Monthly Archives: July 2003

Does Creative have an iPod killer at last?

Posted on July 24, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Well, the price is right. Creative’s Nomad Jukebox Zen needs to shorten its name to match its price, to really kill the Apple iPod. What’s wrong with just the plain old Creative Zen? And without iPod’s beaut non-moving control wheel … Continue reading →

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Something actually new in home theatre projection

Posted on July 24, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

NEC’s press release on its new WT600 projector had me puzzled. Claiming an ultra-short-throw, it said that a 100 inch picture could be produced at a range of just 65cm, and a 40 inch picture at 6cm. My eye skipped lightly … Continue reading →

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Movies and DVDs Censored in Australia

Posted on July 23, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just added to the DVD Links section on the Blog a link to ‘The Chopping List‘, which contains lots of fascinating information about which movie bits we Australians don’t get to see, thanks to Australian (and sometimes foreign) censors.

Posted in Cinema, DVD | Leave a comment

Oh, oh … sad news on surround sound music mixes

Posted on July 22, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The SMR Home Theatre web site has a fascinating, if in parts depressing, report on ‘Surround Professional 2002’. What was fascinating was an insight into the surround mixing philosophy of some highly regarded professionals. Here are a few excerpts from one … Continue reading →

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Before going DVD Audio, how about getting the recording right?

Posted on July 21, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

One of the beaut things about DVD Audio is the ability it has to carry six channels of sound at an incredibly high resolution of 96kHz sampling rate and 24 bits of detail. There is no recording format (and here … Continue reading →

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The Record Reader

Posted on July 20, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Occasionally you stumble across reports of people capable of performing jaw-dropping feats. Take this guy, for example. Merely by examining the grooves on vinyl records he was able to deduce, with a very high level of accuracy, what the music was … Continue reading →

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Funny sound mix

Posted on July 20, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Dolby Digital, as I have pointed out, isn’t necessarily 5.1 channels. Many DVDs are two channels (2.0), quite a few offer one channel sound (1.0), and some odd ones even manage 3/1.0 (ie. three front channels, and one surround channel). But … Continue reading →

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DVD Audio Bonus Groups

Posted on July 19, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I’m in the middle of reviewing a pentuplet of DVD Audio players and, thinking I knew it all, stumbled across something new to me: DVD Audio bonus groups. Now the DVD Forum, in its wisdom, chose to abandon the familiar Title/Chapter … Continue reading →

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Panasonic goes digital

Posted on July 17, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Meanwhile, Panasonic has gone digital. It’s introducing two digital set top boxes and a 76cm widescreen TV with integrated Standard Definition digital tuner (the TX-76DT30A). This $4,399 TV is available now. The cheaper of the two set top boxes supports SD only … Continue reading →

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Higher resolution CRT TVs appearing

Posted on July 17, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Sony will shortly (September 2003 in Australia) be introducing an 86cm widescreen CRT TV (model KVHR36M31) which it says will increase the number of slits in its grill by 65%, ‘making this the aperture grill with the highest number of … Continue reading →

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