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and youtube-dl provided GitHub with information on the legitimate uses of the tool, including “changing playback speeds for accessibility, preserving evidence in the fight for human rights, aiding journalists in fact-checking, and downloading Creative Commons-licensed or public domain videos.”
The code behind youtube-dl is used by dozens of other archival tools and browser plug-ins. Given how important it is across platforms, the attempted removal of youtube-dl from GitHub threatened to do serious damage, the groups said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital camera design, part 3: CMOS rolling shutter and global reset schemes
https://www.edn.com/digital-camera-design-part-3-cmos-rolling-shutter-and-global-reset-schemes/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Amazing Motion Control Camera Rig Is Almost Completely 3D-Printable
https://www.hackster.io/news/this-amazing-motion-control-camera-rig-is-almost-completely-3d-printable-80024b5ddcdb
YouTuber Do It Whenever? created an amazing 11-foot-tall, 6-axis motorized motion capture camera rig that runs on Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheers to photography! The first ever photo of men drinking beers
https://inktank.fi/cheers-the-first-ever-photo-of-men-drinking-beers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Cultural Impact of the Technics SL-1200 Turntable, Then and Now
https://blog.discogs.com/en/technics-sl-1200-turntable-history/
“It is kind of like the Stradivarius or the Steinway of hip-hop,”
Katz is speaking of the Technics SL-1200 turntable, the device used by Flash on “The Adventures” (he had three in the studio, and cut the song live, with no post-production editing). These decks have been the standard for DJs spinning records since the 1970s. Asking a DJ about their 1200 is like asking any craftsperson about their favorite tools. They speak of them in rhapsodic terms, not so much as record-laying machines but as extensions of their creative selves. For many decades, if you DJ’d, nothing else would do.
Consider the turntable: a mechanical device for playing records comprising a base, a motor, a platter, a tonearm, a cartridge, and a needle. For most of its history — from the earliest phonograph invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 to the Emile Berliner’s Gramophone, with its hand-crank action and flared horn jutting into the room — the record player required care.
Turntables as we know them now, designed for LPs and singles spinning at 33 or 45 RPMs, first hit the market in 1948 and had become widespread by the 1950s.
In 1970, Technics, a division of Japanese electronic manufacturer Panasonic, introduced the SP-10, the first widely available direct-drive turntable, designed by engineer Shuichi Obata. By coupling a slower-spinning motor directly to the platter, Obata’s unit offered unusually precise speed in a durable design. Two years later, the company rolled another Obata creation, the SL-1200, descended from the SP-10. It wasn’t cheap, retailing for $350 — about $2,100 in 2020 dollars — but over the next few years, it grew in popularity, especially with DJs in radio and in clubs.
Technics unit was unusually rugged for a turntable, able to play perfectly when subjected to heavy use by DJs in both a club or radio set. This was due to the high-torque motor, and that the deck’s quartz-locked speed was so consistent
The SL-1200 sold well in the 1970s and carved out an audience with DJs, but it still wasn’t the standard deck in that setting. In this decade, there was a lot of overlap between the club systems and the world of hi-fi, and among some audiophiles, there was skepticism about direct-drive turntables.
It took some time for the 1200 to win over skeptics, but the SL-1200 MK2, released in 1979, went a long way on that front. This update, among other improvements, moved the pitch adjustment mechanism to a slider on the top of the base, which made tweaking precise speed much easier and beat-matching more accessible. Those qualities, combined with a much-improved pitch control, which easily altered the speed +/- 8% via a slider on the plinth, meant that the 1200 was on its way to being a tool not just of music playback, but of music creation.
Through the 1980s, the MK2 became the standard deck for DJs (or at least the one they aspired to own), from hip-hop to house to techno, even as vinyl was rapidly losing ground as a format for consumers. If you wanted to DJ, there was one turntable you needed to own, and every DJ who came of age during that era remembers their excitement of first cueing up a record. “I then went to an Uncle Jams Army Dance and played with a Technics 1200 turntable and lost my mind,”
The SL-1200 MK2 was marketed directly to people who played records for dancers. Magazine ads for the deck touted it was: “Tough enough to take the disco beat. And accurate enough to keep it.”
With near-perfect speed and pitch control, a pair of 1200s, with each plugged into a mixer, allowed for seamless transitions from one record to the next. Records with a slightly different BPM could be matched by tweaking the speed of one and aligning the beat of the next record to the previous one via headphones.
“Much respect to the 1200, but if wasn’t for its ancestor — the Technics SL23 Belt Drive — the Quick Mix Theory there would be no music bed for Humans to speak on, no Hip Hop/Rap,” Grandmaster Flash said in a Facebook post last year, shouting out an early favorite among his tools.
But with the introduction of the MK2, the art of the hip-hop DJ took a quantum leap. Scratches, backspins, and beat-juggling were already in the mix and were technically possible on many turntables, but the weight, precision, and toughness of the 1200 meant that DJs could think about the music first and the technique second.
Indeed, the 1200s were an aspirational purchase, and owning a pair implied seriousness.
Turntablism represented the inevitable endpoint of the innovations introduced by the earliest hip-hop DJs
Starting in the 1990s, DJs had started using CD-J devices, which offered a flexibility that vinyl decks couldn’t match
And in the early part of the 2000s, software that integrated laptop computers and turntables were widely used. DJs who used vinyl only were specialists — they took pride in their ability to adhere to tradition, and some argued that the purity of expression led to more interesting mixes, but they were clearly in the minority.
A further blow to traditional DJing came in 2010 when Panasonic discontinued the 1200 line.
That changed with the introduction of the SL-1200GAE turntable in 2015. Though it was still an SL-1200, made in the same factory to the same exacting standards, it was a turntable for a very different marketplace. DJs were still interested — no turntable has matched the 1200 for speed control — but the machine was even more enticing for audiophiles who welcomed the resurgence of vinyl because it allowed them to construct home stereo systems designed for the highest fidelity.
In an ironic twist, the thing that kept the 1200 from being embraced by the audiophile community in the 1970s — the near-perfection of the direct drive, that not-yet-trusted technology, which made it most useful as a tool for less-wealthy music obsessives re-imaging a new music — was now its greatest selling point.
Tomi Engdahl says:
”She (CEO) called it a “unique one-year plan.” But it will likely be impossible to go back to the old way of doing things.”
Warner Bros. Says All 2021 Films Will be Streamed Right Away: Live Updates
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/03/business/us-economy-coronavirus
Tomi Engdahl says:
”There are limits to what can be accomplished in a two- or three-hour time frame, where viewers expect a clear resolution and can’t pause when they to go to the bathroom. Streaming dissolves those limits.” ==> vessatauko on striimauspalveluiden kilpailuetu
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/opinion/movies-warner-bros-hbo-theaters.html?referringSource=articleShare
Tomi Engdahl says:
Perhaps the most delicious analog audio recording format that we know of — a chocolate gramophone record. It is a record made in chocolate that plays real music with normal record player. This is probably the lowest fidelity recording media ever, but at least you can eat it when you’re done listening.
An UK chocolatier offers them with custom labelling and your choice of two songs. These disks are recorded at 45 RPM on one side only, and are about the same size as a standard single.
https://hackaday.com/2020/12/14/tunes-you-can-eat/
https://youtu.be/pZmWS1ER-z0
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/661867495/chocolate-record-a-record-made-in
Tomi Engdahl says:
Digital camera design, part 5: Basic noise considerations for CMOS image sensors
https://www.edn.com/digital-camera-design-part-5-basic-noise-considerations-for-cmos-image-sensors/?utm_content=buffer7d3a0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=edn_facebook&utm_campaign=buffer
Tomi Engdahl says:
#DigitalCamera design: Basic #noise considerations for CMOS image #sensors https://buff.ly/38i2NxG
Tomi Engdahl says:
The new stimulus bill makes illegal streaming a felony
https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/22/stimulus-bill-streaming/?tpcc=ECFB2020
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/active-noise-cancellation-using-ldvs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor
http://shotcut.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘The Mandalorian’ Is The Most Pirated TV-Show of 2020
https://torrentfreak.com/the-mandalorian-is-the-most-pirated-tv-show-of-2020-201226/
Tomi Engdahl says:
22 Things You Didn’t Know Your Chromecast Could Do
While Google’s ultraportable media-streaming device is pretty much plug and play, there are a few tips and tricks that can make casting more magical.
https://uk.pcmag.com/media-hubs-receivers/35202/22-things-you-didnt-know-your-chromecast-could-do?p=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
HDMI vs. DisplayPort: Which Should I Use for My PC Monitor?
Not sure whether to hook your new monitor up to your computer using HDMI or DisplayPort? Different ports have different capabilities and compatibilities; here’s what you need to know
https://uk.pcmag.com/how-to/117669/hdmi-vs-displayport-which-should-i-use-for-my-pc-monitor
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://inktank.fi/wow-historys-most-iconic-photos-in-colour/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/digital-camera-design-part-4-how-charge-transfer-pixel-helps-avoid-image-degradation/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A very old idea for a high-fidelity #speaker system handles high power without #distortion #LivingAnalog #audio
Speaker system handles high power without distortion
https://www.edn.com/speaker-system-handles-high-power-without-distortion/?utm_content=buffer8ea36&utm_medium=social&utm_source=edn_facebook&utm_campaign=buffer
The basic idea was to create a hi-fi loudspeaker using an array of small speakers wired up to function as one entity. With each speaker handling only a small amount of power, using a composite of 16 interconnected speakers, all hooked up with the same phase of voltage versus direction of speaker cone deflection, the result was a speaker system with the ability to handle high power without distortion. Also, the cabinet in which the speakers were mounted could be made quite shallow, an advantage if one’s living room space was a little bit limited.
The 16 speakers arranged four-by-four could be interconnected so that their composite impedance at the two terminals would be the same as the impedances of the individual speakers themselves. For example, if each of the speakers presented 8 Ω of voice coil impedance, the composite of 16 speakers would present that same 8 Ω.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Circuit simulates a loudspeaker’s impedance curve
https://www.edn.com/circuit-simulates-a-loudspeakers-impedance-curve/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/dynamic-speaker-management-micro-speakers-on-steroids/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/make-great-sounding-40-bucket-speakers-in-an-afternoon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
LO-FI ILMIÖ – VASTALAUSE KLIINISYYDELLE
https://www.thomann.de/blog/fi/lo-fi-ilmioe-vastalause-kliinisyydelle/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=feed&utm_content=blog_lofi&fbclid=IwAR0BNfHTHFBTt1-2H7ZOB9SW3JT-LinI4joSwXqadj5VZfsozST6MCyJHNg
hetkellä etenkin YouTubessa trendaava ”Low Fidelity”- musiikki sisältää usein ripauksen retroa ja sen tekemiseen usein käytetäänkin analogikamoja ja suhteellisen yksinkertaista teknologiaa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
H.266 Codec Promises to Reduce Video File Sizes by Half
https://uk.pcmag.com/video/127664/h266-codec-promises-to-reduce-video-file-sizes-by-half
The H.266/VVC codec will deliver the same visual quality from SD right up to 8K, but with only 50 percent of the data requirements, making it an instant hit with video streaming services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://uk.pcmag.com/video/127664/h266-codec-promises-to-reduce-video-file-sizes-by-half
Tomi Engdahl says:
Speaker system handles high power without distortion
https://www.edn.com/speaker-system-handles-high-power-without-distortion/
There was an interesting article in the January 1961 issue of Popular Electronics, “Sweet Sixteen” by Jim Kyle. It was followed up in April 1961 with a second article entitled “Sweeter With A Tweeter.” You can find some discussion of the original article on the forum Audio Karma.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.prosoundeffects.com/top-5-mistakes-all-beginner-sound-editors-make
Tomi Engdahl says:
FAKTAT AMD FreeSync- & NVIDIA G-Sync -tekniikoista
https://www.youtube.com/c/iotech/videos?disable_polymer=true&itct=CBMQ8JMBGAEiEwjAk5edxazuAhVUALIKHbezCUo%3D
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Turn Arduino-Powered LED Lighting and a Simple Smartphone Into a 3D Imaging System
Using the high-speed video mode of the smartphone camera, the system allows for accurate 3D reconstruction without synchronization.
https://www.hackster.io/news/researchers-turn-arduino-powered-led-lighting-and-a-simple-smartphone-into-a-3d-imaging-system-5430b633fe80
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers acquire 3-D images with LED room lighting and a smartphone
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-d-images-room-smartphone.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to remove background microphone noise in Windows, Mac, Linux
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/how-to-remove-background-microphone-noise-in-windows-mac-linux/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Discovered Neural Mechanisms Underpinning Emotional Responses To Music
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/researchers-discovered-neural-mechanisms-underpinning-emotional-responses-to-music/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Balanced headphones: Can you hear the difference?
https://www.edn.com/balanced-headphones-can-you-hear-the-difference/
The Pioneer XDP-02U’s balanced connector is 2.5 mm in diameter and has four contacts, in a TRRS (tip-ring-ring-sleeve) arrangement. It’s one of a number of common implementations of the balanced connector concepts; others you’ll frequently encounter include:
a single 4-pin XLR
two 3-pin XLRs, one for each channel, and
a 4.4 mm TRRS (also known as the “Pentaconn” connector).
A normal headphone plug has three connections on it: the tip is left, the ring is right, and the sleeve is ground. The tip connects to a wire that goes to the positive (+) lead of the left headphone driver coil; the ring connects to a wire that goes to the positive lead of the right driver. The sleeve connects to a wire that goes to both negative (-) terminals of the driver coil. This wire usually has a solder joint in the “Y” or in the earpiece where ground wire from the plug splits into separate wires that are connected to the negative terminals of the driver coils.
In normal headphone amps, the most important thing to note is that as the left and right channels of the amplifier drive the left and right driver coils, the return current from the drivers gets joined together and travels some distance before returning to the amp’s audio ground.
This common pathway has some significant electrical resistance from the wiring, solder joints, contact resistance at the plug/jack etc., which causes a common signal to appear at the negative terminal of both driver coils. This common signal (a low-level summation of the left and right channel) will generate low-level crosstalk and harmonic distortion in the headphone presentation.
In many professional audio applications, signals are routed from place to place via balanced cables in an effort to reduce common mode interference from radio frequency (RF) noise sources like fluorescent lights and motors.
Hmm. So am I saying that balanced headphone setups are pretty much nothing more than “snake oil”? Not at all, because I haven’t finished the story. Significantly more notable benefits are achievable, at least theoretically, when the entire signal path for each channel is balanced, a concept often referred to as a “fully balanced” design.
Perhaps obviously, any common-ground crosstalk between the two channels that might be present in an unbalanced configuration, adversely affecting the noise floor in the process, is theoretically eliminated in a fully-balanced design. More notably, again quoting from the Headphones.com coverage:
Since there are two power amps driving each speaker coil, each amp effectively drives half the coil, with a virtual ground or zero voltage point halfway into the coil. Since each amp is only driving half the load, a significant improvement in control can be achieved, and because the voltages are in opposition, an effective doubling of slew rate (volts per second the amp can swing) is realized compared to the normal slew rate of either amp by itself.
The resulting benefits are implementation-dependent, of course, and come at the tradeoff of increased circuit complexity and cost.
And your ability to audibly discern lower THD, improved SNR, and other touted advantages of a fully balanced approach depends on numerous factors, such as:
the quality of the headphones you’re using,
the kind of music you’re listening to, and the characteristics (lossy vs lossless compressed or uncompressed, sampling rate, and sample size, etc.) of the recording of it,
the ambient characteristics of your listening environment, and how well (or not) the headphones noise-suppress it, and
the sensitivity, frequency range, and other attributes (or not) of your auditory system.
So what’s the verdict? I certainly can’t tell a balanced-vs-unbalanced difference when I’m listening to tunes while vacuuming the house, for example. And more generally, although my increasingly-geriatric ears may be to blame, I admittedly can’t tangibly discern any consistent variation in THD, SNR, or other similar factors, even when I’m listening to the most pristine content variant available from Tidal HiFi. That all said, the balanced setup is definitely louder than its unbalanced counterpart, an unsurprising outcome when you understand the circuit implementation differences between them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/hands-on-review-is-a-premium-digital-audio-player-worth-the-price/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This is how they create battlefield noise in Hollywood
https://cybernews.com/editorial/this-is-how-they-create-battlefield-noise-in-hollywood/
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.windytan.com/2020/12/plotting-patterns-in-music-with-fantasy.html?m=1