Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Firmware updates

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

I go out to my office this morning, planning to finish off my combo review of the two new Panasonic Blu-ray players, the DMP-BD60 and the DMP-BD80. I switch on the system. The BD60 is plugged in at the moment. … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, Testing | Leave a comment

It’s Not Anamorphic

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

In my disc database I have tick boxes to describe the presentation of the main feature of the disc. These include ‘Pan and Scan’, ‘Widescreen Anamorphic’, ‘Widescreen Non-anamorphic’ and ‘Widescreen cropped’. Pretty much by habit I’ve been ticking the ‘Widescreen … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Video | Leave a comment

Madman launches Blu-ray

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Unexpectedly, I received in the mail today the first Blu-ray released by Madman Entertainment Pty Ltd. This company releases lots of Anime titles here, plus lots of independent movies. The Blu-ray was for the 1986 animated movie: The Transformers: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details | Leave a comment

Bags of boxes – giveaway

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve done a little tidy-up and as a result I’ve got about two hundred empty DVD cases. Happy to give them away to anyone who wants to come and pick them (or some of them) up. All of them work. … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin | Leave a comment

More Blu-ray releases from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Posted on June 30, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

I received a package today from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with the two disc Blu-ray version of The Longest Day, plus The Siege and Big Trouble in Little China. All these are due for release on 5 August 2009, … Continue reading →

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New Blu-ray releases for 29 July

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Warner Bros is releasing a bunch of Blu-ray discs in Australia on the same day, some of which I’m really looking forward to: ‘Watchmen‘: The Complete Motion Comic Surveillance Woodstock International Ultimate Collector’s Edition (40th Anniversary) Woodstock Director’s Cut How … Continue reading →

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DOS

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

When I’m preparing Blu-ray vs DVD comparisons, my process these days is to rip most or all of the ‘I’ frames from the Blu-ray first, organise them, then select the comparison frames and rip DVD frames to match those. That’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Computer, How Things Work | Leave a comment

Gladiator for Blu-ray

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Universal Pictures has announced the release of Ridley Scott’s famous Gladiator on Blu-ray. They aren’t skimping, delivering it on two dual layer discs, including the theatrical release (155 mins) and an extended version (171 mins), plus 11 hours of extra … Continue reading →

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Over-rating our capabilities

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Subjective assessment of home entertainment equipment is important because there are characteristics of performance which aren’t well conveyed through measurements. I am not saying that these things aren’t captured by the measurements (thoroughly and carefully conducted); merely that few people … Continue reading →

Posted in Imperfect perception, Mysticism, Rant, Testing, Video | Leave a comment

Picking differences

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Two posts down I mentioned the five musical samples at Is 24-bit Recording Really Better?, from Ethan Winer. Very useful for blind testing, these things, because they each start from the same 24 bit recording, present it in the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio | Leave a comment