For a while I have been looking for a new stereo receiver (and for that matter a new TV, but that is still a ways out into the future). I have a couple of desires, but primarily I wanted decent 5.1 fidelity, compact design, as few wires as possible, and the ability to use optical coax and RCA cable inputs. I would prefer it did not have an integrated DVD player.
I was immediately interested in the Niro 1.1 Pro. The problem with it was that it had a DVD player I did not need, and it had no digital inputs, which meant that it could only do 5.1 off of the internal DVD player. Since the internal DVD player does not have a DVI or HDMI port it will not fit in with my eventual HDTV upgrade plans.
Niro demoed two new products at CES, the Niro 1.1 Reference and Niro 1.1 Movie Mouse. I assumed there were improvements to the receiver, and hoped they would would add digital audio in. Unfortunately no one examined one up close, and in retrospect it looks like they were actually demoing the new speaker arrays on the old receiver platform (probably with modifications). The announced release date came and went, and they released the Movie Mouse with some adapter for the old systems, but it was clearly suboptimal (you had to manual switch the cables every time you wanted to use it), which made me fairly optimistic the new receiver was going to do what I wanted (if they were minor changes they would probably not be delayed).
I was checking their Japanese site earlier this week (when I want something I get a little obsessive about keeping track of release dates) and saw a whole new line up that looked truly awesome. I managed to find the translations on their english sites staging page. They had specs for the new Niro REFERENCE system, and they are exactly what I want. They ditched the CD player, improved the speakers, added multiple digital inputs, and added support for simultaneously connecting the Movie Mouse and the regular speaker. They also added flashrom support so that the receivers will work with new speakers, and they can improve their spacial effects algorithms. There are also two lower end designs, the Niro 400 and Niro 600 They officially rolled them out today, shipping August 6th!!
You know, now that Aaron Sorkin is no longer writing The West Wing, and Angel has finished its run, the only upcoming shows I am looking forward to are the next season of the Simpsons and Justice League Unlimited (and if you go a year out Family Guy season 4). Justice League Unlimited starts next week and I am suddenly quite looking forward to it. Cartoon Network just launched the site for it, and it includes character bios and episode blurbs for the first 13 episodes, and there is a lot of neat stuff.
Tonight I went to an Outfoxed showing that was sponsored by MoveOn.org’s political action group. It was a lot of fun, and very informative. I saw it the Campbell Community Center with about 300 other people, which I think was the largest group showing in the US. I knew that Fox was far to the right of all the other cable news shows, and being leftist their views always seemed very conservative to me, but I like to have hard numbers before I judge something like this. I know my views are not neutral. In fact that is what scares me, when I listen to something like AirAmerica, I know I am listening to something that is a source of commentary, not of news, but it seems a lot of people treat fox news as a legitimate news source. I think I would not really have a problem with them if they just admitted that they had a conservative bent.
So here are some facts that I just find truly terrifying. Apparently 83% of Fox’s guests on one their high profile shows are Republicans. One might be able to make argument that since the Republican's currently hold a majority in both houses of congress as well as possessing the presidency that there is a legitimate reason for there to be an imbalance, but that seems extreme. What was much more disturbing was the fact that on a number of purely factual issues (“Has the US found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?”) people who watched Fox News were 5 to 10 times more likely to get the answer wrong. I think that any news outlet that has that sort of statistic needs to look at their methods if their intention is really to present the news. Of course the evidence seems to be against that...