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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and I love all things techno. And we are back

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Speaker 1: with our series about home theaters after a brief intermission.

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Speaker 1: But hey, that happens sometimes with theaters, right anyway, So far,

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Speaker 1: we have covered the basics of visuals with a breakdown

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Speaker 1: of stuff like resolution, high dynamic range or HDR, oh

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Speaker 1: LED versus l e D versus q LED, home projectors,

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Speaker 1: and more. We also talked about surround sound and the

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Speaker 1: basic variations that you can have with surround sound. But

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Speaker 1: then I ran out of time before I could get

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Speaker 1: to the next bit, which is sub waffers. And I

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Speaker 1: talked about them a little in the last episode in

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Speaker 1: this series, but I didn't really explain what it is

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Speaker 1: they do and why they're so important for home theater setups.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about subwhiffers really quickly. Now, the

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Speaker 1: job of any speaker is to project out a certain

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Speaker 1: band of sound frequencies, which we you know, experience as

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Speaker 1: different pitches. Right. Higher frequencies are higher pitches. Lower frequencies

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Speaker 1: are much lower pitches. But how do speakers do this? Well,

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Speaker 1: if you remember our rabbit hole of what sound is

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Speaker 1: from earlier in this series, you know that sound is vibration,

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Speaker 1: and that typically we hear sound as it moves through

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Speaker 1: the air. The vibration in this case becomes a series

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Speaker 1: of fluctuating changes in air pressure which propagate outward from

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Speaker 1: the source of the sound. And when these fluctuations encounter

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Speaker 1: the ear drums inside our ears, they cause our ear

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Speaker 1: drums to vibrate. Those vibrations transferred to our inner ear

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Speaker 1: thanks to some very tiny bones, and then through a

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Speaker 1: couple of other steps that I'm not going to go

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Speaker 1: to hear because I've covered this before, our brains eventually

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Speaker 1: pick up signals from our inner ear and then interpret

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Speaker 1: that as sound. Now, the reason I even said any

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Speaker 1: of that is that a speaker creates sound kind of

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Speaker 1: in a reverse process from how our ears pick up sound.

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Speaker 1: So you've got an electric signal, and this is the

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Speaker 1: signal that carries the sound information in it. We've encoded

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Speaker 1: sound into an electric signal, and then we're gonna decode

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Speaker 1: the electric signal to recreate the sound. Typically, this signal

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Speaker 1: goes to an electro magnet, which is essentially a driver

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Speaker 1: that can pull and push depending on how or if

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Speaker 1: current is flowing through the electro magnet. This is inside

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Speaker 1: the speaker. It's usually attached to the speaker cone itself,

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Speaker 1: and there is a diaphragm covering the speaker cone the

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Speaker 1: end of the cone. This is the part that you

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Speaker 1: see when you look at the front of a speaker,

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Speaker 1: those big round things. That's the diaphragm on the end

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Speaker 1: of the own um. Then you've got this part of

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Speaker 1: the back of the speaker where there's a permanent magnet.

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Speaker 1: That's your typical way. You could have it the other way,

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Speaker 1: where the permanent magnet is on the cone and the

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Speaker 1: electro magnets in the back of the speaker. But more

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Speaker 1: frequently the voice coil as it's called, is attached to

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Speaker 1: the code itself. So when the polarity of the electro

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Speaker 1: magnet changes, it exerts a magnetic force that then interacts

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Speaker 1: with the magnetic field of the permanent magnet. So if

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Speaker 1: those polarities match right, if the electro magnets magnetic field

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Speaker 1: has a north pole pointed toward the permanent magnets north pole,

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Speaker 1: then they repel each other right, Because like magnetic charge repels,

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Speaker 1: So the cone gets pushed away from the permanent magnet

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Speaker 1: and it's pushed forward out from the speaker. If the

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Speaker 1: polarities are the opposite of each other, like one's north

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Speaker 1: pole and one south pole, the electro magnet is pulled

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Speaker 1: back toward the permanent magnet inside. Now the permanent magnet,

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Speaker 1: it's magnetic field is not going to change because it's permanent.

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Speaker 1: It's it's in a stationary position. But by reversing the

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Speaker 1: the flow of electricity through the coil, you can change

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Speaker 1: the direction of the magnetic field on the coil in

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Speaker 1: the electro magnet and thus have this interaction. So the

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Speaker 1: result is that the speaker's diaphragm gets moved in and out,

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Speaker 1: and this happens really really fast. Now, the diaphragm consequently

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Speaker 1: causes air to move, and it creates those fluctuations in

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Speaker 1: air pressure. As the diaphragm pushes outward, it compresses the

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Speaker 1: air directly in front of the speaker. If it moves inward,

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Speaker 1: it pulls on the air. So you get these little

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Speaker 1: fluctuations of air pressure that when they encounter our ears

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Speaker 1: we experience as sound. To me, is so cool that

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Speaker 1: we can take sound. We can transmit sound through a microphone,

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Speaker 1: which is, by the way, the exact same thing but

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Speaker 1: in reverse, and in be able to play it out

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Speaker 1: on a speaker this way and just have this material,

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Speaker 1: this diaphragm material. Just through that vibration, we can recreate

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Speaker 1: any sound that humans can hear. That still blows my

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Speaker 1: mind anyway. That's a really high level way of how

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Speaker 1: speakers work. So most speakers can replicate a fairly decent

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Speaker 1: range of frequencies, but the lower end stuff gets pretty

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Speaker 1: challenging because it requires a larger diaphragm in the speaker

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Speaker 1: to produce good, powerful low frequency effects and more power

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Speaker 1: to move that big diaphragm. So larger diaphragms will have

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Speaker 1: more mass. That means it takes more energy to get

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Speaker 1: them to move, particularly to move enough air to make

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Speaker 1: the effects you want to make. So it might need

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Speaker 1: so much energy that you could even require an extra

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Speaker 1: plug to plug the speaker into, say an external source

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Speaker 1: like a like a power outlet. In order to get

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Speaker 1: the power, you need to to actually run the sub offer.

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Speaker 1: So a good sound system needs a subworffer that is

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Speaker 1: specifically a type of speaker specifically dedicated to replicating the

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Speaker 1: lower frequency sounds, those really deep bass sounds that sometimes

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Speaker 1: you can actually feel more than you can hear. Now,

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Speaker 1: remember I said that sound is a vibration. Well, a

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Speaker 1: good subwoffer will create vibrations that you can physically feel.

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Speaker 1: They might be below the threshold for human hearing, which

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Speaker 1: is typically defined as anything between twenty hurts to twenty

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Speaker 1: thousand hurts in frequencies. They can also handle the lower

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Speaker 1: frequencies that, while not sternham shaking, are lower than what

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Speaker 1: your typical speaker can handle, and thus they fill out

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Speaker 1: the sound that you will hear. Otherwise you would be

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Speaker 1: missing all those low low ends. This is important not

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Speaker 1: just for movies and television, but also for music. If

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Speaker 1: you've ever listened to music on a cheap pair of

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Speaker 1: headphones and thought, wow, this doesn't sound really that good, well,

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Speaker 1: chances are one of the issues that that those cheap

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Speaker 1: headphones have is that they're not reproducing all the frequencies

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Speaker 1: that are actually present in the music, so it's like

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Speaker 1: you're getting a narrow slice of what the music is,

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Speaker 1: not the full audio experience. Now, subliffers don't need to

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Speaker 1: be as directional as other speakers, so you don't have

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Speaker 1: to have them sitting in a very specific spot in

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Speaker 1: your setup the way you do with like your front

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Speaker 1: left and front right and center speakers and all that

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. However, depending upon the size and shape

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Speaker 1: of your home theater space, you might actually need more

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Speaker 1: than one sub wiffer to create the effects you want.

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Speaker 1: Otherwise you could find out that the base distribution in

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Speaker 1: your home theater set up isn't quite up to par

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Speaker 1: and that there are some maybe some dead spots in

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Speaker 1: that space. Now, I've looked at a lot of surround

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Speaker 1: sound speaker setups, and many of the higher end ones

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Speaker 1: have two sub wiffers. And I should add that these

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Speaker 1: are well outside my ice range and probably outside most

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Speaker 1: people's price range unless you got like ten or twelve grand,

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Speaker 1: just burning a hole in your very very large pockets.

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Speaker 1: But you can see things like you know, nine point

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Speaker 1: two point two, and you know, these crazy systems that

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Speaker 1: get to a point where you're thinking, how many speakers

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Speaker 1: do you actually need? Apparently for some home theater enthusiasts,

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Speaker 1: it's going to always be there will never be enough speakers.

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Speaker 1: Now I think of anything, this discussion really shows that

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Speaker 1: your physical space matters a lot when it comes to

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Speaker 1: building out your home theater. If you want surround sound,

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Speaker 1: you need the space to be able to do it,

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Speaker 1: and you need to set up speakers according to which

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Speaker 1: version of surround sound you're going with. That also means

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Speaker 1: figuring out stuff like cable management. Now there are wireless

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Speaker 1: home theater systems where you've got like wireless speakers. Some

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Speaker 1: of them are really really good. When they first came out,

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Speaker 1: wireless speakers were kind of looked down upon because the

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Speaker 1: thought was that if you didn't have a physical wire

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Speaker 1: connecting your components, it could not possibly deliver the same

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Speaker 1: level of experience. But we've gotten a lot better with

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Speaker 1: those over the years. However, you know some systems still

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Speaker 1: just use physical wires to connect everything like speakers back

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Speaker 1: to the mixer. Then you know, sub whiffers might need

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Speaker 1: their own power cable and everything. So whichever set up

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Speaker 1: you go with, you need to take all this into consideration.

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Speaker 1: Cable management becomes a real high priority as you don't

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Speaker 1: want to trip over cables or have unsightly wires all

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Speaker 1: over the place. So that you know, one more thing

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Speaker 1: for you to keep in mind. Now you might also

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Speaker 1: think that seven point one, where you've got seven speakers

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Speaker 1: plus a sub wiffer like Dolby Atmos, is one of

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Speaker 1: those kind of levels, although they sometimes call it five

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Speaker 1: point one point two, because you've got the five speakers

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Speaker 1: of your typical surround sound set up, you've got your subwhiffer,

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Speaker 1: that's the one, and then you've got to atmost speakers

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Speaker 1: that are projecting above you. That's the point to. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: you might think that a seven point one set up

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Speaker 1: is inherently superior to a five point one set up,

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Speaker 1: which is far more common, but that is not necessarily

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Speaker 1: the case. The quality of the tech, as in how

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Speaker 1: good your mixer and receiver are, how good the speakers are,

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Speaker 1: and to some degree the cables. All of that matters.

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Speaker 1: But that cables thing is a huge caveat because there

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Speaker 1: are companies out there that market high end cables that

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Speaker 1: really don't deliver any perceptible benefit to the experience. We'll

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Speaker 1: talk a lot more about it later on. In fact,

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Speaker 1: really when it comes to cables, the rule of thumb

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Speaker 1: is that super cheap cables aren't great. They tend to

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Speaker 1: have bad insulation, and we'll talk more about that a

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Speaker 1: bit later too, But anything else is pretty much okay,

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Speaker 1: unless you're just having to run miles of cable, in

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Speaker 1: which case you might need to think more carefully about

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Speaker 1: your options. Also, I should add that in the world

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Speaker 1: of audio, there's this obsessive pursuit among audio files about

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Speaker 1: going after the most pure or true replication of sound,

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Speaker 1: and I get that, but I also get that a

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Speaker 1: lot of that comes down to stuff that is beyond

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Speaker 1: human perception and comes down to personal preference and psychology.

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Speaker 1: It's subjective in other words, like if you walked into

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Speaker 1: a room and you were told that this room was

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Speaker 1: outfitted with a high end, extremely expensive system, and it

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Speaker 1: turned out that really, in the background it was just

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Speaker 1: a good system, but not like a super crazy one,

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Speaker 1: well you might walk away thinking it was a life

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Speaker 1: changing experience, like you might come away from it saying wow,

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Speaker 1: that really makes a difference. Likewise, if you were to

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Speaker 1: walk into a space that had a really super high

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Speaker 1: end audio system, but you were told that you were

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Speaker 1: going to be listening to a budget model, you might

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Speaker 1: just think it's just okay. So typically, double blind studies

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Speaker 1: where neither the person experiencing a test nor the person

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Speaker 1: administering the test actually knows what kind of system is

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Speaker 1: being used. A lot of those show that beyond a

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Speaker 1: certain level of quality, our ability to discern different distinctions

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Speaker 1: diminishes quickly. So while a system might at least by

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Speaker 1: you know, finally tuned measurements and specifications say it's better,

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Speaker 1: you might not ever notice it because of the limitations

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Speaker 1: of human perception. So, in other words, don't buy the malarkey,

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Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. I guess. Oh, and like stereo,

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Speaker 1: your ability to enjoy surround sound depends upon what you're consuming.

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Speaker 1: So let's say you've picked up a Blu ray of

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Speaker 1: your favorite film and you see it supports Dolby five

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Speaker 1: point one surround sound, and you've got a five point

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Speaker 1: one system that supports Dolby. Well, that should be a

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Speaker 1: pretty good experience. It should sound great. But what I

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Speaker 1: You've got a seven point one system, but the media

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Speaker 1: you're looking at doesn't support seven point one. It's five

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Speaker 1: point one. Well, through technologies like Dolby pro Logic too

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Speaker 1: X or digital sound processing, which a lot of these

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Speaker 1: systems have built into them, whether it's your receiver or

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Speaker 1: your media player or whatever, well, then your system can

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Speaker 1: expand five point one soundtracks to meet the seven point

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Speaker 1: one channels, and to go into how all that works

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Speaker 1: would probably require a full episode, and let me just

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Speaker 1: be straight with you guys, it would also require an

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Speaker 1: expert on the subject matter because it quickly goes beyond

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Speaker 1: my own understanding. But in a way, it's kind of

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Speaker 1: like how four K and eight K television's upscale video

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Speaker 1: sources that aren't natively in ultra high definition. Now, one

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Speaker 1: thing I have not covered is sound bars. So these

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Speaker 1: are those wide, horizontal speakers you find in a lot

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Speaker 1: of sound setups these days. Are usually pretty short, and

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Speaker 1: they can typically fit directly in front of and underneath

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Speaker 1: a TV screen. So if you've got your TV screen

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Speaker 1: on the stand, this is that bar that would sit

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Speaker 1: in front of the TV and and act as a

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Speaker 1: very large or very wide speaker. And it's it's an

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Speaker 1: attempt to replicate the experience of surround sound through one

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Speaker 1: array of speakers inside a bar, instead of having a

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Speaker 1: bunch of separate units mounted around a seating space. So

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Speaker 1: within a sound bar are multiple speaker drivers, and some

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Speaker 1: of these might be pointed so that they push sound

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Speaker 1: out at an angle from the viewers, So instead of

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Speaker 1: it just being like an array of speakers all pointed

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Speaker 1: directly at you. Some of them might be pointed off

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Speaker 1: at an angle, with the idea being that the sound

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Speaker 1: is supposed to bounce off the walls to either side

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Speaker 1: of you and then come at you from a different

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Speaker 1: direction to simulate surround sound that way, So instead of

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Speaker 1: mounting a speaker you know a certain number of degrees

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Speaker 1: off to your right and to your left, you're using

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Speaker 1: the sound bar to bounce sound off walls so that

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Speaker 1: it comes to you that way anyway, So the channel

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Speaker 1: that might be meant for the front left, for example,

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Speaker 1: can beam off to the left of the viewer, hit

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Speaker 1: a wall, bounce back, and hit you at the right angle.

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Speaker 1: Of course, we all know that the law of reflection

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Speaker 1: tells us that the angle the sound will take after

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Speaker 1: the bounce is equal to the incoming angle, which means

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Speaker 1: that the distance between the sound bar and your walls

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Speaker 1: will matter. So if your television happens to be closer

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Speaker 1: to one side of the room than the other, like

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Speaker 1: if it's a little closer to the right than it

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Speaker 1: is to the left, well, that means that the channels

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Speaker 1: from the left and right are going to be bouncing

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Speaker 1: off at slightly different points on their respective walls, so

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Speaker 1: you might not get a really immersive surround sound effect

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Speaker 1: like I have a sound bar in my setup, but

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Speaker 1: my setup also my living room's weird, y'all. It is

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Speaker 1: open to the dining room and kitchen on the left side,

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Speaker 1: and the right side ends at a wall with windows

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Speaker 1: on it, so that means that you know, stuff can

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Speaker 1: bounce off to the right and hit that wall, But

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Speaker 1: if it goes off to the left, it's going all

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Speaker 1: the way towards the dining room and kitchen, so there's

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Speaker 1: no there's no wall for it to bounce off off,

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Speaker 1: so I don't get that effect. In addition, some sound

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Speaker 1: bars even come with speakers that aim at an angle

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Speaker 1: up towards the ceiling to get you that Dollby Atmos effects,

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Speaker 1: so the sound reflects off your ceiling and back down

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Speaker 1: towards where you're sitting. And generally speaking, sound bars are

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Speaker 1: much easier to set up because I mean, there's usually

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Speaker 1: only two components to the system. There's the sound bar

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Speaker 1: and there's a subwhiffer. Some somewhoffers also serve as receivers,

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Speaker 1: which will talk more about in a bit, so like

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Speaker 1: my system is that way. My subwhiffer is also my receiver,

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Speaker 1: and so I just have two units and that makes

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Speaker 1: it really simple. They can provide much better sound than

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Speaker 1: just a television alone can by itself, and in the

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Speaker 1: right room, it can be a really immersive experience. Not

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Speaker 1: so much for mine, but you know it's okay. Um,

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Speaker 1: if you aren't lucky enough to have a symmetrical space

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Speaker 1: perfectly set up for a home theater, then they don't

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Speaker 1: deliver quite that surround sound experience you might be hoping for.

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Speaker 1: So again, the space you are in is going to

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Speaker 1: have a big impact on your experience, and it's really

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Speaker 1: worth taking a good look at what you're working with

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Speaker 1: before you go on a very expensive shopping spree. I

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Speaker 1: would recommend getting someone from a company that builds out

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Speaker 1: home theater systems to consult with you on it. However,

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Speaker 1: I hesitate to make that just a blanket recommendation because

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Speaker 1: I mean, you also need to do your own research,

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Speaker 1: because I'm not saying that everyone out there is going

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Speaker 1: to try and steer you toward the most expensive system

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Speaker 1: you could possibly buy because they happen to work on commission.

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Speaker 1: But it's a possibility and it's good to be aware

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Speaker 1: of it. Now. I think that's a pretty good stopping

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Speaker 1: point for audio in general, although we'll obviously touch on

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Speaker 1: it some more later. So we're gonna talk about receivers

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Speaker 1: after we come back from this quick break. So a

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Speaker 1: lot of home theater setups include at a V receiver

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Speaker 1: and audio video receiver, and the receiver really has a

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Speaker 1: couple of big jobs. One of those is that it

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Speaker 1: acts as an amplifier, So it takes audio signals from

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Speaker 1: various media sources and it boosts those signals. It amplifies

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Speaker 1: them before sending them onto the appropriate speakers. Uh, the

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Speaker 1: output of audio signals from a media source might not

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Speaker 1: be strong enough to really power the speakers sufficiently, so

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Speaker 1: that's why you need an amplifier. But there's another really

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Speaker 1: important job that the receiver does, and that's that it

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Speaker 1: acts kind of like a media switch. So if you

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Speaker 1: have a lot of components connecting to your home theater system,

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Speaker 1: Let's say you've got an antenna and maybe a cable connection,

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Speaker 1: and maybe video game console and perhaps a different type

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Speaker 1: of set top box that's providing content. Maybe it's a

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Speaker 1: Blu ray player or something um or maybe it's you know,

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Speaker 1: a streaming service box or something. Then this can act

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Speaker 1: as like the switch between all those different sources so

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Speaker 1: that you can have the right stuff being sent to

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Speaker 1: your television screen and to all your speakers. So the

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Speaker 1: a V receiver kind of acts like a nexus point

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Speaker 1: for all of that stuff. You would plug all the

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Speaker 1: inputs into the a V receiver and then you would

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Speaker 1: use a single connection to connect your a V receiver

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00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:28,480
Speaker 1: to something like your television or a different one to

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Speaker 1: connect to your speakers. That way, when you want to

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Speaker 1: watch say a U h D Blu Ray, you switch

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Speaker 1: the a V receiver to that setting to whatever you

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Speaker 1: know input devices you're using to watch that Blue ray on,

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Speaker 1: and the receiver essentially makes all the proper connections between

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Speaker 1: your Blu ray player and your television and speakers. Or

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Speaker 1: let's say you want to watch cable TV, while you

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Speaker 1: would switch to that setting on your a V receiver,

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Speaker 1: and then the cable feed would be what's going to

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Speaker 1: your television and to your speakers. And one big benefit

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Speaker 1: to this, and it sounds small, but trust me, it's

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00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:09,480
Speaker 1: really nice, is that the a V receiver will plug

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Speaker 1: into one port in your television, one input typically you

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Speaker 1: do this using an HDMI cable, which we will talk

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Speaker 1: about a little bit later. And so let's say you

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Speaker 1: plug your a V receiver into h d M I

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Speaker 1: port number one on your television, and everything else is

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Speaker 1: going through your a V receiver to your TV. That

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Speaker 1: means when you switch from Blu ray to cable on

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Speaker 1: your a V receiver, you don't also have to switch

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Speaker 1: the input on your television. Now, I know that sounds small,

359
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Speaker 1: but trust me, I have seen so many situations in

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Speaker 1: which someone was not using an a V receiver, so

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Speaker 1: they had all of their different components connecting to their

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Speaker 1: television directly, and then they have to fuss around with

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Speaker 1: a remote control and try to figure out which input

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Speaker 1: on their television they needed to select in order to

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Speaker 1: make something specific happen. Like let's say they switched from

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Speaker 1: playing a video game and now they want to connect

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Speaker 1: to like a Roku or something. They would have to

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Speaker 1: go through and choose the correct input setting in order

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Speaker 1: to do that. Because they had each of these things

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Speaker 1: connecting to their television's directly, that can get a little frustrating.

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Speaker 1: It gets a little clunky. So reducing the number of

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Speaker 1: times you have to switch inputs on your television is

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Speaker 1: a pretty nice thing. Also, receivers tend to have radio tuners.

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Speaker 1: I mean they are receivers, they have radio tuners in them,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes they have satellite radio tuners. So either way

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Speaker 1: you have an added benefit there. You've got a device

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Speaker 1: that can pick up radio signals and you can listen

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Speaker 1: to radio on your home theater, you know, in case

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Speaker 1: you ever want to do that. A V receivers also

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00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,719
Speaker 1: decode the surround sound signal formats that are on various

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Speaker 1: forms of media, and then that's how they make sure

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Speaker 1: that the right speakers are playing the right sounds. That

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00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: way you're getting, you know, the front left channel is

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Speaker 1: going to the front left speaker and it's not like

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00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,840
Speaker 1: suddenly going to the center's speaker or something. That's another

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00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,000
Speaker 1: important job receivers do. Now, there are some folks who

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00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:08,119
Speaker 1: do forego the a V receiver. Typically they don't have

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00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,960
Speaker 1: surround sound setups. As a result, they might have, you know,

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00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:14,440
Speaker 1: simple stereo speakers hooked up to their television. So it's

390
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 1: not like an a V receiver is an absolute requirement,

391
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,840
Speaker 1: but for a lot of serious home theater enthusiasts, they

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Speaker 1: consider it a critical component of their setup. Now let's

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00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,800
Speaker 1: switch over and talk about media sources. So you've got

394
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,960
Speaker 1: your television or your projector and screen, you've got your

395
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:34,760
Speaker 1: sound system, you've got your a V receiver ready to

396
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:38,359
Speaker 1: connect to everything to you know those other components. So

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00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 1: what are you putting on this thing? Like, how are

398
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:45,920
Speaker 1: you getting the actual media to consume? Well, the good

399
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,199
Speaker 1: news is you have way more options today than you

400
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 1: did when ultra high definition was first becoming a thing. Um,

401
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,320
Speaker 1: since four KTVs are now kind of the standard in

402
00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:59,359
Speaker 1: most most stores, Like if you look at their television's,

403
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:02,239
Speaker 1: four K is by far the thing that takes up

404
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,960
Speaker 1: the most shelf space. Well, the first four KTVs hit

405
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:08,639
Speaker 1: store shelves back in two thousand twelve, but at that

406
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:13,760
Speaker 1: point there really wasn't any content for four KTVs. Like

407
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 1: you can still watch HD content, High definition content, or

408
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:21,280
Speaker 1: even standard definition, but you couldn't find much four K content.

409
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,880
Speaker 1: Buying a four K TV was more like future proofing

410
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,560
Speaker 1: your home theater because you couldn't really enjoy content on

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00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,880
Speaker 1: it right out of the box. And this has happened

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00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 1: multiple times before, like when h D t V first

413
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,160
Speaker 1: became a thing, there actually wasn't that much HD content

414
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,440
Speaker 1: to watch on that either you could find like an

415
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:46,719
Speaker 1: hd TV promotional channel that would just run stuff like

416
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:50,399
Speaker 1: nature scenes and maybe a couple of clips from like

417
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 1: specific sporting events or a sunset or sunrise. Like. There

418
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:57,119
Speaker 1: were a lot of these kind of standard things that

419
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,760
Speaker 1: were meant to show off how beautiful the screens, but

420
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 1: for real content there was a distinct lack, so there

421
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,920
Speaker 1: was a bit of a gap between having the capability

422
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 1: to see stuff in higher resolution and actually having any

423
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:14,640
Speaker 1: higher resolution media to watch. The first pay TV provider

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00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,480
Speaker 1: in the United States to offer a limited selection of

425
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,120
Speaker 1: four K content was the satellite TV provider Direct TV.

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00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 1: That was in two thousand fourteen. The first uh D

427
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 1: Blu ray players went on sale in North America in

428
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Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, and luckily there were some media companies

429
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,679
Speaker 1: making four K Blu ray discs as well, because again,

430
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: you know, it drives home the fact you need all

431
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:39,880
Speaker 1: the pieces in the puzzle to match up to get

432
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,919
Speaker 1: the experience you want. You can have a four K

433
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 1: TV and nothing to watch on it, or you could

434
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 1: have a four K Blu ray player, But if no

435
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:50,399
Speaker 1: one's making four K Blu ray disks, that doesn't do

436
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 1: you a whole lot of good. I mean, you could

437
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: still probably watch standard Blu rays. But you know the

438
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:58,880
Speaker 1: same thing with stuff like HDR high dynamic range. If

439
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 1: any piece of the puzz doesn't support HDR, then you're

440
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:05,880
Speaker 1: not going to be able to take advantage of that technology.

441
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,359
Speaker 1: These days, a lot of the four K content comes

442
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 1: from streaming services. So this means that your home theater

443
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 1: will need a connection to the Internet, either wirelessly or hardwired.

444
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 1: And a lot of televisions these days can connect directly

445
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 1: to a range of streaming sources without any additional equipment.

446
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: You know, the so called smart TVs that have these

447
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:33,360
Speaker 1: these uh these interfaces built into them. The television will

448
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:35,800
Speaker 1: have a user interface that lets you select stuff like

449
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 1: HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus, Apple

450
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 1: TV YouTube. You know, these are the types of services,

451
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: and there are a few others that carry four K content. Now,

452
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: in some cases, in order to access that four K content,

453
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 1: you've got to actually pay a little bit more than

454
00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 1: these standard subscription to those services. So, for Examp Apple

455
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: here in North America, if you wanted to watch four

456
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,680
Speaker 1: K content on Netflix, you would need to shell out

457
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: the eighteen dollars a month for a premium subscription plan

458
00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:13,399
Speaker 1: in order to get that. Other services like Disney Plus

459
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: include four K content that even has hd R support

460
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 1: built into it right there at the basic subscription price.

461
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: But you do just have to have the system capable of,

462
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,720
Speaker 1: you know, taking advantage of that. But you can, you

463
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:27,639
Speaker 1: can do it right on the box. You don't, you

464
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,480
Speaker 1: don't have to subscribe to a higher tier of service.

465
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,959
Speaker 1: This also means that whatever device is connecting to the

466
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,959
Speaker 1: service also needs to be compatible with that four K standard. Now,

467
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:41,919
Speaker 1: if it's your television, then that's probably covered right. If

468
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,399
Speaker 1: you bought a four K TV and it has these

469
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,480
Speaker 1: uh these interfaces built in so that you can actually

470
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: directly access a Netflix through your television without any other

471
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: device needed, then you're good. But if it's an additional

472
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,159
Speaker 1: set top box, like if it's a Roku, then that

473
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: device need to be four K compatible as well in

474
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: order to be able to watch this stuff. Most of

475
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: the more recent devices do meet that requirement, but if

476
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 1: you happen to be sitting on an older one, it's

477
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 1: always a good idea to take a quick look online

478
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 1: just to see what resolutions it supports. Um if it's

479
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:19,359
Speaker 1: fairly recent you might be okay. For example, Roku started

480
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: offering devices with four K support back in October two

481
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen, though not all devices Roku has made since

482
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen are four K compatible, so again, making

483
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,679
Speaker 1: sure that everything meets the minimum standard that you're hoping

484
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:38,160
Speaker 1: for is important. In addition to that, modern video game

485
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: consoles are four K compatible. This started with the PlayStation

486
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 1: four Pro and the Xbox one X and Xbox one

487
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:49,880
Speaker 1: S models. Uh, the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation

488
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 1: five actually have eight K capability, so if you want

489
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: to really future proof your home theater and you want

490
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,360
Speaker 1: a video game console to be part of it, you

491
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: could get one or both of those. Good luck, they

492
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: can still be pretty hard to find in most markets.

493
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 1: The PS five in particular, is tricky to find. Game

494
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: consoles like the PS five and Xbox Series X also

495
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 1: can serve as streaming devices, so if your TV doesn't

496
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: have that capability natively built into it and you don't

497
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: want to buy another set, top box consoles can pick

498
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,160
Speaker 1: up that slack. All right, So let's recap for a second.

499
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: Your home theater is going to need media sources. You know,

500
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,440
Speaker 1: something to watch you can get some four K material

501
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:37,080
Speaker 1: through cable or satellite feeds, but it's a pretty limited amount.

502
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,720
Speaker 1: So depending upon your provider, you'll have some stuff there

503
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,960
Speaker 1: that will look and sound great on your system. Some

504
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: providers might only have on demand like pay videos that

505
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: you can access that that can take advantage of those

506
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:56,080
Speaker 1: sort of systems. You can also stream content from the

507
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 1: Internet to your home theater, though I should add that

508
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,120
Speaker 1: will require and least a pretty decent Internet connection of

509
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 1: at least megabits per second. You probably want to find

510
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 1: a plan that also has a really high data cap

511
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: or no data cap, because four K video can eat

512
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: up a lot of that data allowance. Um Netflix estimated

513
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,640
Speaker 1: back in late that if you watched an hour of

514
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 1: four K video, it's equivalent to consuming about seven gigabytes

515
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:27,280
Speaker 1: of data. That's just one hour of content. So if

516
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 1: you're someone who plans to use a home theater a lot,

517
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:33,640
Speaker 1: and you're gonna lean heavily on streaming services to provide

518
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 1: four K content, you could be bumping up against some

519
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 1: data caps. Like Comcast has a data cap that seems

520
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 1: incredibly high. It's one point to terabytes. That's a huge

521
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 1: amount of data. But if you're a home theater fiend,

522
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 1: you can hit that after forty hours of watching uh

523
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 1: D content, So if you're gonna be doing it a lot,

524
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: that's something you could take into consideration. I think we

525
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 1: can now switch over to finally talk about cables, and

526
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: in a way, I think that cables has become a

527
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,440
Speaker 1: little less confusing over time, maybe by a little bit.

528
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 1: So we'll do a quick recap on audio and video

529
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: cables to see where we came from, because I mean,

530
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 1: some home theater systems still use these legacy cables because

531
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:24,280
Speaker 1: they still include legacy components. If you have like an

532
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: old VCR, for example, and you want to be able

533
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 1: to watch VCR cassettes, then you may need some of

534
00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 1: these old cables. It also could probably mean that you're

535
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 1: gonna need some adapters in order to connect these older

536
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 1: devices to your newer television sets because a lot of

537
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:48,840
Speaker 1: manufacturers stopped including those ports. Keep in mind, the the

538
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:50,960
Speaker 1: like I said, the stuff I'm talking about right now

539
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: or the I'll start talking about, is really mostly obsolete. Um,

540
00:30:55,360 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: so this is more for completion sake than anything else.

541
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 1: First off, let's mention coaxial cables, because these are pretty common.

542
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 1: These are those cables with the copper connectors. They typically

543
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: have black cladding. They're fairly thick and not always super flexible. UH.

544
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: You usually use these to connect from your cable outlet

545
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 1: to a cable box or maybe a satellite connector, and

546
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 1: you might even use one to connect from the cable

547
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: box to your television. UH. These cable send audio and

548
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: video signals both. However, they're really only good at carrying

549
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,640
Speaker 1: resolutions of up to ten eight on them, so they

550
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 1: can carry up to h D t V quality, but

551
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 1: not four K UH, and that's a problem. It means

552
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:44,719
Speaker 1: that you have to have a different kind of connection

553
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: if you want to get four K quality video streaming

554
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: to your your system. But let's talk about some other

555
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 1: types of audio and video cables. So way back in

556
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: the day, when you've got something like, you know, a

557
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 1: game console, you would typically have a cable that would

558
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,880
Speaker 1: end in three connectors. And I'm starting with our c

559
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 1: A connectors that could go even further back, but we

560
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 1: have to draw the line somewhere. So you would have

561
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 1: three connectors, one that was red, one that was white,

562
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: and one that was yellow, and they all had little

563
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,720
Speaker 1: like copper plugs sticking out of them. These were r

564
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 1: c A connector cables, so called because the company r

565
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: c A developed them, and the red and white cables

566
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 1: were actually just for audio. The red cable carried the

567
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: audio channel for the right speaker, and the white cable

568
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: carried the audio channel for the left speaker. That left

569
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: the yellow cable to carry all the video signal all

570
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 1: bides lonesome, and we called it composite video. This yellow

571
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 1: cable only had the capability to carry video signals of

572
00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 1: standard definition, so that meant it was either four eight

573
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: or five seventy six, depending on whether you were in

574
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,800
Speaker 1: like the United States or you know, Europe. So using

575
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: the cable, even if the source somehow could put out

576
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 1: HD content, the cable would not be able to carry

577
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,360
Speaker 1: that to a television. The best you can manage is

578
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: standard definition resolution. Then we get s video cables. These

579
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 1: were an improvement over a composite video. It was a

580
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 1: single again, a single cable, but it was not an

581
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 1: enormous leap in quality. They could still only carry standard

582
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: definition resolution signals, so still you're limited to four a

583
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: D or five sony six in resolution. But the composite

584
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 1: video cable would crunch all the video information into a

585
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:43,240
Speaker 1: single signal across a single wire. S video cables actually

586
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 1: had two separate wires to carry information to the display,

587
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:52,320
Speaker 1: and you would have one wire carrying the information that

588
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 1: relates to the color of the signal, and the other

589
00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 1: wire would carry the information relating to the brightness of

590
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 1: the signal. And by separating this out, the S video

591
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 1: cable could deliver a higher quality set of signals to

592
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 1: a television. Now, the resolution wasn't like magically better, but

593
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,120
Speaker 1: the quality of the colors and the subtle shifts and

594
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:17,480
Speaker 1: brightness were better, so you did get a better picture,

595
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,400
Speaker 1: just not necessarily a more detailed picture, at least not

596
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,760
Speaker 1: detailed informs in the form of resolution. This is another

597
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:29,440
Speaker 1: reminder that resolution isn't the end all bell. It's a

598
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,799
Speaker 1: very important part, but it's just one component as to

599
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 1: you know, the quality of an image. S video cables

600
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,760
Speaker 1: only carried video information, so you still needed separate cables

601
00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 1: to carry audio to speakers, so those white and red

602
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: wires would stick around. Also, S video didn't get a

603
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 1: real good chance to take off because of a superior

604
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,799
Speaker 1: technology that came out around the same time. And I'll

605
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,439
Speaker 1: talk more about what that was after we take this

606
00:34:56,560 --> 00:35:08,279
Speaker 1: quick break. Okay. One other set of cables that had

607
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 1: a fair amount of popularity briefly at longer in the

608
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 1: home theater space for real enthusiasts were component video cables.

609
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 1: And I know this gets confusing. You've got composite video.

610
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:24,560
Speaker 1: That's that our c A cable that had the yellow

611
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 1: into it that carried all the video. Then you had

612
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:32,279
Speaker 1: component video cables. These in the United States anyway, came

613
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:35,239
Speaker 1: in sets of three, similar to our c a composite

614
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:38,760
Speaker 1: connector cables, but instead of red, white and yellow, these

615
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 1: were red, blue, and green. And unlike composite and S

616
00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 1: video cables, these could carry high definition video signals, so

617
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:51,160
Speaker 1: you could actually get up to ten eight resolution using

618
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,880
Speaker 1: these cables, assuming again that all the other components in

619
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:58,760
Speaker 1: your system were compatible, that you had HDTV source of media,

620
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: and you had an hd TV compatible television. They did

621
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 1: not carry audio signals, so again you needed to have

622
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 1: separate cables to carry audio if you wanted to listen

623
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: to something more than just out of the television speakers.

624
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 1: And I should add that this was the common form

625
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,400
Speaker 1: factor here in North America. Now in other parts of

626
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,800
Speaker 1: the world, component video used different kinds of ports and cables,

627
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: But to go through all of that would be way

628
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,319
Speaker 1: too much, so we're just going to leave it for now. Now,

629
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,319
Speaker 1: you might think that because video signals relate back to

630
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: r g B being red, green, and blue, and that

631
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:37,160
Speaker 1: you use combinations of those colors to create all the

632
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 1: other colors with video, that that would mean these cables

633
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:45,359
Speaker 1: were each carrying signals for red, green, and blue. Right,

634
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 1: not quite um. It was a little different than that.

635
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:52,760
Speaker 1: It did not quite break it down to that level.

636
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,600
Speaker 1: So instead you had one cable. They carried the brightness

637
00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:00,719
Speaker 1: information for the pictures, so the luminosity or looma and

638
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 1: it also carried some synchronization information, but we won't get

639
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 1: into all the technical details there. Another cable carried information

640
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:13,280
Speaker 1: about the difference between the luma the luminosity or brightness

641
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: and the blue signal, and then the other cable would

642
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,440
Speaker 1: do the same thing but for the red signals, so

643
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 1: the difference between red and luma. And combining all of

644
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: these together you could create signals that would result in

645
00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,320
Speaker 1: high definition video images that could reproduce all the colors,

646
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 1: which is pretty neat. But once again you would need

647
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:35,279
Speaker 1: different cables to carry audio signals. Right, and while you

648
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,640
Speaker 1: could go with the old left and right r c

649
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:42,120
Speaker 1: A connectors for stereo. There were other options. Now, I

650
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:45,359
Speaker 1: really liked component video cables back in the day, just

651
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,799
Speaker 1: to stay on that for a second. They were great

652
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 1: for handling analog ten A signals to televisions. That is important.

653
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: They were for analog signals, not digital. But the industry

654
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 1: would get behind a totally different technology for a couple

655
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: of reasons. And um I'll go into all of that

656
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 1: in just a minute, but quick note on audio cables.

657
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:08,880
Speaker 1: We talked about the r c A connector types with

658
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,279
Speaker 1: the white and red for left and right channels, but

659
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 1: obviously that isn't sufficient if you want something like surround sounds.

660
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,760
Speaker 1: So to get surround sound, you might use Coacts Digital

661
00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:20,759
Speaker 1: s SLASH p d I F cables, which can be

662
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,480
Speaker 1: easy to confuse with our CIA cables because they look

663
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 1: kind of similar. I mean, they don't have the red

664
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 1: and white ends the way our CIA cables do, but

665
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,960
Speaker 1: they the plug part looks really similar. However, these are

666
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:36,440
Speaker 1: capable of handling signals for surround sound systems, so you

667
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 1: might use these to connect your receiver to your output devices.

668
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:44,920
Speaker 1: Then you've got an optical TS link digital cable. So

669
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 1: these cables provide the same sort of you know, audio

670
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: quality as coax cables do, except they use fiber optics

671
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 1: rather than a copper or you know, gold or whatever connection.

672
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,919
Speaker 1: These are good over short distances. UH. The by short,

673
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 1: I mean like ten feet or less. The longer the cable,

674
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,279
Speaker 1: the less performance you tend to get out of it.

675
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 1: It might actually take you a bit of distance to

676
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:12,400
Speaker 1: notice the difference, but you do have a decline in

677
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,680
Speaker 1: signal performance as the length of the cable increases. At

678
00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:19,480
Speaker 1: one time, they were pretty much the height of audio

679
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:23,360
Speaker 1: cables for home theater systems, and any serious home theater

680
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:27,880
Speaker 1: enthusiast was probably using optical digital cables to connect to

681
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 1: their various devices so that they could get the best

682
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:36,280
Speaker 1: audio output. There are also then speaker wires. These typically

683
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:39,759
Speaker 1: come in twisted pairs. Each speaker has a negative port

684
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,360
Speaker 1: and a positive port. Then you want to connect the

685
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 1: speaker wires accordingly, with your negative lead going to the

686
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 1: negative port and the positive lead going to the positive port.

687
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,719
Speaker 1: This is called connecting speakers in phase. UH. If you

688
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:55,440
Speaker 1: were to connect speakers out of phase, meaning that at

689
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:58,800
Speaker 1: least one of the speakers would be wired wrong with

690
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: the wrong leads connected of the wrong ports, then your

691
00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 1: system can end up eliminating certain frequencies of sound. Now

692
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,920
Speaker 1: that might not be blatantly obvious to you in the

693
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,960
Speaker 1: moment while you're listening to stuff, but it would affect

694
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 1: the overall experience. So it's good to take your time

695
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: and get that right if you're using wired speakers. All right, Now,

696
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:22,720
Speaker 1: let's talk about h d M I. So HDMI stands

697
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,760
Speaker 1: for High Definition Multimedia Interface, and this type of cable

698
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,680
Speaker 1: can carry both audio and video signals, so you don't

699
00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 1: have to split them up the way you do those

700
00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 1: previous ones I was talking about. However, there are a

701
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 1: few different kinds of h d m I that have

702
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:41,760
Speaker 1: come out over the years, and they aren't all equal. See,

703
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:45,880
Speaker 1: the HDMI standard has evolved as our video capabilities have

704
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:50,360
Speaker 1: also evolved, and so older cables don't necessarily support the

705
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 1: latest technologies. So there are four different sets of specifications

706
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 1: for HDMI cables as defined by the h d m

707
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 1: I Forum Technical Working Group, and I'm sure their parties

708
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 1: are spectacular, and those specifications are in order. You have

709
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 1: standard h d m I, which can carry up to

710
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:13,799
Speaker 1: ten a d I video resolution. With a refresh rate

711
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:17,400
Speaker 1: of thirty hurts. If you need a refresh on refresh rates,

712
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:19,960
Speaker 1: you can listen to the first episode in this series

713
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,319
Speaker 1: that published earlier. I go into it there. Then you

714
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 1: have high Speed h d M I, which up the

715
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:29,359
Speaker 1: anti to four K resolution but with a refresh rate

716
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 1: of just around thirty hurts. Then you've got Premium high

717
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:35,319
Speaker 1: Speed h d M I that's up to four K

718
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:38,719
Speaker 1: resolution with support for high dynamic Range or h d

719
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: R and a refresh rate of around sixty hurts. And

720
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,360
Speaker 1: finally you've got Ultra high Speed h d M I

721
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:48,440
Speaker 1: that has support for resolutions of up to ten K

722
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:53,319
Speaker 1: with HDR at add twenty hurts, or you could do

723
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:55,880
Speaker 1: four K video with a refresh rate of up to

724
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:59,439
Speaker 1: two forty hurts. This, by the way, is another reason

725
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: why it was in portant to pay attention to what

726
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,319
Speaker 1: your television can do, because again, your TV might be

727
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,240
Speaker 1: capable of doing certain things like having a two forty

728
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:12,760
Speaker 1: hurts refresh rate, but the cable you use doesn't support

729
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 1: that at that specific resolution, you're never going to get it.

730
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 1: So another important thing to keep in mind. So in

731
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:23,840
Speaker 1: that sense, the type of cable you buy absolutely does matter.

732
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:27,400
Speaker 1: I mean, like, if your cable is older and it

733
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:29,799
Speaker 1: doesn't support certain formats, you're not going to be able

734
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,400
Speaker 1: to experience them. So if you have a four K setup,

735
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:36,760
Speaker 1: really you probably want a premium high speed HDMI cable

736
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:40,360
Speaker 1: or ultra high speed. You want one of those two.

737
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,799
Speaker 1: If you're looking at the HDMI version designation, like you know,

738
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 1: if it says HDMI one point three or one point four,

739
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:52,040
Speaker 1: what you want is HDM two point oh to cover

740
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:55,359
Speaker 1: your basic needs for four K. That means that it

741
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:58,239
Speaker 1: meets the specifications for premium high speed hd M I

742
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 1: because they happen to fall on line. If you get

743
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 1: hd M I two point one cables, then you're good

744
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:06,720
Speaker 1: for ultra high speed HDM I. You have future proofd

745
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:10,359
Speaker 1: your home theater for the foreseeable future, or at least

746
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,600
Speaker 1: the near future. I shouldn't say foreseeable because things change

747
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 1: so fast. But again, remember the performance you get out

748
00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 1: of your home theater is again going to depend upon

749
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:22,959
Speaker 1: the weakest link. I know, I keep nailing that home.

750
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:26,279
Speaker 1: I know, I'm like a broken record, but it is

751
00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:28,879
Speaker 1: the most important thing to keep in mind because if

752
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:31,400
Speaker 1: you trick everything else out, you're still not going to

753
00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 1: get the experience you want if that one component is

754
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:37,680
Speaker 1: not matching everything else. So if your TV is a

755
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 1: four K television, then an h d M I two

756
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:43,719
Speaker 1: point one cable could be overkill, unless again, you just

757
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 1: really want that super fast refresh rate, in which case

758
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:50,719
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't understand you, unless unless you're watching

759
00:43:50,719 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 1: a lot of sports. If you're watching a lot of sports,

760
00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:55,680
Speaker 1: high refresh rate I get, But in all others I

761
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,640
Speaker 1: can't stand it. Otherwise, maybe that's just my own bias.

762
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 1: All right, So why did the industry adopt h d

763
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: M I. I mentioned that, you know, they really got

764
00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:08,319
Speaker 1: behind that and component cables kind of got left behind. Well,

765
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 1: part of the reason was that there was this transition

766
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,920
Speaker 1: from analog to digital, and HDMI supports digital which is

767
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:19,919
Speaker 1: all zeros and ones, and component video supported analog, which

768
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 1: is a continuous signal sent through a wire. These are

769
00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:27,880
Speaker 1: two different things. But another big reason is that, you know,

770
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:30,680
Speaker 1: HDMI cable is really versatile because it can carry all

771
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:33,640
Speaker 1: sorts of information across it, not just you know, audio

772
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 1: or video signals. And it's also fully capable of covering

773
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:40,399
Speaker 1: both video and audio transmission at the same time. So

774
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 1: that makes it way simpler to use. Then that set

775
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:47,440
Speaker 1: ups that requires separate cables for audio and for video.

776
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,799
Speaker 1: Cable management gets way easier if you're dealing with just

777
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:54,680
Speaker 1: h d M I. But another really big reason why

778
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:57,200
Speaker 1: the industry got behind h d M I is because

779
00:44:57,200 --> 00:45:00,960
Speaker 1: of a different technology called h d s EP that

780
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:05,759
Speaker 1: stands for high bandwidth Digital Content Protection. And if you

781
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 1: think that name makes it sound like it's DRM or

782
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:12,920
Speaker 1: digital rights management, you win a cookie. So the purpose

783
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 1: of this technology is to prevent unauthorized copying of protected material,

784
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 1: and the technology prevents media that has been h d

785
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:25,920
Speaker 1: c P encrypted from being played on unauthorized devices, meaning

786
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:29,920
Speaker 1: gadgets that could potentially copy h d c P content.

787
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,240
Speaker 1: So here's kind of how it works. From a really

788
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 1: high level. Let's say you've got two devices connected via

789
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:40,360
Speaker 1: hd M I and device number one is a media

790
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: streaming device, and device number two is a media capture device.

791
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 1: Maybe it saves stuff to a hard drive or burns

792
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:49,440
Speaker 1: it to an optical disk or whatever, doesn't really matter.

793
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,479
Speaker 1: Device number one, before sending any media to device number two,

794
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:55,880
Speaker 1: does a quick check to see if device two is

795
00:45:55,880 --> 00:46:00,160
Speaker 1: equipped to copy HDCP material and if device number one

796
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:02,560
Speaker 1: figures out that that is the case, then you end

797
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:04,960
Speaker 1: up getting a fail message like content could not be

798
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:09,760
Speaker 1: displayed on this device. And it's that built in DRM

799
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:13,400
Speaker 1: that really got the industry behind it. And for that reason,

800
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 1: there were a lot of home theater enthusiasts in the

801
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:19,280
Speaker 1: h D t V era who stuck with component video

802
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 1: cables for as long as possible because it meant that

803
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: you weren't limited in how you were consuming your media.

804
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 1: There's this constant battle between the consumer and the industry

805
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:37,760
Speaker 1: where the consumer just wants to be able to enjoy

806
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:41,759
Speaker 1: their media on their own terms. The industry wants to

807
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:47,239
Speaker 1: control how the media can be consumed because obviously, if

808
00:46:47,239 --> 00:46:51,800
Speaker 1: the consumer is able to replicate the media and duplicate

809
00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 1: the media and distribute it, then that could affect the

810
00:46:56,160 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 1: bottom line of the industry, you know, companies. So there's

811
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:02,640
Speaker 1: this constant back and forth and for a lot of

812
00:47:02,640 --> 00:47:05,799
Speaker 1: home theater enthusiasts, they were saying, I want to be

813
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:09,640
Speaker 1: able to enjoy the media I have purchased in any

814
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:14,320
Speaker 1: way I like, and I don't like having companies create

815
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:18,440
Speaker 1: DRM that could stand as a potential barrier. And to

816
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:26,520
Speaker 1: be fair, DRM can sometimes affect legitimate users accessing their

817
00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:29,760
Speaker 1: their material that they have purchased like that can happen.

818
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 1: We've seen it happen multiple times where a bad DRM

819
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:39,759
Speaker 1: implementation actually disproportionately has a native impact on legitimate consumers,

820
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 1: and so then that leads to pirates figuring out ways

821
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:47,280
Speaker 1: to circumvent DRM protection, and ultimately it doesn't do anyone

822
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:51,560
Speaker 1: any good. It just becomes a rule that only punishes

823
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 1: the people who are following the rules in the first place.

824
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 1: So that's why a lot of home theater enthusiasts, at

825
00:47:57,239 --> 00:48:02,640
Speaker 1: least a certain subset of them, we're really reluctant to

826
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:07,120
Speaker 1: let go of component video cables because those analog signals

827
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:11,440
Speaker 1: could not be uh subjected to the same sort of

828
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:15,759
Speaker 1: DRM as the digital signals that we're going through h

829
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:19,279
Speaker 1: D M I, And that meant that a lot of

830
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:21,680
Speaker 1: those home theater enthusiasts had to rush out there to

831
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:27,680
Speaker 1: start buying compatible equipment because a lot of manufacturers stopped making,

832
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: you know, televisions and media devices that supported component video cables.

833
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:36,120
Speaker 1: So that meant that you might have to run out

834
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:38,439
Speaker 1: and buy like a DVD player and maybe a Blu

835
00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: ray player because they weren't always compatible with each other.

836
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:47,080
Speaker 1: Maybe a television and like more stuff like that before

837
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: the component video cable capability just went away, So it

838
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 1: was pretty wild. Also means that a lot of like

839
00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:58,840
Speaker 1: home theater enthusiasts who have been doing this for a

840
00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:04,319
Speaker 1: while have a lot of legacy systems connected. Okay, I've

841
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:06,840
Speaker 1: got a little bit more to say about cables and

842
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 1: home theaters before I get to that. Let's take one

843
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 1: last break. So before the break, I was telling you

844
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,279
Speaker 1: about h d c P and how that's a form

845
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:25,800
Speaker 1: of DRM, and how a lot of home theater enthusiasts

846
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:28,000
Speaker 1: were kind of reluctant to go to h d M

847
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:32,239
Speaker 1: I cables because of that. Um that whole technology came

848
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 1: out of Intel. And I should add that that h

849
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 1: d c P encryption has long since been cracked, Like

850
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 1: people were able to crack that encryption years ago. Intel

851
00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:48,120
Speaker 1: says they suspect it was done through brute force. So

852
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:51,440
Speaker 1: in other words, someone just dedicated an enormous amount of

853
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 1: time working through all the different possible combinations to break

854
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:59,319
Speaker 1: that encryption and eventually hit on the right one. Now,

855
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:03,960
Speaker 1: hardly any one bothers with circumventing HDCP at this point,

856
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 1: because honestly, the way we consume media has fundamentally changed

857
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: over the past decade. When h d M I was

858
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:16,800
Speaker 1: first coming out, like twenty years ago, we were firmly

859
00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 1: in the realm of purchasing media like DVDs and blue

860
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:23,440
Speaker 1: rays and that kind of thing. Maybe occasionally getting an

861
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:27,280
Speaker 1: on demand video through our our provider, like a cable

862
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:30,880
Speaker 1: provider or satellite provider, but mostly we were buying physical

863
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:34,000
Speaker 1: media like or we were renting them from places like

864
00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 1: you know, Blockbuster. Do you remember Blockbuster? If you want

865
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 1: a reminder of Blockbuster, actually have a a series on

866
00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:45,720
Speaker 1: Blockbuster in tech stuff, So go and search the archives.

867
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:48,160
Speaker 1: That was a fun one to do. However, these days

868
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:51,560
Speaker 1: we get more of our content on demand via streaming

869
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:54,960
Speaker 1: services through various providers. And that might be a cable company,

870
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 1: it might be a content platform, it might be you

871
00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:02,360
Speaker 1: know whatever. Now there's a whole conversation we could have

872
00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:07,080
Speaker 1: about that about how the way we access media has

873
00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:12,319
Speaker 1: really shaped the business of media. Uh, it's like the

874
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,759
Speaker 1: pandemic has done that even more so, right because you

875
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:20,280
Speaker 1: have movie theater or movie studios rather like Warner Brothers

876
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 1: choosing to release films both in theaters and on streaming platforms.

877
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 1: At the same time through the necessity of conditions brought

878
00:51:28,640 --> 00:51:33,000
Speaker 1: about by the pandemic. But that again is going to

879
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:38,640
Speaker 1: reinforce this new model of media distribution, and that in

880
00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:40,399
Speaker 1: turn has meant that a lot of people just don't

881
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 1: worry about hdc P anymore because are are The way

882
00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:49,400
Speaker 1: we access stuff has changed so much. However, even with

883
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:54,640
Speaker 1: this approach, you might occasionally have some downsides, like, for example,

884
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:57,799
Speaker 1: and this is from my own personal experience, you could

885
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:01,040
Speaker 1: discover something that you really like that on a streaming service,

886
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:04,160
Speaker 1: but then eventually the service or the studio behind the

887
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:08,760
Speaker 1: content chooses not to renew the license to stream that content,

888
00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:12,600
Speaker 1: and so the content leaves the streaming service and you

889
00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:16,719
Speaker 1: no longer have access to it. Obviously, if you purchased

890
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:19,600
Speaker 1: a DVD or a Blu ray, you would have access

891
00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:22,279
Speaker 1: to that content for as long as the disc was

892
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:26,120
Speaker 1: readable and you had a compatible player that could access

893
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:28,760
Speaker 1: the media. This, by the way, is a big problem

894
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:32,080
Speaker 1: that goes well beyond just home theaters. There's this whole

895
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:36,239
Speaker 1: issue of the way we record stuff and the way

896
00:52:36,239 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 1: we access it can limit and and create a limited

897
00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:45,520
Speaker 1: shelf life for content if we don't transfer that to

898
00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:51,200
Speaker 1: newer types of media. Anyway, this happened with me with

899
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:54,080
Speaker 1: a British sketch show called that Mitchell and web Look.

900
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:57,480
Speaker 1: Netflix had it available once upon a time. I absolutely

901
00:52:57,520 --> 00:52:59,839
Speaker 1: loved it. It became like my go to. Even after

902
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:04,040
Speaker 1: I seen every episode, I would go back and watch them. Eventually, however, uh,

903
00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:08,880
Speaker 1: Netflix lost its license. Like the license expired, it was

904
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:14,000
Speaker 1: not renewed, and so the program left Netflix's US service

905
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:17,040
Speaker 1: and I found myself unable to watch it. At least

906
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:21,320
Speaker 1: I was unable to watch it legally. There are illegal

907
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:22,880
Speaker 1: ways to do it, but I don't really want to

908
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:24,759
Speaker 1: do that. I'd rather like do it in a way

909
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 1: that supports the show. Now, the contents region locked, and

910
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:31,839
Speaker 1: at least the last time I checked, there was no

911
00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:34,799
Speaker 1: way to access that content in the United States. Like

912
00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:38,120
Speaker 1: the DVDs and blue rays are all region locked, so

913
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 1: I can't get a US region version of that. There's

914
00:53:41,239 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 1: no US streaming version of it as far as I know.

915
00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:46,319
Speaker 1: I mean, it may have changed since the last time

916
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:49,160
Speaker 1: I checked, but that gets into region locking. That's another

917
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:52,080
Speaker 1: conversation that we should probably have in the future, but

918
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:55,719
Speaker 1: I'll leave it for now, and let's conclude with a

919
00:53:55,800 --> 00:53:59,960
Speaker 1: quick word about cable quality. I touched on this earlier,

920
00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:02,919
Speaker 1: but I thought, I think it's really good to cover

921
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:06,960
Speaker 1: in more detail. Now I don't see it as being

922
00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 1: as big a discussion point these days in home theater

923
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,800
Speaker 1: circles as it used to be. But at one time

924
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:18,480
Speaker 1: there were numerous companies claiming that their high tech, super

925
00:54:18,680 --> 00:54:23,720
Speaker 1: expensive cables would provide a superior experience compared to cheaper

926
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:26,680
Speaker 1: cables on the market, and for the most part, those

927
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:30,280
Speaker 1: claims were rubbish. There were plenty of tests that showed

928
00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:35,760
Speaker 1: that the claimed benefits were either not present or were imperceptible.

929
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:39,759
Speaker 1: But let's talk about why cable quality matters to a

930
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:43,960
Speaker 1: point now. Apart from whether or not the cable is

931
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:47,799
Speaker 1: carrying the specific type of signal you want to carry,

932
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:50,000
Speaker 1: you do have some other things that you need to

933
00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:54,239
Speaker 1: know about. So when electricity flows through a conductor, as

934
00:54:54,280 --> 00:54:57,400
Speaker 1: we mentioned with electro magnets, it creates a magnetic field.

935
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:01,320
Speaker 1: This is one of those basic features of a electromagnetism.

936
00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:05,000
Speaker 1: So if a cable carrying electricity has poor insulation or

937
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 1: shielding around that cable, that can mean a couple of things. One,

938
00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:14,000
Speaker 1: the cable could cause interference in other nearby cables because

939
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:17,760
Speaker 1: you have induction, right, if you bring a conductor close

940
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:22,279
Speaker 1: to a fluctuating magnetic field, that will induce electricity to

941
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 1: flow through that conductor. So if you've got a bunch

942
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:27,920
Speaker 1: of cables saying next to each other, then it's possible

943
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:30,480
Speaker 1: for that you to have interference between those cables, Like

944
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:34,520
Speaker 1: signals traveling through one cable could interfere with the signals

945
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:39,359
Speaker 1: traveling through a neighboring cable if the shielding and insulation

946
00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:43,960
Speaker 1: is not sufficient. Same thing can happen with speaker wires.

947
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:46,840
Speaker 1: By the way, if you've ever had, like say, really

948
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:49,760
Speaker 1: cheap desktop speakers, I noticed this all the time with

949
00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:54,320
Speaker 1: with those because they typically had very cheap wires. Then

950
00:55:54,440 --> 00:55:56,359
Speaker 1: maybe your phone goes off and you start hearing this

951
00:55:56,400 --> 00:56:01,600
Speaker 1: weird digital chatter through your desktop speakers. That's because they're

952
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:04,719
Speaker 1: getting interference from the radio signal that's going to your

953
00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:08,600
Speaker 1: phone and it's playing out over the speakers like they're

954
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:11,480
Speaker 1: they're interpreting that as signals that are being sent to

955
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:14,239
Speaker 1: the speakers themselves. So you want to make sure you

956
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:18,440
Speaker 1: have decent shielding on your cables to avoid interference. Now, obviously,

957
00:56:18,480 --> 00:56:21,839
Speaker 1: with home theaters, you're dealing with tons of cables, even

958
00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:24,040
Speaker 1: if you're just sticking primarily with H D M I

959
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:27,719
Speaker 1: and speaker cables, So it means you do want to

960
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:32,359
Speaker 1: have decent cables that have good shielding to prevent any

961
00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:35,120
Speaker 1: interference between the two, Otherwise it's going to affect your

962
00:56:35,200 --> 00:56:40,440
Speaker 1: viewing or listening experience. Most modern cables have adequate shielding.

963
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:44,680
Speaker 1: You're fine, So you're usually okay unless you're buying the

964
00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:48,600
Speaker 1: super super duper cheap cables. But you know, you definitely

965
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:54,000
Speaker 1: don't need to go with premium, high end gold cladded cables.

966
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:56,440
Speaker 1: You're probably not going to see any benefit from that.

967
00:56:57,239 --> 00:57:00,239
Speaker 1: There are other elements that are important with cables as well,

968
00:57:00,360 --> 00:57:05,080
Speaker 1: such as electrical resistance that could be theoretically impact your

969
00:57:05,120 --> 00:57:09,319
Speaker 1: experience and make it slightly less ideal if you're set

970
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:12,360
Speaker 1: up means that you're using really long cables because I

971
00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:16,840
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe you've got your entertainment nexus system set

972
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:19,440
Speaker 1: up in one room and then all the way across

973
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:21,720
Speaker 1: the house you've got the TV. I don't know why

974
00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:23,720
Speaker 1: you would ever do that, but if you do have

975
00:57:23,800 --> 00:57:28,240
Speaker 1: to run really long cables, then electrical resistance can actually

976
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:32,160
Speaker 1: come into play. You might need a a thicker cable

977
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:36,520
Speaker 1: in order to have less electrical resistance over that distance.

978
00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:39,640
Speaker 1: But most of the time it's not gonna have any

979
00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:43,800
Speaker 1: perceptible impact on your experience. For most of US, standard

980
00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:46,680
Speaker 1: cables will serve just fine because the loss due to

981
00:57:46,720 --> 00:57:50,400
Speaker 1: electrical resistance will be negligible. Uh. And if you're using

982
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 1: optical audio cables, then you don't even have to worry

983
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:56,280
Speaker 1: about interference because those are using fiber optics and light,

984
00:57:56,600 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 1: they're not using electricity and conductors. However, they do become

985
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:03,840
Speaker 1: less efficient over longer distances. So if you are having

986
00:58:03,840 --> 00:58:07,320
Speaker 1: your TV on the opposite side of the house from

987
00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:11,160
Speaker 1: your receiver and you're running optical cables between the two,

988
00:58:11,520 --> 00:58:15,960
Speaker 1: for some reason, it would be a less than ideal experience. Um.

989
00:58:16,880 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 1: Bottom line, if you're buying a reputable company's cables, and

990
00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:23,560
Speaker 1: if you're you know you're making sure that whichever cables

991
00:58:23,560 --> 00:58:26,000
Speaker 1: you're buying are ones that can actually carry the signals

992
00:58:26,040 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 1: that the rest of your system depends upon, you should

993
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:32,440
Speaker 1: be fine. There are purists out there who will disagree

994
00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:34,240
Speaker 1: with me. They will say, no, no, no, you need

995
00:58:34,280 --> 00:58:38,320
Speaker 1: to get this specific brand and these specific components. But

996
00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:43,160
Speaker 1: usually we're talking about performance differences that are imperceptible to

997
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:48,080
Speaker 1: anything other than super sensitive electronic equipment. And since as

998
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:51,120
Speaker 1: far as I know, you are not sensitive electronic equipment,

999
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:56,680
Speaker 1: you should be fine. Okay. That concludes our epic series

1000
00:58:57,160 --> 00:59:00,640
Speaker 1: on the basics of home theater. I know clearly I

1001
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 1: did not go through and start naming out specific brands

1002
00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:09,520
Speaker 1: and specific models of of components and such, because I

1003
00:59:09,560 --> 00:59:11,400
Speaker 1: think a lot of that comes down to personal taste,

1004
00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:14,680
Speaker 1: like what features do you want what's already part of

1005
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:16,960
Speaker 1: your system. You know, maybe you want to have a

1006
00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 1: universal remote that works with stuff. You want to make

1007
00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:22,680
Speaker 1: sure that your universal remote is going to support whichever

1008
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 1: components you have. Otherwise there's no point in having it.

1009
00:59:25,960 --> 00:59:27,880
Speaker 1: It's just gonna be an extra remote that you'll have

1010
00:59:27,920 --> 00:59:30,160
Speaker 1: to have and in line with a ton of others.

1011
00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:34,320
Speaker 1: So because of that, and because of the very subjective

1012
00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:37,600
Speaker 1: nature of what one person thinks of as being a

1013
00:59:37,640 --> 00:59:40,880
Speaker 1: superior experience, it didn't make much sense to go into that.

1014
00:59:40,920 --> 00:59:43,080
Speaker 1: I mean, I did not talk about like the Xbox

1015
00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:46,200
Speaker 1: and the PlayStation, but those are the two leading consoles

1016
00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:49,000
Speaker 1: on the market, so that's why I talked about those.

1017
00:59:49,240 --> 00:59:52,720
Speaker 1: There are other type supports, like video ports that I

1018
00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:55,560
Speaker 1: didn't really talk about like d v I. But they

1019
00:59:55,640 --> 01:00:00,160
Speaker 1: also are not really heavily used these days unless you're

1020
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:04,480
Speaker 1: doing something like connecting your computer to your television. Um,

1021
01:00:04,480 --> 01:00:07,080
Speaker 1: but for like the basic stuff that we think of

1022
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:10,160
Speaker 1: for a home theater, I didn't think they were really important.

1023
01:00:10,440 --> 01:00:13,120
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the series. I hope you've learned something.

1024
01:00:14,000 --> 01:00:17,520
Speaker 1: I hope you feel better about whatever purchasing choices you

1025
01:00:17,600 --> 01:00:19,880
Speaker 1: might have made so far for your home theater system,

1026
01:00:19,920 --> 01:00:23,000
Speaker 1: including you know, like, oh, should I have sprung more

1027
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:27,680
Speaker 1: money for super fancy cables. Probably not again unless you're

1028
01:00:27,760 --> 01:00:31,600
Speaker 1: in one of those more extreme situations. And um, yeah,

1029
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:33,560
Speaker 1: this was a fun one to do, a fun series

1030
01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:36,440
Speaker 1: to go down. And I'll probably do some more related stuff,

1031
01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:39,840
Speaker 1: like I'll talk more about uh DRM, and I'll talk

1032
01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:42,840
Speaker 1: more about the nature of how we access and consume

1033
01:00:42,960 --> 01:00:45,000
Speaker 1: media and how that has changed and how that has

1034
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:48,120
Speaker 1: shaped technology, because that's a big part of it. But

1035
01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:50,640
Speaker 1: in the meantime, if you have any suggestions for topics

1036
01:00:50,640 --> 01:00:52,680
Speaker 1: I should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, reach

1037
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:54,880
Speaker 1: out to me. The best way to do that is

1038
01:00:54,920 --> 01:00:58,040
Speaker 1: over on Twitter, the handle we uses tech Stuff hs W.

1039
01:00:58,760 --> 01:01:02,520
Speaker 1: This has been a very long episode and I'll talk

1040
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:11,120
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Y Text Stuff is an

1041
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:14,840
Speaker 1: I heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

1042
01:01:15,160 --> 01:01:18,320
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1043
01:01:18,440 --> 01:01:19,920
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.