Category Archives: Blu-ray

Paranormal Activity and DTS-HD Master Audio

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Icon Film Distribution is releasing Paranormal Activity in Australia on Blu-ray and DVD on 2 April. This is a film that cost about $US15,000 to make and has since done about $US100 million at the box office. Pretty good ROI! … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Codecs, Compression, Disc details | 1 Comment

Saving the world, 13 grams at a time

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Universal studios sent me a bunch of Blu-ray discs recently. One of them is a movie of which I had never previously heard. Called Home, it is apparently an environmental documentary. From the blurb: In 200,000 years, humans have disrupted the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Mysticism, Rant | 3 Comments

Pan and Scan again

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

About nine years ago I published an article in which I suggested that so-called ‘Pan and Scan’ isn’t always as bad as feared. Pan and Scan is a technique by which a widescreen movie is reformatted to full frame display … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DVD, Video, Video tape | 3 Comments

Utter classics on Blu-ray

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I have just stumbled across the website of UK firm Eureka Video, which has over the years released some truly high quality DVDs of superb movies. It turns out it is now doing the same with Blu-ray in its Master … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Cinema | Leave a comment

Another Blu-ray giveaway – The Da Vinci Code

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Actually, two discs because it is the 2 disc special edition version. These are ‘Testmold’ discs, which means they don’t have proper labels and so forth, nor a proper Blu-ray box, nor a slick, but they work just like bought … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Giveaway | 2 Comments

Oppo BDP-80 available

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I quite stumbled upon this today: Oppo Digital has a new lower cost Blu-ray player available, the BDP-80. It is not as bulky and drops the Anchor Bay Technology VRS video processing, the dedicated stereo analogue outputs and the IR … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment | 4 Comments

Blu-ray vs DVD comparison — The Deer Hunter

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

It has been a while since I’ve done one of these, but go here for the comparison for this fine movie. I’ll be reviewing the Blu-ray for the next issue of Smart Home Ideas, so I watched it again last … Continue reading →

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

John Cazale

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

One of my editors asked if I could include The Deer Hunter in my next batch of Blu-ray reviews since it was his favourite movie ever. I’m happy to oblige, of course, and his request prompted me to start ripping … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Cinema | Leave a comment

Blu-ray firmware – time to be up-front

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Recently I’ve looked at a couple of Blu-ray players where they appear to be sticking to the old consumer electronics model: put a finished product on the shelf and have nothing more to do with it until it breaks. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, Firmware | 2 Comments

Toshiba’s Blu-ray Player

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just been going through the most recent Sound and Image magazine, available right now. It has a great stack of my reviews of Blu-ray players. That includes the Toshiba BDX2000KY (which isn’t listed on Toshiba’s Australian website for some … Continue reading →

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