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Q I have recently purchased a 9 feet wide by 5 feet high Dalite matte
white motorized screen for my Sony 11HT LCD projector. I have noticed that there
are slight waves and bumps on the screen, as well as some diagonal creases. The
dealer (I live in India) told me that since the screen is new, these situations
are normal and will go away if I keep my screen in the open (lowered) position
for a couple of days. Also according to him, the creases will go off once the
screen is used (rolled up and down) a few times. Are these waves and creases
normal for a big screen? If not, then how can I correct this particular
situation? Is my dealer right?
A Yes, a few creases are normal for a motorized screen, and you will
find that they will change over time. Some will go away, and a few others might
appear. It depends on how smoothly the screen rolls up when you close it. The
creases should not be deep though. They will appear as slight changes in the
flatness as viewed up close. You should not see them once the lights are down
and the movie is playing. I have creases on my motorized screen too.
T
Q The S-Video connection from my cable box looks
worse than when I use composite video connections. Why?
A This is probably because
the circuit in your cable box that separates the chroma from the luminance is
not as good as the one in your TV. All things being equal, S-Video should always
look better than composite, but not all circuits that handle these signals are
the same quality.
T
Q I have a Quad electrostatic
speaker, but my NAD receiver and Arcam amplifier will not drive it. What should
I do?
A ESLs have notoriously
difficult (low) impedance and sensitivity. One solution is to use an autoformer
to raise the impedance that the amplifier "sees" with respect to the speaker. It
won't help with the sensitivity, but it will allow you to get some sound out of
the low impedance ESLs without clipping. I got mine at
http://www.zeroimpedance.com. I use
them to raise the impedance of my planar magnetic speakers driven by a tube
amplifier. This is much different than just inserting a resistor in the speaker
cable, which would absorb power and convert it to heat. The autoformer does not
do that.
T
Q I have just bought a pair
of second hand B&W Nautilus 805 speakers. I plan eventually to expand this set
with a centre and two more 805s. I also have a Denon AVR 1603 amp. Some have
said this is not a wise choice of amp with these wonderful speakers. Any
suggestions?
A The 805s are 8 ohm
impedance and 88 dB sensitivity, which should be fine with your Denon receiver.
I think your friends are just saying that because the 805s are ultra-high end
speakers, you should probably get an ultra-high end processor and power
amplifier to drive them. The Denon will work OK to start with. If you are happy
with the setup, leave it alone.
T
Q When/if all connections to a DTV become DVI, will
the DTV then become responsible for deinterlacing, 3-2 pulldown detection, and
everything else you tested on the DVD players? What responsibilities does the
DTV take on when a digital signal passes to it through DVI?
A The purpose of DVI is to
pass digital video signals from your DVD player, satellite box, or cable box, to
your TV. Deinterlacing will be done in the DVD player, since interlaced will not
be passed through DVI connections. 3-2 pulldown detection will be done in the
player or the TV. DVI will not pass digital audio, but HDMI, which will be on
HDTVs later this year, will pass digital audio along with digital video.
T
Q I recently purchased
a Sony DVD player and have been told since that it will be obsolete soon and
that progressive scan is the way to go . My question is will the DVD industry
start producing DVDs that are only compatible with progressive scan players or
does progressive scan only refer to the way information is read from the DVDs?
A Progressive scan refers to the way the image is
displayed, with all horizontal lines shown in numerical sequence, 1, 2, 3, 4,
etc., compared to interlaced, where the odd numbered ones are shown first, 1, 3,
5, 7, etc., then the even numbered ones, 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. If the source is
interlaced, it can still be shown in progressive scan, which is done through the
deinterlacing process. A progressive scan source is only shown in progressive
scan displays though. It is not converted to an interlaced mode. Lastly, if you
get a progressive scan DVD player, you will also need a progressive scan TV or
projector to view the progressive scan video material.
T
Q I was toying with the idea of upgrading my Denon
DVD 900 stock power cord with Harmonic Tech's Pro - AC11 power cord. I use the
DVD 900 to play both CDs and DVDs. Will upgrading to this power cord improve the
sound quality of my system?
A You would probably be better served by putting in
a balanced transformer, such as made by Transcendent Sound (http://www.transcendentsound.com/power_supply.htm).
Larger ones are available from EquiTech and Furman Sound.
T
Q A nationally known magazine tested DVD players
recently, and the two Secrets recommended players finished dead last in their
review. They made no mention of the Chroma Bug and gave all the reviewed players
an "excellent" in video quality. Their ratings really came down to features and
ergonomics. Is the Chroma Bug that hard to view that they would not see it, or
would they rather not mention it for other reasons?
A That particular magazine obviously felt that
features and ergonomics were the standards by which the players should be
judged. The chroma bug is easy to see. Secrets feels that performance is
the standard on which to judge and rate the players. Once you turn out the
lights and press the Play button, features and ergonomics are almost irrelevant.
That does not mean features and ergonomics are not important issues, but how
much of your time is spent with the remote control vs. sitting there and
watching the movie?
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