Q  I am having a den added on to my house. I would like to run speaker cable through the walls. I was planning on using Monster Cable CL3-Rated Speaker Cable Model: XPHP. I have read many reviews on all kinds of speaker cable, some good most bad. Is XPHP the best choice? What is time correct windings? Is this cable good for music as it is for home theater? Can I use this cable for my woofer also? Is the speaker wire that you by at Home Depot as good as speaker cable XPHP to justify the cost difference? I do not mind paying a more for better sound quality. Is their any other cable you would suggest for about the same price range?

A I am glad to see you have decided to use cable that is rated for in-wall use, as this is one step many people forget. As for brand I don't see any problems using the Monster Cable, but a generic brand may give you similar sonics at a reduced price. You should be able to find a dealer that will let you sample the different in-wall speaker wire technologies so you can try them with your system. As for 'time correct windings', that is Monster Cable's marketing term for the skin effect. There is a table below to help you with your wire gauge selection. The left hand column is the wire gauge you should use for the length shown in the right hand column.

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Q I have a Denon DVD-900 progressive scan player hooked up to my HDTV-ready Samsung television. When viewing the Denon on-screen display (the screen that appears on the TV before you put in a DVD and it loads), I can see faint white lines going across the screen. I can only get rid of these if I lower the contrast on the TV, but then the picture appears too dark. I am using Monster Video 3 component cables, so I'm pretty sure it's not a wire issue. Any suggestions?

A To have a perfectly calibrated display you need to have it calibrated by a certified (qualified) ISF technician. We realize that may not be practical for one of many reasons. What I do suggest is you pick up a video calibration DVD like Video Essentials or AVIA and set your brightness and contrast using the tests outlined on the DVD. I wouldn't worry too much about the splash image provided with the DVD player, as they are usually low quality and not intended for you to calibrating your display with.

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Q I am thinking of purchasing Martin Logan electrostatic speakers for the mains and the center. I do not have the space required to use Martin Logan speakers for the rear channels. I do have a pair of Polk Audio bipole/dipole speakers that I currently use for the rears. My question is this: Would it be OK to use the Polks with the Martin Logans? What would the down-side be of doing so?

A The idea of having speakers in a 5.1 setup from the same manufacturer is to 'timbre match' all the speakers. This creates a sound envelope that will be consistent as sounds pan around the room. In reality, many factors affect the tone of speakers, like placement and surrounding materials. So just because all the speakers are from the same manufacture, it still does not promise perfect timber.

Many people use different manufacturers for their rear speakers. If you are happy with the Polk rears they will work for the time being. However, it has been my experience people who buy ESL center channel speakers, end up buying ESL rear speakers too.

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Q I am in the market for a 16:9 TV and a DVD player. Based on the research I’ve conducted to date, I am leaning towards the Hitachi UWX or SWX series.  I’ve looked at Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic sets as well, but the Hitachi picture seemed clearer when viewing a combination of satellite, digital cable, and DVD sources. I’m also interested in purchasing a progressive scan DVD player, and I am currently comparing the Panasonic RP-62, Panasonic RP-82, Sony NS 715P, and Toshiba SD-4800 and SD-5700 models. Given the similarities between the various manufacturers’ specs, does the Sony’s 12-bit/108 MHz video DAC give it an edge over the competition? I would greatly appreciate your recommendations regarding the TV and DVD player.

A The Sony and both Toshiba DVD players have the chroma bug and are not recommended.  As for the video DAC specs, I tell people not to get too hung up on them.  DVD video is an 8-bit format. The goal is to reproduce all 8-bits. It often requires at least a 10-bit DAC to reproduce the 8-bits on DVD. In theory, an 11-bit, 12-bit, or 14-bit DAC could offer a lower noise floor, but we are not always seeing this in the field.

Given that the RP-82 has DVD-A for just a little bit more $, I'd go that route.

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Q I (and others on the Pixar Yahoo message board) were wondering what the next evolution of home video will be after DVD? Also, do you think that consumers will buy into the next technology seeing as how the quality of current DVD is great and was a quantum leap over VHS?

A Ah, if we only had a crystal ball . . .

The only direction we can go from DVD-V is a higher resolution which implies more storage space and better compression.

Due to such things as Vertical Filtering for the sake of interlaced displays and Horizontal Filtering for the sake of saving space, no one has seen DVD-V at its best.  With so much still to be tapped into, I think it will be a while before something replaces it. However, D-VHS movies do look significantly better than DVD. The bit-rate is about 24 Mb per second, compared to 4 Mb per second for an average DVD (Superbit DVD is close to 10 Mb per second). We just finished testing the JVC D-VHS VCR, using the current library of D-VHS movie tapes, and it is hard now to watch DVDs because the image is so much sharper with D-VHS. There is very little to no video noise, no visible edge enhancement, and color depth is incredible. Psychologically though, it is difficult to think of going back to a tape format, so I am doubtful of D-VHS' future success. It will probably just be a specialty market. But, when HD-DVD comes to town, I suspect DVD fanatics will jump on it because the image quality is so spectacular. The HD laser and media technology are already available, but good old Hollywood will be even more paranoid about HD-DVD than they are with regular DVD, and that will be the holdup. Also, HD-DVD will probably use the MPEG-4 codec, while DVD uses MPEG-2, so it will not be a simple bit-rate comparison once HD-DVD emerges.

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Q I have a Marantz AV-550 controller that for the time being is serving its purpose as a audio/video switching unit. Recently I replaced/upgraded the amplification for the center and rear surrounds. The old setup was a NAD 7240PE receiver for the rears and a NAD 2400 THX bridged for the center.  The mains were/are handled by an Acurus A250. The sound was good, however my rear amplification was developing a difference in output between the channels.  The upgraded amplification is now an Acurus 200x3 for the center and rear surrounds. I have noticed a difference with the quality and quantity of bass in the system, but there are nagging problems that still exist.

In my previous setup, the amplification was a mixture of Acurus and NAD.  In order to get things properly balanced, I needed to increase the output of the Acurus channels so that things sounded equal to my ears and to the SPL I was using. This problem has now spread to all the channels. Does this deal with the input sensitivity on the Acurus units? I have tested the amps with the preamp section of the NAD 7240, and things sounded MUCH better, so much so I've decided to keep the former and recycle elsewhere. Is there anything out there that will help, short of upgrading the AV-550, with the output and input sensitivity issues I'm experiencing, if that is the case?

A If you increase the level controls on the Acurus amplifiers to the highest setting and then use the test tone and channel level controls in the Marantz AV-550, you should be able to achieve the same level for all channels. If you have not already done so you may want to purchase an SPL meter from Radio Shack to help in the process.

If the AV-550 does not have a test tone generator (I believe it does) you can use the test tones on the AVIA or Video Essentials DVDs. If you don't own either of these I believe most recent DVDs with the THX logo ("Toy Story" for example) also come with test tones in the OPTIMODE setup on the DVD.

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Q I have a Pioneer Elite Pro-620HD RPTV that I'm driving with a Panasonic RP-56 DVD player. Would I see any improvement by going to a Denon DVD-1600 or a Panasonic RP-82? Do you have any other recommendations for a player to mate with this HDTV?

A The RP-82 adds DVD-A capability, as does the DVD-1600, but you would not see a video difference. They are all progressive scan, they don't have the chroma bug, and the RP-56 is a classic DVD player.

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