Author Archives: Stephen Dawson

Oh, oh … sad news on surround sound music mixes

Posted on July 22, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The SMR Home Theatre web site has a fascinating, if in parts depressing, report on ‘Surround Professional 2002’. What was fascinating was an insight into the surround mixing philosophy of some highly regarded professionals. Here are a few excerpts from one … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio | Leave a comment

Before going DVD Audio, how about getting the recording right?

Posted on July 21, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

One of the beaut things about DVD Audio is the ability it has to carry six channels of sound at an incredibly high resolution of 96kHz sampling rate and 24 bits of detail. There is no recording format (and here … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Rant | Leave a comment

The Record Reader

Posted on July 20, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Occasionally you stumble across reports of people capable of performing jaw-dropping feats. Take this guy, for example. Merely by examining the grooves on vinyl records he was able to deduce, with a very high level of accuracy, what the music was … Continue reading →

Posted in Vinyl | Leave a comment

Funny sound mix

Posted on July 20, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Dolby Digital, as I have pointed out, isn’t necessarily 5.1 channels. Many DVDs are two channels (2.0), quite a few offer one channel sound (1.0), and some odd ones even manage 3/1.0 (ie. three front channels, and one surround channel). But … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Cinema, DVD | Leave a comment

DVD Audio Bonus Groups

Posted on July 19, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I’m in the middle of reviewing a pentuplet of DVD Audio players and, thinking I knew it all, stumbled across something new to me: DVD Audio bonus groups. Now the DVD Forum, in its wisdom, chose to abandon the familiar Title/Chapter … Continue reading →

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

Panasonic goes digital

Posted on July 17, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Meanwhile, Panasonic has gone digital. It’s introducing two digital set top boxes and a 76cm widescreen TV with integrated Standard Definition digital tuner (the TX-76DT30A). This $4,399 TV is available now. The cheaper of the two set top boxes supports SD only … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Equipment, HDTV | Leave a comment

Higher resolution CRT TVs appearing

Posted on July 17, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Sony will shortly (September 2003 in Australia) be introducing an 86cm widescreen CRT TV (model KVHR36M31) which it says will increase the number of slits in its grill by 65%, ‘making this the aperture grill with the highest number of … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Video | Leave a comment

Wow oh wow … but I’m still an idiot

Posted on July 15, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Just a couple of days after I purchased an Australian DVD release of the silent classic Metropolis, I read of a new, restored version on James Lilek’s glorious ‘The Bleat’. Taking mercy on the man (and as just a tiny downpayment on … Continue reading →

Posted in Disc details, DVD | Leave a comment

Hurry up Digital Video Interface!

Posted on July 13, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Did you know that the picture quality available from DVD is crippled? And it’s all thanks to the analogue connections. It doesn’t matter whether your DVD player puts out progressive scan or interlaced video, you are not getting all the … Continue reading →

Posted in HDMI, Video | Leave a comment

Does downloading music cost CD sales?

Posted on July 12, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Tim Blair links to a story from The Scotsman which claims ‘research’ shows that people ‘who illegally download their favourite tracks from the internet still buy albums in the shops’. Hmmm. This seems to be a case of asking people questions, rather … Continue reading →

Posted in CD, Copyright, Music | Leave a comment