Category Archives: DTV

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

The Simpsons – Season 21 commences

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

Season 21 of The Simpsons started in Australia last night. Episode 1, ‘Homer the Whopper’, had a clever premise in which Comic Book Guy had penned his own series of comics which he hadn’t published for fear of scorn from … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV | Leave a comment

1.0

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

The other day I put on the excellent Warner Bros Blu-ray title, An American in Paris, and noticed something odd: the music was coming out of the front left and right speakers. I already know that this disc has seven … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, DTV | Leave a comment

Slavish copying into picture quality disaster

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

The Australian version of the BBC TV show Top Gear is growing on me. Unfortunately, it copies the original so slavishly that this extends to some of the more horrible photographic choices. In particular, it follows a practice about which … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Video | Leave a comment

Widescreen ‘pan and scan’

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

A few weeks ago I recorded The Da Vinci Code from high definition TV, since I was too busy to watch it during broadcast, and in any case I wanted to test out the Panasonic Blu-ray recorder I was reviewing. … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DTV, HDTV | Leave a comment

IceTV saves the day

Posted on January 11, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

I am a huge fan of the US TV show ‘Heroes‘. But it has been hard to watch, thanks to the TV station here, PrimeTV, shuffling it around the TV programming schedule. Season 3 came to a premature end late … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV | Leave a comment

HDTV vs SDTV again

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Last night one of the Australian Idol judges, Marcia Hines, was wearing this brilliant jacket. Brilliant, that is, from my point of view. That’s because it was white with a strong, very narrow, closely spaced, near horizontal, black stripe. Brilliant … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, HDTV, Interlacing | Leave a comment

Program content or broken equipment?

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

I’m testing a whole batch of TVs at the moment, and have just reached the last of the six of them. One of the first things I do these days with a display is plug a Beyonwiz HDTV receiver into … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Equipment, Testing, Video | Leave a comment

Foxtel picture quality

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

I don’t have pay TV. This has been a problem at times because I haven’t been able to explore its capabilities very well. But the cost to benefit ratio is, to me, too high. Over the years I have heard … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Video | Leave a comment

HD Olympics 2

Posted on June 17, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Much of the Olympics will, as I mentioned in the previous post, will be broadcast in Australia on Channel 7 (Prime TV in regional areas) in high definition. Some of the overflow will be carried by SBS, as agreed between … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, HDTV | Leave a comment