Dual Screen DVD Player

I’m fortunate enough to be able to take my family on two or three vacations per year. It requires a lot of saving and discipline to afford these trips, but we all look forward to them as a means of bonding and spending quality time together. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to pay for everything if we had to fly to our destinations, so we load up the car and head out on long road trips instead. That could be a recipe for disaster with two young kids sitting in close proximity to each other in the back seat for hours on end, but they manage to stay pretty well occupied thanks to our dual screen DVD player.

Some higher-end cars, SUVs, and minivans come with the option of having a dual screen DVD player factory installed in the vehicle, but that wasn’t something I considered back when I bought my car. The most I could afford at the time was a 5-disc CD changer, which still seemed like a luxury. But I learned rather quickly that kids are simply not as interested in audio CDs as they are in cartoons and movies, so I ended up purchasing an after-market dual screen DVD player and installing it myself. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made!

Prior to buying my dual screen DVD player, I did some research to make sure I would get a good, solid product for my money. There are a lot of players on the market and all come with their own set of features. I couldn’t tell on my own which features were musts and which I could live without, so I had read through a bunch of consumer reviews for all different brands and models. For instance, is there a significant difference between viewing movies on 7-inch screens versus 9-inch screens? Should I pay a bit extra for video game console adapters? How necessary is it to have a remote control for the dual screen DVD player in a standard-sized car like mine? How easy is the mounting/removal process? These are just a few of the questions I had to consider before making a decision.

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Player Bluray

Rounding out the bestselling Blu-ray Players are a combination of entry-level players to the more high-end players. All offer a great value for their cost. Featuring 3D capability, Online Streaming Media Services, DVD up-scaling, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential, BD-Live, Bonus View, Wi-Fi, universal playback and excellent images and Audio. Among them are award-winning Blu-ray Players that should appeal to many first time buyers (LG BD530) or for those looking to beef up their Home Entertainment Center (OPPO BDP-93). Either one will be a fine addition and provide hours of enjoyment.

Panasonic DMP-BDT100 Full HD 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

Like Panasonic’s DMP-BDT300 and DMP-BDT350 players, the DMP-BDT100 provides excellent 2D and 3D image quality (1920 x 1080 full-HD image to each eye) and superior audio (Internal decoding and bit-stream output of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential). The player is able to reproduce your movies the way the filmmaker intended. It also has VIERA Cast Internet entertainment/applications, which can be access via a wired or wireless LAN connection. Other features include True to Cinema Picture Quality, PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus, New P4HD Enhanced Full HD Up-sampling and Adaptive High Precision 4:4:4. Price you should look for when purchasing — Under $250.00

LG BD530 1080p Network Blu-ray Disc Player

The BD530 provides you with stunning Full HD 1080p video resolution and internal audio decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential. You also get online streaming entertainment such as YouTube, Picasa and AccuWeather. The BD530 will give you access to BD-Live content and can up-scale standard DVDs to 1080p, making your old DVD collection look better than ever before. All these great features for an unbelievable low price. The LG BD530 player is one of the finest entry-level players available. Price you should look for when purchasing — Under $120.00

Samsung BD-C5900 1080p 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

Samsung is committed to 3D and bringing us the best 3D Entertainment possible to our living rooms. With the BD-C5900 3D player you get clear and sharp detailed images through Samsung’s innovative 3D technology. Of course you it can still play standard 2D discs, DVDs and CDs as well. It provides access to Internet(at)TV Content Service, which brings you the best of online streaming media services (Netflix). The player is Wireless Lan-’Ready’ (Wireless LAN adapter is not included, does have an Ethernet port for wired connections) and DLNA capability for streaming videos from your computer to your TV via the AllShare feature. Price you should look for when purchasing — Under $150.00

OPPO BDP-93 Universal Network 3D Blu-ray Disc Player

Oppo’s BDP-93 is an award-winning player, having been named one of the Products of the Year by Electronic House. The BDP-93 is a Universal player with playback of Blu-ray, DVD, CD, Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio, and support for a host of digital files. Has excellent images and sound quality regardless of what type of media is being played. Other features include Network Streaming (Netflix or Blockbuster on Demand), Wireless N, eSata, USB port, Dual HDMI 1.4 Outputs, IR and RS232 Control and 2nd Generation Qdeo Video Processing. All this adds up to one of, if not the best player available right now. Price you should look for when purchasing — $499.99

Panasonic DMP-BD65 Blu-Ray Disc Player

Named the Best Budget Buy player by The Testing Group (TTG), the Panasonic DMP-BD65 offers an array of great features, while costing far less than its competitors. The player has an ultra-fast two second start-up speed, BD-Live/BonusView functionality, Panasonic’s VIERA Cast Internet entertainment/applications, an Ethernet Port, is Wi-Fi ‘Ready’ (DY-WL10 wireless LAN adapter is not included) and includes a USB Port and SD Card Slot (DivX and AVCHD support). Add to this; excellent image and sound quality, Panasonic’s commitment reduce power consumption and an effort to be more energy efficient, the DMP-BD65 is easily considered by most experts to one of the best players around. Price you should look for when purchasing — $150.00

Look for Part One for the rest of the best selling Blu-ray Players….

I would like to offer this FREE BLU-RAY PLAYERS BUYING GUIDE when you visit http://www.Bluray-DVD-Players.com Or view our list of the Ten Best Blu-ray players here: Best Blu-ray Players Copyright 2011. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

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DP To HDMI

Quality audio equipment is a highly subjective. Many individuals will have an opinion that varies from the next person of where to find good to high quality audio speakers. Some will almost always default to the local brick and mortar electronics super chain. The average consumer may be willing to settle for this solution not knowing the truth.

There are many brand names throughout the pro-audio speaker world. Some manufacturers have even attempted to carry over their name to the home audio enthusiast, sometimes without sacrificing good quality. Many times, however, the home audio speakers available at the electronics store are constructed with cheap quality parts. Frequently this allows the retailer to advertise the products as a best buy with deep discounts.

There are excellent alternatives to relying on the local retailers. Shopping on the web can yield several advantages. The first step in purchasing an excellent set of audio speakers is to write down the intended environment for which the speakers will be used. Certain materials and speaker specifications may create exceptional sound in a dance club, but be unsuitable in a residential setting.

It is recommended, especially for aspiring bands or disc jockeys, to actually build their own custom audio drivers. Although this may sound intimidating at first, with patience and attention to detail, the average individual can craft a superior speaker set. Of course other factors go into the sound being produced such as the quality of the source and the amplifier.

For those individuals new to the world of speaker repair or speaker kit building there are several good books at the local bookstore which can provide a wealth of information without inundating the reader with overly technical jargon. Many of these same books will have the plans for designing and building the speaker enclosure. The design of the speaker box and materials will have a direct impact on the ability of the speaker to produce rich and full sound in addition to the construction of the speaker itself.

For those do-it-yourself novices and even those who are experienced, many online retailers that specialize in speaker repair kits or individual speaker components are a good resource with which to consult. Frequently the representatives at the online retailer have practical speaker building experience to share with the customer. As competitive as the retail market can be, better service and information can be had from online speaker specialists than what is available from a clerk at the brick and mortar stores.

Many websites provide additional information on the topic of audio speaker kits and repair. One such site worth visiting is http://www.midwestspeaker.com.

Dan Elliott independently authors articles for WebDrafter.com, Inc. ( http://www.webdrafter.com ) for search engine marketing. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author, and not of any other person, company, or organization. No guarantee or warranty, express or implied, is made regarding the accuracy, fitness, or use of the content herein.

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HDMI To Displayport

Why Do I Want a Graphics Card?

Whether you are a gamer or work in the graphics design/video rendering fields, the base model video chipset in your PC just isn’t good enough. To be able to work or game quickly with the optimal FPS (frames per second), you’ll have to upgrade your system. For those new to building a video and graphics intensive system, make sure you check out our articles on graphics cards like Learn To Build A Gaming PC before you try to install a high-end video card into any old system.

Graphics Cards: What to Look For

There is a lot to graphics cards, but we’ve managed to break them down and define the key aspects so you can find the one that works for you. They broke down into the following categories.

GPU/Interface
The graphics processing unit (GPU) is basically a second CPU but is designed to offload all the graphics rendering from the CPU and process it on the graphics card. Obviously, these are made to handle intense graphical workloads, which frees up your CPU to run all the other aspects of applications. What does that mean for you? Faster processing! The fastest processor on the market would bog down and overheat if it tried to process graphics in addition to everything else. The main thing you’re looking for on the GPU is the clock speeds.

Video Memory
This criteria goes hand in hand with the GPU; you also want a fast clock speed. The amount of memory is also crucial because it is the GPU’s own RAM. Like your CPU needs RAM, the GPU needs its own video memory to reach higher speeds. Also, the larger the bus width and bandwidth, the more information can be processed simultaneously.

Display Interface
These are the connections that the graphics card uses to connect to a monitor. DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort all support the higher resolutions, with dual channel DVI as the most common. It is important to match up these connections with the ones your monitor has. If your monitor doesn’t have the same connections then you have to get a converter cable which may result in lower resolutions.

Supported API
Application Programming Interface (API) is the interface that enables interaction with software. Software that wants to use the GPU has to be compatible with the API of the card. For example, if your card only supports DirectX 9 and you buy a game or application that requires DirectX 11, you will have to upgrade your card in order to run it.

Rendering Technologies
This criterion refers to the various technologies that are integrated in to the graphics cards. It’s hard to say which ones are better than others, because opinion-based prejudice runs rampant when it comes to graphics cards and which is the best. Truth be told, they’re all very similar and do basically the same things. Also, unless a game or application is built specifically with some of the technologies, they often don’t make a great deal of difference. Others do make a difference, however. Nvidia is known for their CUDA technology and it has been a thorn in the side of ATI for a while now. On the other end, ATI’s new Eyefinity technology looks pretty impressive when you stretch your desktop across 6 screens and maintain HD quality.

Additional Features
These are just a few extra goodies that aren’t extremely important and actually vary depending on the board manufacturer (ASUS, EVGA, Sapphire, etc). The information on our site is from the base models of each manufacturer. Typically, board manufacturers will have additional versions with multiple fans, liquid cooling and other variations.

About the Author

Tushar Virani

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Belkin HDMI Cable

First Impressions – Un-boxing the Canon EOS 60D Digital Camera Outfit

First let me tell you what camera I’m un-boxing. I have the Canon EOS 60D Digital Camera with Canon’s EF-S 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. This kit is a deluxe kit from Canon that also includes an extra battery, an HDMI cable and a lens hood. The deluxe add-ons have about a $110.00 value when purchased separately. The camera comes with all of its parts and pieces in a nice overwrap box. Inside there is the regular camera and lens box plus the bonus pieces individually packaged but loose in the box. The HDMI cable is stout feeling and is labeled as “Belkin”. The EW-73B hood and the extra LP-E6 battery are in Canon’s standard packaging. First thing in the camera’s box is the two pound package of multi-language instruction books. Then we have the warranty cards and the Canon software package. Don’t ignore the software! Keep it handy but set it aside for a moment. Under the interior box flap we find the camera body, the lens and many parts and pieces for camera operation. The first thing I always do is dig out the battery and charger to get them plugged in and charging. Once that done it’s time to unload the rest of the box. Canon packs a USB cable and an AV cable with the EOS 60D camera. The USB cable is only slightly handy but the AV cable immediately goes into my camera bag. Today’s cameras capture such huge files that downloading from camera to computer via USB just seems to take too long for me. I hardly ever have a camera to USB cable in my bag, but I always have a USB memory card reader. The AV cable is my favorite accessory. It is also the most overlooked bit of hardware by many photographers. I always carry the AV cable so that I can review my images anywhere. No matter where you go odds are that there is a TV set nearby. With the AV cable I can always show off my images (and now movies) even if I don’t have a laptop with me. And if the option presents itself wouldn’t you prefer to view the day’s images on an HDTV rather than on your puny little laptop monitor? Next out is the camera body. The Canon EOS 60D is in an odd position in Canon’s camera hierarchy. It replaced the older EOS 50D in some ways and in others it is a Rebel series camera on steroids. I was expecting to find that the body was plastic feeling and maybe even a little creaky like some of the Rebels have been. I was pleasantly surprised to find the body to be sturdy feeling in the hand and weighted just right for balance. The Canon EF-S 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS lens is also reassuringly heavy. I don’t mean to imply that it weighs too much, it doesn’t. But then it also feels much more substantial than the Rebels’ 18-55mm kit lens and not just by weight but considering fit and finish too. I would put it on par with the former 28-135mm kit lens of the old 50D. However the 18mm wide angle length is much more appropriate for a digital SLR than the 28mm length of the former lens. Before mounting the lens I attach the neck strap. Having a neck strap on the camera is as important as seat belts to a car. A neck strap can mean the difference between a full-fledged drop and a mere ding on the lens. The battery is still charging so now is a good time to install the Canon software. In particular I have found that ‘Digital Photo Professional, ‘PhotoStitch’ and the ‘Picture Styles Editor’ are the programs to install on my computer. It has taken almost two hours but the battery is fully charged and it’s time to start getting used to the new camera. In all I think the Canon EOS 60D presents itself well from box to full use. The components in the box are generally useful with little fluff and nothing missing. But here it is worth mentioning that the regular EOS 60D outfits do not come with an HDMI cable, only this special kit does. Get the mini-HDMI to HDMI cable the same day you purchase the camera. You are going to want it!

About the Author

Stu Eddins is blogger, instructor, merchandiser, and is generally in charge of a lot of things for Porter’s Digital Cameras and Imaging. Years of experience over the counter and in classrooms have turned Stu into an evangelist for image preservation, capturing and sharing memories, and helping people understand digital cameras, Canon DigitalCameras

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