Q I am due to emigrate from England to Canada (Ontario), and I have quite a good collection of Region 2 discs that I bought in England. I have managed to find a few sites that advertise multi-region DVD players, so I assume these will play my discs. The thing I am a little confused about is the PAL/NTSC thing, as my DVDs are in the PAL format, does that mean I need to find a multi-region player that has a PAL/NTSC decoder?

A Unless you have a display that can play both PAL and NTSC in their native formats, you will need a DVD player that can convert PAL to NTSC (or visa versa). I use the Malata DVD player, as it does the best job of transcoding that I have ever seen.

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Q I just had to tell you that the response to the reader concerned about the possible obsolescence of the 1080i analog outputs on current HDTVs was hysterical. I've felt exactly the same way about Hollywood's paranoia regarding copying of "their" content ever since I first started reading about the messy efforts at "protecting" this content. I think it is absolutely asinine that they think so highly of their product that they feel compelled to make sure no one can copy it without their consent. What is even more ridiculous is their claim that entire movies in high definition will be swapped online by unscrupulous viewers. When did AOL start offering gigabit ethernet for free to all their subscribers?

A Out of the 50 best movies ranked, only a couple after 1982 are in the list. It is the same with music. The low quality is why they are declining in sales, not MP3 sharing. Modern actors and musicians, except for a handful, succeed through marketing, not because of natural talent. Do you think in a few dozen years, someone will come up with the money to restore a Britney Spears movie? If you go to a Las Vegas show where an impressionist is entertaining, you will watch him do Burt Lancaster, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Laurence Olivier, etc. See if he does Tom Hanks (Best Actor, twice). Seen any really great Helen Hunt (Best Actress a couple of years ago) movies lately? Consumers need to demand better stuff, and I don't mean CGI. Most acting these days has the depth of a July snowfall.

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Q A recent thunderstorm has left my Toshiba SD-2109 DVD player useless. I'm pretty sure it was not left on from an earlier movie. I've tried unplugging and replugging the AC cord, tried pressing buttons as suggested by Toshiba, and even checked continuity in the fuses. Has anyone else reported such a problem?

A Electrical storms are notorious for frying hi-fi equipment. A high voltage surge may have done damage to the solid state chips which are very sensitive to voltage surges. It is likely that the damage is irreparable, and you should just get another player. You should also get a surge protector. They have fuses, called MOVs, that break the circuit in a tiny fraction of a second when high voltages come in from storms or other sources. Most inexpensive power strips that you can find at computer stores, have surge protection.

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Q I have a Yamaha RX-V620 receiver. I made the video connections with S-Video on my DVD player, DSS, and my PS2 to the AV and TV, The problem is , when I want to watch a VHS video, the signal doesn't go through. Is it necessary to connect the VHS with an S-Video cable too, or is there another way?

A You are probably using the S-Video out from your receiver to your TV, because your main sources are all S-Video, plugged into the receiver. This is the correct way to connect everything. However, incoming composite video, which is what you have from your VCR, does not get converted to S-Video for output to your TV. What you need here is an S-Video to composite video converter. Several are made, such as this one at SmartHome http://www.smarthome.com/8299.html. If you don't want to spend much, you could try connecting the composite video out from your receiver to the TV, along with the S-Video. The composite video would have to go into a different input set than the S-Video one. Then, for watching tapes, you just switch to the composite video input on your TV.

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Q I have a modest home theatre system that consists of the following:

Sharp 61RWP5H TV
Kenwood VR-509 receiver
NHT VT1.4 speakers for the front
NHT VS1.4 speakers for the center and rear
Toshiba SD-4700 DVD player
Kenwood CD-204 CD player
Monster Cable

I watch movies primarily, but occasionally listen to music ranging from 60s or 70s rock, to Bach or Liszt. While this is a nice setup for my house, I would like to have sound that will blow my socks off. I want to upgrade, but am unsure of what to upgrade first. Should I go for a better receiver (or separate amp/preamp), or would I do better by upgrading one of the other components?

A You have the 61" TV, good speakers, DVD and CD players. What you need is more power. If your Kenwood has pre-outs for the various channels, get a power amplifier rated with at least 125 watts per channel, preferably 200 per channel, into 8 Ohms. If it does not have pre-outs, then get a receiver that does, and buy the outboard power amplifier too. Also, you need a subwoofer, and it takes a big one to knock your socks off, such as a Velodyne HGS-18. Good luck in finding your socks.

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Q I recently purchased a 65" Toshiba TV that is HDTV ready. I already have a projector in my media room. Now I want to route the component video from my Toshiba satellite receiver to both the TV and the projector. Is there a reasonably priced splitter/distribution amplifier/switch box available for component video? I have also read where the RCA yellow, red and white can be used for component video as long as the green is matched with the yellow connector. What would the bandwidth be on this connection?

A There are a few component video splitters out there, such as Key Digital http://www.keydigital.com/detail.asp?Product_ID=KD-SW2x1. They are expensive, because of the bandwidth (110 MHz). Don't use conventional yellow, red, white audio/video cables, because all three cables need to be 75 Ohm, and it is unlikely the red and white cables are 75 Ohm impedance (the red and white cables are for analog audio, likely 50 Ohm).

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Q I have Paradigm front speakers with built-in powered subwoofers. I also have a Denon AVR4802 receiver. What is the best way to set these up and select on the menu for speaker size?

A They are designed to be connected using speaker cable from your receiver. The bass is automatically routed through to the powered subwoofers. Set your speakers to "Large" in the receiver menu.

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Q I recently bought a 38" Sony 4:3 WEGA TV here in Australia. I have a Denon 2800 DVD player, Denon AVR3600 receiver, and a three-channel Denon T3 power amp driving five speakers and a small subwoofer. The equipment is right next to the TV in a separate cabinet with the main speakers on either side of the TV and equipment. I also have cable TV box in the TV stand. The TV generally on some channels, and while playing DVD scenes, has a very faint whitish scan going continuously across from left to right. It is more noticeable during a dark scene. This occurs specially when I have the TV in progressive mode or DRC 1250 Mode. Could this distortion be due to all the speaker cables and power cables behind the TV, causing electromagnetic interference?

A It could be a couple of things, and I have seen interference pop up with component video connections. First, try using a Toslink optical cable from your DVD player to your receiver, rather than a coaxial digital cable. Secondly, get a ground isolator for your cable TV connection. This goes between the TV cable coming in from the outside, and the Cable TV box. Cable TV is notorious for causing all sorts of video noise and ground loop hum. There are several brands out there, and we have mentioned them before. Here is another one http://www.elect-spec.com/video.htm.

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