In the Dark Stereo and Home Entertainment Components. They are usable in the
dark, and the components are mostly plain dark gray boxes without external
controls or lights.
Introduction
I have several major complaints with home stereo and home entertainment
components:
- I do candlelight massages. It is very difficult to operate my stereo system in
the dark.
- The controls are too complicated. It is too easy to trigger some obscure
function by mistake. It is too hard to do a simple task like copy a tape.
- The controls on each component work a different way.
- If the components come from different manufacturers, you can’t easily use
a unified remote control.
- The buttons and flashing lights on the various components make them more costly
than necessary.
- The connections between components are too complicated.
- The connections between components are analog and hence subject to noise.
What I propose is a new scheme for interconnecting stereo and home entertainment
components that I call "dark" or "in the dark"
because they have two features:
- Greater ease of use. You can even use them in the dark or blindfolded. They
could be easily used even by the blind, disabled or elderly.
- Most of the components are simple dark grey boxes without any externals buttons
or lights.
Interconnections
All components are connected by a digital LAN Local Area Network.
You use a single cord to connect the components in any topology you want e.g.
- star
- daisy chain
- tree
- ring
There is no wrong way to connect the components together. So long as all the
components are plugged together is some way, it works. Even loops are permitted.
There is no need for manual configuration of terminating resistors.
A fancier version of the LAN allows some wireless components.
There is no analog channel, however, the cord distributes skookum DC power.
This implies each component has a microprocessor, presumably running Java.
Controls
There are no controls or indicator lights on any of the components. The entire
system in controlled by a single remote control.
If you have a TV or digital display, the controller works like a computer,
showing you a full menu. You select options from it with numbered buttons. If
you don’t have a display, you have to work with a multiline
electroluminescent panel on the remote to guide you.
Normally the remote rests in a recharging holder. Pressing a button on the
holder causes the remote to beep so you can find it if you have misplaced it.
The buttons on the remote are not placed in a grid. They are irregularly
spaced. Each button has a slightly different shape, and has some raised dots on
it, so that the blind can use it by feel, and sighted people can learn to use it
in the dark.
If you wanted to copy a tape, for example, it would guide you through the manual
steps of inserting and removing tapes. It would be no more complicated to copy
from TV to tape or DVD to CD. All works the same way.
You could optionally buy a dedicated controller box which would have a full
keyboard and flat screen display. This would allow faster operation than using
the remote.
You could go nuts on this box with flashing lights. There functions would be
programmable in infinite variety.
TV
The system has an Internet connection or cable/satellite connection and so
always has a digital TV guide. You can record any program just by hitting
(RECORD).
The system has a buffer so that you can skip over commercials in real time if
you are prepared to watch your TV a few minutes behind real time. You can also
replay your live broadcasts or fast forward a small amount.
Eventually you would be able to watch any show at any time as more video
material becomes available on the Internet.
You can capture an image or show to your computer as an MP3 file.
Speakers
Speakers are all digital. This means the quality of the sound is almost
completely limited by the speaker itself. They would be more expensive than
speakers now since they would contain amplifiers and DA converters.
CD Players
The system would have an index to your entire collection on file, and also
access to the Internet jukebox and various Internet channels. You could select
albums by name, type of music, artist etc. and it would guide you which
multipack to enter.
In a few years, your entire collection would be downloaded onto a hard disk in
the system so that any track in your collection would be instantly available,
perhaps mixed with tracks from the Internet, paid for per play, per hour or by
monthly subscription.
Tuners
You could select by station call letters, mood. Using the cache buffer, you
could skip over commercials. Just like TV, there would be a digital radio guide
so you could record programs just by selecting the program and hitting the
(RECORD)button.
To the user, Internet radio stations would be accessible in just the same way as
ones that came in over cable or satellite connections. They would be integrated.
MP3
There are components where you can plug in an MP3 RAM module either to record,
play or add to the collection. You can copy from any device to any other device
by clicking (COPY)and following the
directions and multiple choice questions.
You can make up your own collections of tracks using any combination of sources.
MasterBox
The master box plays much the role of tuner/receiver in conventional stereo
systems. It contains:
- DC power for the entire system.
- Charger for the remote control.
- Interface for the remote.
- Massive hard disk for buffering programs, short term storage of programs, long
term storage of CD and VCR collections.
- Some of the most common components, perhaps tuner, CD, DVD, cassette, speakers.
Cassette Player
The only control on the tape player is (EJECT).
You do everything else with the remote. Simply inserting a tape by default
presumes (REWIND), (PLAY),
(REVERSE), (PLAY).
CD Player
The only control on the CD player is (EJECT).
You do everything else with the remote. Simply inserting a CD or multipack by
default presumes (DISK 1),
(PLAY).
Summary
If you are sick of these clutzy incompatible user interfaces on stereo
components, please protest. Send mail to Sony,
Yamaha, Pioneer,
Teac, Samsung,
Bang & Olufsen and others
and refer them to this page.
by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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