Category Archives: DTV

Edge enhancement: the Devil’s Work

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

In the next Sound and Image magazine I have a piece on the sharpness control in TVs. Specifically, it is a whinge about how many TVs come, by default, with this advanced to a picture-damaging level. I used Samsung as … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Video | 4 Comments

How 3D TV Works

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

[This was published in Sound and Image magazine last year] In one sense, the developers of Blu-ray 3D had it easy. They were allowed invent a new video standard, essentially doubling the amount of video data compared to standard Blu-ray. … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, DTV, HDTV, How Things Work, Page | Leave a comment

Twinkles in the picture, but from where?

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

If you’ve been reading this Blog lately you will know that I’ve been using some inexpensive HDMI cables lately, marvelling at how well they work (ie. just like expensive ones). But then, last night, I was watching ABC’s ‘Media Watch‘ … Continue reading →

Posted in Cables, DTV, Testing, Video | 4 Comments

Just when you think they must be out of ideas

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

With its move from the main Channel 10/Southern Cross channel to Eleven, ‘The Simpsons’ is now being shown almost as soon as it appears in the US. For example, the most recent episode — ‘The Ned-liest Catch’ — premiered in … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Misc | 1 Comment

Wouldn’t mind being a set top box company right about now

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

Well, pensioners will be receiving $AUS300 million worth of free digital TV receivers, eh? I wonder if they’ll be HD capable.

Posted in DTV, HDTV | 3 Comments

Metropolis cometh, Buenos Aires version

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

To say the movie Metropolis is influential would be an understatement. Some 84 years old, it still scores 8.4, putting it at #94 on IMDB’s Top 250 list. Last week a new episode of Futurama (‘The Mutants Are Revolting‘) was on … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Cinema, DTV | 2 Comments

Digital TV video bitrates – January 2011

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

Time to update the video and audio bitrates for digital TV again in the light of the introduction of the new channel ‘Eleven’. (The last update was in October last year.) To gather this data, on 18 through 20 January … Continue reading →

Posted in Codecs, DTV, HDTV | 4 Comments

I hate proprietary disc formats

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

I’m testing a PVR on which you can apparently record to external hard disk drives as well as internal one. So I plug in a 1TB hard disk to test it out. Unit won’t recognised it. Plug it into the … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer, DTV | 4 Comments

Adding colour

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Well, Australia collapsed today in the cricket, losing badly to England. I didn’t realise this until I switched on the system to find ‘Gilligan’s Island’ showing instead. And, wow, how awful was the picture from ‘Gilligan’s Island’? Okay, the particular … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV | 5 Comments

Cricket in HD!

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

WIN TV (and presumably Channel 9) is broadcasting the Twenty/20 Australia vs Sri Lanka cricket match in proper 1080i50. Looks wonderful!

Posted in DTV, HDTV | 10 Comments