Category Archives: Equipment

Confusion on channels

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Oh wow, this is confusing. HDMI devices talk to each other, but what are they actually saying? As mentioned in the last item, I’ve been working on a roundup of all HD disc players. One of these is the Panasonic … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Compression, Equipment, Testing | Leave a comment

How not to review a Blu-ray player

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Okay, I’m putting together a roundup of all high definition disc players currently available in Australia. I’ve reviewed most of them, but there are three that I haven’t. One is the Sony BDP-S300, one is the Toshiba HD-E10 and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, Rant, Testing | Leave a comment

Decoding, yes, but in which box?

Posted on December 1, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

The other day I emailed Dolby a question concerning where it thinks Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus will end up being decoded. I think their views also related to DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution, although of course … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Codecs, Equipment | Leave a comment

Weirder Blu-ray

Posted on November 25, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I didn’t actually watch Die Hard 4.0 (known to Americans as Live Free or Die Hard) the other day when I received it. But on Friday I spoke to Pioneer about this Blu-ray disc’s behaviour in its BDP-LX70A player. I … Continue reading →

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Hitachi, ALIS, 1080p and 1080i

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

In the post immediately below this one, as explained in the update at the foot of the post, I talk about 1080i and 1080p issues which are not particularly relevant to the current fuss involving Smarthouse and Hitachi. It turns … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, How Things Work, Interlacing | Leave a comment

Is 1080i true high definition?

Posted on November 12, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

Over at Smarthouse, David Richards seems to have set the cat loose amongst the pigeons over the issue of Hitachi advertising its TVs as ‘Full HD’. Richards argues that because these TVs accept only a 1080i signal, not a 1080p … Continue reading →

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Toshiba HD DVD goes 24 frames per second, oddly

Posted on November 1, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

UPDATE (Friday, 30 November 2007, 10:49 am): This item is incorrect in the section concerning resolution. I have now determined that the Toshiba HD-XE1 does not output 1,921 by 1,080 pixels in 1080p24 mode, but the proper 1,920 by 1080 … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Firmware, HD DVD | Leave a comment

Pioneer Kuro TVs

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

The first plasma display I reviewed was the Pioneer PDP-V401E, way back in 1998. Then, this 640 by 480 pixel unit cost $17,000 and I thought it was pretty amazing. Since then, plasma TVs have got better and I’ve got … Continue reading →

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Flicker

Posted on June 5, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

In my Canberra Times column this week I discussed 1080p24 as the ideal delivery standard for Blu-ray and HD DVD. Today I received an email on this, thus: I had never heard of 1080p24 or even conceived that it might … Continue reading →

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

The HD format war already coming to an end?

Posted on April 11, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve been saying pretty much from the start that eventually there will be dual format HD DVD/Blu-ray players. But I wasn’t expecting it for maybe three or four years. Well, the pace of technological improvement continues to accelerate, and already … Continue reading →

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