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[img width=700 height=999]http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af356/jackcrow2000/Episode-13_zps21f79878.jpg[/img]

Shining in the Duke

Oh thank goodness!  I was starting to get the shakes from collectorcast withdrawals...

5 hours long and its up on youtube now!

Sure, release it at the end of my work day........

at the end of a work day is better than the middle of one ;) i can't listen to them at work and won't be home for another 5 hours or so.

Yeeeeeeaah.  First, Game Chasers season 3 started today, and now this.  Lovin' life.

Well that was a lot to listen to in one chunk but I really enjoyed it. Nice setup talk there, I think you guys covered just about everything with the A/V talk. I got to reorganize my entire game room and game storage areas while listening to this.

As far as setups go I use a LG 42 inch plasma T.V. (For modern stuff) and a 19 inch Toshiba CRT next to the big screen (For older systems).  I've got a Sony 5.1 channel receiver hooked up via optical cable that I rarely ever use, nothing fancy though, the sound is great but I do tend to use my Turtle Beach wireless headphones most of the time which is one of their high end ones so it sounds pleasant.

All my systems are hooked up with the highest quality A/V that they can output without modding (And yes X-Box did make their own official component cables) Though I still need to get a Dreamcast VGA box.

Anyways excellent show  :)

Thanks, and wow the whole show already!

Sounds like a nice little setup there. Do you route your classic consoles through your receiver for sound? Does that Toshiba have S-Video in, or do you use composite?

Get that DC VGA box, you'll be glad you did. Even the off-brand models work well.

Yes I use the reciver for all my consoles including the older ones. The Toshiba does use both S-video and composite inputs. I really want to get something bigger like one of those Sony Trinitron T.V.'s that you mentioned which I frequently see at thrifts for pretty cheap.

LMAO!!

Hey you broke the thread naming convention!

I listened to it earlier at work. I think Duke forgot to mention one thing about RGB: the sync signal! Well that and the fact that Japan's SCART standard is actually totally different from what  Europe uses and is wired up differently. This is important to know with stuff like the XRGB, since you need to either make sure you have Japanese cables or rewire the scart input for Euro SCART instead. I guess that might be beyond the scope of what you guys were talking about though.

My setup is basically all of my consoles going through an XRGB-Mini Framemeister into a 46" Samsung LCD. I want to say about half of the systems I have hooked up are using RGB Scart, Wii (and soon Xbox) via Commponent, Ps3 via HDMI, while the rest are all S-video except for NES (which I'd rather not RGB mod because it's expensive and makes the colors all funky) and TurboGrafx (which I've been too lazy to get around to building the RGB amplifier circuit to mod that).

Audio is an Onkyo 5.1 ht-in-a-box system I picked up off of ebay a while back. One of these days I need to invest in a better audio setup, but I think I've spent waaaaaay too much the past few months in general so that would probably have to wait. I'm pretty happy with my video at least.

^great info, Quackula! 

I play all my games on significantly smaller screens than everyone else and audio when i actually use it is piped through my turtle beach headset that i (partially) blew the speakers on.

Wow, how did you blow the speaker without blowing out an eardrum?

Well that was a fun episode, I mean, not as fun as last time when you had that one really neat dude on but good none the less.


With all that info you guys gave you did a really good job, it's like you know what you're talking about  ;)   I did catch one thing which may need a little clarification.  The advertised refresh rates between LCD's and plasmas are not really comparable. I think the 600Hz they through around on plasmas is mostly a marketing trick. Most plasma screens refresh at 60Hz, some a little higher but either way less than 100Hz. I heard a really good explanation of this on another podcast but can't remember the exact episode. I did lots of hard research for about 1 minute, then got tired but did come up with these references:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1384029/confused-on-refresh-rate-which-has-better-motion-of-fast-images-plasma-or-lcd-led
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1285072/why-dont-plasmas-have-a-higher-refresh-rate

That podcast I listen to, there is a new one each week, is called Home Theater Geeks and is part of the twit network. Nearly every item you guys talked about they have a whole hour show on. Want to hear an interview with the president of HDMI standards? A discussion on audio cables? Projector screens? There might even be an interview with an engineer at Klipsch. All sorts of good stuff.

http://twit.tv/htg


As far as my own setup, I am an aspiring audiophile, or as I typed out in chat once, an inspiring audiophile. Ah, spelling mistakes. Since I'm kinda cheap when it comes to entertainment, buying audio equipment has so far been mostly minimal. Mostly. I run a stereo setup simply because the equipment I would want to get to be past the point of thinking, "If only I'd spent a little more I could have gotten something better" would be, well, as Luke said, "Well, more wealth than you can imagine!"

I do want a surround sound toy, I actually have a HTIAB thing that was given to me, it's the garage radio as I don't care for the quality. But for now, I use with our TV/game setup a stereo Harman Kardon HK3490 reciever and Infinity Primus 162 speakers. After I got those I kinda leapfrogged in level with the subwoofer. I got one that would fit in with pretty much any level of audio gear. I'm going to go out on a short limb and say, "I bet its the best of anyone who posts here"  :P     My sub is a Hsu VTF-3 MK4. It has flat response down to 15 or 16Hz (depends what you call "flat") it does roll off below that but will still reproduce information below 10Hz. Anything below 20Hz is very, very low, most subs don't get anywhere close with much power. It's huge and awesome.

http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-3mk4.html


When you guys were talking about room eq's and sound quality, it reminded me of what I deal with. The room we have our TV in is just horrible for sound. It's really the limiting factor with quality right now. Even if I wanted to upgrade, the room would hold me back with all it's reverberations and reflections.

I would type more, but if I go much longer I think I would have to offer this post as a print on demand book.

I took a comparison picture for you so you can see the size of this beast......and how much I should dust behind the couch.



[img width=700 height=641]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8367/8596042977_89cf4bf499_o.jpg[/img] (http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetechchef/8596042977/)

Send a sonar blast to that Silent Service cart!

I leave them hanging around my neck. I also think it had something to do with this:
http://sdrv.ms/ZqHWLj

I play (nearly all) singing games by pumping the game music back into the mic with the speakers. Sometimes it causes a horrid squealing feedback.

just got to the main topic of the episode and i have a minor complaint. i don't remember noticing this on previous episodes but the music between segments is mono so far. not a big deal but i find mono really annoying to listen to on headphones because it just feels weird hearing sound only through one ear (especially when the rest of the episode is stereo).

otherwise great episode so far!

I thought mono just put all sound through both speakers not just one, whereas stereo can have a certain track coming through one speaker and another through another speaker. Evidently I'm no audiophile and need to listen to the main topic of this episode to learn a thing or two.

As for my AV set it's as simple as plugging the systems into a TV that has the appropriate ports (HDMI or RCA) and I'm done. No worrying about SCART, component or that other jazz.

I figured that was intentional.  I only moticed it for this 'sode.

I noticed it too... seems like an odd sort of thing to do intentionally.

if the entire track was mono i think most players would put it on both sides of the headphones/speakers. if the whole audio file is uploaded as stereo and certain parts are mono they only run on one audio track, with the other one being essentially empty

It's not like it would be any real effort to put the mono track on both channels.

Just noticed that you're right. Not intentional, but kind of an odd coincidence considering the topic. I accidentally set the pan on that track 100% to the left. Must have accidentally clicked it without noticing. The next episode will be back to normal.

@nupoile: That is a seriously great sub if you can get frequencies that low out of it. Thanks for the link to the other show, that would be great for people eager to learn more on the topic. AV gear is such a crazy deep pool, and we just wanted to open the door for folks.

I used to have all my audio going through a pair of KRK studio monitors. Wish I'd kept those.

Did anyone else giggle every time Duke said scart?

Great episode gentlemen!

I always perk up when I hear my name in the small scores segment. Thanks for mentioning me!

I'm really glad you mentioned my score of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. I had been trying to get my hands on it forever and finally just lowballed someone on GameTZ and actually got it that way. I played it right away and I loved it.

I actually talk about that game a lot  in the upcoming episode of my podcast. I know no one has time but you're interested the link is in my sig below.

Wow, thanks for a podcast that only some hardcore nerds could love!

I currently do all of my gaming on a 32" Sony Wega Flat CRT. It is a great (big) 480i beast that I picked up cheap but required two of us to move. One strange thing that I encountered with this TV was that the video coming from my Model 1 Genesis would only show as black and white on the TV. This was via the composite (straight from the Genesis or via the 32X) and the RF. I tested the console on various other displays and it was fine and other consoles worked fine on this TV (except strangely a TRS-80 Coco which also would only display as black and white.) I spent hours trying to figure out the problem assuming that it had something to do with signal cleaning filters that were too aggressive. I never found an answer to the problem.

However, it did lead me down the path of RGB. I ordered an RGB SCART cable and a RGB to Component Transcoder. This works beautifully and I have really never seen the Genesis look so good. My PS2 and XBOX are connected via Component also. My Saturn/Dreamcast/SNES/N64/Gamecube via S-Video and NES via Composite. I manage to have all of these connected simultaneously via a Pelican System Selector Pro and the built in TV inputs.

I figure I will get an HDTV for that room when I get a PS3 or XBOX 360 someday but I'm in no rush.

I haven't finished the podcast yet, but I picked up Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland from GameDealDaily.  It is a European import.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! We're certainly some hardcore nerds, but I'm sure everyone knew that by now.

It sounds like you've got a great tube there, but I'm trying to think of why you would have that issue with the Genesis and the CoCo. Perhaps someone else could chime in. I'd like to know in case I ever run across such an issue.

I am glad to heat that it lead you down the RGB path. I've considered trying such a setup, but with the HDMI NES and the Retron 5 on the way, maybe that will be a different path.

Episodes like this give me a chance to geek out for a bit, but I'm sure we'll be returning to good ol' gaming soon enough.


So the question is, are you going to open and play it? ;)

It turns out I'm in the market for a new TV. It would be for watching movies and playing modern games. Based on what I learned from the podcast I think I'd like to go for an LED. Any recommendations as to what I should buy? LED or LCD?

Thanks guys!

By LED I'm guessing you mean an LCD set with LED backlighting. I think Bil mentioned it in the show, but look for a model that is truly backlit by LEDs, not lit from the side.

If you are asking me for my opinion? I still like the Sony XBR line. LED backlit, local dimming, nice contrast ratio. These suckers aren't the cheapest, but to save money watch for when the new model is about to be released, and then scoop up the last version floor model when they are trying to move them out.

My LCD and CRT are both XBR sets, and I've been really happy with the quality of both. I'll let the other guys chime in with their favorites.

Typically when I see the Black & White output, it's due to an unsupported format (e.g. PAL/NTSC mismatch) or broken pins. Just a thought.

Yea, but wouldn’t that mean it would display black & white on every TV?

I have a SNES that does the same thing black & white on some TVs and fine on others. I’ll see if I can dig it out and get some snap shots of it.

With something like the SNES, I'd be curious if you have the same issue on the same TV if using S-video as well.

Yep, same thing but it has a sharper B&W picture. :laugh:


The first picture is my main TV for old school games a 19" round tube Phillips all I did was unhook the SNES I use and plugged this one in with the Monster s-video cable.

The second picture is some POS off-brand 6" (I think) with some off-brand A/V cord.

[img width=700 height=267]http://imageshack.us/a/img833/7526/dsc01019po.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=262]http://imageshack.us/a/img692/4347/dsc01021ra.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=263]http://imageshack.us/a/img96/5130/dsc01024s.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=263]http://imageshack.us/a/img7/1268/dsc01025tl.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=262]http://imageshack.us/a/img585/2281/dsc01026pq.jpg[/img]

Just so nothing can be said I plugged the off-brand A/V cord right into the front of the Phillips.

[img width=700 height=525]http://imageshack.us/a/img145/9630/dsc01035kv.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=525]http://imageshack.us/a/img259/1038/dsc01036rf.jpg[/img]

Yeah, that looks like my experience with the Genesis. Although, I do remember that if I wiggled the RF connector plugged in the Genesis repeatedly, I could sometimes get the color to 'catch'. However, it was difficult to do and would be gone if you power off and on the unit. I don't remember the composite working like this.

My RF connector would do that since it was constantly hanging, and the hanging bent part of it to the point where I had to find something to rest it on in order to prevent it from losing connection. If this were S-Video, there are two cables that control the video - one's color, the other one's Brightness and Contrast. I'd blame the color portion of it. However, Understatement's picture shows a general problem with a particular TV, in which case I would possibly blame the impedence.

Hey, there's no reason to bring my impudence into this! ;) HaHa, but seriously I came to about the same conclusions and checked for blown caps and reflowed everything that I know of in the video circuit but no caps appear to be bad and I don't have a reflow station so it was done one pin at a time so I might have missed something. I'd wager something like a full cap/resistor replacement and/or reflow would probably fix it but I just don't have the time for all that.

Just got done listening to the podcast.  Very informative and awesome, great work guys!  Thanks for mentioning me on the small scores thread and including  me as the biggest score (a couple of kids), although at the moment I feel like trading them for a couple of arcade cabs.  Just kidding.....  And no, their names aren't Silent and Service.  Their names are Tiger and Heli.....

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it! I'm sure you're probably getting a chance to experience the wonders of no sleep... ahhh, ain't parenthood grand? Nice choice with the name, but you could have thrown a Duke in there.

LMAO

I am sure it is different for different areas, but it always seems like every lot of NES carts on Craigslist has a copy of Tiger-Heli in it.

One of these days I will have to listen to one of these podcasts :P

I'm officially making my recommendation for future Collectorcast art:

Wow, you may just get your wish. OOOOOOHHHHH YEEEEAAAAHHHH!

With the sideburn similarity, Duke's a shoo-in to be Andre the Giant.

Bil's avatar has the whole redneck flair goin' on, so he should be the Big Boss Man.

Which leaves either the Hulkster or the Ultimate Warrior for Crabs. There's a toss-up for you...

As for the Macho Man: you'd better leave him just the way he is, if you know what's good for you. Don't mess with perfection!