T-4070, TX-NR5009 and Co: Network streaming with Onkyo

In the multi-channel range the networking with the TX-NR509 begins for 400 euros and extends to the top AV receiver TX-NR5009 for 3.000 euros. As a result, Onkyo offers more than half a dozen home cinema receivers plus two pre-sets with standard network capability. In addition, there are three Blu-ray players equipped with an Ethernet interface, a stereo network receiver and a new network tuner.


From the plate to the living room


With the T-4070 at the price of 800 euros Onkyo is now following a welcome trend among the major Japanese suppliers. Up to now, such network players were also suitable as streaming clients, mainly in the form of expensive exotics from Linn or T & A. In the meantime, Denon have jumped onto the train in the direction of a networked future with the DNP-720AE or NAD with the C 446.


Quality and quantity


The T-4070 brings thousands of Webradio stations into the living room via the Ethernet connection. It allows the streaming of music according to the DLNA standard defined by the Digital Living Network Alliance, supported by the leading manufacturers.


Blur-ray Player from Onkyo


That is, the T-4070 is able to play music over the system that its user has stored on the hard disk of his laptop. If you want to detach yourself from the computer, your digital music archive can be transferred to an independent network disk. Such NAS (Network Attached Storages) are available, for example, from Netgear, a manufacturer who also has the right router to offer.


Wireless makes more draus


The data from the hard disk takes the T-4070 in the usual formats MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, FLAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis and AAC. These formats can also be played back via Onkyo's network receivers. However, on the T-4070 Onkyo uses particularly high-quality transducers called Wolfson WM8742 for each channel for conversion into an analog audio signal. Actually, a single chip could process both channels, but the Japanese have the best possible conversion precision and have given each channel a special treatment.


The T-4070 not only builds on quality, but also on program diversity and flexibility in use. It accepts MP3, WMA or AAC audio files from USB flash memories or iPods or iPhones from the USB port on its front panel.


The functionality is far from exhausted. On board is a tuner for FM, mid-wave and DAB + with 40 transmitter memories for analogue and digital radio. If the sound of the integrated D / A conversion is not sufficient, the digital data can be passed on to a separate digital-to-analog converter via three digital outputs, including a professional Amphenol AES / EBU standard. This type of system expansion is, for example, not possible with the receivers from the same home. So, if you're looking at audio streaming not just as a welcome addition, but serious intentions, you should go to the network tuner.


For the average user, the additional purchase of the T-4070 is not worthwhile if he already has a network receiver from Onkyo - except for the connection of an adjacent room. The DAB receiving section does not necessarily require the purchase of the T-4070, thanks to the universal port, the DAB + tuner module UP-DTI can be retrofitted to the network receivers of Onkyo for 130 euros

The situation is different when video and photo streaming are required: these functions come with a Blu-ray player in the system. Onkyo offers three models: the BD-SP309, the BD-SP808 and the BD-SP809. All three have a network port, which, in addition to the BD-Live feature, allows you to use interactive content to the inserted Blu-ray Discs to stream media over the home network.


The Onkyo players play with media servers according to DLNA or UPnP standard, such as the Windows Media Center on the PC. This means, in addition to audio formats, the Blu-ray players can also play a lot of videos and photos in formats such as AVI, MKV or JPEG. If you want high-quality audio files like the FLAC format - which is very popular because of its high sound quality with at the same time moderate storage requirements under audiophiles - wants to play over its system, a Blu-ray player alone does not come out Br>

Also vTuner for internet radio and online streaming services like AUPEO !, Napster or Last.fm require the purchase of a receiver or network tuner. In this respect, the Onkyo owner, who wants to run a Blu-ray player with his AV receiver anyway, does not have to worry about redundant, double-paid functions.


The TX-8050 stereo receiver and the multi-channel receivers of the current generation (TX-NR ... 09) can be controlled by the separate WLAN adapter UWF- I for 50 euros wirelessly via the USB port.


Similar solutions are also offered by competitors. Pioneer also frees the Blu-ray player from the network cable, which usually has to be moved from the study into the living room. No one who has immersed himself in this new world of endless program diversity and impressive sound quality will hardly want to relinquish this progress: reproducing music from the hard disk via the AV system without having to use a computer is a basic requirement of today's society Has become like the now fulfillable desire for flat screens, which can be hung on the wall.


The scrolling through the media archives can be managed comfortably from the sofa with remote control and on-screen display. Streaming is finally family-friendly - for a price that most home cinema operators can pay for, since the necessary accessories (see right) does not cost the world.


So "i, Robot" was converted to 3D

The image quality of 3D televisions has improved significantly over the last three generations, but it is still difficult to get the right material to feed the home cinema system. The ultimate show production, the Megaerfolg Avatar, was only available exclusively from Panasonic in combination with 3D devices and is only now released for the normal 3D Blu-ray market.


Good 3D conversion is expensive


We wrote two years ago that the entire film world was caught so coldly by the unexpectedly great success of this film that no one could oppose this phenomenon, nor even swim on its wave. In Hollywood, new production equipment had to be invented and camera personnel trained. Worse still, there were still no top trainings to the stereographers. Avatar director James Cameron was years ahead of his colleagues, and so it has taken so far, that slowly real films and not just animation films are created in 3D.


Cheap mass production


If you wanted a really good conversion of 2D material in 3D, everything had to be implemented by a few expert firms in lengthy manual work. This will cost up to $ 70,000 per movie, and it's only worthwhile for new films to make money, such as Transformers 3, The Avengers, Men in Black 3, Alice in Wonderland, and the last Harry Potter Was. This year it looks a bit better, as new releases such as Prometheus, Amazing Spiderman, Resident Evil, Retribution, Underworld Awakening and of course the little Hobbit have been shot in 3D.


Cooperation between Fox and JVC


The three musketeers and Werner Herzog's cave of the forgotten dreams can not be forgotten as American highlights. Both productions were produced in technically excellent 3D-realization in 2011.


The costs are crucial


We Germans, by the way, are, in a different aspect, world champion in 3D - namely the number of published 3D Blu-rays. Over 400 titles will be available, which are now available to us. And here is a big problem of the 3D boom. The market has been recognized and flooded with ill-made 3D conversions, which almost make your eyes bleed when you enjoy the fun for more than a few minutes.


Even in cheap 3D TVs, a feature is now built that converts 2D content to the third dimension, and the quality of the algorithms in the respective authoring studios appears hardly better than that. One can only hope that not a whole technology Is demonized when one encounters these black sheep of 3D Blu-rays. But in comparison to the few really good 3D-productions it is unfortunately incredibly many.


For years, it is clear that every good TV can be 3D and that the interest and the willingness to buy even for older films in 3D will grow strongly - of course only if the quality is right. Therefore, it is very unfortunate that there are obviously no good and inexpensive tools with which you can convert great films, which have still been produced conventionally, into the visual 3D quality. The development of such procedures and devices takes time, but now there is light on the horizon for 3D fans.


In April, VideoTech, a company from the JVC's professional production division, and the 20th Century Fox, announced that they wanted to convert the film i, Robot as the first joint project to 3D. And so that this new production will not be lost in the many badly made films, a handful of journalists from the 3D high castings of the United States, England and Australia were invited to the headquarters of Fox to Hollywood in order to demonstrate the advantages and details of the process exclusively get. Roland Seibt, the technology engineer, represented the three-day Horrortrip in the heart of the film industry

The 3D conversion must be a business model with profit, otherwise it has no chance. And it only stops with public successes such as Titanic, to manually bury them for three years with immense human and technical effort, in order to achieve an incredibly good 3D result. The trick in JVC's new 3D workstation is that many parts of the process can be automated in decent quality, but a trained stereographer can intervene at any intensity and optimize the result.


Ian Harvey is Senior Vice President, Advanced Technology at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, responsible for analyzing and developing the new technologies of the film company. He has devoted himself intensively to 3D for many years and has presented his high quality requirements point by point to the Japanese software developers of VideoTech (JVC). As the person responsible for the project, he was heavily involved in building the reference system in Tokyo. The first conversion has also been accompanied by a film image and pixel by pixel, so that the quality of this flagship project will be outstanding.


But what happens exactly when a film is converted and where do the quality differences come from? First, a depth analysis must be made of each scene. Which objects are relevant to one another and where do they belong in space? Here, the system takes a lot of work for the operator. With the help of sharpness, escape lines, concealments, speed of movement, and many other indications, it is necessary to decide how far an object should penetrate into the depth of the TV or exit it.


Then objects must be exactly cut off at their edges. The process is called "Rotoscoping" in the film jargon, based on an early drawing technique, in which the outlines of real films were traced on a projectorbank in order to get particularly realistic movement sequences in comic films. Again, JVC's system has been trimmed for maximum intelligence, since this process takes a lot of time for each individual image. The following critical step is currently being performed by expert hand. In order to avoid the familiar effect of the 3D cardboard, the impression that the 3D objects are flat in themselves, each mask gets a three-dimensional shape. Only in this way are people and larger objects really realistic in space. This is one of the strongest criticisms so far and is a huge, important step forward.


If the objects are captured and their depth is determined, they must only be moved to the right and left, so that each eye gets a different view. A major problem with the 3D conversion is that this displacement creates holes at the old positions of the objects. And this tries to fill the new system by stretching and copying so that one does not see them anymore. This does not always work, here well-trained operators and supervisors must intervene and decide where to manually trace. This is expensive expert work done in Hollywood by the specialist company 3D-Paint / FX, and very critical for the business model 3D conversion. Thanks to JVC's intelligent software, the effort is manageable.


How the 3D conversion works


The best science fiction movies on Blu-ray


Actually, the 3D version is finished, but as an icing on cake, real 3D computer effects can be added for important film moments, such as flying glass chips, bullets or cartridge cases. Only these can get really far out of the screen, because then the eye actually has to capture two different views of an object.


The first impression


Fox is using 3D Blu-ray technology in the back of his head to create the 3D image unbalanced. This means that the image for the left eye remains unchanged and a new one is generated on the right. Also a Blu-ray stores the image information for the left eye full and from the right only the difference information. Thus the 2D quality is maintained, because a player then only the left eye takes into account. 3D quality degradation by scaling and stretching is not distributed to both eyes, but may be more critical.


Unfortunately we did not have the final Blu-ray of i, Robot to the editorial deadline and we can only evaluate the quarter-hour, which we were allowed to look at the Fox Studios. The 3D impression was absolutely flawless in terms of depth gradation and edge distortions. The action takes place on the screen, which avoids conversations, and the spatial depth is more distant from the viewer - but not too deeply and without exaggerated gimmicks. The scenarios are therefore quite natural but never maximized or tiring.


For Fox, i, Robot is the first reference publication, further titles will follow. Which will be, is still secret. And VideoTech is already thinking about setting up several workstations for the 3D conversion and then using them in 4K quality. These are good news for fans of 3D and older movies.


Picture gallery


Picture gallery


Steam Rockstar Games Weekend: GTA 4, L.A. Noire & Co. at the top price

From 13th to 17th March 2017 the Rockstar Games Weekend Sale will take place on Steam. The GTA makers offer on Valves game platform single-track with up to 67 percent and game bundles with up to 80 percent discount. For example, you get the crime thriller L.A. Noire in the Complete Edition including the DLC bundle with new suits for the protagonist and various new detective cases for a total of 9.99 euros. The normal price on Steam amounts to 41,24 Euro outside the sales. The savings are thus over 30 euros.


For GTA fans have Valve - operators of the Steam platform - and Rockstar Games a special package laced. If you would like to buy all "Grand Theft Auto" parts with 3D graphics available for the PC, you only pay a total of 13.73 Euros. This includes: GTA 3, GTA - Vice City, GTA - San Andreas and GTA 4 in the Complete Edition. This means that you can also have the extension Episodes of Libery City and enjoy many more hours of fun. If you want to buy all these titles on Steam, you will pay 54,98 Euros outside of the sales. So you save over 40 euros if you hit the weekend.


If you are missing some titles of the Open World Action Series, you can also take a look at the individual prizes. For GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas you pay per title 3,29 instead of 9,99 Euro each. The GTA 4: Complete Edition is only worth 7.49 euros to book - here are out of the current offers 29.99 euros due. In addition, you can also buy the high school satire game Bully: Scholarship Edition or the racing game Midnight Club 2 for 3.29 Euro instead of 9.99 Euro each at the Steam Rockstar Games Weekend.


You will need an online account on steampowered.com for the purchase of Steam. After a purchase the games are in digital form in your library. You can then download it, keep it up-to-date, and play at any time. Payments are possible using standard online payment methods such as Paypal. Take a look at the Rockstar Games Weekend Sale on Steam if you need new games for the next weeks and months - the titles offered offer a lot of fun and a lot of playtime.


Game of Thrones - Season 4 Stream: See all episodes

The fourth season, “Game of Thrones”, has been on the American pay-TV channel HBO since the beginning of April 2017 and has since broken all spectators’ records. And this, although “Game of Thrones” will most likely defend the title of the series most likely to be illegally downloaded on BitTorrent and Co.


Game of Thrones in the Stream over Sky


We'll show you where you can track the new season of the award-winning Fantasy series legally from the United States - via stream or TV.


Picture gallery


The pay-as-you-go Sky was able to secure the rights to the series hit. The new episodes of "Game of Thrones", which have been broadcast on HBO every Sunday in the US, will be broadcast by Sky on the following montages and on Sky Anytime.

Game of Thrones Season 4: Dany Dragon Tease (HBO)


If you do not want to wait so long and you would like to see the results after the first broadcast in the USA, you can do this via the Sky Go online service.


Also interesting is


Tip: Game of Thrones - Wallpaper for download


There is currently no possibility to subscribe directly to HBO or HBO Go in the United States. Past seasons of "Game of Thrones" are available via Apple's iTunes as a stream. Watchever, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Maxdome do not have the series currently in the program.


There is good news for "Game of Thrones" fans who are concerned about the English language. Since June 2nd, the new episodes on Sky are also available in the American version. Purists may now turn up their noses, but the synchronization is quite justified in the case of the equally complex and bloody fantasy saga.


In the international actors' ensemble, the colorful characters from the pen of George R.R. Martin is brought to life every week, almost as many dialects are spoken as in Westeros - the fictional world of the American writer. So if you run the risk of losing the thread in the original version, the American version of the dubbing is put to the heart.


After all, even as a connoisseur of the book presentation, it is not easy to find out in the Seven Kingdoms that are so busy with intrigues and internal power struggles that they do not even perceive the true threat.


If you are looking for an entry into the series "Game of Thrones", want to refresh your memories or just can not get enough, Amazon offers the right offers


Control elements under control

The modified example with the infoblase, which only appears when you click on the marker, looks as follows


Connection lines


To create routes, you need connecting lines that are implemented through Polylines. For these lines, the Google Maps API uses SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) or VML (Vector Markup Language) for the IE. Therefore, you must specify the VML namespace in the html start tag when you use polylines

Own icons


In the example, the line from point1 to point2, the color is # F00, the thickness is 3px, and the line is semitransparent. For the polylines, you determine the color, thickness, and degree of transparency. The connection lines count as the markers to the overlays, so you also use the addOverlay () method to add connection lines to the map. The following example shows the definition of points connected by a link line. Marks are then defined at both points, and the line is added to the map.


You want to replace the standard markers with your own? No problem. Before you go, however, it helps to look at the standard markers. You can get an overview of this simply by using the Firefox extension Web Developer Toolbar (https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/60).Use on a page with a map including the markup in the Webdeveloper menu Toolbar under Images the Display Picture Information sub-screen. Then you will see all the pictures used for the map and that several pictures are involved in the representation of the markers. In addition, it is clear that each Google map consists of several tiles, ie individual images. If you want to use your own icons, you have to create them first. You need


If you pass G_DEFAULT_ICON, it has the advantage that you do not have to define all the properties of the icon. If you do not specify a property, the default properties are used. Now you have to define the properties of the icon: Here you first enter the path to the image, then the path to the shadow


Then follow the paths to the two transparent GIF variants


Also define the size of the icon and its shadow


Now you determine the position at which the icon is to be anchored on the map


Finally, create the object with the options and define the new marker with the specified options.


You can then place this in the usual way with addOverlay () on the map


Link tips


Google Maps using an iframe into the website http://maps.google.com/help/maps/getmaps/quick.html Google Maps API documentation http://code.google.com/intl/apis/maps /documentation/index.html Blog about new and attractive apps from Google Maps http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/ Overview of useful icons for Google Maps


Http://mapki.com/index.php?title=Icon_Image_Sets


Use the Google Maps API to "move" to paintings http://www.thekremercollection.com/art/artists/Pieter-Verelst/The-schoolmaster-and-his-pupils/detail/


The next version of Google Maps - currently Google Lab http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/v3/


But this is by no means all you can do with the Google Maps API: the interface can also be used with PHP / MySQL, for example, to program a branch finder. Or you use the Google Maps functionality - but with your own pictures as a material. So the Kremer Collection allows your visitors to navigate through the Google Maps API: zoom and view details, move the image excerpt - just like with Google Maps, except that it is a painting. And at the same time, the Google Maps API is working on the next version - version 3 - to provide improved mobile device support.


The icon itself (PNG format), a suitable shadow (PNG format), icon and shadow additionally as a transparent image - for the Internet Explorer 6 and for the expression


Flash tips: Nikon i-TTL system - multi-unit flash

Tips for using the Nikon Intelligent Flash System


Master-Slave principle


Even a single flash unit offers a lot of possibilities, as long as you are really thinking about the light guide and not leave everything to the automatic. But you should not expect miracles from a system flashing device. A truly spectacular lighting design with gradients, light and shadow play is always more than just a light source. The perfect flash shots of commercial hunts even require a studio with large softboxes, brighteners and effect lights.


So color comes into play


Because a solitary flash unit can not keep up. The brilliant thing about the i-TTL system is, however, that several flash units can be linked by the master device connected to the camera wirelessly triggering one or more slave flashes. The TTL flash control is in this case extended to all devices involved.


Thanks to the built-in photo cell, the slave flash is triggered by the main flash unit. This also works without problems, as long as the camera does not emit flashes before the actual recording. If this is the case, the servo light flashes too early - before the shutter opens the photographically effective time window. With slave flashes of the latest generation, there is therefore a delay function which enables the device to detect and "overlook" the measuring flashes of the camera.


With slaves, the largest rooms can be illuminated theoretically if several of these devices are positioned in the room. The flashes have to be set up in such a way that none of them flashes directly into the camera and nevertheless all areas are uniformly illuminated. That sounds easier than it is.


Wirelessly triggered flashes are also the means of choice, if the available light is rather boring and is to be upgraded by lighting accents. Examples: For example, With the flash a counter- or strip-light situation. To do this, the slave flash is placed behind or next to the subject or person.


Guide flash: color filters create atmosphere


Flash light is white as daylight. However, you can influence its color - from almost invisible accent to massive flooding. Most flash manufacturers and some foreign suppliers offer plug-in filters in different colors. These filters swallow light, how much depends on the color. I-TTL takes this into account automatically.


Use the color filters carefully. Monochrome pictures usually look kitschy. Only at the same time, even when light is also visible in the picture, do exciting moods arise. This can be a second flash without filter or daylight. You can also combine a filter in front of the lens with a filter in front of the flash reflector. For example, in the case of a landscape view, a light stream is immersed in a cool light while the red filter illuminates an object in front of the flash reflector. Perhaps you did not get involved with such recording earlier, because the results were not directly controllable. For digital cameras this is no problem: Just try and correct. As long as you are satisfied with the result.


The i-TTL system, flash exposure memory, FP short sync, long-time sync and second curtain, soft light, near-focus flashing close-up flash


IPad mini and iPad 4 trumps the battery against Android, Windows RT & Co.

The iPad mini and the iPad 4 have in the battery test of the technology blog “Which?” Against the competition with Android or Windows RT operating systems clearly dominated. In addition to the Apple tablets, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, the Sony Xperia 2 Tablet S, the Microsoft Surface RT, the Google Nexus 10, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime and more were found in the 10-inch test field. They came up against the iPad with a retina display. The iPad 2 was there, too, and was able to hold its own against the competition, but it was clear against the successor, the clearer.


The iPad mini came on the other in the discipline of 7 inch tablets and claimed among other things against the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, the Nexus 7, the Kindle Fire and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. In addition, other, unnamed devices from different manufacturers came. The authors of the blog have unified the test procedure. Each tablet was placed via a meter to a display brightness of 200 candelas per square meter. Afterwards, the testers surfed via WLAN as well as by relevance via UMTS and watched videos on the tablets


The iPad 4 came at "Which?" On an accumulation time of 811 minutes. This is about 13.5 hours of operation with a battery charge. Behind it the iPad 2 positioned with 590, followed by the Xperia S with 534 minutes. Just behind it follows the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 with 532 minutes, while the surface RT with 501 minutes almost the 500-er mark. The Nexus 10 comes with 488 counters in front of one of 16 devices combined Pulk of various average tablets with 451 minutes. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is the final light with 335 minutes.


The dominance of Apple's 10-inch range with the iPad 4 is repeated with the 7-inch devices with the iPad mini. The new Apple gadget scores 783 minutes (over 13 hours) in the "Which?" Test, while the second-place Amazon Kindle Fire HD only reaches 591 minutes. In this area comes also the Nexus 7 with 550 minutes on the counter. Ten average devices of this class arrive at 478 minutes before the Amazon Kindle Fire with 437 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 with 425 minutes. Details and suitable graphics can be found in the tablet battery test of "Which?". Read also the news about Stiftung Warentest's Tablet-Test. Interesting is also our article iPad 4 vs.. IPad mini in the LTE and Performance test.