I have been on a bit of a podcast kick lately, subscribing to a multitude of shows and then listening to them from my Android smartphone while I am on the go. I use the Google Listen app, which is no longer supported, but there are many free alternatives out there if you are looking for an Android podcast app.

One of the most annoying problems that I have been running into while searching out good podcasts is that many of the shows that I am interested in make it extremely difficult to find their subscription/feed URL, or they don’t even have a subscription URL at all! In the latter case, I argue that they should not even be called a podcast.

Let’s define podcast

The Wikipedia page for Podcast currently leads with this sentence: “A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio radio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device.” Emphasis mine.

Merriam-Webster defines podcast as “a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet.” Emphasis mine.

As you can see, one of the primary components of a podcast is the subscription/syndication/automatic-download feature. If you call your show a podcast, you had better damn well make sure that your listeners can subscribe and allow for the automatic delivery of new shows to their preferred listening device. This is a simple thing to do these days with RSS and other tools, but alas, some old media folks still just don’t get it.

And now for a few examples. I tried to subscribe to Marc Victor’s Attorney For Freedom audio show, but there is no subscription or feed URL to be found. This show is part of the “Doublewide Network”, whose website exclaims “Welcome to the Future! Arizona’s FIRST Digital Network! Internet radio and internet television!” Pro-tip: the future now is show subscriptions and automatic downloads. Make it happen Doublewiders. The network was founded and is run by radio broadcast veteran Dave Pratt. I have messaged them asking for a subscription URL for the Attorney for Freedom show but have not received a response.

I was also interested in checking out Shane Krauser’s Liberty Storm show, but once again we have a “podcast page” that has no subscription or feed URLs. Again I messaged them asking for a subscription URL and did not receive a response.

These old media guys really need to get with the program and setup proper feeds if they want their shows to catch on and build listeners.

Shows with an iTunes link and no subscription feed URL

Another annoying trend that I have run into is that some podcasts will only list an iTunes URL. Protip: there is a massive contingent of potential listeners out there who do not use iTunes! For these cases, I use Feed Flipper, an excellent little free web app that will convert an iTunes show URL into the actual RSS subscription URL for you to use.

Have you noticed old media online shows that are missing subscription options? Run into other annoying podcast related situations? If so, let us know about them!

The casual gaming market has exploded in popularity in recent years, largely fueled by smartphone proliferation along with Internet connectivity becoming more and more accessible throughout the country and the world.

One of the most popular type of games in this surging casual gaming category are word games. Examples of word games include the time-tested and well loved classic, Scrabble and the relative newcomer Words with Friends, which is a smartphone hit.

With more and more people playing word games, the demand for word finder tools has spiked in recent years. This is evident by the increasing search volumes for related terms such as “scrabble cheat” and “scrabble word finder”.

To fill the need, Blog My Brain has released a Scrabble Word Finder widget that any site owner or blogger can now easily embed on their website to provide a word finder tool to their visitors.

Blog My Brain touts the following benefits (and more) for their Scrabble Word Finder widget:

1. Embeddable into existing sites, so users don’t have to leave the site they are on.
2. Encourages repeat visitors to your website who use the Word Finder. Happy visitors are repeat visitors.
3. Increases visitor time spent on your website, allowing for additional content and feature discovery on your site.
4. Possible increased website rank on search engines and other measurement sites, due to increased traffic, longer visitor duration, repeat visitation, etc.

The Scrabble Word Finder widget has a standard dimension of 250×250 and can be embedded inside an individual post or in a sidebar. Of course, they recommend that it be embedded in a website’s sidebar so that it can be viewed across all pages within a particular site.

I have embedded the Word Finder widget below this sentence, so feel free to give it a try!

For more information, check out the Word Finder Widget Demo & Code.

This is the third part in the multi-part series What home theater is right for me?. The first part explored the basics of what a home theater consists of and how we’re constructing these realistic home theaters. The second part pieces together an affordable home theater for a movie buff. This episode will explore the unique needs for a video gamer.

The gamer

Ostensibly the requirements for a gamer are no different than the movie buff; but the gamer’s system is more fantasy. A movie system is a perfectly sensible luxury sedan while the gaming system is an over-the-top sports car, and for good reason.

A gaming system doesn’t reproduce a world created by a film director but is a partnership between a gaming studio and the gamer. The 100% CGI graphics and immersive gameplay don’t have to play by the same rules; a movie uses a “fourth wall” where the audience is observing the action and a game uses first-person or third-person action controlled by the audience in colorful, fantastic environments unlike anything found in nature.

Tips for the gamer

Gaming is a social event so you will want to locate the home theater in a room large enough for several people. You will also want a clear 6-feet in front of the TV at minimum to allow for Xbox Kinect, PS3 Move and Wii game play. You will find an area rug or carpeting will be ideal to not only provide traction and comfort for full-body game play, it will also help with sound quality.

Large rooms create an echo-chamber effect. This means there is a primary and secondary reception for each sound. The primary sound comes from the speaker and the secondary is reflected off of surfaces (wall, ceiling, window, floor). This causes the sound to be harsh and muddles sounds together so there is less intelligibility. Harsh sounds also sound louder than they really are, and many people keep turning up the volume to increase intelligibility as the primary sound can mask reflected sounds better at high volumes. To reduce reflections, use plush furniture, throw pillows, fill bookshelves with books, put canvas paintings on the walls, or use professional sound absorption panels. Some panels come with printed graphics on them or allow for custom graphics so the absorptive panels look like paintings and not like acoustic control. When decorating your room you may consider this option over buying generic canvas or paper prints. (Hint: Not only does it make your sound system sound better, it even helps when you have a lot of people over for a party so everyone isn’t having to speak over each other.)

Considering your gaming system is likely in the largest room of your house or apartment, this is most likely a multi-use room. Unless you’re a lazy bachelor (don’t be that guy), you should appoint your room to be comfortable and attractive. Interior designers use a rule of five lighting types: natural light from a window, overhead lighting from cans or chandeliers, diffuse lighting from floor lamps, upward lighting from table lamps, and indirect lighting reflected off a picture. We won’t go through a whole lecture on that now, just look into interior design tips for lighting, the same rules apply for video gaming. Just keep light from directly reflecting off the TV.

What equipment should the video gamer buy?

Sticking to the automotive parallel above, the gamer system is the sports car of home theaters. Even the most “uncompromising” sports car is just a compendium of compromise. A car’s frame had to be strong but light. The engine has to be powerful but not too powerful. Aerodynamics have to be efficient but with enough downforce to keep the car on the ground. Because this series is building home theaters on a realistic budget, we’ll start with the first compromise: Screen size.

We’ve discussed putting the TV in what is typically the largest room of the home where a 65-70 inch TV should be used in a movie theater setting. Not only are we making a compromise because the room is multi-use and a huge screen would dominate the space, but a smaller screen size will provide the features we’re looking for at a lower price.

What features are the gamer looking for? We discussed a plasma screen for movies, and we am tempted to recommend one here, but we’re compromising because the big room has more lighting and games don’t rely on realistic flesh tones (or realistic tones of any type, leaning towards the fantastic), an LCD television will work best. LCD provides higher light output at the expense of black levels.

We also did not mention 3D technology in the movie theater, and the recommended display did not support 3D. We’re of the opinion 3D movies are best seen in the cinema, and we were making compromises anyway so that one went by the wayside. However, 3D gaming is compelling because gaming is user controlled the 3D effects aren’t distracting and do provide an immersive world. First person games provide an especially high level of 3D depth. With this in mind we pick a 3D TV.

Passive 3D provides a benefit over active 3D for gamers, so we recommend a passive 3D TV. The first benefit is the cost of glasses: inexpensive. Even fashionable passive glasses are cheaper than uncomfortable and expensive active shutter glasses, and passive glasses can be worn to the cinema. But the main reason we want passive 3D is for multiplayer. LG Electronics provide special 3D glasses in pairs specifically for gaming where both glasses have different polarity so side-by-side multiplayer gaming can be presented fullscreen or both players while preventing opponents from viewing each other’s whereabouts. Most passive 3D TVs have this ability just by modifying two pairs of glasses, removing the right lens in each and placing them in the other frame. The 3D setting on the TV will be “side-by-side.”

The 3D TV we’re recommending is the LG 55LM7600 at $1,499. This set is 55 inches with passive 3D and comes with 6 pairs of glasses.

Because we’ve invested so much in the video portion of this system the audio portion will be a compromise. The game theater surround sound audio will be 7.1 where the movie theater was 5.1 because many more games have 7.1 soundtracks than movies. The Onkyo HT-S9400THX 7.1 channel home theater systems for $779 fits the bill nicely.



We can talk about which sources this system should feature, but it should be fairly obvious. These sources have already been mentioned: Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Obviously we’re nearing a transition in models to the new Xbox platform, the PS4 and the Wii U is already on the market. We will take no part in the fanboy wars over which system is best, just know that picking one over the other declares certain character flaws.

This whole system should cost $2,278 and provide immense pleasure. Save $631 by choosing this Vizio 3D TV instead, sacrificing picture quality and warranty but none of the features.

In this post I will be covering some of my experiences with the VIPRE Internet Security software suite. I started out by checking the VIPRE product webpage and found that they require an email address in order to download the free 30 day trial. I submitted my email address and then immediately received an email from GFI software (the manufacturer) asking me to confirm my email address in order to download the trial software.

I clicked on the link to confirm my email address and was taken to a software download page. During this process, GFI software also asks you if you’d like to receive additional emails from them.

I downloaded the executable and then proceeded to install the software. VIPRE Internet Security automatically detected that my notebook PC running Windows 7 had Microsoft Security Essentials installed. It informed me that this software would need to be removed to prevent conflicts. I then gave VIPRE software the permission to remove the Security Essentials software for me and it uninstalled the program. Afterwards, VIPRE software notified me that I needed to restart my computer in order to complete the installation.

After rebooting, the installation continued. Below, you can view one of the many VIPRE installation screens presented during the install process.

Once this initial installation process came to an end, VIPRE notified me that I would need to reboot the machine in order to finalize the installation. I rebooted and then VIPRE Internet Security was fully functional on my PC.

I really liked that VIPRE detects existing security software on a PC that could be conflicting, and is able to then uninstall it for the end user at the correct time. Often times when you are switching to a new Antivirus or another security product, it is unclear when you need to uninstall the old product, which could cause installation issues or leave your PC in an unprotected status, if even for a short while. VIPRE handles this part of the process very smoothly.

I also like the visuals of VIPRE Internet Security software. The screens that make up the user interface and the feature selection areas are well organized, easy to browse through and they make it a breeze to locate options that you might be looking for.

Those who are looking for a comprehensive security solution will be happy to see that VIPRE provides just about all the security functions that one could hope for. This suite of software includes; Active Protection (real time scanning of new files and objects for viruses and other malware), automated full system antivirus scanning on a schedule, automatic updating, a firewall, detailed usage reporting and logging, a secure file eraser, a browser history cleaner and a PC explorer to find hidden files.

Give VIPRE Internet Security a try yourself by taking advantage of the 30 day free trial. For more information, visit vipreantivirus.com or click on the Sponsor button below.

A common problem people face with their home theater systems is the subwoofer setup. The most mystifying is why a surround sound system is set up and then the subwoofer turns off and you can’t figure out why no sound is being produced. It can be really disappointing after spending so much money on their audio system, especially with an expensive subwoofer. There are two common reasons for this, and even if you haven’t noticed it you may want to read on and try out your own system – you may be missing out on something.

Automatic room calibration

Most audio/video receivers produced today have automatic room calibration (ARC). Even inexpensive home-theater-in-a-box systems have this feature now. Room calibration sends a variety of test tones through each speaker channel to account for speaker distance, speaker levels, equalization and other factors. This is a helpful feature as no two rooms or setups are alike. However, there is a common problem with auto calibration that causes the subwoofer to shut off: speaker size.

In a standard 5.1 channel system the .1 is the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel, while the remaining 5 channels are full-range channels. Home theaters, however, seldom have full-range speakers instead using small satellite speakers with the low frequencies being sent to the subwoofer at a set crossover point (usually 80Hz or 100Hz). But isn’t that what the LFE channel is? No. The LFE is a discrete channel and there aren’t a lot of soundtracks with this channel in use (and those that do affect the second reason we’ll address later).

Automatic room calibration doesn’t know what type of speakers are in use and will send tones through the speakers to learn what the frequency range those speakers will support. Speaker manufacturers know how these speakers are going to be used but they don’t build internal crossovers in their speakers to cut off lower frequencies because this will create weird, unnatural sounds. Furthermore, even with these crossovers a speaker should be able to produce sounds above and below the actual reproduced sounds to sound natural and to play at high levels. As a result, the ARC tends to set even small speakers to the “large” size and therefore does not crossover those speakers to the subwoofer. Considering most of the low frequencies are going to emanate from the main speakers you can see how this would be a problem; no low frequencies sent to the subwoofer means no sound from the subwoofer.

To fix this problem: Run the ARC program to set EQ, speaker levels, etc. When complete enter the manual speaker set up to ensure all speakers are set to “small” and the subwoofer is present.

Auto standby

Every standalone subwoofer has an audio sensing input with an auto standby setting to provide power savings. The problem with this is when there are no low frequencies the subwoofer shuts off; and this is a problem because most soundtracks don’t have low frequencies for most of the movie making the subwoofer shut off a lot. This is really distracting in some soundtracks where there are dynamic transient sounds. A crime thriller, for example, is largely dialog-driven but when the bad guy pulls out a gun the gunshot might activate the subwoofer but too late for the sound to have its full effect – and shortly after the sub will shut off again.

When the speakers are not set up correctly and only the LFE channel is in use the subwoofer will turn on when you turn the system on and will simply shut off until an LFE is active, which is hardly ever if at all.

What I find effective is to turn the subwoofer off when not in use and turn it on when in use with the auto standby feature turned off. Of course if your subwoofer is not easily accessible or you’re otherwise lazy, you can opt to leave the subwoofer on. If you have a power conditioner with switched outlets you can use that switched outlet along with triggers from the receiver (using the always on outlet) so the power conditioner will turn the subwoofer on automatically when the system is on and off when off. Some subwoofers have 12V triggers onboard which can allow the receiver to trigger the subwoofer without the power conditioner necessary (though I recommend power protection always).

With these two considerations, you should not have these subwoofer problems.

This is the second part in the multi-part series What home theater is right for me?

The movie buff

Also known as a cinephile, the movie buff loves watching a wide variety of movies and strives to bring the cinema experience home. They might watch four or five movies every week. The movie buff will prefer a home theater setup targeted at movies with little consideration for video games and broadcast television. A home theater for a movie buff must feature surround sound audio and the largest screen size to fit in the given room.

In addition to the audio/video components a home theater for a movie buff might also include acoustic room treatments, lighting control and even cinema seating.

Tips for the movie buff

The first aspect a movie buff should consider is where the theater should be located in the home. Most people just assume the living room or family room should be where a home theater is set up, but a true cinephile is less concerned about casual viewing and more with the best quality home theater experience. We suggest using a smaller room dedicated to the home theater. But why shouldn’t the big living room be used for home theater? Most main living spaces are large and cavernous with lots of reflective surfaces; a smaller room provides less sound reflections, doesn’t require large speakers, and doesn’t require as large of a screen either. Not only does the quality of the sound improve, but less money has to be put into the equipment – or an equal amount of money can be spent on higher quality equipment. The trade off is you will likely have fewer seats to share the theater experience with friends and family.

Another consideration for the room is carpeting or rugs. Hard floors are attractive and easy to maintain, but they also provide a lot of reflective surface which produce echos, harsh high frequencies and weak bass. A smaller room with carpeting will provide a tighter sound with better midrange audibility and less hearing fatigue. If you do happen to have hard floors, a large, thick area rug will work wonders.

To improve the audio experience further, introduce absorptive materials on the walls, especially the side and rear walls. Bookshelves full of books and tapestries or paintings work in a pinch to absorb and diffuse sound waves. Take it up a step further with professional acoustic treatments which can be had at affordable prices. You don’t have to completely cover the walls, just a few panels spaced out can provide great sound absorption and even look attractive.

If your room has windows, include heavy shades to both control the light and absorb sound waves. Glass is very reflexive and sunlight can completely washout a screen.

Floor lamps should be used for lighting as they provide diffuse light without being direct. We prefer a lamp on the front wall away from the TV and another one by the seat to provide reading light. A dimmer is best so the light can be very low to provide enough light to not strain your eyes nor wash out the screen.

What equipment should the movie buff buy?

This whole series is about compromise. We could tell you what the best product on the market is, but then we’d price these systems out of the market. This is realistic budgets for even those not in the middle-class.

We’ll begin with the screen as it’s the focal point of a home theater. Without a doubt the preferable display for home movies is a projection system as it provides a real theater experience. But for most of us this solution is both impractical and too expensive. In a small room dedicated to home theater a 55″ plasma HDTV is probably large enough. If you are in a living room a 65″ plasma HDTV is closer to what you’ll need in the average sized room. We recommend buying HDTVs in March-April of every year because this is when the new models are released and the old models get really cheap. For this example we found a Samsung PN60E530 60″ plasma on Amazon for $999.

I mentioned plasma twice, and this is not a generic term for flat panels. Plasma TVs have better black levels and color accuracy than LCD/LED HDTVs. They are the clear choice for movie buffs.

For surround sound the movie buff might be interested in 7.1 channels to reproduce the maximum amount of soundtracks. However, the vast majority of movies are in 5.1, so you might consider investing what would have been an additional pair of speakers into acoustic treatments. Because we’ve already picked a room that is smaller in size with acoustic treatment, less air will need to be moved to create higher SPL levels meaning smaller, cheaper speakers can be used. The Definitive Technologies ProCinema 600 5.1 speaker system comes in at $749.

To power the speakers and to provide source switching and audio/video processing, a surround receiver is the heart of the system. In this example we need a 5.1 channel receiver with automatic room calibration. In addition, this receiver will provide AM/FM radio, internet radio from Pandora and Spotify (plus more), and the ability to add Bluetooth. For the budget-minded, and even for those who don’t need a budget, Onkyo provides the best bang for the buck. The soon-to-be-released Onkyo TX-NR525 provides all of these features at $499, plus it can be controlled from your mobile device.

Your movie sources will include a Blu-ray Disc player and a Roku X3. It doesn’t really matter which BD player you get because your online streaming will come from Roku; and since this series is about budgets and compromise the Oppo player costs too much.

In all, including some room acoustic treatments, this home theater will cost approximately $2,500. Another compromise can be had to save about $500 by getting one of Onkyo’s HT-S9400THX pre-built 7.1 channel home theater systems for $779 instead of the DefTech-Onkyo combination.

What seems like a simple question gets complicated by the myriad opinions out there. Not only are there established standards from THX, DTS and Dolby, but home theater gatekeepers also have their own take. Each one is more snobbish than the last. If you don’t do it exactly right then you’re lacking.

This is the first part in a series looking at specific user needs for home theater to help you find what works best for your own personal needs; and as always the main consideration is budget.

What is home theater?

The first consideration we must approach is what we will be calling home theater in this series. A home theater does not have to be a facsimile of the megaplex, and it doesn’t even have to be used for movies. What we will consider home theater is an audio/video system providing multiple sources of entertainment including a display and speakers. Really basic stuff.

The reason we have to get this out of the way is because there are industry organizations that have their own definition of what a home theater is and how it should perform. These organizations differ – sometimes dramatically – on what a home theater should be. We want to focus on what a consumer like you would consider to be an acceptable home theater system.

Analyzing the standards

We can’t provide you with any real consensus on what the standards are because they all differ on number of audio channels, speaker placement and sound pressure level. However, we can address what the general agreements are.

• Discrete multi-channel sound playback
• Channel separation
• Intelligible voice playback
• Simulates cinema experience
• Delivers the director’s intent

These are broad definitions, and purposefully so. Even attempting to narrow down the agreed upon standards we can only find intentions. How we get there is debated.

The main advantage of using a standard is that the standards bodies are scaled for size so a Dolby cinema should give a similar performance in a Dolby home theater. The same goes for THX, DTS and SSDS. Even still, these standards bodies have multiple standards for home theater which add channels cinemas don’t have, or provide analytical channel mixing to provide different effects.

Discrete multi-channel sound playback
Movie soundtracks and music recordings usually have multiple channels. This is differentiated from the practically obsolete mono channel recordings. Stereo provides two channels, left and right. Quadrophonic provides four channel surround sound. Those formats designated with a decimal, such as 2.1, 5.1, 7.1, 11.2 and so on, indicate a number of full range speakers plus a number of low-frequency channels which carry frequencies from all channels through one speaker called a subwoofer.

Channel separation
Standards bodies dictate precise positioning of each speaker channel to provide the listener with the ability to distinguish each channel independent of the others. In a 5.1 system this allows the audience to know from which direction a specific sound is coming from, like a helicopter flyover for example. Some sounds may come from multiple channels and their correct positioning will allow that sound to appear from a space between those differing locations. Low frequencies aren’t directional in nature which is why a single speaker can handle every channel from one location.

Intelligible voice playback
For movie soundtracks the most critical focal point is the voice tracks. If you can’t make out what the characters on screen are saying you’re going to have a bad time. (Unfortunately many newer films were mixed this way and speaker size and placement don’t matter; I’m looking at you Avengers.) Standards usually focus on the center channel as it contains most voice tracks and position the other speakers in relation to it.

Simulates cinema experience
A home theater should provide a similar experience to what you might expect from a large cinema only at a smaller scale. In my line of work we often find home theater is a better experience to cinema when executed properly. This means the display screen is the right size for the room, it’s light output is adequate, the speakers are the right size and provided with the right power, they’re located in the right spot, and the lighting in the room is controlled.

Delivers the director’s intent
As mentioned before, the standards allow a film studio to produce audio and video to a specification that can then be reproduced in the cinema and at home with effective results. This means the colors are accurate to the director’s intent, the screen shape is correct, and the audio performs at a certain level.

What to expect from this series

With this introduction out of the way, what can you expect? As we’ve seen above, home theater makes many compromises to the cinema experience and standards are meant to guide which compromises make the best sense. What we will attempt to do is use several real-world examples and discuss which compromises suit that particular consumer and why. This will take into consideration living conditions, lifestyle and budget.

We hope you follow along and learn what can provide you with the best possible home theater experience.