Q&A # 290 - June 1, 2002

Staff

Q I must say that you guys have done an excellent job at last year's DVD player review. In fact, it was so good, that the rest of us have become too paranoid to buy a progressive DVD player without hearing/reading Secrets' opinion about the new batch that has arrived since then. Come on guys - it's been 10 month's and most models are not available anymore, so we are all sitting here hoping to hear what the new models are like (especially Panasonic has stepped up its line-up after stop-production of the RP56: Now RP61,62 and 91K).

WE ARE BOUND TO BUY CRAP IF WE DON'T SEE A NEW REVIEW!

We know it's just a matter of time since we would KNOW that we bought crap via your review (or our bad experiences). Nowhere can we find such true-to-life analysis of these products. We are willing to pay money!! When is the next review? Is the RP 61,62 as good as the 56? We want to buy now, but can't because of you!

As an instructor in digital video and 3D animation it would really be nice to give on the information to my students.

A We are publishing Benchmark style reviews of the players one at a time. For example, the Denon DVD-1600 review was published today. I know how you feel though. Even many of the industrial engineers are waiting for us to discover what problems there are in their new units. It is an outside opinion, so to speak, as they are so close to the products, it is easy to miss a few things here and there. We are working as hard as we can to get the reviews done.

Q I saw you on National TV last week. What was it like?

A Very scary. The stage was small, and I was afraid I would knock something over or fall off the stage. People were everywhere around us, but you don't see them. Big cameras, tons of lights. Here is a link to a Windows Media Player low-res version of my segment. (The video is Copyright 2002 TechTV, all rights reserved.) In any case, it was a real experience and a lot of fun.

Q I am writing to inquire as to which LD/DVD combo player is the best available?  If I am going to purchase this unit, I obviously want to get the right one. I just have no idea which one offers the most features (i.e. DTS out and THX certification). Furthermore, I want to get an all-code player, so that may limit my options further. Can you tell me which player(s) you recommend and why?

A Laserdisc players of any type are hard to find now. They are on their way out. You will be better off just having an LD player for your old laserdiscs, and getting a modern DVD player, which will have such things as the ability to play MP3, 24/96, DVD-A, and have DD as well as DTS. I use an old Yamaha CDV-W901 laserdisc player, and upgrade my various DVD players from time to time. Don't spend your money on a combo player.

Q I have been searching for prices for the Velodyne Classic Home Theater (CHT), but I can't find it. Can you please help me find an internet dealer for this product?

A Not all Velodyne products are available on-line. In fact, most dealer-oriented manufacturers sell only a limited line of their products through on-line stores. For example, I found the Velodyne CHT subwoofers, but not the main speakers, for sale on-line (Amazon.com).

Q  I would like your professional opinions on the quality and acoustic characteristics of Klipsch products in general and specifically their Synergy line of home theater loudspeakers.

A Klipsch specializes in speakers that use horns, which gives you a high-sensitivity, and that is great for mass market receivers. The drawback of high-sensitivity, sometimes, is less than a flat frequency response, but that is a generalization.

Q Why does bass use up a lot of the amp's power?  Also, in physics terms, why are big woofers needed to provide low frequencies -  long wavelengths?  I understand that for rumble effects you need a lot of air movement - hence a big woofer - but I don't understand why.

A Bass does not necessarily require more power. If you've got a huge box, you can design a very efficient subwoofer that will actually be more efficient than some tweeters. Low frequencies that are generated from a small enclosure do require more power, because the woofer must not only move itself, but fight against the stiffness of the compressed/expanded air inside the box. The smaller the box, the greater the stiffness of the internal air. A loudspeaker designer can do one of two things in such a case, or both. One, is to create a driver from scratch that will work in such a box. This requires a heavier cone so that the mass will dominate the resistance to movement even more, which is what reduces efficiency of the entire output of the driver. Two, is to selectively boost the lowest frequencies where the air stiffness provides the greatest resistance (more excursion at lower frequencies for same output, more air pressure changes) which requires more power just at those frequencies.

Now, to more of a clarification. The driver must put more energy into each single wave with low frequencies because there are less waves in a given time. Power output is a measure of energy per time. Same power output, same energy per time. Less cycles per time, more energy per cycle. Because of this, low frequencies require more physical displacement per cycle, so that low frequency drivers need surface area and excursion capabilities far beyond that of higher frequency drivers. The fact that they tend to handle more power and have greater motor structures is more coincident with the demands of content, which puts the bulk of the energy in the spectrum below 300 Hz in order to compensate for the sensitivity curve of our hearing. The acoustic power at 110 dB is the same at 20 Hz, 2 kHz, or 20 kHz, though we will perceive the 2 kHz as ear-shattering, the 20 Hz as a strange sensation, and most of us will just plain miss the 20 kHz.

Q I'm about to buy a DVD Player, but also want to buy a next-generation game console. So far, from what I've read, the PlayStation 2 is not very good at DVD playback. That leaves the Xbox and Panasonic Q in contention. They both look like great machines. I was originally inclined towards the Panasonic Q because it's oh-so-sleek and does not look like the dreadnought that's the Xbox. That's until I read about the Xbox's hi-resolution capabilities, but that's also where I'm at great confusion.

First of all, can the Xbox play DVDs in hi-resolution? According to specs, it states the following:

Maximum Resolution: 1920x1080

Maximum Resolution (2x32bpp frame buffers +Z): 1920x1080

HDTV Support: Yes

If so, would it still be a bad idea to attempt to play a movie in hi-resolution mode because since the Xbox doesn't support progressive-scan, it would display a whole host of visual anomalies as indicated in your article "DVD Benchmark - Part 5 - Progressive Scan DVD October, 2000 (Updated August, 2001)"?

And this would mean that even with a VGA adapter, the image would still show up in flickers on a high-end LCD monitor because these monitors do not have the capability of displaying in interlaced mode?

And about the Panasonic Q, is it capable of progressive scan playback and what is its maximum DVD display resolution?

And finally, right now I have an old Toshiba TV that has progressive scan, although I am planning to buy a Samsung SyncMaster 240T in the near future. Which of the two machines would you buy?


A While I am not sure what the Q is from Panasonic, in general they have some of the best DVD players.

I would not use the XBOX as your DVD player unless it is for pure convenience. The player has the chroma upsampling error. The high resolution output is for games only, and the XBox is not allowed to output anything >480i because the hardware does not support Macrovision at 480p. Games don't require Macrovision, so it was not a priority for the XBox since it is a game machine that happens to also support DVD playback as a side effect of using a DVD-ROM drive.

Be careful with some of the VGA adapters on the market today for the XBox. Many of them are not using the "real" progressive or high def output of the XBox. They are simply taking the 480i signal and applying low grade deinterlacing. Key Digital is supposed to make a box that will output the real HD signal on VGA for the XBox.

Progressive scan players are only able to output 480p.

Q I have Sonus Faber Amati Hommage speakers. They have only one set of WBT connections and so are technically not bi-wireable. However, I am wondering if, given the different ways that high and low frequency signals travel through cables, if I should use bi-wire cable by plugging the lows and highs into the one set of connections?

A I assume you mean using a set of bi-wire cables from the amplifier and just connecting them all together at the speaker terminals. My opinion is that if you use a good set of cables to begin with, bi-wiring is not necessary. And, in this case, you are combining whatever advantages the separation of highs and lows might possibly provide, into one conductor at the speaker terminals, so I would think this is a waste of your money.

� Copyright 2002 Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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