Monthly Archives: April 2010

Energy Saving Switch

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’m just setting up a 52 inch Sony TV. After putting it on its stand, I loaded the remote with batteries, hit the remote’s standby switch, and nothing happened. That’s fine, all I had to do was find the hard … Continue reading →

Posted in Eco, Equipment | Leave a comment

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

The Art of the Title Sequence

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Really, the title says it all. If you find the way some movie titles are presented interesting, go to The Art of the Title Sequence. My favourite titles of all time are in Panic Room, deal with by ‘The Art … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema | 1 Comment

Super Slow Motion Zombies

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

The other day I noted that the Blu-ray of Michael Jackson’s This Is It has some trailers hidden on the disc, apparently inaccessible via the play menu. Well today I discovered that there are zombies hidden on another Blu-ray disc. … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details | 1 Comment

Is This Really It?

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

In a comment to an earlier post, Craig makes some astute observations about the insertion of apparent SD material into Michael Jackson’s This Is It. I have now belatedly watched the movie and have been trying to work out what … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Video | 1 Comment

Blu-ray vs DVD comparison: This Is Spinal Tap

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

This is the classic, of course. Being shot in 1984, and done in a documentary shaky-cam style, it is far from the sharpest of Blu-rays on the market … Hang on. I was just about to write: ‘In fact, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details, DVD | Leave a comment

Hidden trailers

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Today I gathered some information from the Blu-ray of Michael Jackson’s This Is It, which I’ll be reviewing in the next few days. I use BDInfo to drill down into the tech details, and go through every menu link on … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details | 2 Comments

Avatar gives 3D backwards recognition

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

CinemaSquid has posted the technical specifications of the Blu-ray for Avatar on the AV Science Forum here. Looks like it will be pretty good. One point that caught my eye was the disc title: ‘RED_BIRD_2D_WW’. Presumably ‘Red Bird’ was some … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Admin, Blu-ray, Region Coding | 3 Comments

Lip Sync

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

About eighteen months ago I did a substantial piece on lip sync which was published in Sound and Image. I’ve just uploaded it, and here it is. It deals with what lip sync problems are, the processing in our brains … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, How Things Work, Imperfect perception | Leave a comment

3D content

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Now that 3D TV is about to hit the home, there will be a shortage of 3D content. Samsung is attempting to address this by having a processor generate a 3D look for 2D material. I doubt that this will … Continue reading →

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