Category Archives: Equipment

Blu-ray firmware – time to be up-front

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Recently I’ve looked at a couple of Blu-ray players where they appear to be sticking to the old consumer electronics model: put a finished product on the shelf and have nothing more to do with it until it breaks. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, Firmware | 2 Comments

A Letter to a PR Company

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Today I sent an email in the following terms today to a PR company for a large TV manufacturer: Meanwhile, I know you guys have just started this account, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to make a suggestion. … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Equipment, Rant, Testing, Video | Leave a comment

Black to Grey

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Hmmm. Jez Ford has drawn my attention to this article on CNET, which says that the black levels of Panasonic plasma TVs become less black over time. It’s all a bit vague, but it seems to be saying that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Testing, Video | 2 Comments

Australian Teletext Long Gone

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Last few TVs I’ve reviewed haven’t seemed to be able to access Teletext. For good reason: it has gone. Apparently since 20 September 2009. I should have researched this earlier. I can’t say I’m surprised. It never had a big … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Equipment, HDTV | 5 Comments

No excuses not to go Blu-ray

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

My reviews of several different Blu-ray players will be appearing in the next Sound and Image magazine. Included are a couple of the Sony Blu-ray players. The editor, Jez Ford, tells me that the prices have plummetted since I wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, Value | 2 Comments

Cable Controversy Podcast

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Well, it isn’t really a controversy, but I never was very good at headlines. Anyway, ages ago I downloaded a Quick Hitts Podcast entitled ‘Audio Insanity’, with a tagline of ‘You may think you’ve got a great audio system, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Cables, Equipment, Mysticism | Leave a comment

Toshiba releases its first Blu-ray player in Australia

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Yes, the inventor of HD DVD has finally decided to join in with Blu-ray. Its BDX2000 is available today. Price: $329. Feature list: BD-Live DivX HD and AVCHD Playback Toshiba REGZA-LINK® (HDMI-CEC) Support for enhanced audio formats of Dolby® TrueHD … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, HD DVD | Leave a comment

Correction on Yamaha RX-V465 review

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

I reviewed a bunch of reasonably low cost home theatre receivers a little while back, and this was published in Sound and Image magazine. Despite them all costing well under a thousand dollars, the feature sets and performance of all … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin, Equipment | Leave a comment

Possible reasons for differing video quality

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Regarding my earlier post (two down) on possible differences between US and Australian Blu-ray discs for quality, Sandra has written to me: I was also present the night John talks of. There is an alternate hypothesis to encoding variations or … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, How Things Work, Mysticism, Video | Leave a comment

‘Region A vs Region B on Blu-ray’

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Yesterday I received a very interesting email from a reader, headed as shown above. The matters raised will be, I think, of interest to other readers on this Blog, so I’m answering it here. First, here’s the email (lighted edited … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, How Things Work, Mysticism, Video | Leave a comment