HD Shoptalk with the HT Guys, Part One
Dolby Podcast Episode 16, June 7, 2007
An interview with the HT Guys, HDTV experts and podcasters, Ara Derderian and Braden Russell. The HT Guys talk about high-def video, their favorite movies for home theater and how listeners can best use $2,000 on home theater equipment. Plus, they give tips for making a video server using Mac Mini or Linux.
Be sure to catch the HT Guys' second visit to Dolbycast in HD Shoptalk with the HT Guys, Part Two on June 21, 2007.
Hear them all: Listen to Dolbycast on iTunes® or subscribe using your favorite RSS reader.
Mentioned in this Episode
[intro music]
Jack Buser: Hello! And welcome to Dolbycast, the insider's guide to entertainment technology from the experts at Dolby Laboratories. I'm Jack Buser.
Craig Eggers: And I'm Craig Eggers.
Jack: And we're here to give you the straight talk on everything you need to please your ears.
Craig: Well, this is a very, very special Dolbycast. In fact, we are actually recording remotely, Jack.
Jack: Yes we are. We are up in the Dolby screening room.
Craig: Up in the screening room. And I have to tell you that this particular session has some very, very special guests.
Jack: Yes we do.
Craig: Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Ara Derderian.
Jack: [makes cheering sound]
Ara Derderian: Thank you.
Craig: Round of applause, right?
Jack: [laughs]
Craig: And Mr. Braden Russell.
Jack: [makes cheering sound]
Braden Russell: And thank you.
Craig: These guys are collectively known as the Home Theater Guys, HT Guys.
Jack: Now, are you guys the HDTV Guys, or the HDTV..? Break it down for us.
Craig: How does that work?
Ara: Go ahead, explain the whole thing.
Braden: The website is HT Guys, Home Theater Guys.
Jack: HTGuys.com.
Braden: Dot com, right.
Craig: See, Jack and I were arguing about that, because he said you guys are the “HDTV Guys”. I said, "No, they're the HT Guys."
Braden: Well, we have the HDTV Podcast, right?
Jack: Ah.
Braden: And we are the HT Guys. So the website's HTGuys.com.
Jack: HTGuys.com.
Ara: Right.
Braden: And the podcast is...
Ara: Yeah, HDTVPodcast.com was taken by somebody.
Braden: Somebody grabbed it and was doing nothing with it.
[laughter]
Ara: There was nothing with it, yeah, and so we said, "OK, we're the Home Theater Guys, too. So we put it together under that.
Craig: So, we had a conversation earlier, and you were telling us how you got started. I guess, collectively, it started round the whole advent of HDTV.
Jack: Yeah. Tell us who you guys are and how you got started.
Braden: OK. I'll start. I'm one of those kinds of born tweaker guys, right? So I've been into this stuff since forever. Ara and I met working at Sony Pictures.
Ara: Right.
Braden: Working in the sound department at Sony Pictures, and kind of got into HDTV and home theater and all that kind of stuff from there, got the bug there. And we've just kind of always sat around and talked about it ever since. "Have you seen this? What about this new thing coming out?"
And we decided, at some point, just to start podcasting and doing an online radio show about everything that we love and we enjoy, and that's kind of where it got started. You came to me with the idea, Ara.
Ara: Right. And there was a lot of education we had while working at Sony. So, we got to talk to mixers, top mixers in Hollywood, for how sound should sound. And we were in some of the most pristine screening rooms, similar to this one that we're sitting in today, so we know what it's supposed to sound like. And now what we're trying to do with the podcast is take that knowledge and make it available for everyone.
Braden: And part of it is, too, that it's so hard now to buy a TV. 20 years ago, you just buy a TV, plug it into the wall, and you're done. And we had friends—really, really smart guys—who would come to us and say, "I have no idea what I'm doing."
Craig: [laughs]
Ara: Yeah, exactly.
Braden: So, we'd try to explain it to them. And it's stuff that's second nature to us, but most people just have no idea what they're doing anymore. And so we're trying to do the podcast a little bit as education, entertainment, whatever we can do, I guess.
Craig: So, how long have you been doing the podcast now?
Braden: The podcast has been going for over 2 years.
Jack: Yeah, you guys have been going for a while.
Ara: Yeah, we're old in podcast years.
Jack: Yeah, you guys were a real inspiration for Dolbycast, so it's such an honor to have you guys on the show here.
Ara: Oh, that's really nice of you to say that.
Jack: And all of our listeners out there for Dolbycast, if you haven't checked out the HDTV Podcast, it's HTGuys.com.
Ara: That's correct.
Jack: And how often does it come out? Is it every week? Every 2 weeks?
Braden: We're twice a week.
Jack: You're twice a week...
Braden: Yeah, we put up new shows on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Jack: So anybody, if you like Dolbycast, be sure to check out the HDTV Podcast as well.
Craig: Can you imagine these guys getting together twice a week, trying to come up with 2 podcasts a week? And we're struggling to come up with things to say every 2 weeks, Jack.
Jack: [laughs] You guys do such a great job with as much air's blowing around here.
Braden: It tells you how much hot air is blowing around here.
[laughter]
Ara: For us, the listeners are great, because a lot of our content comes from the listeners. So we'll get emails. A typical show, we get news alerts, so we'll read the news.
Jack: Yes, yes.
Ara: Well, when we first started out, we actually wrote news.
Braden: Yeah, don't go back and listen to our early shows. Those are off limits at this point.
[laughter]
Ara: It was so bad. So now, we just kind of take the news and just paraphrase it. And then, a lot of emails that we answer. In fact, we could probably do a show just on emails.
Jack: Yeah.
Craig: Oh yeah, definitely.
Jack: That's right.
Ara: And then we come up with a couple features every week, twice a week. There are some days, we're pulling out our hair just before show time, like, "What are we going to do?"
Craig: I know one of the things Jack and I have to always be mindful of is we have an international audience. We have people from India, from Japan, from...
Jack: All over Europe ...
Craig: English people on islands in the middle of the English Channel .
Braden: [laughs] Yeah. That blew us away, when we started doing the podcast and we were getting emails from, you name it. And we thought, "How could it be that we're just recording this in California, and some guy in South Africa's sending us an email saying, 'Hey this is great! I can't believe someone's talking about this!'"
Jack: Yeah.
Ara: Yeah, it is.
Jack: Well, it shows you how global all this stuff is now. It doesn't matter where you live, everybody loves great entertainment.
Ara: Exactly. And we try not to be only US-centric, although the bulk of our show is. But we try to get some stuff from Australia ...
Braden: Absolutely.
Ara: From all these countries. And we have some really loyal listeners from all over, and we appreciate them sticking with us.
Craig: And you are on AVS Forum, also.
Ara: We are the official podcast of AVS Forum.
Jack: And if our listeners don't know what AVS Forum is, it's actually a forum where people go and post and ask questions, and actually answer each other's questions, about home theater and HDTV and just about everything you'd possibly want to know about home entertainment. It's a great resource. That's AVSForum.com.
Ara: That's right.
Jack: Note, without the "S".
Braden: Right. It's a cool place. If you're researching equipment, someone's probably already asked, "Hey, has anybody used this? Is it any good?" And then you get 20 responses of, "Hey, I've used it before, and this is what I thought about it."
Ara: Yeah.
Jack: Absolutely.
Braden: So, it's a great research site.
Craig: Jack, I don't know if you know this, but we actually sponsored the AVS Forum party at CES this past year.
Jack: Yes!
Craig: And one of the most gratifying moments at that event, for me, was we were actually presented an award, a plaque if you will, for bringing lossless audio to home entertainment...
Jack: That's great! That's cool.
Craig: For our efforts with TrueHD.
Jack: That's cool. Did you go up there and get the award?
Craig: I was kind of stunned. I was up there talking, and the next thing I know, they say, "We've got something else for you."
Jack: [laughs] That's nice.
Craig: And here's this cool award.
Jack: That's nice. Well, listen, usually we do a listener question. But in light of not having a listener question, I thought I'd just ask you guys, over there at the HDTV Podcast, what kind of questions come up? What sorts of things pop up from your listeners that they want to know the answers to?
Ara: One of the big ones for us now is 1080p, 720p: which one should I get? And that question is getting less and less important, because almost all new TVs coming out are coming out in 1080p.
Jack: Right.
Ara: There's still 720p as well. But the standard answer is, depending on how big your screen is, it will help you determine whether you should get 1080p.
Jack: What's your advice there?
Ara: The advice is, if you're going over 50 inches, go ahead and get the 1080p television.
Craig: I would think you'd probably want to have 1080p just because you're going to adopt Blu-ray or HD DVD in the future, too, and you've got native formats now with 1080p.
Ara: Yes, that's true. But the issue is, on the smaller screens, you can't see the difference between 720p.
Craig: Sure.
Ara: So, if you've got a 32 inch in your small family room, you could save some money right now by buying a 720p television.
Craig: Right.
Ara: The issue is that, in the next year or so, you're not going to be able to find 720p. Everything's going to be 1080p.
Jack: Yeah.
Craig: That's right.
Braden: Right now, it's hard to find a 1080p plasma, but we get a lot of emails saying, "I want to get a plasma, but it's got to be 1080p." Well, stop and think about it: does it really have to be 1080p at 42 inches?
Craig: [laughs]
Braden: It really doesn't.
Jack: Yes it does! Yes it does!
Ara: Some of the other things are that if it's 1080p, it's going to have other features in there that may be worth it.
Jack: Right.
Ara: So, you have to look at the whole thing together. But you can save some money.
Jack: Thanks so much for the answer to that question. On that note, we're going to go to our usual break. When we come back, more...
Craig: More questions for these guys.
Jack: You got it.
Craig: The HT Guys.
Jack: See you guys in a bit.
[music]
Braden: Hi, I'm Braden Russell.
Ara: And I'm Ara Derderian. And together, we're the HT Guys.
Braden: You're listening to the Dolbycast. And if you've got a question about audio, where do you send it?
Ara: To dolbycast@dolby.com.
[music]
Craig: And we're back at Dolbycast. I'm Craig Eggers.
Jack: And I'm Jack Buser.
Craig: And we are here with 2 very special guests, Mr. Ara Derderian and Mr. Braden Russell of the HT Guys.
Jack: HDTV Podcast. We're so glad to have you guys here on the show today.
Craig: Definitely.
Ara: Oh, we're having a great time.
Jack: Such an honor.
Craig: We had a great time on your podcast, first of all. But you know what? You kind of put us on the spot.
Jack: [laughs]
Craig: So, turnabout is fair play. First question I want to ask both of you guys is what's your favorite movies that you use to demonstrate your home theater systems to your friends?
Braden: One of my favorites is—we actually watched it a little bit earlier here in this theater, and you've got to be careful if the kids are around because it's not a good one to demo with the kids around—but Master and Commander. And the sound mix in that is just amazing. When you think about good sound, you've got to have a lot of explosions.
Jack: Yes!
Braden: And you've got cannonballs going everywhere...
Jack: I like the way you think! [laughs]
Braden: Ships being torn apart. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that.
Craig: I like the front part of that movie, too, when you're down in the ship itself and you hear the creaking of the...
Jack: That was amazing.
Braden: The creaking and the walking up above you and everything...
Ara: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Craig: That's spectacular.
Braden: You know what's really neat in a sound mix is when you know there's no speakers above you, but you still think there's stuff going on above you.
Jack: Right, right.
Craig: Yeah.
Braden: That's some cool stuff.
Ara: And for me, my favorite, along with explosions, is Black Hawk Down. And the specific scene is chapter 22 on the standard DVD.
Craig: He's got it down. [laughs]
Jack: He knows. He knows! You can't put these guys on the spot. [laughs]
Ara: I dial it up all the time. In fact, we use that to test a lot of televisions, because it's a demanding scene on the video, too. There are a lot of night scope shots in there, so that really helps you see if the television can discern detail in dark scenes. But the audio is great, when the helicopters come in for their strafing run, and that's really mixed...
Jack: Oh...
Ara: And they have RPGs flying across the screen and they'll fly across your house. It's really a good demonstration.
Jack: Very cool.
Craig: I'm a big fan of music videos, because you get the whole surround effect of the band on stage and being in the audience. How do you guys feel about music videos in your home theater? Are they a big part of your experience?
Braden: Personally, no. I haven't watched a whole lot.
Craig: Oh, death! [laughs]
Jack: [laughs] You just broke Craig's heart, I hope you know.
Craig: He really did! I'm dead!
[laughter]
Braden: The new HD channel that VH1 and MTV have been doing, the MHD...
Craig: That's cool.
Braden: I've actually watched it a lot more because it's in high-definition.
Jack: That is very cool. Yeah.
Braden: It comes down to, if it's in hi-def, I'll probably watch it. But I don't watch a whole lot of stuff that isn't.
Jack: [laughs]
Braden: I found that I am watching more music in that format, and it is enjoyable, as long as it's in hi-def.
Ara: And for me, I have two DVDs on my video server: The Goo Goo Dolls, I think it was their concert in Buffalo, New York ; and a Led Zeppelin DVD. I really like those a lot. And there, it's about the music.
Craig: Yeah.
Ara: The video footage is pretty good, but not as good as the music, so I'll put it on, turn the TV off, and just immerse myself in the surround sound.
Craig: Yeah, I think that video was shot in 1980 on film.
Ara: Yeah, yeah. It's a compilation of a bunch of different concerts they had.
Craig: Yeah, yeah.
Ara: So yeah, I really am enjoying music through my home theater system as well.
Craig: Cool. Well, one out of two.
Jack: Very cool. No, not bad.
Craig: Yeah, not bad.
Jack: Now, you mentioned, you said, "When I play it off my video server..."
Ara: Yeah.
Jack: You caught my ear there. Explain to our listeners, what is a video server?
Ara: OK. Well, it's a way to put your backed-up DVDs onto a computer device and play it back, have it all playable via remote control. There are servers on the market that do this, and they're quite expensive. They're in the $30-40,000 range.
I put this together with a Mac Mini and some off-the-shelf software, external hard drive, and a couple other Mac Minis at all my televisions. Total cost, including the Mac Minis, ends up being just a tad over $2,000.
Jack: Wow.
Craig: Wow.
Ara: And if any of your listeners are interested, we have the whole process put on a podcast. They can send us an email or just search our archive. We have a search engine, just do " Mac Mini video server."
Jack: A lot of people are talking about home networking. This is, in essence, a home network, so you can watch your movies on any TV that you want...
Ara: That's exactly what it is. And I've gone and done a hard-wired network, because I've been able to serve 4 high-definition streams and 1 music stream in my whole house simultaneously, and it didn't skip a beat.
Craig: So Ara, are you supplying independent movies to all 4 screens, or is it the same content?
Ara: Independent.
Jack: OK.
Ara: Each computer or television can go to the server. There's a very nice graphic interface from a company, it's called DVDpedia. This is for the Mac. Right now, there's no equivalent of DVDpedia for the PC. And you just dial up the movie you want, you hit “play” and there it goes, it plays.
Jack: There you go.
Braden: But we have noticed kind of a trend in home networking to incorporate media.
Jack: Right.
Braden: And it's always been just your computer data, but now everyone's pushing... We just talked about a wireless router that someone was marketing as a high-definition video wireless router. Really, it's just a wireless router for a network, right?
Jack: Right, right.
Braden: But it's fast enough that it can do high-definition. So they're pointing that out, that we can use this now for video and audio content around the house, so it is kind of a direction that the CE [consumer electronics –Ed.] companies are moving in.
Jack: And you also have over-the-air high-definition TV tuners inside this PC. Is that true?
Ara: On the Mac Mini, it's an external USB tuner.
Jack: Right.
Ara: And so you can record over-the-air high-definition programming.
Jack: Just like a DVR.
Ara: Just like a DVR, exactly. And so we're in the process—a lot of our listeners are waiting for this, this is going to come out in June—of building a complete Linux, open source home theater PC. We're putting it in a home theater case. And we're going to do the show in June, so if any of your listeners are interested, that's when it's going to be.
And it's going to basically do the same thing that the Mac Mini does. It's going to be a video server, television recorder. But the nice thing is you can put a front-end on a Mac or a PC and any computer in your house, and change the channel, watch live television, right on your remote PCs.
Jack: You guys are right there on the bleeding edge. I tell you what.
Ara: Yeah.
Jack: This is seriously cutting-edge stuff. That's pretty amazing. On this note, a lot of our listeners out there, they're basically going to Best Buy, they're going to CompUSA, and they're just trying to make a decision as to, "I want a decent home theater system. I don't want to spend a heck of a lot of money, but I want to put together something sort of basic." Maybe not necessarily a whole home networking setup... [laughs]
Ara: Right.
Braden: A lot of our listeners are that way, too. We tend to kind of tweak out and geek out on this stuff.
Jack: Yeah, you guys are on the bleeding edge of that stuff. [laughs]
Braden: But most of our listeners are just your average, "I've got a home theater or I'm trying to build a home theater. What kind of TV should I buy?" Are you asking, what do we recommend?
Jack: Yeah. If I just had a couple grand [$2,000 –Ed.] budget to go out there and put together a decent system, what would you guys recommend? Can you even do it for a couple grand?
Braden: You can.
Ara: Oh, you can do it for a couple grand, easy.
Braden: You can definitely do it for a couple grand. There are so many different factors that come into play. How big does your screen need to be? How big is the room? That kind of thing. Are you looking for a flat panel TV, or does that not matter? You can get a much bigger screen if you go rear projection; it's deeper, but it's bigger and it still looks really, really good.
Jack: How do you guys feel about rear projection?
Ara: I own 2 of them.
Jack: Yeah?
Craig: I own 1.
Braden: I'm in the process of ordering one, so yeah.
Jack: No kidding? [laughs] There you go.
Ara: I also have an LCD in the bedroom, and I think you have a plasma as well.
Braden: I've got a plasma and an LCD. So yeah, we kind of go across the board. We try them all out. Anything that shows high-definition, we'll use it.
Ara: We'll watch, exactly.
Jack: Very cool.
Craig: So I thought I heard somebody say if it wasn't high-definition, he wasn't going to watch it, though.
Jack: Is that true?
Craig: Is that true?
Braden: OK. The way it starts is, when I sit down...
Jack: [laughs]
Craig: [laughs]
Braden: When I sit down, I scan through all the high-def channels...
Craig: OK.
Braden: And if there's anything there that's even remotely interesting, I'll watch it. If not, then I start kind of falling back to the analog...
Craig: Falling back to the History Channel and everything else. Got you. Got you.
Jack: [laughs]
Craig: You know, as a public service announcement, we should probably tell our listeners here in the United States that February of 2009, the broadcasters are going to make the total switch from analog to digital broadcasts. And in talking to our guests, one of our guests has got a satellite system, cable system, as well as a broadcast.
Jack: All 3.
Craig: All 3 sources.
Jack: I've got to ask! [laughs]
Braden: I'm telling you, I've got to get as much high-def content as possible.
Jack: What? [laughs]
Craig: Yeah.
Ara: It's part of the job, too.
Jack: Why?
Ara: It's part of the job.
Jack: It's part of the job? Or you just felt like you had to...
Braden: It's all part of the job. I'm working hard. I'm really, really working hard.
Jack: [laughs]
Ara: If we say it enough, our wives will believe us. But there is a lot of equipment that we have that we do purchase for the show. And quite honestly, we probably wouldn't have as much stuff as we would if it wasn't for the show. So we're making that sacrifice. Actually, our wives are making that sacrifice. [laughs]
Braden: Right now, DISH Network has the most high-def content, so I've got to have DISH Network. Cable is really easy because I can plug it into any TV around the house.
Craig: He never watches standard def. He just doesn't. I can tell.
Braden: They've got 30-something high-def channels, so there's always something on in high-def.
Craig: Uh-huh, always.
Braden: And cable's easy because I can plug it into any TV anywhere in the house, so the kids can put a TV anywhere and it just works. And then over-the-air is free, so why not?
Craig: Can you imagine this? A whole generation of kids are going to grow up never realizing what analog TV looked like.
Jack: That's true.
Braden: My 6 year old will stop me and say, "Dad, that's not high-def."
Jack: [laughing] That's great!
Craig: Is that right?
Braden: Yeah, "Dad, that's not high-def."
Jack: Oh, man, that's great!
Craig: Interesting.
Jack: How about Internet TV? Are you guys following Internet TV at all? Have you seen some of these new things that are being announced out there?
Ara: Yeah. In fact, we spend a lot of time talking about IPTV.
Jack: IPTV.
Ara: And we're really hoping that's the way things are going, because then it almost lends itself to an a-la-carte type of situation where you can just download the program you want.
And in the future, I believe some producers will produce programming that's only Internet TV. And they could open it up to the whole world, so you don't have to just watch something that's made for the United States or Europe or whatever. You could just put it out there; anyone who wants to watch it can watch it.
Craig: Ara, we talk about DBS satellite delivery. We talk about IPTV delivery... Did I say that right?
Jack: Yeah.
Craig: We talk about cable. But you have an antenna at your house.
Ara: Yes I do. It's your standard antenna that you could've had on your house 30 years ago. And the reason I have the antenna is over-the-air requires an antenna.
So, you'll pick up your signal just like you do your regular analog television, and you'll just plug that into a digital tuner, and the digital tuner knows how to translate that to a picture.
Craig: Exactly.
Braden: And just to point it out, over-the-air looks amazing.
Jack: Is it?
Braden: I've got 3, and over-the-air is definitely the best.
Craig: Really?
Braden: Yeah.
Jack: No kidding?
Braden: And it's free.
Ara: And it's free.
Braden: It's just a no-brainer. You throw an antenna up, and you can get it for free and it looks really, really good.
Jack: I can't get my Cartoon Network that way, though.
Ara: That's true, you can't.
Jack: I wouldn't be able to survive.
Braden: DISH Network has an animated high-def channel, so...
Jack: Is that right?
Braden: Yeah.
Jack: Wow.
Ara: We were talking that a lot of the programming that I record on my DVR is standard network television, so most of it is stuff on CSI or Heroes or something like that. So, that is available for free. And a lot of our listeners say, "I don't want to spend an extra $10 a month for high-definition programming," so we say, just get an antenna, plug that into your digital tuner, and you've got high-definition for free.
Jack: Cool.
Craig: Basically, every TV you're going to buy at retail here in the United States right now has a digital tuner in it.
Ara: If it's, I believe, greater than 30 inches, it has to. The number, the inches, I'm a little bit...
Craig: It's actually 14-inch and larger now.
Ara: Oh, OK. So it's up to that now. Or down to that.
Jack: [laughs]
Craig: But a word of caution to our listeners: there were a lot of TV sets that were produced before the cut-off date that might still be at retail...
Ara: That's right.
Craig: So, when you're thinking about making that purchase, make sure you ensure that you're buying a TV set that's ready for the future.
Braden: ATSC is what you're looking for.
Ara: Right.
Jack: ATSC.
Ara: It'll be on the box somewhere. It'll say "ATSC tuner."
Jack: Guys, listen, we've got to go to our second break of the show. When we come back, I want to follow up on this thread a little bit more about what you'd do with a couple thousand bucks [$2,000 –Ed.] to put together a home theater. I'm curious...
Braden: We haven't dodged that one enough yet?
Jack: You guys haven't dodged that one yet. So after we come back, a little bit about how you're going to be spending your money.
Ara: OK.
[music]
Announcer: Jack and Craig would love to answer your questions. Email them at dolbycast@dolby.com.
[music]
Jack: And welcome back. This is Dolbycast. We're here with HDTV Podcast, a.k.a. HT Guys, www.HTGuys.com. If you like Dolbycast, be sure to check them out.
I am about to ask probably the most difficult question of the podcast, which is, if I shoved a couple grand [$2,000 –Ed.] in your pocket—which I'm not going to—but if I did, what home theater would you put together?
Braden: OK. Let's assume that you've got to go with a flat panel TV, right? Because thin is in right now, the flat panels are sexy, so I'd say go with like a 42-inch plasma. The prices now are ridiculous. You can get it for about a thousand bucks [$1,000 –Ed.].
Jack: No kidding.
Braden: So, there goes half your budget, on the TV. And you would typically want to put the other half into speakers, but we need to get a receiver and a DVD player, so you might want to buy some speakers that'll last you for a couple years and then eventually upgrade them. Our rule of thumb is kind of put half your budget into speakers; which people think we're crazy, but speakers are the investment that last the longest.
Jack: I think they're great.
Craig: They really are, they really are. We preach that all the time here.
Jack: Absolutely.
Braden: So, look for a good speaker company that makes kind of a small satellite or bookshelf 5.1 systems. And then a decent home theater receiver; there's a bunch of decent ones out there in a good two, three, four hundred dollar price [$200-400 –Ed.] range.
Craig: You can get into 7.1 at $299 today.
Jack: Are you kidding? Are you kidding?
Craig: Yeah.
Ara: Yeah, you sure can. And then the last part, Braden, if I could add that, is looking for a good upconverting DVD player.
Braden: Yeah, yeah.
Ara: You can get those for about $150. And what the upconverting DVD player does is it takes a standard-definition DVD and it scales it. It doesn't turn it into high-definition, but it scales it. Typically, a good one will make the picture a little bit clearer...
Braden: Yeah.
Ara: It'll clean it up a little, and it makes it formatted properly for a high-definition TV.
Craig: And something I learned from Jack is, if you do that, make sure that player's got an HDMI output.
Jack: Yeah, you got to...
Craig: You want to go into your display device HDMI if you're doing upscaling, because I was doing that with component video, and the difference between component video and HDMI, in terms of an upscaled picture, is pretty dramatic.
Jack: I actually really subscribe to the church of HDMI . I really think that getting that digital signal to your TV set does a lot of good.
Braden: Well, the simplicity, too, of just one cable from here to there...
Jack: And the simplicity, yeah.
Braden: One from there to my TV, and I'm done.
Jack: Absolutely.
Ara: Right. So, I have a receiver made by Yamaha.
Jack: You have the same one I have.
Ara: It's a 2700, exactly. And all my components are HDMI, and it'll transmit the audio and the video on it. It takes 3 cables to connect my DVR, my DVD player, and my television.
Jack: It's unbelievable, yeah. So simple. So simple.
Ara: You just plug them in and you're done. Gone are the days of 5 cables to get video and audio to your high-definition TV.
Craig: Nine.
Jack: It used to be.
Craig: Nine. Three for component video and six for SACD/DVDA quality audio.
Jack: [laughs]
Ara: Exactly.
Craig: Which we get with TrueHD.
Jack: Well guys, I hate to do this, but I think we've run out of time. Our producer back there in the back's waving her hands saying, "Guys..."
Craig: Should we ask these guys to come back again?
Jack: I think we should definitely ask you guys to come back. This has been such a blast. Thank you so much.
Braden: No, we've loved being here. It's been fun for us.
Ara: Yeah, we'll just stay here and do a couple more shows.
Jack: Listen, again, everybody out there, if you enjoy Dolbycast, be sure to also check out the HDTV Podcast. You can find it at HTGuys.com. So again, we're Dolbycast. I'm Jack Buser.
Craig: And I'm Craig Eggers.
Jack: And we'll see you next time.
[music]
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