Boycott NBC!

It’s Olympic time again and sure enough, for those of us in west coast, NO live coverage for Olympic on NBC again! How ridicules can it be when a live game is played on west coast and people like us who lived on west coast is not able to watch it live?

This really shows NBC [...]

Quicken 2010 Update Problem

I just got the Quicken 2010 Deluxe to upgrade my old version 2008. Big mistake. Not only the 2010 version has not changed much from 2008, it is slower and apparently very buggy!

The very first thing after the installation of the Quicken 201o, it goes to check for update as before. The problem is the [...]

Get the Biggest Saving out of Amazon’s B2G1 Sale

Amazon is having another one of so call “Buy 2, Get 1 Free Sale” for Blu-Ray movies. But is it really a “sale”? It seems Amazon has raised the prices on those qualify for the “sale” by average of $5 or $6 from the day before the “sale”.  

Let’s assume for a movie that was listed [...]

$98 Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-Ray Player (4) – Usage Impression Follow Up

When I first got the Magnavox NB530MGX I was using an older Pioneer receiver that lack of HDMI connection which means I was not able to decode the HD audio formats. I was using the coaxial digital output of the NB530 to the receiver. The result of course is as good or as [...]

$1.99 10’ HDMI Cable at Fry’s

Fry’s this week has a generic 10’ HDMI cable for sale at $1.99! Granted, this is a sales price and the regular price is $7.99 at Fry’s. Although at $7.99 this cable may no longer be a bargain compares to the cable by Monoprice but this is still a good price if you [...]

Monoprice HDMI Switcher HDX-401E

HDMI has become more and more important. Not just because HDMI simplified A/V connections, equally or even more important is the evil HDCP DRM. Without HDCP, the DVD players are not allowing to upscale video beyond 480P; even I have paid the full price for the DVD movie.  Without HDCP, the Blu-Ray players [...]

$98 Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-Ray Player (3) – Inside the Cover

Out of curiosity, I opened up the Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-Ray Player. I was surprised for a low end unit; there are more screws than a Yamaha RX-V665 receiver that need to be unscrewed to open the unit.  They probably can cut 1/3 of the screws without affecting performance or rigidity of the casing.

Sony Movie Staycation Coupon Good Until 10/31/2009

It is interesting to see Sony has a $3 coupon that is good until 10/31/2009 for some Blu-Ray movies. One would think they want to encourage people to buy their movies but on the other hand, Sony does not make these coupons easy to find.

Anyway, here they are,

Amazon & DeepDiscount Code
Retail Store Coupon

Yamaha RX-V665 (3) – Inside the Cover Part 2, Digital Section

The digital section of the Yamaha RX-665 looks much much better than the power supply and power amp section. Let’s take a look from the input end.

The HDMI connectors are directly soldered on to the board. They are controlled by Silicon Image’s chips,

Receiver: SiI9233
Transmitter: SiI9134

These chips can handles up to 4 [...]

Yamaha RX-V665 (2) – Inside the Cover Part I, Power Supply and Amplifier Section

 While just by the weight we already know the Yamaha RX-V665’s power amp is not going to be that good, we are still surprised by what we found inside the cover.

 

First, the power transformer is unbelievably small for rated spec output. To make the matter worse, the capacitors in [...]