doctorcilantro
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Posts posted by doctorcilantro
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I just remembered the title of your thread. Glad you got the video issues worked out. Regarding the music, my only advice at this point, if your using Windows Media Player, is yes, you are opeing a can of worms. Download J. River Media Center 12 trial ($40 after 30 days) or use their free audio-only version, Media Jukebox.
best
DC
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Seems like the driver is not installed. Control Panel>System>Device Manager should tell you what's going on.
You only need a driver for your card. Check the Display Adapters If you see something like Standard VGA display instead of the name of your card (iirc) then the driver isn't installed.
dc
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Sometimes after installing new drivers the optimal settings may not be loaded. Have you checked the advanced Video properties? You may be able to access from the systray icon(look for Nvidia display etc.) or Right click desktop>Properties>Settings (Advanced should take you to the Nvidia control panel or you may see an Nvidia tab here). Check you desktop settings and Color Quality (set this to 32).
Are you using Vista?
"I downloaded drivers and not I have 4 bit vga and no better. It
started at higher resolution and looked good, but was struggling with
the video. Then it became set (I don;t remember if I did it or if it
did automatically) to 4 bit and it works smoothly but the video is at
really low resolution (too low to use)."This is really strange; sounds like Vista changing something. What are you using for playback ...DVD, video file (containers like .avi. .mkv)? What are you using for playback?
dc
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Except for MS, PC's would be by human reaction times instantaneous by now. CPU speeds are such that only an impossibly obese OS can possibly slow them to the reaction we get. Frankly, I do not know how they do it...and, frankly, I don't think they do either.
ROTFLMAO, I have to agree. Throw a quad-core in, tweak out your OS and BIOS, and you can do some things fast (like analyze audio files, transcode, etc.), but move or copy a file in Windows.......go make a sandwich until it's done; open a folder with thousands of files in it......go make a 10ft. hoagie. That said I was installing Adobe Creative Suite and watching something at 1080P yesterday.....it's hillarious that the core Windows functions just bog things down.....nasty, nasty code. [
] DC
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I dont' think I edited the blog post yet regarding multi-value tag fields (semi-colon delimited).MC lets you create custom tag fields, the default ones are locked to make metadata more compatible with other players (like when you sitch iTunes and want to map all the metadata to the right place). I suggest a custom field of this sort which as a multi-value field allows a file to "show up" in two places at once. Neil Young & Michael Jackson can be retained as Artist on a specific track but then be tagged Neil Young;Michael Jackson and show up under each artist's recpetcive "tile" in MC. I'll edit that post this afternoon. Feel free to PM or email me with any questions; the J. River Interact forums are a great repositry of knowledge regarding MC.
DC
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Geez, it's not that hard to get bit perfect from Windows. Install a half-decent player (not sure what obscure means - you don't have to pilgramage to Mecca...use a search engine), get a decent soundcard (a no brainer for anyone half serious abut audio), and push play. Bit Perfect is overrated anyway, things like ReplayGain (which is not Normalization) aren't going to destroy fidelity and are pragmatic applications useful in the real world.
As much as we all love to hate M$, it's often more cost effective, and using iTunes I consider more tortuous than anything Windows has to offer. That said, I too use Mac for other things, so I'm just offering solutions for people "stuck" with Windows [
]You can use Player & Audiograbber (two seperate apps) that can access FreeDB & Gracenote respectively; these apps will update the Cdplayer.ini so J. river can effectively utilize the metadata from its proprietary YADB, Gracenote, and FreeDB. I need to blog about this as well. With getting into the lossless vs. lossy debate, my opinion is to rip lossless for archival purposes and usually just transcode/sync to handhelds/portables with mp3/ogg etc. So tagging in MC is very powerful given that wav is really pointless since we can compress it to pretty much half size and gain the tagging capabilites that InnerTube mentioned.
DC
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Hey guys - been a while.
I'm going to be pareing down my record collection, and selling a lot of classical stuff. Been finding some great stuff, even more sealed Masterworks stuff.
To make things easier I started a Paypal based store on my site. My mission statement is to pass on the finds at afforadable prices. check Ebay, and you'll find what I'm seelling is cheaper and in better condition.
I'll be adding a lot of stuff in the coming month, so keep me in mind, and help me pay for school.
DC
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And J. River makes the best media playback/organizer for WIndows based systems. Media Jukebox is free, but Media Center 12 is worth a price 5x the current cost.
And yes the quieter the better, but having one fan, such as a wlle designed, quiet PSU fan isn't going to be any louder than the ambient noise in most listening rooms....I worry much more about HD seek noise which I find can be much more audible. But if you have a silent "chamber", then sure it makes sense to cut out as much as possible. If your building an HTPC, music server, graphics workstation, gaming machine amalgalm (doing it all in one - which I like to do) you have to find the right balance of power, noise, heat, cooling etc.
I have an HIS IceQ 3850 and my room is pretty quiet; even its "loud" fan (maybe 30dba) blends into my listening environment; drop the needle it is nothing compared to some LPs surface noise. I waited for the newer 3870s to come out in fanless design and I've ordered one last week.....because in the end, less noise is better, but don't kill yourself over it imo.
Let us know how the new card works out, and since we're stuck with Windows every user here should be chekcing out a Minnesota software company's unreal offering for the PC (J. River Media Center 12). I have a little about in my blog, the features are endless, and it makes iTunes & WMP seem like they were designed/coded by 7 seven year olds. Makes using Windows a LOT less painful.
DC
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Wow, what a trip; an amazing experience for sure. Is that a modified Rega arm?
DC
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This is what Duke Spinner echoed I believe:
"Speaker Wire and DF:
Amplifiers with a HIGH damping
factor have a LOW output impedance. As soon as you start adding speaker
wire between the amp and the speakers, the damping factor at the
speakers starts to fall. An amplifier with a DF of 400 into a 4 ohm
load, has an output impedance of .01 ohms. If you use 5ft of 14g
speaker wire, the total resistance of the wire is .016 ohms. If you add
this to the output impedance of the amplifier, you have a total output
impedance of .026 ohms. This reduces the effective damping factor to
154. Longer runs of speaker wire will reduce the effective damping
factor even more"Mike Sanders at quicksilver got back to me that the Mini-Mites have a damping factor of 5. My tube amps then see very little change in DF when using either
13.5awg or 22awg at 3ft (or 6ft total for one monoblock). The change is in voltage lost: .47 vs. .04
JC
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Turns out I have 22awg wire. By 6 feet max at 4ohms, does that mean to include the + & - runs? If you take a look at the TNT calculator I linked to , they make that stipulation. Furerthemonre, I have never seen any chart like the one here make such a caveat. So I can go to CC89259 speaker cable which has an effective 13.5 awg, lower resistance, but have a MUCH different DF.
Wire
Size2
ohm load4
ohm load6
ohm load8
ohm load22
AWG3
feet max6
feet max9
feet max12
feet max20
AWG5
feet max10
feet max15
feet max20
feet max18
AWG8
feet max16
feet max24
feet max32
feet max16
AWG12
feet max24
feet max36
feet max48
feet max14
AWG20
feet max40
feet max60
feet**80
feet**12
AWG30
feet max60
feet**90
feet**120
feet**10
AWG50
feet max100
feet**150
feet**200
feet** -
I have more reading to do on the three variables affecting speaker wire, but my main point here is that using wire gauge length vs. resistance charts one could arrive at using either large or small gauge depending on length. These kind of charts are commonly referenced as the only point, or variable, that needs to be considered.
Two schools of thought:
"There is some debate about which gauge of wire is optimal. The late Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg used 18 AWG (American Wire Gauge) in his personal system at The Triode Guild and mentioned that Dan D'Agostino of Krell preferred the heavier 16 gauge wire. (See Gizmo's article in Positive Feedback for more on this subject.)Allen Wright, author of The SuperCables CookBook,
is a vocal advocate of using the thinnest wire possible, such as 30 AWG
(or smaller) for interconnects and a thin ribbon of silver foil, 25 mm
wide x 0.05 mm thick, for speaker cables. Do the math and you'll find
that the latter actually translates into a cross section equivalent to
16 gauge, as well, albeit with a much larger surface area than round
wire."There is something very different going on with the speaker cables in terms of the value of DF. I'm curious how the amps and speakers one uses fit in when combined with high or low DF (due to speaker cable choice).
Jon
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I'm testing some speaker wire in my setup:
Quicksilver Mini-Mites 25w/channel
Klipsch RF-7 98db/1w
Solid silver cable 28awg 4feet which is total of + & - leg on one amp/speaker.
Using this calculator (www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/wirecalculator.xls) I'm getting very different damping factors when I
plugin in the above (with 4ohm & 3ohm speaker & amplifier
resistance) as compared to a smaller gauge wire e.g. 16awg. Damping
Factor works out to about 2 with 1db loss whereas the 16awg provides df
of 37 and loss of only .09db.
"Transistors vs Tubes:
In general, 'solid state' amplifiers (transistor amplifiers) tend
to have a higher damping factor than tube amplifiers. Transistor
amplifiers drive the speakers directly and may have a damping factor
greater than 200. Most tube amplifiers drive the speakers through a
large transformer which tends to lower the damping factor of the
amplifier. The damping factor of top notch tube amplifiers may be as
low as 20. Please understand that the lower DF is NOT an indication of
the quality of the amplifier or the sound quality that you will get
from it. Low DF amplifiers can sound really good, easily as good as
amps with higher DFs.The damping factor indicates the ability of an
amplifier to resist a change in it's output signal. If an amplifier has
a very low damping factor, the speaker load (or any load - like a
resistive dummy load) can cause the output to differ (possibly audibly)
from what it's intended to be. For virtually every amplifier made, the
damping factor is easily high enough to prevent audible changes in the
output signal. Some people say a DF (Damping Factor) of 200 is the
minimum acceptable DF. Others say it's 100. there are even those that
say a DF of 50 is OK. I've tried inserting a series resistor with
speakers and could hear no audible difference at a DF of 50. Around a
DF of ~25, I started to hear a difference with 'some' speakers. At
around a DF of 10, the difference was significant enough to be heard
with virtually every speaker. You may think it always sounded worse
with a low DF. Well, not always. Some speakers (mostly high frequency
speakers) actually started to sound a little better (probably from a
change in the frequency response which was due to its impedance curve).
Of course, some speakers sounded worse with the low DF. In virtually
all cases, the change in sound quality was a 'softer' sound. For very
low DFs, the punchy bass was significantly reduced but the bass sounded
smoother (which may or may not be a good thing - depending on your
taste in music). Now, I'm not saying that the 'smoother' or 'softer'
sound was better (because the change in sound IS a type of distortion).
I'm just trying to let you know how the sound changed with the low
(extremely low) damping factor. "
from http://www.bcae1.com/dampfact.htmI'm in the process of putting spades on my set of CC89259 and the above 4 foot runs of solid silver.
any thoughts on this?
Jon
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This is good:
www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/wirecalculator.xls
DC
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Hi all,
Final edits and decisions. I also have a stock Rega RB250 that I'm not going to use. Saw one on Ebay for 250$...is 160$ shipped to a fellow Klipscher a good deal? I not really familiar with these and there are none on Agon.
thanks
Jon
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-edited atop
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I'm getting ready to sell my analog setup:
VPI HW-19 Jr. turntable (satin black w/ standard platter)
Grado Sonata Reference 5mv (70-80hours)
JS Electrostatic linear tracking air bearing tonearm
Shure SFG-2 Precision Stylus Force Gauge
2+2 Carbon Fiber Record Brush
Plastic 45rpm adapter
Mint Cardas Frequency Sweep Test Record
One extra VPI drive belt (replaced by one current on table last year)
Cardas re-wire/phono pins
Cardas
RCA box (missing cover for one side where wire enters back of box: no
audible issue heard or seen on Wavelab RMS/peak meters)
Stock
feet on the table, stock platter, and motor. The JS tracks perfectly
with simple leveling of table and tonearm. VTA is adjustable with an
allen wrench and line level; once you get used to it, it's simple, and
stays put. Also included is about 15ft of medical hose, 2 pumps, a
ballast tank, and a large wood box if you want it (I have my pumps in a
closet 5ft away padded w/ a blanket and they are inaudible). The unit
also has a dust cover, and it's a bit marked up hence the 8 out of 10;
the table itself has ZERO blemishes.
I have checked the
alignment of the cartridge/arm with a calibration tool and it is spot
on. The arm was professional installed at a Hi-Fi store in Hawaii (by
previous owner). There is no "noise" from the air bearing coming out of
the speakers; the arm floats seemlessly from start to finish distortion
free. You can use the Cardas record to verify correct setup.
It's
simply a really fun unit because the tech is simple (yet so ingenious
and amazing) but you get hi-fi sound (e.g. ET-2 quality on the cheap).
The JS has an effective mass of about 5 grams. Results of HFN Test
Record resonance test with this Grado Sonata was 10hz vertical
resonance & 5hz lateral when used with the JS Electrostatics
tonearm (with small amount of damping .3g? foam in armtube), 10hz being
the one that matters, and it's right in the sweet spot!pics: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?anlgtabl&1210610302&view&1206415475
video: http://digitanalogue.blogspot.com/2008/02/re-birth-of-js-electrostatic-air.html
$900 SHIPPED.
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They are in the AC path, I don't pretend to know any more. People claim to hear differences in power cords in certain setups on certain devices.
Eletrically it should make no differerence which direction a fuse is inserted yet people claim to hear a difference. I wonder if they switch the fuses themselves or A/B/X them.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ymisc&1152917695&read&3&4&5
DC
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But they're directional too! Maybe you had them in the wrong way....LOL
I thought it would be worth trying; I've read enough comments to warrant that.
Touchy subjective area I know....looks like no one here is interested anyway.
Maybe I'll finally get Dean to mod my RF7 crossovers.
DC
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Parts Connexion offered me 15% off for 5 fuses; 2A & .5A slow-blow 5x20mm.
Maybe we could get a batch order going a save more...if anyone's interested.
I guess I'd take hold of the order and ship out the indivdual batches.
http://www.partsconnexion.com/Index/hi-fi_tuning.html
DC
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Thanks! I wasn't aware of that section...
Admin please delete this thread...
DC
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] 
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Windows Media Center 2005 - a few questions
in 2-Channel Home Audio
Posted
WMP will probably let you edit tags but it's not really designed for it. If your ripping discs, J. River will let you utilize FreeDB, Gracenote, and YADB meta-data databases to auto-tag (you can make modifications later). For existing files, you can submit them to YADB (J. River's own database) for analysis and retrieval of metadata. There is also a 3rd party plugin, Spartasoft Datamaster, which allows you to find even more esoteric metadata; I've used it to tag about 7K files with lyrics which can then be displayed with other info on some nice full screen track info displays. You can add your own tag fields with J. River as well. Try the free version, Media Jukebox, and try to use the retrieve info function for existing files: right click on one or many files>Library Tools>Retrive info from YADB.
DC