Showing posts with label downloads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downloads. Show all posts

Monday, 1 March 2010


Shiny Discs


Part of the pleasure of 12" BVDs - Black Vinyl Discs - is the scale of the artwork. CDs never really could compete in this aspect of the pleasure of owning a minor work of art in a gatefold. I mean, have you ever tried to read some of the tiny print in a CD booklet?

I suspect that single attribute is a significant element in the resurgence of the LP as a music source.

However, now even the CD is becoming obsolete, hobbled by being tied to a bitrate which seemed adequate 30 years ago but is showing its age.

Part of the advantage of moving over to a network music server and the falling cost of HDD space is that music file sizes can now be huge, much larger and of much greater definition than a CD.

More and more, this type of music delivery is being made available online although too many virtual music stores will only deliver .mp3 instead of uncompressed .wav and .flac files.

But some stores are starting to make these truly hifi files available. It also means it's possible to find music which rarely, or never, finds its way over the pond in either direction

The only thing is, I just wish they'd include the album art with the download. And it would be nice to have some sort of saving over the hard copy/artifact version. Oh well ...

Sunday, 6 April 2008

Stuff 05 : Sansa®TakeTV™ video player

I have had one of these devices for a few months now, and I have to say it's one of the best things since sliced bread, particularly if you download UK - or any other, of course - tv shows and would like to watch them on the big screen rather than hunched over your computer.

The Sansa®TakeTV™ video player enables you to copy video media files from your computer, via its USB port and then play them back through your tv.

The system consists of three parts; 8Gb USB memory card, remote and tv docking station, plus connecting cables and power supply. Output is only NTSC, at least in the US version.

There are short-comings. The unit will only play .avi files and certain .divx flavours, but it's still a kick to watch the latest Dr Who a couple of hours after its UK broadcast as I did last evening. The video quality is as good as the original file. HD downloads look very good indeed.

If you want to watch your downloads on tv then I can recommend the TakeTV.

* I should add, I have no connection with the manufacturers or retailers other than as a satisfied customer.


*See my hifi / media index here.



© 2010 Alan E Hill