Toms Tech

Many filmmakers say that what’s on the screen is only half the movie, the other half is to be found in the soundtrack, carefully crafted by talented composers and musicians to elicit emotions of excitement, fear, sadness and joy in the viewer. Once of the major benefits of watching moves on DVD or hi-def formats is the availability of faithful reproductions of the multi-channel sound that can, when fed through a reasonable home system, sound even better than in many modern movie-theatres.

When most consumers go down to the store and pick up a big new flat screen plasma or LCD TV, they may think that they are all set and ready to go. In fact, the sound provided by even an expensive top-of-the-range TV is incredibly limited, providing little or no low-frequency response, producing only a flat, distorted version of the movies music, and generating little or no directionality. If they are good at anything, it is producing clear, audible dialogue, but that’s pretty much it.

Modern movie soundtracks contain so much more information; they contain multiple channels so the viewer perceives the sound to be coming from a particular direction, such as a plane flying overhead, or dialogue coming from left or the right. They also contain low-frequency information, to reproduce deep bone-shaking sounds such as explosions or rumbling engines. To be able to access and hear all this extra information you need a dedicated home theatre audio system.

The basic home theatre audio system consists of an amplifier and multi-channel speaker set. The job of the amplifier is to decode and then amplify the multiple audio tracks present on the disc. To do this, it needs to be connected to the DVD or Blu-Ray player by a data-cable. A fiber-optic digital audio cable (also known as a TOS-link cable) will be needed for DVD’s, but to decode next-generation hi-def audio will require a HDMI cable connection. The HDMI cable also carries the video stream, so most amplifiers will have a HDMI out socket, allowing the video information to continue on to the TV or projector.

In terms of power, a quality separate amplifier be marked somewhere in the 80-100 watt range, which is plenty for watching a movie in the average family home. Beware amplifiers that are built into DVD players, or into a speaker set, they are usually underpowered and will perform poorly. The most demanding audio signals to reproduce are the low-frequency type; so many speaker-sets will have “active” sub-woofers, which have small dedicated amplifiers built in.

Speakers for home-cinema can be purchased in packages of matched sets, or individually, allowing you to mix fronts from one manufacturer with rears from another. In general, purchasing a set of matched speakers is the best option for beginners and will produce a very good sound. Unlike regular stereo speakers, home cinema speaker-sets are generally split into dedicated low and mid/high frequency speakers, with the sub-woofer speaker handling the low-frequency sounds by itself. This works because it is very difficult to detect the direction of low-frequency sounds, so it does not matter where in the room the sub-woofer is placed. By contrast the direction of mid and high frequency sounds is easier to detect, so speaker-placement is key, with left/ right speakers best positioned level with the screen and widely spaced apart, the central speaker positioned directly beneath the screen, and the rear speakers positioned diagonally facing the viewer from behind. This setup is for a 5.1 speaker set, which is all that is really required for proper directionality, although 6.1 and 7.1 sets are available.

As we progress from dialup modems to high speed ADSL connections, the obsession with internet speed is matched only by the seemingly endless real need for more speed. At some point or other, most everyone has suspected that their internet connection may not be performing as well as it should be, and generally the first port of call to address such suspicions would be taking one of the many broadband speed tests that are widely available online.

How does it work?

Essentially, the workings of most broadband speed tests are exceedingly simple.  A file is downloaded from a server, and then, in some cases, uploaded, and the average speed for both downloading and uploading are measured individually. By such a calculation, both the download  and upload speed at the time of the test can be reported.

Is every broadband speed test accurate?

Just as with most any tests, there are certain circumstances that can result in either incorrect, or misleading, results. Some tests based in a certain country would not report accurate speeds for any other country, for example, as the distances and rerouting involved would automatically affect the download and upload rates, making it generally slower.

Furthermore, some applications that use the internet while the test is taking place could also affect the results. Such applications may even be running unnoticed in the background, i.e. instant messaging programs, windows update, and internet radio. Having a firewall running could even stop the broadband speed test from working entirely.

Not all connections run at constant speeds, and sometimes go through ’slow’ phases as well as ‘fast’ phases. For some reason it could simply be that at the time of the test, the connection was acting up and not performing as well as it normally would. Even bad network connections themselves can create the illusion of bad internet connections through erroneous results on the broadband speed test.

What to do about bad results?

Unfortunately, there isn’t much that a person can do about bad results when taking a speed test. Possibly one option would be to call up the broadband internet provider that was being used, and enquire with them as to the reasons for bad results. In most cases, there would be nothing that they could do directly however.

Also, if the results really are bad on a continuous basis and it was felt that the broadband internet was not worthwhile, it might be time to consider changing service providers. Don’t just jump blindly at the next service provider that you see , instead, carefully look up each one and talk to neighbours to find out more about what service provider is ideal for the area.

Despite not being entirely accurate, a broadband speed test is a good first indicator for problems with a person’s internet broadband service. By giving at least some idea of the speed which a given broadband line is running on, it can help along with the process of solving the problem.

Audio Bible study offers an easy to utilize method of spending time with God’s Word in the busiest of schedules. An added benefit of the audio Bible on CD is that it is flexible enough to be played back in a variety of different ways: from your home computer, or a personal CD player or DVD player. The audio Bible has now become widely available over the internet and can easily be be used in conjunction with digital technologies. One popular example is the MP3 Audio Bible which is increasingly popular with the general public. Your children can benefit from all of the digital expertise of audio Bible recordings. These recordings are brought to bear on the Word of God in order to share it with a multitude of people who, for many reasons, are not readers. Very young children, for example, are not at a stage in their development where they are able to read, and can thus benefit from being introduced to the Bible through listening to the children’s Bible in an audio format.

Children learn in predominantly one of three different ways: auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Auditory learners learn by hearing new information, while visual learners gain new knowledge by seeing it, and kinesthetic learners are hands-on types who learn by doing. If your child happens to favor the auditory learning style, then sharing the Bible with them in an audio format might be just what they need to make a vital connection to the wisdom found in God’s Word.

Audio children’s bibles share the best of the Bible’s stories from both the Old and New Testaments in a dramatized version, which includes spoken character voices, music and even sound effects, to bring the Bible to life for your child. It also utilizes a child-friendly version of the Bible, which stays true to the meaning of the Bible but utilizes language that a child can understand easily. Another added attraction to audio children’s Bible stories on CD or mp3 is that they also often include songs which are age-appropriate for children and fun to sing.

Podcasts of children’s Bible stories are also beginning to be available on line. What this means is that you can purchase a subscription to the online service, and then have access to a list of all the different podcast episodes available, so you can pick and choose the ones you would like to listen to. They also come in a regularly downloaded time schedule, so that you can add them to your mp3 player for your child to listen to when he or she is on the go. Mp3 digital audio files compress the entire New Testament into a single CD, so there are no bulky books to cart around or find storage space for. The digital audio quality is the highest available, and provides a rich and clear sound of the Bible stories being shared.