Monster Community - Latest Articles

How To Calibrate Your Surround Sytem Using an SPL Meter

Matt Whitlock — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:03:40 GMT

In movie theaters and professional studios, audio systems are calibrated using sophisticated measuring equipment to make sure the sound is being replicated in a precise manner. One of the calibrations they do involves balancing the volume output of every channel in the system. Today's home theater receivers give you one of the tools necessary to do the same for your home theater system. What you need: A home theater receiver with a pink noise (or test tone) generator. An SPL (sound pressure level) meter. Why is SPL calibration important? Recorded sound material is mixed to certain standards. During the mastering process, a Sound Engineer adjusts the sound level of every sound that goes into the recording. When played back on a home audio system, the sound pressure levels of those same sounds will vary from how they were heard by the Sound Engineer due to many factors. For example: A Sound Engineer may sit at a distance of 5 feet from each speaker during recording. The studio audio system is setup to make sure that the volume level of each channel is the same for every speaker at the position of the Sound Engineer. In your living room, you may...

What Resolution is Good For an LCD Monitor?

Matt Whitlock — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:32:44 GMT

I'm often asked what resolution is "best" when shopping for a new computer monitor or notebook. Notebooks have always been LCD based, and today the desktop market is almost entirely LCD. In days yore desktops were graced by the bulky (but more resolution flexible) CRT monitor, where resolution wasn't fixed and was easily adjusted by a few clicks fo the mouse. LCD monitors are called "fixed-pixel displays," which means the resolution of the panel is determined at the factory, not actually by a setting on your computer. The hard part is determining what resolution is right for you, not really good and bad since resolution alone means different things for different applications. Resolution simply defined, is how much detail a display is capable of showing you. In the computer world, higher resolutions will yield more desktop space, and better detail for games. On TVs, the higher the resolution, the more detail your TV images will show. However, deciding if it's good or bad takes a little bit more of an explanation. Computer LCDs 800x600 isn't a bad resolution for a computer screen, depending on what you're doing. If you're just going to do a bit of web surfing, many sites...

Finding Your "Sweet Spot:" Which Speaker Configuration Is Right for You?

Matt Whitlock — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:30:38 GMT

There are many different types of surround sound systems - 5.1, 6.1, & 7.1 configurations as well as other products that only use one or two speakers. So many configurations make it difficult to determine the right number of speakers a surround sound system should have to give you a rewarding surround experience. The Facts about Surround Sound There are many products that claim surround sound performance out of one or two speakers. Though some of these systems do a reasonable job of fooling listeners, do not consider any of them as surround sound systems. In order to be a surround sound system, you need to have sound coming from behind or the side of the listener. Single or two speaker systems can use certain techniques to simulate the surround experience, but the results can vary widely based on certain factors, such as room shape and acoustics. For this reason, these systems are often referred to as simulated surround systems. It can be compared to simulated driving in an arcade machine versus hopping into a real car and driving on the expressway. The simulated experience just isn't the same as the real thing. The remaining options are actual surround sound...

Unlocking the Mystery of DVD Audio Playback Formats - How to Make the Right Choice

Matt Whitlock — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:08:31 GMT

There are many who've spent thousands on a killer digital surround sound system to achieve the ultimate cinematic experience in the comfort of their living room. Yet, one of the most important steps to getting the best sound quality possible is so often overlooked, and it can make the difference between night and day when it comes to audio. The DVD format is capable of holding several audio soundtracks at once, which is beneficial for the various kinds of home theater setups in the marketplace. While Dolby Digital and DTS capable receivers have become common in home theater setups, there are still several Dolby Pro-Logic receivers in service. Even worse, there are still those that forego surround sound and stick with good old TV sound. This is important to know because not all sound formats are optimized for your playback hardware. For those DVDs that carry multiple audio streams, bypassing any audio selection puts you at the whim of whatever the disc default is... and the default is sometimes good ol' 2-channel stereo. When a DVD is first loaded, a menu screen will usually appear. What the screen looks like will be themed to fit the movie. Some menu's use...

Tips to "Protect" Yourself Against a Locked Up Receiver

Matt Whitlock — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:27:25 GMT

Getting ready to fire up your favorite CD or DVD, only to have your receiver continually shut itself off for no reason other than "Protect"? What is it protecting? Why does it continue to turn itself off? Receivers can go into a protect mode for a varity of reasons, but here is the quick skinny on how to diagnose which of the common reasons your receiver is protecting itself: The most likely is that the positive and negative wires on one of the speaker lines are touching. This causes a short, and the receiver will turn off to protect the amplifier from blowing up. This commonly happens when your receiver or speakers uses five-way binding posts like those shown in the image. Verify that the positive and negative wires aren't touching at the back of the receiver and all speakers. It is possible that one of the speakers is blown. Try disconnecting one at a time until the receiver no longer turns off. If one speaker is the problem, it is either blown or there is a problem with the wire connecting it. If you have more than one pair of speakers connected to a single output at the same...

Don't Miss These TV Tuning Tips... And Get The Most From Your Picture

Matt Whitlock — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:24:59 GMT

Why adjust my TV? Have you ever adjusted the picture controls on your TV? If you haven't, then you need to know that their current settings are most likely NOT intended for home use. In fact, most TVs are usually setup for viewing on a showroom floor when shoppers are looking for the brightest set that money can buy. Manufacturers have to assume that every TV leaving their factory has an equal chance of ending up on a sales floor. If the TVs were properly setup, they would look dull and muted compared to the inflated settings of other TVs. Advanced TV users know that showroom settings do not provide captivating images, with proper color and depth. One big problem with TVs that are too bright is that they can be damaging to your eyes if viewed at night. If you often find it fatiguing to watch television at night or often get headaches when doing so, then your television is too bright. Proper calibration should reduce or eliminate these conditions. If you sit a good distance from a smaller display you may want to consider adding a backlight behind your TV. The human eye does not adjust for the...

Where's the Woof? Finding The Best Place For Your Bass

Matt Whitlock — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:05:03 GMT

A surround sound system can be one of the biggest upgrades to your home video and audio experience, but can also be very challenging to setup properly. Specifically, in order to get the most enjoyable audio experience from your home theater, your speakers should be placed in the room appropriately. Most home theater systems are usually comprised of six to eight speakers. In most cases, one of these speakers is a subwoofer ('sub' for short), which is a dedicated speaker for producing low frequency effects. A subwoofer is usually a large box that sits on the floor somewhere in the listening space. Many choose to put it in a corner, others behind a chair, and some put it next to their sofa (so they can "feel" the bass). Although it can be placed anywhere in the listening space, there are some guidelines to consider when choosing the best location of a subwoofer. Examining The Room All rooms have different acoustic characteristics, which means that there is no "rule of thumb" for proper sub placement. Since bass frequencies below 80hz are considered to be omni-directional (meaning that bass below 80hz should sound as if it is coming from everywhere), room shape...

Clear Up Your Confusion - The "Need-to-Know" on 1080P

Matt Whitlock — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:02:25 GMT

Excerpt from the TechLore article " What Does 1080p Do For Me?" The ATSC standard allows for two entirely different resolutions to be considered "high-definition". One of these resolutions is the 720p format, which as an actual resolution of 720x1280 in a progressive format. Progressive means that each field contains a complete picture. The 1080i format has an actual resolution of 1080x1920 (over two times the image density), in an interlaced format. Interlaced means that each complete frame is divided between two fields, one with all the odd numbered lines (line 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.) and the other with all the even (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.). When played back at 60 cycles per second, it looks like a complete 1080x1920 picture. To keep it simple, nearly all past generation fixed pixel product has a native resolution at or near 720p. This means that any resolution less than 720x1280 won't take up the entire screen, so these images must be digitally processed so they fit a 720x1280 space. Processing signals up sometimes adds digital artifacts and other picture anomalies. The same is true for images of higher resolution, except going down reduces the image density of the picture. Simply...