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.
1,491 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
YouTube Music reached 50M paying subscribers in August, up from 30M paid music and premium subscribers that YouTube had reported in October 2020
https://t.co/gWZKd7oIve
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Apple’s planned VR/AR headset will need a wireless connection to an Apple device for full functionality; Apple completed work on VR/AR chips last year — New details of the custom chips designed by Apple for its forthcoming virtual reality and augmented reality headset indicate …
Apple’s AR/VR Headset Will Need Connection to Other Device Such as iPhone
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apples-ar-vr-headset-will-need-connection-to-other-device-such-as-iphone
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tampereella elvytetään vintagebuumin herättämää alaa – mestarimekaanikko Jukka: “Osaajia ei löydy enää ulkomailtakaan”
https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/tampereella-elvytetaan-vintagebuumin-herattamaa-alaa-mestarimekaanikko-jukka-osaajia-ei-loydy-enaa-ulkomailtakaan/8136468?fbclid=IwAR3Sskc6_bRZ5i023TM7o1SFt8lx9M7TyzQ3dagccbajvYHwpdJ4dEuShpo#gs.ahyp6p
Digikameroiden tulon myötä filmikamerat jäivät ullakoille pölyttymään. Viimeisten vuosien aikana vintagebuumi on kuitenkin saavuttanut myös analogisen valokuvaamisen. Käytettyjä filmikameroita myydään jo niin paljon, että katoavaa ammattia elvytetään Tampereella.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Acoustic Simulator For Headphone Amplifiers.
https://headwizememorial.wordpress.com/2018/03/09/an-acoustic-simulator-for-headphone-amplifiers/
This article describes modifications to an acoustic simulation circuit for headphones that appeared in a magazine article called “Improved Headphone Listening” by Siegfried Linkwitz (Audio, December 1971). It is a simple RC-type filter that creates a more realistic sound image in headphones by electronically mimicking the “shaded” interchannel crossfeed of normal hearing. The circuit was based on a design published by Benjamin Bauer ten years earlier, but the Linkwitz version does not use inductors and is less sensitive to load impedance. (Crossfeed filters should not be confused with virtualizers, which use digital signal processing to simulate binaural or externalized 3D sound.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://headwizememorial.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/a-pocket-headphone-amplifier/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Abba reunite for Voyage, first new album in 40 years
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/02/abba-reunite-for-voyage-first-new-album-in-40-years
Swedish hitmakers to release album of brand new material in November, and digital avatars will appear in London concert residency in 2022
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021 finalists revealed
https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-58402306
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/the-comedy-wildlife-photography-awards-2021-finalists-are-hilarious-as-ever/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Something Strange Happens To Your Taste In Music At Age 30
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/we-stop-discovering-new-music-at-a-certain-age-heres-why/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Parody
New Study Confirms Everything The Sound Guy’s Fault
https://babylonbee.com/news/new-study-confirms-everything-sound-guys-fault
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/diy-250w-4ohm-amplifier-based-on-blameless-topology-and-measurements.21542/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Optical Approach Paves the Way for High-Resolution Large-Scale Glasses-Free 3D Displays
Proof-of-concept projector proves capable of a 36-fold increase in display size and can operate in real-time.
https://www.hackster.io/news/new-optical-approach-paves-the-way-for-high-resolution-large-scale-glasses-free-3d-displays-d3a00323567a
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google’s New AI Photo Upscaling Tech is Jaw-Dropping
https://petapixel.com/2021/08/30/googles-new-ai-photo-upscaling-tech-is-jaw-dropping/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.prointerior.fi/natiivi/3020/huippuluokan-akustiikkaominaisuudet-kirittavat-lasi-ja-siirtoseinamarkkinaa?fbclid=IwAR2uV6CWWP1CbKaMF36L4lcurlbu57AxCn945oL2L53iSX1LSRtGF7LaugY
Tomi Engdahl says:
How’s Hollywood to Plan When It Doesn’t Know Who’s Watching What?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/business/box-office-movie-ratings.html?referringSource=articleShare
With box office numbers way down in the pandemic and streaming numbers hard to come by, the film industry is often unable to determine whether a movie is a hit or a miss.
Labor Day Weekend is typically a moment for Hollywood to take a breath and assess. After the big-budget escapism of summer and before the Oscar hopefuls of fall, what signals are moviegoers sending?
Reading box-office tea leaves is like pontificating about symbolism in works of fiction: Any halfway plausible theory works. But studio bosses need something, anything to guide them as they make billion-dollar judgment calls for the seasons ahead.
“Superheroes still seem to sell — keep raiding the comic books.” “Rom-coms were roadkill — no more of those.” Or whatever.
This year, the only takeaway is that there are no takeaways.
The box office remains sunken and scattershot, with once-reliable audience patterns upended by the coronavirus pandemic and, for many films, ticket sales cannibalized by instant availability on streaming services. More and more, films are bypassing theaters and debuting exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Apple TV+ and others, but those companies refuse to disclose meaningful viewership data.
North American movie theaters have sold about $2.2 billion in tickets so far this year, compared with $7.8 billion for the same period in 2019
The result is a film industry in a fog, in many cases unable to even ascertain whether a movie is a hit or a miss. How do you assign value if you don’t know?
“There’s a real abstraction to what success looks like,” said Nina Jacobson, a film and television producer and a former president of Walt Disney Studios. “It’s not just about money. For us, success is really about: Did it matter? Did people talk about it? It is very easy to just get lost in a mountain of content.”
“At least before, we had the language of box office,”
Box office scorecards — daily totals by film, available for all to see — became common in the 1980s after consultants started using computers to collate data from thousands of theaters. Before that, Variety magazine gathered limited information, and studios disclosed numbers only when it suited them, much as streaming services do today.
Most movies no longer roll out as they once did — first in theaters for an exclusive run of about three months, then online for rental and purchase, then on streaming services and television. Now, dozens of films are mostly viewed online. Netflix alone plans to release 41 original movies between early this month and the end of the year. Universal has been making films available in homes through premium video on demand after as little as 17 days of theatrical play. Warner Bros. movies have been arriving simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max.
Or maybe there has been a deeper shift. Do people, now accustomed to an on-demand world, feel less of a need to rush out to see the latest film? That would mean box office expectations need to be reset. New releases are now competing with seemingly every film or television show ever made, all streaming on one service or another.
“People are searching for answers, and there are no easy ones to be found,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsungin puhelimilla voi pian kuvata 8K-videota
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12520-samsungin-puhelimilla-voi-pian-kuvata-8k-videota
200 miljoonaa. Näin paljon pikseleitä on Samsung ahtanut uusimmalle ISOCELL-sarjan älypuhelinten kamerakennolleen. HP1-kennon myötä älypuhelimiin on tulossa ensimmäistä kertaa kyky kuvata 8K-tasoista videota.
ISOCELL HP1 on ensimmäinen 200 megapikselin mobiilikuvakenno. Se perustuu uuteen 0,64 mikrometrin pikselikokoon. Uuden binning-tekniikan eli ChameleonCell-tekniikan avulla kenno osaa yhdistää jopa 16 viereistä pikseliä yhdeksi pikseleksi.
HP1-kenno voi ottaa 8K-videota 30 kuvaa sekunnissa. Videokuvaksessa kenno voi neljä vierekkäistä pikseliä pienentääkseen resoluutiota 50 megapikseliin. Tällä 4K-tarkkuudella videota voidaan tallentaa 120 ruudun sekuntinopeudella.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kuulolaitteita markkinoidaan harhaanjohtavin väittein ja jopa valeprofessorin avulla – vehje voi vaarantaa jäljellä olevan kuulon, varoittaa Kuuloliitto
https://www.lansivayla.fi/paikalliset/4283078
Ikäihmisille on postitse lähetetty markkinointikirjeitä, joissa tuotetta markkinoidaan harhaanjohtavin ja perustelemattomin väittein. Kuuloliitto kertoo, että kirjeissä myytävän tuotteen, ”Ultrafonisen kuulovahvistimen” kirjoitetaan olevan monin verroin tavallista kuulokojetta parempi.
– Oikea kuulokoje säädetään ja sovitetaan aina yksilöllisesti henkilön kuulovamman mukaan. Kuulokojeita on myös olemassa lukuisia erilaisia, eikä yksi kojemalli automaattisesti sovi kaikille, sanoo tiedotteessa Kuuloliiton toiminnanjohtaja Sanna Kaijanen.
Markkinointikirjeissä myydään halvahkoa kuulovahvistinta, joka ei ole ominaisuuksiltaan kuulokojeen veroinen. Se voi lisäksi vaarantaa jäljellä olevan kuulon. Eurooppalaisen audiologien keskusjärjestön selvityksessä todetaan, että kuulovahvistinten liian voimakas vahvistusteho aiheuttaa käyttäjille kuulovammariskin.
Kirjeessä kerrotaan kojeen lisälaitteineen olevan erikoistarjouksessa. Paketin hinnaksi ilmoitetaan 119 euroa.
Kaijanen sanoo, että halvan hinnan pitäisi soittaa hälytyskelloja.
– Kuulokojeiden hinnat ovat huomattavasti korkeampia. Ne myös kompensoivat kuulonlaskua kuulovahvistimia paremmin. Kuulokojeet kuuluu useimmiten saada maksutta julkisesta terveydenhuollosta tai halutessaan ne voi hankkia myös suoraan kuuloalan liikkeistä.
Kuuloliiton tiedotteessa kerrotaan, että mainoksessa puhutaan professori Matti Kallialasta, jota todellisuudessa ei ole olemassa.
– Mainoksissa pyritään vetoamaan tunteisiin ja tarjotaan ongelmaan helppo ja edullinen ratkaisu, toiminnanjohtaja Kaijanen sanoo.
Tuotteiden harhaanjohtavaan markkinointiin on vaikeaa puuttua, koska mainoskampanjoita pyörittävät yritykset saattavat sijaita EU-alueen ulkopuolella.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cyril Bateman’s Capacitor Sound articles
https://linearaudio.nl/cyril-batemans-capacitor-sound-articles
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2420755034736319/permalink/2579285098883311/
How high can you hear? In this video I tell you the truth about YouTube hearing test videos. Show you the results of a 1958 Bozak speaker test. Use the speaker to test my family’s hearing. And play a range of high frequency tones so you can test yours. As you’ll come to find out, though, such so-called “tests” aren’t real tests at all.
Here are the topics covered in this video and the time stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:30 YouTube Hearing Test Video Claims
1:55 The Truth About Hearing Frequency Rage
2:00 High Frequency Hearing Loss is Normal as we Age.
2:23 Headphone & Speaker Limitations
2:34 YouTube Audio Compression
2:43 My Tests Show…
2:46 Safari Browser Limitations
3:05 Deceptive Videos
3:13 There’s Good News
3:25 But, Mostly Bad
3:33 Making A Good YouTube Frequency Test
3:45 The Videos I Recommend
4:01 What Makes A Good Hearing Test?
4:15 Audiologists
4:51 Testing a 1958 Bozak B-302A Loudspeaker
5:30 Speaker Test Results
6:09 Hearing & Speaker Tests Require Ideal Conditions
6:15 Anechoic Chambers
6:28 My Flawed, But Interesting Hearing Test
6:33 Testing The Wife’s Hearing
8:18 Testing The Daughter’s Hearing
10:15 How High Can You Hear?
10:30 1,000-20,000 Hertz (1KHz-20kHz) Frequency Sweep
YouTube Hearing Tests Exposed!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl0Juuu3IGo&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
The technology that’s replacing the green screen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNkBic7GfI
The green screen is a Hollywood staple. Should it be?
It’s easy to complain about overreliance on special effects, but for projects that require impossible-to-film environments or have incredibly expensive shots, how do you get the flexibility of green screens without the drawbacks?
Charmaine Chan has worked on one of the possible answers. Vox’s Phil Edwards spoke to her about her career and how it’s at the forefront of a big technological shift. As a compositor for venerable effects house Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), she’s worked on films like The Last Jedi, assembling various digital elements into a beautiful, seamless image. Her job changed on The Mandalorian, one of the first shows to use ILM’s upgrade for the green screen: LED panels that used video game engine technology to place a realistic-looking world behind the actors.
It was a huge improvement, because green screens actually have a lot of drawbacks. Removing the green screen is never as quick as visual effects artists would hope. It also casts green light upon the set and actors. Even substitutes for a green screen, like projecting an image onto a screen behind the actor, fail to dynamically respond to camera movements the way they would in the real world.
ILM’s solution fixes a lot of those problems, and it also led to creative breakthroughs in which the old Hollywood order of a TV show or movie, in which VFX came last, was suddenly reversed. Now, artists like Charmaine are alongside actors, set designers, and other crew members during filming. That collaboration means that this technology doesn’t just eliminate a screen — it eliminates a creative barrier.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube’s Copyright System Isn’t Broken. The World’s Is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jwo5qc78QU
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Was Video Invented?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjDX5ItsOnQ
I always wanted to know why film looked better than video. Moving electronic images have as long a history but were invented for a different purpose.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3 Cool Effects You Did NOT Think are Possible in PowerPoint | Morph
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzH4KPz_cIs
With these PowerPoint Morph animation tricks you will make an unforgettable presentation.
In this video you’ll learn how to easily create professional PowerPoint presentations using the PowerPoint Morph transition. We’ll use the Morph transition to easily create animations and movements of objects, images, words, and characters.
Microsoft PowerPoint Morph works across slides. It recognizes any objects that are on both and can seamlessly transition from one slide to the next. We’ll take a look at some practical examples to give you an idea on how to use Morph in your own presentations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Facebook launches $299 Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in six countries including the US; users can capture photo and video, listen to music, or take phone calls — Hands-on with Facebook and Ray-Ban’s first pair of smart glasses — Starting Thursday, the first pair of smart glasses …
Facebook on your face
Hands-on with Facebook and Ray-Ban’s first pair of smart glasses
https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/9/22662809/facebook-ray-ban-stories-camera-smart-glasses-hands-on?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Starting Thursday, the first pair of smart glasses made by Facebook and Ray-Ban are going on sale for $299. They’re called Ray-Ban Stories, and you’ll be able to find them pretty much anywhere Ray-Bans are sold, including LensCrafters and Sunglasses Hut stores.
The frames feature two-front facing cameras for capturing video and photos. They sync with a companion camera roll app called Facebook View, where clips can be edited and shared to other apps on your phone (not just Facebook’s own). There’s a physical button on the glasses for recording, or you can say “Hey Facebook, take a video” to control them hands-free.
And, perhaps most importantly, they look and feel like regular glasses.
With their core ability of taking photos and videos, Ray-Ban Stories are essentially a sleeker version of Snapchat’s Spectacles, which first debuted in 2016 to a lot of hype that quickly fizzled. These Ray-Bans don’t have displays in the lenses, like the latest Spectacles that were unveiled earlier this year. However, speakers on both sides of the frame can play sound from your phone over Bluetooth, allowing you to take a call or listen to a podcast without pulling your phone out. A touchpad built into the side of the frame lets you change the volume or play and pause what you’re hearing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Apple Music says it will use Shazam’s tech to properly identify and compensate all of the individual creators involved in making a DJ mix — Apple Music announced today that it’s created a process to properly identify and compensate all of the individual creators involved in making a DJ mix.
Apple Music is using Shazam to solve the streaming industry’s problem with DJ mixes
https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/09/apple-music-is-using-shazam-to-solve-the-streaming-industrys-problem-with-dj-mixes/
Apple Music announced today that it’s created a process to properly identify and compensate all of the individual creators involved in making a DJ mix. Using technology from the audio-recognition app Shazam, which Apple acquired in 2018 for $400 million, Apple Music is working with major and independent labels to devise a fair way to divide streaming royalties among DJs, labels, and artists who appear in the mixes. This is intended to help DJ mixes retain long-term monetary value for all creators involved, making sure that musicians get paid for their work even when other artists iterate on it. And, as one of Apple’s first major integrations of Shazam’s technology, it appears that the company saw value in
Historically, it’s been difficult for DJs to stream mixes online, since live streaming platforms like YouTube or Twitch might flag the use of other artists’ songs as copyright infringement. Artists are entitled to royalties when their song is played by a DJ during a live set, but dance music further complicates this, since small samples from various songs can be edited and mixed together into something unrecognizable.
Though platforms like Mixcloud allow DJs to stream sets and monetize using pre-licensed music, Apple Music’s DJ mixes will not include user-generated content. MIDiA Research, in partnership with Audible Magic, found that user-generated content (UGC) — online content that uses music, whether it’s a lipsync TikTok or a Soundcloud DJ mix — could be a music industry goldmine worth over $6 billion in the next two years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon launches the Fire TV Omni Series, its first smart TVs, starting at $410 and shipping in October — Amazon is officially in the TV set business. — After years of selling Fire TV devices that plug into third-party HDTVs and teaming with TV makers for Fire TV-based products
Amazon Unveils First of Its Own Smart TVs, Will Bring TikTok to Fire TV in U.S. and Canada
https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/amazon-own-fire-tv-tiktok-netflix-shuffle-1235059585/
Amazon is officially in the TV set business.
After years of selling Fire TV devices that plug into third-party HDTVs and teaming with TV makers for Fire TV-based products, the ecommerce giant is rolling out the first-ever Amazon-built TVs: the Amazon Fire TV Omni Series ($410 and up), which provides hands-free Alexa voice navigation, and the value-priced 4-Series smart TV line ($370 and up). They’re set to ship in October.
In addition, Amazon is baking in new features to the overall Fire TV platform, including bringing TikTok content to the platform in the U.S. and Canada; letting users access Netflix’s shuffle-mode feature via Alexa; and being able to ask Alexa for movie or TV show recommendations. The company also is bowing the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max ($55), which it says is more powerful than the prior-generation model and is Amazon’s first streaming media player to launch with Energy Star certification and Wi-Fi 6 support.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VinyGo Stereo Vinyl Recorder Will Put You In The Groove
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/09/vinygo-stereo-vinyl-recorder-will-put-you-in-the-groove/
A long time ago, there were these vinyl recording booths. You could go in there and cut a 45PM record as easily as getting a strip of four pictures of yourself in the next booth along the boardwalk. With their 2021 Hackaday Prize entry called VinyGo, [mras2an] seeks to reinvigorate this concept for private use by musicians, artists, or anyone else who has always wanted to cut their own vinyl.
VinyGo is for people looking to make a few dozen copies or fewer. Apparently there’s a polymer shortage right now on top of everything else, and smaller clients are getting the shaft from record-pressing companies. This way, people can cut their own records for about $4 a unit on top of the cost of building VinyGo, which is meant to be both affordable and accessible.
VinyGo, a stereo vinyl recorder
For artists, vinyl stores, recording studios, or music lovers
https://hackaday.io/project/181401-vinygo-a-stereo-vinyl-recorder
Tomi Engdahl says:
Handheld acoustic hailing and disruption systems and methods
https://patents.google.com/patent/US11082763B2
The present invention relates to a communication disruption system. In a first audio path, a microphone receives input sound, an amplifier system amplifies the sound, and a sound system transmits a first output sound. In a second audio path, the microphone receives input sound, a delay circuit delays the sound, the amplifier system amplifies the sound, and the sound system transmits a second output sound. A target speaker will hear the first and second output sounds, with the first output sound being a reproduction of their speech heard nearly simultaneously with the original speech, and the second output sound being a reproduction of their speech heard slightly after the original speech. Due to the delayed auditory feedback effect, the target speaker’s concentration will be disrupted, making it difficult for them to continue speaking.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yunost R603 soviet TV teardown and restoration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsfdU1-Ph34
Today, let’s try to fix and restore a vintage soviet TV set Yunost R603 (Юность Р603) from 1981. It’s a small portable solid state black & white analog CRT television. During the process, let’s also see what’s inside and how does it work.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AV surround or stereo speakers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjCkGdg0WQY
If you have to decide between AV speakers or two channels for a single purpose room, what’s best?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Near field vs Far field speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdAI1p-TQkM
What’s the difference between near-field and far-field loudspeakers?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dan Rys / Billboard:
RIAA: music streaming revenue grew 26% YoY in H1 to $5.9B, comprising 84% of all revenue; paid sub revenue grew 26% to $4.6B, ad-supported grew 54% to $741M
U.S. Recorded Music Revenues Return to Double-Digit Growth: RIAA Mid-Year Report
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9628973/riaa-2021-mid-year-report-us-recorded-music-business-vinyl-streaming/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DSD vs PCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMYBd7Ukcuc
DSD is the best recording medium in the world, yet it is often misunderstood and made fun of. Paul helps unravel the mysteries of the differences between DSD and PCM.
Comments:
It depends on what DAC you use. For example the Chord Dave sounds better with PCM whilst various others sound better with DSD. If your DAC suits DSD then it will sound better than DSD & vice versa
I agree with Paul. DSD sounds so much more natural. I think it is better to compare PCM against DSD. Although PCM in higher resolutions sounds smooth, the ‘lightness’ of DSD, the fragile details are so missed in PCM and all the effort that goes in getting to sound PCM nice (like on real high-end DAC’s) are like lipstick on a pig. Thank you guys for advocating for DSD!
I’ve never liked the sound of cymbals on CD. At least on any of my modest systems. They seem to have a curt and hard quality to them.
I listen mostly to rock and it’s difficult to find a cd where the cymbals sound reasonably natural. Mostly it sounds like a compressed saucepan lid.
But I think a lot has to do with the recording and mixing of a cd, cymbals need a lot of headroom.
Listen to the album Heritage by Opeth. Great cymbal sound, you can even hear it at low resolution on Spotify. And the music is good, I don’t just listen to the cymbals ha,ha
DSD is the least robust of all digital formats, and is unsuitable for studio production
Mark Waldrep is correct.
In an effort to maintain revenue Sony developed dSD many years ago when their licensing stream for the CD was expiring. PCM has improved greatly over recent years and the PCM problems that DSD was supposed to address no longer exist. DSD has serious technical problems. Such as very high noise levels just above audible range requiring sophisticated filters and the need to convert to analog or PCM to edit and mix. When a PCM file is played on a native DSD single-bit converter, the single-bit DAC chip has to convert the PCM to DSD in real-time. This is one of the major reasons people claim DSD sounds better than PCM, when in fact, it is just that the chip in most modern single-bit DACs do a poor job of decoding PCM.
A good DSD and a good PCM recording can be audibly indistinguishable.
There’s people who says mp3 at 96kbps sounds good.
The most problem is there are way too less audio process tool for DSD than PCM
Have you listened to any Hybrid SACDs even at the redbook CD layer which was downsampled from DSD? For example have you heard any of the Mobile Fidelity or Analogue Productions SACD versions in particular? Now compare them to the regular CD versions especially the well mastered CDs that have not been squashed with compression. I compared like the The Cars Self Titled 1st album on the DCC Gold CD and then the Mobile Fidelity SACD in CD redbook layer, they both sound great, but as Paul describes how DSD sounds, the Mobile Fidelity won because of this difference.
One thing people miss is the EXPERIENCE in the mind that DSD can give you, versus other format is exceptional – There is an assumption that better must always sound ‘better’ but then dont clarify what ‘better’ actually entails ! DSD for me does sound better but its the absorption INTO the music that my mind does is different from flac for example – This is subtle – not everyone listens like this
So, Paul,
in a real blind test when you don’t know which recording is being played, can the average listener identify one from the other?
Because, that’s the only way one can justify its existence.
We need a group of listeners, audiophiles and just casual music lovers, to have an hours listening session, alternating from one to the other format.
DSD is actually very simple to edit and mix. They just convert it to PCM first !
my guess that in theory DSD’s advantage is it’s PDM signal can be directly fit into the last stage of a class-D power amplifier, cutting out the decoding and encoding DAC processes thus “direct” in DSD ..But in reality there’re very few of such special amplifier devices existing as product. most people use some kind of DAC that takes DSD as input and outputs analog signal then regenerates PDM signal by a common class-D amp at downstream, much like a traditional PCM audio system.. resulting almost no advantage on the consumer market..
Full Disclosure: I’m a DSD fan. BUT…
PCM is sooooo much more practical from editing and 24/32 bit high resolution is more stable and better from a technical POV.
DSD has more phasing issues because it’s one bit and that the bit can flip always so you can get “pops” and “cracks” if the positive inverts & goes to negative and vice versa. Also, you have to covert it into PCM to edit then back to DSD. There’s also very little editing you can with it. And even you convert it back to DSD from DXD (PCM) there’s a -6db headroom of dynamics.
I think it sounds better and that’s why I love using it BUT would love a 48 kHz version of it rather than the 44.1. I do think multiples of 48 is better than 44.1 of SACD standard. 192 > 176 to my ears any day. And more bits or multi-bit DSD would be awesome.
DoP can “sound” more like PCM but it also gives you the extra 6db you lose in native DSD.
Would also add that PS audio most likely use a Sigma Delta topology which is “native” DSD with no computations whereas R-2R is bit perfect (albeit 8 bit ladders) is PCM native and sounds fantastic very close to the source as well like DSD when done well.
For some reason, my ears are not as discriminating.. I’ve had many opportunities to listen to both DSD and PCM (including Octave Record releases) and can hardly tell the difference.. It is possible that my stereo is not resolving enough but regardless both sounds AMAZING to me. It is always good to have CHOICES !
I agree with you totally on your findings and you are not the only one. I can hear the difference as if it is night and day but some people can’t. Some people hear a slight difference. Some people can not hear the difference in MP3 to a higher rate resolution or even straight analogue recording. Some people can not hear the difference of tube equipment vs solid state equipment. Some people are born with what I call a “trained” ear for hearing these differences. Some people can be taught to learn to have a “trained” ear but it takes time. Some people do not and never will have this “trained” ear hearing. I actually had quite a few hearing tests done over the years from actual hearing test labs and my test results concluded I have way above average ears for hearing. I feel blessed and fortunate to hear so many things that some people just plain can not hear. I am sure you have heard the saying “Oh he has such an ear for playing music!” Well I have learned even some musicians, even musicians who have a great ear for playing music, do not necessarily have a “trained” ear for hearing audio quality in recordings. The other difference is tendencies in hearing between men and women. This could possibly be an issue today as so many more working women are getting into the popularity and vinyl resurgence in all positions like producing and mastering. Women have a tendency to hear higher frequencies better while men hear bass frequencies better. So when people make the statement “just trust your ears” when listening, you should instead ask “so what do you hear when listening to this difference?”
I suppose I should consider myself fortunate for not being as gifted ! Saves me a ton of $$$ !!!!
High res PCM and DSD capture the same information, mathematically speaking. One does not capture more than the other, one does not encode more information than the other.
The only difference between them is how they capture that information.
Both DSD and PCM’s means of capturing that information produce artifacts (also provable with math), which each format deals with differently.
Which means someone that says “DSD is better” needs to show mathematically that the way DSD vs PCM captures information and deals with artifacting produces effects on the audible spectrum – which to date no one has been able to do, because neither format does.
Otherwise we’re all just talking about subjective experiences, which aren’t reliable data and can’t prove anything. If your brain thinks DSD is supposed to sound better, your brain will make DSD sound better – whether or not DSD actually sounds better in a measurable sense.
My personal theory is that DSD has gotten a reputation for being “better” precisely because it is hard to work with in the studio – editing DSD is so hard people usually don’t bother to manipulate it much post-recording, so DSD recordings tend to be pretty “flat” and less-manipulated (unless people recorded in PCM and then converted to DSD after mixing and recording, which often happens, in which case it doesn’t matter)
It’s not a better format in any technical way at all, it’s just so hard to work with it discourages recording and mastering engineers from monkeying with it
In Paul’s case, I believe him that his DSD recordings really do sound better than his PCM recordings.
Paul, I can hear the differences And I just got into this hobby doing the pandemic I can hear the difference between PCM, MQA and DSD and I agree with the a 1000% DSD is the better format hands down With pcm and MQA. I hear it but I do have a musical Fidelity Integrated and vanderstine’s model CE signature so I have a very resolving system.
Adjusting the equalizer and mixer correctly in the audio studio is much more important than the audio format itself. It is not the actual audio format that determines whether there is good audio quality or not.
if you are going to use DSD. then you also need to record in DSD. You can not convert from PCM to DSD to believe you are getting DSD audio quality.
Sound quality between DSD and PCM is not as big as people think.
Is not philips bitstream a bit similar to the way DSD works?
It’s not a dumb idea. That’s exactly what they can do for editing DSD: Convert it to 352.8kHz / 24bit PCM. Otherwise known as “DXD”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why You Can Spot Bad Green Screen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5HRvQNg4pQ
Green screen looks terrible sometimes. Here’s why.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Expose everything” means they can say “something human-shaped is moving around.”
A Single Laser Fired Through a Keyhole Can Expose Everything Inside a Room
https://gizmodo.com/a-single-laser-fired-through-a-keyhole-can-expose-every-1847638281
If you’re worried about privacy, it might be time to cover up your front door’s peephole.
Being able to see inside a closed room was a skill once reserved for super heroes. But researchers at the Stanford Computational Imaging Lab have expanded on a technique called non-line-of-sight imaging so that just a single point of laser light entering a room can be used to see what physical objects might be inside.
Non-line-of-sight (NLOS, for short) imaging is by no means a new idea. It’s a clever technique that’s been refined in research labs over the years to create cameras that can remarkably see around corners and generate images of objects that otherwise aren’t in the camera’s field of view, or are blocked by a series of obstacles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Auton virtuaalinen peili on pian huippunopea teräväpiirtokamera
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12563-auton-virtuaalinen-peili-on-pian-huippunopea-teraevaepiirtokamera
Audin e-tron taisi olla ensimmäinen sarjatuotantoauto, jossa sivupeilit oli korvattu kameroilla. Tai virtuaalisilla peileillä, kuten Audi tekniikkaa kuvailee. Nyt autonvalmistajat haluavat sivupeilien tilalle yhä tarkempia kameroita. He puhuvat jo 60 kertaa sekunnissa päivittyvästä 1080p-kuvasta.
Peilien korvaaminen kameroilla tuo monia etua. Ilmanvastus pienenee, viimasta aiheutuva melu pienenee, dynaamisilla kameroilla voidaan eliminoida kuolleet kulmat, kameroiden ohjaaminen on helppoa kosketusnäytöllä ja OLED-ruudulla näkymä taakse on paljon selkeämpi kuin perinteisillä peileillä.
Virtuaalisten peilien ongelma on tällä hetkellä niiden hinta. Audilla ne saa kalliin SUV-mallin mukana, mutta optiona puhutaan tuhansista euroista. Tämä hillitsee monien halua vaihtaa peileistä kameroihin.
Tämä tekniikka voi siirtää auton sivupeilit museoon
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12561-taemae-tekniikka-voi-siirtaeae-auton-sivupeilit-museoon
Jo useamman vuoden ajan autojen suunnittelussa on puhuttu sivupeilien korvaamisesta kameroilla. Tällaisia malleja on jo työn alla ja nyt Renesas on esitellyt yhdessä kameravalmistaja Omnivision Technologiesin kanssa alustaa, jolla sivupeilit voidaan tulevaisuudessa siirtää museoon.
Renesas on nimittäin ratkaissut yhden ison ongelman kamerajärjestelmien kanssa. Yhdessä Omnivisionin kanssa esitellyssä referenssisuunnittelussa hyödynnetään Renesasin uutta AHL-väylätekniikkaa (Automotive HD Link), jonka avulla voidaan lähettää teräväpiirtovideota edullisilla kaapeleilla ja liittimillä.
Referenssimallissa AHL-komponentit yhdistyvät OmniVisionin OX01F10-kamerapiireihin, joissa on 1,3 megapikselin kamerakenno. Tällä taataan kuvantamiskyky monenlaisissa haastavissa valaistusolosuhteissa sekä pienimmän muodon ja pienimmän virrankulutuksen.
HD-video on yhä tärkeämpää autojen turvajärjestelmissä esineentunnistustoiminnon kannalta. Uusi AHL-kooderi (RAA279971) ja -dekooderi (RAA279972) käyttävät moduloitua analogista signaalia videon lähettämiseen, mikä tarkoittaa, että videosignaali voidaan lähettää 10 kertaa pienemmällä tiedonsiirtotarpeella kuin mitä vaaditaan HD-signaalien digitaaliseen lähettämiseen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Best USB Audio Interfaces: 4 / 6 / 8 / 12 / 16 Channels & More
https://www.gearank.com/guides/audio-interface
Here we inspect the current best stand-alone audio interfaces with 4 or more analog inputs, based on the most current reviews and rating data up to late October of 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Best audio interfaces 2021: 12 USB and Thunderbolt options for Mac and PC
https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-best-audio-interfaces
In this guide to the best audio interfaces, we take a deep dive into top PC/Mac Thunderbolt and USB audio interfaces for music producers, songwriters and more
An audio interface is pretty much an essential piece of kit for your studio setup if you spend any time at all making music on a PC or Mac. Taking things back to basics, the best audio interfaces enable you to get high-quality audio in and out of your computer, and to connect other essential studio gear and instruments during your recording sessions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.minidsp.com/products/usb-audio-interface
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIPI SoundWire
A comprehensive, unified interface for small audio peripherals
https://www.mipi.org/specifications/soundwire
MIPI SoundWire®, introduced in 2014, consolidates many of the key attributes in mobile and PC audio interfaces, providing a common, comprehensive interface and scalable architecture that can be used to enable audio features and functions in multiple types of devices and across market segments. It supports the use of advanced amplifiers and microphones. In addition, it can also optimize speaker protection, microphone power and performance, noise cancellation and always-listening audio input.
MIPI SoundWire is developed by the MIPI Audio Working Group.
MIPI SoundWire’s key features include a double-data rate, configurable frame size, low complexity, low power, low latency, optional multilane extensions, PCM and PDM format, multichannel data and a low gate count. It can be embedded in small, cost-sensitive audio peripherals such as amplifiers and microphones. It is also used in smartphones, tablets, PCs, automotive and embedded systems.
With v1.2, introduced in 2019, MIPI SoundWire gains several improvements to further aid the integration of audio components in mobile and mobile-influenced systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Impossible Feat inside Your VCR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfuARMCyTvg
You can support this channel on Patreon! Link below
These days a VCR seems more quaint than anything else. But in fact, there’s a device inside every VCR that solved what seemed to be an unsolvable problem. The video head drum is a fascinating solution to the complex problem of tape speed, and therefore I think it deserves to be remembered. Plus, the video head drum shares some motor technologies with modern hard disk drives. So there’s that.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DLP® Chipsets Bring Versatility to Applications Requiring 4K UHD Displays
Sept. 13, 2021
Sponsored by Texas Instruments: MEMS-based DLP® offers resolution equivalent to four 1080p displays for projectors and many other apps. New 2nd-generation chipsets help facilitate making the move to the high-end technology.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/article/21174892/texas-instruments-dlp-chipsets-bring-versatility-to-applications-requiring-4k-uhd-displays?utm_source=EG%20ED%20Analog%20%26%20Power%20Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS210901103&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Just like Goldilocks, the market for display technology knows when something is just right. And when it comes to getting it right, it’s hard to argue against 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) displays that utilize Texas Instruments’ DLP 4K UHD chipset.
Digital light processing (DLP) technology is a fast-switching microelectromechanical-systems (MEMS) platform that modulates light using a digital micromirror device (DMD) Each of 4.15 million micromirrors has a reflective aluminum surface that can be just a few microns wide. A DMD steers light by electrostatically deflecting or switching each mirror up to thousands of times per second. To make this possible, a 1 or 0 is loaded into a memory cell beneath each mirror, which activates electrodes that control whether the mirror is switch to an on or off state.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ultimate Surround Sound Installed 9.2.4 Dolby Atmos – Audiocontrol Amps Klipsch Speakers 15 Channels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWHND2sMo9U
This system sounded INSANELY good at the old house, so far it is no different at the new house! I can’t explain how much i love it and i know i have more work to do. Subscribe and don’t miss future updates such as the rear center channel (if i do it) which makes it 10.2.4 and if i add that 33″ sub it will be 10.3.4. CRAZY! Even the commercials sound awesome. The room does need some treatment due to the hardwood floors and vaulted ceilings but i will do that more and more as we live here longer (only been 3 months) and i will run Dirac Live again. It’s fun!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Vuoden lehtikuva on julkaisematon otos – vuoden uutiskuva peffaan tatuoitu Niinistö
https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/vuoden-lehtikuva-on-julkaisematon-otos-vuoden-uutiskuva-peffaan-tatuoitu-niinisto/1909764#gs.bjhsuk
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is the Optimal Sampling Rate for Audio? (It’s All About the Aliasing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg6bOVShU-w
Honestly, I don’t actually answer the question in the video. I give some reasons why some engineers say it’s 60 kHz – but that’s about it. What I do cover is Aliasing spurred on by a very interesting question about being the hear the difference between Sine Waves and Square Waves.
Sorry for all the “click-baity” title but there isn’t a way to present this nerdy topic in a traditional way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
There’s a lot that gets said about “YouTube compression” and how it affects audio. Generally, the degree to which it affects the sound of any given audio demo is nearly moot. These days, few of us are hearing anything that hasn’t already passed through a perceptual audio encoder of some sort (MP3, AAC, Bluetooth audio codecs, Netflix / Hulu / YT, and so on…) and nearly all of those codecs are going to brick-wall filter the highest of the high frequencies to avoid wasting data bandwidth on stuff only our pets will hear anyway.
The exception to this rule is the rare fabricated audio example like in this video, which uses a signal that is rarely something you’ll encounter in a typical audio presentation of any sort. Yep. Those are affected by compression. Sure enough. But most of the time, when somebody is comparing a direct feed of a source audio file with one picked up through a lavalier microphone from sound being played through a 3″ cube smart speaker, and then says “you won’t get the full impact of this because of YouTube audio compression”, I just roll my eyes. haha I think that 128kbps Ogg stream can adequately capture the sonic differences you were trying to convey, don’t you worry about that.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Surprising Origins of Digital Audio Sampling Rates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5bs5tTDby0
You’ve probably seen them: 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. But why are there two sampling rates so close together in the first place? John explains the origins of these two seemingly similar audio sampling rates.
Always enjoy your educational videos. This one reminded me of a video by Techmoan from about a year ago demonstrating an early digital audio recorder that used VHS tape and it seems a fitting complement to yours since it includes a little history of PCM recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDCxTtn4OQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Yellow Is So Common for TV Graphics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YSStV8ecI
Yellow! It’s everywhere especially in television graphics. But why? Well let’s seriously overthink it and explore some color theory concepts on why this color is the king of graphics color.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The History and Science of Timecode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgX_R-JgpJE
Timecode is the heartbeat of modern digital video but it didn’t really emerge until the final quarter of the 20th century. We explore the rise of timecode, the basics of the structure of timecode and modern applications that can help keep your cameras and recording equipment in sync.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who’s Who in the Movie Credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CutWL8Al61E
FI
Haku
The History and Science of Color Film: From Isaac Newton to the Coen Brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRheZ_MUYiY
Color is a subtle tool that can transport us from our ordinary lives to extraordinary worlds of cinema. Peel back the layers of history and look at how color was first understood and implemented in the world of film.