Q I recently purchased a Denon DVD-900 and a Panasonic HD Widescreen TV. Using the component cables, some DVD's (Not all) seem a little grainy in the dark areas and backgrounds. Is this normal? I really hate it, can I correct it somehow?

A Color negative film is terrible when it comes to shadows, which is where the film is underexposed. Black and white film does better at this because the darkroom technicians can change the development protocol to bring out the shadows. With color film, development protocols are not very flexible. This is why the Film Noire of the 1940s were all in black and white. With the high contrast that was typical of most of them, they would have looked awful in color. Anyway, what you are seeing is the video noise that shows up when the DVD production team boosts the shadows for the finished DVD. You see it now because component video is so good at showing everything there is on the movie disc. Sometimes a producer does this for an effect, and wants it there. You can't really do anything about it except turn down the brightness on your monitor so that the shadows are not detailed.

T

Q I have lots of CDs which I would like to store without compression on several computer hard drives and access through a wireless LAN to my home theater system. There seem to be some systems that partially are capable ( Escient, eg - high price and low capacity). Is there another solution?

A Actually, you can compress them with lossless codecs and get the files down to about half their original size. If you use Windows Media Player 9, you can encode your CDs as lossless WMA files. To turn this option on, choose 'Tools->Options->Copy Music' from Media Player's menu. Under the copy settings, choose 'Windows Media Audio Lossless' as a format, and you may wish to turn off 'Copy protect music' since it could restrict you from being able to play the encoded files on another computer (which you seem to intend to do). From there, just share the files to the PC in your home theater and set up that folder as a monitored folder in Media Player's Media Library. An 802.11b wireless network should have plenty of bandwidth to deal with streaming the file.

The CardDeluxe from Digital Audio Labs also make a great sound card for this purpose since it seems to be one of the few sound cards that outputs a true bit-for-bit signal from the S/PDIF interface. Any sound card with Asio drivers should also be capable of bit-for-bit, like M-Audio. Monkey audio offers a lossless codec. Also, look at the Edirol UA-5 and UA-20.

If you want to avoid the world of Microsoft, which some people prefer to do, you can check out the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) at http://flac.sourceforge.net/ and set up a similar system using an open source solution.

T

Q  I saw in a previous question on 4:3 TVs with enhanced 16:9 modes that there could be a problem with the phosphors blooming , so does the same thing apply to Sony's HDTVs like the 36HS510 or just to non-HDTVs?

A Blooming is a phosphor thing, and it can occur on any CRT TV, even an HDTV. It is not something you see with LCD or DLP since they don't use phosphors. I suspect plasma could have it if driven hard enough, since they use phosphors.

T

Q  I have three DVD Players, a Sony S-7000 (non-progressive), a Sony 700 Progressive scan and a Bravo D-1 (High Res). I have been running some comparative tests between the three players with surprising results. Obviously the picture on the least expensive unit, the Bravo D-1 is the best when viewed through the DVI connection at 720p on my Sony HDTV capable monitor. The sound output is what surprised me. The sound quality exactly correlates with the cost of the units. With everything else in the chain the same, including using the same Toslink cable, the Sony S-7000 has, by far, the best quality sound. Some of the very noticeable attributes are much more clear sound, lower bass, cleaner highs, etc. Is there a way to capture this type of qualitative sound difference in your tests of various pieces of equipment? I know I am interested.  Others will be too.

A We are working on a standard for testing the audio in our Benchmarks. It requires distortion measurements as well as frequency response.

T

Q I currently have an old Denon AVR 800 in storage and did not want to get rid of it. I am buying a new home theater system (TV, DVD/CD, Speakers). Can I use this AVR or is its techology too old?

A You can probably use it as a stereo power amp to drive side or rear surround channels depending on what your next receiver has in terms of built-in power amplifiers. Many of them have pre-outs for the sides, and you could use it there.

T

Q  I have a Denon 3803 and would like to know if the upcoming DPL-IIx would be beneficial in a 5.1-only system?

A DPL-IIx extracts seven channels from a stereo source, but it also enhances 5.1 and 6.1 sources, so it could benefit your 5.1 system.

T

Q I have noticed an awful artifact when I watch DVD on my InFocus 5700 (but I also noticed this on my old progressive scan CRT TV). I believe it's called "macroblocking" and it's most noticeable in dark areas. This describes the phenomenon well "Imagine an all black crossword puzzle . Now change the level of black randomly on some of the pieces" It's like the image is crawling with huge pixels and it looks terrible. I have noticed this in excellent DVD transfers like "The Lord of the Rings: FOTR" extended version (PAL). Is the fault in the DVD player (I have a Pioneer 737), the DVD, or the display?

A It's probably in the DVD player, as we have heard of this occurring with one other player. However, I have seen what I think is this phenomenon occurring with a satellite receiver and TV. It is some sort of compression artifact.

T

Q I would like to bi-amp my new NHT ST-4s, and need to know if I can run a pair of RCA "Y" adapters from my HT's pre-out to two amps, then to the dual speaker posts without any sonic degradation. Does splitting the signal like this have any negative implications? Or will I need a pre-amp with two sets of front L/R pre-out jacks to do this (hard to find in a HT
pre/pro).

A It will work fine as long as the input impedance of your power amplifiers is at least 20 kOhms, preferably higher. Otherwise, the impedance that the pre-out sees is too low and can cause clipping distortion.

About Secrets Register

Terms and Conditions of Use