So I get an email about an article in the Times about surround sound. Eric Taub, I’m sure, is a very intelligent man who is just trying to educate the masses about the importance of surround sound. For that, I thank you. I do, however, have a few comments about your article… Read more…

A special thanks to all our listeners that have made this possible. I just came across a post on Podcast Alley featuring the top tech podcasts. It was also linked up in their newsletter. We were rated #2 just after the HD Guys (and congrats to them as well). None of this would have been possible without you, our loyal listeners. If I could send you all an HDMI cable to say thanks, I would. For now, however, my sincere and heartfelt thanks will have to do. Thanks, you are awesome.

OK guys, if any of you have or are thinking of picking up the BenQ JoyBee GP1 projector, they sent me a warrenty extension for AV Rant listeners. See the text from the email below.

Hi Tom,

We are offering free 2 years extended warranty for you and AVRant listeners! This is our way to say THNAK YOU to you and your lovely community! Please do remember this free 2 years warranty registration is only good up to July 31. It does not matter when the GP1 was purchased and as long as customers enter a valid product serial number and promo code before Jul 31st they are good. After Aug 1st, the link will not work anymore. I will appreciate if you can share this information plus our story sharing contest on your site.

Here is the registration page and promo code:
Registration page
Promo code: CIN0001

TG Daily did some testing on Internet browsers after Apple claimed that Safari was the best. Very interesting results. Of course, I can’t use Firefox 3 because it doesn’t play nice with the interface for posting to Audioholics and I can’t use Internet Explorer 8 because it crashes one of the programs I use to edit the podcast. IE7 doesn’t allow you to do some of the edits you need for WordPress for AV Rant (never tried IE8) through FF is fine. Safari and Chrome have the same problems as Firefox 3 with the Audioholics site so I’m pretty much stuck with Firefox 2. What is your favorite browser and why?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about in the HDMI poll, read this informative article. At the very least, HDMI 1.4 didn’t increase the already uber high bandwidth requirements with this release. Just understand that the 3D/4k they are talking about is running at something like 30 frames per second (or lower) as per the spec. It isn’t nearly as intensive as the 60 frames per second 1080p is requiring right now. The new connector is cool (I guess) as is the protected car one. The big one is the audio return channel which eliminates one whole cable if you are using your TV as a decoder for your cable/OTA antenna. The idea with the Ethernet is that you have one device that is connected to the network (wired I guess but I suppose it doesn’t have to be) and everything else that is connected to that device with the new HDMI cables can access it as well. We’ll see how/if that works as devices are released. Discuss.