Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Web-enabled features

Posted on December 31, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just been writing my reviews of HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs for Sound and Image magazine. I did a long one on the newly released The Bourne Ultimatum, which is on HD DVD, so I didn’t have much space … Continue reading →

Posted in BD-Live, Blu-ray, HD DVD | Leave a comment

Can’t fix what’s too broke

Posted on December 30, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

A few days ago I installed a new true HD projector, the Mitsubishi HC6000, and had a look at some HD DVDs. Great stuff. That evening I flicked on the HDTV receiver and the station happened to be Southern Cross … Continue reading →

Posted in DVD, Interlacing, Rant | Leave a comment

Eight channel PCM

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

A reader, Michael, has emailed me about a previous post. He says: Another interesting post there. The Dolby email was quite interesting.I have older AVR without HDMI, so I have an interest in the ability of my receiver (RX-V757) to … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Codecs, HDMI | Leave a comment

Blu-ray booming

Posted on December 5, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just received a press release, issued by Sony Australia’s PR firm Hausmann Communications. It seems that providing Blu-ray support in the Playstation 3 was a pretty good idea. According to the release, market research company GfK Marketing Services says … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, HD DVD | Leave a comment

1080p24 – is it worth it?

Posted on December 4, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

Reader Peter Greed emailed me recently, drawing my attention to a Highdefdigest forum discussion on the value of 1080p24. This thread hangs off a pretty good article on 1080p24 from Joshua Zyber on the subject, entitled ‘What’s the Big Deal … Continue reading →

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

Decoding, yes, but in which box?

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

The other day I emailed Dolby a question concerning where it thinks Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus will end up being decoded. I think their views also related to DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution, although of course … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Codecs, Equipment | Leave a comment

Remastering pays off

Posted on November 30, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

Some months ago I did a comparison spread for Sound and Image magazine on the differences between Blu-ray and HD DVD picture quality. To be frank, some of the BDs I compared with rather disappointing. One such was The Fifth … Continue reading →

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

Check, Recheck and Triple Check

Posted on November 30, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

One of the tasks involved in doing reviews on equipment is identifying faults with that equipment. That may seem easy, but it isn’t always. If you have a lousy picture while watching HDTV, is it the HDTV receiver that’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Firmware, HD DVD, HDTV, Testing | Leave a comment

I Know Who Killed Me – the ultimate love-it-or-hate-it movie?

Posted on November 27, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I have not yet seen the new Lindsay Lohan movie, I Know Who Killed Me. But it was being advertised on some of the web sites I was visiting today, so I toddled over to the Internet Movie Database to … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema | Leave a comment

Weirder Blu-ray

Posted on November 25, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I didn’t actually watch Die Hard 4.0 (known to Americans as Live Free or Die Hard) the other day when I received it. But on Friday I spoke to Pioneer about this Blu-ray disc’s behaviour in its BDP-LX70A player. I … Continue reading →

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