Philips DCP951 (Portable DVD Player)

If you are one of those people who want to be able to watch your movies on the go, the Philips DC951 has everything that you could possibly need. It sports a nine-inch LCD above the speaker grille.

There are two headphone jacks (so that you don't have to share a set of headphones with someone else), and you can charge it either in a conventional wall socket or in the car. You can watch videos from a variety of sources in many different formats, and you can insert a CD or a memory card to look at photos either free form or in a slide show.

In addition to all that, the Philips DC951 has a dock for you to put in your iPod, so you can listen to all your music or watch the video files you stored on your iPod. Unfortunately, in order to pick a video to watch from your iPod, you have to remove it from the player, manually scroll to the video mode on the iPod, and then insert it back into the player.

The Philips DCP951 has great speakers that do not distort the audio of whatever you are watching, and the screen is not affected much by the glare from the sun or other light sources.

It can play for over two and a half hours before the battery dies out. In terms of design, the Philips DCP951 portable DVD player has one of the best designs out there (compared to players from other brands). Its sleek and glossy design makes it look very 'high-end'.

For more product info and reviews, visit Philips DCP951. For info and reviews on other DVD players, visit http://dvd-planets.blogspot.com

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Tips For Buying An HD-Ready TV

Before you waltz into your local electronics store to buy an HD TV make sure you know what you are getting yourself into. First, what exactly is an "HD ready TV"?

What is HD Ready TV? Is it the same as HDTV?

HD Ready TV means a television which has the capability to receive and play images at high definition. The difference between HDTV and HD Ready TV is that the HDTV has a high definition tuner built into it, while the HD Ready TV must be connected to a digital or analog set-top box which will function as its HD tuner.

The standard resolutions for HD and HD ready TVs are 720 and 1080, followed by a suffix of either "p" or "i". These suffixes designate whether or not the television is capable of progressive scan or interlaced viewing.

Progressive scan is the preference for those who do not wish to compromise picture quality or clarity in the least. The numbers 720 and 1080 represent the maximum resolution that the television can play, with 720 signifying 1280x720 and 1080 representing 1920x1080.

The Advantage of HD Ready TV

HD ready TV has several advantages over the standard broadcast quality television which is prevalent today. First, is the extremely crisp and true to life colors which an HD ready television is capable of reproducing.

Standard definition televisions simply do not have the capacity or number of pixels needed to display such fine details and color differences. Not only that, but standard televisions are incapable of displaying the contrast ratio necessary to produce life like images; which clearly sets it apart from HD ready TVs.

Selecting Your TV

Now that you've been briefed as to the nuts and bolts of HD TVs you can occupy yourself with the more entertaining part of the process, actually selecting your TV. When creating a list of criteria you want your TV to employ, it is important to take into consideration such things as: the amount of space you have for your television, the average light level of the room the television will be placed in, the amount of television you expect to watch and what you will be using the television primarily for.

The first consideration is space. Just how big of an area do you have for your HD ready TV? Make sure you take the depth and height of the television into consideration, and not just the screen size.

If you find that the room you are going to place your television in has a high level of ambient light, it will be important to get a television which has a high contrast ratio, ideally around 5000:1.

An alternative solution would be to invest in some heavy drapes to block the sunlight from washing out your television screen and prevent glare. If you are not planning on watching much television, you can opt for a lower contrast ratio and save yourself some money.

For those who are planning on using the television for gaming, you'll want to ensure that you have a relatively high refresh rate. The refresh rate is the speed at which the television updates the screen, or the maximum amount of frames it is capable of displaying in a second.

For games which require split second decisions, a higher refresh rate can be the difference between life and death.

Now that you're armed with the information necessary to make a sound and worthwhile decision; go out, have fun and get your TV!

Matthew Kerridge is an expert within the television industry. If you are looking for a cheap HD ready TV please visit http://www.ebuyer.com/

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Why are Small LCD Screens More Preferred to Small Plasma Screens?

When it comes to small screens the public response will be in favour of LCD television technology. Those who choose LCD in the small screen category, find it suitable as a secondary set for their bedroom or even their kitchen. The anti-glare feature makes these screens ideal for well lit rooms also.

They consume 30 to 40 percent less power than a plasma unit of the same size. Small screens from 13 to 42 inches are preferred for other reasons like energy efficiency, lesser heat generation and enhanced black levels.

Flickering, which is a very common problem associated with plasma screens, never occurs in LCD screens. Another feature that is attributed to LCD displays is that it is free from altitude problems.

With many such advantages, including cost effectiveness, LCD TVs definitely have an edge over plasma TVs. In providing high definition output with good colour saturation and wide viewing angles of 160 to 175 degrees, the LCD is as good as its plasma counterpart.

The technological support for HDTV is again another positive factor for consumers to choose small LCD screens. Modern LCD screens come with speakers integrated with them for better alignment.

With both cheaper price tags and lower power consumption, small LCD screens are preferred to small plasma screens by consumers. However, large LCD screens are very expensive.

Invariably these televisions are provided with VGA (PC) input connection making it possible to use the screen as a computer monitor. An important feature of the LCD screen is that it has no electromagnetic radiation problems. Picture quality is superb in small screens.

It is well known that static images will leave dark shadows on the screens because of burn-in effect in many televisions. However these screens are free from such problems because the technology involved is different from others.

This has become a very popular technology in the development of flat screens. The modern versions have improved features as far as response time is concerned. LCD televisions are now featured with contrast ratios of 1000:1. Longer lifespan of 60,000 hours is another factor in favour of small screens.

The consumers are inclined to go for this type of screens while opting for small sizes for reasons mentioned above. The market trends confirm this fact. In the competitive environment of the television market, it is very difficult to draw specific conclusions about the consumer choices.

But market surveys can definitely give us an insight. Technological upgradations and aggressive marketing strategies can also influence the market trends. Specific advantages of the LCD technology have made positive impacts on the consumer preferences as far as the small screen sector is concerned.


Compare Acer LCD TVs and read expert reviews on 40" LCD Televisions, Bush, Ferguson , Grundig, Fancy LCD TV Reviews, Panasonic and UMC LCD Televisions at LCD TV reviews website.

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Bass Trapping in Small Rooms - How Low Can You Go

Home theater (HT) system owners understand the importance of sound control in the scope of overall home theater experience. Both sound isolation and sound absorption are features of HT that are necessary for creating the best possible home theater sound (and experience) possible. To address specific steps in sound control, home theater owners need to consider the role of bass traps for the emission of low frequency sounds in smaller spaces.

Bass trapping in a simplified sense is basically the capturing of low frequency sounds that are bouncing around your room typically generated by your subwoofer. The reason for these frequency sound bounce is as simple as the solution. The problem is in small rooms, or rooms under 7000 cubic feet in size.

Unlike very large rooms, for example a small opera house, concert listening halls, or normal commercial movie theaters, low frequency sound can resonate in almost any frequency smoothly from one note to the next. With small rooms, the transition of sound across frequencies is more difficult if not impossible.

Small rooms only have a few notes or a few tones that they will resonate at in the low frequency range. And it tends to make the reverberation part of the sound, the part that echoes after the initial impulse, to be less than smooth. In other words, some tones you will hear twice: first during the transmission of the sound and again during the echo and reverberation.

Low frequency sounds transmitted in smaller rooms differ from other tones and larger rooms. While some other tones are heard after their initial transmission, they are stopped dead in their tracks with no echo or reverberation.

The result is unnatural and not as pleasing. Additionally, it is one of the big differences that many home theater owners have trouble describing. It is, however, something most theater lovers notice between the sound experienced in the movie theater and the sound experienced in a HT.

The explanation for the differences among room sizes is found in the acoustic elements. It is not that listeners dislike or cannot enjoy reverberations low in the band. It is that small rooms cannot physically reverberate smoothly across a low frequency band. When home theater spaces are not large enough to accommodate the sound demands of sound transmissions, they are unable to smoothly reverberate low in the band.

To explain the difference in context, a 100 Hz wave is an 11 foot long low frequency wave. Due to the size of both the wave and the room, there is no way such a wave can smoothly reverberate in the space on the order of say 14 by 20 by 9. The larger low frequency waves they just cannot bounce around the available space and reverberate smoothly.

The first job in acoustic treatment in home theaters to absorb those low frequency signals so that all the different tones sound uniform in character. The overall desired result is the ability to listen to them accurately and smoothly.

Sound control is an area of concern for HT owners with smaller theater spaces. Room treatment that addresses the demands of low frequency transmission and the limitations of smaller rooms can enhance and improve your HT experience for an infinite amount of theater enjoyment.


Mike Deckys is the founder and host of http://www.Smarterhometheater.Com/ the definitive resource for home theater answers and education online. Looking for home theater insight and inspiration? Cool tips? Expert advice?

Visit smarter home theater to get the answers you want. Sign up for our newsletter today, and get a free copy of our ebook, 7 surprisingly simple secrets to enjoy the ultimate home theater experience, http://smarterhometheater.Com/subscribe/

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