Category Archives: Disc details

Blu-ray and popup menus

Posted on November 17, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Blu-ray has many wonderful things going for it, especially the sheer detail of the picture quality (more on this on another day). But one of the coolest things for me are the pop-up menus. Blu-ray is capable of delivering three … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details | Leave a comment

Australian Blu-ray discs, surprise surpise!

Posted on October 27, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Sony Pictures Entertainment has supplied me with half a dozen Blu-ray titles that are to be released in Australia. Here’s the big surprise: all of them are 60 hertz titles!I shall try to find out whether that is their continuing … Continue reading →

Posted in BD-Live, Disc details | Leave a comment

DVD Forum denies that PAL DVDs must be flagged ‘interlaced’

Posted on August 20, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

I emailed the DVD Forum regarding the claim that it is a requirement of the DVD specification that PAL DVDs have their scan mode flagged as ‘interlaced’. However the DVD Forum denies that this is in fact a requirement. Here … Continue reading →

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

Freakishly good and bad transfers

Posted on April 1, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Ages ago I promised to compare two Australian DVDs of Tod Browning’s 1932 kinda horror flick Freaks. Well, belatedly, here I go. Of the two DVDs, one is from Siren Visual Entertainment (the top one in the picture to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Disc details, DVD | Leave a comment

More DVD reviews online

Posted on March 30, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Well, I’ve added ten DVD reviews to my review page: The Simpsons–The Complete First Season (Collector’s Edition) , The Sopranos–The Complete First Season, Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversay Edition (1988/99), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: 25th Anniversary Special Edition … Continue reading →

Posted in Disc details, DVD | Leave a comment

More DVD Reviews up

Posted on August 11, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Here are another eight Region 4 DVD reviews, originally printed in Australian HI-FI: Gattaca and The Truman Show To Kill a Mockingbird and Pleasantville Meet John Doe and Casablanca Starship Troopers (original and Special Edition) versions.

Posted in Disc details, DVD | Leave a comment

DVD Reviews beginning to appear

Posted on March 26, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

For the past few years I’ve been writing reviews for Australian HI-FI. Rather than let them merely die, I’ve started loading up onto this site. Just go here. There are six reviews there now. But I’ve got another 42 which … Continue reading →

Posted in Disc details, DVD | Leave a comment

Should you wait for the right DVD?

Posted on March 25, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

I have previously made reference (Frankenstein and Metropolis) to cheap and nasty, and good quality, DVD releases. The other day I bought one of the latter to replace yet another of the former. In this case it was His Girl … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Disc details, DVD | 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

Independence Day gets re-released, remastered in Australia

Posted on May 3, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

In the middle of last year I pointed out a major deficiency in the mastering of the Australian PAL version of Independence Day. Namely, for the bulk of the movie, most of the video frames are constituted by fields from … Continue reading →

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