Monthly Archives: August 2003

Doing my duty

Posted on August 16, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I have spent around eleven hours before Quicken CashBook today, keying in trivial sums of money, all to administer my tiny part of the Australian government’s taxation system. That is, I’m working out how much tax I have to pay … Continue reading →

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Where have I been?

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Sorry dear reader, I’ve been on a few deadlines. Reviews of various digital set top boxes and the Perreaux SXH1 headphone amp now in. Last night I was fiddling with JVC’s new DLA-SX21 projector, based on its D-ILA (for Digital Direct … Continue reading →

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It’s about time: the perfect projector for PAL DVDs?

Posted on August 12, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

In September InFocus will release its ScreenPlay 5700 projector in Australia. Could this be the perfect home theatre projector? It uses what is apparently Texas Instrument’s newest DMD, the Matterhorn. I say apparently because TI has seen fit not to … Continue reading →

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Wow, what a find! Free audio analysis software

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The poor freelance audio writer simply cannot afford to buy all the test gear he would like. Golly, even something as mundane as 250 watt 8 ohm resistors for testing power outputs cost around $AUS100 each … and this writer … Continue reading →

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Comparing the comparable: High Resolution audio vs the CD

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just uploaded to my Home Entertainment pages my 1999 comparison of a Chesky recording. Comparing a recording with itself? Why? Well, one is on DVD in high resolution 96kHz, 24 bit PCM, while the other is merely a CD, 44.1kHz, … Continue reading →

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Copying files with DRM

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

The always interesting Gene Expression Blog has an interesting discussion on the futility of Digital Rights Management on music files.

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S/PDIF Misconception

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

A couple of nights ago I installed CyberLink’s new PowerDVD 5 Deluxe. Good stuff — with some worthwhile improvements over version 4.0, particularly software DTS decoding (this was previously an optional extra). But I couldn’t work out this ’24/96 LPCM Direct Output’ … Continue reading →

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Mini Milestone reached

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Well, this afternoon I received in the mail a copy of Sound and Image (Aug/Sept 2003, v16, #6) which contains three of my articles: comparison review of five pairs of stereo speakers selling for under $AUS3,000 (surprise winner:JBL XTi-100 — you’re … Continue reading →

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High Definition programs

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Digital Broadcasting Australia has up a list of widescreen and high definition TV programs. Since 1 July 2003 the commercial stations have been required to broadcase 1,040 hours of HD per year (20 hours per week). So it’s interesting to see … Continue reading →

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An interesting wrinkle on digital set top receivers

Posted on August 7, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

Now here’s one I’d like to see: the Hauppauge DEC-2000 digital set top receiver. What makes this one unusual is the USB connection, by which it feeds the received signal to a computer for recording. Is there an Australian distributor?

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