Pete's Write

Wreck-It Ralph Disney has gone from strength to strength, and this is their latest offering, which is about a 'bad guy' in a computer game at an arcade, who wants to turn and be one of the 'good guys'... The story describes his journey and this animation has much more adult themes than the usual Disney offerings, although the violence is still kid friendly and no one dies, until Pixar's "Up". However the storyline is a little too complex for kids, who will sporadically drift off during the more dialogue heavy moments. I had expected more of this after reading some reviews, it's not bad, but it's no classic, and the action and story are middling at best and I am not confident the kids will lap it up either. Best to rent first and decide. There are plenty of action scenes which should excellent on BR, but I do know if it's a keeper.. I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.

It happened so surreptiously, that I totally didn't notice it... Thank you for reading my blog, we have past the 100k mark, and I hope the info here has been useful to everyone. Remember, you can quote the info, but please avoid plegarising or simply doing a cut and paste from my entries. Thank you and to more good years!

The Voice of God Phenomenon... This was first reported back in the initial report of Audyssey DSX: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/first-listen-audyssey-dsx I have found that speaker placement and also the time delay and levels are key to creating a good surround effect, but yet, avoiding this. There is no exact formula, that I can write on the proportion of delay and speaker level. You need to tweak the settings after Audyssey has done their calibration, then take out that trusty SPL meter, and adjust. The aim, is to let the surrounds be just heard, not too prominently, and then avoid having them too close to your ears, or setting the time delay such that you don't have them feel like a pair of headphones placed right next to your ears. Then the height is also key. The relative difference between the fronts, the sides and rear backs is important. To allow for a good transition of the sound from front to back and vice versa, the relative heights mustn't be ...

As more get HT systems with more than the usual 5.1 channels, those with deeper pockets and a greater than average interest will venture into the realm of > 7.1 channels, one can look forward to the various options to expand the soundfield beyond what is the typical 5 or 7 channel system. Bear in mind, as of now, 99% or more of discs are only encoded with a maximum of 7 channels and more than 60% are only 5.1 channels. So don't lose too much sleep if you don't have > 5 channels. This is a discussion thread to talk about moving beyond 5 / 7 channels. What you will need: Enough amplification for all the channels you wish to playback. Decoding for each format. Discs / software encoded for playback of DTS-Neo X You can't add Wide AND Heights from a single preout. The current choices are: Audyssey DSX Dolby Prologic IIz DTS Neo-X  Audyssey DSX: This is the oldest to get 11 channels, and allows any source with 5 channels of decoding to be matrixed into 1...

Associated equipment: PS64D8000FM Samsung plasma TV Denon AVR 4520 – XT 32, 11.2 capable with nine amps inbuilt, twin sub out Front channels - Musical Fidelity A 5.5 stereo amp in HT bypass driving the 804D   Oppo BR player BDP 105 as CD and HT source Apple TV (Gen 1) for music and photos HTM4s centre, Radius 90HD for height and wide channels Usher 520 for rear back Monitor Audio RXFX in dipole mode for side surrounds JL Audio F113 for low bass Hsu MBM for mid bass (tuned to 50-120 Hz) - sited behind my main seat QED XT 300 for front and centre speakers QED Micro speaker cable for the rest Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI for Oppo to amp Aiborg flat HDMI cable, LHS and AQ Forest HDMI cable - amp to TV and other sources Audioquest Snake subwoofer cables Wireworld Oasis 6 Interconnects Assorted Xindak, PS Audio and other power cables MK wall power sockets Rhodium Right Angle Plug adapters for USA power cables I had just finished renov...