Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Cable quality suddenly becomes important

Posted on October 26, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

A while back I mentioned how I’d found Australian interconnect company, Kordz, to be a very good deal for HDMI cables. I first stumbled across Kordz in an article in Connected Home Solutions (for which I write), which was discussing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, HDMI | Leave a comment

Panasonic goes HD in a big way

Posted on September 19, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

I went to Sydney today for the Panasonic’s 2006 product launch (at Panasonic’s expense). They whetted my appetite by an invitation to a small group briefing, after the main event, on Panasonic’s Blu-ray strategy (I think there were about half … Continue reading →

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DVD Forum denies that PAL DVDs must be flagged ‘interlaced’

Posted on August 20, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

I emailed the DVD Forum regarding the claim that it is a requirement of the DVD specification that PAL DVDs have their scan mode flagged as ‘interlaced’. However the DVD Forum denies that this is in fact a requirement. Here … Continue reading →

Posted in Disc details, DVD, Interlacing | Leave a comment

Sony to release HDD DVD recorder with SD tuner

Posted on August 17, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

There was another interesting product at the Sony Experience expo: the Sony RDRHX760 DVD recorder. So what? This one has a built in standard definition digital TV tuner. About time! Compared to the forthcoming Philips DVDR9000H it has some advantages … Continue reading →

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How HDMI can make your DVD picture quality worse!

Posted on August 15, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

This only applies to PAL DVDs. But beware, most DVD players will by default play most PAL DVDs with poor picture quality via HDMI or, for that matter, progressive scan component video connections. Read all about it in my new … Continue reading →

Posted in DVD, HDMI, Interlacing | Leave a comment

Samsung aims to be first on Australian market with Blu-ray player

Posted on August 15, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Samsung has just announced that it will be releasing its first Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000, ‘early in Q4’ this year. That would suggest sometime in October. Might make a nice match with the Sony projector mentioned below. Samsung says it … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment | Leave a comment

New High Definition Projector from Sony

Posted on August 11, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

I went to the Sony Experience expo yesterday in Sydney. Some interesting new stuff was shown. The new range of home theatre receivers are going to have nicely organised, and attractively designed, on screen menus instead of the current interminable … Continue reading →

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Kordz, plus Panasonic

Posted on July 30, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

A few weeks ago I went looking for a ten metre HDMI cable so it would fit nicely with my bundle of analogue video cables. Until then I had been using a five metre cable that barely stretched from receiver … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, Equipment, HDMI, Value | Leave a comment

Truly giving power to the users

Posted on June 29, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Got a press release today (no link available that I can find) about something called Metamenus. It is a product of a new company (founded last year) called Metabeam Corporation, which seems to be the provider of, well, organisation. Sound … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DVD | Leave a comment

Going insane, and then relief

Posted on June 29, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

So I’m reviewing mid-priced ($AUS2,000 to $4,000) home theatre receivers at the moment. Most of them are equipped with HDMI switching. I’ve been using one of them for a couple of weeks, with a HDMI DVD player plugged in along … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, Equipment, HDMI, Testing | Leave a comment