2099547019@Uncensored

Ya we use to have that issue at the office all the time  with my system.  People were embedding OLE links, not actual images. "why didn't" "well, it wasn't an image, we don't support OLE objects, security reasons"  New system, is even more restrictive, you have to manually upload the image. Not saying its wrong, but it is an extra step, and it pisses people off.  They don't understand the ramifications if our system got hacked. Tho our illustrious management is looking at ways around it "people dont like it".  Glad ill be gone with it blows up in their face and we get a data breach...

Sun Nov 30 2025 16:39:41 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

You should make sure that what's on your clipboard is actually an image, and not a link to an image.  Sometimes the most reliable way is to take a screenshot and copy it to your clipboard.

You should make sure that what's on your clipboard is actually an image, and not a link to an image.  Sometimes the most reliable way is to take a screenshot and copy it to your clipboard.

My cut and paste above. 

2099545922@Uncensored

You could post inline images on my Citadel in a post. This thread made me want to post my reel to reel and turntables. 

It is easy. Ig doesn't like it. Too "Facebook". He is old school. I was progressive. I lost. You're on his BBS, not mine. ;) 

Sat Nov 15 2025 17:18:27 UTC from SouthernComputerGeek Subject: Re: LP records and reel to reel

This reminds me, It would be nice if there were a way to upload images to citadel (in a way that they are visible without clicking a download link) without pasting in base64 (base64 is slower).

 

I would agree that external links is a bad idea.

Perhaps something on the back end to convert to a 'lighter' image format during the DB commit, or even a regular job?  I was going to do something like that with my last incarnation of the village. Mainly to change to a standard size so we didn't have chaos and db bloat, but it could have done other cleanups too.

Sat Nov 15 2025 17:18:27 UTC from SouthernComputerGeek Subject: Re: LP records and reel to reel

This reminds me, It would be nice if there were a way to upload images to citadel (in a way that they are visible without clicking a download link) without pasting in base64 (base64 is slower).

 

This reminds me, It would be nice if there were a way to upload images to citadel (in a way that they are visible without clicking a download link) without pasting in base64 (base64 is slower).

Sat Nov 15 2025 15:42:52 UTC from Nurb432 Subject: Re: LP records and reel to reel

I just copy/paste.

Might be a 'right' way, but it works for me.

Sat Nov 15 2025 05:58:37 UTC from ParanoidDelusions Subject: Re: LP records and reel to reel

 

I don't remember how to post pics on Citadel. I tend to show up here after drinking too much. 

 

 

I just copy/paste.

Might be a 'right' way, but it works for me.

Sat Nov 15 2025 05:58:37 UTC from ParanoidDelusions Subject: Re: LP records and reel to reel

 

I don't remember how to post pics on Citadel. I tend to show up here after drinking too much. 

 

Mon Nov 03 2025 19:56:08 UTC from fandarel Subject: LP records and reel to reel

I should show you the LP record and 7" reel to reel collection
I've gathered since we last talked. I'll post pictures soon. 

I'm quickly approacing 1000 LPs at home. It has become a bit of an obsession.
If I can get the LP, I get that. If I can't get the LP, I'll settle for FLAC, or CD. Cassettes are an absolute no-go for me, I grew up in the 80s.
Why they came back I do not understand.

Reel to reel is of course a whole different thing. My Dad has a gorgeous Sony RTR deck in his garage that needs belts. My local audio repair shop won't touch them, but there are certainly people out there making good money repairing units from the 60s and 70s. I've never pushed because 1) I have no reels, 2) analog tape just doesn't thrill me. Maybe someday, but not until I get the Hallicrafters S-53A he gave me going again.

I don't remember how to post pics on Citadel. I tend to show up here after drinking too much. But I have an incredible analog collection of music and playback devices. I'm listening to records on an Audio-Technica direct drive with an red Ortofon cart/stylus. My red is on my Sansui deck in the living room. Not the ultimate in audiophile snobbery - but not dogshit, either. 

My 7" reel to reel is a Pioneer RT-707 I didn't realize was so special until I started pricing them - so I spent $200 refurbishing it and could still sell it for a profit, at least, at this moment right now. 


I'm not trying to "invest" in my retro purchases - I'm just trying to buy old shit for rock bottom prices - and I keep ending up making purchases that then break out into 3 or 4 times what I paid for them... but I'll never cash that in - because I'm not selling. I'm buying for the experience, not the value. I've got an Sears Intellivision I bought for $5.95 at a Goodwill in Bakersfield that now goes fo

When we lost my father, we moved my mother out of the house. It was far too much for her to keep up and with being 3 stories, we were too far away to be there enough for her safety.  So she moved in with my brother who had the most spare room.

But, when it came time to clean out the house and sell it, my brother got one of those truck mounted trash dumpsters.   Unfortunately he tossed a few things of dads i wanted to keep. To brother it was just 'more old junk'. 

One was his old fisher tube stereo we had since i was a kid.   I went in to get it and toss it in my car.. was gone, buried. :( 

Sat Nov 08 2025 16:49:29 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: LP records and reel to reel

  I hope he did, and that it wasn't discarded.  

By the time I went to look for my dad's reel-to-reel deck in the garage it was already gone.  I think my brother in law took it.  I hope he did, and that it wasn't discarded.  There's nothing quite like the look of spinning reels, whether it's a quarter inch tape playing audio or an IBM 3420 slinging bits.

I did give my 7" record collection to my brother in law (after my sister claimed they were hers, and I said no, they were mine, but you may have them) because he collects vinyl.  Honestly, it's a hobby I respect but one I don't have the time and space for.

you kids these days.

In MY DAY after we walked up hill.. 

2099543515@UncensoredI should show you the LP record and 7" reel to reel collection >I've gathered since we last talked. I'll post pictures soon.  I'm quickly approacing 1000 LPs at home. It has become a bit of an obsession. If I can get the LP, I get that. If I can't get the LP, I'll settle for FLAC, or CD. Cassettes are an absolute no-go for me, I grew up in the 80s. Why they came back I do not understand. Reel to reel is of course a whole different thing. My Dad has a gorgeous Sony RTR deck in his garage that needs belts. My local audio repair shop won't touch them, but there are certainly people out there making good money repairing units from the 60s and 70s. I've never pushed because 1) I have no reels, 2) analog tape just doesn't thrill me. Maybe someday, but not until I get the Hallicrafters S-53A he gave me going again. ]]>https://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=A%2FV%20Talk?start_reading_at=2099543252Sat, 01 Nov 2025 07:34:33 -00002099543252@Uncensored

Tue Jun 27 2023 20:05:48 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

That's always been the truth; nothing beats the fidelity of *good* analog, because sound *is* analog. Digital began to thrive in the 1980's because of the quality it could provide even on inexpensive equipment. Later on, the ability to produce perfect digital copies became both the biggest thorn in the pigopolists' feet, and the very thing that enabled on-demand distribution models. All other things being equal, though, I think the pigopolists would prefer to go back to the days of selling records and tapes for $20.

The truth, however, is that 99% of the people listening can't tell the difference.
The market for audiophile-grade equipment is dwarfed by the market for cheap bluetooth speakers attached to someone's phone or tablet. Most homes don't have a central hifi system anymore. Even my technologically impaired boomer parents who are almost 80 retired their rack a long time ago. I'll bet most people have better audio in their car than they do in their home.

I should show you the LP record and 7" reel to reel collection I've gathered since we last talked. I'll post pictures soon. 

test

Most e-ink supports note taking on documents. Especially the larger formats as they are marketed toward that. 

My uncle still uses midi keyboard ( Roland i think ), last time i was there he was complaining about being hard to find them now, which he needs for his external sound generators. Or just getting parts.

He is the one i mentioned a couple of years ago about trying to get to use e-ink instead of paper on stage.  ( but not LCD, i can see that not working well )

 checked this morning, no esp cameras left in the junk bin.

I guess i did keep a couple of lora-wan battery powered ones for metastatic. I should get those out and try again, see if there is any signal around here.   I played with that a few years ago, wasn't too impressed with range, and since no one else had one running around here.. into the bin they went.

is MIDI still a thing? 

Ran across a new MIDI product.. i thought everyone moved to USB.. 

For what its worth this is where i was getting most of my ESP stuff, including the ones with cameras -> https://shop.m5stack.com/collections/m5-cameras     i believe the last ones i got were the "camera -x" model. It also had a small battery onboard. 

They worked fine, no 'complaints' i just wanted a better image at one point.

Ill dig thru my box of stuff, if i didn't get rid of them ill send them your way.  ( but pretty sure they are gone.  i dumped most of my ESP since they were not being used and are soooo cheap to replace if i wanted to do something. Well other than a RISC-V one and one with a FPGA on board, 'just because' )

Right that is one idea i was suggesting, and what i started out with here. However be sure to watch the camera resolution. Many on those things are dismal.   Its why i went with ARM boards.. more camera options. ( and more chance of mis-match.. bleh.. )

And yes, you use the cable for programming/power. WiFi used afterward to either present a local web server, or talk to something like home-assistant. 

Wed Aug 28 2024 17:47:51 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Hmm ... apparently there is something called an ESP32-CAM that has an ESP32 chip an includes the camera that plugs into its camera input header, and they sell for less than USD$10 each. Some of them appear to include a backpack board of some sort that adds a "micro usb to serial" function.

Would I be correct in assuming that the latter is only needed for programming it, and/or if you want to continue powering the device with a USB supply?
I only know Arduino and haven't played with ESP32. I know that ESP32's claim to fame is that it has a built in wifi connection. Is it a safe guess that this type of board has enough guts to run an IP stack and talk back to a locally hosted DVR?

sigh PI = RPI..   auto correct.   

Or i guess even a PI or something..  But watch what you get. I had a couple of older ESPs doing it, decided to get a better video device and i got a HD camera for a PI and an extra Orange PI 3B.   ( OPI is much better and cheaper ) but many of the PI cameras are hardware locked to PI boards.. so it was a door stop.

Idea was to shove it in a PVC pipe for water proofing and making room for a decent battery.  And the OPI had m.2 storage to put the stuff on and could access that remotely instead of using 'home assist' or something, which was part of the plan on me moving away from ESP, storage.

Might consider building your own cameras out of ESP32s.  And using home assistant to control them.

I cant do the kind of buds that go IN the ear.  Only the ones that sort of sit on the inside of the earlobe. Like what came with the original ipods. But, even that is limited time.   Real headphones, if they touch my ears, it gives me a migraine in no time. If they are HUGE and dont touch the ears, then i can last longer..  Been like that my entire life. 

Conference calls, are a literal pain for me. One main downside of everything being 'remote' now.   ( another is when i teach class. its just not the same when i cant see people expressions, or walk around the room and interact with them and their screen and point.. )

I tried those vibration things once at the office, but that was right before we lost our cube walls and they dont work well with a lot of 'background noise' so never did find out if it reduced pain. ( lost them soon after ). Tho now, i sort of do that with the little headset i have now. I put the speakers on my cheeks, just off the ear and turn them up.  I can last a bit longer before i want to die. 

Wanted to build a "nerurophone" since the 80s.   it uses electrical signals instead of actual audio waves or vibrations . wont be stereo or at the same quality level, but it wont hurt my head at least.  You can buy them these days i guess, but they are like 700 bucks... 

Yes. Here.. but 99% of the world: Clueless.

Tue Jun 27 2023 04:05:48 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

 Most people here are tech savvy enough to know how to keep backups, and to avoid trusting clown services to retain your data long term. Follow the 3-2-1 rule of backups and you'll be fine.

While i'm not an audiophile. ( i dont even play one on TV ). I will agree that analog IS better, if done correctly.

However. Unless you have a 10k laser turntable, every time you listen to vinyl, the sound is degraded a little more, and after a couple of years, even i can hear the difference. Its also hard to carry around your 45's to listen to in the car ( yes, that did exist in the 50s, comically.. ) and to be honest, in daily life you wont ever know the difference in decent digitized formats ( car, ear buds, etc ) . Plus you have the fact that most of the so-called turntables these days are digital inside.. so sort of defeats the entire concept. And ( tho i bet IG will disagree here.. ) If you dont watch your amp and get a class D as many are these days ( cheaper to produce and smaller ), its also fundamentally non-analog at its core. Always has been.

Back to me:  The reason i want physical CD ( and DVDs since laser disks are a distant memory ) is i want to own the object. Not just 'rent' use of the content on it.  Even if you think you bought the 'stream', dont forget what happened when Microsoft got out of the business.  Can happen to anyone and then you are stuck. Even if i wanted to get back into digitizing vinyl for daily use ( used to record to tape for daily use before CD-Rs and then solid state ), not every band makes them, and many who do, its hard to get them, but CDs are still there. ( especially with indi bands like i listen to )

I used to be the same with books, however due to size and being more practical for use i went to files only once e-ink was viable ( LCD books, no ). However, NO DRM.. my file. mine.

Fri Jun 23 2023 10:24:07 PM EDT from test2

audio cd's are dead. amazing 50 year run. 8 track tape lasted 13 years. cassette tape lasted 30 ish years. albums live forever.

audio cd's are dead. amazing 50 year run. 8 track tape lasted 13 years. cassette tape lasted 30 ish years. albums live forever.

Rant:  Today's crop of music pirates.

Not that they do it, but they need to freaking learn the naming conventions setup by the pirates who preceded them . AND use correct tags ( hell tags at all sometimes.. ).. Takes forever to fix their stupidity. 

( and related, why the hell cant i buy a CD but can a download .. i want the CD..  )

They still do what they were made for, high quality digital music.

Tue Jun 20 2023 02:51:52 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

I've never had a minidisc machine. What are they good for today, compared to storing everything on a computer?

I used to be but like many flash memory won the day.. more space, not sensitive to vibration.

Tue Jun 20 2023 12:18:55 PM EDT from fandarel

Anybody else still into minidisc? 

class D is the switching modulator, right?  ( too lazy to look )

Trades analog quality for smaller amp size but with same output, from what i remember.... 

On-ear and bone-conduction sets are interesting, and can be useful, but only for casual use.  If you're listening to a podcast it's fine.  If you're on stage singing or playing an instrument you need full fidelity sound and you usually need ambient sound mostly blocked out. 

Over at the church where I play in the worship band, we have little wireless packs for each musician so we can each get a custom mix.  It's controlled from an iPad on your music stand, which looks like this:

Anyway, when you're doing this kind of work you really need to be able to hear the full range of your voice or instrument, which for me right now is a Roland Juno-DS76 synth.  If my earphones don't cover the full frequency range without bias, I'm going to compensate for what I don't hear by playing those ranges and sounds louder.  That isn't what we want.

These little Behringer monitors are pretty good.  They are dual driver monitors, which means they have both a dynamic driver and a balanced armature driver, with a crossover, just like you'd build a speaker.  There are monitors that have up to eight drivers (and somehow still manage to fit in your outer ear) but they get up into the thousands of dollars.

Ironically i still have a pair of wired earbuds from an iphone i got at work 15+ years ago.   Phone was long since turned back in but kept the buds ( kept the phone about 2 months.. " take this POS back" ). And a set of BLueTooth ticpods. ( just listening to music, BT delay dont matter and i dont need audiophile while im out walking around during lunch .. )

I have to use the 'sit on edge ear' style, as if they go in the canal, migraine in 3...2...1...    Cant wrap around the ear for support either, like yours.  Tried that too, fail.

Same for any headphones that touch the ear..  nearly instant pain. Even the HUGE ones ( that you cant get now ) that sat on your head instead, would give me a headache, just not as fast.

Tried that 'neck sock vibrating thingie' back in the 80s, was neat.. didnt hurt, but terrible sound.    Now they have them that fit on your head, and are usable for most, but same problem for me, after a while the pressure gives me a headache. But not as fast as stuff touching my ears directly.

Always wanted to build a bone phone, from Pat Flanagan ( back before he went all pyramid conspiracy on us ).  its 100% electrical, no actual audio waves or anything on your head. But wont do stereo so never got around to doing it.

I've been needing a decent set of in-ear monitors to use for both stage and studio work.  I just couldn't get myself to splurge for the super-premium ones where you send away pieces of clay molded to your ears; those are hundreds of dollars and I have no desire to spend that kind of money.  After my beloved old Audio-Technica monitors stopped working after years of abuse, I eventually tried a set of "ruggedized" earphones intended for use on job sites, but the bass response was so terrible that I just gave them to my daughter who breaks earphones on a regular basis.  

But I'm still pretty frugal, and when I found the Behringer MO240 in-ear monitors on sale for about $40 at Sweetwater (and also at the Beast of Seattle but I try to avoid them) I figured it was worth a shot, I'd probably be disappointed, but I was not disappointed!  They have a really comfortable fit, over-ear hooks, dual hybrid drivers, and a nice even frequency response across all bands.  I saw another reviewer claim that the bass was weak, but I did not find that to be the case.

Bill Gates Must Die" which is my go-to audio test because of its good use of stereo separation, diverse frequency range in the instrumentation, and clean track separation.  It did not disappoint.  I was able to pick up nuances in this fine piece of music that I had not noticed before even on the big monitors in my studio room.

My next test was to plug them into my Roland Juno-DS 76 synthesizer.  I selected an 80's sawtooth patch and played through the synth part to Rush's classic anthem "Subdivisions" on the keys.  Good, clean, even response was heard across the keyboard's entire frequency range.   After trying a few other parts on piano, organ, pads, and other sounds, I was equally impressed.

This is a good set of in-ear monitors at a budget price.  Highly recommended.

They didnt do much for the motor or belts tho. Just the heads and rollers.

Thu Jun 09 2022 05:21:20 PM EDT from LoanShark

BITD, you used to be able to buy a "cleaning cassette", probably from Radio Shack. Came with a little bottle of fluid and the drive holes turned a little scrubber thing.

Guess I just use an old computer again.

100% would do again, with bells on.  It's (a) cheap - or it was, (b) integrates with your phone and Spotify, (c) attaches to WiFi, (d) digital output over spdif is solid.  The experience to play something is - open Spotify on phone, push the device selector on the lower left and select, turn on my amp, rock out to whatever.  Then, know everything streamed is the highest quality Spotify stuff, no replay gain/digital compression, no stupid digital volume stuff going on, I can just turn off the details and listen.

It would be hard for me to consider something else.  When I was considering a cheap something to connect to my amp, Squeezebox came to mind.  Turns out, Spotify has disabled the services they use, so I guess they don't work now or ever will again. 

If I wanted to upgrade to something better for a Networked player, it would be something like the Cambridge Audio CXN. And that might still be in my future, how nice the CA stuff I have is, but not in the next few months or year or two.  Or a whole computer with a solid SPDIF output, which is surprisingly hard to score.  Either of those things are far more expensive and more complicated than the Chromecast.

Unfortunately I'm past the point where I'd use anything connected to Google, regardless of how used, disconnected or rooted it claims to be.

A Chromecast audio!  They aren't sold anymore, I had to buy mine from from Fleabay.  100% worth it, works well plugged into my gear.

I can still do that, but I'm mostly past the homebrew tinkering phase and just want something to work, and I'm a little surprised it hasn't reached the point of say e-juice vapes where you can get a nice simple model for 25 bucks.

A Playstation 3? 

What's the cheapest and easiest thing that can plug into an existing stereo setup and play digital music from over the network? You'd think it would be a commodity by now.

Yes. That is exactly what is missing. 

Car speakers are about to disappear,

Car tech supplier Continental has a pending technology that will create speakers out of other interior parts. It retains the moving electromagnetic coil part of today's speaker but uses it to vibrate some existing part of the car's interior instead of a dedicated speaker cone. A door panel or other interior trim could do... 

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/the-best-car-speakers-may-soon-be-invisible/

In the 80s Stereo Review magazine had ads about using your wall as a speaker.  From what I understand the sound was horrible.  Now that everything is compressed it sounds horrible so it wont matter.

I know no one replied to the last two messages, but I'm still very happy with this little amplifier.  If you have an old set of speakers lying around that you might like to turn into a set of Bluetooth speakers, I am highly recommending it.

[ http://tinyurl.com/y8e849fl ] that's the eBay link.

Here they are, working beautifully.

This pair of Minimus-7 speakers came from Radio Shack, back in the 20th Century when they not only were still in business but actually sold stuff you might want to buy.  The 7's were very popular as extension speakers, which is how this pair was used in its previous life.  They pack a pretty big sound and now seem to have a bit of a cult following on teh internets.  My original plan was to convert them to a set of Bluetooth speakers using the TDA7492p board (also quite popular), but then I found the cute acrylic case that shows off the electronics.

These will be going up on a shelf I'm planning to put over my desk.

I know visualization "breaks the rules", but it's awfully hard to ignore a walkie talkie on someone's head!

Wireless audio devices that come with a "base" have a longer range because the radio uses DECT, not Bluetooth.  It's the same technology used in cordless landline phones.

Wed Jul 05 2017 10:15:32 PM EDT from wizard of aahz @ Uncensored

I switched to Sennheiser wireless https://en-us.sennheiser.com/phone-headset-wireless-call-center-headset-dw-pro-2


Picked up the desk phone/softphone configuration.

The battery makes it through a full day. I can go down the block 3 or 4 houses and still keep the conversation. Great for walking the dog or just getting the fook out of the house when I need it. And they are very comfortable. The number of headsets I tried before the bose, where by end of day my ears would be hurting and I'd just be uncomfortable. T he last two have been great winners. Clients have been happy with the sound too. And most importantly.. It's just damn solid connectivity. It never has problems I've had it for about 6 months and it's perfect.

Wait, Aahz, you can go down the block by 3 or 4 *houses* with your Sennheiser??

Damn....No, my Bose definitely could not do that.....

Agree with Both IG and Aahz on this one.  Sennheiser is awesome sound-wise.  More expensive even than the Bose tho....and my personal opinion is that the Bose is a bit more comfortable and has better noise isolation (filtering out noise that others hear; cancellation, which is noise you hear, both are great at).  Bose also has ear plug versions meant for the phone....but the jury seems to be out on those yet.....

Naah, I like cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizza way too much to be a Merzbow fan.  Besides, if I want to listen to static I'll just turn the radio to some random frequency.

Art of Yorktown Heights.

I was wondering if Art was going to notice the book "Art of the Deal" 

Yes, I mean just pretend not to track mode,

How to stop Vizio TVs from tracking you.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/disable-vizio-smart-tv-spying/ 

Hello Kitty AND a skull!

WebCit isn't displaying that. Trying again...

Finally got those surround rears a couple weeks ago. To keep the decision simple, they exactly manage the fronts - photo attached. (You can tell that two people live here...)

It would be a little more complicated and messy to put them on either side, so up there they remain. I seem to hear them a little more strongly if I slide the chair a couple feet forward.

For what purpose? Surveillance?

I have this in place at a clients site: http://www.abus.com/us/Security-at-Home/Video-Surveillance/Surveillance-cameras/WLAN-network-cameras/WLAN-outdoor-cameras/Wi-Fi-enabled-Outdoor-Camera-App

It uses The Cloud™, can also be attached to LAN (iirc, there is an adapter in the box and I am rather sure it was to replace WIFI. I can check if you like), and can only be viewed by android/ios app. Which enables you to access the cam from wherever you have internet. But it also takes a 32gb sdcard and records when it detects movement, it auto-deletes old footage.

ABUS also offers IP cams that show up in windows as network cams and they offer a nice software for that. Not sure if it works on OSX.

Both approaches can be upgraded to up to 8 cams. Or rather, the app and the stand alone software take 8 cams at max.

They are between 120-180€, iirc. Were you thinking something more cost effective?

Get an Apple TV 3, hook it up with hdmi to the beamer, attach LAN cable, deactivate WIFI in the apple TV and all is golden.

Apple TV does what Intel's WiDi and/or miracast do, for the apple universe of things. We have one attached to the A/V receiver in ghe living room, it is really nice.

win what?

with mobile security you may end up somebody streaming youporn via their mobile to your beamer for everyone to enjoy ;-)

since most modern androids know how to miracast ;-)

however, it seems to be complicated to implement:

https://dvdhrm.wordpress.com/tag/miracast/

some tvs offer miracast servers or different technologies. so, wlan...

CHOIR???!   I thought those singing voices were angels !

that can handle more pressure.

Regarding digital, we did cover that, and Vince agreed; any money spent on digital cables beyond paying for sufficient quality to get an error-free connection is wasted.

So we are really just talking about speaker cables here.

Wire gauge is obviously important.  Too small a wire adds resistance; too large a wire adds capacitance.  That either one of those would have a negative impact on the overall sound is obvious.

That's why I'm interested in understanding the science behind premium speaker cables.  Even if I tested them myself and found them to be subjectively better sounding, I would still want to know why.

there are several.

There is something called the 'skin effect' which makes higher frequencies only use the outer side of the wire.

Therefore (not just for flexibility) cables are made of many thin lines.

You may also have differences in the material itself, cheap ones may have cheap aloy or iron cores that are galvanized with copper for a nicer look.

There also may be differences in which way the lines are woven into each other, and last but not least the way plugs are crimped / connected on.

My primary TV is hooked up through a receiver. Blu-Ray, STB, CD player, game console...all go through the receiver (HDMI in for all video signals, optical connection from the CD player) and out through wired front speakers, wireless set up for rear speakers.

My experience with bluetooth speakers/headsets is that there's still too much of a delay between video and audio to make them truly viable as an A/V solution at this time.

but how does that compare, if you have high quality analog cables, and the digital ones inbetween look like china plastic?

Got my onkyo from 2001 still running.

Elac front & center, canton dipol rear. It was the time before you could purchase affordable 7:n ;-)

Dreambox sat receiver, a wii, and a pi attached to the logitech media server; all hooked up via s/p diff to the onkyo.

Banana plugs for all speaker cables - thats the problem with yamaha amps, they've got some where only the main front speakers have good connectors, all the other got shitty mini clamp connectors.

The LMS runs on the cubie board powered by an Allwinner A10. Also got a Squeezebox radio as alarm clock.

the 42" sammy replaced the noisy and meanwhile broken Dell-beamer in this setup.

You still got that rack thingabobs if you want to run your own cinema with DTS and n+1 speakers.

However, yes, the traditional boom box with radio could be considered dead.

We recently ordered three ViewSonic Pro 9000 projectors for a driving simulator. They are used in a totally dark room and replaced our Canon XS 6000 Projectors.

The main reason for replacement was cost efficiency, the lamps for the Canon where around 300€, even if you use non-Canon replacements. The uptime of those projectors was so high, we needed them fairly regularly.

The ViewSonic does not need a lamp, it uses some LED stuff combined with a laser for the green color. (The laser part sounds so cool, it could be the main reason you want to buy one.) It has 3 years of warranty (her in Germany) and the expected lifetime of the LED/Laser is around 10k hours.

This has the benefit of being rather low on power hunger (all three projectors now consume as much power together as one of the old ones) and a reduced noise level. Less heat, slower spinning fans. The Game-mode is even less noisy than normal use. It has all the 1080p nonsense, but no 3D support.

The image quality is astonishing, reaction time is fast as lightning. It is crisp, clear and a joy to use. The Canons were around 5k$ when they were released, they never looked as good and made one hell of a noise.

Yes, if we want "theater dark" we'll turn the lights off.  :/

The rest of the time we're going to use it for video games.  I'm hoping to find a Nintendo title that has Princess Peach and Princess Daisy beating the crap out of Anita Sarkeesian, but the violent games tend to be on Xbox, and I will not buy Microsoft products...

So the projector I've got my eye on right now is an Epson PowerLite home Cinema 2000.  It's a mid-tier projector with native 1080p resolution and 1800 lumens.  Seems like it's right about on the part of the price/quality curve that I want to be (not crap but not breaking the bank either).  Full 1920x1080 is of course a requirement.  I was planning on a ceiling mount but now I'm also considering building a box on the opposite wall.

Sun Dec 15 2013 18:12:44 EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

From what I can tell by reading, the component cables bring you to 480p instead of 480i, but you don't get any additional resolution. (Yes I know component renders the same resolution better)

The benefit is less flickering. When running through the game horizontally in Animal Crossing, I got an amount of flicker that was just not bearable. You could see the upper and lower part of the image updating separately. I guess Mad World and Blob or other fast moving games would be unplayable without tremendous amount of headache. Could just have been due to crappyness of my TV set, though. 

Gotta stick with what I've got for now. It turns out this TV only has one set of non-HDMI inputs for composite "or" component, so I'm sticking with the composite switcher built into my home theater amp for the time being.

That sucks. It also sucks that you have to switch out all cables and amps, etc, after buying a new TV. Been there myself, ranted here about that more than once. Falling in love with a Marantz SR 8005, but I first need to get a new satellite receiver, ours is crappy. 

Same here, maybe 1,5 years now. We were "forced" to accept a flatscreen as a gift. Next move is to replace all your analog input devices because the picture will suck big time compared to hdmi... still need my non-hdmi dvd player because it is region-free, the bluray player only plays regional dvds. :(

I am also still not willing to replace my pre-hdmi av receiver, though. I would want to upgrade the price class, meaning I would have to update the speakers and buy an active subwoofer... all the time hoping that my son does not want to suddenly "repair" the speakers with some sharp object. Sir, no, sir!

BTW, IG, you want to use component cable for the Wii, but I guess in america you are already using that. Picture was still better with RGB/Scart cable on the analog bulky old tv set. But for some reason, the RGB version is only interlaced, which gives significant flicker on games like Animal Crossing.

well, you missed all those cheapo hdready at uber expensive kilo dollar ranges that way.

the most recent logitech squeezebox server can do DLNA; however its focused on audio, so mp3's will most probably work, while movies may not ;-) YMMV

Try http://minidlna.sourceforge.net/ Seems rather lightweight and is very easy to set up.

I tried it on an LG bluray player only, most movies work fine. Sometimes a movie does not run, but these are sometimes old and odd avi containers which had issues on real PCs too.

Audio is odd, I can browse all my soundfiles by category, title, etc, but no music plays, ever... I do not care much since it is broadcasted via mpd and mt-daapd too, so most of the time, one of my devices plays what I want.