Monthly Archives: July 2003

Rumbling a Subwoofer with a Cartoon

Do you like showing off your subwoofer? There are a number of DVDs that do the job fairly well, but my favourite is the otherwise forgettable Titan A.E.Fox animated movie. In particular, the first six minutes or so before the main … Continue reading

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DVD+R/+RW vs DVD-R/-RW compatibility

In a discussion of DVD-RAM, it says that it ‘is a standard for recording information through a RAM drive in a personal computer rather than a video recorder.’ This is not correct. Of the three major DVD Recorder manufacturers, Panasonic‘s lineup … Continue reading

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DVD Audio is not MPEG audio

Ah, an Australian newspaper (which shall remain nameless) reports: The new [DVD Audio] standard, based on the MPEG-2 format used in DVD video, uses the extra storage to produce a high quality audio recording that more closely replicates the sound … Continue reading

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DVD Audio Bonus Groups — DTS responds

I have queried Warner Vision, the Australian distributor for the majority of DVD Audios, and DTS about the appearance of Bonus Groups. Now DTS has responded (Warner has told me that they are querying the US company for their titles). Here’s … Continue reading

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Setup DVDs

One of my editors has just written to me: I have a letter from a reader asking where to buy Video Essentials. I bought our NTSC version from online … I remember receiving something about there being a PAL version, but … Continue reading

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Perreaux of New Zealand’s SHX-1

Through some silly oversight, I didn’t have Perreaux listed under the hardware links. Well, that’s fixed now. Perreaux is a New Zealand brand of electronics, especially well respected for its amplifiers. Incredibly it has been around since 1974 and, I’m fairly certain, … Continue reading

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The Path of Least Resistance

Even very clever people, when talking about things outside their speciality, sometimes get things wrong. I’m reading Professor Mike Orkin’s What Are The Odds? and discover on page 15 this statement: Just as electricity follows the path of least resistance, chance … Continue reading

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Crippled SACD multichannel

Multichannel Super Audio CD (SACD) simply does not work properly in most home systems. And we are in the hands of Sony and Philips, it seems, until it does. SACD is duking it out with DVD Audio as the high … Continue reading

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I Hate DRM, or why MP3 will be forever with us

Declan McCullagh’s invaluable Politech mailing list is carrying an item by a poor chap who purchased a pile of music from Apple’s Music Store. No problems until two things happened: he moved from the US to Canada, and his computer system crashed. … Continue reading

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X-Easter Eggs

I’ve just been examining the structure of the Region 2/4 X-Men Limited Edition DVD. Several things stood out. The movie itself resides in Title 2 (there are 42 Titles!), and also in Titles 1 and 3. Title 3 is the branching … Continue reading

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