SteelSkin.net – The Ramblings of Chris Nutt

The Yamaha TSS series (TSS-1, TSS-10 & TSS-15) is a funny home theatre set to bracket. These days you usually get HT setups in 3 manners; PC 5.1 with no decoding, all in one DVD set or a real separates system. Now imagine a very small niche in the center of these three where the Yamaha TSS (and Sony HT-BE1) resides. It offers decoding and multiple inputs like the seperates system, the one box solution like the DVD set and the affordability of the PC 5.1 set.

It is not as powerful as a lot of other systems, but for a small living room or second room system it is ideal. The sound is good, if not amazing, but still far better than the tat they call speakers in 99% of today’s TVs. Each of the TSS series have a healthy selection of inputs, the TSS-15 is by far the best offering two opticals, one digital coax and dual phono inputs. The TSS-10 which I have lacks the coax. This is still enough to input from a PS3, 360 and Wii without changing a single cable. For the record I only own a PS3, but for serious gamers this might be a good bonus.

I have have found the TSS-10 to be easy to use and setup, its small speakers have integrated wall mounts. The remote is a simple as it gets. It supports Pro Logic, Dolby 5.1 and DTS for the stunning ebay price of £25. Frankly if you have spent hundreds on your new HD telly, why not pay up and get a wee system like this to help you enjoy it all the more.

There are quite a few Application Packs available. Google Pack or TTCS OSSWIN CD are two good examples.

Here though is my recommended selection:

• Browser – Has to be Opera – It is not without faults, but myself and my parents enjoy its security.
• Anti Virus – Avast! – Ok big props for using a piraty sounding name and for having a pretty, but lightweight antivirus.
• Photo Editor – Paint.Net – Ok, it’s not Photoshop CS4, but it also isn’t a walking disaster like so many other photo editors. It has a great community behind it and a really slick interface.
• Photo Manager – Windows Live Photo Gallery – It does what it needs to do, but doesn’t get in my way or dictate how I should use it. With WLPG I am the user, not it. Also supports Flickr out of the can. See XNView for a more multimedia file management system.
• Music Player – Xion – I don’t like music ‘managers’, they are usually over the top or replicate functionality that is already built into Windows Explorer. The benefit of a file system based approach is that my music collection allways works the same across devices and platforms, not at the whim of software corp X or Y. I appreciate Xion’s small size and simple PSD based skinning engine.
• Video Player – VLC – 9/10 video just works with VLC
• PDF Viewer – Foxit Reader – Working with Adobe software everyday makes you appreciate cleanly rewritten software like Foxit.
• Media Server – PS3 Media Server – Supports file system browsing, supports my PS3 and works on all major OSs.
• FTP Client – Filezilla – Good free FTP client, nuff said.

Any suggestions for unfilled categories welcome.

So cute!

The not so little Daft Punk

Words can not describe how weird my TV signal is. I live close to a very good transmitter, with immediate line of sight being just blocked by the cusp of a hill. I also live very far away from (30 miles) from another transmitter, but with perfect line of sight. This means I get one strong, but incomplete spectrum of signals combined with another complete, but weak set of signals.

I have a HUGE loft aerial, that can only fit in certain angles due to its 1.5+ metre length. I always used to use this pointed roughly at the weak, but complete transmitter. This works for my Samsung TV’s DVB-T and my old dual DVB-S/T set top box.

My dream is a three plug home setup; 42″ Plasma, PS3 and Home Cinema amp/speakers. For maximum simplicity. The amp should never have to change source, the TV never change source either.
Now and then I will plug in a 4th device, currently an Xbox 360. PVRing should be achievable via one mains socket, so I can switch everything else off.

As mentioned, I have a crazy TV signal. I have tweaked and tweaked my loft aerial and I always end up loosing a channel I don’t want to, annoyingly the channels I couldn’t care about are persistently hanging on. I am now either using an enormous aerial or a very small one. I bought a DVB-T stick a while back, it came with a tiny aerial with a magnet in the base. If I connect that up to the bare metal joint in my front window I get all the channels I want, aside from Dave (but I get Dave Deja Vu). I bought a £5 aerial, that didn’t work as well, but is enough for my spare room TV.

Gah, at least it works.

PLEASE SONY GIVE ME A FREESAT PLAYTV!