Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Quality Chain Store Staff

Posted on October 28, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

I generally recommend that people do their home entertainment shopping at specialty stores, rather than chain or department stores. Two reasons: the former generally have more knowledgable staff, and the latter generally do not have higher end equipment. But the … Continue reading →

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HDMI woes resolved

Posted on October 28, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

That picture to the right is the HDMI output socket of the very fancy Krell Showcase DVD. A little oddly, this doesn’t actually have HDMI out installed as standard. It’s an option, but the distributor put it in at my … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, HDMI, Testing | Leave a comment

Philips hobbles performance of DVD+R/+RW DVD recorders

Posted on October 18, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Some time back I mentioned the aspect ratio limitations of the DVD+VR recording format, as used by consumer DVD+R/RW DVD recorders. I took the opportunity to draw this to the attention of Philips Electronics — the inventor and controller of … Continue reading →

Posted in DVD, Recorders, Video | Leave a comment

Aladdin DVD appears – with THX Optimizer

Posted on October 16, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

The Region 2/4 DVD of the 1992 Disney animated feature Aladdin was released a few days ago. This provides another opportunity for people to set up their audio systems and display devices properly, thanks to the inclusion of the THX … Continue reading →

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

Weird scenes in the musical mind

Posted on October 16, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

One of my favourite LPs, way back when I was at school, was The Doors’ Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine. This was a two LP best-of compilation of previously released tracks, plus one otherwise not-existing track. I recall taking … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Music, Rant | Leave a comment

Singapore Electronics

Posted on October 16, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Well, I’m back. My absence was due to a family trip, to Bangkok, London, Paris and Singapore. Got home this morning. Many interesting moments, although only some of relevance here. Way back in 1972 my father was posted for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Travel, Value | Leave a comment

That which has not been, and will still not be for a while

Posted on September 22, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

As usual, I’ve been neglecting this Blog. I plead a high workload. In the past seven days I have submitted 16,500 words to my various editors. I shall be adding nothing here for three more weeks. Sorry. But let us … Continue reading →

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PAL-60 is good?

Posted on September 22, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Aaron writes: I’m an avid reader on consumer electronics especially DVD-related standards and to say that your feature on PAL-Progressive Scan and Analog to digital DVD-conversion and their fallacies was an eye-opener would be to put it modestly. Fantastically well-written … Continue reading →

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Forthcoming: Twin Tuner High Definition PVR from Strong

Posted on September 9, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Yesterday I had a long chat with Trevor Young of Strong Technologies, which currently sells the SRT-5390 digital TV receiver/Personal Video Recorder. He says that the company has a number of new products forthcoming, including a high definition TV receiver … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Equipment, HDTV, Recorders | Leave a comment

Aspect ratio limitations on DVD+R/RW

Posted on September 3, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Gregory writes: I wonder if you could answer a question that arose from your column “All-write recorder”, a review of the Philips DVDR77 DVD recorder, from The Canberra Times 16/8/2004.You wrote that “… DVD+R and +RW discs, at least when … Continue reading →

Posted in DVD, Recorders | Leave a comment