Archive for January, 2010

What are the components of a Car Audio System?

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

There are many components of a Car audio system. These together determine the quality of the sound and music produced by the Car Audio.

But first there is the issue of Installation. There are two types of installation done by people. General Audio installation consists of usually a head unit, one or two amplifiers, splits, and either a pair of 6 x 9 speakers or a sub woofer to take care of bass. The other installation is for competition Sound-offs. These are also named as Decibels (DB).The purpose of competition is to get the highest DB through a sensitive microphone installed at an exact point in all cars.

Then come the components of the audio system.

First is the Head Unit-It is the primary control system for the car audio unit and is installed in the dash panel between the driver and the passenger. It contains various media devices such as radio receiver/ tuner, a tape player, a CD player or an MP3 player

Next come the speakers. They are similar to other loud speakers but adapted to mobile usage. They are multi axially mounted and come in non circular cone shapes for ergonomic design. In modern design speakers are placed at the dash or front deck, the rear deck, the kick panel or the doors.

Amplifier: A dedicated amplifier separated from other parts of the music systems in car audio. Most head units have an amplifier. They convert low power signals received by car speakers to high power signals thus improving their quality of sound and loudness. Most amplifiers work with a Pre-amp which delivers initial boost to low power signals before sending them to the amplifier.

Sub woofers: Play an important role in car audio. Reproduce sound in the lowest frequencies that are audible and that which produces a deep bass that makes the car vibrate. It makes sound come alive better than a standard speaker. It is usually installed at the centre of the trunk of the car to evenly distribute sound.

Capacitors: They are used to store energy which is drawn up by the amplifier. They cater to the short burst of electrical demands of a car audio system that have exceeded the electrical capabilities of the vehicle.

All these components together make for a fully functional Car Audio System

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The Advantages of Unlocked Cell Phones

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Unlocked cell phones are those that are not tied down to a carrier’s network. It will typically work with a variety of service providers.

Most smart phones and cell phones are tied to a single service provider like Verizon wireless, Sprint, AT&T or T-Mobile. Even if you buy the phone from anywhere, you may still have to stick with a particular carrier. For example, if you buy iPhone from any store, you will still have to operate with AT&T’service. Such phones are called as locked phones.

For many reasons, purchasing a locked phone makes sense. The service provider may provide attractive discounts and deals to the phone locked into their service.

But many others may not like being tied down to a single network as in the case of locked phones. For people traveling abroad frequently it does not make sense to carry the same network while traveling as it will cost the earth to make a roaming call. In such a case they would prefer to access local networks while staying abroad and in this case, unlocked cell phones make better sense.

Some people may also not like to sign lengthy contracts with service providers as they are on the move all the time. Unlocked cell phones are better suited to their needs.

So you might consider trying to unlock your cell phone. Some smart phones and cell phones can be unlocked but they require external help. Once you have bought a locked cell phone it is in the interest of the service provider to keep it locked so they make unlocking a difficult process.

Some phones can be unlocked by altering their software but others may require tweaking their hardware. You can ask your service provider to unlock your phone but it is less likely that they will oblige especially if you are still under contract. Now the alternative is to ask a third party to unlock it for you typically for a small fee. But if your phone gets damaged they are under no obligation to replace it.

Take note that it does not make sense to unlock your phone until the present contract period with an existing service provider is completed or you will end up paying for whatever service you do not use.

Unlocked Cell Phones are useful to those who like to change service providers often and those who travel most of the time.

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The Evolution of Camcorders

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Camcorders are video cameras that are portable and can record images and sound. Recording is done in some media, digital or tape based. They have existed since the 1980’s with technological changes happening in the 2000’s.

The earliest camcorders used to record to either VHS or Betamax tapes that allowed for convenient playback in video players. They were bulky but quite popular to record family events

In the late 1980’s the camcorders shrank in size. VHS-C tapes were developed which were very small in size but could hold only 40 minute of video. The second innovation was 8 mm tapes. They were much smaller in size than VHS . Though it could support 2 hours of video.

By late 1990’s, most camcorders had shifted to a digital format called Mini DV. The popularity of Mini DV was because of its affordable price tag, excellent quality of video and easy to edit features. The video can be copied to a DVD. The size is much smaller than conventional VHS tapes. A disadvantage is that you cannot locate a particular point during the video, not even by forwarding nor rewinding.

Digital8 camcorders are a different digital alternative to traditional types. They do not have the same utilities as Mini DV technology but are capable of running 8mm tapes. So it is a good way to upgrade from an 8mm setup already in place.

With rising affordability and portability, new varieties of digital camcorders have become popular.

DVD camcorders consist of digital based camcorders that use an in built DVD recorder to record footage directly to DVD media. They have become immensely popular due to affordability and portability.

Flash Camcorders use flash memory to store video. However this memory becomes very small with any thing exceeding 2 GB being ridiculously expensive. So these have not caught up in sales.

Hard drive based machines use internal hard drive to save video. They enjoy the benefit of not using external media and allows for direct copying of video to a hard disk without the intervention of a computer. But for long recordings, this poses a problem as once the hard drive is exhausted, you will require a P.C. to save the initial footage to shoot the latter footage.

The latest in the market are the HDV Camcorders. It produces best quality High definition Video. These are the most expensive models today.

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