Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Samsung lowers HD plasma prices

Posted on February 15, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

For the first time I can recommend a plasma display that retails for less than $AUS5,000. For years I’ve been whining about the 852 x 480 pixel resolution of so-called ‘standard definition’ plasmas as being unsuitable for Australian, Indian and … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Value, Video | Leave a comment

Iron Chef

Posted on February 8, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Certainly Iron Chef is a quirky show. It appears each Saturday evening on Australia’s SBS TV station. Even better is the information tag provided for this on digital TV: This is not a program for learning how to cook. It … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV | Leave a comment

Minor MP3 player problem

Posted on February 8, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

One problem with hard disk based MP3 players is gaps. You know those CDs where the music is continuous, even across the boundaries between tracks? When you play back an MP3 album in track order on an MP3 player, there … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Compression, Portable | Leave a comment

A great review of The Passion of the Christ

Posted on February 7, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

As a professional writer, I can’t help but feel skittish about the world class amateur writing appearing so prolifically in Blogs these days. Take this review of Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ for example. None of the reviews I … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Rant | Leave a comment

Apple iPod Arrogance?

Posted on February 6, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Busy doing reviews of hard disk based portable MP3 players. You know the thing. The Apple iPod and its competition. Except for one small problem. Apple, here in Australia, has a policy of not providing review samples of the iPod … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Equipment, Portable, Rant, Testing | Leave a comment

Mythbusting Killer CDs

Posted on February 5, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Since it started up on SBS here in Australia a few weeks ago, I’ve been keenly watching MythBusters. Scientists the guys aren’t, but I do like the way they just whip up a test rig from whatever they have laying … Continue reading →

Posted in How Things Work, Testing | Leave a comment

Sorry!

Posted on February 5, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

No excuses, but I’m back for the time being.

Posted in Admin | Leave a comment

Changing servers

Posted on November 27, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

This Web site is now located in the United States on the servers of Hosting Matters. Previously it was here, in Australia, with Bigpond Hosting. The service from the latter was excellent, but it is simply much, much cheaper ($US11 … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin | Leave a comment

Subwoofer or receiver crossover?

Posted on November 15, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Peter has written with the following question: I bought a Yamaha RX-V450 receiver matched with Polk RM6000 speakers and Polk say to wire the speakers through the subwoofer and not use the subwoofer outlet from the receiver. Encel store say … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Equipment | Leave a comment

Digital TV bitrates in Canberra

Posted on November 2, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Vince writes: Could you place (or give a link) on your blog the local TV stations bit rates that I have variously seen in your articles to the Canberra times? Why not? First, though, I should note that the following … Continue reading →

Posted in Codecs, Compression, DTV, HDTV | Leave a comment