Boxee Remote

Check this out from Engadget, who's going to post a real world review?!

D-Link brings the Boxee Box remote to PC, Mac users

By Richard Lawler posted Jul 6th 2011 12:48PM

Boxee users on PC and Mac should no longer feel ignored, with promises of updated software on the way and now the option to use a Boxee Box remote from D-Link. The two sided QWERTY design is unchanged and the included RF dongle means your HTPC can stay safely out of sight while you enjoy some branded remote control action without selling out for a one-size-fits-all box. The roll your own media player crowd can pick up the remote at a penny under $50 at a variety of online retailers right now, the long awaited software update is still due this fall.

Platinum becomes MK Sound Dealer

Of all the speaker brands we've ever wanted to carry, MK Sound would be on top of the list.  Problem was, the company changed hands and restructured, and became just a bit inaccessible for a while.  

Those days are GONE!  We are now the official dealer for MK Sound products in Chicago!  And as if that weren't enough, MK Sound has just introduced the new S150 MKII, an update on the film-industry standard monitor speaker.  The S150 has been our personal choice in THX Ultra II LCR speakers for many years.  The new version are to be available June 2011 (from Platinum Home Theaters, of course!), as are all of the MK Sound speakers, from the MK Movie package all the way through the powered 2510P.  

The list of films that has used MK Sound speakers is too long to blog, but here's a partial list:

Wall-E, Iron Man, King Kong, The Incredibles, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,  Finding Nemo,  Pirates Of The Caribbean, Chicago, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring, Star Wars Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Get the idea?  YOU can own the same speakers these films were produced with!  And if you have a modest setup, the MK Sound line has speakers to fit your needs with their heritage deep in the MK family tree.

We are more than thrilled to at last be MK Sound dealers!

KEF & Ecler Pro Audio are here!

KEF in store !

KEF is here in Kuching!!!

The new KEF Q-Series is in store. Please visit or schedule for an audition. Accepting phone appointment now.

Plex 0.9.2.7 released

Here is a link to the new features in 0.9.2.7 with the post below.

ow that the latest iOS version has made it into the store (and thank you so much for your feedback on it, you are all very kind!!), we’ve turned our attention to fixing a few issues with Plex. The new releases are available on the Plex home page, and we will enable auto-update shortly.

• NEW: We display the warning icon on shows/seasons/episodes and artist/album/tracks so that you can see more clearly which media is missing. Also note that if you dislike this feature, you can always disable it in the Library preferences by enabling “Empty trash automatically”. We enable it by default because we never want to delete any of your data without you knowing about it first.
  

• FIX: We’ve updated the transcoding engine to fix a number of issues, including 3G video playback being audio only (thanks, Chris!), improvements in threading (1080p content should work more smoothly), and according to one tester, DTS-MA now mixes down correctly. Thanks also to mitch969 and others on the forums for all their help testing!
• FIX: A few fixes for for the web-based media manager, including a fix for changes to collections not saving, sections not disappearing from clients when deleted via the web manager, and fixes for the “Match using” and un-match functionality.
• FIX: When an episode is renamed, make sure we reload metadata if the episode or season number changed.
• FIX: If a slideshow screensaver is active, playing content via the iOS or Android remotes turns the screensaver off (thanks to Man for bring this to our attention).
• FIX: A fix for Turbo Scanning where if you edited a library section (to add a new directory, or when moving media, for example), you would need to perform a deep scan to pick up the changes.

We’ve also been hard at work at improving the music functionality. Besides support for FLAC, we’ve also added and fixed lots of other things. The really nice part is that the changes were to the scanner and agents, which means that they could be pushed out automatically in micro-increments. I love the thought of our users waking up to new features and bug-fixes without the need to download a whole new version!

• NEW: Support for scanning OGG.
• NEW: Improved and enhanced poster gathering from tags in all supported file formats.
• NEW: Music lacking tags is scanned in as “unknown” artist/album.
• FIX: Tons of fixes and improvements around reading tags.
• NEW: Parse track numbers out of filename if they’re not in the tags.
• FIX: Folders with more than 50 files are scanned.

Barkley is here displaying his affinity for human beds and pillows. Who says dogs don’t have a sense of ergonomics?

And finally a link to my main site, Vesic Photography.

Update on Re-Equalization

Why Re-EQ?

Re-Equalization (Re-EQ) is a feature found only in THX Certified AV Receivers and Pre/Pros.  The problem it's addressing is one of correcting the overall sound quality of a film soundtrack that was mixed for a large theater to the home environment.  Large theaters are equalized following the "X-Curve", a standardized response curve.  Oddly, the curve itself was developed to solve the same issue, but in reverse.  Material mixed in small rooms sounded too bright in large theaters, so using the technology of the time (early 1970s), the X-curve was created to correct the issue. Theoretically, the vary existence of the X-curve should have made Re-EQ unnecessary.  But it didn't work that way.

Original data collected to develop the X-curve was limited in resolution, and therefore, accuracy.  It turns out, there is a small but noticeable error, which creates the same problem in reverse: material mixed on a large X-Curve dub stage sounds too bright in the home.  Tom Holman, developer of THX for theaters and homes, described the Re-EQ curve in the original Home THX specs. Some of us early home theater adopters had already noticed the problem, and were very relieved that Re-EQ made those bright-sounding Laser Discs sound smooth and natural.  It worked.

THX Re-EQ is on whenever you pick the THX Surround mode of your receiver.  If you don't have a THX Certifice AVR, you may also find something like CinemaEQ (Denon), or the like.  That's intended to be a similar curve, but is not exactly the same.

So why, then, in 2011, is the Re-EQ function more and more ignored?  It has to do with how soundtracks are handled for home video.  In the early days, the only choice was to take the original masters and do a straight transfer to the home formats.  Nothing was changed at all, in fact, the more accurate the transfer, the better.  That started to change when DVDs came along.  The film industry started to think it might be a good idea to re-master those theater-centric soundtracks for the home.  So, what did they do? Rather than send the material off to a mastering lab with a reference home theater, the material was sent to music mastering labs.  Now, while that might sound like a good idea, in fact the music industry is remarkably un-standardized when it comes to the monitoring environments used.  What came out of that is re-mastered tracks that not only no longer required Re-EQ, but also had changes made in overall equalization and dynamics that now made it impossible for people with calibrated home theater systems to duplicate the theater experience. 

Is there any hope?

Actually, yes!  The folks at DTS made sure that the new Blu-ray audio spec included DTS Master Audio along with Dolby TrueHD.  Yes, it's competition.  We could debate technical advantages of one over the other all day, but what it gets down to is which company positioned itself where it could work with content producers in a way that was helpful and beneficial.  DTS did that.  What's coming out of their efforts is really good mixes intended for the home.  And since they knew that's where it was going, they took care of Re-EQ in the re-mastering stage.  Get your BD player going, and pick the DTS track, then turn off THX Re-EQ (usually, just turn off the THX Surround mode).

But is that an universal fix? Sadly, not yet.  In the mass of legacy DVDs it's pretty wild. You have to listen to make the choice.  Is it too bright?  Then kick on THX Surround.  Is it too dull? Turn THX off.  And, listen carefully to those Blu-ray discs.  It's not 100% by any means.  But at least it's a start.

Rythmik Audio Subwoofers

Having trouble searching for a good quality audiophile sub without breaking a hole in your pocket? We at Sound Fusion proudly present you Rythmik Audio Sub - articulate bass for the the discerning audiophile.

Model: F12 - Fits in most rooms and provide clean bass.

Model: F15 - When Power & Bass Acurracy is your concern.

Model: S15SE - For music lovers who likes something stylist and classy.

Model: FV15HP - For serious movie loves who really need to shake their walls.

For all other models, please refer to : http://www.rythmikaudio.com/

Ordering info: Please contact +6 017 8089020 (Mr. Tan) or email us at soundfusion.com.my@gmail.com