Category Archives: DVD

Remastering pays off

Posted on November 30, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

Some months ago I did a comparison spread for Sound and Image magazine on the differences between Blu-ray and HD DVD picture quality. To be frank, some of the BDs I compared with rather disappointing. One such was The Fifth … Continue reading →

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Even more on deinterlacing

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

I undertook on the Beyonwiz forum to explore further the output characteristics of the Beyonwiz video section. I have held off doing this for a few days because what I wanted to do was compare its 576p and 1080i output … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, DVD, How Things Work, Interlacing | 2 Comments

So, is Blu-ray really any better than DVD?

Posted on November 19, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Well, judging by the detail of the pictures shown to the right, it most certainly looks like Blu-ray is much better than DVD. The discs concerned are the Region 4 DVD of A Knight’s Tale and the Blu-ray version thereof. … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Sony to release HDD DVD recorder with SD tuner

Posted on August 17, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

There was another interesting product at the Sony Experience expo: the Sony RDRHX760 DVD recorder. So what? This one has a built in standard definition digital TV tuner. About time! Compared to the forthcoming Philips DVDR9000H it has some advantages … Continue reading →

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How HDMI can make your DVD picture quality worse!

Posted on August 15, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

This only applies to PAL DVDs. But beware, most DVD players will by default play most PAL DVDs with poor picture quality via HDMI or, for that matter, progressive scan component video connections. Read all about it in my new … Continue reading →

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Truly giving power to the users

Posted on June 29, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Got a press release today (no link available that I can find) about something called Metamenus. It is a product of a new company (founded last year) called Metabeam Corporation, which seems to be the provider of, well, organisation. Sound … Continue reading →

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Pioneer moving out of DVD recorders?

Posted on June 7, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

There’s a story around that Pioneer is pulling out of the DVD recorder business. I wouldn’t like that because I think Pioneer’s DVD recorders are the best around at the moment. So I asked Pioneer Australia for its comments. It … Continue reading →

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Philips leads the field with digital TV/DVD recorder

Posted on May 23, 2006 by Stephen Dawson

Well, today was busy. First I went to a Samsung product showing in Melbourne, and then a Philips one in Canberra. Both Samsung and Philips have some interesting new technology to enhance black levels in LCD TVs, and the new … Continue reading →

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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 →

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