Sound Advice By Don Lindich Week 2, 2007 Q: What is the difference between LCD and plasma flat-panel TVs? Also, has an HDTV standard for the US been officially adopted? I am thinking about purchasing a new TV set and am not sure whether it’s wise to do now or wait. -Frank Humphries, Minneapolis, MN [...]
Week 48, 2006 Q: I saw your recent article on receivers and have a few questions as I am buying one soon. I found two receiver I am interested in. One has HDMI, this is a Yamaha, and the other only has HDMI pass through, this is by Sony. There is a difference in price [...]
Week 43, 2006 Q: I found an entertainment center that I think would be a good fit for the television I am going to purchase soon- a 42″ LCD or plasma set. It is from Broyhill and I found it at a local furniture store. Is there any advice you can give to someone [...]
Week of October 15, 2006 Q: I am confused by the difference between the SXRD and DLP technologies that compete in the rear projection TV market. What is the difference and is one better than the other? What is the big deal about “1080P” that I hear about with these new TVs? -G. Frank, Ridgeland, [...]
Week of September 10, 2006 Q: I have a TV with a digital out port that is an RCA connection. Is there any way to run it through my old Kenwood stereo receiver that has L and R in RCA jacks? I tried going with a single RCA cable from the TV to one of [...]
Week of August 27, 2006 Q: I want to have a TV in my garage, but don’t want to wire it for satelite. (That is what I use in the rest of the house.) Is there a product that can project the signal from the house to the garage? -Don Anderson, Minneapolis, MN A: The [...]
Week of July 16, 2006 Q: I read your Blu-ray/HD-DVD article and was staggered at some of your comments. You do not seem to understand digital media at all. Digital media is the same regardless of device. Files and films on HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs are identical- what differs are technical details such as the [...]
Week of July 9, 2006 Q: My son & I want to buy a fairly cheap ($400 tops) digital MiniDV camcorder so we can play around with making movies using iMovie (we both have Mac’s). What would you recommend and why? -Geoff Sirc, Minneapolis, MN A: Without question, I very strongly recommend [...]
Week of July 2, 2006 Q: What are your thoughts regarding the new HD-DVD and Blu-ray high definition video discs? -Thaddeus Mark, Castle Shannon, PA A: HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) are the two new formats competing to be the high-definition video disc of the future. Each promises to provide much better [...]
Week of June 18, 2006 Q: I read your column about the Zenith Silver Sensor for receiving HD TV and it was very applicable to my situation since I have difficulty receiving HD off the air. However, in looking up info on it, it seems to be for UHF only. Is that the case and [...]
Week of June 4, 2006 Q: Do you have any suggestions or recommendations for a tuner and antenna for a HD-ready TV? -Larry Lilly A: The antenna is more important than the tuner when it comes to good reception, so I will start there. For an indoor set-top antenna, my favorite is still the amazing [...]
Week of May 14, 2006 Q: I want to buy or make a “gunsight” viewer to fit on my camera. When taking action photos I find it cumbersome and almost impossible at times to sight through the viewfinder or the LCD screen. I propose to build, if need be, a square wire box [...]
Week of April 30, 2006 Q: Will I see a noticeable difference in high definition picture quality if I upgrade from the component video connection to the HDMI connection? I have high definition cable and the newest version of their box has an HDMI output (the older ones only had DVI). I have a Sony [...]
Week of April 9, 2006 Q: I have an opportunity to buy a Floor-Model Panasonic TH50PX50U Plasma HDTV. This is the same one recently rated highest by Consumer Reports. It has been a floor model for only about 4 months. The list was $3999, and it is marked down to $2999–BUT the manager of that [...]
Week of March 26, 2006 Q:What important details are commonly missed when setting up a home theater? Any helpful hints to correct things that people commonly overlook? -Kevin Gulbrandsen, Thousand Oaks, California A: There arefour that come to mind right off the top of my head. I’ll list them here, and revisit the issue in [...]
Week of March 19, 2006 Q: I have a Toshiba HDTV with a 1080p display. Does it convert the 480p signal from my progressive-scan DVD player to 1080p? Do I gain anything from an upconverting DVD player (such as the Oppo 971) if my Toshiba is already outputting a 1080p display? In any event, I’m [...]
Week or March 5, 2006 Q: I am writing regarding rooftop antennas. I dropped cable once the price reached an obscene $53/mo and satellite is not an option because neighbor has 1 tree blocking line of sight. (ironically, the ONLY sky obstruction anywhere). I live on top of a hill, and www.antennaweb.org says that [...]
Week of February 19, 2006 Q: I want to have a “music room” in my house, the choice being between a small, unused bedroom (10 x 11) and a fairly large lower level (30 x 30). A good pair of tower speakers would overwhelm the space in the small bedroom, but I’m wondering whether [...]
Week of February 5, 2006 Q: I have been copying home videos to DVD with a DVD recorder. Recently there have been reports of the purple dyes in recordable CDs deteriorating. The blank DVDs also appear to have a purple substrate. I plan on not recording over the original tapes, but could you give me [...]
Week of January 7, 2006 Q: Our 18 yr old console TV’s reception is becoming worse and soon we’ll have to replace it. I would like to go with a flat screen, HDTV model- however, I haven’t seen any that come in a console. Our house is small and does not have a family or [...]
Peace!
Axiom Loudpeakers
