Monthly Archives: March 2011

The Loudness Wars

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

The previous post, Greg Borrowman made reference to ‘The Loudness Wars’ and gave a small explanation. But he has now drawn my attention to a very useful little video that explains what this means in practice. It is here, and … Continue reading →

Posted in CD, Imperfect perception, Music | 3 Comments

Guest comment on Warner Bros disc policy

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

This is in regard to the previous post, in which I’ve disclosed Warner Bros’ rather strange actions on disc reviews. I passed this on to my editors, as well as to the local head of Warner Bros here in Australia. … Continue reading →

Posted in BD-Live, CD, DVD, Testing | 2 Comments

Corporate madness

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

I have kind of heard this before, but only today have I gotten around to confirming it. Warner Bros Home Entertainment no longer supplies review discs—Blu-ray or DVD. Instead it has some kind of online facility which reviewers are supposed … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DVD, Giveaway, Testing | 4 Comments

Tilting the lens on The Social Network

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

The other night I watched The Social Network on Blu-ray, and soon I’ll be writing a review of it. But I wanted to highlight here one brief part of it: a section starting around 84 minutes into the movie, called … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Imperfect perception, Video | 2 Comments

Old cables, new, and HDMI puzzles

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

Recently I was using a 3D full HD front projector, and I was pleased to find that my old 10 metre Kordz ‘Diamond’ HDMI cable worked fine with it, including with full Blu-ray 3D. Then a few days later I … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Blu-ray, Cables, HDMI | Leave a comment

The imaginary world of colour

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

Colour is a construct of the mind. Out in the real world what we perceive as colours is simply a small subset (less than an octave) of the wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Evolution has endowed us with a mechanism … Continue reading →

Posted in Imperfect perception, Video | 1 Comment

Splitters!

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

I wonder if there could be a good market for a certain type of HDMI splitter. The scenario I have in mind is this: you have a high end home theatre receiver from a couple of years ago, but it … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Blu-ray, Equipment, Video | 4 Comments

Hail Hosting Matters

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

This web site is hosted by a US outfit called Hosting Matters. I selected it some years ago after checking out a couple of websites I admire. I had previously been with Bigpond. It was charging about $AUS60 per month … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin | 1 Comment

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Max

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

And it’s on Blu-ray. And it’s yours if you live in Aus and ask for it first in comments. The Australian DVD is fatally flawed, but this 1080p24 Blu-ray looks pretty decent. No box, no slick, no proper label, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Giveaway | 3 Comments

Digital radio now nearly usable in Canberra

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

On 23 February the trial transmission for DAB+ digital radio in Canberra was bumped up from 1kW to 3.1kW. Makes a big difference. I now get perfect reception in the house, and good enough reception in my office (despite the … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Radio | 1 Comment