31 March 2007

LobsterTunes and HP iPaq rw6815


Few weeks ago mr. Iain Barclay from Electric Pocket contacted me and offered to test their Pocket PC UPnP media player software, called LobsterTunes. At first I tried to install it to my unused Dell Axim Pocket PC, but I forget that it has older OS version than Windows Mobile 5. So, dont bother installing Lobster on old gear, it requires WM5.

Few weeks passed, cause I had to travel and had skiing holiday with my kids. But lately I had enough time to go to local HP and pick up new HP iPaq rw6815 , called "Personal Messenger". Its basically Pocket PC + smartphone. Having 2,7" LCD and relatively speedy 416 MHz Intel PXA CPU.

So, following the "dont kill the (personal) messenger" guidlines, I installed LobsterTunes application. Installation was straight-forward and easy and appplication was usable right away. As proper UPnP client, it found my server and was ready playing music without any additional configuration. One of the UPnP beauties is: no drivers, no configuring. Still, You have to keep in mind, that WiFi keys should be entered.

I ran my personal usability test: from 10 000 tracks on my server, find as quickly as possible Advertising Space, Album Intensiv Care, artist Robby Williams. It took mere 30 seconds to find this track -- good resut! Not much slower than using D-Link DSM 320 with the remote. Lobsters user interface pretty much followed the same logic than any other Media Receiver.

I had lot of small interruptions, some 2-3 per track. At the beginning of each new track I had small 0,5-1 sec interruption on 2.-d second position. Almost always, regardless of signal strength, etc. As this product is yet in beta testing, there is enougt time to sort it our.

Version tested was 1.0.21.0.

Features I really liked are album art and QuickMix.

13 March 2007

From This Moment On in BMW 7-series


Some people like Diana Krall, some don't. I like. Today I got the mood to listen her last CD "From This Moment On". I did it much louder than usually.

I'm the lucky owner of BMW 745, equipped with Lexicon's Logic 7 (7.1 channels) sound system. Lexicon’s LOGIC 7 technology converts standard two-channel music seven-channel surround. The new LOGIC 7 system in the 7 Series BMW consists of 13 speakers, including two low profile subwoofers that are positioned under the seats and coupled to the frame of the car. A set of tweeters is positioned both in the front and the rear of the car with midrange speakers in the front and rear doors. A center channel speaker is located in the middle of the dashboard and surround speakers are located on the rear deck. Also in the system are a six-disc CD changer and a 420 Watt DSP amplifier (main channels 7 x 40 plus 2 x 70 Watts for the subwoofers).

Before this musical experience I was in quite bad mood, because of visiting local tax office. But "after" mood was great. My car was filled by huge concert piano, contrabass sounded better than in live concerts, percussion was sizzlinly live and electric guitar was precise and true. Most of all I was impressed of clarity and natural sound of piano. I even forgot to listen Diana herself because of strong emotion coming from instruments.

Why I'm writing it here, in digital media blog. Cause I bought this album on-line from www.gomusic.ru . I just was very-very satisfied with 256 kbps MP3 sound quality and precision through my in-car 7.1 system.

Didn't sound so good


Dee Dee Bridgewater is my favourite jazz artist. Period. Last Sunday I grought back 2 CD-s (Live at Yoshi's and Live in Montreux) what have been about 2 years at my friends house, still unripped, still missing from my Music Server.

My friend is equipmeent fetish problem. So, we listened my CD-s at his place via Danish Copland valve pre-amp and Copland power amp, attached to DynAudio speakers via very-speecial speaker cables. I sounded so damn good.

Then I went home and ripped righ away these CD-s to my Media Server. I used WMA Variable setting, producing best quality available on my system, Then I listened same tracks from my system. D-link DSM-320; Onkyo d-class amp, Polk Audio speakers. It didnt soud so good at all. Is it due to compression or because of my equipment costs 3 times less than my buddy's? Good question -- no answer.

08 March 2007

Great feedback from my reader


Today I receive such letter:

Hello Jaak,
On my search for a HD mediaplayer I found your Blog. The information really helped me. I wanted to buy the Helios X3000, but as I looked further I found the Ziova ClearStream. The Helios looks better, but the ClearStream has more options. See
http://www.ziova.com/cs505_specs.php
With regards, Marcel (from Holland)

I am glad, that my blog has been hepful and that I got valuable feedback.

Lets take a glance, who is the Ziova Corporation and what they have. They have only 2 main products, HD networked media players. HD only! They also have HDMI and Component cables in their product range.

They have 2 media player models, CS510 pure media player, CS505 media player with DVD.

Clearstream CS510 and CD505 highlights (listed only interesting features)
Pro's
  • HDMI and Component Video HD output
  • Plays MPEG2 and MPEG4 video up to 1080i
  • Plays WMV9 HD video up to 1080i
  • Streams UPnP
  • Streams directly from MS Windows Shares (no authentication)
  • Both wireless and 10/100 ethernet
  • Twonky media server included
  • Dolby Digital analog output included

Con's

  • CS505 model had DVD player, but no upscaling
  • 1080p is missing (I personally don't care)
Conclusion: Full-bred High Definition media receiver with good connectivity.

02 March 2007

2 Mo birthday, who are the quests

Positive

  • My blog is interesting among americans, europeans and in China
  • Blog popularity is risen to 20-40 visits per day
  • I get feedback from developers and users by e-mail
Negative
  • Japan is zero - I believe, because of language difference, despite of many companies in this field
  • Commenting still slow
Next report in 1 month