Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Samsung delivers BD-Live

When Samsung released its BD-P1500 Blu-ray player a few months ago, it delivered a BonusView player with a promise of a future upgrade to BD-Live. Earlier this month it delivered on that promise with new firmware available from Samsung’s website. … Continue reading

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Speedy Miss Potter

Lately I have been devoting my website attentions more to my Blu-ray vs DVD comparison shots than I have to this Blog. Most of them haven’t really been worth commenting on individually here, but now an unusual one has arisen. … Continue reading

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Everything you always wanted to know about Blu-ray sound, but weren’t silly enough to request

Earlier this year I did a two part piece on the audio standards of Blu-ray and some of the complications in getting it out just the way you need it. Here it is: ‘The New Digital Sound‘

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HDMI 1.3 cables

On the Sony BDP-S350 Review Thread at the Blu-ray forum someone asked, ‘I am totally confused whether I should be using a HDMI 1.3 cable.’ Someone else responded, ‘If you want to bitstream DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD you must … Continue reading

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DTS vs Dolby Digital vs high definition sound

Interesting article here about the differences in sound quality between the various forms of DTS and Dolby Digital and the new lossless formats, in which actual controlled listening tests are conducted. Bottom line: differences are subtle.

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Wall-e coming

Disney advises that it will be releasing its latest animated marvel, Wall-e, on DVD and Blu-ray on 14 January 2009. Here’s what it says about the extras: Single Disc DVD: Presto – A Pixar Animation Studios original theatrical short about … Continue reading

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Batman Begins menu: sliding or snappy

As is Warner Bros’ habit, the Blu-ray of Batman Begins doesn’t really have a main menu. When you insert the disc, the player shows an FBI warning, then the Warner Bros logo, then reads off some BD-Java code and then … Continue reading

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Panasonic Makes Me Happy

When I reviewed the Panasonic DMP-BD30 Blu-ray player back in May this year, I wrote: On PAL DVDs, you can set the deinterlacing mode via the ‘Display’ on-screen menu. Unfortunately, while some older Panasonic products had a ‘Film’ mode option, … Continue reading

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The Physics of the Spirit

In the dying moments of the First Cricket Test match for this season between Australia and New Zealand, one of the TV commentators remarked that the Australian bowler Mitchell Johnson was noted for being able to produce a ‘heavy’ ball. … Continue reading

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Forty four episodes of ‘The Simpsons’

Any semi-fans of ‘The Simpsons’ out there? I have eleven themed DVDs to give away. No covers. No boxes. Stamped ‘Not for Sale’. They are: The Simpsons Classics: Crime and Punishment The Simpsons Classics: Heaven and Hell The Simpsons Classics: … Continue reading

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