vibes

I typically wake up between 4-5am, and always without an alarm. I've never been capable of sleeping in. The latest I can remember sleeping in years is maybe 6:30am. I'm pretty proud of myself if I wake up later than 5am.

If the new receiver is capable of decoding TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, then definitely go with bitstreaming.

If we're talking about Dolby Digital and DTS (the outdated, lossy formats), then yes, I do prefer DTS and always select it when there's the option. With the new lossless audio codecs, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, these formats are supposed to be of identical quality and should reproduce sound that is identical to the original masters. I don't recall ever seeing an HD DVD or BD that had both as options. In the case of your player, I would say "yes", because your player is not capable of decoding every sound format, but it is capable of bitstreaming them all. When the player first came out, it could not decode any of the new lossless formats. This may have been improved by a firmware update, but I'm not sure. Blu-ray discs (BD) have all sorts of different sound formats on them, and this is where BD can get confusing. BD may have the following sound formats on them: PCM Dolby Digital Dolby Digital+ Dolby TrueHD DTS DTS-HD HR DTS-HD MA 5.1 uncompressed is 5.1 PCM which, as I mentioned, cannot by passed by an optical cable. The only way to get it from your player into your receiver is via HDMI or via analog outs. DTS-HD Master Audio is different than DTS-HD (which I've called DTS-HD HR (high resolution) above). The easiest way to think of DTS now is to think of an apple. On the outside of the apple, you have the skin. Regular DTS is like this. At the next level, you have most of the fruit that you would eat. This is like DTS-HD HR. At the center of the apple, you have the seeds and the rest of the fruit. This is like DTS-HD MA. If you want full resolution from a DTS stream, your player needs to be able to decode DTS-HD MA or pass it to a receiver. If your player cannot do this, you will still get the best layer of DTS sound that your player can decode or pass (in your case, DTS-HD HR), but that will be lossy sound. If you buy a disc that has DTS-HD MA as a sound option, you are fine. Again, your player will extract the best layer of sound of which it is capable. I don't have and have not watched "Blade Runner", so I'm not sure. The BD-Video Secondary sounds like a special feature, and I almost never watch or use those. If you're just trying to enjoy your movies, I would leave that feature off.

Nope, but that's OK. I'd still love to hear whatever you have to share. It seems like the last time I heard you were in one of the "stan" countries. I could be wrong, though. Not exotic, but my wife and I will be visiting Europe for the first time in May. We'll be going on an 11-night cruise that will be sailing from Rome and visiting ports in Italy, Greece and Turkey. We've never been on a cruise before, but she had been pestering me about visiting Italy and this seemed like a good way to see a lot of different places in a short amount of time. I'm most excited about seeing Istanbul.

Some thoughts: - There are tons of receivers out there with both HDMI inputs and outputs; what you were told by the Panasonic service center rep is completely false. - There are also tons of receivers out there that will pass 1080p video and/or upconvert to 1080p from lower resolution sources. - If the Dolby Digital you were trying to pass via the optical cable was Dolby Digital+, you would definitely have dropouts if your receiver is not capable of decoding it (only the newest receivers are). - Standard Dolby Digital (stereo and 5.1) should be able to be passed (bitstream) from your Panny to your receiver without issue. If you are having problems with that, it might be time to upgrade your receiver. - 5.1 PCM cannot be passed from the player to the receiver via optical; you'll need HDMI for that. - If you want the ability to hear the highest quality sound from your player (I assume you have the BD30), you'll need to get a new receiver that has the ability to decode all the newest sound formats, including DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. The BD30 will bitstream all sound formats via HDMI. It can decode most of the formats and output them via its 5.1 analog outs (DTS-HD Master Audio is excluded, if memory serves). - The cheapest receivers that have these decoding capabilities are, to my knowledge, the newest Onkyo receivers. I have one of the newest Denon receivers that has the ability to decode all these sound formats. I'm very impressed with the sound quality that I get from the combination of my Toshiba HD DVD player and this receiver. The PS3 + the receiver is also great (no bitstreaming of Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA from the PS3, though). This is pretty confusing, I know. Good luck!

I use this as well and have never had a problem with it. I liked it so much that I paid for it once the trial period was over.

I have two computers, a desktop and a laptop, that are running Vista. I have had zero problems with it. Specs: Desktop 2.66ghz Core 2 Duo processor 2GB RAM Laptop 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo processor 2GB RAM 4GB of RAM is definitely NOT needed to run Vista. I would not, however, do it with any less than 2GB. I use these computers for several hours a day, and having not experienced a single problem with either, I'm a little baffled by all the reports of people who say they hate the OS and that it's so problematic. For me, it looks great, runs great and is very smooth.

There are two digital outs for SACD of which I'm aware: Denon Link (the aforementioned "telephone socket"--it's actually an RJ-45 ethernet-style jack), which only comes on high-end Denon players and receivers, and HDMI 1.2 and above, which is available on most newer mid-market and above receivers. It's also available on the Playstation 3, but it decodes to PCM before streaming the signal to a receiver. Not all HDMI 1.2-enabled receivers can decode DSD, though.

Yup. Great way to find free ebooks. I downloaded "Lives of the 12 Caesars" from there last year. I should finish that sometime... The University of Virginia also has a very good ebook library online, also free.

It was pretty loud, but I always take earplugs to shows so that I don't blow out my hearing. That said, I can sleep through loud anything if I'm bored or tired. I've fallen asleep while listening to death metal. I'll probably fall asleep during the nuclear holocaust and the apocalypse, too.

Kelly Clarkson. It was a nice gesture for the little lady I can't remember the last time I was that bored. I almost fell asleep standing up.

Chris, what do you think would be a fair price for the average CD, jazz or otherwise? I don't think anyone here would defend the high cost of CDs by major pop artists, such as Madonna (the example I gave--a real one), where consumers are clearly being gouged...but paying $10-15 for most CDs does not strike me as particularly outrageous. And, if the release is by a small label or of audiophile quality (MFSL, for example), paying more than $10-15 also seems perfectly reasonable.

I don't think most people realize how many people need to be paid. As is the case with many goods and services, people often think only in the simplest terms, e.g. "Madonna is getting $18 for each of her CDs that gets sold" or "The doctor charged me $175 for a 15 minute visit--no wonder doctors are so rich." People have no idea how much money it takes to record, press, distribute and promote an album, and how little of a CD's retail price actually goes back to the artist. They have no idea how much in overhead and malpractice insurance a doctor might have to cover before he turns a profit. I think there's also a very common misconception about musicians in the U.S. (I can't speak for other countries, but it might also be the case elsewhere), which is that a musician, famous or not, equals a rich musician. I think a lot of people would change their tune on illegal downloading if they realized just how much money most people in the music industry aren't making. Having participated on this and a couple other boards over the last five years or so has been very eye-opening for me, and I've appreciated people like Chuck and Jim Alfredson sharing their experiences in the industry. I still don't know exactly how much it takes to put out a new CD or a reissue, but I know that it's expensive, a labor of love, and often a money-losing proposition. I wish that more people had this knowledge, because again, I think it would help to change their tune on illegal downloading. Knowing what I know now, I've changed my tune on illegal downloading--I was one of those people who used Napster back in its heyday and downloaded tons of stuff for free. I've gone back and purchased legitimate copies of everything I illegally downloaded, and I try very hard to get as close to the artist or label as possible when purchasing music now, in hopes that the artist will see a little more money. I know too well that (especially with a less popular genre like jazz) if we want more music, we've got to show the labels that people want it by buying it.

That was awesome. I've always loved OP at fast tempos.

Been up since 4am and am waiting for everyone else to wake up. Nice to have some extra time to myself and to catch up on some tunes. It would be even better if my iPod hadn't crapped out yesterday. I lost 130GB of music and movies, and have a week to go before I get home. At least I have a few GB of music on my laptop. *sigh* Merry Christmas, everybody.

I, too was listening to his Christmas album this morning. In 1996, I bought my first jazz CD: a Lionel Hampton/Oscar Peterson comp--a blind buy--and I loved it. My second jazz CD also had OP on it. For years, he was the standard against which I judged all jazz pianists, right or wrong. After years of not listening to his music much, I've been been spinning a few of his discs (especially "We Get Requests") quite frequently again. Thank you, OP, for introducing me to this wonderful world of music. RIP

I wasn't aware of Evans' appearance on that Dave Pike album, and I enjoyed the track, so I just ordered the import CD. Good show, and thanks for introducing me to some new music.

actually that looks like the core of the case the me; read the brief, the part about the unauthorised copies is on p. 15. Thanks for posting that. The brief outlines the particulars of the case. It doesn't look like this has anything to do with sharing music with the guy's spouse, but rather on Kazaa. Makes sense--I was wondering how the RIAA would have figured out that he was only sharing the files with his wife if it was on a closed/private network, and it kind of had me worried since I share files with my wife over our home network all the time. That apparently was not the case.

You might be sticking it to the RIAA, but you're also sticking it to the artists. For the most part, I avoid secondhand recordings these days because I want to make sure the artists get something, especially if it's a less popular artist.

Papa John's pizza, topped with ham, smoked bacon, green peppers and onions. Milk to drink.

Oh, and no, I don't flirt. At least, not in my opinion. Most of my friends are female, so maybe I should ask them what they think.

Photo?

'bout time someone mentioned bacon. I love bacon on hot dogs. Grilled onions, mustard and pickles are my other usual toppings. The little lady is also a fan of hot dogs, so we have them frequently at home, and out if we're in a city that has them on the street.

Just sent in a donation. Thanks again, Jim.

I've contributed very little in the last couple of years, but I've been here since day 1 and have taken much more from this board than I'll ever be able to give back. Jim, count me in for a contribution if you decide to keep the board going. I appreciate your work and efforts in making this an internet home for myself and so many others. Steve slbrown_hk(at)yahoo.com