Posts Tagged “HD”

For a while I’ve been promising to do a review of a product called Paint On Screen. The idea behind it is that rather than buying an expensive projection screen you get the same results by painting a wall with their special paint. Actually, in some ways you get a better result. I’ve already explained in detail why I don’t believe in “real” home theater screens for front projector systems – and I stand by it. There are many practical reasons why a wall is better than a screen.  Mainly because it is larger and more flexible.  It is not limited to a set aspect ratio, it costs much less, and in my install it helps deliver a real movie theater experience. My screen is massive.

What I set out to do was to test their $200 product against a $30 Dunn Edwards house paint to see if theirs really is any better. The Paint On Screen products start with a silver base, which make them reflect better. Certainly it’s a more professional way to go.  But how well does it work?

Well, the review process got complicated and the result isn’t simple either. Overall I am recommending this product, but it comes with several caveats and some advice. All of which requires some explanation and visual aids to understand. This review has been a grueling month in the making. So grab a red bull and hit the read link for all the gory details…

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As I said in my post on Upgrading to 7.1, a few weeks ago I set out to upgrade my amplifier and speakers to 7.1 – hoping to keep it under a grand. Initially the amp I was looking at was the Sony STR-DG820 which retails for $399. I considered Sony because my Projector is a Sony and they were advertised to work well with each other. Luckily, I’m somewhat of an impulsive shopper and when Best Buy didn’t have the Sony on hand, I started looking at alternatives. 30 minutes later I was driving home with the harman/kardon AVR254. Read… »

So you’ve bought a nice big 1080P HD TV and a Blu-ray player. You’ve hooked it all up to your 5.1 amplifier, which didn’t suck last year, and you put in an action flick. It looks amazing, but it sounds a little flat. You might even convince yourself that it sounds good, but it doesn’t. In fact, you’re audio might actually be worse than if you were watching that movie on a regular old DVD.

Even if you think 7.1 is an over-kill and are happy with 5.1, there is a catch-22 that might prevent you from getting 5.1 unless you upgrade to 7.1.

One area of my home theatre that’s always been lacking has been my sound.  I’ll admit that as a professional film and television editor, I’ve been more of a videophile than an audiophile. But a few weeks ago I set out to upgrade to a total-solution 7.1 system including some new speakers for under a grand. I only went over by a couple hundred dollars. Getting it done around that budget wasn’t an easy task – and neither was some of the wiring. There were several bumps along the way. But the process revealed a lot that I didn’t know about the new audio formats, what it takes to actually hear them, the crap I’ve been settling for, the awesomeness of 7.1 audio, the unfortunate truth about Blu-ray and 7.1 and much more.  Buckle-up because this whole thing can be a bit convoluted.

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My buddy Andrew sent in this photo. He has the same HR10-250 that I have, but his days-without-a-daily-call count trumps mine by almost a year. He was wondering if he gets a prize. Hey, maybe as a reward I’ll play some Xbox with you.

When my Xbox HD DVD drive wouldn’t mount under windows inside of VM Ware (gosh, why would I need that?) I decided to pick up the LG GGW-H20L. It is a Super Multi-Blue optical drive that reads basically every disc format including Blu-ray and HD DVD and also burns Blu-ray RW’s and RE’s. I picked mine up a the local Fry’s Electronics here in Vegas for around $250.

Here’s a tip: if you want one get it NOW! In case you haven’t heard HD DVD is dead and LG doesn’t make this drive any more.

Installing it is tricky because this drive has a sata connection and the Mac Pro’s standard connection for optical drives is Ultra-ATA. There are two ways to install a Sata optical drive: First there are some kits which include an Ultra-ATA to Sata adaptor that plugs into the back of the unit and then provides a sata connector. But I’ve found these a little hard to install as the cables don’t really lock in and come loose too easily when sliding the drive bay back into the mac. Also I’m a little leery of using the interface adaptor with one fear being a speed loss, although it’s probably fine.

The second install method is to use one of the unused sata connectors on the Mac Pro motherboard. This is a slightly more involved process because the sata connectors are hard to get to. But it’s no match for a phillips screwdriver. If you’re game I’ve worked up a how-to guide with lots of photos. It is christening the new guides section of the site…  >>READ…

Here is my bottom-line advice on home theatre projector screens: depending on your setup you’re probably better off not having one. Save your money! When I wrote my review of the Sony Bravia SXRD 1080P VPL-HW10, I knew my opinion on projector screens would draw some criticism. I only covered it briefly in that post, but I’ve decided to talk about it in more detail today.  Read on and get ready to have some intense debate… Read… »

Yesterday in Part 1 I covered the unboxing and reported that the HW10 is awesome. Today I’m going to continue the review and talk about my home theatre setup and show some high quality photos of the amazing 1080P picture projected on my wall. Read… »

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas indeed!

For the past 3 or 4 years I’ve had a Sony Cineza HS-51 front projector and loved it. There’s something special about having a movie theatre in your living room. The HS51 is 720P, which from mostly NTSC upconverted sources, has been sufficient. With HD-DVD and Bluray I got to see the quality of 720P HD but wondered if 1080P would be noticeably better. A few months ago the lamp started going and I ordered a replacement. It was like having a new projector – bright and clear. However, about a month later I got home from a trip, turned it on and the screen had blue splotches all over it. Something failed, probably the LCD panel.

Which brings me to the VPL-HW10… I have to say that I have the coolest wife in the world because since the failure of the HS-51 she’s been on board to get a new projector as soon as we could swing it. Friday I ordered the Sony Bravia SXRD 1080P VPL-HW10 direct from Sony, but this time I added the 5-year warranty. So let’s get on with the unboxing…

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Look what Santa brought!

Tuesday my new Sony Bravia SXRD 1080P VPL-HW10 arrived. I’ll have the complete unboxing, review and comparison to my previous 720P projector, the HS51, ready very soon. I’ve been working on that post all day but it’s not complete and we’re about to sit down to a screening of The Dark Knight. Look for the post hopefully tomorrow.

If you are one of the dozens of people like me who early adopted HD DVD over Blu-ray, you might want to head over to Fry’s Electronics. Tonight I stopped at the one here in Las Vegas and picked up the HD DVD box sets of Battlestar Galactica Season 1 and Heros Season 1 for $14.99 each.

I have been keeping my eye on Battlestar, waiting for it to come down in price on the dead format. I heard that it was $20, but at $14.99 it’s a steal of a deal – even knowing that it will eventually be coasters. It’s a 6-disc set containing the 2 part mini-series and all the season 1 episodes – over 12 hours of HD content plus commentary tracks and other bonus features.

I also couldn’t pass up Heros.  It has over 16 hours of content for the same $15.