Q I've noticed a lot of reviews of Denon DVD players lately: Denon DVD-1600, Denon DVD-900, and now, Denon DVD-9000. Nothing on the new Pansonics, Sonys, Toshibas, JVCs, Pioneers, etc. Are you being paid by Denon by any chance? Why aren't other manufacturer's DVD players being reviewed?

A This is a very relevant question. As you know, Denon is one of our advertisers, and yes, they do pay us for that advertising space. When we request their products for review, the products are sent right away. We routinely request products from the other mass market manufacturers too, but they are less responsive. A PR firm for one mass market company asked us if we would review all three new products that had been announced by that company. I said, "Yes, of course." They never arrived. So, even that company's PR firm had trouble getting the company to send the products. We would be crazy not to want to review products from all the companies. Not because it looks bad if we don't, but rather, it is the function of our magazine, and we love to try out new things. I attempt to get them, but, I can't force the manufacturers to send us stuff.

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Q I have single set of speakers, and I would like to still enjoy my old Pre/Power Amp's for stereo listening (only on the front speakers), while enjoying DVD playing on the same set when I'm watching movies. Therefore, I'm looking for a switch box where I can connect the two amps to a single set of speakers. The cables from both amps would go into the switch box, and I could choose either to connect the speakers to Amp "A" or to Amp "B".

A Lots of companies make this kind of product, including Radio Shack. It is a speaker selector, where you have one input and several outputs that go to several sets of speakers. All you do is connect your two amplifier speaker outputs to the multiple sets of speaker connectors on the switch box outputs, and your speakers to the one set of inputs on the switch box.

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Q I have a question concerning RGB. If you have 16 bits RGB, you have 5 bits for R, 6 bits for G and 5 bits for B.  If you have 18 bits RGB, you have 6 bits for R, 6 bits for G and 6 bits for B. Is there a difference in these different sized RGB data? Or are the most significant bits or least significant bits assigned to a pre-determed value?

A RGB is often 24-bits: 8 bits each for R, G, and B. 32-bit RGB is still 8 bit for R, G, and B, and the other 8 bits are used for alpha blending. 10 bit is often used in the pro world, but our SD and HD sources are 8 bit in the home. When brought into a video processor or display, they are often converted from 8 bit to 10 bit so that they can apply brightness and contrast without truncating any bits or introducing banding. The Sage FLI2200 chip operates at 10 bit internally so it outputs 10 bit into the video DAC (or can be decimated back to 8 bit).

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Q I have a Sony DVP-NS755V DVD player, hooked to a Sony 40XBR700 TV and set at progressive output, and have looked for the Chroma Bug as described in your article (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/dvd-benchmark-special-report-chroma-bug-4-2001.html). Using the 3 Disc Collectors Edition of Toy Story, I could not find any evidence of the Chroma Bug, using an older player (circa 1998/9 or so), hooked to an older Television via S-Video. I could detect it on the DVD menu using the blue background around the word Toy as illustrated, but really could not spot it on the checkerboard or the Microphone as described in your article, this may be due to the low resolution of the older TV/DVD combo.

I don't believe the NS755V has the Chroma Upsampling bug, although it is possible I am just not too sensitive to it. Clearly the blue border around Toy in the DVD menu did appear smooth, and not streaked as shown on your website. I would think using the 480p output into a 40XBR700 the streaking would have been obvious, however, so I tend to think the problem has been corrected, at least in this model.

A Sometimes the TV masks the bug, and it is not always the same intensity from every DVD player. The bottom line is always whether or not you can see it anyway. DCDi tends to mask it in the new players, even if the player's MPEG decoder has it.

When you looked at the checkerboard, did you pause your Sony DVD player? Past Sony DVD players would actually use the correct chroma upsampling while paused, but incorrect when playing.

We have not looked at the NS755V so we don't know for sure.

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Q I have a Mitsubishi model CK-2606R TV. I just bought a new Onkyo TX-SR600 A/V receiver. In order to use the on-screen guide you must go from the monitor to the TV's input. When I made this connection nothing happened so I called Onkyo to get help. They said I must the tell the TV that I had done this and that there is some way to tell the TV that I had done so via some kind of button on the TV. Well, I can't find any button, and when I go online, only the new models are shown. This is very frustrating. I have no sound to my speakers because you have to set up everything through this on-screen program. Can you help, and do you know what they are talking about?

A The on-screen display (OSD) is a function of the receiver, not the TV. Also, every receiver has the basic menu options displayed on the front panel of the receiver. I have never seen a receiver where you were totally dependent on the OSD. However, the receiver menu may have an option of turning the OSD on or off so that it does not distract you from watching a program and changing the volume that would otherwise show up on the OSD. Also, some OSDs will not be displayed on the TV through the higher resolution outputs, such as S-Video and component video. Therefore, connect the composite video output (a single RCA jack, usually yellow) from your receiver to your TV. The OSD should be displayed then. You also have to make sure you have selected the DVD player as the input to the receiver, and on your TV, you must select the input that is coming from your receiver. Cycle through the various TV inputs and it should show up on one of them.

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Q I have a question about the Sony MHC-ZX70 DVD Hi-Fi system. I have this product's Asian model. Everything is okay, but it does not read CD-R. When I put in an audio CD that has been prepared on my computer and burned with Nero, it  begins to make it rotate but at the end, passes the other disc tray and the LED that says CD-R goes off! I heard that some CD-R/Ws can be read by this product. What's your recommendation about this subject?

A CD-R reading by players is at the same juncture as with DVDs when DVD players first arrived. Some discs just don't work. Some players will handle CD-R but not CD-R/W. Same thing with DVD-R/W. Some players will handle DVD-R but not DVD+R. Some will handle DVD+R but not DVD+R/W. We are continuing to add to our test arsenal, and will eventually be able to say in the reviews which kinds of discs and codecs (e.g., MP3s) can be successfully played on that particular machine.

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Q I'm looking to purchase the Panasonic DVD-XP50 DVD-player, which comes with the progressive scanning feature. Can a DVD player with this feature be used with an analog TV (i.e., Proton model 625 monitor) or must the TV be HD-ready?

A Progressive DVD players have the option of setting the output to interlaced. For an NTSC TV, you just set the player to interlaced output.

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Q Does anybody make an adapter that will convert a coaxial digital signal to a Toslink signal? I have too many Toslink inputs, and not enough coaxial inputs.

A Yes, there are several companies who make such adapters. Here are some links: http://www.audioauthority.com/optsol.html        http://www.minidisc.org/part_Conrad_Electronic_GMBH_Coax+Optical_Converter.html    http://www.minidisc.org/part_Dayton_Audio_Optical_to_Coax_converter.html

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