Category Archives: DTV

How good is HDTV anyway?

Posted on June 26, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Of course, I love high definition. As I sit here writing, my son is playing ‘Call of Duty 2’ on an XBox 360, set to 1080i output, playing via a Denon AVR-4306 receiver (with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio) to an … Continue reading →

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What output resolution to use for HDTV?

Posted on June 15, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Okay, you have a nice shiny new high definition TV receiver. You work through its setup menus and discover you can set its high definition output resolution to 576p, 720p or 1080i. Which should you use? Preferably, none of them. … Continue reading →

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Is recording from TV worth it?

Posted on March 29, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

The combination of digital TV and DVD recorders can, unlike VCRs and analogue TV, make it worthwhile to record broadcasts for permanent retention. In general, purchasing the DVD of a movie or a TV show is better, quality-wise, but not … Continue reading →

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PVR & DVD player, or STB & DVD recorder?

Posted on December 13, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

John from Canberra writes: I was after some independent advise on the best way to go forward on some electronic purchases, and was wondering if you would help.We currently have a 5 year old Sony Trinitron TV, a cheap unreliable … Continue reading →

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Iron Chef

Posted on February 8, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Certainly Iron Chef is a quirky show. It appears each Saturday evening on Australia’s SBS TV station. Even better is the information tag provided for this on digital TV: This is not a program for learning how to cook. It … Continue reading →

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Digital TV bitrates in Canberra

Posted on November 2, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Vince writes: Could you place (or give a link) on your blog the local TV stations bit rates that I have variously seen in your articles to the Canberra times? Why not? First, though, I should note that the following … Continue reading →

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Forthcoming: Twin Tuner High Definition PVR from Strong

Posted on September 9, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Yesterday I had a long chat with Trevor Young of Strong Technologies, which currently sells the SRT-5390 digital TV receiver/Personal Video Recorder. He says that the company has a number of new products forthcoming, including a high definition TV receiver … Continue reading →

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Australian TV Guide

Posted on April 6, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

A weak point of Australian free to air TV has been a near complete lack of Electronic Program Guides (EPG). Europe has these, accessible via Teletext, which makes setting up recordings on an appropriately equipped DVD recorder very simple, since … Continue reading →

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Foxtel Digital Service in Canberra – A subscriber’s experience

Posted on March 27, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

My brother has long been an enthusiast of Foxtel. Now he’s onto the new digital service. Here’s what he writes: I booked in to get hooked up to the new interactive digital service over a month ago and it happened!!! … Continue reading →

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WIN TV goes HD in Canberra

Posted on March 19, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Last night I went to the official opening of the new Bing Lee store in Fyshwick, Canberra. Nice store. I’ll be writing about that for Appliance Retailer sometime today (if you’re reading, James :-). There, one of the speech-makers disclosed … Continue reading →

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