Category Archives: Video

The shape and colour of Se7en

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

On 2 December 2010 Roadshow Entertainment is releasing one of the truly great movies to Blu-ray: Se7en (aka Seven). That’t not just my opinion. IMDB has it listed at #28 on user ratings. For ten years David Fincher had been … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DVD, Video | 1 Comment

Blu-ray frame rates

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Last night I received a question by email, and I thought I might as well deal with it here. David writes: I’m a big fan of blu ray’s 24p mode, because it eliminates two bug-bears of DVD transfers from film; … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Video | 4 Comments

Subtracting colours

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Yesterday I got my hands on a sample of a projector that will soon be released. It worked beautifully yesterday but, as is often the case with samples, it developed a problem which appeared in fits and starts today, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Testing, Video | Leave a comment

How black can Epson get?

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Yesterday Epson flew me up to Sydney to attend at Fox Studios, well, not precisely a launch, but a briefing on its two forthcoming home theatre projectors. They will be available in November. These are somewhat of a departure for … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, Giveaway, Video | 6 Comments

3D Filming

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Reader James emailed me a link to this video ‘review‘ of one of the stereoscopic rigs used by James Cameron in Avatar. I see that has been used in a number of other movies, including The Final Destination and Journey … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Video | Leave a comment

Edge compression effects

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’m working up a Blu-ray vs DVD comparison for the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice and noticed something interesting. [Update: the comparison is here.] Virtually all widescreen Blu-ray discs have, in my experience, conformed to a convention where the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Codecs, Compression, Video | 1 Comment

Motion Adaptive video processing

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Want to know what it all means? My recent Sound and Image article, with pictures showing it in action, is here.

Posted in Interlacing, Progressive scan, Video | 10 Comments

Edge enhancement

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

In so many ways video technology replicates what the eye does naturally. Consider the illusion called ‘Mach Bands‘. I’ve lifted the following graphic from the Wikipedia entry to which I’ve linked: What you can see is a light grey block … Continue reading →

Posted in Imperfect perception, Video | Leave a comment

3D Crosstalk

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

When I went to the Sony 3D TV launch a couple of months ago, and to the Panasonic 3D TV launch a couple of weeks ago, both the spruikers of the new 3D technology highlighted the superiority of their system … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Video | 11 Comments

Retrofitting TVs for 3D

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Reader Sam emailed me with a very interesting question: Your review of a 3D TV on Monday was very interesting. I have an LCD HD TV which handles 1080p 50Hz inputs,  as would most, if not all, HD TVs. It … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Video | 8 Comments