Here’s a new video of Baby . . . taken with the new Panasonic ZS3. I’m still learning how to use Sony Vegas so the editing could improve. Also, I could probably find a better way to encode the video for premium quality. Also, I need to learn to avoid camera shake! It’s quite distracting in this video. But for a first video with the ZS3, I’m pretty pleased.
We were wandering around downtown Seattle today so I thought I’d post a few pictures. Most of these are cropped a bit. They were shot with a Canon G11. I was a bit disappointed in the flatness of the color. I added a bit of saturation to all of them. Perhaps the cloudy white balance would have been a better option. It does give a slightly warmer feel. Or I could have bumped up the saturation in the custom color settings. Maybe next time. Overall, I must say I’m slightly disappointed with my G11. Dynamic range really sucks (I hate to say that about a $500 camera), colors are a bit flat (with default settings), the video’s lame and auto mode royally sucks. I might have to spring for the Canon 550D in a month or two.
I’m going to have to rant about the auto mode before I post my pictures. To all those who say, “Nobody buys a G11 for the auto mode,” I would respond:
“Yes, you do. You buy it for all modes.”
People who want to be creative with their photography will love the flexibility of this camera. That’s not what I’m complaining about. Once you figure things out you can get the results you want. But there are times when you just want to pull it out and shoot. There are times when you want to give it to your wife and say, “Point it over here and shoot.” There are times (like at parties) when you’re just trying to capture memories, not get that perfect shot. If you’re messing around with the settings, you might miss your opportunity. All I’m saying is that for a $500 camera, the auto mode should be brilliant. It should be better than most any other digicam’s auto mode. You shouldn’t have to figure out all the settings all the time. This camera should be the ultimate hybrid of automatic and manual.
Why do I complain about it? Well, when my wife says, “Why is there a red hand blinking in the screen?” I have to wonder the same thing. I run over to look at the settings the camera’s choosing. I see a shutter speed of 1/15, an ISO of 1200, no flash and a red blinking hand (signifying that the shutter speed’s too slow for a handheld shot). I switch the camera to “program” mode, set the ISO to 100 and the flash to “auto” and the picture comes out perfect. Good colors, nice and sharp . . . what more could you ask for? Well, an auto mode that doesn’t choose ridiculous settings, that’s what. Not only that, in auto mode the focus is often way off (or else it’s camera shake). Not only that, but whatever the camera is doing produces a kind of pasty, washed-out look to skin tones.
I have to keep telling my wife, “Never use auto mode. It sucks.” And while she’s plenty smart enough to figure it out if she wants to . . . photography just isn’t her thing.
She shouldn’t have to ask me questions like, “Why does everything look blue?” Then I have to tell her that I changed the white balance to tungsten lighting because I was taking some indoor shots. She should be able to throw everything on “auto” and come out with good, if not great, shots. But with the G11, she can’t, and we miss some great photos as a result.
Anyway, I’m always looking for an opportunity to get a new camera. The 550D looks pretty amazing. I’ll sell this one, buy a little Panasonic with a decent auto mode for my wife then buy the 550D for myself.
Sorry about all that. Here are the pictures from today.
I have been in need of a toslink or digital coaxial cable for some time now. I bought a toslink cable so I wouldn’t have to buy an adapter (although I’ve heard that digital coaxial cable carries a more robust signal and performs better over long runs).
I didn’t feel like I was taking much of a risk, however, even though reputable, knowledgeable cable dealers had told me that optical cables (like toslink) may begin to have difficulties transmitting a full digital signal beyond about 30 feet. Why wasn’t I worried? I wasn’t worried because of the many glowing reviews this particular toslink cable has received from customers who already own it. I also wasn’t overly concerned because this cable (50 feet long, 8mm jacket) cost only $12.24. Let me repeat that. This cable cost me twelve dollars and twenty-four cents. O.K., so I had to pay a little bit of shipping. No biggie. Even if the cable didn’t work and I used it as a dog leash, I would still be out less than $20.
So, I bought the cable from MonoPrice and waited. The checkout process was simple and easy (I like that). Pre-sale service from MonoPrice was very good. I asked a number of questions through their online chat and responses were always quick and accurate (very nice).
My beautiful new optical cable showed up after six days. That’s not too bad. I ordered it on a Tuesday and it showed up the following Monday.
I strung the cable through my attic, plugged it in and . . . nothing. No sound whatsoever. However, the fault was my own. My Denon’s optical inputs were turned off. I had to go into my amplifier’s settings and turn them on. I couldn’t find my manual and finally downloaded one from the Internet. After much reading I figured out how to turn the optical inputs on.
I surfed to Pandora, pushed play and . . . nothing. No sound. I screamed in frustration. I punched holes in my walls and beat my computer into powder. After that, I started playing with my Creative control panel (the audio control panel for my Creative sound card). There was a tab entitled SPI / DF (that’s the tab that controls the optical output) and everything inside was grayed out. In other words, I couldn’t activate the optical output. My toslink cable just sat there, looking very pretty and very useless.
Finally, I called Puget Systems (a custom computer builder in Seattle who sold me my computer) and their excellent customer support team bailed me out. Daniel let me know that in Windows 7, you must tell the system to use the optical out as the default speakers. In order to do that, you must navigate to the Control Panel, click the “Sound” icon, highlight “SPIDF Out” and click “set default.”
So, once I had figured out how to turn on my optical inputs on my Denon and how to activate an external source in Windows 7 . . . everyting worked! The sound is clear, bright and beautiful.
And since then, I’ve learned a few additional things. On the Creative control panel, on the SPI / DF tab, there’s a checkbox at the bottom which says “Play Stereo Mix using Digital Output.” To me, that didn’t mean much until I started experimenting with it. When it’s checked, I don’t have to set “SPIDF Out” as default on my Windows 7 sound control. What happens is that both the computer speakers and the living room speakers play simultaneously. That’s pretty cool if I’m want to hear music at both ends of the house. It’s also nice because I can just leave that checked all the time then it’s as simple as switching my Denon to the optical input. I don’t have to mess with my computer’s sound at all.
Well, enough of that. This post is supposed to be a review of my toslink cable. So, here’s the verdict.
Cons
Pros
I finally decided to buy an HDMI cable to connect my computer with my Denon receiver.
Frankly, I was a bit concerned about a 50 foot cable transmitting a high-bitrate digital signal without any loss, so I wanted the highest quality cable I could find. That cable was the Belden Series-1 HDMI cable from Blue Jeans Cable (which they sell in lengths up to 100 feet) with its special bonded-pair construction unique to Belden. It’s also the only HDMI cable manufactured in the United States. If you can find another let me know.
But at $135 for the cable plus additional costs for wall plates and 2 short cables (for running from the wall plate to my components) plus shipping and tax, I was looking at almost 200 bucks. I like quality but I also like saving money.
Blue Jeans Cable sells the highest quality HDMI cable I could find, but they also sell the lowest-cost HDMI cables anywhere. Don’t believe me? Fine. Go pay what you want for your cables; I bought a 50 foot Tartan HDMI cable for $32. That’s right. $32. There’s nothing special about this cable. It’s a 24AWG, tin-plated HDMI cable from China. Yes, I sacrificed my ideals to save a little money (actually quite a bit of money).
The checkout process annoyed me slightly. Blue Jeans Cable uses Paypal; during the process Paypal recognizes your name (if you have an account with them) and attempts to force you to use your Paypal account. It’s fairly easy to get around it; just use an alternate credit card and an alternate email address (not the one you use for Paypal). Unless, of course, you want to use Paypal. Then it’s no problem. Unfortunately, the process is slightly confusing.
The cable was shipped quickly using priority mail. I ordered it late Tuesday and it was on my doorstep on Thursday afternoon.
Both ends had little plastic caps on the ends of the cable to keep dust and debris out, although one of them had fallen off so obviously they weren’t on tight enough to begin with. The cable was coiled neatly and secured with two wire ties.
I plugged it in and . . . it worked. I’m getting beautiful high definition OTA (over the air) signals in full 720p with no data loss on my living room television. That’s impressive for a $32 cable.
I strung it through my wall (no problems there – it’s CL2 rated for in-wall installation) and had no problem getting it around corners and through tight spaces. With the more expensive cable (the Belden Series-1) tight turns would be a problem. The Series-1 is s a 22AWG cable (extremely thick) so flexibility is an issue. All this to say that even though the Tartan cable was fairly thick, it was still flexible enough to be able to install it without port savers (short, flexible HDMI cables that “save” your ports and the soldered points on the ends of extremely thick cables).
Cons
Pros
Final Verdict
If you want the cheapest HDMI cables on the market (that actually work) and you want to buy them from a knowledgeable, reputable dealer (e.g., Blue Jeans Cable) then these Tartan HDMI cables are a perfect buy. Am I saying a 50 foot Tartan cable will be adequate in all applications? No. If you’re trying to run a 1080p signal through the cable you might have problems. But then again, you may not.
I finally did it. Well, Tim and I did it. We ran strings through my wall and my attic! One comes out behind my computer; the other behind my amplifier in my living room.
In order to achieve my goal (connecting my computer to my living room surround sound system) I need two cables: a DVI to HDMI cable (50 feet long) and a toslink or digital coaxial audio cable. I chose the toslink cable even though a coaxial signal is more robust and better for long runs. Why? Because I have toslink inputs and outputs on my sound card and receiver. If I went with the digital coaxial cable I’d have to buy additional equipment (toslink to coaxial adapter). So I decided to go with a 50 foot toslink cable from MonoPrice.com and a 50 foot DVI to HDMI cable from Blue Jeans Cable.
I didn’t talk much to anyone at MonoPrice, but I did use their online chat support, and the technician responded very quickly. He seemed knowledgeable and gave me good advice. MonoPrice’s cables seem to be good cables, but are solely mass-produced cables from China. Their prices (on certain items) are nearly unbeatable and they provide the option for customers to post product reviews on their site. So, when you’re researching a product you can see what others think of it before you buy it. That sort of information is invaluable.
I bought the toslink cable from MonoPrice because the price was cheaper than others (only $12 for a 50 foot toslink cable with a heavy duty jacket for protection) and because of the 25 customer reviews. All customers vouched that the cable reproduced sound accurately regardless of its long length. Every single user rated it 5 out of 5 stars for a perfect rating. I’ll post a review of the cable after I install it.
Blue Jeans Cable was the company I wanted to buy all my cables from. This company really knows its stuff. All employees know cables inside and out. This company sells the only HDMI cable manufactured in the U.S.A. (Belden). They produce their toslink cable in-shop to their specifications. Their Series-1 cable is quite expensive in comparison to generic cables (at this time, their 50 foot HDMI Belden Series-1 cable is $135) but it’s significantly better than other cables. It’s the only cable manufactured in the U.S.A., even though it’s still terminated in China. It’s contructed in a superior fashion for better performance over distance (Blue Jeans Cable has tested it without signal loss up to 125 feet).
I wanted to buy the Series-1 cable but I’m cheap so I went with their economy brand – Tartan. I bought a 50 foot 24AWG cable for $32. That’s right – $32. I haven’t received the cable yet but I’ll post a review of it here when I get it. The guys at Blue Jeans Cable responded to all my emails quickly and they answered all my questions thoroughly. Like I said, I wanted to buy all my cables from them, but their 50 foot toslink cable cost around $50 (at the time of this writing). They do offer Chinese-produced cables (their Tartan brand) and you can check out all those cables at Tartan Cable. I would have bought a Tartan toslink cable, but their longest toslink cable was 25 feet.
I’m very impressed with Blue Jeans Cable. They specialize in all sorts of cables (not just HDMI and toslink cables) and they’re extremely knowledgeable. They have articles on their site that are extremely enlightening. A few I really enjoyed:
Reading these articles really helped me see what’s going on in the cable industry. For instance, are Monster cables really worth the price? Check out Blue Jeans Cable’s articles and you’ll get a very clear answer.
Check back soon for reviews of my new cables.
Here’s a cool video of Baby splashing around in a while.
Baby likes my cell phone.
Here’s a combination of some video clips of Alaina goofing around during Christmas break. Enjoy!
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