Give Your Home Audio Video To Make It More Perfect

You want to view the large games in the comfort of your home with pretty much as good a picture and sound set-up as possible. Now is the time to purchase a new 3D TV and surround sound system. Even if you cannot afford it, and for that matter even if you can, there are a couple of things it is possible to do to make sure you will obtain the utmost performance from any TV and surround sound system.

1. Positioning your TV

Your TV is probably sat where it is because that is where the nearest aerial socket is. A TV of some sort has probably been sat there since the late ’60′s. So, you are probably watching Television where you are because some bloke decided that is where he wanted it 50 years ago. Which is not necessarily the best location for it. The best position is one where you are most comfortable watching it – probably at eye level when seated, and where the lighting conditions are optimal. For instance, you don’t want direct sunlight or even just reflected sunlight on your screen. During the day time it will affect your viewing. Now, during the old days when your TV was the scale of a small car, it had been a smart idea to place it in the corner. But now a flat screen may be placed almost anywhere. So, if this means moving the aerial point or power socket then get the proverbial ‘man’ in, to take a look at it.

2. Your TV picture.

Most Televisions are set up by default with everything boosted to look brighter plus much more colourful. This is because if you go to look in your shop for a new TV it will seem like it is giving a better picture than the one next to it. We’re drawn to bright vivid colours. However, this isn’t necessarily the greatest and most realistic setting. Obviously, professional calibration is going to take equipment and money. But you can make some adjustments yourself to increase your viewing enjoyment.

a) Adjust the brightness and contrast in making the blacks blacker as well as the whites whiter.

b) Adjust the colour. Unless you are watching Katie Price and Alex Reid, not everyone on television is orange.

c) Adjust the image sharpness. Make the image as clear and crisp as possible. You’ll know if you’ve gone too far because borders and double edges will start to appear round the images. Should you need to tweak it some more, then I recommend purchasing Digital Video Essentials on DVD or Blu Ray. It is mostly a step-by-step guide to calibrate your LCD or plasma picture settings. Probably for that uber geek, but it is possible to pick the DVD up for around £12.

3. Cables

The purchase price of cable for AV setups is a joke. A great HDMI cable can cost £100. Crazy talk. But do they work? Well, I’m sorry to let you know, yes they do. A good cable can dramatically increase the performance of the TV and audio system. I wish it was not true but I actually performed this experiment myself last week. I had a vintage scart lead connecting my TV and DVD player. I knew that it wasn’t all that good, but I could just about live with it ( I am a little short sighted anyway). But, finding myself inside a well know electronics retailer store, I thought I’d buy a fancy cable and see just how much the image improved.

Don’t believe the hype I thought. I’ll take the lead back at those prices if I don’t get a good result. However, after plugging it in, it had been like someone had switched the lights on. An amazing, crisp, bright picture appeared before me. Damn I thought – that’s cost me!

A tip though. I do have a really nice 1080p Full HD LCD. There will not be any point spending numerous pounds on top quality cables if you have an inexpensive, rubbish Television you purchased from ASDA for next to nothing with 2 cut price DVDs. It’s not a magic wand.

4. Sound

Now we turn to sound. If you haven’t got a surround sound system, you’re not going to get that rich, deep, sound and the atmosphere of the stadium. So, you really should consider purchasing one. And I’m afraid yes, you usually get what you pay for. But even a £150 system will be better than your TV. And if space is an issue have a look at purchasing all-in-one speaker bars. They provide surround sound from a single box by bouncing the sound off the walls.

With traditional surround sound, the position of your speakers is key. You’ll get the best sound by placing the centre speaker directly above or below your TV. Left and right speakers should go either side of the TV. The rear left and right speakers should go either side of the sofa at ear height. If you’re not allowed to leave them there (like me, the wife won’t have it), just make sure you can move them when the big match starts. You can put your subwoofer anywhere you like, as it provides bass frequencies that are non-directional.

5. High Definition – are you really watching it?

Just because you’ve an HD ready or Full HD TV doesn’t mean that you’re automatically going to be watching TV in high definition. You’ll will want to add a high-definition source such as Freeview HD, Sky HD, Virgin V+ or Freesat. And that means you will need to either upgrade your package. Or in the case of Freeview, by an HD decoder. Remember only certain channels are broadcast in HD and you’ll will need to be tuned in to watch them.

That should about cover it. Follow this advice and watch the world cup at high quality in the comfort of your own home. While you might not get the atmosphere of the pub, at least you can guarantee a seat..

This doesn’t cover every ting involved when you are creating your own site, but hopefully I have given you an insight in to what is involved. There are plenty of ebooks and such stuff that you can find on the internet. I always go to a company called computer repair London. They don’t just repair computers, they also provide IT support as well and they are always helpful if you get stuck on anything.

The New BAMF Amplifiers by Power Acoustik has everyone’s mouth watering with anticipation. Just check out Power Acoustiks statement behind there amps stating, “You want have one seal left in your car to keep the water out! This is a (B)ad (A)__ (M)other (F)letcher” (power acoustic 2008 catalog). Wow, if that doesn’t make you want to go out and get one of these amps, nothing will.

All retailers are scrambling to fill orders for these amps and the distributers have yet to receive them. We called power Acoustik and the notified us that they would be arriving at the distributers door any day now. The BAMF amplifiers seem to be the perfect match for Power Acoustiks MOFO Series Subwoofers, “which are bad azz” to say the least. This class D, 1ohm stable, full mosfet amp is sure to prove durable. It has a sleek design with all of your inputs mounted to one side, making for easy accessibility and on the go tuning.

The BAMF amp comes in 2000, 4000, 5500 watts, the BAMF5500/1d runs at 3200 watts RMS at 1ohm. We can’t wait to see if this amplifier can back up all the talk Power Acosutik is putting behind it. We have some MOFO-12′s here just starving for power and we are going to run two of them on one of the BAMF 5500 amps (we’ll let you know what happens) the MOFO-12′s run at 1200 watts RMs and 2400 watts Max, so that should be a perfect match. In the car audio world, waiting for this amp is like waiting for the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, minus the long midnight lines at Game Stop. Stay tuned for more news and the latest on this amp.

By James A Bailey Jr

Music systems in cars are very essential to enjoy a good ride. Music tends to soothe your senses and make you smile and even motivate at times. Thus, if you do not have a music system in your car yet, it is time that you get one. It might cost you a little at the time of installation, but it is a good long term investment that will make your long rides memorable and enjoyable.

If you have not yet had an encounter with car stereos, then you will be having a hard time in the car shop deciding which car stereo to choose out of the numerous models on display. Nowadays car stereo manufacturers have started making compact systems with more functionality packed in a single unit. But it is often seen that such systems usually do not last long. Hence you must know your preferences while going to buy a music system for your car.

Here are a few things to be noted in general:

* The car music systems are usually made up of the following basic components: the main unit, amplifiers, speakers and sometimes additional subwoofers.

* The music system company will only sell you the components of the system. To get them installed in your car you will need to take it to a car technician who knows how to install the system in your car.

* To learn about the various car stereo systems available in the market, you can visit any car accessory shop or browse the internet carstereos4u.co.uk for the best deals in car music systems. IPod car kits are the in-trend car music systems.

* Basically there are three types of car audio systems – First the old tape cassette players which have become outdated now, second the CD/DVD players with multi-disc changer and thirdly the USB players and iPod car accessories. While in the CD players you will have to carry your discs along with you wherever you go, the USB players have an added advantage of reading music tracks directly from pen-drive and memory sticks which makes it simpler to use and carry. According to your ease of use, you can choose any one of them for your car.

* iPod car kits are very popular nowadays. They include an iPod dock player where your iPod needs to be mounted and then you can play your tracks directly from the player.

By Ima Johnson

Anyone who is a car audio fan or who has come by it in passing will know what a subwoofer is. Subwoofers are used to generate that intense and deep feeling of bass, which is normally out of the range of most average speakers. Subwoofers are used not only in car audio, but in home stereos too to give ultimate bass within a small area, such as a room or car.

Although subwoofers may seem simple enough, there are in fact not quite as simple as they seem. Over the years, they have been researched, tested and developed in order to get the best sound out of them as possible. However, like any product there are varying degrees of quality of subwoofers as well as types, which are suited to different requirements and situations.

The first company to introduce decent subwoofers was Acoustic Research (AR), who in 1954 introduced the AR-1W – a system that could extend its bass to 20hz without any help from equalization and was literally a woofer efficiently closed in an enclosure. The AR-1W was unsurpassed in design for years, and in fact is still very influential upon modern subwoofer design by its use of the acoustic suspension principle. The AR-1W was a compact subwoofer that could be easily fitted onto a bookshelf in pairs, unlike the monstrously sized enclosed loudspeakers which had been previously on the market.

Dr Harry Olsen was also a major contributor to the design of audio systems that we have today. In the 1930′s/40′s, he was the first to assert that speakers are in need of a back as well as a front, as otherwise sound waves from the back will interfere with the front ones. He also designed the passive radiator, which was design meant to be a substitute for the vent – a system that had a great number of faults at the time. The vent design needed a large duct in order to avoid wind noises, which often meant the duct was larger than the vent itself. Olsen, instead used a diaphragm with suspension whose mass was equal to that of the air column in the vent, thus it was much smaller and much more efficient than the other design.

Jensen’s James Novak, a highly gifted research engineer and mathematician, was to come up with the bass reflex design. Through his knowledge as a mathematician and experience as an engineer, he was able to create and synthesize ideas for what today is known as the closed, vented and passive speaker systems.

Although considered an essential component today, bass extension was still a relative luxury in the 1950′s and 1970′s. The film businesses were the main guys interested in bass extension, which was first used commercially for the 1977 big hit, Star Wars.

Of the last century, these master engineers and mathematicians have been probably the most influential on the excellent acoustics available in car audio systems and home stereos today.

By Marie Coles