Weekly Site Roundup (04/07/03)
ARTICLE SPOTLIGHT
Product Review: Optoma H56 DLP Video Projector
Video projectors are making their mark in home theater as prices go down and quality goes up. The Optoma H56 DLP video projector is an excellent, affordable unit that can turn your living room into a true home theater. For more details, check out my review.
HOME ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY NEWS HEADLINES
EchoStar To Add 100 Multi-National Channels (TWICE)
'Potter' Unveils New 'Secrets' In 2-Disc DVD (L.A. Daily News)
Hybrid SACDs Can Be Ripped From CD Layer (Audio Revolution)
Major League Soccer And HDNet Enter Three-Year Exclusive HDTV Agreement (Widescreen Review)
Samsung Introduces 2003 DTV Lineup (TWICE)
Circuit City Q4 Earnings Halved (TWICE)
Side Of The Moon In 5.1 SACD Surround (Widescreen Review)
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK
Sharp LC-30HV2 30-inch LCD Monitor
Plamsa screen TVs are all the rage these days, but don't count out LCD flat panel sets. Sharp, the leader in LCD technology, has introduced its latest flat panel LCD. The LC-30HV2 is a 30-inch diagonal 61x9 unit, with HDTV display capability, a 500:1 contrast ratio, 2-tuner POP, and detachable stereo speakers. If you have never seen how good LCD can be, the check out the Sharp LC-30HV2.
Lumagen
Give your video projector a boost with video processors from Lumagen.
Featured in the Home Theater Subject Page.
Studio Experience
Makers of "budget-priced" but high quality video projectors.
Featured in Televisions/Displays Subject Page.
FROM THE HOME THEATER FORUM
DVD Region Code Lock
From REDMARK:
I often bring or send gifts to friends and some of them live in Europe. This means I can't bring a DVD surprise to them. They cannot get out to movies and I like to pick out ones I have enjoyed. How would I know whether it already showed in their town? Stupid idea.
Join in on the discussion.
ELSEWHERE ON ABOUT.COM
About Desktop Video: Adobe Premiere Tutorials
Eveything you need to get up and running with the most popular video editing software package, as presented by Brian Paul Henderson
FROM THE MAILBOX
From Ken:
For several years, I have been purchasing movies in VHS with a collection of well over 200. In our retirement years, we have moved to a smaller home and now I have less apace to adequately store such a collection. With the advent of DVD recording, I planned to buy a recorder when the price dropped below $500 and start to archieve my VHS videos to DVD to take up less apace and to maintain their quality for the remainder of my life. Two weeks ago, I purchased the Panasonic E-30 recorder. I find that I cannot record most [ about 60% ] of the videos as a message pops up that this material is copy protected and the machine will not go into record mode. I am using the DVD-R format. I know that the reason behind the protection is to guard against copying copywright material but I am trying to copy material that I have allready paid for.
I do not want to return the recorder but if I can't archieve all or at least most of my videos to DVD, the investment is not paying off. Can you help me?
From Your Guide:
Just as you can't copy commercially made video tapes to another VCR due to Macrovision anti-copy encoding, the same applies to making copies to DVD. DVD recorders cannot bypass the anti-copy signal on commercial video tapes or DVDs. However, just as with VCRs, there are video stabilizers available that will minimize the effect of anti-copy encoding, however, they are not 100% successful. Such devices are available at most major consumer electronics retailers.
However, you can copy any homemade videos, such as camcorder videos and videos made from TV shows (an even laserdiscs). Also, remember that a DVD recorder also has a built-tuner for recording TV programming directly.
In addition, some DVD recorders also have digital video inputs (IEEE-1394, Firewire, i-Link) that allow users of digital camcorders to digitally transfer their audio and video direct to DVD in real time --however, even if your DVD recorder does not have these connections -- you can still copy camcorder videos using its AV inputs.
For all the details on DVD recorders, check out my FAQs:
http://hometheater.about.com/library/weekly/aadvdrecfaqa.htm
http://hometheater.about.com/library/weekly/aadvdrecfaqb.htm
http://hometheater.about.com/library/weekly/aadvdrecfaqc.htm
Basically, you can do everything (and more) with a DVD Recorder that you can with a VCR -- and with twice the resolution of VHS.
My advice -- since DVD quality is so much better than VHS and the time it takes to make copies of your collection (even at one movie per day -- that would be about 1 year) -- and the copies would look no better than the VHS tapes they were recorded from - I would first go through your collection and purchase your absolute favorites on original DVD and then consider what is really worth copying from there.
Your DVD recorder is a wise investment for several reasons:
1. It replaces all the functions of your VHS VCR
2. It is also an excellent DVD player and CD player
3. The quality of anything you record on it is twice the resolution as your VHS VCR (depending on the recording speed).
FINAL WORDS
If you need more great info on home theater and audio, with an emphasis on the higher end, be sure to check out About.com's related partner sites:
Audio Video Interiors.
Home Theater Magazine.
Stereophile Guide To Home Theater.
Stereophile Magazine.
Lastly, I would like your feedback on this Weekly Site Update Page. If you have any comments, either positve or negative, just let me know.
A Special Reminder: Although I update this site regularly, sometimes I miss broken links, this is especially a concern as old product listings expire and new ones have different link addresses. If you encounter any broken links in my articles or listings, just bring it to my attention so I can correct the address or delete it from the site if it has expired and can no longer be accessed.
For a look at earlier Home Theater Nooz and Vewz Weekly Updates, CLICK HERE
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with your questions and/or comments.
