Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

The Centre of the Modern Home Entertainment System

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Yep, here it is: That eight port network switch hovers above my system. One port is connected to the router 2pharmaceuticals.com , of course, and the others to a home theatre receiver, a Blu-ray player, two PVRs, a Telstra T-Box … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, Equipment | 1 Comment

More on defective vinyl

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Here’s an interesting piece from Mark Waldrep, president of AIX records, which produces super high fidelity multichannel digital recordings: ‘Engineering for Vinyl’. ohne-rezeptkaufen.com

Posted in Vinyl | Leave a comment

Cheap, cheap memory

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

I see that Kogan is selling a 128GB USB drive for just $79 at the moment. Which got me to check some of the memory prices I’ve recorded in times past. For example, back in July 2010 the cheapest (on … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer | 6 Comments

Digital TV video bitrates – January 2013

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Another two stations added to the free to air offerings. There seem to have been significant changes to some of the broadcasters’ bitrates, and indeed several have changed the resolution of their broadcasts. To gather this data, on 2 through … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, HDTV | 5 Comments

Spam

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Stephen Dawson

Every so often I clean out the spam ‘comments’ on this blog. These are captured very effectively by a plug-in called Akismet. Which is just as well. Because do you have any idea of the size of the problem? On … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin | Leave a comment

A bold, silly statement

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

UK Guardian writer John Harris says ‘The sound quality is way better than anything digital’. And he is referring to vinyl. He is a lefty and seems to be suggesting that listening to music on vinyl is, in the words … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Rant, Vinyl | 2 Comments

It’s not just HDTV

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

In the previous post I noted that a poor job had been done in presenting a movie in HDTV due to its origins in SD. And then I had a look at a Blu-ray: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. First, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Video | Leave a comment

Variable HD TV

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

Last night I watched a pretty decent 1950 noir movie, The Damned Don’t Cry, which I recorded a little while ago from GEM. GEM is of course a HDTV station which means, here in Canberra, a 1,440 by 1,080 interlaced … Continue reading →

Posted in HDTV | 2 Comments

HFR on SGU

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

I’m planning on heading to Sydney early in the new year to catch The Hobbit in its high frame rate version. I’ll be writing something about it for Sound and Image magazine. Now Steven Novella from the Skeptics’ Guide to … Continue reading →

Posted in Video | 2 Comments

Raiders of the Lost Ark Blu-ray quality: photography issues or encoding?

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Stephen Dawson

The other day I sent my review in to Sound and Image of Paramount’s magnificent new Blu-ray box set: Indiana Jones – The Complete Adventures. This has the four movies plus a disc of extras. In general it looks and … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Cinema, Video | 4 Comments